He that could find the bonds that
tie these heaps of loose little bodies together so firmly; he that
could make known the cement that makes them stick so fast one to
another, would discover a great and yet unknown secret: and yet when
that was done, would he be far enough from making the extension of
body (which is the cohesion of its solid parts) intelligible, till
he could show wherein consisted the union, or consolidation of the
parts of those bonds, or of that cement, or of the least particle of
matter that exists. Whereby it appears that this primary and
supposed obvious quality of body will be found, when examined, to be
as incomprehensible as anything belonging to our minds, and a solid
extended substance as hard to be conceived as a thinking immaterial
one, whatever difficulties some would raise against it.
27. The supposed pressure brought to explain cohesion is
unintelligible. For, to extend our thoughts a little further, that
pressure which is brought to explain the cohesion of bodies is as
unintelligible as the cohesion itself. For if matter be considered, as
no doubt it is, finite, let any one send his contemplation to the
extremities of the universe, and there see what conceivable hoops,
what bond he can imagine to hold this mass of matter in so close a
pressure together; from whence steel has its firmness, and the parts
of a diamond their hardness and indissolubility.
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