continual change, according as the position of the parts in respect of the
incident beams of light is varied. The reason of which odd _phænomena_, to
one that has but diligently examin'd it even with his naked eye, will be
obvious enough. But he that observes it with a _Microscope_, may more
easily perceive what this _Proteus_ is, and how it comes to change its
shape. He may very easily perceive, that it proceeds onely from the variety
of the _Reflections_ of light, which is caus'd by the various _shape of the
Particles_, or little protuberant parts of the thread that compose the
surface; and that those parts of the waves that appear the brighter, throw
towards the eye a multitude of small reflections of light, whereas the
darker scarce afford any. The reason of which reflection, the _Microscope_
plainly discovers, as appears by the Figure. In which you may perceive,
that the brighter parts of the surface consist of an abundance of large and
strong reflections, denoted by a, a, a, a, a, &c. for the surfaces of those
threads that run the _long way_, are by the Mechanical process of watering,
_creas'd_ or _angled_ in another kind of posture then they were by the
weaving: for by the weaving they are onely _bent round_ the warping
threads; but by the watering, they are _bent with an angle, or elbow_, that
is in stead of lying, or being bent _round_ the threads, as in the third
Figure, a, a, a, a, a, are about b, b, b (b, b, b representing the ends, as
'twere, of the cross threads, they are bent about) they are creas'd on the
top of those threads, with an _angle_, as in the fourth Figure, and that
with all imaginable variety; so that, whereas before they reflected the
light onely from one point of the round surface, as about c, c, c, they now
when water'd, reflect the beams from more then half the whole surface, as
de, de, de, and in other postures they return no reflections at all from
those surfaces. Hence in one posture they compose the brighter parts of the
waves, in another the darker. And these reflections are also varied,
according as the particular parts are variously bent. The reason of which
creasing we shall next examine; and here we must fetch our information from