do it otherwise) not only why I Conceive that Colours, Odors, Tasts,
Fluidness and Solidity, and those other qualities that Diversifie and
Denominate Bodies may Intelligibly be Deduced from these three; _but
how two of the Three_ Epicurean Principles (which, I need not tell,
you [Transcriber's Note: tell you,] are Magnitude, Figure and Weight)
are Themselves Deducible from Matter and Motion; since the Latter of
these Variously Agitating, and, as it were, Distracting the Former,
must needs disjoyne its parts; which being Actually separated must
Each of them necessarily both be of some Size, and obtain some shape
or other. Nor did I add to our Principles the _Aristotelean
Privation_, partly for other Reasons, which I must not now stay to
insist on; and partly because it seems to be rather an Antecedent, or
a _Terminus a quo_, then a True Principle, as the starting-Post is
none of the Horses Legs or Limbs.
I should also explain why and how I made rest [Errata: Rest] to be,
though not so considerable a Principle of things, as Motion, yet a
Principle of them; partly because it is (for ought we know [Errata:
know)] as Ancient at least as it, and depends not upon Motion, nor any
other quality of matter; and partly, because it may enable the Body in
which it happens to be, both to continue in a State of Rest till some
external force put it out of that state, and to concur to the
production of divers Changes in the bodies that hit against it, by
either quite stopping or lessning their Motion (whilst the body
formerly at Rest Receives all or part of it into it self) or else by
giving a new Byass, or some other Modification, to Motion, that is, To
the Grand and Primary instrument whereby Nature produces all the
Changes and other Qualities that are to be met with in the World.
I should likewise, after all this, explain to you how, although
Matter, Motion and Rest, seem'd to me to be the Catholick Principles
of the Universe, I thought the Principles of Particular bodies might
be Commodiously enough reduc'd to two, namely _Matter_, and (what
Comprehends the two other, and their effects) the result or Aggregate
[Errata: Aggregate or complex] of those Accidents, which are the
Motion or Rest, (for in some Bodies both are not to be found) the
Bigness, Figure, Texture) [Errata: delete )] and the thence resulting
Qualities of the small parts) [Errata: delete )] which are necessary
to intitle the Body whereto they belong to this or that Peculiar
Denomination; and discriminating it from others to appropriate it to a
Determinate Kind of Things, as [Errata: (as] Yellowness, Fixtness,
such a Degree of Weight, and of Ductility, do make the Portion of
matter wherein they Concur, to be reckon'd among perfect metals, and
obtain the name of Gold.) Which [Errata: This] Aggregate or result of
Accidents you may, if You please, call either _Structure_ or Texture.
[Errata: no paragraph break] Though [Errata: (Though] indeed, that do
not so properly Comprehend the motion of the constituent parts
especially in case some of them be Fluid [Errata: Fluid)], or what
other appellation shall appear most Expressive. Or if, retaining the
Vulgar Terme, You will call it the _Forme_ of the thing it
denominates, I shall not much oppose it; Provided the word be
interpreted to mean but what I have express'd, and not a Scholastick
_Substantial Forme_, which so many intelligent men profess to be to
them altogether Un-intelligible.
But, sayes _Carneades_, if you remember that 'tis a Sceptick speaks to
you, and that 'tis not so much my present Talk to make assertions as
to suggest doubts, I hope you will look upon what I have propos'd,
rather as a Narrative of my former conjectures touching the principles
of things, then as a Resolute Declaration of my present opinions of
them; especially since although they cannot but appear Very much to
their Disadvantage, If you Consider Them as they are propos'd without
those Reasons and Explanations by which I could perhaps make them
appear much lesse extravagant; yet I want time to offer you what may
be alledg'd to clear and countenance these notions; my design in
mentioning them unto you at present being, _partly_, to bring some
Light and Confirmation to divers passages of my discourse to you;
_partly_ to shew you, that I do not (as you seem to have suspected)
embrace all _Epicurus_ his principles; but Dissent from him in some
main things, as well as from _Aristotle_ and the Chymists, in others;
& _partly_ also, or rather chiefly, to intimate to you the grounds
upon which I likewise differ from _Helmont_ in this, that whereas he
ascribes almost all things, and even diseases themselves, to their
determinate Seeds; I am of opinion, that besides the peculiar
Fabricks of the Bodies of Plants and Animals (and perhaps also of some
Metals and Minerals) which I take to be the Effects of seminal
principles, there are many other bodies in nature which have and
deserve distinct and Proper names, but yet do but result from such
contextures of the matter they are made of, as may without determinate
seeds be effected by heat, cold, artificial mixtures and compositions,
and divers other causes which sometimes nature imployes of her own
accord; and oftentimes man by his power and skill makes use of to
fashion the matter according to his Intentions. This may be
exemplified both in the productions of Nature, and in those of Art; of
the first sort I might name multitudes; but to shew how sleight a
variation of Textures without addition of new ingredients may procure
a parcel of matter divers names, and make it be Lookt upon as
Different Things;
I shall invite you to observe with me, That Clouds, Rain, Hail, Snow,
Froth, and Ice, may be but water, having its parts varyed as to their
size and distance in respect of each other, and as to motion and
rest. And among Artificial Productions we may take notice (to skip the
Crystals of Tartar) of Glass, Regulus, Martis-Stellatus [Errata:
Regulus Martis Stellatus], and particularly of the Sugar of Lead,
which though made of that insipid Metal and sour salt of Vinager, has
in it a sweetnesse surpassing that of common Sugar, and divers other
qualities, which being not to be found in either of its two
ingredients, must be confess'd to belong to the Concrete it self, upon
the account of its Texture.
