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 THE SCEPTICAL CHYMIST 
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SCEPTICAL 
 CHYMIST^X- 
 BY THE HON. 
 ROBERT 
 BOYLE3 
 
 LONDON: PUBLISHED 
 byJ-M-DENT &-SONS-EP 
 AND IN NEW YORK 
 BY E-P- DUTTON^JCO 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Sceptical Chymist deals with the experimental evidence, 
 and the reasoning based thereon, adduced by the " hermetick 
 philosophers " that is, the followers of the Aristotelian 
 doctrine to prove that all " mixt bodies " are compounded 
 of four elements earth, air, fire, and water; and with the 
 experiments and reasoning whereto the " vulgar spagyrists " 
 of more than two centuries ago that is, those who analyse 
 and synthesise material things appealed for proof of their 
 assertion that the principles of things are three in number, 
 and are salt, sulphur, and mercury. 
 
 On the face of it, no great interest seems to belong now to 
 a discussion about the four elements and the three principles, 
 conducted at a time when physical science had not taken 
 definite form, when men's ideas about the changes of material 
 things were vague and inchoate, when exact methods of 
 investigating these changes were unknown, when moral 
 qualities were attributed to inanimate objects, and the 
 examination of natural events was regarded as a part of 
 " contemplative philosophy " rather than a branch of experi- 
 mental inquiry. But, let the questions discussed by Boyle 
 in The Sceptical Chymist be stated in then* most general form, 
 the importance and interest of them are seen to be great 
 and universal \ It is impossible to look around without 
 noticing that most things are constantly changing. If spring 
 is changing into summer as it is changing now scarce a 
 moment passes unmarked by the coming of a deeper green; 
 the laburnum, whose depending flowers were yesterday tipped 
 with yellow, to-day delights the eye with a feast of colour; 
 the apple blossom is fading and the fruit is setting; the 
 meadows which a week ago were arrayed in the gorgeous 
 yellow robes of king cups are now showing a more sober 
 greenness; a morning visit to the garden reveals tenderly 
 coloured shoots that were not visible yesterday; the orange- 
 yellow of the gorse is duller than it was a week ago, and gives 
 place to the purer colour of the broom. 
 
 vii 
 
 909 
 
viii The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 One must ask many questions. How are these never- 
 ending changes effected? Can we, by seeking, discover a 
 limit to the changes of matter ? Can we discover the order 
 and the method of the myriad metamorphoses that delight 
 us? How shall we attain to some definite knowledge of 
 nature's transmutations ? Shall we look inwards, and, con- 
 structing a universe of our own, project that on to external 
 nature; or shall we, as far as we can, put away all precon- 
 ceived opinions, and painfully investigate objective facts, 
 undeterred by the reproach that we are banishing poetry 
 from nature, that we are dethroning divine reason, and taking 
 crude empiricism to be our guide? These questions, and 
 questions like these, have been asked by men during many 
 milleniums. The Sceptical Chymist deals with such questions, 
 and gives us deep-going objections to the answers given to 
 them by the intellectualists of the seventeenth century, and 
 the outlines of answers framed by a great scientific investi- 
 gator of nature. It is true that Boyle lived before the methods 
 of physical science had been classified and made incisive, 
 before great conceptions, at once rigid and flexible, had been 
 gained by students of natural science ; but it is also true that 
 Boyle was a man of genius. It is the special prerogative of 
 genius to go direct to the centre of things, to see what Clerk- 
 Maxwell when a boy used to call "the particular go " of a 
 thing, to seize the essential and let the unessentials pass. 
 Like every true genius, Boyle was in advance of his time. 
 The genius is not produced by the spirit of the age; it is the 
 spirit of the age which is produced by the genius. We may 
 greatly profit by the study of Boyle's book. 
 
 The Honourable Robert Boyle was born at Lismore, in 
 Ireland, in 1627. He was the seventh son of Richard Boyle, 
 created Earl of Cork by James I. because of his civil and 
 military services in Ireland, who was known in his own time 
 as "The Great Earl of Cork." Robert Boyle began his 
 education at Eton, where he went when he was eight years 
 old ; at the age of twelve he was sent to Geneva ; he remained 
 there for several years, under the care of a learned French 
 gentleman. He visited Italy, spent a couple of years in 
 France, and returned to settle on his estates at Stalbridge, 
 in Dorsetshire, in 1644. After some years Boyle moved to 
 
Introduction ix 
 
 Oxford, and, after some fourteen years' residence there, to 
 London. Boyle spent his life in the experimental study of 
 various branches of natural science, meditating and writing 
 on theological subjects he learned Greek and Hebrew that 
 he might read the Bible in the original languages and the 
 active exercise of a large and generous benevolence. He was 
 one of the founders, and afterwards for a time President, of 
 the Royal Society. He died in 1691, and was buried in West- 
 minster Abbey. Boyle published many works on scientific 
 subjects, both in English and Latin. A collected edition of 
 his scientific writings appeared in 1744, and another edition 
 in 1772. The subjects which chiefly attracted Boyle's atten- 
 tion, every one of which was greatly advanced and enriched 
 by his experimental labours and sound reasoning, were these ; 
 the pressure of air, the distribution of pressure in water / 
 and other liquids, the phenomena of fire and flame, colour, L 
 self-luminous substances, acids and alkalis, the qualities of 
 volatility and fixedness in bodies, and, more especially, all 
 questions connected with the composition and the qualities 
 of material things, and with the nature of those simpler 
 substances whereof " mixt bodies " are supposed to be com- 
 pounded. 
 
 The Sceptical Chymist was written when Boyle was about 
 thirty-five years of age. Latin editions appeared at Geneva 
 in 1677, and Rotterdam in 1679. The English edition was 
 published at Oxford. The copy I have consulted has the 
 date 1680 on the title page, and on the back of the page 
 these words 
 
 Mail 30. 1677. IMPRIMATUR. HEN. CLERKE 
 Vice-Cane. Oxon 
 
 In the Publisher's Advertisement to the Reader of Boyle's 
 Experiments and Notes about the Producibleness of Chymical 
 Principles, published at Oxford in 1680, it is stated that the 
 first English edition of The Sceptical Chymist appeared in 
 :66i. That date is confirmed by Boyle himself, in his Preface 
 to the aforesaid Experiments and Notes. In that Preface 
 Boyle says that an acquaintance of his had been told by a 
 traveller that he had seen nine several Latin impressions of 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 the book; "since when," Boyle adds, "another has been 
 brought me made at Geneva." 
 
 The Sceptical Chymist embodies the reasoned conceptions 
 which Boyle had gained from the experimental investigation 
 of many physical phenomena, and used as guides in the further 
 prosecution of his inquiries. The book is more than an elegant 
 and suggestive discourse on chemico-physical matters; it is 
 an elucidation of the true method of scientific inquiry, and a 
 powerful vindication of that method against the vain conceits 
 of mere intellectualists called by Boyle " hermetick philo- 
 sophers " who would make paramount the authority of 
 what they are pleased to call the divine reason, of themselves 
 or of others like them. The Sceptical Chymist upholds the 
 claim of scientific method to be also the true method of 
 philosophy. Not only because of the universality and im- 
 portance of the particular scientific questions wherewith it 
 is concerned, but also because of the human interests that 
 vitalise every attempt to determine the nature of truth, and 
 the ways of gaining truths, The Sceptical Chymist is a real, 
 living book for intelligent men and women to-day. 
 
 That we may understand the position taken by Boyle in 
 dealing with the composition and qualities of material things, 
 and the nature of the changes which these things exhibit, 
 we must glance at the condition of chemistry and physics in 
 the middle of the seventeenth cen,tj3gcj\ At that time the 
 , ^alchemical scheme of things dominated most of those who 
 K were inquiring into the transmutations of .^material sub- 
 stances. That scheme was based on a ma-gigal conception 
 of the world; that is, a conception of the world as the scene 
 of a drama, awful in its consequences but simple in its setting 
 and its unity, wherein man forms the central figure, which 
 can be understood by looking inwards at one's thoughts and 
 emotions, discovering in these a guide to the unity of external 
 nature the conception assumes the unity and simplicity of 
 nature and then forcing objective facts to take the form 
 that is required by the intellectually constructed theory. 
 When a magical theory of nature prevails, the impressions 
 which external events produce on the senses of observers are 
 corrected, not by careful reasoning and accurate experi- 
 mentation, but by inquiring whether they fit into the scheme 
 
Introduction xi 
 
 of things which has already been elaborated and accepted as 
 the truth. Natural events become as clay in the hands of 
 the intellectual potter, for whom " there is nothing good or 
 bad but thinking makes it so." The assurance that all is 
 simple, according to his conception of simplicity; the cer- 
 tainty that the manifoldness of nature forms a unity, accord- 
 ing to his notion of unity these lead him who starts with 
 them, as they led the alchemists, to deal with objective facts" 
 as to a great extent changeable at his pleasure, and so to the 
 negation of law and order in the universe, other than the > 
 law he has himself constructed, and the order he has spun 
 from his own brain. 
 
 He who accepts and realises the magical view of nature 
 attributes to material objects, qualities, emotions, and moral 
 tendencies, which are regarded by the scientific student of 
 nature as meaningless when dissociated from human beings. 
 An alchemical writer of the seventh century said: "Copper 
 is like a man ; it has a soul and a body . . . the soul is the 
 most subtile part. . . . The body is the ponderable, material, 
 terrestrial thing, endowed with a shadow. ... It is necessary 
 to deprive matter of its qualities in order to draw out its soul." 
 In conformity with their determination to make nature simple, 
 the older alchemists taught that all material things are built 
 on the foundation of some or all of four elements. When they 
 gave the names earth, air, fire, water, to their four elements, 
 they did not mean these four things as they appear to the 
 senses, but the soul, or subtile, imponderable, ethereal sub- 
 stratum of the gross earth, air, fire, and water. It is not 
 possible to attach any definite, clear meanings to alchemical 
 writings about the four elements. Their indefiniteness was 
 their strength. When a man's words mean anything, or 
 everything, or nothing, and neither he nor any hearer of them 
 knows exactly what they mean, they cover every possible 
 contingency, and are full of solace to himself and to many 
 others, because each hearer has his own particular way of 
 allowing the words to reverberate in his brain and stir his 
 emotions. As the plain man to-day is soothed and made 
 comfortable by the assurance that certain phrases to which 
 he attaches no definite meanings are really scientific, so 
 when Boyle lived the plain man rested happily in the belief 
 
xii The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 that the four elements were the last word of science regarding 
 the structure of the materials of the world. 
 
 When the alchemist was not in his workshop, hewas quite sure 
 that he understood all the secrets of nature. With a light heart 
 he " took upon him the mystery of things, as if he were God's 
 spy." When he went into his laboratory, he was confronted 
 by a thousand experimental difficulties, and found himself 
 almost at a standstill. Two courses were open to him. He 
 might give up his assured conviction that nature is simple, 
 and works as he determined she should work, and endeavour 
 to discover the real ways of nature's doings; or he might 
 retain his intellectual conviction, but express it in terms 
 which would cover his experimental data when they had 
 been subjected to a not too difficult process of manipulation. 
 He found it very hard to conduct transmutations in his 
 laboratory; it was much easier to transmute his facts so as 
 to bring them into harmony with his theory. Most of the 
 " hermetick philosophers " and " spagyrists " of Boyle's 
 tune we would call them physicists and chemists took the 
 second of these courses. Boyle followed the first course, and 
 besought others to follow it likewise. 
 
 The loose thinking of the " hermetick philosophers " 
 produced vague experimentation. They assumed, without 
 proof, that fire is " a great opener of bodies; " that is, they 
 supposed that the action of fire on a substance is to separate 
 or resolve it into simpler constituents. Hence, their com- 
 monest method of discovering the elements of a substance 
 was to heat it. The upholder of the Aristotelian doctrine in 
 The Sceptical Chymist thinks he has demonstrated the four 
 elements when he appeals to the burning of a piece of wood. 
 He says: " If you will but consider a piece of green wood 
 burning in a chimney, you will readily discern in the dis- 
 banded parts of it the four elements. . . . The fire discovers 
 itself in the flame by its own light ; the smoke by ascending 
 to the top of the chimney, and then readily vanishing into 
 air, like a river losing itself in the sea, sufficiently manifests 
 to what element it belongs and gladly returns. The water 
 in its own form boiling and hissing at the ends of the burning 
 wood betrays itself to more than one of our senses; and the 
 ashes by their weight, their fineness, and their dryness, put 
 
Introduction xiii 
 
 it past doubt that they belong to the element of earth." 
 The man who gives this description of the resolution of wood 
 into the four elements makes an apology to his hearers for 
 " building upon such an obvious and easy analysis; " but he 
 urges that "it is very agreeable to the goodness of nature, 
 to disclose even in some of the most obvious experiments 
 that men make, a truth so important and so requisite to be 
 taken notice of by them." 
 
 Boyle went to the root of the matter. He showed that 
 the assumption that fire always acts as an " opener of bodies " 
 was not in accordance with experimentally determined facts. 
 He asked what was meant by the simplification of material 
 substances. He demanded some workable criterion of simpli- 
 fication and complication. He refused to accept the untried, 
 superficial, uncriticised impressions of the senses. He said 
 that the conception expressed by the word element must be 
 made clearer; that before inquirers argued about the separa- 
 tion of a substance into its elements, they must attach definite, 
 and, above all, workable, meanings to their terms. I shall 
 indicate Boyle's conception of element after giving a short 
 account of the three principles of the " vulgar spagyrists." 
 
 Nearly a hundred years before Boyle was born, an extra- 
 ordinary genius appeared in Europe, known as Paracelsus, 
 a name given to him by Trimethius, Abbot of Spannheim, 
 his father in alchemy. Paracelsus was born near Zurich 
 about the year 1493. He studied medicine at Basle, wandered 
 over Europe and the nearer East, lectured in the University 
 of Ba,sle, from whence he was driven by the authorities 
 because of his turbulent spirit, and died about 1540 at 
 Salzburg, where he had found rest under the protection of 
 the Archbishop. 
 
 Paracelsus broke away from the teachers of authority. 
 He abused the medical men of his time for seeking their 
 knowledge from ancient books, and besought them and all 
 men to go to nature and learn wisdom there. He tried to 
 put his own doctrine into practice, to examine natural events 
 first, and to found his theories on the results of observation 
 and experiment. Paracelsus did his best. What he said of 
 those who endeavoured to follow the method of observation 
 and experiment war true of .himself. "They are not given 
 
xiv The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 to idleness, nor go in a proud habit, or plush and velvet 
 garments, . . . but diligently follow their labours, sweating 
 whole days and nights by their furnaces. . . . They put their 
 fingers among coals, into clay and filth, not into gold rings. 
 They are sooty and black, like smiths and miners, and do not 
 pride themselves upon clean and beautiful faces." 
 
 No wonder that the followers of the Aristotelian method 
 spoke of those who used experiments as their guide as " sooty 
 empiricks." But after a time Paracelsus found the task 
 too hard. 
 
 " The lyffe so short ; the craft so long to lerne ; 
 Th' assay so harde, so sharp the conquering." 
 
 He had no accurate instruments, no definite hypothesis to 
 guide him, no tangible clue to the manifold and seemingly 
 contradictory results of his experiments. He fell into the 
 
 v old error; he looked inwards for all knowledge. Leaving 
 the tremendous undertaking of trying to find what the uni- 
 verse really is, he set his intellect to the easy business of 
 creating his own world, and soothed but deadened his emotions 
 by looking on the world he had himself created and finding 
 it very good. Nevertheless, Paracelsus gave a great impetus 
 in the right direction to those who seek the truths of nature. 
 The alchemical writings of his successors abound in passages 
 like that wherein the author of The Only Way (1677) beseeches 
 his readers " to enlist under the standard of that method 
 which proceeds in strict obedience to the teaching of nature 
 ... in short, the method which nature herself pursues in 
 the bowels of the earth." 
 
 The alchemists who worked much in laboratories found 
 three substances of great use to them in their experiments 
 salt, sulphur, and mercury. Gradually they came to look 
 on these as the simpler things by the admixture whereof 
 many more complex things are formed. But, saturated as 
 these men were with semi-magical ways of looking at nature, 
 they were forced to think of these three substances as owing 
 their efficacy in bringing about material changes to an inner, 
 hidden soul or essence in each. They began to distinguish 
 
 / between ordinary, tangible salt, sulphur, and mercury, and 
 the efficacious essences of them. As they could not say what 
 
Introduction xv 
 
 they meant by the essence or soul of a thing, they continued 
 to uselfte ordinary terms, but to attach unutterable meanings 
 to the words salt, sulphur, mercury, (They seemed to think 
 that the difficulty was overcome by calling salt, sulphur, and 
 mercury The Three Principles there always has been an 
 extraordinarily soothing power in large words spelt with 
 capital letters. And so the mark of the newer school, the 
 school of Paracelsus, as opposed to the older " hermetick 
 philosophers," came to be that the former asserted that 
 mixed bodies are formed by the compounding of the three 
 Principles, while the latter remained true to the four Elements. 
 
 Boyle found the same fault with the Principles of the 
 " vulgar spagyrists " as he found with the Elements of the 
 " hermetick philosophers." " Tell me what you mean by your 
 Principles and your Elements," he cried; " then I can discuss 
 them with you as working instruments for advancing know- 
 ledge." In The Sceptical Chymist, Boyle pleads for lucidity 
 of expression, for the destruction of the tyranny of phrases, 
 for clearing the mind of vague theories which rest on no basis 
 of sound, tested, experimental results. " I have long ob- 
 served," he says, " that those dialectical subtleties, that the 
 schoolmen too often employ about physiological " we would 
 say physical " mysteries, are wont much more to declare 
 the wit of him that uses them, than increase the knowledge 
 or remove the doubts of sober lovers of truth. And such 
 captious subtleties do indeed often puzzle and sometimes 
 silence men, but rarely satisfy them." He accuses the Chy- 
 mists of his day of " playing with names at pleasure." He 
 says that they " write darkly, not because they think their 
 notions too precious to be explained, but because they fear 
 that if they were explained, men would discern that they are 
 far from being precious." " They could scarce keep them- 
 selves from being confuted," he exclaims, " but by keeping 
 themselves from being clearly understood." He will give 
 no thanks to him who " darkens what he should clear up, 
 and makes me add the trouble of guessing at the sense of 
 what he equivocally expresses, to that of examining the tru 
 of what he seems to deliver." 
 
 The Sceptical Chymist is written in the form of a dialogue, 
 chiefly between Themistius, who upholds the doctrines of the 
 
xvi The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 " hermetick philosophers," and Carneades, who expresses 
 the opinions and urges the arguments of Boyle. Themistius 
 would fain base his arguments on the homogeneity and unity 
 of the whole Aristotelian teaching; he is anxious to show 
 that the existence of the four elements follows necessarily 
 from the doctrine of " the kinds of simple motion belonging 
 to simple bodies." He asserts that the upholders of the four 
 elements " value reason so highly, and are furnished with 
 arguments enough drawn from thence, to be satisfied that 
 there rmist be four elements, though no man had ever yet 
 made any sensible trial to discover their number." He is 
 very averse to descend to experimental evidence. " It is 
 much more high and philosophical to discover things a priori 
 than a posteriori. And therefore the Peripateticks have not 
 been very solicitous to gather experiments to prove their 
 doctrines, contenting themselves with a few only, to satisfy 
 those that are not capable of a nobler conviction. And indeed 
 they employ experiments rather to illustrate than to demon- 
 strate their doctrines." 
 
 Carneades (that is, Boyle) insists on dragging the philosopher 
 back to facts and reasoned hypotheses. He proclaims that 
 careful verification of facts must go before attempts to express 
 in general terms the features common to many facts. He 
 does not deny the usefulness of principles as means for bring- 
 ing into one point of view material changes which are really 
 similar; but he reiterates the assertion, based on experience, 
 that the similarities between certain natural events can be 
 grasped only by making many experiments, each of which 
 is suggested by the results of those which preceded it; that 
 to begin with grandiose phrases and make these take the 
 place of discreet, particular facts, is fatal to the progress of 
 genuine knowledge. Boyle knew that the high-sounding 
 phrases of the peripatetics and the spagyrists distorted then- 
 vision, and made them see in nature only what they wanted 
 to see. In one of his essays Boyle said 
 
 " I remember Mr. R., the justly famous maker of dioptical 
 glasses, for merriment telling one that came to look upon a 
 great tube of his of thirty foot long, that he saw through it 
 in a mill six miles off a great spider in the midst of her web; 
 the credulous man, though at first he said he discerned no 
 
Introduction xvii 
 
 such thing, at length confessed he saw it very plainly, and 
 wondered he had discovered her no sooner." 
 
 A method which began at the wrong end could not produce 
 results of any lasting value. Boyle certainly did not think 
 much of the results of the chemical inquiries of his contem- 
 poraries. 
 
 " Methinks the Chymists, in their searches after truth, are \ 
 not unlike the navigators of Solomon's Tarshish fleet, who I 
 brought home from their long and perilous voyages, not only 
 gold, and silver, and ivory, but apes and peacocks too: for / 
 so the writings of several (for I say not all) of your hermetick '^ 
 philosophers present us, together with diverse substantial 
 and noble experiments, theories, which either like peacock's 
 feathers make a great show, but are neither solid nor useful, 
 or else like apes, if they have some appearance of being 
 rational, are blemished with some absurdity or other, that, 
 when they are attentively considered, make them appear 
 ridiculous." 
 
 Boyle did not merely find fault with what he considered 
 the false methods of inquiry into nature's workings which 
 prevailed when he wrote; he did not merely lay down in 
 wide and loose statements what he considered to be the true 
 method; he took particular instances of definite statements, 
 discreet experiments, and stated clearly the meaning he 
 attached to these statements, and the method to be followed 
 hi these experiments. Take, for instance, what he says about 
 Elements and Principles 
 
 "I ... must not look upon any body as a true principle 
 or element, but as yet compounded, which is not perfectly 
 homogeneous, but is further resoluble into any number of 
 distinct substances, how small soever. ... I mean by 
 elements, as those Chymists that speak plainest do by their 
 principles, certain primitive and simple, or perfectly un- 
 mingled bodies; which not being made of any other bodies, 
 or of one another, are the ingredients of which all those 
 called perfectly mixt bodies are immediately compounded, 
 and into which they are ultimately resolved: now whether 
 there be any one such body to be constantly met with in all, 
 and each, of those that are said to be elemented bodies, is the 
 thing I now question." 
 
xviii The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 This is very clear. The only thing wanting is an experi- 
 mental method of determining whether a given substance is, 
 or is not, an element, in Boyle's meaning of the word element. 
 As concerns the uses to be made in science of the notion of 
 element or principle, Boyle said 
 
 "The main thing that has recommended the chymical 
 principles to more discerning men, seems to be, that by the 
 help of a few simple ingredients . . . associated in differing 
 proportions, all mixt bodies may be compounded; and so 
 men may acquaint themselves with the natures of a multi- 
 tude of bodies, by first knowing the natures but of a few. . . . 
 It is now tune to consider not of how many Elements it is 
 possible that nature may compound mixt bodies, but (at 
 least, as far as the ordinary experiments of Chymists will 
 inform us) of how many she doth make them up." 
 
 This is the true scientific method of gaining knowledge 
 that is lasting and always widening. Hypotheses are sug- 
 gested by facts that have been rigorously verified, although 
 not exhaustively examined; and these hypotheses are used 
 as instruments for expressing the relations of the facts to each 
 other, and for indicating lines of inquiry which are likely to 
 lead to the discovery of other related facts. Hypotheses 
 that do not work in this way are dropped, and others are 
 tried. By their fruits they are judged. Finally, many hypo- 
 theses are included in a theory which expresses the essential 
 features of all the hypotheses, correlates all the facts, and 
 " charms magic casements opening on the foam of perilous 
 seas," whereon he who shall boldly use the theory may voyage 
 to other " faery lands " that are not " forlorn." 
 
 Boyle was always seeking what he called " the true and 
 fundamental causes " of natural phenomena. He tells us 
 definitely what he understands by elements, and says that 
 " those Chymists that speak plainest " attach the same 
 meaning to both words, Element and Principle. Boyle 
 preferred the former word to the latter. He saw the dangers 
 that lurk in the use of the word Principle ; a word which 
 seems to imply, and was used to imply, the efficacious essence 
 of a thing, something different and apart from the group of 
 co-existent properties which affects the senses. Principle is a 
 term which, when used in the elucidation of the composition 
 
Introduction xix 
 
 of material things, almost necessarily carries with it the 
 theory of the existence of a substratum common to many 
 substances, and remaining unchanged in the passage from 
 one correlated group of properties to another. A study of 
 Boyle's writings shows that he was feeling his way towards 
 the scientific, the pragmatic conceptions that, in so far as 
 accurate knowledge goes, a material substance is a co-existent 
 group of properties, is one end of a chain which at its other 
 end we call sense-impressions, and that the notion of an 
 unchangeable substratum adds, and can add, nothing to our 
 knowledge of material things, but leads only to intellectual- 
 istic discussions which militate against the advance of scientific, 
 that is, accurate, imaginative knowledge. 
 
