11 2 *The consequences of the

ed to be between all the possible parts of bo-dies. Where-ever it doth not obtain, there aseparation could be easily effected; and a forceimpressed on any part of a body (steel, v. g.)would carry that part along only. Whenthe parts of a body are divided as muchas can be, by any external force applied,it ssiews that the parts yet undivided co-here more strongly ; otherwise the divisionwould begin there first. It is the easyseparation of the parts of a certain bulk only,that makes a body soft, fluid, friable, ifthere were not a stronger cohesion betweenthe particles which compose these parts, wecan hardly imagine what would be the con-sequence. Water is not compressible: thisis not because of its density, or want of va-cuities, (mercury is fourteen times denser)but because of the firmness of its constituentparts, or unyieldingness to change their fi-gure. So strong is the cohesion of these lit-tle corpuscles! Abstracting from this, it mightbe crowded up into one fourteenth part ofits present bulk, and not be denser than mer-cury ; or one nineteenth part of it, and notbe denser than gold. The less the particle®of matter are, the less force it would require