imary qualities of bodies in general, yet not knowing what is the
particular bulk, figure, and motion, of the greatest part of the bodies
of the universe, we are ignorant of the several powers, efficacies, and
ways of operation, whereby the effects which we daily see are produced.
These are hid from us, in some things by being too remote, and in others
by being too minute. When we consider the vast distance of the known and
visible parts of the world, and the reasons we have to think that what
lies within our ken is but a small part of the universe, we shall then
discover a huge abyss of ignorance. What are the particular fabrics of
the great masses of matter which make up the whole stupendous frame of
corporeal beings; how far they are extended; what is their motion, and
how continued or communicated; and what influence they have one upon
another, are contemplations that at first glimpse our thoughts lose
themselves in. If we narrow our contemplations, and confine our thoughts
to this little canton--I mean this system of our sun, and the grosser
masses of matter that visibly move about it, What several sorts of
vegetables, animals, and intellectual corporeal beings, infinitely
different from those of our little spot of earth, may there probably be
in the other planets, to the knowledge of which, even of their outward
figures and parts, we can no way attain whilst we are confined to this
earth; there being no natural means, either by sensation or reflection,
to convey their certain ideas into our minds? They are out of the reach
of those inlets of all our knowledge: and what sorts of furniture and
inhabitants those mansions contain in them we cannot so much as guess,
much less have clear and distinct ideas of them.

25. (2) Because of their Minuteness.

If a great, nay, far the greatest part of the several ranks of bodies
in the universe escape our notice by their remoteness, there are others
that are no less concealed from us by their minuteness. These INSENSIBLE
CORPUSCLES, being the active parts of matter, and the great instruments
of nature, on which depend not only all their secondary qualities, but
also most of their natural operations, our want of precise distinct
ideas of their primary qualities keeps us in an incurable ignorance of
what we desire to know about them. I doubt not but if we could discover
the figure, size, texture, and motion of the minute constituent parts of
any two bodies, we should know with