| Boyle, Robert New experiments physico-mechanicall, touching the spring of the air and its effects 1660 |
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may be thrust into an 8th, or a yet smaller
part of its ordinary extent) it seems ne
cessary to admit either a notion of conden
sation & rarefaction that is not intelligi
ble, or that in the capacity of our Recei
ver when presum'd to be full of Air, there
yet remain'd as much of space as was ta
ken up by all the aërial corpuscles unpos
sessed by the Air.
Which seemes plainly,
to infer that the Air that rush'd into our
empty'd vessel did not doe it precisely
to fill up the Vacuities of it, since it left so
many unfill'd, but rather was thrust in by
the pressure of the contiguous Air; which
as it could not, but be always ready to ex
pand it selfe, where it found least resi
stance, so was it unable to fill the Recei
ver any more, then until the Air within
was reduc'd to the same measure of Com
pactness with that without.
We may also from our two already of
ten mention'd Experiments further de
duce, that, (since Natures hatred of a
Vacuum is but Metaphorical and Ac
cidental, being but a consequence or re
sult of the pressure of the Air and of the
Gravity, and partly also of the Fluxility
of some other bodies) The power shee
makes use of to hinder a Vacuum, is not
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