y made with very
Slender, but far less Slender Thrids of Glass, whose Aggregate was Look'd
upon one way White) but the whole Physical Superficies compos'd of them,
would to the Eye appear White, and if so, it will not be always necessary
that the Figure of those Corpuscles, that make a Body appear White, should
be _Globulous_. And as for Snow it self, though the Learned _Gassendus_ (as
we have seen above) makes it to seem nothing else but a pure Frozen Froth,
consisting of exceedingly Minute and Thickset Bubbles; yet I see no
necessity of Admitting that, since not only by the Variously and Curiously
Figur'd Snow, that I have divers times had the Opportunity with Pleasure to
observe, but also by the Common Snow, it rather doth appear both to the
Naked Eye, and in a _Microscope_, often, if not most commonly, to consist
principally of Little Slender Icicles of several Shapes, which afford such
Numerous Lines of Light, as we have been newly Speaking of.

12. Sixthly, If you take a Diaphanous Body, as for instance a Piece of
Glass, and reduce it to Powder, the same Body, which when it was Entire,
freely Transmitted the Beams of Light, acquiring by Contusion a multitude
of Minute Surfaces, each of which is as it were a Little, but Imperfect
_Speculum_, is qualify'd to Reflect in a Confus'd manner, so many either
Beams, or Little and Singly Unobservable Images of the Lucid Body, that
from a Diaphanous it Degenerates into a White Body. And I remember, I have
for Trials sake taken Lumps of Rock Crystal, and Heating them Red hot in a
Crucible, I found according to my Expectation, that being Quench'd in Fair
water, even those that remain'd in seemingly entire Lumps exchang'd their
Translucency for Whiteness, the Ignition and Extinction having as it were
Crack'd each Lump into a multitude of Minute Bodies, and thereby given it a
great multitude of new Surfaces. And ev'n with Diaphanous Bodies, that are
Colour'd, there may be this way a Greater Degree of Whiteness produced,
than one would lightly think; as I remember, I have by Contusion obtain'd
Whitish Powders of _Granates_, Glass of _Antimony_, and _Emeralds_ finely
Beaten, and you may more easily make the Experiment, by taking Good
Venereal _Vitriol_ of a Deep Blew, and comparing with some of the Entire
Crystalls purposely reserv'd, some of the Subtile Powder of the same Salt,
which will Comparatively exhibit a very considerable degree of Whitishness.

13. Seventhly, And as by a