Archimedes Texts

246
periments, and particularly by this Cir
cumstance of the three and Thirtieth,
that the Sucker was by the pressure of the
Ambient Air impell'd upwards, with its
weight hanging at it, not only when it
was at the bottome of the Cylinder, and
consequently left a great Vacuum in the
cavity of it; but when the Sucker had
been already impel'd almost to the top of
the Cylinder, and consequently, when the
Vacuum that remain'd was become very
litle in comparison of that which preceded
the beginning of the Sucker's ascention.

In the next place, these Experiments
may teach us, what to judge of the vul
gar Axiom receiv'd for so many Ages
as an undoubted Truth in the Peripate
tick Schools; That Nature abhorres
and flys a Vacuum, and that to such a de
gree, that no humane power (to go no
higher) is able to make one in the Uni
verse; wherein Heaven and Earth would
change places, and all its other Bodyes
rather act contrary to their own Nature,
than suffer it. For, if by a Vacuum we
will understand a place perfectly devoid
of all corporeal Substance, it may be in
deed then, as we formerly noted be plau
sibly enough maintain'd, that there is