Page:Micrographia - or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon.djvu/50

Rh found Room in this Plate to have inserted an O you should have seen that the letters were not more distinct then the points of Distinction, nor a drawn circle more exactly so, then we have now shown a point to be a point.

He sharpest Edge hath the same kind of affinity to the sharpest Point in Physicks, as a line hath to a point in Mathematicks; and therefore the Treaty concerning this, may very properly be annexed to the former. A Razor doth appear to be a Body of a very neat and curious aspect, till more closely viewed by the Microscope, and there we may observe its very Edge to be of all kind of shapes, except what it should be. For examining that of a very sharp one, I could not find that any part of it had any thing of sharpness in it; but it appeared a rough surface of a very considerable bredth from side to side, the narrowest part not seeming thinner then the back of a pretty thick Knife. Nor is't likely that it should appear any otherwise, since as we just now shew'd that a point appear'd a circle, 'tis rational a line should be a parallelogram.

Now for the drawing this second Figure (which represents a part of the Edge about half a quarter of an inch long of a Razor well set) I so plac'd it between the Object-glass & the light, that there appear'd a reflection from the very Edge, represented by the white line a b c d e f. In which you may perceive it to be somewhat sharper then elsewhere about d, to be indented or pitted about b, to be broader and thicker about c, and unequal and rugged about e, and pretty even between a b and e f. Nor was that part of the Edge g h i k so smooth as one would imagine so smooth bodies as a Hone and Oyl should leave it; for besides those multitudes of scratches, which appear to have raz'd the surface g h i k, and to cross each other every way which are not half of them exprest in the Figure, there were several great and deep scratches, or furrows, such as g h and i k, which made the surface yet more rugged, caus'd perhaps by some small Dust casually falling on the Hone, or some harder or more flinty part of the Hone it self. The other part of the Razor l l, which is polish'd on a grinding-stone, appear'd much rougher then the other, looking almost like a plow'd field, with many parallels, ridges, and furrows, and a cloddy, as 'twere, or an uneven surface: nor shall we wonder at the roughnesses of those surfaces, since even in the most curious wrought Glasses for Microscopes, and other Optical uses, I have, when the Sun has shone well on them, discover'd their surface to be variously raz'd or scratched, and to consist of an infinite of small broken surfaces, which reflect the light of very various and differing colours. And indeed it seems impossible by Art to cut the surface of any hard and brittle body smooth, since Putte, or even the most curious Powder that can be made use of, to polish such a body, must consist of little hard rough particles, and each of them must cut its way, and consequently leave some kind of gutter or Rh