 The weak point in Boyle's argument is his failure to find 
 an experimental means of determining whether a specified 
 substance is or is not an element. He had not shaken him- 
 self quite free from the trammels of the hermetic, or, to use 
 a more modern term, the intellectualistic method of examining 
 nature. Until delicate instruments for determining changes 
 of weight had been perfected, the way was not made clear 
 for the use of the purely pragmatic conception of Element. 
 When, about a hundred years after the appearance of The 
 Sceptical Chymist, Lavoisier gave to chemists the description 
 of an element as a substance which has not been separated 
 into simpler substances, and added to this the practical test 
 of simplification, chemistry advanced by leaps and bounds. 
 Lavoisier's pragmatic descriptions of element and simplifica- 
 tion were these a material substance is to be classed as 
 elementary when from a determinate weight of it are ob- 
 tained other substances, the weight of each of which is less 
 than the weight of the original, and the sum of the weights 
 of which is equal to the weight of the original; and the 
 original weight of the first substance is formed by bringing 
 together, under proper conditions, the separate weights of 
 the other substances. 
 
 Boyle was seeking some property which remains unchanged 
 when others undergo modification, in order that he might 
 use that property as the mark of an element. In The Sceptical 
 Chymist he passes in review the properties used for this 
 purpose by his contemporaries, and rejects them all as un- 
 
xx The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 satisfactory, unreal, transient, indefinite. He suggests tests 
 of elenientariness, but is not satisfied with his own sugges- 
 tions. , He knew by experience the mirage-producing power 
 of phrases. He rejects with contumely what he calls " that 
 sanctuary of the ignorant, occult qualities; " and, therefore, 
 he did not fall into the deadening error of substituting a 
 mere word principle, essence, efficacious power, or the like 
 for the measurable property which he was seeking. Boyle 
 supposed that material things may, very probably, be com- 
 posed of many exceedingly minute particles. He called 
 " the bulk and figure of the smallest parts of bodies " the 
 " more catholic and fruitful accidents of the elementary 
 matter; " and supposed that from these " may spring a great 
 variety of textures, upon whose account a multitude of com- 
 pound bodies may very much differ from one another." He 
 often returns to the conception of minute particles in motion. 
 Sometimes he advances so near to modern scientific notions 
 as to suggest that matter and motion are the only essential, 
 " catholic " postulates, and that from these alone a working 
 plan of the material universe may be constructed. 
 
 Lavoisier found the test of elementariness after which 
 Boyle was seeking; Dalton began the teaching of how to 
 measure the relative weights of the minute particles of bodies ; 
 then matter and motion became indeed " the catholic and 
 fruitful accidents " in the hands of those who coming after 
 Boyle followed the path he had opened. 
 
 Although the details of many, perhaps most, of Boyle's 
 arguments against the four elements of the peripatetics, and 
 the three principles of the vulgar spagyrists, have not any 
 very great interest for modern physicists and chemists, never- 
 theless the acuteness of Boyle's reasoning must impress every 
 intelligent reader, the soundness of his philosophy must come 
 home to scientific students of nature, the wide and generous 
 views he takes of natural phenomena and of the scope of 
 natural science must encourage all who seek clear and imagin- 
 ative knowledge, and his constant striving after lucidity 
 both of thought andTUxBression, his justness of phrasing, 
 53 his humorous fairness to his opponents, must delight 
 every admirer of literary power. n| 
 
 The great importance of The Sceptical Chymist consists in 
 
Introduction xxi 
 
 Boyle's reiteration of proofs that nature is not simple, but 
 rather overpoweringly complex; of proofs that it is wise to / 
 doubt every short and easy road to natural truths; that it / 
 is vain and foolish to rest on suppositions because they are 
 said to " stand to reason," to adopt them as foundations 
 unless they are based on valid arguments and well-tested 
 observations; that it is a mark of inferior intelligence and 
 cramped imagination to be dazzled by strange experiments 
 or high-sounding phraseology; that, above all, "occult 
 qualities " are nothing but " the sanctuary of ignorance." 
 
 " What I have hitherto discoursed," Boyle says at the 
 beginning of Part III. of his book, " has, I presume, shown you, 
 that a considering man may very well question the truth of 
 those very suppositions which Chymists as well as Peripate- 
 ticks, without proving, take for granted; and upon which 
 depends the validity of the inferences they draw from their 
 experiments. ... It will now be seasonable for me to pro- 
 ceed 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 con- 
 fidence and ostentation, that they have hitherto imposed 
 upon almost all persons, without excepting philosophers and 
 physicians themselves, who have read their books, or heard 
 them talk. For some learned men have been rather content 
 to believe what they so boldly affirm, than be at the trouble 
 and charge, to try whether or no it be true. . . . The gener- 
 ality even of learned men, seeing the Chymists (not con- 
 tenting themselves with the schools to amuse the world with 
 empty words) actually perform diverse strange things . . . 
 are forward to think it but just as well as modest, that accord- 
 ing to the Logicians' rule, the skilful 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." 
 
 M. M. PATTISON MUIR. 
 
xxii The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Among his numerous works are: Essay on Seraphic Love, 1660; New 
 Experiments, Physico-Mechanical, touching the Spring of the Air and its 
 Effects, etc., 1660, and edition (with Defence against Linus}, 1662; 
 Certain Physiological Essays, 1661 ; The Sceptical Chymist, 1661 ; Some 
 Considerations touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philo- 
 sophy, 1663, 2nd part, 1671; Experiments and Considerations touching 
 Colours, 1663; Some Considerations touching the Style of the Holy 
 Scriptures, 1663; Occasional Reflections upon Several Subjects, 1664; 
 New Experiments and Observations touching Cold, or an Experimental 
 History of Cold, begun 1665 ; Origin of Forms and Qualities, 1666; Hydro- 
 statical Paradoxes, 1666; A Continuation of New Experiments, Physico- 
 Mechanical, touching the Spring and Weight of the Air and their Effects, 
 1669; Tracts about the Cosmical Qualities of Things, 1670; An Essay 
 about the Origin and Virtues of Gems, 1672; The Excellency of Theology 
 compared with Natural Philosophy, 1673; Some Considerations about the 
 Reconcilableness of Reason and Religion, 1675; On the Mechanical 
 Origin of Heat and Cold, 1675; Historical Account of a Degradation of 
 Gold, 1678; The Aerial Noctiluca, 1680; The Icy Noctiluca, 1682; Third 
 series of Experiments, Physico-Mechanical, touching the Spring and Weight 
 of the Air, 1682; Memoirs for the Natural History of the Human Blood, 
 1684; On the Porosity of Bodies, 1684; Of the High Veneration Man's 
 Intellect owes to God, 1685, with other treatises (Sacred Classics), 1685; 
 Of the Great Effects of Even, Languid, and Uneven Motion, 1685 ; A Free 
 Enquiry into the Vulgarly received Notion of Nature, 1686; The Martyr- 
 dom of Theodora, and of Didymus, 1687, 1703 ; A Disquisition Concerning 
 the Final Causes of Things, 1688; Medicina Hydrostatica, 1690; The 
 Christian Virtuoso, 1690; Experimenta et Observationes Physicae, part i., 
 1691. And posthumously published, The General History of the Air, 
 designed and begun 1692; General History of the Natural History Of a 
 Country (for travellers and navigators), 1692; Medicinal Experiments, 
 3 vols., 1692-4. 
 
 WORKS: Edited by T. Birch, with Life of Author, 5 vols., 1744: 6 ' 
 1772; An Epitome of his writings, 1699-1700; of his Theological 
 1715; of his Philosophical, 1725. 
 
 LIFE: Memoirs by Birch, in Works; R. B. Hone (Lives of Em 
 Christians), 1837; G. G. Perry, 1863. 
 

 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY PREFACE ........ 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS TOUCHING THE EXPERIMENTS 
 
 WONT TO BE EMPLOYED TO EVINCE EITHER THE FOUR PERI- 
 
 PATETICK ELEMENTS, OR THE THREE CHYMICAL PRINCIPLES 
 
 OF MIXT BODIES ........ n 
 
 THE FIRST PART ......... 29 
 
 THE SECOND PART ......... 63 
 
 fejE THIRD PART ......... 94 
 
 FOURTH PART 113 
 
 FIFTH PART ......... 154 
 
 SIXTH PART 186 
 
 ICLUSION .......... 226 
 

INTRODUCTORY PREFACE TO THE 
 FOLLOWING TREATISE 
 
 To give the reader an account, why the following treatise 
 is suffered to pass abroad so maimed and imperfect, I must 
 inform him that 'tis now long since, that to gratify an_ 
 ingenious gentleman, I set down some of the reasons that 
 kept me from fully acquiescing either in the peripatetical, 
 or in the chymical doctrine, of the material principles of 
 mixt bodies. This discourse some years after falling 
 into the hands of some learned men, had the good luck to 
 be so favourably received and advantagiously spoken of 
 by them, that having had more than ordinary invitations 
 given me to make it public, I thought fit to review it, 
 that I might retrench some things that seemed not so fit 
 to be shewn to every reader, and substitute some of those 
 other things that occurred to me of the trials and observa- 
 tions I had since made: What became of my papers, I 
 elsewhere mention in a Preface where I complain of it: 
 but since I writ that, I found many sheets that belonged 
 to the subjects I am now about to discourse of. Where- 
 fore seeing that I had then in my hands as much of the 
 first dialogue as was requisite to state the case, and serve 
 for an introduction as well to the conference betwixt 
 Carneades and Eleutherius, as to some other dialogues, 
 which for certain reasons are not herewith published, I 
 resolved to supply, as well as I could, the contents of a 
 paper belonging to the second of the following discourses, 
 which I could not possibly retrieve, though it were the chief 
 of them all. And having once more tried the opinion of 
 friends, but not the same, about this imperfect work, I 
 found it such, that I was content in compliance with their 
 desires, that not only it should be published, but that it 
 should be published as soon as conveniently might be. 
 I had indeed all along the dialogues spoken of myself as 
 
2 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 of a third person; for they containing discourses which 
 were among the first treatises that I ventured long ago 
 to write of matters philosophical, I had reason to desire, 
 with the painter, to latere pone tabulam, and hear what 
 men would say of them, before I owned myself to be their 
 author. But besides that now I find, 'tis not unknown to 
 many who it is that writ them, I am made to believe that 
 'tis not inexpedient they should be known to come from 
 a person altogether a stranger to chymical affairs. And 
 I made the less scruple to let them come abroad uncom- 
 pleated, partly because my affairs and pre-ingagements 
 to publish divers other treatises allowed me small hopes of 
 being able in a great while to complete those dialogues, 
 and partly because I am not unapt to think, that they may 
 come abroad seasonably enough, though not for the 
 author's reputation, yet for other purposes. For I observe, 
 that of late chymistry begins, as indeed it deserves, to be 
 cultivated by learned men who before despised it; and 
 to be pretended to by many who never cultivated it, that 
 they may be thought not to be ignorant of it : whence it is 
 come to pass, that divers chymical notions about matters 
 philosophical are taken for granted and employed, and 
 so adopted by very eminent writers both naturalists 
 and physicians. Now this I fear may prove somewhat 
 prejudicial to the advancement of solid philosophy: for 
 though I am a great lover of chymical experiments, and 
 though I have no mean esteem of divers chymical remedies, 
 yet I distinguish these from their notions about the causes 
 of things and their manner of generation. And for ought 
 I can hitherto discern, there are a thousand phenomena in 
 nature, besides a multitude of accidents relating to the 
 human body, which will scarcely be clearly and satis- 
 factorily made out by them that confine themselves to 
 deduce things from salt, sulphur, and mercury, and the 
 other notions peculiar to the chymists, without taking 
 much more notice than they are wont to do, of the motions 
 and figures, of the small parts of matter and the other 
 more catholic and fruitful affections of bodies. Where- 
 fore it will not perhaps be now unseasonable to let our 
 Carneades warne men, not to subscribe to the grand doctrine 
 
Introductory Preface 3 
 
 of the chymists touching their three hypostatical prin- 
 ciples, till they have a little examined it, and considered 
 how they can clear it from his objections, divers of 
 which 'tis like they may never have thought on; since 
 a chymist scarce would, and none but a chymist could 
 propose them. I hope also it will not be unaccept- 
 able to several ingenious persons, who are unwilling to 
 determine of any important controversie, without a 
 previous consideration of what may be said on both sides, 
 and yet have greater desires to understand chymical 
 matters than opportunities of learning them, to find here 
 together, besides several experiments of my own pur- 
 posely made to illustrate the doctrine of the elements, 
 divers others scarce to be met with, otherwise then 
 scattered among many chymical books: and to find 
 these associated experiments so delivered as that an 
 ordinary reader, if he be but acquainted with the usual 
 chymical termes, may easily enough understand them; 
 and even a wary one may safely rely on them. These 
 things I add, because a person anything versed in the 
 writings of chymists cannot but discern by their obscure, 
 ambiguous, and almost aenigmatical way of expressing 
 what they pretend to teach, that they have no mind to be 
 understood at all, but by the sons of Art (as they call them), 
 nor to be understood even by these without difficulty and 
 hazardous trials. Insomuch that some of them scarce 
 ever speak so candidly, as when they make use of that 
 known chymical sentence : Ubi palam locuti fumus, ibi 
 nihil diximus. And as the obscurity of what some writers 
 deliver makes it very difficult to be understood; so the 
 unfaithfulness of too many others makes it unfit to be 
 relied upon. For though unwillingly, yet I must for the 
 truth sake, and the reader's, warne him not to be forward 
 to believe chymical experiments when they are set down 
 only bv way of prescriptions, and not of relations; that is, 
 unless he that delivers them mentions his doing it upon 
 his own particular knowledge, or upon the relation of 
 some credible person, avowing it upon his own experi- 
 ence. For I am troubled, I must complain, that even 
 eminent writers, both physitians and philosophers, whom 
 
4 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 I can easily name, if it be required, have of late suffered 
 themselves to be so far imposed upon, as to publish and 
 build upon chymical experiments, which questionless they 
 never tried ; for if they had, they would, as well as I, have 
 found them not to be true. And indeed it were to be 
 wished, that now that those begin to quote chymical 
 experiments that are not themselves acquainted with 
 chymical operations, men would leave off that indefinite 
 way of vouching the chymists say this, or the chymists 
 affirm that, and would rather for each experiment they 
 alleged name the author or authors upon whose credit 
 they relate it; for, by this means they would secure 
 themselves from the suspicion of falsehood (to which 
 the other practice exposes them), and they would leave 
 the reader to judge of what is fit for him to believe of 
 what is delivered, whilst they employ not their own great 
 names to countenance doubtful relations; and they 
 will also do justice to the inventors or publishers of the 
 true experiments, as well as upon the obtruders of false 
 ones. Whereas by that general way of quoting the 
 chymists, the candid writer is defrauded of the particular 
 praise, and the impostor escapes the personal disgrace 
 that is due to him. 
 
 The remaining part of this Preface must be imployed 
 in saying something for Carneades, and something for 
 myself. 
 
 And first, Carneades hopes that he will be thought to 
 have disputed civilly and modestly enough for one that 
 was to play the antagonist and the sceptic. And if he 
 anywhere seem to slight his adversaries tenents and argu- 
 ments, he is willing to have it looked upon as what he was 
 induced to, not so much by his opinion of them, as the 
 examples of Themistius and Philoponus, and the custom 
 of such kind of disputes. 
 
 Next, in case that some of his arguments shall not be 
 thought of the most cogent sort that may be, he hopes it 
 will be considered that it ought not to be expected that 
 they should be so. For, his part being chiefly but to 
 propose doubts and scruples, he does enough, if he shews 
 that his adversaries arguments are not strongly concluding, 
 
Introductory Preface 5 
 
 though his own be not so neither. And if there should 
 appear any disagreement betwixt the things he delivers 
 in divers passages, he hopes it will be considered, that it 
 is not necessary that all the things a sceptic proposes 
 should be consonant; since it being his work to suggest 
 doubts against the opinion he questions, it is allowable 
 for him to propose two or more several hypotheses about 
 the same thing: and to say that it may be accounted for 
 this way, or that way, or the other way, though these 
 wayes be perhaps inconsistent among themselves. Because 
 it is enough for him, if either of the proposed hypotheses 
 be but as probable as that he calls in question. And if 
 he propose many that are each of them probable, he does 
 the more ratify his doubts, by making it appear the more 
 difficult to be sure, that that way which they all differ 
 from is the true. And our Carneades by holding the nega- 
 tive, has this advantage, that if among all the instances 
 he brings to invalidate the vulgar doctrine of those he 
 disputes with, any one be irrefragable, that alone is suffi- 
 cient to overthrow a doctrine which universally asserts 
 what he opposes. For, it cannot be true, that all bodies 
 whatsoever that are reckoned among the perfectly mixt 
 ones, are compounded of such a determinate number of 
 such or such ingredients, in case any one such body can be 
 produced that is not so compounded; and he hopes too, that 
 accurateness will be the less expected from him, because 
 his undertaking obliges him to maintain such opinions in 
 chymistry, and that chiefly by chymical arguments, as 
 are contrary to the very principles of the chymists, from 
 whose writings it is not therefore like he should receive 
 any intentional assistance, except from some passages of 
 the bold and ingenious Helmont, with whom he yet dis- 
 agrees in many things (which reduce him to explicate 
 divers chymical phsenomena, according to other notions): 
 and of whose ratiocinations, not only some seem very 
 extravagant, but even the rest are not wont to be as con- 
 siderable as his experiments. And though it be true 
 indeed, that some Aristotelians have occasionally written 
 against the chymical doctrine he oppugnes, yet since they 
 have done it according to their principles, and since our 
 
6 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 Carneades must as well oppose their hypothesis as that 
 , of the spagyrist, he was fain to fight his adversaries with 
 his own weapons, those of the peripatetic being improper 
 if not hurtful for a person of his tenets; besides that 
 those Aristotelians (at least those he met with), that have 
 written against the chymists, seem to have had so little 
 experimental knowledge in chymical matters, that by 
 their frequent mistakes and unskilful way of oppugning, 
 they have too often exposed themselves to the derision of 
 their adversaries, for writing so confidently against what 
 they appeare so little to understand. 
 
 And lastly, Carneades hopes he shall do the ingenious 
 this piece of service, that by having thus drawn the 
 chymists' doctrine out of their dark and smokie labora- 
 tories, and both brought it into the open light, and shewn 
 
 
 the weakness of their proofs, that have hitherto been wont 
 to be brought for it, either judicious men shall henceforth 
 be allowed calmly and after due information to disbelieve 
 it, or those abler chymists, that are zealous for the reputa- 
 tion of it, will be obliged to speak plainer than hitherto 
 has been done, and maintain it by better experiments and 
 arguments than those Carneades hath examined : so that 
 he hopes the curious will one way or other derive either 
 satisfaction or instruction from his endeavours. And as 
 he is ready to make good the profession he makes in the 
 close of his discourse, of being ready to be better informed, 
 so he expects either to be indeed informed, or to be let 
 alone. For though, if any truly knowing chymists shall 
 think fit in a civil and rational way to shew him any truth 
 touching the matter in dispute that he yet discernes not, 
 Carneades will not refuse either to admit, or to own a 
 conviction: yet if any impertinent person shall, either to 
 get himselfe a name, or for what other end soever, wilfully 
 or carelessly mistake the state of the controversie, or the 
 sense of his arguments, or shall rail instead of arguing, as 
 hath been done of late in print by divers chymists; or 
 lastly, shall write against them in a canting way, I mean 
 shall express himselfe in ambiguous or obscure termes, or 
 argue from experiments,, not intelligibly enough delivered, 
 Carneades professes that he values his time so much, as 
 
Introductory Preface 7 
 
 not to think the answering such trifles worth the loss 
 of it. 
 
 And now having said thus much for Carneades, I hope 
 the reader will give me leave to say something for myself. 
 
 And first, if some morose readers shall find fault with 
 my having made the interlocutors upon occasion comple- 
 ment with one another, and that I have almost all along 
 written these dialogues in a style more fashionable than 
 that of mere scholars is wont to be, I hope I shall be 
 excused by them that shall consider, that to keep a due 
 decorum in the discourses it was fit that in a book written 
 by a gentleman, and wherein only gentlemen are intro- 
 duced as speakers, the language should be more smooth 
 and the expressions more civil than is usual in the more 
 scholastic way of writing. And indeed, I am not sorry 
 to have this opportunity of giving an example how to 
 manage even disputes with civility; whence perhaps 
 some readers will be assisted to discern a difference betwixt 
 bluntness of speech and strength of reason, and find that 
 a man may be a champion for truth without being an 
 enemy to civility; and may confute an opinion without 
 railing at them that hold it; to whom he that desires to 
 convince and not to provoke them, must make some 
 amends by his civility to their persons, for his severity to 
 their mistakes; and must say as little else as he can to 
 displease them, when he says that they are in an error. 
 
 But perhaps other readers will be less apt to find fault 
 with the civility of my disputants than the chymists will 
 be, upon the reading of some passages of the following 
 dialogue, to accuse Carneades of asperity. But if I have 
 made my sceptic sometimes speak slightingly of the 
 opinions he opposes, I hope it will not be found that I have 
 done any mere than became the part he was to act of an 
 opponent: especially if what I have made him say be com- 
 pared with what the prince of the Romane orators himself 
 makes both great persons and friends say of one another's 
 opinions, in his excellent dialogues, De Natura Deorum: 
 and i shall scarce be suspected of partiality in the case, 
 by them that take notice that there is full as much (if not 
 far more) liberty of slighting their adversaries tenets 
 
- 
 
 8 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 to be met with in the discourses of those with whom 
 Carneades disputes. Nor need I make the interlocutors 
 speak otherwise than freely in a dialogue, wherein it was 
 sufficiently intimated that I meant not to declare my own 
 opinion of the arguments proposed, much lesse of the 
 whole controversy itself e, otherwise than as it may by an 
 attentive reader be guessed at by some passages of 
 Carneades (I say some passages, because I make not all 
 that he says, especially in the heat of disputation, mine), 
 partly in this discourse, and partly in some other l dialogues 
 betwixt the same speakers (though they treat not im- 
 mediately of the elements) which have long lain by me, 
 and expect the entertainement that these present dis- 
 courses will meet with. And indeed they will much 
 mistake me, that shall conclude from what I now publish, 
 that I am at defiance with chymistry, or would make my 
 readers so. I hope the Specimina I have lately published 
 of an attempt to shew the usefulness of chymical experi- 
 ments to contemplative philosophers, will give those that 
 read them other thoughts of me, and I had a design (but 
 wanted opportunity) to publish with these papers an essay 
 I have lying by me, the greater part of which is apologetical 
 for one sort of chy mists. And at least, as for those that 
 know me, I hope the pain I have taken in the fire will both 
 convince them that I am far from being an enemy to the 
 chymist's art (though I am no friend to many that disgrace 
 it by professing it), and persuade them to believe me when 
 I declare that I distinguish betwixt those chymists that 
 are either cheats, or but laborants, and the true adepti; 
 by whome could I enjoy their conversation, I would both 
 willingly and thankfully be instructed; especially con- 
 cerning the nature and generation of metals : and possibly, 
 those that know how little I have remitted of my former 
 addictedness to make chymical experiments, will easily 
 believe that one of the chief designes of this sceptical dis- 
 course was, not so much to discredit chymistry, as to give 
 
 1 The Dialogues here meant are those about Heat, Fire, Flame, 
 etc. (seen by two secretaries of the Royal Society), that the author 
 somewhere complaines to have been missing with other things of 
 his presently after the hasty removal of his goods by night in the 
 great fire of London. 
 
Introductory Preface 9 
 
 an occasion and a kind of necessity to the more knowing 
 artists to lay aside a little of their over-great reservedness, 
 and either explicate or prove the chymical theory better 
 than ordinary chymists have done, or by enriching us 
 with some of their nobler secrets to evince that their art is 
 able to make amends even for the deficiencies of their 
 theory: and thus much I shall make bold to add, that 
 we shall much undervalue chymistry, if we imagine that 
 it cannot teach us things far more useful, not only to 
 physic but to philosophy, than those that are hitherto 
 know to vulgar chymists. And yet as for inferior spagy- 
 rists themselves, they have by their labours deserved so 
 well of the commonwealth of learning, that methinks 'tis 
 pity they should ever misse the truth which they have 
 so industriously sought. And though I be no admirer of 
 the theorical part of their art, yet my conjectures will 
 much deceive me, if the practical part be not hereafter 
 much more cultivated than hitherto it has been, and do 
 not both employ philosophy and philosophers, and hope to 
 make men such. Nor would I, that have been diverted 
 by other studies as well as affairs, be thought to pretend 
 being a profound spagyrist, by finding so many faults in 
 the doctrine wherein the generality of chymists scruples 
 not to acquiesce: for besides that 'tis most commonly far 
 easier to frame objections against any proposed hypothesis 
 than to propose an hypothesis not liable to objections, 
 (besides this I say) 'tis no such great matter, if whereas 
 beginners in chymistry are commonly at once imbued 
 with the theory and operations of their profession, I who 
 had the good fortune to learn the operations from illiterate 
 persons, upon whose credit I was not tempted to take up 
 any opinion about them, should consider things with lesse 
 prejudice, and consequently with other eyes than the 
 generality of learners; and should be more disposed to 
 accommodate the phenomena that occurred to me to other 
 notions than to those of the spagirists. And having at 
 first entertained a suspicion that the vulgar principles were 
 lesse general and comprehensive, or lesse considerately 
 deduced from chymical operations, than was believed, it 
 was not uneasie for me both to take notice of divers phaeno- 
 
io The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 mena, overlooked by prepossest persons, that seemed 
 not to suite so well with the hermetical doctrine; and to 
 devise some experiments likely to furnish me with objec- 
 tions against it, not known to many, that having practised 
 chymistry longer perchance than I have yet lived, may 
 have far more experience than I of particular processes. 
 
 To conclude, whether the notions I have proposed, and 
 the experiments I have communicated, be considerable, 
 or not, I willingly leave others to judge; and this only I 
 shall say for myself, that I have endeavoured to deliver 
 matters of fact so faithfully, that I may as well assist 
 the lesse skilful readers to examine the chymical hypo- 
 thesis, as provoke the spagirical philosophers to illustrate 
 it: which if they do, and that either the chymical opinion, 
 or the peripatetic, or any other theory of the elements 
 differing from that I am most inclined to, shall be intel- 
 ligibly explicated, and duly proved to me; what I have 
 hitherto discoursed will not hinder it from making a 
 proselyte of a person that loves fluctuation of judgment 
 little enough to be willing to be eased of it by anything 
 but error. 
 
PHYSIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 TOUCHING THE EXPERIMENTS WONT TO BE 
 EMPLOYED TO EVINCE EITHER THE FOUR 
 PERIPATETICK ELEMENTS, OR THE THREE 
 CHYMICAL PRINCIPLES OF MIXT BODIES 
 
 PART OF THE FIRST DIALOGUE 
 
 I PERCEIVE that divers of my friends have thought it very 
 strange to hear me speak so irresolvedly, as I have been 
 wont to do, concerning those things which some take to 
 be the elements, and others to be the principles of all 
 mixt bodies. But I blush not to acknowledge that I 
 much less scruple to confess that I doubt when I do so, 
 than to profess that I know what I do not: and I should 
 have much stronger expectations than I dare yet entertain, 
 to see philosophy solidly established, if men would more 
 carefully distinguish those things that they know from 
 those that they ignore or do but think, and then explicate 
 clearly the things they conceive they understand, acknow- 
 ledge ingenuously what it is they ignore, and profess so 
 candidly their doubts, that the industry of intelligent 
 persons might be set on work to make further enquiries, 
 and the easiness of less discerning men might not be 
 imposed on.^But because a more particular accompt 
 will probably be expected of my unsatisfiedness not only 
 with the peripatetic, but with the chymical doctrine of 
 the primitive ingredients of bodies: it may possibly serve 
 to satisfy others of the excusableness of my dissatisfaction 
 to peruse the ensuing relation of what passed a while since 
 at a meeting of persons of several opinions, in a place that 
 need not here be named; where the subject, whereof 
 we have been speaking, was amply and variously dis- 
 coursed of. 
 
 ii 
 
1 2 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 It was on one of the fairest dayes of this summer that the 
 inquisitive Eleutherius came to invite me to make a visit 
 with him to his friend Carneades. I readily consented to 
 this motion, telling him that if he would but permit me to 
 go first and make an excuse at a place not far off, where I 
 had at that hour appointed to meet, but not about a 
 business either of moment, or that could not well admit 
 of a delay, I would presently wait on him, because of my 
 knowing Carneades to be so conversant with nature and 
 with furnaces, and so unconfined to vulgar opinions, that 
 he would probably by some ingenious paradox or other 
 give our mindes at least a pleasing exercise, and perhaps 
 enrich them with some solid instruction. Eleutherius 
 then first going with me to the place where my apology 
 was to be made, I accompanied him to the lodging of 
 Carneades, where when we were come, we were told by 
 the servants that he was retired with a couple of friends 
 (whose names they also told us) to one of the arbours in his 
 garden, to enjoy under its coole shades a delightful pro- 
 tection from the yet troublesome heat of the sun. 
 
 Eleutherius being perfectly acquainted with that garden 
 immediately led me to the arbour, and relying on the 
 intimate familiarity that had been long cherished betwixt 
 him and Carneades; in spite of my reluctancy to what 
 might look like an intrusion upon his privacy, drawing me 
 by the hand, he abruptly entered the arbour, where we 
 found Carneades, Philoponus, and Themistius, sitting 
 close about a little round table, on which, besides paper, 
 pen, and inke, there lay two or three open books ; Carneades 
 appeared not at all troubled at this surprise, but rising 
 from the table, received his friend with open looks and 
 armes, and welcoming me also with his wonted freedom 
 and civility, invited us to rest ourselves by him, which, 
 as soon as we had exchanged with his two friends (who 
 were ours also) the civilities accustomed on such occasions, 
 we did. And he presently after we had seated ourselves, 
 shutting the books that lay open, and turning to us with 
 a smiling countenance, seemed ready to begin some such 
 unconcerning discourse as is wont to pass, or rather waste, 
 the time in promiscuous companies. 
 
Physiological Considerations 13 
 
 But Eleutherius guessing at what he meant to do, pre- 
 vented him by telling him, I perceive, Carneades, by the 
 books that you have been now shutting, and much more 
 by the posture wherein I found persons so qualified to 
 discourse of serious matters, and so accustomed to do it, 
 that you three were, before our coming, engaged in some 
 philosophical conference, which I hope you will either 
 prosecute, and allow us to be partakers of, in recompense 
 of the freedome we have used in presuming to surprise you, 
 or else give us leave to repair the injury we should other- 
 wise do you, by leaving you to the freedom we have inter- 
 rupted, and punishing ourselves for our boldness by 
 depriving ourselves of the happiness of your company. 
 With these last words he and I rose up, as if we meant to 
 be gone : but Carneades suddenly laying hold on his arme, 
 and stopping him by it, smilingly told him, We are not so 
 forward to lose good company as you seem to imagine; 
 especially since you are pleased to desire to be present at 
 what we shall say about such a subject as that you found 
 us considering. For that, being the number of the 
 elements, principles, or material ingredients of bodies, 
 is an enquiry whose truth is of that importance, and of that 
 difficulty, that it may as well deserve, as require, to be 
 searched into by such skilful indagators of nature as your- 
 selves. And therefore we sent to invite the bold and 
 acute Leucippus to lend us some light by his atomical 
 paradox, upon which we expected such pregnant hints, 
 that 'twas not without a great deal of trouble that we 
 had lately word brought us that he was not to be found; 
 and we had likewise begged the assistance of your presence 
 and thoughts, had not the messenger we employed to 
 Leucippus informed us that as he was going he saw you 
 both pass by towards another part of the town; and this 
 frustrated expectation of Leucippus his company, who 
 told me but last night that he would be ready to give me 
 a meeting where I pleased to-day, having very long sus- 
 pended our conference about the freshly mentioned sub- 
 ject, it was so newly begun when you came in, that we shall 
 scarce need to repeat anything to acquaint you with what 
 had passed betwixt us before your arrival, so that I cannot 
 
14 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 but look upon it as a fortunate accident that you should 
 come so seasonably, to be not hearers alone, but we hope 
 interlocutors at our conference. For we shall not only 
 allow of your presence at it, but desire your assistance in 
 it; which I add both for other reasons, and because 
 though these learned gentlemen (says he, turning to his 
 two friends) need not fear to discourse before any 
 auditory, provided it be intelligent enough to understand 
 them, yet for my part (continues he with a new smile) 
 I shall not dare to vent my unpremeditated thoughts 
 before two such critics, unless by promising to take your 
 turnes of speaking, you will allow me mine of quarrelling 
 with what has been said. He and his friends added 
 divers things to convince us that they were both desirous 
 that we should hear them, and resolved against our doing 
 so, unless we allowed them sometimes to hear us. Eleu- 
 therius, after having a while fruitlessly endeavoured to 
 obtain leave to be silent, promised he would not be so 
 alwayes, provided that he were permitted according to 
 the freedom of his genius and principles to side with one 
 of them in the managing of one argument, and, if he saw 
 cause, with his antagonist, in the prosecution of another, 
 without being confined to stick to any one party or opinion, 
 which was after some debate accorded him. But, I con- 
 scious of my own disabilities, told them resolutely that I 
 was as much more willing, as more fit, to be a hearer than 
 a speaker among such knowing persons, and on so abstruse 
 a subject. And that therefore I beseeched them without 
 necessitating me to proclaim my weaknesses, to allow me 
 to lessen them by being a silent auditor of their discourses : 
 to suffer me to be at which I could present them no motive, 
 save that their instructions would make them in me a more 
 intelligent admirer. I added that I desired not to be idle 
 whilst they were imployed, but would if they pleased, by 
 writing down in shorthand what should be delivered, pre- 
 serve discourses that I knew would merit to be lasting. 
 At first Carneades and his two friends utterly rejected 
 this motion; and all that my resoluteness to make use 
 of my ears, not tongue, at their debates could do, was 
 to make them acquiesce in the proposition of Eleutherius, 
 
Physiological Considerations 15 
 
 who thinking himself concerned, because he brought me 
 thither, to afford me some faint assistance, was content 
 that I should register their arguments, that I might be 
 the better able after the conclusion of their conference to 
 give them my sense upon the subject of it (the number 
 of elements or principles), which he promised I should do 
 at the end of the present debates, if time would permit, 
 or else at our next meeting. And this being by him under- 
 taken in my name, though without my consent, the com- 
 pany would by no means receive my protestation against 
 it, but casting, all at once, their eyes on Carneades, they 
 did by that and their unanimous silence, invite him to 
 begin ; which (after a short pause, during which he turned 
 himself to Eleutherius and me) he did in this manner. 
 
 Notwithstanding the subtile reasonings I have met with 
 in the books of the peripatetics, and the prjetty experiments 
 that have been shewed me in the laboratories of chymists, 
 I am of so diffident or dull a nature, as to think that if 
 neither of them can bring more cogent arguments to evince 
 the truth of their assertion than are wont to be brought, 
 a man may rationally enough retain some doubts concern- 
 ing the very number of those material ingredients of 
 mixt bodies, which some would have us call elements, 
 and others principles. Indeed when I considered that the 
 tenets concerning the elements are as considerable 
 amongst the doctrines of natural philosophy, as the 
 elements themselves are among the bodies of the universe, 
 I expected to find those opinions solidly established, upon 
 which so many others are supers tructed. But when I 
 took the pains impartially to examine the bodies them- 
 selves that are said to result from the blended elements, 
 and to torture them into a confession of their constituent 
 principles, I was quickly induced to think that the number 
 of the elements has been contended about by philo- 
 sophers with more earnestness than success. This un- 
 satisfiedness of mine has been much wondered at by 
 these two gentlemen (at which words he pointed at 
 Themistius and Philoponus), who though they differ 
 almost as much betwixt themselves about the question 
 we are to consider, as I do from either of them, yet they 
 
1 6 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 both agree very well in this, that there is a determinate 
 number of such ingredients as I was just now speaking 
 of, and that what that number is I say not, may be (for 
 what may not such as they persuade ?), but is wont to be 
 clearly enough demonstrated both by reason and experi- 
 ence. This has occasioned our present conference. For 
 our discourse this afternoon, having fallen from one sub- 
 ject to another, and at length settled on this, they proffered 
 to demonstrate to me, each of them the truth of his opinion, 
 out of both the topics that I have freshly named. But 
 on the former (that of reason strictly so taken) we declined 
 insisting at the present, lest we should not have time 
 enough before supper to go through the reasons and 
 experiments too. The latter of which we unanimously 
 thought the most requisite to be seriously examined. I 
 must desire you then to take notice, gentlemen (continued 
 Carneades), that my present business doth not oblige 
 me so to declare my own opinion on the subject in question 
 as to assert or deny the truth either of the peripatetic or 
 the chymical doctrine concerning the number of the 
 elements, but only to shew you that neither of these 
 doctrines hath been satisfactorily proved by the argu- 
 ments commonly alledged on its behalfe. So that if I 
 really discern (as perhaps I think I do) that there may be 
 a more rational account than ordinary, given of one of 
 these opinions, I am left free to declare myself of it, not- 
 withstanding my present engagement, it being obvious to 
 all your observation, that a solid truth may be generally 
 maintained by no other than incompetent arguments. 
 And to this declaration I hope it will be needless to add, 
 that my task obliges me not to answer the arguments that 
 may be drawn either for Themistius's or Philoponus's 
 opinion from the topic of reason, as opposed to experi- 
 ments; since 'tis these only that I am to examine, and 
 not all these neither, but such of them alone as either of 
 them shall think fit to insist on, and as have hitherto been 
 wont to be brought either to prove that 'tis the four 
 peripatetic elements, or that 'tis the three chymical prin- 
 ciples that all compounded bodies consist of. These 
 things (adds Carneades) I thought myself obliged to 
 
Physiological Considerations 17 
 
 premise, partly lest you should do these gentlemen (point- 
 ing at Themistius and Philoponus, and smiling on them) 
 the injury of measuring their parts by the arguments they 
 are ready to propose, the lawes of our conference confining 
 them to make use of those that the vulgar of philo- 
 sophers (for even of them there is a vulgar) has drawn up 
 to their hands ; and partly that you should not condemn 
 me of presumption for disputing against persons over 
 whom I can hope for no advantage, that I must not derive 
 from the nature or rules of our controversy, wherein I 
 have but a negative to defend, and wherein too I am like 
 on several occasions to have the assistance of one of my 
 disagreeing adversaries against the other. 
 
 Philoponus and Themistius soon returned this com- 
 pliment with civilities of the like nature, in which Eleu- 
 therius perceiving them engaged, to prevent the further 
 loss of that time of which they were not like to have very 
 much to spare, he minded them that their present busi- 
 ness was not to exchange compliments, but arguments: 
 and then addressing his speech to Carneades, I esteem it 
 no small happiness (says he) that I am come here so 
 luckily this evening. For I have been long disquieted 
 with doubts concerning this very subject which you are 
 now ready to debate. And since a question of this im- 
 portance is to be now discussed by persons that maintain 
 such variety of opinions concerning it, and are both so 
 able to enquire after truth, and so ready to embrace 
 it by whomsoever and on what occasion soever it is 
 presented them; I cannot but promise myself that I 
 shall before we part, either lose my doubts or the hopes of 
 ever finding them resolved; Eleutherius paused not here; 
 but to prevent their answer, added almost in the same 
 breath; and I am not a little pleased to find that you are 
 resolved on this occasion to insist rather on experiments 
 than syllogismes. For I, and no doubt you, have long 
 observed, that those dialectical subtleties, that the school- 
 men too often employ about physiological mysteries, are 
 wont much more to declare the wit of him that uses them, 
 than increase the knowledge N oF"femove the doubts of 
 sober lovers of truth. And such captious subtleties do 
 
 B 
 
1 8 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 indeed often puzzle and sometimes silence men, but rarely 
 satisfy them. Being like the tricks of jugglers, whereby 
 men doubt not but they are cheated, though oftentimes 
 they cannot declare by what flights they are imposed on. 
 And therefore I think you have done very wisely to make 
 it your business to consider the phenomena relating to the 
 present question, which have been afforded by experi- 
 ments, especially since it might seem injurious to our 
 p senses, by whose mediation we acquire so much of the 
 I knowledge we have of things corporal, to have recourse 
 
 /f to far-fetched and abstracted ratiocinations, to know 
 what are the sensible ingredients of those sensible things 
 that we daily see and handle, and are supposed to have 
 the liberty to untwist (if I may so speak) into the primi- 
 tive bodies they consist of. He annexed that he wished 
 therefore they would no longer delay his expected satis- 
 faction, if they had not, as he feared they had, forgotten 
 something preparatory to their debate; and that was to 
 lay down what should be all along understood by the 
 word principle or element. Carneades thanked him for his 
 admonition, but told him that they had not been unmind- 
 ful of so requisite a thing. But that being gentlemen 
 and very far from the litigious humour of loving to 
 wrangle about words, or terms, or notions as empty, they 
 had before his coming in readily agreed promiscuously 
 to use when they pleaded, elements and principles as terms 
 equivalent: and to understand both by the one and the 
 
 / other, those primitive and simple bodies of which the 
 mixt ones are said to be composed, and into which they 
 are ultimately resolved. And upon the same account 
 (he added) we agreed to discourse of the opinions to be 
 debated, as we have found them maintained by the 
 generality of the assertors of the four elements of the one 
 party, and of those that receive the three principles on 
 the other, without tying ourselves to enquire scrupulously 
 what notion either Aristotle or Paracelsus, or this or that 
 interpreter or follower of either of those great persons, 
 framed of elements or principles; our design being to 
 examine, not what these or those writers thought or 
 taught, but what we find to be the obvious and most 
 
Physiological Considerations 19 
 
 general opinion of those who are willing to be accounted 
 favourers of the peripatetic or chymical doctrine con- 
 cerning this subject. 
 
 I see not (says Eleutherius) why you might not im- 
 mediately begin to argue, if you were but agreed which of 
 your two friendly adversaries shall be first heard. And it 
 being quickly resolved on that Themistius should first 
 propose the proofs for his opinion, because it was the 
 antienter, and the more general, he made not the com- 
 pany expect long before he thus addressed himself to 
 Eleutherius, as to the person least interested in the 
 dispute. 
 
 If you have taken sufficient notice of the late confession 
 which was made by Carneades, and which (though his 
 civility dressed it up in complimental expressions) was 
 exacted of him by his justice, I suppose you will be easily 
 made sensible, that I engage in this controversie with 
 great and peculiar disadvantages, besides those which his 
 parts and my personal disabilities would bring to any 
 other cause to be maintained by me against him. For 
 he justly apprehending the force of truth, though speaking 
 by no better a tongue than mine, has made it the chief 
 condition of our duel, that I should lay aside the best 
 weapons I have, and those I can best handle; whereas if I 
 were allowed the freedom, in pleading for the four ele- 
 ments, to employ the arguments suggested to me by 
 reason to demonstrate them, I should almost as little 
 doubt of making you a proselyte to those unsevered 
 teachers, Truth and Aristotle, as I do of your candour and 
 your judgment. And I hope you will however consider, 
 that that great favourite and interpreter of nature, 
 Aristotle, who was (as his Organum witnesses) the greatest 
 master of logic that ever lived, disclaimed the course 
 taken by other petty philosophers (antient and modern), 
 who not attending the coherence and consequences of 
 their opinions, are more solicitous to make each parti- 
 cular opinion plausible independently upon the rest, than 
 to frame them all so, as not only to be consistent together, 
 but to support each other. For that great man in his 
 vast and comprehensive intellect, so framed each of his 
 
20 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 notions, that being curiously adapted into one systeme, 
 they need not each of them any other defence than that 
 which their mutual coherence gives them: as 'tis in an 
 arch, where each single stone, which if severed from the 
 rest would be perhaps defenceless, is sufficiently secured 
 by the solidity and entireness of the whole fabric of which 
 it is a part. How justly this may be applied to the present 
 case, I could easily shew you, if I were permitted to declare 
 to you, how harmonious Aristotle's doctrine of the elements 
 is with his other principles of philosophy; and how 
 rationally he has deduced their number from that of the 
 combinations of the four first qualities from the kinds of 
 simple motion belonging to simple bodies, and from I 
 know not how many other principles and phaenomena of 
 nature, which so conspire with his doctrine of the elements, 
 that they mutually strengthen and support each other. 
 But since 'tis forbidden me to insist on reflections of 
 this kind, I must proceed to tell you, that though the 
 assertors of the four elements value reason so highly, 
 and are furnished with arguments enough drawn from 
 thence, to be satisfied that there must be four elements, 
 though no man had ever yet made any sensible trial 
 */" to discover their number, yet they are not destitute of 
 experience to satisfie others that are wont to be more 
 swayed by their senses than their reason. And I shall 
 proceed to consider the testimony of experience, when I 
 shall have first advertised you, fchat if men were as per- 
 fectly rational as 'tis to be wished they were, this sensible 
 way of probation would be as needless as 'tis wont to be 
 imperfecO For it is much more high and philosophical 
 to discover 1 things a prior e than a posteriore. And there- 
 fore the peripatetics have not been very solicitous to 
 gather experiments to prove their doctrines, contenting 
 themselves with a few only, to satisfy those that are not 
 capable of a nobler conviction. And indeed they employ 
 experiments rather to illustrate than to demonstrate 
 their doctrines, as astronomers use sphseres of pasteboard, 
 to descend to the capacities of such as must be taught by 
 their senses, for want of being arrived to a clear appre- 
 hension of purely mathematical notions and truths. I 
 
Physiological Considerations 21 
 
 speak thus, Eleutherius (adds Themistius), only to do right 
 to reason, and not out of diffidence of the experimental 
 proof I am to alledge. For though I shall name but one, 
 yet it is such a one as will make all other appear as need- 
 less as itself will be found satisfactory. For if you but 
 consider a piece of green wood burning in a chimney, you 
 will readily discern in the disbanded parts of it the four 
 elements, of which we teach it and other mixt bodies to be 
 composed. The fire discovers itself in the flame by its own 
 light ; the smoake by ascending to the top of the chimney, 
 and there readily vanishing into air, like a river losing 
 itself in the sea, sufficiently manifests to what element it 
 belongs and gladly returnes. The water in its own form 
 boiling and hissing at the ends of the burning wood 
 betrays itself to more than one of our senses; and the 
 ashes by their weight, their firiness, and their dryness, 
 put it past doubt that they belong to the element of 
 earth. If I spoke (continues Themistius) to less knowing 
 persons, I would perhaps make some excuse for building 
 upon such an obvious and easie analysis, but 'twould be, I 
 fear, injurious, not to think such an apology needless to 
 you, who are too judicious either to think it necessary that 
 experiments to prove obvious truths should be far-fetched, 
 or to wonder that among so many mixt bodies that are 
 compounded of the four elements, some of them should 
 upon a slight analysis manifestly exhibite the ingredients 
 they consist of. Especially since it is very agreeable to the 
 goodness of nature to disclose, even in some of the most 
 obvious experiments that men make, a truth so im- 
 portant and so requisite to be taken notice of by them. 
 Besides that our analysis by how much the more obvious 
 we make it, by so much the more suitable it will be to the 
 nature of that doctrine which 'tis alledged to prove, which 
 being as clear and intelligible to the understanding as 
 obvious to the sense, 'tis no marvel the learned part of 
 mankind should so long and so generally imbrace it. For 
 this doctrine is very different from the whimseys of 
 chymists and other modern innovators, of whose hypo- 
 theses we may observe, as naturalists do of less perfect 
 animals, that as they are hastily formed, so they are 
 
22 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 commonly short-lived. For so these, as they are often 
 framed in one week, are perhaps thought fit to be laughed 
 at the next; and being built perchance but upon two or 
 three experiments are destroyed by a third or fourth, 
 whereas the doctrine of the four elements was framed by 
 Aristotle after he had leasurely considered those theories 
 of former philosophers which are now with great 
 applause revived as discovered by these latter ages; and 
 had so judiciously detected and supplied the errors and 
 defects of former hypotheses concerning the elements, 
 that his doctrine of them has been ever since deservedly 
 embraced by the lettered part of mankind : all the philo- 
 sophers that preceded him having in their several ages 
 contributed to the compleatness of this doctrine, as those 
 of succeeding times have acquiesced in it. Nor has an 
 hypothesis, so deliberately and maturely established, been 
 called in question till in the last century Paracelsus and 
 some few other sooty empirics, rather than (as they are 
 fain to call themselves) philosophers, having their eyes 
 darkened, and their braines troubled with the smoak of 
 their own furnaces, began to rail at the peripatetic 
 doctrine, which they were too illiterate to understand, 
 and to tell the credulous world, that they could see but 
 three ingredients in mixt bodies; which to gain them- 
 selves the repute of inventors, they endeavoured to dis- 
 guise by calling them, instead of earth, and fire, and 
 vapour, salt, sulphur, and mercury; to which they gave 
 the canting title of hypostatical principles . But when they 
 came to describe them, they shewed how little they under- 
 stood what they meant by them, by disagreeing as much 
 from one another, as from the truth they agreed in oppos- 
 ing: for they deliver their hypotheses as darkly as their 
 processes ; and 'tis almost as impossible for any sober man 
 to find their meaning, as 'tis for them to find their elixir. 
 And indeed nothing has spread their philosophy, but their 
 great brags and undertakings; notwithstanding all which 
 (says Themistius smiling), I scarce know anything they 
 have performed worth wondering at, save that they have 
 been able to draw Philoponus to their party, and to engage 
 him to the defence of an unintelligible hypothesis, who 
 
Physiological Considerations 23 
 
 knowes so well as he does, that principles ought to be like 
 diamonds, as well very clear as perfectly solid. 
 
