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Party of them, keeping himself thereby disengaged from adopting an Hypothesis, in which perhaps he is not so thoroughly satisfied, and of which he does not conceive himself to be necessitated to make use here; and accordingly forbearing to employ Arguments, that are either grounded on, or suppose Atoms, or any Innate Motion belonging to them; or that the Essence of Bodies consists in Extension; or that a Vacuum is impossible; or that there are such Globuli Cælestes, or such a Materia Subtilis, as the Cartesians imploy to explicate most of the Phænomena of Nature.
The Treatise consisting of a Speculative, and an Historical part, the Author, with great modesty leaves the Reader to judge; Whether in the First part he hath treated of the Nature and Origine of Forms and Qualities in a more Comprehensive way, than others; Whether he has by fit Examples, and other means, rendred it more intelligible, than they have done: Whether he has added any considerable number of Notions and Arguments towards the compleating and confirming of the proposed Hypothesis: Whether he has with reason dismissed Arguments unfit to be relied on; and Whether he has proposed some Notions and Arguments so warily, as to keep them from being liable to Exceptions and Evasions, whereto they were obnoxious, as others have proposed them. And, as to the Second and Historical part, he is enclin'd, to believe that the Reader will grant, he hath done that part of Physicks, he is treating of, some service, by strengthning the doctrines of the New Philosophy (as 'tis call'd) by such particular Experiments, whose Nature and Novelty will render them as well Acceptable as Instructive.
The summe of the Hypothesis, fully and clearly explicated in the First Part, is this;
That all Bodies are made of one Catholick matter, common to them all, and differ but in Shape, Size, Motion or Rest, and Texture of the small parts, they consist off; from which Affe-
