be admitted in such Cases as I have proposed there would not be an Union but a Destruction of mingled Bodies which seems all one as to say that of such Bodies there is no mistion at all I answer that though the Substances that are mingl'd remain only their Accidents are Destroy'd and though we may with tollerable Congruity call them Miscibilia because they are Distinct Bodies before they are put together however afterwards they are so Confounded that I should rather call them Concretions or Resulting Bodies than mixt ones and though perhaps some other and better Account may be propos'd upon which the name of mistion may remain yet if what I have said be thought Reason I shall nor wrangle about Words though I think it fitter to alter a Terme of Art then reject a new Truth because it suits not with it If it be also Objected that this Notion of mine concerning mixtion though it may be allow'd when Bodies already Compounded are put to be mingl'd yet it is not applicable to those mixtions that are immediately made of the Elements or Principles themselves I Answer in the first place that I here Consider the Nature of mixtion somewhat more Generally then the Chymists who yet cannot deny that there are oftentimes Mixtures and those very durable ones made of Bodies that are not Elementary And in the next place that though it may be probably pretended that in those Mixtures that are made immediately of the Bodies that are call'd Principles or Elements the mingl'd Ingredients may better retain their own Nature in the Compounded Mass and be more easily separated from thence yet besides that it may be doubted whether there be any such Primary Bodies I see not why the reason I alleadg'd of the destructibility of the Ingredients of Bodies in General may not sometimes be Applicable to Salt Sulphur or Mercury 'till it be shewn upon what account we are to believe them Priviledged And however if you please but to recall to mind to what purpose I told you at First I meant to speak of Mistion at this Time you will perhaps allow that what I have hither to Discoursed about it may not only give some Light to the Nature of it in general especially when I shall have an Opportunity to Declare to you my thoughts on that subject more fully but may on some Occasions also be Serviceable to me in the Insuing Part of this Discourse But to look back Now to that part of our Discourse whence this Excursion concerning Mistion has so long diverted us though we there Deduc'd from the differing Substances obtained from a Plant nourished only with Water and from some other things that it was not necessary that nature should alwaies compound a Body at first of all such differing bodies as the fire could afterwards make it afford yet this is not all that may be collected from those Experiments For from them there seems also Deducible something that Subverts an other Foundation of the Chymical Doctrine For since that as we have seen out of fair Water alone not only Spirit but Oyle and Salt and Earth may be Produced It will follow that Salt and Sulphur are not Primogeneal Bodies and principles since they are every Day made out of plain Water by the Texture which the Seed or Seminal principle of plants puts it into And this would not perhaps seem so strange if through pride or negligence We were not Wont to Overlook the Obvious and Familiar Workings of Nature For if We consider what slight Qualities they are that serve to denominate one of the Tria Prima We shall find that Nature do's frequently enough work as great Alterations in divers parcells of matter For to be readily dissoluble in water is enough to make the body that is so passe for a Salt And yet I see not why from a new shufling and Disposition of the Component Particles of a body it should be much harder for Nature to compose a body dissoluble in Water of a portion of Water that was not so before then of the Liquid substance of an Egg which will easily mix with VVater to produce by the bare warmth of a hatching Hen Membrans Feathrs Tendons and other parts that are not dissoluble in VVater as that Liquid Substance was Nor is the Hardness and Brittleness of Salt more difficult for Nature to introduce into such a yielding body as VVater then it is for her to make the Bones of a Chick out of the tender Substance of the Liquors of an Egg. But instead of prosecuting this consideration as I easily might I will proceed as soon as I have taken notice of an objection that lies in my Way For I easily foresee it will be alledged that the above mentioned Examples are all taken from Plants and Animals in whom the Matter is Fashioned by the Plastick power of the seed or something analogous thereunto Whereas the Fire do's not act like any of the Seminal Principles but destroyes them all when they come within its Reach But to this I shall need at present to make but this easy Answer That whether it be a Seminal Principle or any other which fashions that Matter after those various manners I have mentioned to You yet 't is Evident that either by the