This Consideration premis'd, it will be, I hope, the more easie to
perswade you that the Fire may as well produce some new textures in a
parcel of matter, as destroy the old.
Wherefore hoping that you have not forgot the Arguments formerly
imploy'd against the Doctrine of the _Tria prima_; namely that the
Salt, Sulphur and Mercury, into which the Fire seems to resolve
Vegetable and Animal Bodies, are yet compounded, not simple and
Elementary Substances; And that (as appeared by the Experiment of
Pompions) the _Tria prima_ may be made out of Water; hoping I say,
that you remember These and the other Things that I formerly
represented to the same purpose, I shall now add only, that if we
doubt not the Truth of some of _Helmonts_ Relation [Errata:
Relations], We may well doubt whether any of these Heterogeneities be
(I say not pre-existent, so as to convene together, when a plant or
Animal is to be constituted but) so much as in-existent in the
Concrete whence they are obtain'd, when the Chymists [Errata: Chymist]
first goes about to resolve it; For not to insist upon the
un-inflamable Spirit of such Concretes, because that may be pretended
to be but a mixture of Phlegme and Salt; the Oyle or Sulphur of
Vegetables or Animals is, according to him, reducible by the help of
Lixiviate Salts into Sope; as that Sope is by the help of repeated
Distillations from a _Caput Mortuum_ of Chalk into insipid Water. And
as for the saline substance that seems separable from mixt bodies; the
same _Helmonts_ tryals[33] give us cause to think, That it may be a
production of the Fire, which by transporting and otherwise altering
the particles of the matter, does bring it to a Saline nature.
[Footnote 33: _Omne autem Alcali addita pinguedine in aqueum liquorem,
qui tandem mera & simplex aqua fit, reducitur, (ut videre est in
Sapone, Lazurio lapide, &c.) quoties per adjuncta fixa semen
Pinguedinis deponit._ Helmont.]
For I know (sayes he, in the place formerly alledg'd to another
purpose) a way to reduce all stones into a meer Salt of equal weight
with the stone whence it was produc'd, and that without any of the
least either Sulphur or Mercury; which asseveration of my Author would
perhaps seem less incredible to You, if I durst acquaint You with all
I could say upon that subject. And hence by the way you may also
conclude that the Sulphur and Mercury, as they call them, that
Chymists are wont to obtain from compound Bodies by the Fire, may
possibly in many Cases be the productions of it; since if the same
bodies had been wrought upon by the Agents employ'd by _Helmont_, they
would have yielded neither Sulphur nor Mercury; and those portions of
them which the Fire would have presented Us in the forme of
Sulphureous and Mercurial Bodies would have, by _Helmonts_ method,
been exhibited to us in the form of Salt.
But though (sayes _Eleutherius_) You have alledg'd very plausible
Arguments against the _tria Prima_, yet I see not how it will be
possible for you to avoid acknowledging that Earth and Water are
Elementary Ingredients, though not of Mineral Concretes, yet of all
Animal and Vegetable Bodies; Since if any of these of what sort soever
be committed to Distillation, there is regularly and constantly
separated from it a phlegme or aqueous part and a _Caput Mortuum_ or
Earth.
I readily acknowledged (answers _Carneades_) it is not so easy to
reject Water and Earth (and especially the former) as 'tis to reject
the _Tria Prima_, from being the Elements of mixt Bodies; but 'tis not
every difficult thing that is impossible.
I consider then, as to Water, that the chief Qualities which make men
give that name to any visible Substance, are, that it is Fluid or
Liquid, and that it is insipid and inodorous. Now as for the tast of
these qualities, I think you have never seen any of those separated
substances that the Chymists call Phlegme which was perfectly devoyd
both of Tast and Smell: and if you object, that yet it may be
reasonably suppos'd, that since the whole Body is Liquid, the mass is
nothing but Elementary Water faintly imbu'd with some of the Saline or
Sulphureous parts of the same Concrete, which it retain'd with it
upon its Separation from the Other Ingredients. To this I answer, That
this Objection would not appear so stong [Transcriber's Note: strong]
as it is plausible, if Chymists understood the Nature of Fluidity and
Compactnesse; and that, as I formerly observ'd, to a Bodies being
Fluid there is nothing necessary, but that it be divided into parts
small enough; and that these parts be put into such a motion among
themselves as to glide some this way and some that way, along each
others Surfaces. So that, although a Concrete were never so dry, and
had not any Water or other Liquor in-existent in it, yet such a
Comminution of its parts may be made, by the fire or other Agents, as
to turn a great portion of them into Liquor. Of this Truth I will give
an instance, employ'd by our friend here present as one of the most
conducive of his experiments to Illustrate the nature of Salts. If you
Take, then, sea salt and melt it in the Fire to free it from the
aqueous parts, and afterward distill it with a vehement Fire from
burnt Clay, or any other, as dry a _Caput mortuum_ as you please, you
will, as Chymists confess, [Errata: confesse (delete comma)] by
teaching it drive over a good part of the Salt in the form of a
Liquor. And to satisfy some ingenious men, That a great part of this
Liquor was still true sea salt brought by the Operation of the Fire
into Corpuscles so small, and perhaps so advantageously shap'd, as to
be capable of the forme of a Fluid Body, He did in my presence poure
to such spiritual salts a due proportion of the spirit (or salt and
Phlegme) of Urine, whereby having evaporated the superfluous moisture,
he soon obtain'd such another Concrete, both as to tast and smell, and
easie sublimableness as common Salt _Armoniack_, which you know is
made up of grosse and undistill'd sea salt united with the salts of
Urine and of Soot, which two are very neer of kin to each other. And
further, to manifest that the Corpuscles of sea salt and the Saline
ones of Urine retain their several Natures in this Concrete, He mixt
it with a convenient quantity of Salt of Tartar, and committing it to
Distillation soon regain'd his spirit of Urine in a liquid form by its
self, the Sea salt staying behind with the Salt of Tartar. Wherefore
it is very possible that dry Bodies may by the Fire be reduc'd to
Liquors without any separation of Elements, but barely by a certain
kind of Dissipation and Comminution of the matter, whereby its parts
are brought into a new state. And if it be still objected, that the
Phlegme of mixt Bodies must be reputed water, because so weak a tast
needs but a very small proportion of Salt to impart it; It may be
reply'd, that for ought appears, common Salt and divers other bodies,
though they be distill'd never so dry, and in never so close Vessels,
will yield each of them pretty store of a Liquor, wherein though (as I
lately noted) Saline Corpuscles abound, Yet there is besides a large
proportion of Phlegme, as may easily be discovered by coagulating the
Saline Corpuscles with any convenient Body; as I lately told you, our
Friend coagulated part of the Spirit of Salt with Spirit of Urine: and
as I have divers times separated a salt from Oyle of Vitriol it self
(though a very ponderous Liquor and drawn from a saline body) by
boyling it with a just quantity of Mercury, and then washing the newly
coagulated salt from the Precipitate with fair Water. Now to what can
we more probably ascribe this plenty of aqueous Substance afforded us
by the Distillation of such bodies, than unto this, That among the
various operations of the Fire upon the matter of a Concrete, divers
particles of that matter are reduc'd to such a shape and bignesse as
is requisite to compose such a Liquor as Chymists are wont to call
Phlegme or Water. How I conjecture this change may be effected, 'tis
neither necessary for me to tell you, nor possible to do so without a
much longer discourse then were now seasonable. But I desire you would
with me reflect upon what I formerly told you concerning the change of
Quicksilver into Water; For that Water having but a very faint tast,
if any whit more than divers of those liquors that Chymists referr to
Phlegme; By that experiment it seems evident, that even a metalline
body, and therefore much more such as are but Vegetable or Animal, may
by a simple operation of the Fire be turn'd in great part into Water.
And since those I dispute with are not yet able out of Gold, or
Silver, or divers other Concretes to separate any thing like Water; I
hope I may be allow'd to conclude against Them, that water it self is
not an Universal and pre-existent Ingredient of Mixt Bodies.
But as for those Chymists that, Supposing with me the Truth of what
_Helmont_ relates of the _Alkahest's_ wonderful Effects, have a right
to press me with his Authority concerning them, and to alledge that he
could Transmute all reputedly mixt Bodies into insipid and meer Water;
To those I shall represent, That though his Affirmations conclude
strongly against the Vulgar Chymists (against whom I have not
therefore scrupl'd to Employ Them) since they Evince that the Commonly
reputed Principles or Ingredients of Things are not Permanent and
indestructible, since they may be further reduc'd into Insipid Phlegme
differing from them all; Yet till we can be allow'd to examine this
Liquor, I think it not unreasonable to doubt whether it be not
something else then meer Water. For I find not any other reason given
by _Helmont_ of his Pronouncing it so, then that it is insipid. Now
Sapour being an Accident or an Affection of matter that relates to our
Tongue, Palate, and other Organs of Tast, it may very possibly be,
that the small Parts of a Body may be of such a Size and Shape, as
either by their extream Littleness, or by their slenderness, or by
their Figure, to be unable to pierce into and make a perceptible
Impression upon the Nerves or Membranous parts of the Organs of Tast,
and what [Errata: yet] may be fit to work otherwise upon divers other
Bodies than meer Water can, and consequently to Disclose it self to be
of a Nature farr enough from Elementary. In Silke dyed Red or of any
other Colour, whilst many Contiguous Threads makes up a skein, the
Colour of the Silke is conspicuous; but if only a very few of them be
lookt upon, the Colour will appear much fainter then before. But if
You take out one simple Thread, you shall not easily be able to
discern any Colour at all; So subtile an Object having not the Force
to make upon the Optick Nerve an Impression great enough to be taken
Notice of. It is also observ'd, that the best sort of Oyl-Olive is
almost tastless, and yet I need not tell you how exceedingly distant
in Nature Oyle is from Water. The Liquor into which I told you, upon
the Relation of _Lully_, and [Errata: an] Eye-witness that Mercury
might be Transmuted, has sometimes but a very Languid, if any Tast,
and yet its Operations even upon some Mineral Bodies are very
peculiar. Quicksilver it self also, though the Corpuscles it consists
of be so very small as to get into the Pores of that Closest and
compactest of Bodies, Gold, is yet (you know) altogether Tastless. And
our _Helmont_ several times tells us, that fair Water wherein a little
Quantity f [Errata: of] Quicksilver has lain for some time, though it
acquire no certain Tast or other sensible Quality from the
Quicksilver; Yet it has a power to destroy wormes in humane Bodies;
which he does much, but not causelessly extoll. And I remember, a
great Lady, that had been Eminent for her Beauty in Divers Courts,
confess'd to me, that this insipid Liquor was of all innocent washes
for the Face the best that she ever met with.
And here let me conclude my Discourse, concerning such waters or
Liquors as I have hitherto been examining, with these two
Considerations. Whereof the first is, That by reason of our being wont
to drink nothing but Wine, Bear, Cyder, or other strongly tasted
Liquors, there may be in several of these Liquors, that are wont to
pass for insipid Phlegme, very peculiar and Distinct, Tasts [Errata:
distinct Tasts] though unheeded (and perhaps not to be perceiv'd) by
Us. For to omit what Naturalists affirm of Apes, (and which probably
may be true of divers other Animals) that they have a more exquisite
palate than Men: among Men themselves, those that are wont to drink
nothing but water may (as I have try'd in my self) Discern very
sensibly a great Difference of Tasts in several waters, which one
un-accustomed to drink water would take to be all alike insipid. And
this is the _first_ of my two Considerations; the _Other_ is, That it
is not impossible that the Corpuscles into which a body is dissipated
by the Fire may by the Operation of the same fire have their figures
so altered, or may be by associations with one another brought into
little Masses of such a Size and Shape, as not to be fit to make
sensible Impressions on the Tongue. And that you may not think such
alterations impossible, be pleased to consider with me, that not only
the sharpest Spirit of Vinager having dissolved as much Corall as it
can, will Coagulate with it into a Substance, which though soluble in
water, like salt, is incomparably less strongly Tasted then the
Vinager was before; but (what is more considerable) though the Acid
salts that are carried up with Quicksilver in the preparation of
common sublimate are so sharp, that being moistened with water it will
Corrode some of the Metals themselves; yet this Corrosive Sublimate
being twice or thrice re-sublim'd with a full proportion of insipid
Quicksilver, Constitutes (as you know) that Factitious Concrete, which
the Chymists call _Mercurius dulcis_; not because it is sweet, but
because the sharpness of the Corrosive Salts is so taken away by their
Combination with the Mercurial Corpuscles, that the whole mixture when
it is prepar'd is judg'd to be insipid.
