But if the ascent be high, difficult and above its reach, it
must have recourse to a _novum organum_, some new engine and contrivance,
some new kind of _Algebra_, or _Analytick Art_ before it can surmount it.
* * * * *
Observ. XV. _Of _Kettering-stone_, and of the pores of _Inanimate_ bodies._
[13]This Stone which is brought from _Kettering_ in _Northampton-Shire_,
and digg'd out of a Quarry, as I am inform'd, has a grain altogether
admirable, nor have I ever seen or heard of any other stone that has the
like. It is made up of an innumerable company of small bodies, not all of
the same cize or shape, but for the most part, not much differing from a
Globular form, nor exceed they one another in Diameter above three or four
times; they appear to the eye, like the Cobb or Ovary of a _Herring_, or
some smaller fishes, but for the most part, the particles seem somewhat
less, and not so uniform; but their variation from a perfect globular ball,
seems to be only by the pressure of the _contiguous_ bals which have a
little deprest and protruded those toucht sides inward, and forc'd the
other sides as much outwards beyond the limits of a Globe; just as it would
happen, if a heap of exactly round Balls of soft Clay were heaped upon one
another; or, as I have often seen a heap of small Globules of
_Quicksilver_, reduc'd to that form by rubbing it much in a glaz'd Vessel,
with some slimy or sluggish liquor, such as Spittle, when though the top of
the upper Globules be very neer spherical, yet those that are prest upon by
others, exactly imitate the forms of these lately mention'd grains.
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