Plastick principle Alone or that and Heat Together or by some Other cause capable to context the matter it is yet possible that the matter may be Anew contriv'd into such Bodies And 't is only for the Possibility of this that I am now contending THE SCEPTICAL CHYMIST The Third Part. WHat I have hitherto Discours'd Eleutherius sayes his Friend to Him has I presume shew'n You that a Considering Man may very well question the Truth of those very Suppositions which Chymists as well as Peripatericks without proving take for granted and upon which Depends the Validity of the Inferences they draw from their Experiments Wherefore having dispach't that which though a Chymist Perhaps will not yet I do look upon as the most Important as well as Difficult part of my Task it will now be Seasonable for me to proceed to the Consideration of the Experiments themselves wherein they are wont so much to Triumph and Glory And these will the rather deserve a serious Examination because those that Alledge them are wont to do it with so much Confidence and Ostentation that they have hitherto impos'd upon almost all Persons without excepting Philosophers and Physitians themselves who have read their Books or heard them talk For some learned Men have been content rather to beleeve what they so boldly Affirm then be at the trouble and charge to try whether or no it be True Others again who have Curiosity enough to Examine the Truth of what is Averr'd want Skill and Opportunity to do what they Desire And the Generality even of Learned Men seeing the Chymists not contenting themselves with the Schools to amuse the World with empty words Actually Perform'd divers strange things
remain indissoluble in the ordinary Analysis that Chymists make of Bodies by the Fire 'T is not impossible but that though there were but three Elements yet there may be a greater number of Bodies which the wonted wayes of Anatomy will not discover to be no Elementary Bodies But sayes Carneades having thus far in compliance to you talk't conjecturally of the number of the Elements 't is now time to consider not of how many Elements it is possible that Nature may compound mix'd Bodies but at least as farr as the ordinary Experiments of Chymists will informe us of how many she doth make them up I say then that it does not by these sufficiently appear to me that there is any one determinate number of Elements to be uniformly met with in all the several sorts of Bodies allow'd to be perfectly mixt And for the more distinct proof of this Proposition I shall in the first place Reprelent That there are divers Bodies which I could never see by fire divided into so many as three Elementary substances I would fain as I said lately to Philoponus see that fixt and noble Metal we call Gold separated into Sa it Sulphur and Mercury and if any man will submit to a comperent forfeiture in case of sailing I shall willingly in case of prosperous successe pay both for the Materials and the charges of such an Experiment 'T is not that after what I have try'd my self I dare peremptorily deny that there may out of Gold be extracted a certain substance which I cannot hinder Chymists from calling its Tincture or Sulphur and which leaves the remaining Body depriv'd of its wonted colour Nor an I sure that there cannot be drawn out of the same Metal a real quick and running Mercury But for the Salt of Gold I never could either see it or be satisfied that there was ever such a thing separated in rerum natura by the relation of any credible eye witnesse And for the several Processes that Promise that effect the materials that must be wrought upon are somewhat too pretious and costly to be wasted upon so groundlesse adventures of which not only the successe is doubtful but the very possibility is not yet demonstrated Yet that which most deterres me from such tryalls is not their chargeablenesse but their unsatisfactorinesse though they should succeed For the Extraction of this golden Salt being in Chymists Processes prescribed to be effected by corrosive Menstruums or the Intervention of other Saline Bodies it will remain doubtful to a wary person whether the Emergent Salt be that of the Gold it self or of the Saline Bodies or Spirits employ'd to prepare it For that such disguises of Metals do often impose upon Artists I am sure Eleutherius is not so much a stranger to Chymistry as to ignore I would likewise willingly see the three principles separated from the pure sort of Virgin-Sand from Qsteocolla from refined Silver from Quicksilver freed from its adventitious Sulphur from Venetian Talk which by long detention in an extreme Reverberium I could but divide into smaller Particles not the constituent principles Nay which when I caused it to be kept I know not how long in a Glasse-house fire came out in the Figure it's Lumps had when put in though alter'd to an almost Amethystine colour and from divers other Bodies which it were now unnecessary to enumerate For though I dare not absolutely affirme it to be impossible to Analyze these Bodies