 Themistius having after these last words declared by 
 his silence that he had finished his discourse, Carneades 
 addressing himself, as his adversary had done, to Eleu- 
 therius, returned this answer to it. I hoped for a demon- 
 stration, but I perceive Themistius hopes to put me off 
 with an harangue, wherein he cannot have given me a 
 greater opinion of his parts, than he has given me distrust 
 for his hypothesis, since for it even a man of such learning 
 can bring no better arguments. The rhetorical part of his 
 discourse, though it make not the least part of it, I shall 
 say nothing to, designing to examine only the argumenta- 
 tive part, and leaving it to Philoponus to answer those 
 passages wherein either Paracelsus or chymists are con- 
 cerned: I shall observe to you, that in what he has said 
 besides, he makes it his business to do these two things. 
 The one to propose and make out an experiment to 
 demonstrate the common opinion about the four elements ; 
 and the other, to insinuate divers things which he thinks 
 may repair the weakness of his argument, from experience, 
 and upon other accounts bring some credit to the other- 
 wise defenceless doctrine he maintains. 
 
 To begin then with his experiment of the burning wood, 
 it seems to me to be obnoxious to not a few considerable 
 exceptions. 
 
 And first, if I would now deal rigidly with my adver- 
 sary, I might here make a great question of the very way of 
 probation which he and others employ, without the least 
 scruple, to evince that the bodies commonly called mixt 
 are made up of earth, air, water, and fire, which they are 
 pleased also to call elements; namely that upon the sup- 
 posed analysis made by the fire, of the former sort of 
 concretes, there are wont to emerge bodies resembling 
 those which they take for the elements. For not to 
 anticipate here what I foresee I shall have occasion to 
 insist on, when I come to discourse with Philoponus con- 
 cerning the right that fire has to pass for the proper and 
 universal instrument of analysing mixt bodies, not to 
 anticipate that, I say, if I were disposed to wrangle, I 
 
24 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 might alledge, that by Themistius his experiment it would 
 appear rather that those he calls elements are made of 
 those he calls mixt bodies, than mixt bodies of the 
 elements. For in Themistius's analysed wood, and in 
 other bodies dissipated and altered by the fire, it appears, 
 and he confesses, that which he takes for elementary fire 
 / and water are made out of the concrete; but it appears 
 not that the concrete was made up of fire and water. 
 Nor has either he, or any man, for ought I know, of his 
 persuasion, yet proved that nothing can be obtained from 
 a body by the fire that was not pre-existent in it. 
 
 At this unexpected objection, not only Themistius, but 
 the rest of the company appeared not a little surprised; 
 but after a while Philoponus conceiving his opinion, as 
 well as that of Aristotle, concerned in that objection, You 
 cannot sure (says he to Carneades) propose this difficulty, 
 not to call it cavil, otherwise than as an exercise of wit, 
 and not as laying any weight upon it. For how can that 
 be separated from a thing that was not existent in it? 
 When, for instance, a refiner mingles gold and lead, and 
 exposing this mixture upon a cuppel to the violence of 
 the fire, thereby separates it into pure and refulgent gold 
 and lead (which driven off together with the dross of the 
 gold is thence called lythargyrium auri), can any man 
 doubt that sees these two so differing substances separated 
 from the mass, that they were existent in it before it was 
 committed to the fire ? 
 
 I should (replies Carneades) allow your argument to 
 prove something, if, as men see the refiners commonly take 
 beforehand both lead and gold to make the mass you 
 speak of, so we did see nature pull down a parcel of the 
 element of fire, that is fancied to be placed I know not 
 how many thousand leagues off, contiguous to the orb of 
 the moon, and to blend it with a quantity of each of the 
 three other elements, to compose every mixt body, upon 
 whose resolution the fire presents us with fire, and earth, 
 and the rest. And let me add, Philoponus, that to make 
 your reasoning cogent, it must be first proved, that the 
 fire does only take the elementary ingredients asunder, 
 without otherwise altering them. For else 'tis obvious, 
 
Physiological Considerations 25 
 
 that bodies may afford substances which were not pre- 
 existent in them ; as flesh too long kept produces maggots, 
 and old cheese mites, which I suppose you will not affirm 
 to be ingredients of those bodies. Now that fire does not 
 alwayes barely separate the elementary parts, but some- 
 times at least alter also the ingredients of bodies, if I did 
 not expect ere long a better occasion to prove it, I might 
 make probable out of your very instance, wherein there 
 is nothing elementary separated by the great violence of 
 the refiner's fire: the gold and lead which are the two 
 ingredients separated upon the analysis being con- 
 fessedly yet perfectly mixt bodies, and the litharge 
 being lead indeed, but such lead as is differing in consist- 
 ence and other qualities from what it was before. To 
 which I must add that I have sometimes seen, and so 
 questionless have you much oftener, some parcels of 
 glasse adhering to the test or cuppel, and this glass, though 
 emergent as well as the gold or litharge upon your analysis, 
 you will not I hope allow to have been a third ingredient of 
 the mass out of which the fire produced it. 
 
 Both Philoponus and Themistius were about to reply, 
 when Eleutherius apprehending that the prosecution of 
 this dispute would take up time which might be better 
 employed, thought fit to prevent them by saying to 
 Carneades: You made at least half a promise, when you 
 first proposed this objection, that you would not (now at 
 least) insist on it, nor indeed does it seem to be of absolute 
 necessity to your cause that you should. For though 
 you should grant that there are elements, it would not 
 follow that there must be precisely four. And therefore 
 I hope you will proceed to acquaint us with your other 
 and more considerable objections against Themistius's 
 opinion, especially since there is so great a disproportion in 
 bulke betwixt the earth, water, and air, on the one part, 
 and those little parcels of resembling substances that 
 the fire separates from concretes on the other part, that I 
 can scarce think that you are serious, when to lose no 
 advantage against your adversary, you seem to deny it 
 to be rational to conclude these great simple bodies to 
 be the elements, and not the products of compounded ones. 
 
26 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 What you alledge (replies Carneades) of the vastness of 
 the earth and water, has long since made me willing to 
 allow them to be the greatest and chief masses of matter 
 to be met wi;h here below: but I think I could shew 
 you, if you v/ould give me leave, that this will prove only 
 that the elements, as you call them, are the chief bodies 
 that make up the neighbouring part of the world, but not 
 
 V* that they are such ingredients as every mixt body must 
 consist of. But since you challenge me of something of a 
 promise, though it be not an entire one, yet I shall willingly 
 performe it. And indeed I intended not, when I first 
 mentioned this objection, to insist on it at present against 
 Themistius (as I plainly intimated in my way of propos- 
 ing it), being only desirous to let you see, that though I 
 discerned my advantages, yet I was willing to forego 
 some of them rather than appear a rigid adversary of a 
 cause so weak, that it may with safety be favourably 
 dealt with. But I must here profess, and desire you to 
 take notice of it, that though I pass on to another argu- 
 ment, it is not because I think this first invalid. For you 
 will find in the progress of our dispute, that I had some 
 reason to question the very way of probation imployed 
 both by peripatetics and chymists, to evince the being 
 and number of the elements. For that there are such, 
 and that they are wont to be separated by the analysis 
 made by fire, is indeed taken for granted by both parties, 
 
 *' but has not (for ought I know) been so much as plausibly 
 attempted to be proved by either. Hoping then that 
 when we come to that part of our debate, wherein con- 
 siderations relating to this matter are to be treated of, 
 you will remember what I have now said, and that I do 
 rather for a while suppose than absolutely grant the 
 truth of what I have questioned, I will proceed to another 
 objection. 
 
 And hereupon Eleutherius having promised him not to 
 be unmindful, when time should serve, of what he had 
 declared. 
 
 I consider then (says Carneades), in the next place, that 
 there are divers bodies out of which Themistius will not 
 prove in haste that there can be so many elements as four 
 
Physiological Considerations 27 
 
 extracted by the fire. And I should perchance trouble 
 him if I should ask him what peripatetic can shew us (I 
 say not, all the four elements, for that would be too rigid 
 a question, but) any one of them extracted out of gold by 
 any degree of fire whatsoever. Nor is gold the only 
 bodie in nature that would puzzle an Aristotelian, (that is 
 no more) to analyse by the fire into elementary bodies, 
 since, for ought I have yet observed, both silver and cal- 
 cined Venetian talc, and some other concretes, not neces- 
 sary here to be named, are so fixed, that to reduce any of 
 them into four heterogeneous substances has hitherto 
 proved a task much too hard, not only for the disciples 
 of Aristotle, but those of Vulcan, at least, whilst the 
 latter have employed only fire to make the analysis. 
 
 The next argument (continues Carneades) that I shall 
 urge against Themistius's opinion shall be this, That as 
 there are divers bodies whose analysis by fire cannot reduce 
 them into so many heterogeneous substances or ingredients 
 as four, so there are others which may be reduced into 
 more, as the blood (and divers other parts) of men and 
 other animals, which yield when analysed five distinct sub- 
 stances, phlegme, spirit, oile, salt, and earth, as experience 
 has shewn us in distilling man's blood, harts-horns, and 
 divers other bodies that belonging to the animal-kingdom 
 abound with not uneasily sequestrable salt. 
 
THE SCEPTICAL CHYMIST 
 
 THE FIRST PART 
 
 I AM (says Carneades) so unwilling to deny Eleutherius 
 anything, that though before the rest of the company I 
 am resolved to make good the part I have undertaken of 
 a sceptic, yet I shall readily, since you will have it so, 
 lay aside for a while the person of an adversary to the 
 peripatetics and chymists; and before I acquaint you 
 with my objections against their opinions, acknowledge 
 to you what may be (whether truly or not) tolerably 
 enough added, in favour of a certain number of principles 
 of mixt bodies, to that grand and known argument 
 from the analysis of compound bodies, which I may pos- 
 sibly hereafter be able to confute. 
 
 And that you may the more easily examine and the 
 better judge of what I have to say, I shall cast it into a 
 pretty number of distinct propositions, to which I shall 
 not premise anything; because I take it for granted, that 
 you need not be advertised that much of what I am to 
 deliver, whether for or against a determinate number of 
 ingredients of mixt bodies, may be indifferently applied 
 to the four peripatetic elements, and the three chymical 
 principles, though divers of my objections will more 
 peculiarly belong to these last named, because the 
 chymical hypothesis seeming to be much more coun- 
 tenanced by experience than the other, it will be expedient 
 to insist chiefly upon the disproving of that; especially 
 since most of the arguments that are imployed against it, 
 may, by a little variation, be made to conclude, at least 
 as strongly, against the less plausible, Aristotelian doctrine. 
 
 29 
 
30 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 To proceed then to my propositions I shall begin with 
 this, that 
 
 PROPOSITION I. It seems not absurd to conceive that at the 
 first production of mixt bodies, the universal matter 
 
 j whereof they among other parts of the universe con- 
 sisted, was actually divided into little particles of 
 several sizes and shapes variously moved. 
 
 This (says Carneades) I suppose you will easily enough 
 allow. For besides that which happens in the generation, 
 corruption, nutrition, and wasting of bodies, that which 
 we discover partly by our microscopes of the extream 
 littleness of even the scarce sensible parts of concretes, 
 and partly by the chymical resolutions of mixt bodies, 
 and by divers other operations of spagirical fires upon them, 
 seems sufficiently to manifest their consisting of parts very 
 minute and of differing figures. And that there does also 
 intervene a various local motion of such small bodies, will 
 scarce be denied; whether we chuse to grant the origine 
 or concretions assigned by Epicurus, or that related by 
 Moses. (JFor the first, as you well know, supposes not 
 6nI}Tall mixt bodies, but all others, to be produced by the 
 various and casual occursions of atonies, moving them- 
 selves to and fro by an internal principle in the immense 
 or rather infinite vacuum. And as for the inspired 
 historian, he, informing us that the great and wise Author 
 of things did not immediately create plants, beasts, birds, 
 etc., but produced them out of those portions of the pre- 
 existent, though created, matter, that he calls water and 
 earth, allows us to conceive that the constituent particles 
 whereof these new concretes were to consist, were variously 
 moved in order to their being connected into the bodies 
 they were, by their various coalitions and textures, to 
 compose.) 
 
 But f continues Carneades) presuming that the first 
 proposition needs not be longer insisted on, I will pass 
 on to the second, and tell you that 
 
 PROPOSITION II. Neither is it possible that of these minute 
 particles divers of the smallest and neighbouring ones 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 31 
 
 were here and there associated into minute masses or 
 clusters, and did by their coalitions constitute great 
 store of such little primary concretions or masses as 
 were not easily dissipable into such particles as 
 composed them. 
 
 To what may be deduced, in favour of this assertion 
 from the nature of the thing itself, I will add something 
 out of experience, which though I have not known it used 
 to such a purpose, seems to me more fairly to make out 
 that there may be elementary bodies, than the more 
 questionable experiments of peripatetics and chymists 
 prove that there are such. I consider then that gold will 
 mix and be colliquated not only with silver, copper, tin 
 and lead, but with antimony, regulus martis and many 
 other minerals, with which it will compose bodies very 
 differing both from gold, and the other ingredients of the 
 resulting concretes. And the same gold will also by 
 common aqua regis, and (I speak it knowingly) by divers 
 other menstruums, be reduced into a seeming liquor, in- 
 somuch that the corpuscles of gold will, with those of 
 the menstruum, pass through cap-paper, and with them 
 also coagulate into a crystalline salt. And I have 
 further tried, that with a small quantity of a certain saline 
 substance I prepared, I can easily enough sublime gold into 
 the form of red crystals of a considerable length; and 
 many other wayes may gold be disguised, and help to con- 
 stitute bodies of very differing natures both from it and 
 from one another, and nevertheless be afterward reduced 
 to the self-same numerical, yellow, fixt, ponderous, and 
 malleable gold it was before its commixture. Nor is it 
 only the fixedst of metals, but the most fugitive, that I 
 may employ in favour of our proposition: for quicksilver 
 will with divers metals compose an amalgam, with divers 
 menstruums it seems to be turned into a liquor, with 
 aqua fortis it will be brought into either a red or white 
 powder or precipitate, with oil of vitriol into a pale 
 yellow one, with sulphur it will compose a blood-red and 
 volatile cinaber, with some saline bodies it will ascend in 
 form of a salt which will be dissoluble in water; with 
 
32 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 regulus of antimony and silver I have seen it sublimed into 
 a kinde of crystals, with another mixture I reduced it into 
 a malleable body, into a hard and brittle substance by 
 another: and some there are who affirm, that by proper 
 additaments they can reduce quicksilver into oil, nay into 
 glass, to mention no more. And yet out of all these 
 exotic compounds, we may recover the very same running 
 mercury that was the main ingredient of them, and was 
 so disguised in them. Now the reason (proceeds Car- 
 neades) that I have represented these things concern- 
 ing gold and quicksilver, is, that it may not appear 
 absurd to conceive, that such little primary masses or 
 clusters as our proposition mentions, may remain undis- 
 sipated, notwithstanding their entering into the composi- 
 tion of various concretions, since the corpuscle of gold and 
 mercury, though they be not primary concretions of the 
 most minute particles of matter, but confessedly mixt 
 bodies, are able to concure plentifully to the composition 
 of several very differing bodies, without losing their own 
 nature or texture, or having their cohesion violated by 
 the divorce of their associated parts or ingredients. 
 
 Give me leave to add (says Eleutherius) on this occasion, 
 to what you now observed, that as confidently as some 
 chymists, and other modern innovators in philosophy are 
 wont to object against the peripatetics, that from the 
 mixture of their four elements there could arise but an in- 
 considerable variety of compound Bodies; yet if the 
 Aristotelians were but half as well versed in the works of 
 nature as they are in the writings of their master, the 
 proposed objection would not so calmly triumph, as for 
 want of experiments they are fain to suffer it to do. For 
 if we assigne to the corpuscles, whereof each element con- 
 sists, a peculiar size and shape, it may easily enough be 
 manifested, that such differingly figured corpuscles may 
 be mingled in such various proportions, and may be con- 
 nected so many several ways, that an almost incredible 
 number of variously qualified concretes may be com- 
 posed of them. Especially since the corpuscles of one 
 element may barely, by being associated among themselves, 
 make up little masses of differing size and figure from their 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 33 
 
 constituent parts; and since also to the strict union of 
 such minute bodies there seems oftentimes nothing 
 requisite, besides the bare contact of a great part of their 
 surfaces. And how great a variety of phenomena the 
 same matter, without the addition of any other, and only 
 several ways disposed or contexed, is able to exhibit, may 
 partly appear by the multitude of differing engins which 
 by the contrivances of skilful mechanilians, and the 
 dexterity of expert workmen, may be made of iron alone. 
 But in our present case being allowed to deduce compound 
 bodies from four very differently qualified sorts of matter, 
 he who shall but consider what you freshly took notice of 
 concerning the new concretes resulting from the mixture of 
 incorporated minerals, will scarce doubt but that the four 
 elements managed by nature's skill may afford a multi- 
 tude of differing compounds. 
 
 I am thus far of your minde (says Carneades) that the 
 Aristotelians might with probability deduce a much 
 greater number of compound bodies from the mixture of 
 their four elements, than according to their present 
 hypothesis they can, if instead of vainly attempting to 
 deduce the variety and proprieties of all mixt bodies 
 from the combinations and temperaments of the four 
 elements, as they are (among them) endowed with the 
 four first qualities, they had endeavoured to do it by the 
 bulk and figure of the smallest parts of those supposed 
 elements. For from these more catholic and fruitful 
 accidents of the elementary matter may spring a great 
 variety of textures, upon whose account a multitude of 
 compound bodies may very much differ from one another. 
 And what I now observe touching the four peripatetic 
 elements, may be also applied, mutatis mutandis (as 
 they speak), to the chymical principles. But (to take notice 
 of that by the by) both the one and the other must, I fear, 
 call in to their assistance something that is not elementary, 
 to excite or regulate the motion of the parts of the matter, 
 and dispose them after the manner requisite to the con- 
 stitution of particular concretes. For that otherwise 
 they are like to give us but a very imperfect account of the 
 origine of very many mixt bodies, it would, I think, be no 
 
 c 
 
34 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 hard matter to persuade you, if it would not spend time, 
 and were no digression, to examine, what they are wont 
 to alledge of the origine of the textures and qualities of mixt 
 bodies from a certain substantial form, whose origination 
 they leave more obscure than what it is assumed to 
 explicate. 
 
 But to proceed to a new proposition. 
 
 PROPOSITION III. / shall not peremptorily deny, that from 
 most of such mixt bodies as partake either of animal 
 or vegetable nature, there may by the help of the fire be 
 actually obtained a determinate number (whether three, 
 four, or five, or fewer or more} of substances, worthy of 
 differing denominations. 
 
 Of the experiments that induce me to make this con- 
 cession, I am like to have occasion enough to mention 
 several in the prosecution of my discourse. And there- 
 fore, that I may not hereafter be obliged to trouble you 
 and myself with needless repetitions, I shall now only 
 desire you to take notice of such experiments when they 
 shall be mentioned, and in your thoughts referre them 
 hither. 
 
 To these three concessions I have but this fourth to 
 add, that 
 
 PROPOSITION IV. It may likewise be granted, that those 
 distinct substances, which concretes generally either 
 afford or are made up of, may without very much in- 
 convenience be called the elements or principles of them. 
 
 When I said, without very much inconvenience, I had in 
 my thoughts that sober admonition of Galen, Cum dere 
 constat, de verbis non est litigandum. And therefore also 
 I scruple not to say elements or principles, partly because 
 the chymists are wont to call the ingredients of mixt 
 bodies, principles, as the Aristotelians name them elements ; 
 I would here exclude neither. And, partly, because it 
 seems doubtful whether the same ingredients may not be 
 called principles : as not being compounded of any more 
 primary bodies: and elements, in regard that all mixt 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 35 
 
 bodies are compounded of them. But I thought it 
 requisite to limit my concession by premising the words 
 very much to the word inconvenience, because that 
 though the inconvenience of calling the distinct substances, 
 mentioned in the proposition elements or principles, be not 
 very great, yet that it is impropriety of speech, and con- 
 sequently in a matter of this moment not to be altogether 
 overlooked, you will perhaps think, as well as I, by that 
 time you shall have heard the following part of my dis- 
 course, by which you will best discern what construction 
 to put upon the former propositions, and how far they 
 may be looked upon as things that I concede as true, etc., 
 how far as things I only represent as specious enough to 
 be fit to be considered. 
 
 And now, Eleutherius (continues Carneades), I must 
 resume the person of a sceptic, and as such, propose some 
 part of what may be either disliked, or at least doubted of 
 in the common hypothesis of the chymists; which if I 
 examine with a little the more freedom, I hope I need not 
 desire you (a person to whom I have the happiness of 
 being so well known) to look upon it as something more 
 suitable to the employment whereto the company has, 
 for this meeting, doomed me, than either to my humour 
 or my custom. 
 
 Now though I might present you many things against 
 the vulgar chymical opinion of the three principles and 
 the experiments wont to be alleged as demonstrations of 
 it, yet those I shall at present offer you may be con- 
 veniently enough comprehended in four capital considera- 
 tions; touching all which I shall only premise this in 
 general, That since it is not my present task so much to 
 assert an hypothesis of my own, as to give an account 
 wherefore I suspect the truth of that of the chymists, it 
 ought not to be expected that all my objections should be 
 of the most cogent sort, since it is reason enough to doubt 
 of a proposed opinion, that there appears no cogent 
 reason for it. 
 
 To come then to the objections themselves; I consider 
 in the first place, that notwithstanding what common 
 chymists have proved or taught, it may reasonably enough 
 
36 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 be doubted, how far, and in what sense, fire ought to be 
 esteemed the genuine and universal instrument of analys- 
 ing mixt bodies. 
 
 This doubt, you may remember, was formerly mentioned, 
 but so transiently discoursed of, that it will now be fit to 
 insist upon it, and manifest that it was not so incon- 
 siderately proposed as our adversaries then imagined. 
 
 But, before I enter any further into this disquisition, I 
 cannot but here take notice, that it were to be wished our 
 chymists had clearly informed us what kind of division of 
 bodies by fire must determine the number of the elements : 
 For it is nothing near so easy as many seem to think, to 
 determine distinctly the effects of heat, as I could easily 
 manifest, if I had leasure to shew you how much the opera- 
 tions of fire may be diversified by circumstances. But 
 not wholly to pass by a matter of this importance, I will 
 first take notice to you that guajacum (for instance) 
 burnt with an open fire in a chimney, is sequestred into 
 ashes and soot, whereas the same wood distilled in a 
 retort does yield far other heterogeneities (to use the 
 Helmontian expression), and is resolved into oil, spirit, 
 vinegar, water and charcoal ; the last of which to be reduced 
 into ashes, requires the being farther calcined than it can 
 be in a close vessel: besides having kindled amber, and 
 held a clean silver spoon, or some other concave and 
 smooth vessel, over the smoak of its flame, I observed the 
 soot into which that fume condensed to be very differing 
 from anything that I had observed to proceed from the 
 steam of amber purposely (for that is not usual) distilled 
 per se in close vessels. Thus having, for trial's sake, 
 kindled camphire and catcht the smoak that copiously 
 ascended out of the flame, it condensed into a black 
 and unctuous soot, which would not have been guessed 
 by the smell or other properties to have proceeded from 
 camphire: whereas having (as I shall other, where more 
 fully declare) exposed a quantity of that fugitive con- 
 crete to a gentle heat in a close glass vessel, it sublimed 
 up without seeming to have lost anything of its whiteness, 
 or its nature, both which it retained, though afterwards 
 I so encreased the fire as to bring it to fusion. And, 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 37 
 
 besides camphire, there are divers other bodies (that 
 I elsewhere name) in which the heat in close vessels is not 
 wont to make any separation of heterogeneities, but only 
 a comminution of parts,, those that rise first being 
 homogeneal with the others, though subdivided into 
 smaller particles: whence sublimations have been styled, 
 The pestles of the chymists. But not here to mention 
 what I elsewhere take notice of, concerning common 
 brimstone once or twice sublimed, that exposed to a 
 moderate fire in subliming-pots, it rises all into dry, and 
 almost tasteless, flowers; whereas being exposed to a 
 naked fire it affords store of a saline and fretting liquor: 
 not to mention this, I say, I will further observe to you, 
 that as it is considerable in the analysis of mixt bodies, 
 whether the fire act on them when they are exposed to the 
 open air, or shut up in close vessels, so is the degree of fire, 
 by which the analysis is attempted, of no small moment. 
 For a milde balneum will sever unfermented blood (for 
 instance) but into phlegme and caput mortuum, the latter 
 whereof (which I have sometimes had), hard, brittle, and of 
 divers colours (transparent almost like tortoise-shell), 
 pressed by a good fire in a retort yields a spirit, an oil or 
 two, and a volatile salt, besides another caput mortuum. It 
 may be also pertinent to our present designe, to take notice 
 of what happens in the making and distilling of soap ; for by 
 one degree of fire the salt, the water, and the oil or grease, 
 whereof that factitious concrete is made up, being boiled 
 up together are easily brought to mingle and incorporate 
 into one mass ; but by another and further degree of heat 
 the same mass may be again divided into an oleagenous 
 and aqueous, a saline, and an earthy part. And so we 
 may observe that impure silver and lead being exposed 
 together to a moderate fire will thereby be colliquated into 
 one mass, and mingle per minima, as they speak; whereas 
 a much vehementer fire will drive or carry off the baser 
 metals (I mean the lead, and the copper or other alloy) 
 from the silver, though not, for ought appears, separate 
 them from one another. Besides, when a vegetable 
 abounding in fixt salt is analysed by a naked fire, as one 
 degree of heat will reduce it into ashes (as the chymists 
 
38 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 themselves teach us), so, by only a further degree of fire, 
 those ashes may be vitrified and turned into glass. I will 
 not stay to examine how far a mere chymist might on this 
 occasion demand, if it be lawful for an Aristotelian to make 
 ashes (which he mistakes for mere earth) pass for an 
 element, because by one degree of fire it may be produced, 
 why a chymist may not upon the like principle argue that 
 glass is one of the elements of many bodies, because that 
 also may be obtained from them, barely by the fire? I 
 will not, I say, lose time to examine this, but observe that 
 by a method of applying the fire, such similar bodies may 
 be obtained from a concrete, as chymists have not been 
 able to separate, either by barely burning it in an open 
 fire, or by barely distilling it in close vessels. For to me 
 it seems very considerable, and I wonder that men have 
 taken so little notice of it, that I have not by any of the 
 common wayes of distillation in close vessels seen any 
 separation made of such a volatile salt as is afforded us 
 by wood, when that is first by an open fire divided into 
 ashes and soot, and that soot is afterwards placed in a 
 strong retort, and compelled by an urgent fire to part 
 with its spirit, oil, and salt; for though I dare not peremp- 
 torily deny that in the liquors of guaiacum and other 
 woods distilled in retorts after the common manner, there 
 may be saline parts, which by reason of the analogy may 
 pretend to the name of some kinde of volatile salts,, yet 
 questionless there is a great disparity betwixt such salts 
 and that which we have sometimes obtained upon the 
 first distillation of soot (though for the most part it has 
 not been separated from the first or second rectification, 
 and sometimes not till the third). For we could never 
 yet see separated from woods analysed only the vulgar 
 way in close vessels any volatile salt in a dry and saline 
 form, as that of soot, which we have often had very 
 crystalline and geometrically figured. And then, whereas 
 the saline parts of the spirits of guaiacum, etc., appear 
 upon distillation sluggish enough, the salt of soot seems 
 to be one of the most volatile bodies in all nature; and if 
 it be well made will readily ascend with the milde heat of 
 a furnace, warmed only by the single wick of a lamp, to 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 39 
 
 the top of the highest glass vessels that are commonly 
 made use of for distillation: and besides all this, the taste 
 and smell of the salt of soot are exceedingly differing 
 from those of the spirits of guaiacum, etc., and the former 
 not only smells and tastes much less like a vegetable salt, 
 than like that of harts-horn, and other animal concretes, 
 but in divers other properties seems more of kin to the 
 family of animals than to that of vegetable salts, as I 
 may elsewhere (God permitting) have an occasion more 
 particularly to declare. I might likewise by some other 
 examples manifest that the chymists, to have dealt 
 clearly, ought to have more explicitly and particularly ' 
 declared by what degree of fire, and in what manner of 
 application of it, they would have us judge a division 
 made by the fire to be a true analysis into their principles, 
 and the productions of it to deserve the name of elemen- 
 tarjr bodies. But it is time that I proceed to mention the 
 particular reasons that incline me to doubt whether the 
 fire be the true and universal analyser of mixt bodies; 
 of which reasons what has been already objected may 
 pass for one. 
 
 In the next place I observe, that there are some mixt 
 bodies from which it has not been yet made appear that 
 any degree of fire can separate either salt or sulphur or 
 mercury, much less all the three. The most obvious in- 
 stance of this truth is gold, which is a body so fixt, and 
 wherein the elementary ingredients (if it have any) are so 
 firmly united to each other, that we finde not in the opera- 
 tions wherein gold is exposed to the fire, how violent 
 soever, that it does discernably so much as lose of its 
 fixedness or weight, so far is it from being dissipated into 
 those principles, whereof one at least is acknowledged to be 
 fugitive enough; and so justly did the spagirical poet 
 somewhere exclaim : 
 
 Cuncta adeo miris compagibus hcerent. 
 
 And I must not omit on this occasion to mention to you, 
 Eleutherius, the memorable experiment that I remember 
 I met with in * Gasto Claveus, who, though a lawyer by 
 1 Gasto Claveus Apolog. Argur. and Chryf opera. 
 
40 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 profession, seems to have had no small curiosity and 
 experience in chymical affairs : he relates then, that having 
 put into one small earthen vessel an ounce of the most 
 pure gold, and into another the like weight of pure silver, 
 he placed them both in that part of a glass-house furnace 
 wherein the workmen keep their metal (as our English 
 artificers call their liquid glass) continually melted, and 
 that having there kept both the gold and the silver in 
 constant fusion for two months together, he afterwards 
 took them out of the furnace and the vessels, and weighing 
 both of them again, found that the silver had not lost 
 above a twelfth part of its weight, but the gold had not of 
 his lost anything at all. And though our author en- 
 deavours to give us of this a scholastic reason, which I 
 suppose you would be as little satisfied with, as I was 
 when I read it, yet for the matter of fact, which will 
 serve our present turne, he assures us, that though it be 
 strange, yet experience itself taught it him to be most 
 true. 
 
 And though there be not perhaps any other body to 
 be found so perfectly fixt as gold, yet there are divers 
 others so fixt or composed, at least of so strictly united 
 parts, that I have not yet observed the fire to separate 
 from them any one of the chymist's principles. I need not 
 tell you what complaints the more candid and judicious 
 of the chymists themselves are wont to make of those 
 boasters that confidently pretend, that they have 
 extracted the salt or sulphur of quicksilver, when they 
 have disguised it by additaments, wherewith it resembles 
 the concretes whose names are given it; whereas by a 
 skilful and rigid examen, it may be easily enough stript of 
 its disguises, and made to appear again in the pristine 
 form - of running mercury. The pretended salts and 
 sulphurs being so far from being elementary parts ex- 
 tracted out of the bodie of mercurie, that they are rather 
 (to borrow a terme of the grammarians) de-compound 
 bodies, made up of the whole metal and the menstruum, 
 or other additaments imployed to disguise it. And as 
 for silver, I never could see any degree of fire make it 
 part with any of its three principles. And though the 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 41 
 
 experiment lately mentioned from Claveus may beget 
 a suspition that silver may be dissipated by fire, provided 
 it be extreamly violent and very lasting, yet it will not 
 necessarily follow, that because the fire was able at length 
 to make the silver lose a little of its weight, it was there- 
 fore able to dissipate it into its principles. For first I 
 might alledge that I have observed little grains of silver to 
 lie hid in the small cavities (perhaps glassed over by a 
 vitrifying heat) in crucibles, wherein silver has been long 
 kept in fusion, whence some goldsmiths of my acquaint- 
 ance make a benefit by grinding such crucibles to powder, 
 to recover out of them the latent particles of silver. 
 And hence I might argue, that perhaps Claveus was mis- 
 taken, and imagined that silver to have been driven away 
 by the fire, that indeed lay in minute parts hid in his 
 crucible, in whose pores so small a quantity as he misst 
 of so ponderous a bodie might very well lie concealed. 
 
 But secondly, admitting that some parts of the silver 
 were driven away by the violence of the fire, what proof 
 is there that it was either the salt, the sulphur, or the 
 mercury of the metal, and not rather a part of it homo- 
 geneous to what remained? For besides that the silver 
 that was left seemed not sensibly altered, which probably 
 would have appeared, had so much of any one of its prin- 
 ciples been separated from it; we finde in other mineral 
 bodies of a less permanent nature than silver, that the 
 fire may divide them into such minute parts, as to be able 
 to carry them away with itself, without at all destroying 
 their nature. Thus we see that in the refining of silver, 
 the lead that is mixt with it (to carry away the copper or 
 other ignoble mineral that embases the silver) will, if it 
 be let alone, in time evaporate away upon the test; but 
 if (as is most usual amongst those that refine great quanti- 
 ties of metals together) the lead be blown off from the 
 silver by bellowes, that which would else have gone away 
 in the form of unheeded steams will in great part be 
 collected not far from the silver, in the form of a darkish 
 powder or calx; which, because it is blown off from silver, 
 they call litharge of silver. And thus Agricola in divers 
 places informs us, when copper, or the ore of it, is colli- 
 
42 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 quated by the violence of the fire with cadmia, the sparks, 
 that in great multitudes do fly upwards, do some of them 
 stick to the vaulted roofs of the furnaces, in the form of 
 little and (for the most part) white bubbles, which there- 
 fore the Greeks, and, in imitation of them, our drugsters 
 call pompholyx : and others more heavy partly adhere to 
 the sides of the furnace, and partly (especially if the 
 covers be not kept upon the pots) fall to the ground, and 
 by reason of their ashy colour as well as weight were 
 called by the same Greeks o-TroSbs, which, I need not tell 
 you, in their language signifies ashes. I might add, that 
 I have not found that from Venetian talc (I say Venetian 
 because I have found other kinds of that mineral more 
 open), from the lapis ossifragus (which the shops call 
 ostiocolla), from Muscovia glass, from pure and fusible 
 sand (to mention now no other concretes), those of my 
 acquaintance that have tried, have been able by the fire 
 to separate any one of the hypostatical principles ; which 
 you will the less scruple to believe, if you consider that 
 glass may be made by the bare colliquation of the salt 
 and earth remaining in the ashes of a burnt plant, and 
 that yet common glass, once made, does so far resist the 
 violence of the fire, that most chymists think it a body 
 more undestroyable than gold itself. For if the artificer 
 can so firmly unite such ccmparative gross particles as 
 those of earth and salt that make up common ashes, into 
 a body indissoluble by fire, why may not nature associate 
 in divers bodies the more minute elementary corpuscles 
 she has at hand too firmly to let them be separable by 
 the fire ? And on this occasion, Eleutherius, give me leave 
 to mention to you two or three slight experiments, which 
 will, I hope, be found more pertinent to our present 
 discourse, than at first perhaps they will appear. The 
 first is, that, having (for trial's sake) put a quantity of that 
 fugitive concrete, camphire, into a glass vessel, and 
 placed it in a gentle heat, I found it (not leaving behinde, 
 according to my estimate, not so much as one grain) to 
 sublime to the top of the vessel into flowers; which is 
 whiteness, smell, etc., seemed not to differ from the cam- 
 phire itself. Another experiment is that of Helmont, who 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 43 
 
 in several places affirms, that a coal kept in a glass exactly 
 closed will never be calcined to ashes, though kept never 
 so long in a strong fire : to countenance which I shall tell 
 you this trial of my own, that having sometimes distilled 
 some woods, as particularly box, whilst our caput mortuum 
 remained in the retort, it continued black like charcoal, 
 though the retort were earthen, and kept red-hot in a 
 vehement fire; but as soon as ever it was brought out 
 of the candent vessel into the open air, the burning coals 
 did hastily degenerate or fall asunder, without the assist- 
 ance of any new calcination, into pure white ashes. And 
 to these two I shall add but this obvious and known 
 observation, that common sulphur (if it be pure and freed 
 from its vinegar) being leasurely sublimed in close vessels, 
 rises into dry flowers, which may be presently melted into 
 a bodie of the same nature with that which afforded them. 
 Though, if brimstone be burnt in the open air, it gives, 
 you know, a penetrating fume, which being caught in a 
 glass bell condenses into that acid liquor called oil of 
 sulphur per campanam. The use I would make of these 
 experiments collated with what I lately told you out of 
 Agricola is this, that even among the bodies that are not 
 fixt, there are divers of such a texture, that it will be 
 hard to make it appear how the fire, as chymists are wont 
 to imploy it, can resolve them into elementary substances. 
 For some bodies being of such a texture that the fire can 
 drive them into the cooler and less hot part of the vessels 
 wherein they are included, and if need be, remove them 
 from place to place to fly the greatest heat, more easily 
 than it can divorce their elements (especially without the 
 assistance of the air), we see that our chymists cannot 
 analyse them in close vessels, and of other compound 
 bodies the open fire can as little separate the elements. 
 For what can a naked fire do to analyse a mixt bodie, 
 if its component principles be so minute, and so strictly 
 united, that the corpuscles of it need less heat to carry 
 them up than is requisite to divide them into their prin- 
 ciples? So that of some bodies the fire cannot in close 
 vessels make any analysis at all; and others will in the 
 open air fly away in the forms of flowers or liquors, before 
 
44 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 the heat can prove able to divide them into their prin- 
 ciples. And this may hold, whether the various similar 
 parts of a concrete be combined by nature or by art; for 
 in factitious sal ammoniac we finde the common and the 
 urinous salts so well mingled, that both in the open fire, 
 and in subliming vessels they rise together as one salt, 
 which seems in such vessels irresoluble by fire alone. 
 For I can shew you sal ammoniac which after the ninth 
 sublimation does still retain its compounded nature. And 
 
 \S" indeed I scarce know any one mineral, from which by fire 
 alone chymists are wont to sever any substance simple 
 enough to deserve the name of an element or principle. 
 For though out of native cinnaber they distil quicksilver, 
 and though from many of those stones that the ancients 
 called pyrites they sublime brimstone, yet both that 
 quicksilver and this sulphur being very often the same 
 with the common minerals that are sold in the shops under 
 those names, are themselves too much compounded 
 bodies to pass for the elements of such. And thus much, 
 Eleutherius, for the second argument that belongs to my 
 first consideration; the others I shall the lesse insist on, 
 because I have dwelt so long upon this. 
 
 Proceed we then in the next place to consider, that 
 there are divers separations to be made by other means, 
 
 v* which either cannot at all, or else cannot so well be made 
 by the fire alone. When gold and silver are melted into 
 one mass, it would lay a great obligation upon refiners 
 and goldsmiths to teach them the art of separating them 
 by the fire, without the trouble and charge they are fain 
 to be at to sever them. Whereas they may be very easily 
 parted by the affusion of spirit of nitre or aqua /or/z's ; 
 which the French therefore call eau de depart : so likewise 
 the metalline part of vitriol will not be so easily and con- 
 veniently separated from the saline part even by a violent 
 fire, as by the affusion of certain alkalisate salts in a 
 liquid form upon the solution of vitriol made in common 
 water. For thereby the acid salt of the vitriol leaving 
 the copper it had corroded to join with the added salts, 
 the metalline part will be precipitated to the bottom 
 almost like mud. And that I may not give instances only 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 45 
 
 in de-compound bodies, I will add a not useless one of 
 another kinde. Not only chymists have not been able 
 (for ought is vulgarly known) by fire alone to separate 
 true sulphur from antimony, but though you may finde 
 in their books many plausible processes of extracting it, 
 yet he that shall make as many fruitless trials as I have 
 done to obtain it by, most of them will, I suppose, be 
 easily persuaded, that the productions of such processes 
 are antimonial sulphurs rather in name than nature. 
 But though antimony sublimed by itself is reduced but to 
 a volatile powder, or antimonial flowers, of a compounded 
 nature like the mineral that affords them : yet I remember 
 that some years ago I sublimed out of antimony a sulphur, 
 and that in greater plenty than ever I saw obtained from 
 that mineral, by a method which I shall therefore acquaint 
 you with, because chymists seem not to have taken notice 
 of what importance such experiments may be in the in- 
 dagation of the nature, and especially of the number of the 
 elements. Having then purposely for trial's sake digested 
 eight ounces of good and well powdered antimony with 
 twelve ounces of oil of vitriol in a well stopt glass vessel 
 for about six or seven weeks ; and having caused the mass 
 (grown hard and brittle) to be distilled in a retort placed 
 in sand, with a strong fire ; we found the antimony to be 
 so opened, or altered by the menstruum wherewith it had 
 been digested, that whereas crude antimony, forced up 
 by the fire, arises only in flowers, our antimony thus 
 handled afforded us partly in the receiver, and partly in the 
 neck and at the top of the retort, about an ounce of 
 sulphur, yellow and brittle like common brimstone, and of 
 so sulphureous a smell, that upon the unluting the vessels it 
 infected the room with a scarce supportable stink. And 
 this sulphur, besides the colour and smell, had the perfect 
 inflammability of common brimstone, and would imme- 
 diately kindle (at the flame of a candle) and burn blue 
 like it. And though it seemed that the long digestion 
 wherein our antimony and menstruum were detained, 
 did conduce to the better unlocking of the mineral, yet if 
 you have not the leasure to make so long a digestion you 
 may by incorporating with powdered antimony a con- 
 
46 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 venient quantity of oil of vitriol, and committing them 
 immediately to distillation, obtain a little sulphur like 
 unto the common one, and more combustible than perhaps 
 you will at first take notice of. For I have observed, that 
 though (after its being first kindled) the flame would 
 sometimes go out too soon of itself, if the same lump of 
 sulphur were held again to the flame of a candle, it would 
 be rekindled and burn a pretty while, not only after the 
 second, but after the third or fourth accension. You, to 
 whom I think I shewed my way of discovering something 
 of sulphureous in oil of vitriol, may perchance suspect, 
 Eleutherius, either that this substance was some venereal 
 sulphur that lay hid in that liquor, and was by this opera- 
 tion only reduced into a manifest body; or else that it 
 was a compound of the unctuous parts of the antimony, 
 and the saline ones of the vitriol, in regard that (as 
 Gunther informs us) divers learned men would have 
 sulphur to be nothing but a mixture made in the bowels of 
 the earth of vitriolate spirits and a certain combustible 
 substance. But the quantity of sulphur we obtained by 
 digestion was much too great to have been latent in the oil 
 of vitriol. And that vitriolate spirits are not necessary to 
 the construction of such a sulphur as ours, I could easily 
 manifest, if I would acquaint you with the several wayes 
 by which I have obtained, though not in such plenty, a 
 sulphur of antimony, coloured and combustible like 
 common brimstone. And though I am not now minded 
 to discover them, yet I shall tell you, that to satisfie some 
 ingenious men, that distilled vitriolate spirits are not 
 necessary to the obtaining of such a sulphur as we have 
 been considering, I did by the bare distillation of only 
 spirit of nitre, from its weight of crude antimony separate, 
 in a short time, a yellow and very inflammable sulphur, 
 which, for ought I know, deserves as much the name of an 
 element as anything that chymists are wont to separate 
 from any mineral by the fire. I could perhaps tell you 
 of other operations upon antimony, whereby that may 
 be extracted from it, which cannot be forced out of it by 
 the fire ; but I shall reserve them for a fitter opportunity, 
 and only annex at present this slight, but not impertinent 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 47 
 
 experiment. That whereas I lately observed to you, 
 that the urinous and common salts whereof sal ammoniac 
 consists, remained unsevered by the fire in many succes- 
 sive sublimations, they may be easily separated, and 
 partly without any fire at all, by pouring upon the 
 concrete finely powdered, a solution of salt of tartar, or 
 of the salt of wood-ashes; for upon your diligently mixing 
 of these you will finde your nose invaded with a very 
 strong smell of urine, and perhaps too your eyes forced to 
 water, by the same subtle and piercing body that produces 
 the stink; both these effects proceeding from hence, that 
 by the alkalisate salt, the sea salt that entered the com- 
 position of the sal ammoniac is mortified and made more 
 fixt, and thereby a divorce is made between it and the 
 volatile urinous salt, which being at once set at liberty, 
 and put into motion, begins presently to fly away, and 
 to offend the nostrils and eyes it meets with by the way. 
 And if the operation of these salts be in convenient glasses 
 promoted by warmth, though but by that of a bath, the 
 ascending steames may easily be caught and reduced into 
 a penetrant spirit, abounding with a salt, which I have 
 sometimes found to be separable in a crystalline form. 
 I might add to these instances, that where as sublimate, 
 consisting, as you know, of salts and quicksilver combined 
 and carried up together by heat, may be sublimed, I 
 know not how often, by a like degree of fire, without 
 suffering any divorce of the component bodies, the 
 mercury may be easily severed from the adhering salts, if 
 the sublimate be distilled from salt of tartar, quicklime, 
 or such alkalisate bodies. But I will rather observe to 
 you, Eleutherius, what divers ingenious men have thought 
 somewhat strange, that by such an additament that seems 
 but only to promote the separation, there may be easily 
 obtained from a concrete, that by the fire alone is easily 
 divisible into all the elements that vegetables are sup- 
 posed to consist of, such a similar substance as differs in 
 many respects from them all, and consequently has by 
 many of the most intelligent chymists been denied to be 
 contained in the mixt body. For I know a way, and 
 have practised it, whereby common tartar, without the 
 
48 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 addition of anything that is not perfectly a mineral, except 
 saltpetre, may by one distillation in an earthen retort be 
 made to afford good store of real salt, readily dissoluble 
 in water, which I found to be neither acid, nor of the 
 smell of tartar, and to be almost as volatile as spirit of 
 wine itself, and to be indeed of so differing a nature from 
 all that is wont to be separated by fire from tartar, and 
 divers learned men, with whom I discoursed of it, could 
 hardly be brought to believe, that so fugitive a salt could 
 be afforded by tartar, till I assured it them upon my own 
 knowledge. And if I did not think you apt to suspect 
 me to be rather too backward than too forward to credit 
 or affirm unlikely things, I could convince you by what 
 I have yet lying by me of that anomalous salt. 
 
 The fourth thing that I shall alledge to countenance my 
 first consideration is, that the fire even when it divides a 
 body into substances of divers consistences, does not 
 \/ most commonly analyse it into hypostatical principles, 
 but only disposes its parts into new textures, and thereby 
 produces concretes of a new indeed, but yet of a com- 
 pound nature. This argument it will be requisite for me 
 to prosecute so fully hereafter, that I hope you will then 
 confess that 'tis not for want of good proofs that I desire 
 leave to suspend my proofs till the series of my discourse 
 shall make it more proper and seasonable to propose them. 
 
 It may be further alledged on the behalf of my first con- 
 sideration, that some such distinct substances may be 
 obtained from some concretes without fire, as deserve no 
 less the name of elementary than many that chymists 
 extort by the violence of the fire. 
 
 We see that the inflammable spirit, or as the chymists 
 esteem it, the sulphur of wine, may not only be separated 
 from it by the gentle heat of a bath, but may be distilled 
 either by the help of the sunbeams, or even of a dunghill, 
 being indeed of so fugitive a nature, that it is not easy to 
 keep it from flying away, even without the application 
 of external heat. I have likewise observed that a vessel 
 full of urine being placed in a dunghill, the putrefaction 
 is wont after some weeks so to open the body, that the 
 parts disbanding the saline spirit, will within no very long 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 49 
 
 time, if the vessel be not stoppt, fly away of itself; inso- 
 much that from such urine I have been able to distil 
 little or nothing else than a nauseous phlegme, instead of 
 the active and piercing salt and spirit that it would have 
 afforded, when first exposed to the fire, if the vessel had 
 been carefully stoppt. 
 
 And this leads me to consider, in the fifth place, that 
 it will be very hard to prove, that there can no other 
 body or way be given which will as well as the fire 
 divide concretes into several homogeneous substances, 
 which may consequently be called their elements or 
 principles, as well as those separated or produced by 
 the fire. For since we have lately seen, that nature 
 can successfully employ other instruments than the fire 
 to separate distinct substances from mixt bodies, how 
 know we, but that nature has made, or art may make, 
 some such substance as may be a fit instrument to 
 analyse mixt bodies, or that some such method may be 
 found by human industry or luck, by whose means com- 
 pound bodies may be resolved into other substances than 
 such as they are wont to be divided into by the fire. And 
 why the products of such an analysis may not as justly 
 be called the component principles of the bodies that 
 afford them, it will not be easy to shew, especially since 
 I shall hereafter make it evident, that the substances 
 which chymists are wont to call the salts, and sulphurs, 
 and mercuries of bodies, are not so pure and elementary 
 as they presume, and as their hypothesis requires. And 
 this may therefore be the more freely pressed upon the 
 chymists, because neither the Paracelsansi, nor the Hel- 
 montians can reject it without apparent injury to their 
 respective masters. For Helmont does more than once 
 inform his readers, that both Paracelsus and himself were 
 possessors of the famous liquor, alkahest, which for its 
 great power in resolving bodies irresoluble by vulgar fires, 
 he somewhere seems to call ignis Gehenna. To this 
 liquor he ascribes (and that in great part upon his own 
 experience) such wonders, that if we suppose them all 
 true, I am so much the more a friend to knowledge than 
 to wealth, that I should think the alkahest a nobler and 
 
 D 
 
50 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 more desirable secret than the philosopher's stone itself. 
 Of this universal dissolvent he relates, that having 
 digested with it for a compentet time a piece of oaken 
 charcoal, it was thereby reduced into a couple of new and 
 distinct liquors, discriminated from each other by their 
 colour and situation, and that the whole body of the coal 
 was reduced into those liquors, both of them separable 
 from his immortal menstruum, which remained as fit for 
 such operations as before. And he moreover tells us in 
 divers places of his writings, that by his powerful, and un- 
 wearied agent, he could dissolve metals, marchasites, 
 stones, vegetable and animal bodies of what kinde soever, 
 and even glass itself (first reduced to powder), and in a 
 word, all kind of mixt bodies in the world, into their 
 several similar substances, without any residence or 
 caput mortuum. And lastly, we may gather this further 
 from his informations, that the homogeneous substances 
 obtainable from compound bodies by his piercing liquor, 
 were oftentimes different enough, both as to number and as 
 to nature, from those into which the same bodies are 
 wont to be divided by common fire. Of which I shall 
 need in this place to mention no other proof, than what 
 whereas we know that in our common analysis of a 
 mixt body there remains a terrestrial and very fixt 
 substance, oftentimes associated with a salt as fixt; 
 our author tells us, that by his way he could distil over 
 all concretes without any caput mortuum, and conse- 
 quently could make those parts of the concrete volatile, 
 which in the vulgar analysis would have been fixt. So 
 that if our chymists will not reject the solemn and repeated 
 testimony of a person, who cannot but be acknowledged 
 for one of the greatest spagyrists that they can boast of, 
 they must not deny that there is to be found in nature 
 another agent able to analyse compound bodies less 
 violently, and both more genuinely and more universally 
 than the fire. And for my own part, though I cannot 
 but say on this occasion what (you know) our friend 
 Mr. Boyle is wont to say, when he is askt his opinion of 
 any strange experiment; That he that hath seen it hath 
 more reason to believe it, than he that hath not, yet I have 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 51 
 
 found Helmont so faithful a writer, even in divers of his 
 improbable experiments (I alwaies except that extravagant 
 treatise De Magnetica Vulnerum Curatione, which some 
 of his friends affirm to have been first published by his 
 enemies) that I think it somewhat harsh to give him the 
 lye, especially to what he delivers upon his own proper 
 tryal. And I have heard from very credible eye-witnesses 
 some things, and seen some others myself, which argue 
 so strongly, that a circulated salt, or a menstruum (such 
 as it may be) may by being abstracted from compound 
 bodies, whether mineral, animal, or vegetable, leave them 
 more unlockt than a wary naturalist would easily believe, 
 that I dare not confidently measure the power of nature 
 and art by that of the menstruums, and other instruments 
 that eminent chymists themselves are as yet wont to 
 employ about the analysing of bodies; nor deny that a 
 menstruum may at least from this or that particular 
 concrete obtain some apparently similar substance, 
 differing from any obtainable from the same body by any 
 degree or manner of application of the fire. And I am 
 the more backward to deny peremptorily, that there may 
 be such openers of compound bodies, because among the 
 experiments that make me speak thus warily, there wanted 
 not some in which it appeared not, that one of the sub- 
 stances, not separable by common fires and menstruums, 
 could retain anything of the salt by which the separation 
 was made. 
 
 And here, Eleutherius (says Carneades) I should con- 
 clude as much of my discourse as belongs to the first 
 consideration I proposed, but that I foresee, that what 
 I have delivered will appear liable to two such specious 
 objections, that I cannot safely proceed any further till 
 I have examined them. 
 
 And first, one sort of opposers will be forward to tell 
 me, that they do not pretend by fire alone to separate out 
 of all compound bodies their hypostatical principles; 
 it being sufficient that the fire divides them into such, 
 though afterwards they employ other bodies to collect 
 the similar parts of the compound; as 'tis known, that 
 though they make use of water to collect the saline parts 
 
52 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 of ashes from the terrestrial wherewith they are blended, 
 yet it is the fire only that incinerates bodies, and reduces 
 the fixed part of them into the salt and earth, whereof 
 ashes are made up. This objection is not, I confess, 
 inconsiderable, and I might in great part allow of it, 
 without granting it to make against me, if I would content 
 myself to answer, that it is not against those that make 
 it that I have been disputing, but against those vulgar 
 chymists, who themselves believe, and would fain make 
 ' others do so, that the fire is not only an universal, but 
 an adequate and sufficient instrument to analyse mixt 
 bodies with. For as to their practice of extracting the 
 fixed salt out of ashes by the affusion of water, 'tis obvious 
 to alledge, that the water does only assemble together 
 the salt, the fire had before divided from the earth: as 
 a sieve does not further break the corn, but only bring 
 together into two distinct heaps the flower and the bran, 
 whose corpuscles before lay promiscuously blended to- 
 gether in the meal. This I say I might alledge, and there- 
 by exempt myself from the need of taking any farther 
 notice of the proposed objection. But not to lose the 
 rise it may afford me of illustrating the matter under 
 consideration, I am content briefly to consider it, as far 
 forth as my present disquisition may be concerned in it. 
 
 Not to repeat then what has been already answered, 
 I say further, that though I am so civil an adversary, 
 that I will allow the chymists, after the fire has done all 
 its work, the use of fair water to make their extractions 
 with, in such cases wherein the water does not co-operate 
 with the fire to make the analysis ; yet since I grant this 
 but upon supposition that the water does only wash off 
 the saline particles, which the fire alone has before extri- 
 cated in the analysed body, it will not be reasonable, that 
 this concession should extend to other liquors that may 
 add to what they dissolve, nor so much as to other cases 
 than those newly mentioned: which limitation I desire 
 you would be pleased to bear in mind till I shall anon 
 have occasion to make use of it. And this being thus 
 premised, I shall proceed to observe, 
 
 First, that many of the instances I proposed in the 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 53 
 
 preceding discourse are such, that the objection we are 
 considering will not at all reach them. For fire can no 
 more with the assistance of water, than without it, 
 separate any of the three principles, either from gold, 
 silver, mercury, or some others of the concretes named 
 above. 
 
 Hence we may inferre, that fire is not an universal 
 analyser of all mixt bodies, since of metals and minerals, 
 wherein chymists have most exercised themselves, there 
 appear scarce any which they are able to analyse by fire, 
 nay, from which they can unquestionably separate so 
 much as any one of their hypostatical principles; which 
 may well appear no small disparagement, as well to their 
 hypothesis, as to their pretensions. 
 
 It will also remain true, notwithstanding the objection, 
 that there may be other wayes, than the wonted analysis 
 by fire, to separate from a compound body substances 
 as homogeneous as those that chymists scruple not to 
 reckon among their tria prima (as some of them, for 
 brevity sake, call their three principles). 
 
 And it appears, that by convenient additaments such 
 substances may be separated by the help of the fire, as 
 could not be so by the fire alone. Witness the sulphur 
 of antimony. 
 
 And lastly, I must represent, that since it appears too 
 that the fire is but one of the instruments that must be 
 employed in the resolution of bodies, we may reasonably 
 challenge the liberty of doing two things. For when- 
 ever any menstruum or other additament is employed, 
 together with the fire to obtain a sulphur or a salt from 
 a body, we may well take the freedom to examine, whether 
 or no that menstruum do barely help to separate the 
 principle obtained by it, or whether there intervene not 
 a coalition of the parts of the body wrought upon with 
 those of the menstruum, whereby the produced concrete 
 may be judged to result from the union of both. And it 
 will be farther allowable for us to consider, how far any 
 substance, separated by the help of such additaments, 
 ought to pass for one of the tria prima ; since by one way 
 of handling the same mixt body, it may, according to the 
 
54 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 nature of the additaments, and the method of working 
 upon it, be made to afford differing substances from those 
 obtainable from it by other additaments, and another 
 method, nay and (as may appear by what I formerly told 
 you about tartar) differing from any of the substances 
 into which a concrete is divisible by the fire without 
 additaments, though perhaps those additaments do not, 
 as ingredients, enter the composition of the obtained body, 
 but only diversify the operation of the fire upon the 
 concrete; and though that concrete by the fire alone may 
 be divided into a number of differing substances, as great 
 as any of the chymists, that I have met with, teach us 
 that of the elements to be. And having said thus much 
 (saies Carneades) to the objection likely to be proposed 
 by some chymists, I am now to examine that which I 
 foresee will be confidently pressed by divers peripateticks, 
 who, to prove fire to be the true analyser of bodies, will 
 plead, that it is the very definition of heat given by 
 Aristotle, and generally received, congregare homogenea, 
 et heterogenea segregare, to assemble things of a 
 resembling, and disjoyn those of a differing nature. To 
 this I answer, that this effect is far from being so essential 
 to heat, as 'tis generally imagined; for it rather seems, 
 that the true and genuine property of heat is, to set a 
 moving, and thereby to dissociate the parts of bodies, 
 and subdivide them into minute particles, without regard 
 to their being homogeneous or heterogeneous, as is 
 apparent in the boyling of water, the distillation of quick- 
 silver, or the exposing of bodies to the action of the fire, 
 whose parts either are not (at least in that degree of heat 
 appear not) dissimilar, where, all that the fire can do, is 
 to divide the body into very minute parts which are of 
 the same nature with one another, and with their totum, 
 as their reduction by condensation evinces. And even 
 when the fire seems most so congregare homogenea, et 
 segregare heterogenea, it produces that effect but by 
 accident; for the fire does but dissolve the cement, or 
 rather shatter the frame, or structure that kept the 
 heterogeneous parts of bodies together, under one common 
 form; upon which dissolution the component particles 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 55 
 
 of the mixt, being freed and set at liberty, do naturally, 
 and oftentimes without any operation of the fire, associate 
 themselves each with its like, or rather do take those 
 places which their several degrees of gravity and levity, 
 fixedness or volatility (either natural, or adventitious 
 from the impression of the fire) assigne them. Thus in 
 the distillation (for instance) of man's blood, the fire does 
 first begin to dissolve the nexus or cement of the body; 
 and then the water, being the most volatile, and easy to 
 be extracted, is either by the igneous atomes, or the 
 agitation they are put into by the fife, lirst "carried up, 
 till forsaken by what carried it up, its weight sinks it 
 down, into the receiver: but all this while the other 
 principles of the concrete remain unsevered, and require 
 a stronger degree of heat to make a separation of its 
 more fixt elements; and therefore the fire must be 
 increased which carries over the volatile salt and the 
 spirit, they being, though believed to be differing principles, 
 and though really of different consistency, yet of an 
 almost equal volatility. After them, as less fugitive, 
 comes over the oyl, and leaves behinde the earth and the 
 alcali, which being of an equal fixednesse, the fire severs 
 them not, for all the definition of the schools. And if 
 into a red-hot earthen or iron retort you cast the matter 
 to be distilled, you may observe, as I have often done, 
 that the predominant fire will carry up all the volatile 
 elements confusedly in one fume, which will afterwards 
 take their places in the receiver, either according to the 
 degree of their gravity, or according to the exigency of 
 their respective textures; the salt adhering, for the most 
 part, to the sides and top, and the phlegme fastening 
 itself there too in great drops, the oyle and spirit placing 
 themselves under, or above one another, according as 
 their ponderousness makes them swim or sink. For 'tis 
 observable, that though oyl or liquid sulphur be one of the 
 elements separated by this fiery analysis, yet the heat 
 which accidentally unites the particles of the other volatile 
 principles, has not alwayes the same operation on this, 
 there being divers bodies which yield two oyls, whereof the 
 one sinks to the bottom of that spirit on which the other 
 
56 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 swims; as I can shew you in some oyls of the same deers 
 blood, which are yet by me; nay I can shew you two oyls 
 carefully made of the same parcel of humane blood, which 
 not only differ extreamly in colour, but swim upon one 
 another without mixture, and if by agitation confounded 
 will of themselves divorce again. 
 
 And that the fire doth oftentimes divide bodies, upon 
 the account that some of their parts are more fixt, and 
 some more volatile, how far soever either of these two 
 may be from a pure elementary nature is obvious enough, 
 if men would but heed it in the burning of wood, which 
 the fire dissipates into smoake and ashes : for not only the 
 latter of these is confessedly made up of two such differing 
 bodies as earth and salt; but the former being condensed 
 into that soot which adheres to our chimneys, discovers 
 itself to contain both salt and oyl, and spirit and earth, 
 (and some portion of phlegme too) which being, all almost, 
 equally volatile to that degree of fire which forces them 
 up, (the more volatile parts helping perhaps, as well as the 
 urgency of the fire, to carry up the more fixt ones, as I 
 have often tried in dulcified colcothar, sublimed by sal 
 amoniack blended with it) are carried up together, but 
 may afterwards be separated by other degrees of fire, 
 whose orderly gradation allowes the disparity of their 
 volatileness to discover itself. Besides, if differing bodies 
 / united into one mass be both sufficiently fixt, the fire 
 finding no parts volatile enough to be expelled or carried 
 up, makes no separation at all; as may appear by a 
 mixture of colliquated silver and gold, whose component 
 metals may be easily severed by aqua fortis, or aqua regis 
 (according to the predominancy of the silver or the gold) 
 but in the fire alone, though vehement, the metals remain 
 unsevered, the fire only dividing the body into smaller 
 particles (whose littleness may be argued from their 
 fluidity) in which either the little nimble atoms of fire, 
 or its brisk and numberless strokes upon the vessels, 
 hinder rest and continuity, without any sequestration 
 of elementary principles. Moreover, the fire sometimes 
 does not separate, so much as unite, bodies of a differing 
 nature; provided they be of an almost resembling fixed- 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 57 
 
 ness, and have in the figure of their parts an aptness to 
 coalition, as we see in the making of many plaisters, 
 oyntments, etc. And in such metalline mixtures as that 
 made by melting together two parts of clean brass with 
 one of pure copper, of which some ingenious tradesmen 
 cast such curious patterns (for gold and silver works) as 
 I have sometimes taken great pleasure to look upon. 
 Sometimes the bodies mingeld by the fire are differing 
 enough as to fixidity and volatility, and yet are so com- 
 bined by the first operation of the fire, that itself does 
 scarce afterwards separate them, but only pulverise them ; 
 whereof an instance is afforded us by the common prepara- 
 tion of mercurius dulcis, where the saline particles of the 
 vitriol, sea salt, and sometimes nitre, employed to make 
 the sublimate, do so unite themselves with the mercurial 
 particles made use of, first to make sublimate, and then 
 to dulcifie it, that the saline and metalline parts arise 
 together in many successive sublimations, as if they all 
 made but one body. And sometimes too the fire does 
 not only not sever the differing elements of a body, but 
 combine them so firmly, that nature herself does very 
 seldom, if ever, make unions less dissoluble. For the fire 
 meeting with some bodies exceedingly and almost equally 
 fixt, instead of making a separation, makes an union so 
 strict, that itself, alone, is unable to dissolve it; as we see, 
 when an alcalisate salt and the terrestrial residue of the 
 ashes are incorporated with pure sand, and by vitrification 
 made one permanent body (I mean the course or greenish 
 sort of glass) that mocks the greatest violence of the fire, 
 which though able to marry the ingredients of it, yet is 
 not able to divorce them. I can shew you some pieces 
 of glass which I saw flow down from an earthen crucible 
 purposely exposed for a good while, with silver in it, to 
 a very vehement fire. And some that deal much in the 
 fusion of metals informe me, that the melting of a great 
 part of a crucible into glass is no great wonder in their 
 furnaces. I remember I have observed too in the melting 
 of great quantities of iron out of the oar, by the help of 
 store of charcoal (for they affirm that sea-coal will not 
 yield a flame strong enough) that by the prodigious 
 
58 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 vehemence of the fire, excited by vast bellows (made to 
 play by great wheels turned about by water) part of the 
 materials exposed to it was, instead of being analysed, 
 colliquated, and turned into a dark, solid and very 
 ponderous glass, and that in such quantity, that in some 
 places I have seen the very highwayes, neer such iron- 
 works, mended with heaps of such lumps of glasse, instead 
 of stones and gravel. And I have also observed, that 
 some kind of fire-stone itself, having been employed in 
 furnaces wherein it was exposed to very strong and lasting 
 fires, has had all its fixt parts so wrought on by the fire. 
 as to be perfectly vitrified, which I have tried by forcing 
 from it pretty large pieces of perfect and transparent 
 glass. And lest you might think, Eleutherius, that the 
 questioned definition of heat may be demonstrated, by 
 the definition which is wont to be given and acquiesced 
 in, of its contrary quality, cold, whose property is taught 
 to be tarn honogenea, quam heterogenea congregare, give 
 me leave to represent to you, that neither is this definition 
 unquestionable; for not to mention the exceptions, which 
 a logician, as such, may take at it, I consider that the 
 union of heterogeneous bodies which is supposed to be 
 the genuine production of cold, is not performed by every 
 degree of cold. For we see for instance that in the urine 
 of healthy men, when the liquor has been suffered a while 
 to stand, the cold makes a separation of the thinner part 
 from the grosser, which subsides to the bottom, and 
 growes opacous there; whereas if the urinal be warme, 
 these parts readily mingle again, and the whole liquor 
 becomes transparent as before. And when, by glaciation, 
 wood, straw, dust, water, etc. are supposed to be united 
 into one lump of ice, the cold does not cause any real 
 union or adunation (if I may so speak) of these bodies, 
 but only hardening the aqueous parts of the liquor into 
 ice, the other bodies being accidentally present in that 
 liquor are frozen up in it, but not really united. And 
 accordingly if we expose a heap of mony consisting of 
 gold, silver and copper coynes, or any other bodies of 
 differing natures, which are destitute of aqueous moisture, 
 capable of congelation, to never so intense a cold, we find 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 59 
 
 not that these differing bodies are at all thereby so much 
 as compacted, much less united together; and even in 
 liquors themselves we find phsenomena which induce us 
 to question the definition which we are examining. If 
 Paracelsus his authority were to be looked upon as a 
 sufficient proof in matters of this nature, I might here 
 insist on that process of his, whereby he teaches that the 
 essence of wine may be severed from the phlegme and 
 ignoble part by the assistance of congelation: and because 
 much weight has been laid upon this process, not only by 
 Paracelsians, but other writers, some of whom seem not 
 to have perused it themselves, I shall give you the entire 
 passage in the author's own words, as I lately found them 
 in the sixth book of his Archidoxis, an extract whereof 
 I have yet about me; and it sounds thus. " De vino 
 sciendum est, faecem phlegmaque ejus esse mineram, et 
 vini substantiam esse corpus in quo conservatur essentia, 
 prout auri in auro latet essentia. Juxta quod practicam 
 nobis ad memoriam ponimus, ut non obliviscamur, ad 
 hunc modum: recipe vinum vetustissimum et optimum 
 quod hahere poteris, calore saporeque ad placitum, hoc 
 in vas vitreum infundas ut tertiam ejus partem impleat, 
 et sigillo hermetis occlusum in equino ventre mensibus 
 quatuor, et in continuato calore teneatur qui non deficiat. 
 Quo peracto, hyeme cum frigus et gelu maxime saeviunt, 
 his per mensem exponatur ut congeletur. Ad hunc 
 modum frigus vini spiritum una cum ejus substantia 
 protrudit in vini centrum, ac separat a phlegmate : conge- 
 la turn abjice, quod vero congelatum non est, id spiritum 
 cum substantia esse judicato. Hunc in pelicanum 
 positum in arenas digestione non adeo calida per aliquod 
 tempus manere sinito; postmodum eximito vini magis- 
 terium, de quo locuti sumus." 
 
 But I dare not Eleu. lay much weight upon this 
 process, because I have found that if it were true, it would 
 be but seldom practicable in this countrey upon the best 
 wine: for though this present winter hath been extra- 
 ordinary cold, yet in very keen frosts accompanied with 
 lasting snowes, I have not been able in any measure to 
 freez a thin vial full of sack; and even with snow and 
 
60 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 salt I could freeze little more than the surface of it; and 
 I suppose Eleu. that 'tis not every degree of cold 
 that is capable of congealing liquors, which is able to 
 make such an analysis (if I may so call it) of them by 
 separating their aqueous and spirituous parts ; for I have 
 sometimes, though not often, frozen severally, red-wine, 
 urine and milk, but could not observe the expected 
 separation. And the Dutchmen that were forced to 
 winter in that icie region neer the artick circle, called 
 Nova Zembla, although they relate, as we shall see below, 
 that there was a separation of parts made in their frozen 
 beer about the middle of November, yet of the freezing 
 of their sack in December following they give but this 
 account: " Yea and our sack, which is so hot, was frozen 
 very hard, so that when we were every man to have his 
 part, we were forced to melt it in the fire; which we 
 shared every second day, about half a pinte for a man, 
 wherewith we were forced to sustain ourselves." In 
 which words they imply not, that their sack was divided 
 by the frost into differing substances, after such manner 
 as their beer had been. All which notwithstanding, 
 Eleu. suppose that it may be made to appear, that 
 even cold sometimes may congregare homogenea, et 
 heteroghnea segregare: and to manifest this I may tell 
 you, that I did once, purposely, cause to be decocted in 
 fair water a plant abounding with sulphureous and 
 spirituous parts, and having exposed the decoction to a 
 keen north-wind in a very frosty night, I observed, that the 
 more aqueous parts of it were turned by the next morning 
 into ice, towards the innermost part of which, the more 
 agile and spirituous parts, as I then conjectured, having 
 retreated, to shun as much as might be their environing 
 enemy, they had there preserved themselves unfrozen in 
 the form of a high coloured liquor; the aqueous and 
 spirituous parts having been so slightly (blended rather 
 than) united in the decoction, that they were easily 
 separable by such a degree of cold, as would not have been 
 able to have divorced the parts of urine or wine, which 
 by fermentation or digestion are wont, as tryal has in- 
 formed me, to be more intimately associated each with 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 61 
 
 other. But I have already intimated, Eleutherius, that 
 I shall not insist on this experiment, not only because, 
 having made it but once I may possibly have been mis- 
 taken in it; but also (and that principally) because of that 
 much more full and eminent experiment of the separative 
 vertue of extream cold, that was made, against their wills, 
 by the forementioned Dutchmen that wintered in Nova 
 Zembla; the relation of whose voyage being a very scarce 
 book, it will not be amiss to give you that memorable 
 part of it which concerns our present theme, as I caused 
 the passage to be extracted out of the Englished voyage 
 itself. 
 
