Opticks 1717 - Up

Bodies. @krcuq~ appears i~E&lleS ill tile
form of a fluid Meial, fometimes in the fOm1
of a hard brittle I\,Jetal, ibmetimes in the for!11
of a corrofive pellucid Salt call’d Sublimate 7
Sometimes in the fOlX Of R t
volatile white &th, call’d .i?
or in that of a red opalx volatile Earth, c:~ll’d
Cinnnber ; or in that of a I-cd or white Precipitate,
or in that of a fluid Salt ; and in Dil’rillation
it ~LIITIS into Vapour, and being agitated
Ia z’miw, it Ihines like Fire. And after all thei‘e
Changes it returns again into its hrit form of
MerCUl~p. Eggs grow from inieniible iVkqnitudcs,
and change into AnirnaIs ; Tadpoles into
Frogs : and Worms into Flits. All Birds, kaits
and F&es, ‘Ini‘m%, Trees, and other I!egeta--
bles, with. their feveral parts, g-,01‘ow out of ‘&‘ater
and watry Tin6tures and Salts, and by Pu;
trefatc‘tion return again into watry Subltances.
And Water ilaudiug a few Days in the open
Air, yields a Tincture, which (like that of
Mault ) by Randing longer yields a Sediment
and a Spirit, but before Putrsfa2ion is fit NOUN
riffment for Animals and k’e~ernbles. And a-
mong fuch various and fbmgc ‘i’ranfmutations,
why may not Naturechange Bodies into Light,
and Light into Bodies ?
2 ff. 3 I. Have not the final1 Particles of Rodies
certain Powers, Virtues of Forces) by
h they ati at a diitxnce, not only upon the
Of Light for refle&g, refiiatiing and inng
tlxm, but So npon one another for
cing a great part of the Pknomena of
Nature? For it’s well known that Bodies a&
* one