As A Blind Man Has No Idea

[1.] And First I Suppose That There Is Diffused Through All Places An Aethereal Substance Capable Of Contraction & Dilatation, Strongly Elastick, & In A Word, Much Like Air In All Respects, But Far More Subtile. 2. I Suppose This Aether Pervades All Gross Bodies, But Yet So As To Stand Rarer In Their Pores Then In Free Spaces, & So Much Ye Rarer As Their Pores Are Less ... 3. I Suppose Ye Rarer Aether Within Bodies & Ye Denser Without Them, Not To Be Terminated In A Mathematical Superficies, But To Grow Gradually Into One Another.

My Design In This Book Is Not To Explain The Properties Of Light By Hypotheses, But To Propose And Prove Them By Reason And Experiments: In Order To Which, I Shall Premise The Following Definitions And Axioms.

Definition Of Inertia: 'the Vis Insita, Or Innate Force Of Matter, Is A Power Of Resisting By Which Every Body, As Much As In It Lies, Endeavours To Preserve Its Present State, Whether It Be Of Rest Or Of Moving Uniformly Forward In A Straight Line.

If The Ancient Churches, In Debating And Deciding The Greatest Mysteries Of Religion, Knew Nothing Of These Two Texts, I Understand Not Why We Should Be So Fond Of Them Now The Debate Is Over.

To Explain All Nature Is Too Difficult A Task For Any One Man Or Even For Any One Age. Tis Much Better To Do A Little With Certainty & Leave The Rest For Others That Come After Than To Explain All Things By Conjecture Without Making Sure Of Any Thing.