 " Gerard de Veer, John Cornelyson and others, sent out 
 of Amsterdam, anno dom. 1596, being forced by unseason- 
 able weather to winter in Nova Zembla, near Ice-Haven; 
 on the thirteenth of October, three of us (saies the relation) 
 went aboard the ship, and laded a sled with beer; but 
 when we had laden it, thinking to go to our house with 
 it, suddenly there arose such a winde, and so great a storm 
 and cold, that we were forced to go into the ship again, 
 because we were not able to stay without; and we could 
 not get the beer into the ship again, but were forced to let 
 it stand without upon the sled: the fourteenth, as we 
 came out of the ship, we found the barrel of beer standing 
 upon the sled, but it was fast frozen at the heads; yet by 
 reason of the great cold, the beer that purged out, froze 
 as hard upon the side of the barrel, as if it had been glued 
 thereon: and in that sort we drew it to our house, and set 
 the barrel on end, and drank it up; but first we were 
 forced to melt the beer, for there was scarce any unfrozen 
 beer in the barrel; but in that thick yeast that was 
 unfrozen, lay the strength of the beer, so that it was too 
 strong to drink alone, and that which was frozen tasted 
 like water; and being melted we mixed one with the 
 other, and so drank it; but it had neither strength not 
 taste." 
 
 And on this occasion I remember, that having the last 
 very sharp winter purposely tried to freeze, among other 
 liquors, some beer moderately strong, in glass vessels, 
 with snow and salt, I observed, that there came out of the 
 
62 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 neck a certain thick substance, which, it seems, was much 
 better able than the rest of the liquor (that I found turned 
 into ice) to resist a frost; and which, by its colour and 
 consistence seemed manifestly enough to be yeast, whereat, 
 I confess, I somewhat marvelled, because I did not either 
 discerne by the taste, or find by enquiry, that the beer 
 was at all too new to be very fit to be drank. I might 
 confirm the Dutchmen's relation, by what happened 
 a while since to a neere friend of mine, who complained to 
 me, that having brewed some beer or ale for his own 
 drinking in Holland (where he then dwelt) the keenness 
 of the late bitter winter froze the drink so as to reduce it 
 into ice, and a small proportion of a very strong and 
 spirituous liquor. But I must not entertaine you any 
 longer concerning cold, not onely because you may think 
 I have but lost my way into a theme which does not 
 directly belong to my present undertaking; but because 
 I have already enlarged myself too much upon the first 
 consideration I proposed, though it appears so much 
 a paradox, that it seemed to require that I should say 
 much to keep it from being thought a meer extravagance; 
 yet since I undertook but to make the common assumption 
 of our chymists and Aristotelians appear questionable, 
 I hope I have so performed that task, that I may now 
 proceed to my following considerations, and insist less 
 on them than I have done on the first. 
 
THE SECOND PART 
 
 THE second consideration I desire to have notice taken of, 
 is this; That it is not so sure, as both chymists and 
 Aristotelians are wont to think it, that every seemingly 
 similar or distinct substance that is separated from a body 
 by the help of the fire, was pre-existent in it as a principle 
 or element of it. 
 
 That I may not make this paradox a greater than 
 I needs must, I will first briefly explain what the proposi- 
 tion means, before I proceed to argue for it. 
 
 And I suppose you will easily believe that I do not 
 mean that anything is separable from a body by fire, 
 that was not materially pre-existent in it; for it far 
 exceeds the power of meerly naturall agents, and conse- 
 quently of the fire, to produce anew, ^5p much as one 
 atome of matte?? which they can but modifie and alter, 
 not create; which is so obvious a truth, that almost all 
 sects of philosophers have denied the power of producing 
 matter to second causes; and the Epicureans and some 
 others have done the like, in reference to their gods 
 themselves. 
 
 Nor does the proposition peremptorily deny, but that 
 some things obtained by the fire from a mixt body, may 
 have been more than barely materially pre-existent in it, 
 since there are concretes, which before they be exposed 
 to the fire afford us several documents of their abounding, 
 some with salt, and others with sulphur. For it will 
 serve the present turn, if it appear that diverse things 
 obtained from a mixt body exposed to the fire, were not 
 its ingredients before: for if this be made to appear, it 
 will be rationall enough to suspect that chymists may 
 deceive themselves, and others, in concluding resolutely 
 and universally, those substances to be the elementary 
 ingredients of bodies barely separated by the fire, of which 
 it yet may be doubted, whether there be such or no; at 
 
 63 
 
64 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 least till some other argument, than that drawn from the 
 analysis, be brought to resolve the doubt, 
 i?;!; That then which I mean by the proposition I am 
 explaining, is, that it may without absurdity be doubted 
 whether or no the differing substances obtainable from 
 a concrete dissipated by the fire were so existent in it in 
 that forme (at least as to their minute parts) wherein 
 we find them when the analysis is over, that the fire did 
 
 s only disjoyne and extricate the corpuscles of one principle 
 from those of the other wherewith before they were 
 blended. 
 
 Having thus explained my proposition, I shall 
 endeavour to do two things, to prove it; the first of which 
 is to shew that such substances as chymists call principles 
 may be produced de novo (as they speak). And the other 
 is to make it probable, that by the fire we may actually 
 obtain from some mixt bodies such substances, as were 
 not in the newly expounded sence, pre-existent in them. 
 To begin then with the first of these, I consider that 
 if it be as true, as 'tis probable, that compounded bodies 
 differ from one another but in the various textures result- 
 
 ' ing from the bigness, shape, motion, and contrivance of 
 their small parts, it will not be irrational to conceive that 
 one and the same parcel of the universall matter may by 
 various alterations and contextures be brought to deserve 
 the name, sometimes of a sulphureous, and sometimes 
 of a terrene, or aqueous body. And this I could more 
 largely explicate, but that our friend Mr. Boyle has 
 promised us something about qualities, wherein the theme 
 I now willingly resign him, will I question not be 
 studiously enquired into. Wherefore what I shall now 
 advance in favour of what I have lately delivered shall 
 be deduced from experiments made divers years since. 
 The first of which would have been much more consider- 
 able, but that by some intervening accidents I was neces- 
 sitated to lose the best time of the year, for a trial of the 
 nature of that I designed; it being about the middle of 
 May before I was able to begin an experiment which 
 should have then been two moneths old; but such as it 
 was, it will not perhaps be impertinent to give you this 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 65 
 
 narrative of it. At the time newly mentioned, I caused 
 my gardiner (being by urgent occasions hindered from 
 being present myself) to dig out a convenient quantity 
 of good earth, and dry it well in an oven, to weigh it, to 
 put it in an earthen pot almost level with the surface of 
 the ground, and to set in it a selected seed he had before 
 received from me, for that purpose, of squash, which is 
 an Indian kind of pompion, that growes apace ; this seed 
 I ordered him to water only with rain or spring water. 
 I did not (when my occasions permitted me to visit it) 
 without delight behold how fast it grew, though unseason- 
 ably sown; but the hastning winter hindered it from 
 attaining anything neer its due and wonted magnitude; 
 (for I found the same autumn, in my garden, some of 
 those plants, by measure, as big about as my middle) 
 and made me order the having it taken up; which about 
 the middle of October was carefully done by the same 
 gardiner, who a while after sent me this account of it: 
 " I have weighed the pompion with the stalk and leaves, 
 all which weighed three pound wanting a quarter; then 
 I took the earth, baked it as formerly, and found it just 
 as much as I did at first, which made me think I had not 
 dried it sufficiently: then I put it into the oven twice 
 more, after the bread was drawn, and weighed it the 
 second time, but found it shrink little or nothing." 
 
 But to deal candidly with you, Eleutherius, I must not 
 conceal from you the event of another experiment of this 
 kind made this present summer, wherein the earth seems 
 to have been much more wasted; as may appear by the 
 following account, lately sent me by the same gardiner, 
 in these words. " To give you an account of your 
 cucumbers, I have gained two indifferent fair ones, the 
 weight of them is ten pound and a halfe, the branches 
 with the roots weighed four pounds wanting two ounces; 
 and when I had weighed them I took the earth, and baked 
 it in several small earthen dishes in an oven; and when I 
 had so done, I found the earth wanted a pound and a halfe 
 of what it was formerly; yet I was not satisfied, doubting 
 the earth was not dry: I put it into an oven the second 
 time, (after the bread was drawn) and after I had taken 
 
 E 
 
66 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 it out and weighed it, I found it to be the same weight. 
 So I suppose there was no moisture left in the earth. 
 Neither do I think that the pound and half that was 
 wanting was drawn away by the cucumber but a great 
 part of it in the ordering was in dust (and the like) wasted : 
 (the cucumbers are kept by themselves, lest you should 
 send for them "). But yet in this tryal, Eleutherius, it 
 appears that though some of the earth, or rather the 
 dissoluble salt harboured in it, were wasted, the main 
 body of the plant consisted of transmuted water. And 
 I might add, that a year after I caused the formerly 
 mentioned experiment, touching large pompions, to be 
 reiterated, with so good success, that if my memory does 
 not much misinform me, it did not only much surpass 
 many that I made before, but seemed strangely to con- 
 clude what I am pleading for; though (by reason I have 
 unhappily lost the particular account my gardiner writ 
 me up of the circumstances) I dare not insist upon them. 
 The like experiment may be as conveniently tried with the 
 seeds of any plant, whose growth is hasty, and its size 
 bulky. If tobacco will in these cold climates grow well 
 in earth undunged, it would not be amiss to make a tryal 
 with it; for 'tis an annual plant, that arises where it 
 prospers, sometimes as high as a tall man, and I have had 
 leaves of it in my garden neer a foot and a halfe broad. 
 But the next time I try this experiment, it shall be with 
 several seeds of the same sort, in the same pot of earth, 
 that so the event may be the more conspicuous. But 
 because everybody has not conveniency of time and 
 place for this experiment neither, I made in my chamber, 
 some shorter and more expeditious tryals. I took a top 
 of spearmint, about an inch long, and put it into a good 
 vial full of spring water, so as the upper part of the mint was 
 above the neck of the glass, and the lower part immersed 
 in the water; within a few dayes this mint began to shoot 
 forth roots into the water, and to display its leaves, and 
 aspire upwards; and in a short time it had numerous 
 roots and leaves, and these very strong and fragrant of 
 the odour of the mint, but the heat of my chamber, as I 
 suppose, killed the plant when it was grown to have a 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 67 
 
 pretty thick stalk, which with the various and ramified 
 roots, which it shot into the water as if it had been earth, 
 presented in its transparent flower-pot a spectacle not 
 unpleasant to behold. The like I tried with sweet 
 marjoram, and I found the experiment succeed also, 
 though somewhat more slowly, with balm and peniroyal, 
 to name now no other plants. And one of these vege- 
 tables, cherished only by water, having obtained a 
 competent growth, I did, for tryals sake, cause to be 
 distilled in a small retort, and thereby obtained some 
 phlegme, a little empyreumaticall spirit, a small quantity 
 of adult oyl, and a caput mortuum; which appearing 
 to be a coal, I concluded it to consist of salt and earth: 
 but the quantity of it was so small, that I forbore to 
 calcine it. The water I used to nourish this plant was 
 not shifted nor renewed; and I chose spring- water rather 
 than rain-water, because the latter is more discernably 
 a kind of Travo-wc/opa, which, though it be granted to be 
 freed from grosser mixtures, seems yet to contain in it, 
 besides the steams of several bodies wandering in the air, 
 which may be supposed to impregnate it, a certain 
 spirituous substance, which may be extracted out of it, 
 and is by some mistaken for the spirit of the world cor- 
 porifyed, upon what grounds, and with what probability, 
 I may elsewhere perchance, but must not now, discourse 
 to you. 
 
 But perhaps I might have saved a great part of my 
 labour. For I finde that Helmont (an author more 
 considerable for his experiments than many learned men 
 are pleased to think him) having had an opportunity 
 to prosecute an experiment much of the same nature 
 with those I have been now speaking of, for five years 
 together, obtained at the end of that time so notable 
 a quantity of transmuted water, that I should scarce 
 think it fit to have his experiment and mine mentioned 
 together, were it not that the length of time requisite to 
 this may deterr the curiosity of some, and exceed the 
 leasure of others ; and partly, that so paradoxical a truth 
 as that which these experiments seem to hold forth, need 
 to be confirmed by more witnesses than one, especially 
 
68 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 since the extravagancies and untruths to be met with 
 in Helmont's treatise of the Magnetick Cure of Wounds, 
 have made his testimonies suspected in his other writings, 
 though as to some of the unlikely matters of fact he 
 delivers in them, I might safely undertake to be his 
 compurgator. But that experiment of his which I was 
 mentioning to you, he saies, was this. He took 200 pound 
 of earth dried in an oven, and having put it into an 
 earthen vessel and moistened it with rain water, he 
 planted in it the trunk of a willow tree of five pound 
 weight; this he watered, as need required, with rain or 
 with distilled water; and to keep the neighbouring earth 
 from getting into the vessel, he employed a plate of iron 
 tinned over and perforated with many holes. Five years 
 being efHuxed, he took out the tree and weighed it, and 
 (with computing the leaves that fell during four autumnes) 
 he found it to weigh 169 pound, and about three ounces. 
 And having again dried the earth it grew in, he found it 
 want of its former weight of 200 pound, about a couple 
 only of ounces; so that 164 pound of the roots, wood, 
 and bark, which constituted the tree, seem to have sprung 
 from the water. And though it appears not that Helmont 
 had the curiosity to make any analysis of this plant, 
 yet what I lately told you I did to one of the vegetables 
 I nourished with water only, will I suppose keep you 
 from doubting that if he had distilled this tree, it would 
 have afforded him the like distinct substances as another 
 vegetable of the same kind. I need not subjoyne that 
 I had it also in my thoughts to try how experiments to the 
 same purpose with those I related to you would succeed 
 in other bodies than vegetables, because importunate 
 avocations having hitherto hindered me from putting my 
 design in practice, I can yet speak but conjecturally of 
 the success : but the best is, that the experiments already 
 made and mentioned to you need not the assistance of 
 new ones, to verifie as much as my present task makes it 
 concern me to prove by experiments of this nature. 
 
 One would suspect (saies Eleutherius after his long 
 silence) by what you have been discoursing, that you are 
 not far from Helmont's opinion about the origination of 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 69 
 
 compound bodies, and perhaps too dislike not the argu- 
 ments which he imploys to prove it. 
 
 What Helmontian opinion, and what arguments do 
 you mean (askes Carneades). 
 
 What you have been newly discoursing (replies Eleu- 
 therius) tells us, that you cannot but know that this bold 
 and acute spagyrist scruples not to assert that all mixt 
 bodies spring from one element; and that vegetables, 
 animals, marchasites, stones, metalls, etc. are materially 
 but simple water disguised into these various formes, by 
 the plastick or formative vertue of their seeds. And as 
 for his reasons you may find divers of them scattered up 
 and down his writings; the considerablest of which seem 
 to be these three; The ultimate reduction of mixt bodies 
 into insipid water, the vicissitude of the supposed elements, 
 and the production of perfectly mixt bodies out of simple 
 water. And first he affirmes that the sal circulatus 
 Paracelsi, or his liquor alkahest, does adequately resolve 
 plants, animals, and mineralls into one liquor or more, 
 according to their several internall disparities of parts, 
 (without caput mortuum, or the destruction of their 
 seminal vertues;) and that the alkahest being abstracted 
 from these liquors in the same weight and vertue where- 
 with it dissolved them, the liquors may by frequent 
 cohobations from chalke or some other idoneous matter, 
 be totally deprived of their seminal endowments, and 
 return at last to their first matter, insipid water; some 
 other wayes he proposes here and there to divest some 
 particular bodies of their borrowed shapes, and make 
 them remigrate to their first simplicity. The second 
 topick whence Helmont drawes his arguments, to prove 
 water to be the material cause of mixt bodies, I told you 
 was this, that the other supposed elements may be trans- 
 muted into one another. But the experiments by him 
 here and there produced on this occasion, are so uneasie 
 to be made and to be judged of, that I shall not insist on 
 them; not to mention, that if they were granted to be 
 true, his inference from them is somewhat disputable; 
 and therefore I shall pass on to tell you, that as, in his 
 first argument, our paradoxical author endeavours to 
 
70 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 prove water the sole element of mixt bodies, by their 
 ultimate resolution, when by his alkahest, or some other 
 conquering agent, the seeds have been destroyed, which 
 disguised them; or when by time those seeds are wearied, 
 or exantlated, or unable to act their parts upon the stage 
 of the universe any longer: so in his third argument he 
 endeavours to evince the same conclusion, by the con- 
 stitution of bodies which he asserts to be nothing but 
 water subdued by seminal vertues. Of this he gives here 
 and there in his writings several instances, as to plants 
 and animals; but divers of them being difficult either to 
 be tried or to be understood, and others of them being 
 not altogether unobnoxious to exceptions, I think you 
 have singled out the principal and less questionable 
 experiment when you lately mentioned, that of the willow 
 tree. And having thus, continues Eleutherius, to answer 
 your question, given you a summary account of what I 
 am confident, you know better than I do, I shall be very 
 glad to receive your sence of it, if the giving it me will not 
 too much divert you from the prosecution of your 
 discourse. 
 
 That if (replies Carneades) was not needlessly annexed : 
 for thorowly to examine such an hypothesis and such 
 arguments would require so many considerations, and 
 consequently so much time, that I should not now have 
 the leasure to perfect such a digression, and much less to 
 finish my principal discourse. Yet thus much I shall tell 
 you at present, that you need not fear my rejecting this 
 opinion for its novelty; since, however the Helmontians 
 may in complement to their master pretend it to be a new 
 discovery, yet though the arguments be for the most part 
 his, the opinion itself is very antient: for Diogenes 
 Laertius and divers other authors speak of Thales, as the 
 first among the Graecians that made disquisitions upon 
 nature. And of this Thales, I remember, Tully informs 
 us, that he taught all things were at first made of water. 
 And it seems by Plutarch and Justin Martyr, that the 
 opinion was ancienter than he: for they tell us that he 
 used to defend his tenent by the testimony of Homer. 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 71 
 
 And a Greek author, the (Scholiast of Apollonius) upon 
 these words 
 
 The earth of slime was made, 
 
 affirms, (out of Zeno) that the chaos, whereof all things 
 were made, was, according to Hesiod, water; which, 
 setling first, became slime, and then condensed into solid 
 earth. And the same opinion about the generation of 
 slime seems to have been entertained by Orpheus, out of 
 whom one of the antients cites this testimony, 
 
 'Ex TOV vSariD IXvs AcaresTf. 
 Of water slime was made. 
 
 It seems also by what is delivered in Strabo out of another 
 author concerning the Indians, that they likewise held 
 that all things had differing beginnings, but that of which 
 the world was made, was water. And the like opinion 
 has been by some of the antients ascribed to the 
 Phoenicians, from whom Thales himself is conceived to 
 have borrowed it; as probably the Greeks did much of 
 theologie, and, as I am apt to think, of their philosophy 
 too; since the devising of the atomical hypothesis com- 
 monly ascribed to Leucippus and his disciple Democritus, 
 is by learned men attributed to one Moschus a Phoenician. 
 And possibly the opinion is yet antienter than so; for 
 'tis known that the Phoenicians borrowed most of their 
 learning from the Hebrews. And among those that ac- 
 knowledge the Books of Moses, many have been inclined to 
 think water to have been the primitive and universal 
 matter, by perusing the beginning of Genesis, where the 
 waters seem to be mentioned as the material cause, not 
 only of sublunary compound bodies, but of all those that 
 make up the universe; whose component parts did 
 orderly, as it were, emerge out of that vast abysse, by 
 the operation of the Spirit of God, who is said to have 
 been moving Himself, as hatching females do (as the 
 original, Merahephet, is said to import, and it seems 
 
72 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 to signifie in one of the two other places, wherein alone 
 I have met with it in the Hebrew Bible) upon the 
 face of the waters; which being, as may be supposed, 
 divinely impregnated with the seeds of all things, were 
 by that productive incubation qualified to produce them. 
 But you, I presume, expect that I should discourse of 
 this matter like a naturalist, not a philologer. Wherefore 
 I shall add, to countenance Helmont's opinion, that 
 whereas he gives not, that I remember, any instance of 
 {/any mineral body, nor scarce of any animal, generated 
 of water, a French chymist, Monsieur de Rochas, has 
 presented his readers an experiment, which if it were 
 punctually such as he has delivered it, is very notable. 
 He then, discoursing of the generation of things according 
 to certain chymical and metaphorical notions (which I 
 confess are not to me intelligible) sets down, among 
 divers speculations not pertinent to our subject, the 
 following narrative, which I shall repeat to you the sence 
 of in English, with as little variation from the literal sence 
 of the French words, as my memory will enable me. 
 " Having (saies he) discerned such great wonders by the 
 natural operation of water, I would know what may be 
 done with it by art imitating nature. Wherefore I took 
 water which I well knew not to be compounded, nor to be 
 mixed with any other thing than that spirit of life 
 (whereof he had spoken before) and with a heat artificial, 
 continual and proportionate, I prepared and disposed 
 it by the above-mentioned graduations of coagulation, 
 congelation, and fixation, untill it was turned into earth, 
 which earth produced animals, vegetables and minerals. 
 I tell not what animals, vegetables and minerals, for that 
 is reserved for another occasion: but the animals did 
 move of themselves, eat, etc. and by the true anatomic 
 I made of them, I found that they were composed of much 
 sulphur, little mercury, and less salt. The minerals 
 began to grow and increase by converting into their own 
 nature one part of the earth thereunto disposed; they 
 were solid and heavy. And by this truly demonstrative 
 science, namely chymistry, I found that they were com- 
 posed of much salt, little sulphur, and less mercury. 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 73 
 
 But (sales Carneades) I have some suspitions concerning 
 this strange relation, which make me unwilling to declare 
 an opinion of it, unless I were satisfied concerning divers 
 material circumstances that our author has left un- 
 mentioned; though as for the generation of living 
 creatures, both vegetable and sensitive, it needs not seem 
 incredible, since we find that our common water (which 
 indeed is often impregnated with variety of seminal 
 principles and rudiments) being long kept in a quiet place 
 will putrifie and stink, and then perhaps too produce moss 
 and little worms, or other insects, according to the nature 
 of the seeds that were lurking in it. I must likewise 
 desire you to take notice, that as Helmont gives us no 
 instance of the production of minerals out of water, so 
 the main argument that he employs to prove that they , 
 and other bodies may be resolved into water, is drawn 
 from the operations of his alkahest, and consequently 
 cannot be satisfactorily examined by you and me. 
 
 Yet certainly (saies Eleutherius) you cannot but have 
 somewhat wondered as well as I, to observe how great 
 a share of water goes to the making up of divers bodies, 
 whose disguises promise nothing neer so much. The 
 distillation of eeles, though it yielded me some oyle, and 
 spirit, and volatile salt, besides the caput mortuum, yet 
 were all these so disproportionate to the phlegm that came 
 from them, (and in which at first they boyled as in a pot 
 of water) that they seemed to have bin nothing but 
 coagulated phlegm, which does likewise strangely abound 
 in vipers, though they are esteemed very hot in operation, 
 and will in a convenient air survive some dayes the loss 
 of their heads and hearts, so vigorous is their vivacity. 
 Mans bloud itself as spirituous, and as elaborate a liquor 
 as 'tis reputed, does so abound in phlegm, that, the other 
 da)', distilling some of it on purpose to try the experiment 
 (as I had formerly done in deers bloud) out of about seven 
 ounces and a halfe of pure bloud we drew neere six ounces 
 of phlegm, before any of the more operative principles 
 began to arise and invite us to change the receiver. And 
 to satisfie myself that some of these animall phlegms were 
 void enough of spirit to deserve that name, I would not 
 
74 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 content myself to taste them only, but fruitlessly poured 
 on them acid liquors, to try if they contained any volatile 
 salt or spirit, which (had there been any there) would 
 probably have discovered itself by making an ebullition 
 with the affused liquor. And now I mention corrosive 
 spirits, I am minded to inform you, that though they 
 seem to be nothing else but fluid salts, yet they abound 
 in water, as you may observe, if either you entangle, and 
 so fix their saline part, by making them corrode some 
 idoneous body, or else if you mortifie it with a contrary 
 salt; as I have very manifestly observed in the making 
 a medicine somewhat like Helmont's balsamus samech, 
 with distilled vinegar instead of spirit of wine, wherewith 
 he prepares it : for you would scarce believe (what I have 
 lately observed) that of that acid spirit, the salt of tartar, 
 from which it is distilled, will by mortifying and retaining 
 the acid salt turn into worthless phlegm neere twenty 
 times its weight; before it be so fully impregnated as to 
 rob no more distilled vinegar of its salt. And though 
 spirit of wine exquisitely rectified seem of all liquors to be 
 the most free from water, it being so igneous that it will 
 flame all away without leaving the least drop behinde 
 it, yet even this fiery liquor is by Helmont not improbably 
 affirmed, in case what he relates be true, to be materially 
 water, under a sulphureous disguise: for, according to 
 him, in the making that excellent medicine Paracelsus 
 his balsamus samech, (which is nothing but sal tartari 
 dulcified by distilling from it spirit of wine till the salt 
 be sufficiently glutted with its sulphur, and till it suffer 
 the liquor to be drawn off, as strong as it was poured on) 
 when the salt of tartar from which it is distilled hath 
 retained, or deprived it of the sulphureous parts of the 
 spirit of wine, the rest, which is incomparably the greater 
 part of the liquor, will remigrate into phlegm. I added 
 that clause [in case what he relates be true] because I have 
 not as yet sufficiently tried it myself. But not only 
 something of experiment keeps me from thinking it, as 
 many chymists do, absurd, (though I have as well as they, 
 in vain tried it with ordinary salt of tartar) but besides 
 that Helmont often relates it, and draws consequences 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 75 
 
 from it; a person noted for his soberness and skill in 
 spagyrical preparations, having been askt by me whether 
 the experiment might not be made to succeed, if the salt 
 and spirit were prepared according to a way suitable to 
 my principles, he affirmed to me, that he had that way 
 I proposed made Helmont's experiment succeed very 
 well, without adding anything to the salt and spirit. 
 But our way is neither short nor easie. 
 
