lessen your Wonder, that just so many Bodies as five should be found
upon the Resolution of Concretes. For since we find not that the fire
can make any such _Analysis_ (into five Elements) of Metals and other
Mineral Bodies, whose Texture is more strong and permanent, it remains
that the Five Substances under consideration be Obtain'd from
Vegetable and Animal Bodies, which (probably by reason of their looser
Contexture) are capable of being Distill'd. And as to such Bodies,
'tis natural enough, that, whether we suppose that there are, or are
not, precisely five Elements, there should ordinarily occurr in the
Dissipated parts a five Fold Diversity of Scheme (if I may so speak.)
For if the Parts do not remain all fix'd, as in Gold, Calcin'd Talck,
&c. nor all ascend, as in the Sublimation of Brimstone, Camphire, &c.
but after their Dissipation do associate themselves into new Schemes
of Matter; it is very likely, that they will by the Fire be divided
into fix'd and Volatile (I mean, in Reference to that degree of heat
by which they are destill'd) and those Volatile parts will, for the
most part, ascend either in a dry forme, which Chymists are pleas'd to
call, if they be Tastless, Flowers; if Sapid, Volatile Salt; or in a
Liquid Forme. And this Liquor must be either inflamable, and so pass
for oyl, or not inflamable, and yet subtile and pungent, which may be
call'd Spirit; or else strengthless or insipid, which may be nam'd
Phlegme, or Water. And as for the fixt part, or _Caput Mortuum_, it
will most commonly consist of Corpuscles, partly Soluble in Water, or
Sapid, (especially if the Saline parts were not so Volatile, as to fly
away before) which make up its fixt salt; and partly insoluble and
insipid, which therefore seems to challenge the name of Earth. But
although upon this ground one might easily enough have foretold, that
the differing substances obtain'd from a perfectly mixt Body by the
Fire would for the most part be reducible to the five newly mentioned
States of Matter; yet it will not presently follow, that these five
Distinct substances were simple and primogeneal bodies, so
pre-existent in the Concrete that the fire does but take them asunder.
Besides that it does not appear, that all Mixt Bodies, (witness,
Gold, Silver, Mercury, &c.) Nay nor perhaps all Vegetables, which may
appear by what we said above of _Camphire_, _Benzoin_, &c. are
resoluble by Fire into just such differing Schemes of Matter. Nor will
the Experiments formerly alledg'd permit us to look upon these
separated Substances as Elementary, or uncompounded. Neither will it
be a sufficient Argument of their being Bodies that deserve the Names
which Chymists are pleas'd to give them, that they have an Analogy in
point of Consistence, or either Volatility or Fixtness, or else some
other obvious Quality, with the suppos'd Principles, whose names are
ascrib'd to them. For, as I told you above, notwithstanding this
Resemblance in some one Quality, there may be such a Disparity in
others, as may be more fit to give them Differing Appellations, then
the Resemblance is to give them one and the same. And indeed it seems
but somewhat a gross Way of judging of the Nature of Bodies, to
conclude without Scruple, that those must be of the same Nature that
agree in some such General Quality, as Fluidity, Dryness, Volatility,
and the like: since each of those Qualities, or States of Matter, may
Comprehend a great Variety of Bodies, otherwise of a very differing
Nature; as we may see in the Calxes of Gold, of Vitriol, and of
Venetian Talck, compar'd with common Ashes, which yet are very dry,
and fix'd by the vehemence of the Fire, as well as they. And as we may
likewise gather from what I have formerly Observ'd, touching the
Spirit of Box-Wood, which though a Volatile, Sapid, and not inflamable
Liquor, as well as the Spirits of Harts-horn, of Blood and others,
(and therefore has been hitherto call'd, the Spirit, and esteem'd for
one of the Principles of the Wood that affords it;) may yet, as I told
You, be subdivided into two Liquors, differing from one another, and
one of them at least, from the Generality of other Chymical Spirits.
But you may your self, if you please, (pursues _Carneades_)
accommodate to the _Hypothesis_ you propos'd what other particulars
you shall think applicable to it, in the foregoing Discourse. For I
think it unseasonable for me to meddle now any further with a
Controversie, which since it does not now belong to me, Leaves me at
Liberty to Take my Own time to Declare my Self about it.
