CORPUSCULAR philosophy, that way of philosophising, which endeavours to ex plain things, and to account for the pheno mena of nature by the motion, figure, rest, position, &c. of the corpuscles, or the mi nute particles of matter.
Boyle reduces the principles of the cor puscular philosophy to the four following heads.
1. That there is but one universal kind of matter, which is an extended, impene trable, and divisible substance, common to all bodies, and capable of all forms. On this head, Newton remarks thus : "All things considered, it appears probable to me, that God in the beginning created matter in solid, hard, impenetrable, move able particles; of such sizes and figures, and with such other properties, as most conduced to the end for which he formed them ; and that these primitive particles, being solids, are incomparably harder than any of the sensible porous bodies com pounded of them ; even so hard as never to wear or break in pieces; no other pow er being able to divide what God made one in the first creation. While these corpuscles remain entire, they may com pose bodies of one and the same nature and texture in ail ages; but should they wear away, or break in pieces, the nature of things depending on them would be changed ; water and earth, composed of old worn particles, of fragments of parti cles, would not be of the same nature and texture now, with water and earth com posed of entire particles at the beginning.
And therefore, that nature may be lasting, the changes of corporeal things are to be placed only in the various separations, and new associations of these permanent cor puscles." 2. That this matter, in order to form the vast variety of natural bodies must have motion in some or all its assignable parts ; and that this motion was given to matter by God, the creator of all things and has all manner of directions and ten dencies. " These corpuscles, says New ton, have not only a vis inertia, accompa nied with such passive laws of motion as naturally result from that force ; but also are moved by certain active principles : such as that of gravity, and that which causes fermentation, and the cohesion of bodies." 3. That matter must also be actually di= Tided into parts : and each of these primi tive particles, fragments, or atoms of mat ter, must have its proper magnitude, figure and shape.
4. That these differently sized and shaped particles have different orders, positions, situations, and postures, from whence all the variety of compound bo dies arises. See ATOXIC PHILOSOPHY: