_MADAM,_
I observe your _Author_ in his discourse of Place makes a difference[1]
betwixt an _Interior and Exterior place_, and that according to this
distinction, _one body may be said to change, and not to change its
place at the same time, and that one body may succeed into anothers
place_. But I am not of this opinion, for I believe not that there
is any more place then body; as for example, Water being mix'd with
Earth, the water doth not take the Earths place, but as their parts
intermix, so do their places, and as their parts change, so do their
places, so that there is no more place, then there is water and earth;
the same may be said of Air and Water, or Air and Earth, or did they
all mix together; for as their bodies join, so do their places, and
as they are separated from each other, so are their places. Say a man
travels a hundred miles, and so a hundred thousand paces; but yet this
man has not been in a hundred thousand places, for he never had any
other place but his own, he hath joined and separated himselfe from
a hundred thousand, nay millions of parts, but he has left no places
behind him. You will say, if he travel the same way back again, then
he is said to travel thorow the same places. I answer, It may be the
vulgar way of expression, or the common phrase; but to speak properly,
after a Philosophical way, and according to the truth in nature, he
cannot be said to go back again thorow the same places he went, because
he left none behind him, or els all his way would be nothing but place
after place, all the hundred miles along; besides if place should be
taken so, as to express the joyning to the neerest bodies which compass
him about, certainly he would never find his places again; for the
air being fluid, changes or moves continually, and perchance the same
parts of the air, which compassed him once, will never come near him
again. But you may say, If a man be hurt, or hath some mischance in his
body, so as to have a piece of flesh cut out, and new flesh growing
there; then we say, because the adjoyning parts do not change, that a
new piece of flesh is grown in the same place where the former flesh
was, and that the place of the former flesh cut or fallen out, is the
same of this new grown flesh. I answer, In my opinion, it is not,
for the parts being not the same, the places are not, but every one
hath its own place. But if the wound be not filled or closed up with
other new flesh, you will say, that according to my opinion there is
no place then at all. I say, Yes, for the air or any thing else may be
there, as new parts joyning to the other parts; nevertheless, the air,
or that same body which is there, hath not taken the fleshes place,
which was there before, but hath its own; but, by reason the adjoyning
parts remain, man thinks the place remains there also which is no
consequence. 'Tis true, a man may return to the same adjoining bodies,
where he was before, but then he brings his place with him again, and
as his body, so his place returnes also, and if a mans arm be cut off,
you may say, there was an arm heretofore, but you cannot say properly,
this is the place where the arm was. But to return to my first example
of the mixture of Water, and Earth or Air; Suppose water is not porous,
but onely dividable, and hath no other place but what is its own
bodies, and that other parts of water intermix with it by dividing and
composing; I say, there is no more place required, then what belongs
to their own parts, for if some contract, others dilate, some divide,
others joyn, the places are the same according to the magnitude of each
part or body. The same may be said of all kinds or sorts of mixtures,
for one body hath but one place; and so if many parts of the same
nature joyn into one body and increase the bulk of the body, the place
of that same body is accordingly; and if they be bodies of different
natures which intermix and joyne, each several keeps its place; And so
each body and each particular part of a body hath its place, for you
cannot name body or part of a body, but you must also understand place
to be with them, and if a point should dilate to a world, or a world
contract to a point, the place would always be the same with the body.
And thus I have declared my opinion of this subject, which I submit to
the correction of your better judgment, and rest,
Madam,
_Your Ladiships_
_faithful Friend and humble Servant._
[1] _Philos. p._ 2. _a._ 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.