As in _Geometry_, the most natural way of beginning is from a Mathematical
_point_; so is the same method in Observations and _Natural history_ the
most genuine, simple, and instructive. We must first endevour to make
_letters_, and draw _single_ strokes true, before we venture to write whole
_Sentences_, or to draw large _Pictures_. And in _Physical_ Enquiries, we
must endevour to follow Nature in the more _plain_ and _easie_ ways she
treads in the most _simple_ and _uncompounded bodies_, to trace her steps,
and be acquainted with her manner of walking there, before we venture our
selves into the multitude of _meanders_ she has in _bodies of a more
complicated_ nature; lest, being unable to distinguish and judge of our
way, we quickly lose both _Nature_ our Guide, and _our selves_ too, and are
left to wander in the _labyrinth_ of groundless opinions; wanting both
_judgment_, that _light_, and _experience_, that _clew_, which should
direct our proceedings.
We will begin these our Inquiries therefore with the Observations of Bodies
of the most _simple nature_ first, and so gradually proceed to those of a
more _compounded_ one. In prosecution of which method, we shall begin with
a _Physical point_; of which kind the _Point of a Needle_ is commonly
reckon’d for one; and is indeed, for the most part, made so sharp, that the
naked eye cannot distinguish any parts of it: It very easily pierces, and
makes its way through all kind of bodies softer then it self: But if view’d
with a very good _Microscope_, we may find that the _top_ of a Needle
(though as to the sense very _sharp_) appears a _broad_, _blunt_, and very
_irregular_ end; not resembling a Cone, as is imagin’d, but onely a piece
of a tapering body, with a great part of the top remov’d, or deficient. The
Points of Pins are yet more blunt, and the Points of the most curious
Mathematical Instruments do very seldome arrive at so great a sharpness;
how much therefore can be built upon demonstrations made onely by the
productions of the Ruler and Compasses, he will be better able to consider
that shall but view those _points_ and _lines_ with a _Microscope_.
Now though this point be commonly accounted the sharpest (whence when we
would express the sharpness of a point the most _superlatively_, we say, As
sharp as a Needle) yet the _Microscope_ can afford us hundreds of Instances
of Points many thousand times sharper: such as those of the _hairs_, and
_bristles_, and _claws_ of multitudes of _Insects_; the _thorns_, or
_crooks_, or _hairs_ of _leaves_, and other small vegetables; nay, the ends
of the _stiriæ_ or small _parallelipipeds_ of _Amianthus_, and _alumen
plumosum_; of many of which, though the Points are so sharp as not to be
visible, though view’d with a _Microscope_ (which magnifies the Object, in
bulk, above a million of times) yet I doubt not, but were we able
_practically_ to make _Microscopes_ according to the _theory_ of them, we
might find hills, and dales, and pores, and a sufficient bredth, or
expansion, to give all those parts elbow-room, even in the blunt top of the
very Point of any of these so very sharp bodies. For certainly the
_quantity_ or extension of any body may be _Divisible in infinitum_, though
perhaps not the _matter_.
But to proceed: The Image we have here exhibited in the first
Figure[1], was the top of a small and very sharp Needle, whose point
_aa_ nevertheless appear’d through the _Microscope_ above a quarter
of an inch broad, not round nor flat, but _irregular_ and _uneven_;
so that it seem’d to have been big enough to have afforded a hundred
armed Mites room enough to be rang’d by each other without endangering
the breaking one anothers necks, by being thrust off on either side.
