[Footnote: "the diverse
figures, situations, magnitudes, and motions of their parts."--
French.]
CXCIX. That there is no phenomenon of nature whose explanation has
been omitted in this treatise.
And thus it may be gathered, from an enumeration that is easily
made, that there is no phenomenon of nature whose explanation has
been omitted in this treatise; for beyond what is perceived by the
senses, there is nothing that can be considered a phenomenon of
nature. But leaving out of account motion, magnitude, figure, [and
the situation of the parts of each body], which I have explained as
they exist in body, we perceive nothing out of us by our senses
except light, colours, smells, tastes, sounds, and the tactile
qualities; and these I have recently shown to be nothing more, at
least so far as they are known to us, than certain dispositions of
the objects, consisting in magnitude, figure, and motion.
CC. That this treatise contains no principles which are not
universally received; and that this philosophy is not new, but of
all others the most ancient and common.
But I am desirous also that it should be observed that, though I
have here endeavoured to give an explanation of the whole nature of
material things, I have nevertheless made use of no principle which
was not received and approved by Aristotle, and by the other
philosophers of all ages; so that this philosophy, so far from being
new, is of all others the most ancient and common: for I have in
truth merely considered the figure, motion, and magnitude of bodies,
and examined what must follow from their mutual concourse on the
principles of mechanics, which are confirmed by certain and daily
experience.
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