_Eleutherius_ perceiving that _Carneades_ was somewhat unwilling to
spend any more time upon the debate of this Opinion, and having
perhaps some thoughts of taking hence a Rise to make him Discourse it
more fully another time, thought not fit as then to make any further
mention to him of the propos'd opinion, but told him;
I presume I need not mind you, _Carneades_, That both the Patrons of
the ternary number of Principles, and those that would have five
Elements, endeavour to back their experiments with a specious Reason
or two; and especially some of those Embracers of the Opinion last
nam'd (whom I have convers'd with, and found them Learned men) assigne
this Reason of the necessity of five distinct Elements; that otherwise
mixt Bodies could not be so compounded and temper'd as to obtain a due
consistence and competent Duration. For Salt (say they) is the
_Basis_ of Solidity; and Permanency in Compound Bodies, without which
the other four Elements might indeed be variously and loosly blended
together, but would remain incompacted; but that Salt might be
dissolv'd into minute Parts, and convey'd to the other Substances to
be compacted by it, and with it, there is a Necessity of Water. And
that the mixture may not be too hard and brittle, a Sulphureous or
Oyly Principle must intervene to make the mass more tenacious; to this
a Mercurial spirit must be superadded; which by its activity may for a
while premeate [Transcriber's Note: permeate], and as it were leaven
the whole Mass, and thereby promote the more exquisite mixture and
incorporation of the Ingredients. To all which (lastly) a portion of
Earth must be added, which by its drinesse and poracity [Errata:
porosity] may soak up part of that water wherein the Salt was
dissolv'd, and eminently concurr with the other ingredients to give
the whole body the requisite consistence.
I perceive (sayes _Carneades_ smiling) that if it be true, as 'twas
lately rooted [Errata: noted] from the Proverb, _That good Wits have
bad Memories_, You have that Title, as well as a better, to a place
among the good Wits. For you have already more then once forgot, that
I declar'd to you that I would at this Conference Examine only the
Experiments of my Adversaries, not their Speculative Reasons. Yet 'tis
not (Subjoynes _Carneades_) for fear of medling with the Argument you
have propos'd, that I decline the examining it at present. For if when
we are more at leasure, you shall have a mind that we may Solemnly
consider of it together; I am confident we shall scarce find it
insoluble. And in the mean time we may observe, that such a way of
Arguing may, it seems, be speciously accommodated to differing
_Hypotheses_. For I find that _Beguinus_, and other Assertors of the
_Tria Prima_, pretend to make out by such a way, the requisiteness of
their Salt, Sulphur and Mercury, to constitute mixt Bodies, without
taking notice of any necessity of an Addition of Water and Earth.
And indeed neither sort of Chymists seem to have duly consider'd how
great Variety there is in the Textures and Consistences of Compound
Bodie; sand [Errata: Bodies; and] how little the consistence and
Duration of many of them seem to accommodate and be explicable by the
propos'd Notion. And not to mention those almost incorruptible
Substances obtainable by the Fire, which I have prov'd to be somewhat
compounded, and which the Chymists will readily grant not to be
perfectly mixt Bodies: (Not to mention these, I say) If you will but
recall to mind some of those Experiments, whereby I shew'd You that
out of common Water only mixt Bodies (and even living ones) of very
differing consistences, and resoluble by Fire into as many Principles
as other bodies acknowledg'd to be perfectly mixt; if you do this, I
say, you will not, I suppose, be averse from beleeving, that Nature by
a convenient disposition of the minute parts of a portion of matter
may contrive bodies durable enough, and of this, or that, or the other
Consistence, without being oblig'd to make use of all, much less of
any Determinate quantity of each of the five Elements, or of the three
Principles to compound such bodies of. And I have (pursues
_Carneades_) something wonder'd, Chymists should not consider, that
there is scarce any body in Nature so permanent and indissoluble as
Glass; which yet themselves teach us may be made of bare Ashes,
brought to fusion by the meer Violence of the Fire; so that, since
Ashes are granted to consist but of pure Salt and simple Earth,
sequestred from all the other Principles or Elements, they must
acknowledge, That even Art it self can of two Elements only, or, if
you please, one Principle and one Element, compound a Body more
durable then almost any in the World. Which being undeniable, how will
they prove that Nature cannot compound Mixt Bodies, and even durable
Ones, under all the five Elements or material Principles.
But to insist any longer on this Occasional Disquisition, Touching
their Opinion that would Establish five Elements, were to remember as
little as You did before, that the Debate of this matter is no part of
my first undertaking; and consequently, that I have already spent time
enough in what I look back upon but as a digression, or at best an
Excursion.
And thus, _Eleutherius_, (sayes _Carneades_) having at length gone
through the four Considerations I propos'd to Discourse unto you, I
hold it not unfit, for fear my having insisted so long on each of them
may have made you forget their _Series_, briefly to repeat them by
telling you, that
Since, in the first place, it may justly be doubted whether or no the
Fire be, as Chymists suppose it, the genuine and Universal Resolver of
mixt Bodies;
Since we may doubt, in the next place, whether or no all the Distinct
Substances that may be obtain'd from a mixt body by the Fire were
pre-existent there in the formes in which they were separated from it;
Since also, though we should grant the Substances separable from mixt
Bodies by the fire to have been their component Ingredients, yet the
Number of such substances does not appear the same in all mixt Bodies;
some of them being Resoluble into more differing substances than
three, and Others not being Resoluble into so many as three.
And Since, Lastly, those very substances that are thus separated are
not for the most part pure and Elementary bodies, but new kinds of
mixts;
Since, I say, these things are so, I hope you will allow me to inferr,
that the Vulgar Experiments (I might perchance have Added, the
Arguments too) wont to be Alledg'd by Chymists to prove, that their
three Hypostatical Principles do adequately compose all mixt Bodies,
are not so demonstrative as to reduce a wary Person to acquiesce in
their Doctrine, which, till they Explain and prove it better, will by
its perplexing darkness be more apt to puzzle then satisfy considering
men, and will to them appear incumbred with no small Difficulties.
And from what has been hitherto deduc'd (continues _Carneades_) we may
Learn, what to Judge of the common Practice of those Chymists, who
because they have found that Diverse compound Bodies (for it will not
hold in All) can be resolv'd into, or rather can be brought to afford
two or three differing Substances more then the Soot and Ashes,
whereinto the naked fire commonly divides them in our Chymnies, cry up
their own Sect for the Invention of a New Philosophy, some of them, as
_Helmont, &c._ styling themselves Philosophers by the Fire; and the
most part not only ascribing, but as far as in them lies, engrossing
to those of their Sect the Title of PHILOSOPHERS.
But alas, how narrow is this Philosophy, that reaches but to some of
those compound Bodies, which we find but upon, or in the crust or
outside of our terrestrial Globe, which is it self but a point in
comparison of the vast extended Universe, of whose other and greater
parts the Doctrine of the _Tria Prima_ does not give us an Account!
For what does it teach us, either of the Nature of the Sun, which
Astronomers affirme to be eight-score and odd times bigger then the
whole Earth? or of that of those numerous fixt Starrs, which, for
ought we know, would very few, if any of them, appear inferiour in
bulke and brightness to the Sun, if they were as neer us as He? What
does the knowing that Salt, sulphur and Mercury, are the Principles of
Mixt Bodies, informe us of the Nature of that vast, fluid, and
AEtherial Substance, that seemes to make up the interstellar, and
consequently much the greatest part of the World? for as for the
opinion commonly ascrib'd to _Paracelsus_, as if he would have not
only the four Peripatetick Elements, but even the Celestial parts of
the Universe to consist of his three Principles, since the modern
Chymists themselves have not thought so groundless a conceit worth
their owning, I shall not think it Worth my confuting.
