[NetBehaviour] Experiment solitary touching appetite of union in bodies.

[Alan Sondheim]

Experiment solitary touching appetite of union in bodies.

  293. It is certain that in all bodies there is an appetite of union, and
evitation of solution of continuity; and of this appetite there be many
degrees; but the most remarkable, and fit to be distinguished, are three.
The first in liquors; the second in hard bodies; and the third in bodies
cleaving or tenacious. In liquors this appetite is weak; we see in liquors
the threading of them in stillicides (as hath been said); the falling of
them in round drops (which is the form of union); and the staying of them
for a little time in bubbles and froth. In the second degree or kind, this
appetite is strong; as in iron, in stone, in wood, &c. In the third, this
appetite is in a medium between the other two: for such bodies do partly
follow the touch of another body, and partly stick and continue to
themselves; and therefore they rope, and draw themselves in threads; as we
see in pitch, glass, birdlime, &c. But note, that all solid bodies are
cleaving, more or less; and that they love better the touch of somewhat
that is tangible, than of air. For water, in small quantity, cleaveth to
any thing that is solid; and so would metal too, if the weight drew it not
off. And therefore gold foliate, or any metal foliate, cleaveth: but those
bodies which are noted to be clammy and cleaving, are such as have a more
indifferent appetite (at once) to follow another body, and to hold to
themselves. And therefore they are commonly bodies ill mixed: and which
take more pleasure in a foreign body, than in preserving their own
consistence; and which have little predominance in drought or moisture.

(from Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: or A Natural History, 1627)

( think of electrick fluid, magnetism, electrostaticks; think of mud or
other problematic 'objects' in Plato; of abjection; of Kristeva's Powers
of Horror; of Being and Nothingness (last sections); of the analogick; of
substance and its uncanniness; of the discrete and its imaginary. this has
always been with us, think of Visuddhimagga, highest tantra, think of
purification rites, scapegoats, abjections, dis/ease, dis/comfort, think
of anything unthought ... )