Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/282

 Qualities, were scarce so much as dreamt of by all the Philosophers of Antiquity. Its Weight only was known to Aristotle (y), (or the Author of the Book de Cœlo) who observed, that a full Bladder out-weighed an empty one. Yet this was carried no further by any of the Ancients, that we know of; dis-believed by his own School, who seemed not to have attended to his Word; opposed and ridiculed when again revived, and demonstrably proved, by the Philosophers of the present Age. All which are Evidences, that anciently it was little examined into, since they wanted Proofs to evince that, which Ignorance only made disputable. But this has been spoken to already; I shall therefore only add, that, besides what Mr. Boyle has written concerning the Air, one may consult Otto Guericks Magdebourg-Experiments, the Experiments of the Academy del Cimento, Sturmius's Collegium Curiosum, Mr. Halleys Discourses concerning Gravity, and the Phænomena of the Baroscope in the Philosophical Transactions (z). From all which one may find, not only how little of the Nature of the Air was anciently known; but also, that there is scarce any one Body, whose Theory is now so near being compleated, as is that of the Air.