into their Tria Prima yet because neither my own Experiments nor any competent Testimony hath hitherto either taught me how such an Analysis may be made or satisfy'd me that it hath been so I must take the Liberty to refrain from believing it till the Chymists prove it or give us intelligible and practicable Processes to performe what they pretend For whilst they affect that Aenigmatical obscurity with which they are wont to puzzle the Readers of their divulg'd Processes concerning the Analyticall Preparation of Gold or Mercury they leave wary persons much unsatisfyed whether or no the differing Substances they promise to produce be truly the Hypostatical Principles or only some intermixtures of the divided Bodies with those employ'd to work upon them as is Evident in the seeming Crystalls of Silver and those of Mercury which though by some inconsiderately supposed to be the Salts of those Metalls are plainly but mixtures of the Metalline Bodies with the Saline parts of Aqua fortis or other corrosive Liquors as is evident by their being reducible into Silver or Quicksilver as they were before I cannot but Confesse saith Eleutherius that though Chymists may upon probable grounds affirm themselves Able to obtain their Tria Prima from Animals and Vegetables yet I have often wondred that they should so confidently pretend also to resolve all Metalline and other Mineral bodies into Salt Sulphur and Mercury For 't is a saying almost Proverbial among those Chymists themselves that are accounted Philosophers and our famous Countryman Roger Bacon has particularly adopted it that Facilius est aurum facere quam destruere And I fear with You that Gold is not the only Mineral from which Chymists are wont fruitlessly to attempt the separating of their three Principles I know indeed continues Eleutherius that the Learned Sennertus even in that book where he takes not upon him to play the Advocate for the Chymists but the Umpier betwixt them and the Peripateticks expresses himself roundly thus Salem omnibus inesse mixtis scilicet ex iis fieri posse omnibus in resolutionibus Chymicis versatis notissimum est Sennert lib. de cons dissens pag. 147. And in the next Page Quod de sale dixi saies he Idem de Sulphure dici potest but by his favour I must see very good proofs before I believe such general Assertions how boldly soever made and he that would convince me of their truth must first teach me some true and practicable way of separating Salt and Sulphur from Gold Silver and those many different sort of Stones that a violent Fire does not bring to Lime but to Fusion and not only I for my own part never saw any of those newly nam'd Bodies so resolved but Helmont who was much better vers'd in the Chymical Anatomizing of Bodies then either Sennertus or I has somewhere this resolute passage Scio saies he ex arena Helmon pag. 409. silicibus saxis non Calcariis nunquam Sulphur aut Mercurium trahi posse Nay Quercetanus himself though the grand stickler for the Tria Prima has this Confession of the Irresolubleness of Diamonds Quercet apud Billich in Thessalo redivivo pag. 99. Adamas saith he omnium factus Lapidum solidissimus ac durissimus ex arctissima videlicet triunt principiorum unione ac Cohaerentia quae nulla arte separationis in solutionem principiorum suorum spiritualium disjungi potest And indeed pursues Eleutherius I was not only glad but somewhat surprized to find
and among those Resolve Compound Bodies into several Substances not known by former Philosophers to be contain'd in them Men I say seeing these Things and Hearing with what Confidence Chymists Averr the Substances Obtain'd from Compound Bodies by the Fire to be the True Elements or as they speak Hypostaticall Principles of them are forward to think it but Just as well as Modest that according to the Logicians Rule the Skilfull Artists should be Credited in their own Art Especially when those things whose Nature they so Confidently take upon them to teach others are not only Productions of their own Skill but such as others Know not else what to make of But though Continues Carneades the Chymists have been able upon some or other of the mention'd Acounts not only to Delight but Amaze and almost to bewitch even Learned Men yet such as You and I who are not unpractis'd in the Trade must not suffer our Selves to be impos'd upon by hard Names or bold Assertions nor to be dazl'd by that Light which should but assist us to discern things the more clearly It is one thing to be able to help Nature to produce things and another thing to Understand well the Nature of the things produc'd As we see that many Persons that can beget Children are for all that as Ignorant of the Number and Nature of the parts especially the internal ones that Constitute a Childs Body as they that never were Parents Nor do I Doubt but you 'l excuse me if as I thank the Chymists for the things their Analysis shews me so I take the Liberty to consider how many and what they are without being astonish'd at them as if whosoever hath Skill enough to shew men some new thing of his own making had the Right to make them believe whatsoever he pleases to tell them concerning it Wherefore I will now proceed to my Third General Consideration which is That it does not appear that Three is precisely and Universally the Number of the Distinct Substances or Elements whereinto mixt Bodies are resoluble by the Fire I mean that 't is not prov'd by Chymists that all the Compound Bodies which are granted to be perfectly mixt are upon their Chymical Analysis divisible each of them into just Three Distinct Substances neither more nor less which are wont to be lookt upon as Elementary or may as well be reputed so as those that are so reputed Which last Clause I subjoyne to prevent your Objecting that some of the Substances I may have occasion to mention by and by are not perfectly Homogeneous nor Consequently worthy of the name of Principles For that which I am now to consider is into how many Differing Substances that may plausibly pass for the Elementary Ingredients of a mix'd Body it may be Analyz'd by the Fire but whether each of these be un-compounded I reserve to examine when I shall come to the next General Consideration where I hope to evince that the Substances which the Chymists not only allow but assert to be the Component Principles of the Body resolv'd into them are not wont to be uncompounded Now there are two Kind of Arguments pursues Carneades which may be brought to make my Third Proposition seem probable one sort of them being of a more Speculative Nature and the other drawn from Experience To begin then with the first of these But as Carneades was going to do as he had said Eleutherius interrupted him by saying with a somewhat smiling countenance If you have no mind I should think that the Proverb That Good Wits have bad Memories is Rational and Applicable to You You must not Forget now you are upon the Speculative Considerations that may relate to the Number of the Elements that your Self did not long since Deliver and Concede some Propositions in Favour of the Chymical Doctrine which I may without disparagement to you think it uneasie even for Carneades to answer I have not replies he Forgot the Concessions you mean but I hope too that you have not forgot neither with what Cautions they were made when I had not yet assumed the Person I am now sustaining But however I shall to content You so discourse of my Third general consideration as to let You see That I am not Unmindful of the things you would have me remember To talk then again according to such principles as I then made use of I shall represent that if it be granted rational to suppose as I then did that the Elements consisted at first of certain small and primary Coalitions of the minute Particles of matter into Corpuscles very numerous and very like each other It will not be absurd to conceive that such primary Clusters may be of far more sorts then three or five and consequently that we need not suppose that in each of the compound Bodies we are treating of there should be found just three sorts of such primitive Coalitions as we are speaking of And if according to this Notion we allow a considerable number of differing Elements I may add that it seems very possible that to the constitution of one sort of mixt Bodies two kinds of Elementary ones may suffice as I lately Exemplify'd to you in that most durable Concrete Glass another sort of Mixts may be compos'd of three Elements another of four another of five and another perhaps of many more So that according to this Notion there can be no determinate number assign'd as that of the Elements of all sorts of compound Bodies whatsoever it being very probable that some Concretes consist of fewer some of more Elements Nay it does not seem Impossible according to these Principles but that there may be two sorts of Mixts whereof the one may not have any of all the same Elements as the other consists of as we oftentimes see two words whereof the one has not any one of the Letters to be met with in the other or as we often meet with diverse Electuaries in which no Ingredient except Sugar is common to any two of them I will not here debate whether there may not be a multitude of these Corpuscles which by reason of their being primary and simple might be called Elementary if several sorts of them should convene to compose any Body which are as yet free and neither as yet contex'd and entangl'd with primary Corpuscles of other kinds but remains liable to be subdu'd and fashion'd by Seminal Principles or the like powerful and Transmuting Agent by whom they may be so connected among themselves or with the parts of one of the bodies as to make the compound Bodies whose Ingredients they are resoluble into more or other Elements then those that Chymists have hitherto taken notice of To all which I may add that since it appears by what I observ'd to you of the permanency of Gold and Silver that even Corpuscles that are not of an Elementary but compounded Nature may be of so durable a Texture as to