And thus (continues _Carneades_) having given you some Reasons why I
refuse to admit Elementary water for a constant Ingredient of Mixt
Bodies, It will be easie for me to give you an Account why I also
reject Earth.
For first, it may well be suspected that many Substances pass among
Chymists under the name of Earth, because, like it, they are Dry, and
Heavy, and Fixt, which yet are very farr from an Elementary Nature.
This you will not think improbable, If you recall to mind what I
formerly told you concerning what Chymists call the Dead Earth of
things, and especially touching the copper to be drawn from the _Caput
Mortuum_ of Vitriol; And if also you allow me to subjoyn a casual but
memorable Experiment made by _Johannes Agricola_ upon the _Terra
Damnata_ of Brimstone. Our Author then tells us (in his notes upon
_Popius_ [Transcriber's Note: Poppius],) that in the year 1621 he made
an Oyle of Sulphur; the remaining _Faeces_ he reverberated in a
moderate Fire fourteen dayes; afterwards he put them well luted up in
a Wind Oven, and gave them a strong Fire for six hours, purposing to
calcine the _Faeces_ to a perfect Whiteness, that he might make
someting [Transcriber's Note: something] else out of them. But coming
to break the pot, he found above but very little _Faeces_, and those
Grey and not White; but beneath there lay a fine Red _Regulus_ which
he first marvell'd at and knew not what to make of, being well assured
that not the least thing, besides the _Faeces_ of the Sulphur, came
into the pot; and that the Sulphur it self had only been dissolv'd in
Linseed Oyle; this _Regulus_ he found heavy and malleable almost as
Lead; having caus'd a Goldsmith to draw him a Wire of it, he found it
to be of the Fairest copper, and so rightly colour'd, that a Jew of
_Prague_ offer'd him a great price for it. And of this Metal he sayes
he had 12 _loth_ (or six ounces) out of one pound of Ashes or _Faeces_.
And this Story may well incline us to suspect that since the _Caput
Mortuum_ of the Sulphur was kept so long in the fire before it was
found to be any thing else then a _Terra damnata_, there may be divers
other Residences of Bodies which are wont to pass only for the
Terrestrial _Faeces_ of things, and therefore to be thrown away as soon
as the Distillation or Calcination of the Body that yielded them is
ended; which yet if they were long and Skilfully examin'd by the fire
would appear to be differing from Elementary Earth. And I have taken
notice of the unwarrantable forwardness of common Chymists to
pronounce things useless _Faeces_, by observing how often they reject
the _Caput Mortuum_ of Verdegrease; which is yet so farr from
deserving that Name, that not only by strong fires and convenient
Additaments it may in some hours be reduc'd into copper, but with a
certain Flux Powder I sometimes make for Recreation, I have in two or
three minutes obtain'd that Metal from it. To which I may add, that
having for tryall sake kept Venetian Taclk [Errata: Talck] in no less
a heat than that of a glass Furnace, I found after all the Brunt of
the fire it had indur'd, the remaining Body though brittle and
discolour'd, had not lost very much of its former Bulke, and seem'd
still to be nearer of kin to Talck than to meer Earth. And I remember
too, that a candid Mineralist, famous for his Skill in trying of Oars,
requesting me one day to procure him a certain _American_ Mineral
Earth of a _Virtuoso_, who he thought would not refuse me; I enquir'd
of him why he seem'd so greedy of it: he confess'd to me that this
Gentleman having brought that Earth to the publick Say-Masters; and
they upon their being unable by any means to bring it to fusion or
make it fly away, he (the Relator) had procur'd a little of it; and
having try'd it with a peculiar Flux separated from it neer a third
part of pure Gold; so great mistakes may be committed in hastily
concluding things to be Uselesse Earth.
Next, it may be suppos'd, That as in the Resolution of Bodies by the
Fire some of the dissipated Parts may, by their various occursion
occasion'd by the heat, be brought to stick together so closely as to
constitute Corpuscles too heavy for the Fire to carry away; the
aggregate of which Corpuscles is wont to be call'd Ashes or Earrh
[Errata: Earth]; So other Agents may resolve the Concrete into Minute
Parts, after so differing a manner as not to produce any _Caput
mortuum_, or dry and heavy Body. As you may remember _Helmont_ above
inform'd us, that with his great Dissolvent he divided a Coal into two
liquid and volatile Bodies, aequiponderant to the Coal, without any dry
or fixt Residence at all.