Of the Properties of Bodies.

DIVISIBILITY is that Property by whichthe Particles of Matter in all Bodies are ca-pable of a Separation or Disunion from eachother. Hence the Resolution or Dijsolutionof Bodies into their constituent Corpuscles,as in many Operations of Chemistry. Howfar this may actually obtain in Nature isnot easy to say: But that Matter is infinitely

divisible

Surface, different Magnitude? or Bulks ; thus a Circlecontains a greater Area under the fame Length of Peri-phery, than any other figured Superficies ; and a Sphere ,under the fajne Quantity of Surfaces, contains a greaterBulk or Space, than any other Solid whatever.

4. Of all the infinite Variety of Forms or Figures,which Matter is liable to, there are only five which willadmit the Particles of Matter, placed together, to fill theSpace between them compleatly, or so as to leave noPore, Vacuity, or Interstice between them : and Bodiesof these Forms have been known by the general Nameof the Jive Platonic Bodies, and are as follow :

I . Tetrahedron, which has four equal triangular Sides.

2. Hexahedron, of fix equal square Sides, viz. a Cube.

3. Ofiahedron, of eight equal pentagonal Sides.

4. Dodecahedron, of twelve equal triangular Sides.

5. Icofahedron, of twenty equal triangular Sides.

5. Hence the Afferters of a Plenum are necessitated toprove, that tho’ Matter is liable to an Infinity of Formsindifferently, yet all its Particles must have but someone of the five abovementioned ; otherwise it would beas evident as an Axiom, that the Particles of Matter havea different Form, and must therefore admit Vacuitiesor Peres in the Composition of every Kind of Bodies.Tho’ this AtZpment for a Vacuum has not been ob-served, yet perhaps there is none more evident, geo-metrical and conclusive.