The surface of which, though appearing to the naked eye very smooth,
could not nevertheless hide a multitude of holes and scratches and
ruggednesses from being discover’d by the _Microscope_ to invest it,
several of which inequalities (as A, B, C, seem’d _holes_ made by some
small specks of _Rust_; and D some _adventitious body_, that stuck very
close to it) were _casual_. All the rest that roughen the surface,
were onely so many marks of the rudeness and bungling of _Art_. So
unaccurate is it, in all its productions, even in those which seem most
neat, that if examin’d with an organ more acute then that by which
they were made, the more we see of their _shape_, the less appearance
will there be of their _beauty_: whereas in the works of _Nature_,
the deepest Discoveries shew us the greatest Excellencies. An evident
Argument, that he that was the Author of all these things, was no other
then _Omnipotent_; being able to include as great a variety of parts
and contrivances in the yet smallest Discernable Point, as in those
vaster bodies (which comparatively are called also Points) such as the
_Earth_, _Sun_, or _Planets_. Nor need it seem strange that the Earth
it self may be by an _Analogie_ call’d a Physical Point: For as its
body, though now so near us as to fill our eys and fancies with a sense
of the vastness of it, may by a little Distance, and some convenient
_Diminishing_ Glasses, be made vanish into a scarce visible Speck, or
Point (as I have often try’d on the _Moon_, and (when not too bright)
on the _Sun_ it self.) So, could a Mechanical contrivance succesfully
answer our _Theory_, we might see the least spot as big as the Earth
it self; and Discover, as _Des Cartes_[2] also conjectures, as great a
variety of bodies in the _Moon_, or _Planets_, as in the _Earth_.
But leaving these Discoveries to future Industries, we shall proceed to add
one Observation more of a _point_ commonly so call’d, that is, the mark of
a _full stop_, or _period_. And for this purpose I observed many both
_printed_ ones and _written_; and among multitudes I found _few_ of them
more _round_ or _regular_ then this which I have delineated in the third
figure of the second Scheme, but _very many_ abundantly _more disfigur’d_;
and for the most part if they seem’d equally round to the eye, I found
those points that had been made by a _Copper-plate_, and Roll-press, to be
as misshapen as those which had been made with _Types_, the most curious
and smothly _engraven strokes_ and _points_, looking but as so many
_furrows_ and _holes_, and their _printed impressions_, but like _smutty
daubings_ on a matt or uneven floor with a blunt extinguisht brand or
stick’s end. And as for _points_ made with a _pen_ they were much _more
ragged_ and _deformed_. Nay, having view’d certain pieces of exceeding
curious writing of the kind (one of which in the bredth of a _two-pence_
compris’d _the Lords prayer, the Apostles Creed, the ten Commandments, and
about half a dozen verses besides of the Bible_, whose _lines_ were _so
small_ and _near together_, that I was unable to _number_ them with my
_naked eye_,) a very ordinary _Microscope_, I had then about me, inabled me
to see that what the Writer of it had asserted was _true_, but withall
discover’d of what pitifull _bungling scribbles_ and _scrawls_ it was
compos’d, _Arabian_ and _China characters_ being almost as well shap’d, yet
thus much I must say for the Man, that it was for the most part _legible_
enough, though in some places there wanted a good _fantsy_ well _preposest_
to help one through. If this manner _of small writing_ were made _easie_
and _practicable_ (and I think I know such a one, but have never yet made
tryal of it, whereby one might be inabled to write _a great deale_ with
_much ease_, and _accurately_ enough in a very _little roome_) it might be
of very good use to convey _secret Intelligence_ without any danger of
_Discovery_ or _mistrusting_. But to come again to the point. The
_Irregularities_ of it are caused by three or four _coadjutors_, one of
which is, the _uneven surface_ of the _paper_, which at best appears no
smother then a very course piece of _shag’d cloth_, next the _irregularity
of the Type_ or _Ingraving_, and a third is the _rough Daubing_ of the
_Printing-Ink_ that lies upon the instrument that makes the impression, to
all which, add the _variation_ made by the Different _lights_ and
_shadows_, and you may have sufficient reason to ghess that a _point_ may
appear much more _ugly_ then _this_, which I have here presented, which
though it appear’d through the _Microscope_ _gray_, like a great splatch of
_London_ dirt, about three inches over; yet to the _naked eye_ it was
_black_ and no bigger then that in the midst of the Circle A. And could I
have found Room in this Plate to have inserted an O you should have seen
that the _letters_ were not more distinct then the _points_ of Distinction,
nor a _drawn circle_ more exactly _so_, then we have now shown a _point_ to
be a _point_.
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