Moon -- Fiction; Science fiction, French -- Translations into English; Space flight to the moon -- Fiction
"My little Animal, after you have mentally divided every little Visible
Body, into an infinite many little invisible Bodies; you must imagine,
That the infinite Universe consists only of these Atomes, which are
most solid, most incorruptible, and most simple; whose Figures are
partly Cubical, partly Parallelograms, partly Angular, partly Round,
partly Sharp-pointed, partly Pyramidal, partly Six-cornered, and partly
Oval; which act all severally, according to their Various Figures: And
to shew that it is so, put a very round Ivory Bowl upon a very smooth
place, and with the least touch you give it will be half a quarter of
an hour before it rest: Now I say, that if it were perfectly round,
as some of the Atomes I speak of are, and the Surface on which it is
put perfectly smooth, it would never rest. If Art then be capable of
inclining a Body to a perpetual Motion, why may we not believe that
Nature can do it? It's the same with the other Figures, of which the
Square requires a perpetual Rest, others an oblique Motion, others a
half Motion, as Trepidation; and the Round, whose Nature is to move,
joyning a Pyramidal, makes that, perhaps, which we call Fire; because
not only Fire is in continual Agitation, but also because it easily
penetrates: Besides, the Fire hath different effects, according to
the openings and quality of the Angles, when the round Figure is
joyned; for Example, The Fire of Pepper is another thing than the Fire
of Sugar, the Fire of Sugar differs from that of Cinnamon; that of
Cinnamon, from that of the Clove; and this from the Fire of a Faggot.
Now the Fire, which is the Architect of the parts and whole of the
Universe, hath driven together, and Congregated into an Oak, the
quantity of Figures which are necessary for the Composition of that Oak.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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