Do we not every moment
experiment it in ourselves, and therefore can it be doubted? The
matter of fact is clear, I confess; but when we would a little
nearer look into it, and consider how it is done, there I think we are
at a loss, both in the one and the other; and can as little understand
how the parts of body cohere, as how we ourselves perceive or move.
I would have any one intelligibly explain to me, how the parts of
gold, or brass, (that but now in fusion were as loose from one another
as the particles of water, or the sands of an hour-glass), come in a
few moments to be so united, and adhere so strongly one to another,
that the utmost force of men's arms cannot separate them? A
considering man will, I suppose, be here at a loss to satisfy his own,
or another man's understanding.
26. The cause of coherence of atoms in extended substances
incomprehensible. The little bodies that compose that fluid we call
water, are so extremely small, that I have never heard of any one,
who, by a microscope, (and yet I have heard of some that have
magnified to ten thousand; nay, to much above a hundred thousand
times), pretended to perceive their distinct bulk, figure, or
motion; and the particles of water are also so perfectly loose one
from another, that the least force sensibly separates them. Nay, if we
consider their perpetual motion, we must allow them to have no
cohesion one with another; and yet let but a sharp cold come, and they
unite, they consolidate; these little atoms cohere, and are not,
without great force, separable.
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