84 consequences of the .

experience. But really, in an absolute ple-num, the distinction between fixedness andfiuidity would be lost; and we might as wellconceive a fish to swim, or a bird to fly, inthe heart of marble or adamant, as in sucha plenum: and then Lucretius' s principletakes place.

III. Moreover, since all bodies encounter-ing in opposite directions, mutually diminishor destroy the quantity of motion in each o-ther; for opposite forces, if equal, beget anequilibrium, and rest; or, if unequal, theexcess of the greater above the less only re-mains; and since this obtains, though in aless degree, when they impinge obliquely (N°it. sect. i.) it follows, ‘That from all aSlionof body upon body motion is fiill impaired , andthe quantity of it constantly decaying in the u-niverfie. And here let me intreat my Reader

could not resist, nor consequently re-act, would, accord-ing to the reasoning in N° 26. sect. 1. upon pressure(or rather without it) stirink up into less dimensions:and one single stroke would annihilate as much of it, aswhere the pressure would have been otherwise propagat-ed : that is, I conceive the whole of it in an absoluteplenum. And then indeed it would have been matterin no propriety 0 f speech. to