But I should perchance forgive the Hypothesis I have been all this
while examining, if, though it reaches but to a very little part of
the World, it did at least give us a satisfactory account of those
things to which 'tis said to reach. But I find not, that it gives us
any other then a very imperfect information even about mixt Bodies
themselves: For how will the knowledge of the _Tria Prima_ discover to
us the Reason, why the Loadstone drawes a Needle and disposes it to
respect the Poles, and yet seldom precisely points at them? how will
this Hypothesis teach Us how a Chick is formed in the Egge, or how the
Seminal Principles of Mint, Pompions, and other Vegitables, that I
mention'd to You above, can fashion Water into Various Plants, each of
them endow'd with its peculiar and determinate shape, and with divers
specifick and discriminating Qualities? How does this Hypothesis shew
us, how much Salt, how much Sulphur, and how much Mercury must be
taken to make a Chick or a Pompion? and if We know that, what
Principle is it, that manages these Ingredients, and contrives (for
instance) such Liquors as the White and Yelk of an Egge into such a
variety of Textures as is requisite to fashion the Bones, Veines,
Arteries, Nerves, Tendons, Feathers, Blood, and other parts of a
Chick; and not only to fashion each Limbe, but to connect them
altogether, after that manner that is most congruous to the perfection
of the Animal which is to Consist of Them? For to say, that some more
fine and subtile part of either or all the Hypostatical Principles is
the Director in all this business, and the Architect of all this
Elaborate structure, is to give one occasion to demand again, what
proportion and way of mixture of the _Tria Prima_ afforded this
_Architectonick_ Spirit, and what Agent made so skilful and happy a
mixture? And the Answer to this Question, if the Chymists will keep
themselves within their three Principles, will be lyable to the same
Inconvenience, that the Answer to the former was. And if it were not
to intrench upon the Theame of a Friend of ours here present, I could
easily prosecute the Imperfections of the Vulgar Chymists Philosophy,
and shew you, that by going about to explicate by their three
Principles, I say not, all the abstruse Properties of mixt Bodies, but
even such Obvious and more familiar _Phaenomena_ as _Fluidity_ and
_Firmness_, The Colours and Figures of Stones, Minerals, and other
compound Bodies, The Nutrition of either Plants or Animals, the
Gravity of Gold or Quicksilver compar'd with Wine or Spirit of Wine;
By attempting, I say, to render a reason of these (to omit a thousand
others as difficult to account for) from any proportion of the three
simple Ingredients, Chymists will be much more likely to discredit
themselves and their _Hypothesis_, then satisfy an intelligent
Inquirer after Truth.
But (interposes _Eleutherus_) [Transcriber's Note: Eleutherius] This
Objection seems no more then may be made against the four Peripatetick
Elements. And indeed almost against any other _Hypothesis_, that
pretends by any Determinate Number of Material Ingredients to render a
reason of the _Phaenomena_ of Nature. And as for the use of the
Chymical Doctrine of the three Principles, I suppose you need not be
told by me, that The great Champion of it, The Learned _Sennertus_,[23]
assignes this noble use of the _Tria Prima_, That from Them, as the
neerest and most Proper Principles, may be Deduc'd and Demonstrated
the Properties which are in Mixt Bodies, and which cannot be
Proximately (as They speak) deduc'd from the Elements. And This, sayes
he, is chiefly Apparent, when we Inquire into the Properties and
Faculties of Medecines. And I know (continues _Eleutherius_) That the
Person You have assum'd, of an Opponent of the _Hermetick Doctrine_,
will not so far prevaile against your Native and wonted Equity, as To
keep You from acknowledging that Philosophy is much beholden to the
Notions and Discoveries of Chymists.
