And though I made it not
move to and fro, but only from one end of the short Line to the other,
without any return or Lateral motion. Nay, after it had been often rubb'd,
and suffer'd to lose its Light again, not only it seem'd more easie to be
excited than at the beginning of the Night; but if I did press hard upon it
with my Finger, at the very instant that I drew it briskly off, it would
disclose a very Vivid but exceeding short Liv'd Splendour, not to call it a
little Coruscation.[42] So that a _Cartesian_ would scarce scruple to think
he had found in this Stone no slight Confirmation of his Ingenious Masters
_Hypothesis_, touching the Generation of Light in Sublunary Bodies, not
sensibly Hot.
[42] _I after bethought my self of imploying a way, which produc'd the
desir'd Effect both sooner and better. For holding betwixt my Fingers a
Steel Bodkin, near the Lower part of it, I press'd the point hard against
the Surface of the Diamond, and much more if I struck the point against
it, the Coruscation would be extremely suddain, and very Vivid, though
very Vanishing too, and this way which commonly much surpris'd and
pleas'd the Spectators, seem'd far more proper than the other, to show
that pressure alone, if forcible enough, though it were so suddain, and
short, that it could not well be suppos'd to give the Stone any thing
near a sensible degree of Warmth, as may be suspected of Rubbing, yet
'tis sufficient to generate a very Vivid Light.
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