middle must
be less then on the sides; and therefore the consecution will be the same
as in the former. It is very odd to one that considers not the reason of
it, to see two floating bodies of wood to approach each other, as though
they were indued with some magnetical vigour; which brings into my mind
what I formerly tried with a piece of Cork or such like body, which I so
ordered, that by putting a little stick into the same water, one part of
the said Cork would approach and make toward the stick, whereas another
would discede and fly away, nay it would have a kind of verticity, so as
that if the _AEquator_ (as I may so speak) of the Cork were placed towards
the stick, if let alone, it would instantly turn its appropriate Pole
toward it, and then run a-tilt at it: and this was done only by taking a
dry Cork, and wetting one side of it with one small stroak; for by this
means gently putting it upon the water, it would depress the superficies on
every side of it that was dry, and therefore the greatest pressure of the
Air, being near those sides, caused it either to chase away, or else to fly
off from any other floating body, whereas that side only, against which the
water ascended, was thereby able to attract.

It remains only, that I should determine how high the Water or other Liquor
may by this means be raised in a smaller Pipe above the Superficies of that
without it, and at what height it may be sustained: But to determine this,
will be exceeding difficult, unless I could certainly know how much of the
Airs pressure is taken off by the smalness of such and such a Pipe, and
whether it may be wholly taken off, that is, whether there can be a hole or
pore so small, into which Air could not at all enter, though water might
with its whole force, for were there such, 'tis manifest, that the water
might rise in it to some five or six and thirty English Foot high. I know
not whether the capillary Pipes in the bodies of small Trees, which we call
their _Microscopical pores_, may not be such; and whether the congruity of
the sides of the Pore may not yet draw the juyce even higher then the Air
was able by its bare pressure to raise it: For, Congruity is a principle
that not only unites and holds a body joyned to it, but, which is more,
attracts and draws a body that is very near it, and holds it above its
usual height.

And this is obvious even in a drop of water suspended under any Similar or
Congruous body: For, besides