21. But so great is the Union of the whole Igneous substance that is within our knowledge, that we can hardly tell whether it have divisible separable parts, and more hardly prove that there are any parts of it actually separated from the rest, even where by Termination and Reception in the Passive matter there is the most notable distinction. The Light of the Sun in the air is One, and that Light seemeth to be the effect of the present substance of the solar fire, and not a quality or motion locally distant from it: A burning-glass may by its Receptive aptitude occasion a combustion by the Sun-beams in one place which is not in another. But those beams that terminate on that glass are not separated from the rest. As there are in Animals fixed spirits which are constitutive parts of the solid members, and moved spirits which carry about the humours, and yet these are not separated from each other: so the Earth it self, and its grosser parts, have an Igneous principle still resident in them, as fire is in a flint, or steel, and indeed in every thing: And this seemeth to be it which many call Forma telluris: But that all these are not contiguous or united also to the common Solar fire, or Igneous Element, is not to be proved. The same Sun-beams may kindle many things combustible and light many Candles, which yet are all one undivided fiery substance, though by the various Receptivity of matter, so variously operating, as if there were various separate substances. And as all these Candles or fires are One with the solar fire in the Air, so are they therefore One among themselves: and yet not One Candle; because that word signifieth not only the common fire, but that fire as terminated and operative on that particular Matter. The stars are many: but whether they be not ⟨p. 14⟩[…] ⟨p. 15⟩[…] ⟨p. 16⟩also One fiery substance, diversified only by Contraction and Operation of its parts upon some suitable Receptive matter (or contracted simply in it self) without separation from all other parts, is more than we are able to determine.
21. But so great is the Union of the whole Igneous substance that is within our knowledge, that we can hardly tell whether it have divisible separable parts, and more hardly prove that there are any parts of it actually separated from the rest, even where by Termination and Reception in the Passive matter there is the most notable distinction. The Light of the Sun in the air is One, and that Light seemeth to be the effect of the present substance of the solar fire, and not a quality or motion locally distant from it: A burning-glass may by its Receptive aptitude occasion a combustion by the Sun-beams in one place which is not in another. But those beams that terminate on that glass are not separated from the rest. As there are in Animals fixed spirits which are constitutive parts of the solid members, and moved spirits which carry about the humours, and yet these are not separated from each other: so the Earth it self, and its grosser parts, have an Igneous principle still resident in them, as fire is in a flint, or steel, and indeed in every thing: And this seemeth to be it which many call Forma telluris: But that all these are not contiguous or united also to the common Solar fire, or Igneous Element, is not to be proved. The same Sun-beams may kindle many things combustible and light many Candles, which yet are all one undivided fiery substance, though by the various Receptivity of matter, so variously operating, as if there were various separate substances. And as all these Candles or fires are One with the solar fire in the Air, so are they therefore One among themselves: and yet not One Candle; because that word signifieth not only the common fire, but that fire as terminated and operative on that particular Matter. The stars are many: but whether they be not ⟨p. 14⟩〈…〉 ⟨p. 15⟩〈…〉 ⟨p. 16⟩also One fiery substance, diversifyed only by Contraction and Operation of its parts upon some suitable Receptive matter (or contracted simply in it self) without separation from all other parts, is more than we are able to determine.