[Footnote 23: _Senn. de Cons. & Dissen. p. 165._]
If the Chymists You speak of (Replyes _Carneades_) had been so modest,
or so Discreet, as to propose their Opinion of the _Tria Prima_, but
as a Notion useful among Others, to increase Humane knowledge, they
had deserv'd more of our thanks; and less of our Opposition; but since
the Thing that they pretend is not so much to contribute a Notion
toward the Improvement of Philosophy, as to make this Notion attended
[Errata: (attended] by a few lesse considerable ones) pass for a New
Philosophy itself. Nay, since they boast so much of this phancie of
theirs, that the famous _Quercetanus_ scruples not to write, that if
his most certain Doctrine of the three Principles were sufficiently
Learned, Examin'd, and Cultivated, it would easily Dispel all the
Darkness that benights our minds, and bring in a Clear Light, that
would remove all Difficulties. This School affording Theorems and
Axiomes irrefragable, and to be admitted without Dispute by impartial
Judges; and so useful withal, as to exempt us from the necessity of
having recourse, for want of the knowledg of causes, to that Sanctuary
of the igorant [Transcriber's Note: ignorant], Occult Qualities;
since, I say, this Domestick Notion of the Chymists is so much
overvalued by them, I cannot think it unfit, they should be made
sensible of their mistake; and be admonish'd to take in more fruitful
and comprehensive Principles, if they mean to give us an account of
the _Phaenomena_ of Nature; and not confine themselves and (as far as
they can) others to such narrow Principles, as I fear will scarce
inable them to give an account (I mean an intelligible one) of the
tenth part (I say not) of all the _Phaenomena_ of Nature; but even of
all such as by the _Leucippian_ or some of the other sorts of
Principles may be plausibly enough explicated. And though I be not
unwilling to grant, that the incompetency I impute to the Chymical
_Hypothesis_ is but the same which may be Objected against that of the
four Elements, and divers other Doctrines that have been maintain'd by
Learned men; yet since 'tis the Chymical _Hypothesis_ only which I am
now examining, I see not why, if what I impute to it be a real
inconvenience, either it should cease to be so, or I should scruple to
object it, because either Theories are lyable thereunto, as well as
the Hermetical. For I know not why a Truth should be thought lesse a
Truth for the being fit to overthrow variety of Errors.
I am oblig'd to You (continues _Carneades_, a little smiling) for the
favourable Opinion You are pleas'd to express of my Equity, if there
be no design in it. But I need not be tempted by an Artifice, or
invited by a Complement, to acknowledge the great service that the
Labours of Chymists have done the Lovers of useful Learning; nor even
on this occasion shall their Arrogance hinder my Gratitude. But since
we are as well examining to [Errata: delete "to"] the truth of their
Doctrine as the merit of their industry, I must in order to the
investigation of the first, continue a reply, to talk at the rate of
the part I have assum'd; And tell you, that when I acknowledg the
usefulness of the Labours of _Spagyrists_ to Natural Philosophy, I do
it upon the score of their experiments, not upon that of Their
Speculations; for it seems to me, that their Writings, as their
Furnaces, afford as well smoke as light; and do little lesse obscure
some subjects, then they illustrate others. And though I am unwilling
to deny, that 'tis difficult for a man to be an Accomplisht
Naturalist, that is a stranger to Chymistry, yet I look upon the
common Operations and practices of Chymists, almost as I do on the
Letters of the Alphabet, without whose knowledge 'tis very hard for a
man to become a Philosopher; and yet that knowledge is very far from
being sufficient to make him One.
But (sayes _Carneades_, resuming a more serious Look) to consider a
little more particularly what you alledg in favour of the Chymical
Doctrine of the _Tria Prima_, though I shall readily acknowledge it
not to be unuseful, and that the Divisers [Errata: devisers] and
Embracers of it have done the Common-Wealth of Learning some service,
by helping to destroy that excessive esteem, or rather veneration,
wherewith the Doctrine of the four Elements was almost as generally as
undeservedly entertain'd; yet what has been alledg'd concerning the
usefulness of the _Tria Prima_, seems to me liable to no contemptible
Difficulties.
And first, as for the very way of Probation, which the more Learned
and more Sober Champions of the Chymical cause employ to evince the
Chymical Principles in Mixt Bodies, it seems to me to be farr enough
from being convincing. This grand and leading Argument, your
_Sennertus_ Himself, who layes Great weight upon it, and tells us,
that the most Learned Philosophers employ this way of Reasoning to
prove the most important things, proposes thus: _Ubicunque_ (sayes he)
_pluribus eaedem affectiones & qualitates insunt, per commune quoddam
Principium insint necesse est, sicut omnia sunt Gravia propter terram,
calida propter Ignem. At Colores, Odores, Sapores, esse_ [Greek:
phlogiston] _& similia alia, mineralibus, Metallis, Gemmis, Lapidibus,
Plantis, Animalibus insunt. Ergo per commune aliquod principium, &
subiectum, insunt. At tale principium non sunt Elementa. Nullam enim
habent ad tales qualitates producendas potentiam. Ergo alia principia,
unde fluant, inquirenda sunt._