 I have indeed (saies Carneades) sometimes wondered 
 to see how much phlegme may be obtained from bodies 
 by the fire. But concerning that phlegme I may anon 
 have occasion to note something, which I therefore shall 
 not now anticipate. But to return to the opinion of 
 Thales, and of Helmont, I consider, that supposing the 
 alkahest could reduce all bodies into water, yet whether 
 that water, because insipid, must be elementary, may not 
 groundlesly be doubted; for I remember the candid and 
 eloquent Petrus Laurembergius, in his notes upon Sala's 
 aphorismes, affirmes that he saw an insipid menstruum 
 that was a powerfull dissolvent, and (if my memory does 
 not much mis-inform me) could dissolve gold. And the 
 water which may be drawn from quicksilver without 
 addition, though it be almost tasteless, you will I believe 
 think of a differing nature from simple water, especially 
 if you digest in it appropriated mineralls. To which I 
 shall add but this, that this consideration may be further 
 extended. For I see no necessity to conceive that the 
 water mentioned in the beginning of Genesis, as the 
 universal matter, was simple and elementary water; since 
 though we should suppose it to have been an agitated 
 congeries or heap consisting of a great variety of seminal 
 principles and rudiments, and of other corpuscles fit to be 
 subdued and fashioned by them, it might yet be a body 
 fluid like water, in case the corpuscles it was made up of, 
 were by their creator made small enough, and put into- 
 such an actuall motion as might make them glide along 
 one another. And as we now say, the sea consists of 
 water, (notwithstanding the saline, terrestrial, and other 
 bodies mingled with it,) such a liquor may well enough 
 be called water, because that was the greatest of the 
 
j6 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 known bodies whereunto it was like; though, that a body 
 may be fluid enough to appear a liquor, and yet contain 
 corpuscles of a very differing nature, you will easily 
 believe, if you but expose a good qantity of vitriol in 
 a strong vessel to a competent fire. For although it 
 contains both aqueous, earthy, saline, sulphureous, and 
 metalline corpuscles, yet the whole mass will at first be 
 fluid like water, and boyle like a seething pot. 
 
 I might easily (continues Carneades) enlarge myself on 
 such considerations, if I were now obliged to give you my 
 judgment of the Thalesian, and Helmontian hypothesis. 
 But whether or no we conclude that all things were at first 
 generated of water, I may deduce from what I have tried 
 concerning the growth of vegetables, nourished with 
 water, all that I now proposed to myself or need at present 
 to prove, namely that salt, spirit, earth, and even oyl 
 (though that be thought of all bodies the most opposite 
 to water) may be produced out of water; and conse- 
 quently that a chymical principle as well as a peripatetick 
 .,/ element, may (in some cases) be generated anew, or 
 obtained from such a parcel of matter as was not endowed 
 with the form of such a principle or element before. 
 
 And having thus, Eleutherius, evinced that 'tis possible 
 that such substances as those that chymists are wont to 
 call their tria prima, may be generated, anew: I must 
 next endeavour to make it probable, that the operation 
 of the fire does actually (sometimes) not only divide 
 s compounded bodies into small parts, but compound those 
 parts after a new manner, whence consequently, for ought 
 we know, there may emerge as well saline and sulphureous 
 substances, as bodies of other textures. And perhaps it 
 will assist us in our enquiry after the effects of the opera- 
 tions of the fire upon other bodies, to consider a little, 
 what it does to those mixtures which being productions 
 of the art of man, we best know the composition of. You 
 may then be pleased to take notice that though sope is 
 made up by the sope-boylers of oyle or grease, and salt, 
 and water diligently incorporated together; yet if you 
 expose the mass they constitute to a graduall fire in a 
 retort, you shall then indeed make a separation, but not 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 77 
 
 of the same substances that were united into sope, but of 
 others of a distant and yet not an elementary nature, and 
 especially of an oyle very sharp and foetid, and of a very 
 differing quality from that which was employed to make 
 the sope: so, if you mingle in a due proportion, sal 
 armoniack with quick-lime, and distill them by degrees 
 of fire, you shall not divide the sal armoniack from the 
 quick-lime, though the one be a volatile, and the other 
 a fixed substance, but that which will ascend will be a 
 spirit much more fugitive, penetrant, and stinking, than 
 sal armoniack; and there will remain with the quick-lime 
 all, or very near all the sea salt, that concurred to make 
 up the sal armoniack; concerning which sea salt I shall, 
 to satisfie you how well it was united to the lime, informe 
 you, that I have by making the fire at length very vehe- 
 ment, caused both the ingredients to melt in the retort 
 itself into one mass, and such masses are apt to relent in 
 the moist air. If it be here objected, that these instances 
 are taken from factitious concretes which are more 
 compounded than those which nature produces; I shall 
 reply, that besides that I have mentioned them as much 
 to illustrate what I proposed, as to prove it; it will be 
 difficult to evince that nature herself does not make 
 decompounded bodies, I mean, mingle together such mixt 
 bodies, as are already compounded of elementary, or 
 rather of more simple ones. For vitriol (for instance) 
 though I have sometimes taken it out of minerall earths, 
 where nature had without any assistance of art prepared 
 it to my hand, is really, though chymists are pleased to 
 reckon it among salts, a decompounded body consisting 
 (as I shall have occasion to declare anon) of a terrestriall 
 substance, of a metal, and also of at least one saline body, 
 of a peculiar, and not elementary nature. And we see 
 also in animals, that their blood may be composed of 
 divers very differing mixt bodies, since we find it observed 
 that divers sea-fowle taste rank of the fish on which they 
 ordinarily feed; and Hippocrates himself observes, that 
 a child may be purged by the milke of the nurse, if she 
 have taken elaterium; which argues that the purging 
 corpuscles of the medicament concurr to make up the 
 
78 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 milk of the nurse; and that white liquor is generally by 
 physitians supposed to be but blanched and altered 
 blood. And I remember I have observed, not fair from 
 the Alps, that at a certain time of the yeare the butter of 
 that country was very offensive to strangers, by reason 
 of the rank taste of a certain herb, whereon the cows were 
 then wont plentifully to feed. But (proceeds Carneades) 
 to give you instances of another kind, to shew that things 
 ^ may be obtained by the fire from a mixt body that were 
 not pre-existent in it, let me remind you, that from many 
 vegetables there may without any addition be obtained 
 glass, a body, which I presume you will not say was pre- 
 existent in it, but produced by the fire. To which I shall 
 add but this one example more, namely that by a certain 
 artificial way of handling quicksilver, you may without 
 addition separate from it at least a 5th or 4th part of clear 
 liquor, which with an ordinary peripatetick would pass 
 for water, and which a vulgar chymist would not scruple 
 to call phlegme, and which, for ought I have yet seen or 
 heard, is not reducible into mercury again, and conse- 
 quently is more than a disguise of it. Now besides that 
 divers chymists will not allow mercury to have any, or at 
 least any considerable quantity of either of the ignoble 
 ingredients, earth and water; besides this, I say, the great 
 ponderousness of quicksilver makes it very unlikely that 
 it can have so much water in it as may be thus obtained 
 from it, since mercury weighs 12 or 14 times as much as 
 water of the same bulk. Nay for a further confirmation 
 of this argument, I will add this strange relation, that 
 two friends of mine, the one a physitian, and the other 
 a mathematician, and both of them persons of unsuspected 
 credit, have solemnly assured me, that after many tryals 
 they made, to reduce mercury into water, in order to 
 a philosophicall work, upon gold (which yet, by the way, 
 I know proved unsuccessful!) they did once by divers 
 cohobations reduce a pound of quicksilver into almost 
 a pound of water, and this without the addition of any 
 other substance, but only by pressing the mercury by 
 a skilfully managed fire in purposely contrived vessels. 
 But of these experiments our friend (saies Carneades, 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 79 
 
 pointing at the register of this dialogue) will perhaps give 
 you a more particular account than it is necessary for 
 me to do: since what I have now said may sufficiently 
 evince, that the fire may sometimes as well alter bodies 
 as divide them,, and by it we may obtain from a mixt body 
 what was not pre-existent in it. And how are we sure, 
 that in no other body what we call phlegme is barely 
 separated, not produced by the action of the fire: since 
 so many other mixt bodies are of a much less constant, 
 and more alterable nature, than mercury (by many tricks 
 it is wont to put upon chymists, and by the experiments 
 I told you of, about an hour since) appears to be. But 
 because I shall ere long have occasion to resume into 
 consideration the power of the fire to produce new con- 
 cretes, I shall no longer insist on this argument at present; 
 only I must mind you, that if you will not disbelieve 
 Helmont's relations, you must confess that the tria prima 
 are neither ingenerable nor incorruptible substances; since 
 by his alkahest some of them may be produced of bodies 
 that were before of another denomination; and by the 
 same powerfull menstruum all of them may be reduced 
 into insipid water. 
 
 Here Carneades was about to pass on to his third con- 
 sideration, when Eleutherius being desirous to hear what 
 he could say to clear his second general consideration 
 from being repugnant to what he seemed to think the 
 true theory of mistion, prevented him by telling him, 
 I somewhat wonder, Carneades, that you, who are in so 
 many points unsatisfied with the peripatetick opinion 
 touching the elements and mixt bodies, should also seem 
 averse to that notion touching the manner of mistion, 
 wherein the chymists (though perhaps without knowing 
 that they do so) agree with most of the antient philoso- 
 phers that preceded Aristotle, and that for reasons 
 so considerable, that divers modern naturalists and 
 physitians, in other things unfavourable enough to the 
 spagyrists, do in this case side with them against the 
 common opinion of the schools. If you should ask me 
 (continues Eleutherius) what reasons I mean? I should 
 partly by the writings of Sennertus and other learned men, 
 
8o The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 and partly by my own thoughts, be supplied with more, 
 than 'twere at present proper for me to insist largely on. 
 And therefore I shall mention only, and that briefly, three 
 or four. Of these, I shall take the first from the state of 
 the controversie itself, and the genuine notion of mistion, 
 which though much intricated by the schoolmen, I take 
 in short to be this. Aristotle, at least as many of his 
 interpreters expound him, and as indeed he teaches in 
 some places, where he professedly dissents from the 
 antients, declares mistion to be such a mutual penetration, 
 and perfect union of the mingled elements, that there is 
 no portion of the mixt body, how minute soever, which 
 does not contain all, and every of the four elements, or 
 in which, if you please, all the elements are not. And I 
 remember, that he reprehends the mistion taught by the 
 ancients, as too slight or gross, for this reason, that bodies 
 mixt according to their hypothesis, though they appear 
 to humane eyes, would not appear such to the acute eyes 
 of a lynx, whose perfecter sight would discerne the 
 elements, if they were no otherwise mingled, than as his 
 predecessors would have it, to be but blended, not united ; 
 whereas the antients, though they did not all agree about 
 what kind of bodies were mixt, yet they did almost 
 unanimously hold, that in a compounded bodie, though 
 the miscibiUa, whether elements, principles, or whatever 
 they pleased to call them, were associated in such small 
 parts, and with so much exactness, that there was no 
 sensible part of the mass but seemed to be of the same 
 nature with the rest, and with the whole; yet as to the 
 atomes, or other insensible parcels of matter, whereof 
 each of the miscibilia consisted, they retained each of 
 them its own nature, being but by apposition or juxta- 
 position united with the rest into one bodie. So that 
 although by vertue of this composition the mixt body 
 did perhaps obtain divers new qualities, yet still the 
 ingredients that compounded it, retaining their own 
 nature, were by the destruction of the compositum 
 separable from each other, the minute parts disingaged 
 from those of a differing nature, and associated with 
 those of their own sort returning to be again, fire, earth, 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 8 1 
 
 or water, as they were before they chanced to be in- 
 gredients of that compositum. This may be explained 
 (continues Eleutherius) by a piece of cloath made of white 
 and black threds interwoven, wherein though the whole 
 piece appear neither white nor black, but of a resulting 
 colour, that is gray, yet each of the white and black threds 
 that compose it, remains what it was before, as would 
 appear if the threds were pulled asunder, and sorted each 
 colour by itself. This (pursues Eleutherius) being, as I 
 understand it, the state of the controversie, and the 
 Aristotelians after their master commonly defining, that 
 mistion is miscibilium alteratorum unto, that seems to 
 comport much better with the opinion of the chymists, 
 than with that of their adversaries, since according to 
 that as the newly mentioned example declares, there is 
 but a juxta-position of separable corpuscles, retaining 
 each its own nature, whereas according to the Aristotelians, 
 when what they are pleased to call a mixt body results 
 from the concourse of the elements, the miscibilia cannot 
 so properly be said to be altered, as destroyed, since there 
 is no part in the mixt body, how small soever, that can 
 be called either fire, or air, or water, or earth. 
 
 Nor indeed can I well understand, how bodies can be 
 mingled other waies than as I have declared, or at least 
 how they can be mingled, as our peripateticks would 
 have it. For whereas Aristotle tells us, that if a drop of 
 wine be put into ten thousand measures of water, the wine 
 being overpowered by so vast a quantity of water will 
 be turned into it, he speaks to my apprehension, very 
 improbably. For though one should add to that quantity 
 of water as many drops of wine as would a thousand times 
 exceed it all, yet by his rule the whole liquor should not 
 be a crama, a mixture of wine and water, wherein the 
 wine would be predominant, but water only; since the 
 wine being added but by a drop at a time, would still fall 
 into nothing but water, and consequently would be turned 
 into it. And if this would hold in metals too, 'twere a 
 rare secret for goldsmiths, and refiners; for by melting 
 a mass of gold, or silver, and by but casting into it lead 
 or antimony, grain after grain, they might at pleasure, 
 
82 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 within a reasonable compass of time, turn what quantity 
 they desire, of the ignoble into the noble metalls. And 
 indeed since a pint of wine, and a pint of water, amount 
 to about a quart of liquor, it seems manifest to sense, that 
 these bodies doe not totally penetrate one another, as one 
 would have it; but that each retains its own dimensions; 
 and consequently, that they are by being mingled only 
 divided into minute bodies, that do but touch one another 
 with their surfaces, as do the grains of wheat, rye, barley, 
 etc. in a heap of severall sorts of corn : and unless we say, 
 that as when one measure of wheat, for instance, is 
 blended with a hundred measures of barely, there happens 
 only a juxta-position and superficial contact betwixt the 
 grains of wheat, and as many or thereabouts of the grains 
 of barley; so when a drop of wine is mingled with a great 
 deal of water, there is but an apposition of so many 
 vinous corpuscles to a correspondent number of aqueous 
 ones ; unless I say this be said, I see not how that absur- 
 dity will be avoyded, whereunto the Stoical notion of 
 mistion (namely by o-uy^vo-ts, or confusion) was liable, 
 according to which the least body may be co-extended 
 with the greatest: since in a mixt body wherein before 
 the elements were mingled there was, for instance, but 
 one pound of water to ten thousand of earth, yet according 
 to them there must not be the least part of that compound, 
 that consisted not as well of earth, as water. But I 
 insist, perhaps, too long (saies Eleutherius) upon the 
 proofs afforded me by the nature of mistion: wherefore 
 I will but name two or three other arguments; whereof 
 the first shall be, that according to Aristotle himself, the 
 motion of a mixt body followes the nature of the pre- 
 dominant element, as those wherein the earth prevails, 
 tend towards the centre of heavy bodies. And since 
 many things make it evident, that in divers mixt bodies 
 the elementary qualities are as well active, though not 
 altogether so much so as in the elements themselves, it 
 seems not reasonable to deny the actual existence of the 
 elements in those bodies wherein they operate. 
 
 To which I shall add this convincing argument, that 
 experience manifests, and Aristotle confesses it, that the 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 83 
 
 miscibilia may be again separated from a mixt body, as is 
 obvious in the chymical resolutions of plants and animalls, 
 which could not be unless they did actually retain their 
 formes in it: for since, according to Aristotle, and I think 
 according to truth, there is but one common mass of all 
 things, which he has been pleased to call 
 
 and since 'tis not therefore the matter but the forme that 
 constitutes and discriminates things, to say that the 
 elements remain not in a mixt body, according to their 
 formes, but according to their matter, is not to say that 
 they remain there at all; since although those portions 
 of matter were earth and water, etc. before they con- 
 curred; yet the resulting body being once constituted, 
 may as well be said to be simple as any of the elements; 
 the matter being confessedly of the same nature in all 
 bodies, and the elementary formes being according to this 
 hypothesis perished and abolished. 
 
 And lastly, and if we will consult chymical experiments, 
 we shall find the advantages of the chymical doctrine 
 above the peripatetick title little less than palpable. For 
 in that operation that refiners call quartation, which they 
 employ to purifie gold, although three parts of silver be 
 so exquisitely mingled by fusion with a fourth part of 
 gold (whence the operation is denominated) that the 
 resulting mass acquires several new qualities, by vertue 
 of the composition, and that there is scarce any sensible 
 part of it that is not composed of both the metalls; yet 
 if you cast this mixture into aquafortis, the silver will be 
 dissolved in the menstruum, and the gold like a dark or 
 black powder will fall to the bottom of it, and either body 
 may be again reduced into such a metal as it was before; 
 which shews, that it retained its nature, notwithstanding 
 its being mixt per minima with the other: we likewise 
 see, that though one part of pure silver be mingled with 
 eight or ten parts, or more, of lead; yet the fire will upon 
 the cuppel easily and perfectly separate them again. 
 And that which I would have you peculiarly consider on 
 this occasion is, that not only in chymicall anatomies 
 there is a separation made of the elementary ingredients, 
 but that some mixt bodies afford a very much greater 
 
84 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 quantity of this or that element or principle, than of 
 another; as we see, that turpentine and amber yeeld 
 much more oyl and sulphur than they do water; whereas 
 wine, which is confessed to be a perfectly mixt bodie, 
 yeelds but a little inflamable spirit, or sulphur, and not 
 much more earth; but affords a vast proportion of phlegm 
 or water: which could not be, if, as the peripateticks 
 suppose, every, even of the minutest particles, were of the 
 same nature with the whole, and consequently did contain 
 both earth and water, and aire, and fire; wherefore as to 
 what Aristotle principally, and almost only objects, that 
 unless his opinion be admitted, there would be no true 
 and perfect mistion, but onely aggregates or heaps of 
 contiguous corpuscles, which, though the eye of man 
 cannot discerne, yet the eye of a lynx might perceive not 
 to be of the same nature with one another and with their 
 totuniy as the nature of mistion requires, if he do not beg 
 the question, and make mistion to consist in what other 
 naturalists deny to be requisite to it, yet he at least 
 objects that as a great inconvenience which I cannot take 
 for such, till he have brought as considerable arguments 
 as I have proposed to prove the contrary, to evince that 
 nature makes other mistions than such as I have allowed, 
 wherein the miscibilia are reduced into minute parts, and 
 united as far as sense can discerne : which if you will not 
 grant to be sufficient for a true mistion, he must have the 
 same quarrel with nature herself, as with his adversaries. 
 
 Wherefore (continues Eleutherius) I cannot but some- 
 what marvail that Carneades should oppose the doctrine 
 of the chymists in a particular, wherein they do as well 
 agree with his old mistress, nature, as dissent from his old 
 adversary, Aristotle. 
 
 I must not (replies Carneades) engage myself at present 
 to examine throughly the controversies concerning 
 mistion : and if there were no third thing, but that I were 
 reduced to embrace absolutely and unreservedly either 
 the opinion of Aristotle, or that of the philosophers that 
 went before him, I should look upon the latter, which 
 the chymists have adopted, as the more defensible opinion: 
 but because differing in the opinions about the elements 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 85 
 
 from both parties, I think I can take a middle course, and 
 discourse to you of mistion after a way that does neither 
 perfectly agree, nor perfectly disagree with either, as 
 I will not peremtorily define, whether there be not cases 
 wherein some phenomena of mistion seem to favour the 
 opinion that the chymists patrons borrowed of the 
 antients, I shall only endeavour to shew you that there 
 are some cases which may keep the doubt, which makes 
 up my second general consideration from being un- 
 reasonable. 
 
 I shall then freely acknowledge to you (saies Carneades) 
 that I am not over-well satisfied with the doctrine that 
 is ascribed to Aristotle, concerning mistion, especially 
 since it teaches that the four elements may again be 
 separated from the mixt body; whereas if they continued 
 not in it, it would not be so much a separation as a pro- 
 duction. And I think the ancient philosophers that 
 preceded Aristotle, and chymists who have since received 
 the same opinion, do speak of this matter more intelligibly, 
 if not more probably, than the peripateticks : but though 
 they speak congruously enough, to their believing, that 
 there are a certain number of primogeneal bodies, by 
 whose concourse all those we call mixt are generated, 
 and which in the destruction of mixt bodies do barely 
 part company, and reduce from one another, just such 
 as they were when they came together; yet I, who meet~ /x 
 with very few opinions that I can entirely acquiesce in, 
 must confess to you that I am inclined to differ not only 
 from the Aristotelians, but from the old philosophers and 
 the chymists, about the nature of mistion: and if you 
 will give me leave, I shall briefly propose to you my 
 present notion of it, provided you will look upon it, not 
 so much as an assertion as an hypothesis; in talking of 
 which I do not now pretend to propose and debate the 
 whole doctrine of mistion, but to shew that 'tis not 
 improbable, that sometimes mingled substances may be 
 so strictly united, that it doth not by the usuall operations 
 of the fire, by which chymists are wont to suppose them- 
 selves to have made the analysis of mixt bodies, sufficiently 
 appear, that in such bodies the wzsMz0, that concurred 
 
86 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 to make them up, do each of them retain its own peculiar 
 nature; and by the spagyrists fires may be more easily 
 extricated and recovered, than altered, either by a change 
 of texture in the parts of the same ingredient, or by an 
 association with some parts of another ingredient more 
 strict than was that of the parts of this or that miscibile 
 among themselves. At these words Eleu. having 
 pressed him to do what he proposed, and promised to do 
 what he desired; 
 
 I consider then (resumes Carneades) that, not to mention 
 those improper kinds of mistion, wherein homogeneous 
 bodies are joyned, as when water is mingled with water, 
 or two vessels full of the same kind of wine with one 
 another, the mistion I am now to discourse of seems, 
 generally speaking, to be but an union per minima of any 
 two or more bodies of differing denominations ; as when 
 ashes and sand are colliquated into glass; or antimony 
 and iron into regulus martis ; or wine and water are 
 mingled, and sugar is dissolved in the mixture. Now 
 in this general notion of mistion it does not appear clearly 
 comprehended, that the miscibilia or ingredients do in 
 their small parts so retain their nature and remain distinct 
 
 * f in the compound, that they may thence by the fire be 
 again taken asunder: for though I deny not that in some 
 mistions of certain permanent bodies this recovery of the 
 same ingredients may be made; yet I am not convinced 
 that it will hold in all or even in most, or that it is neces- 
 sarily deducible from chymicall experiments, and the true 
 notion of mistion. To explain this a little, I assume, 
 that bodies may be mingled, and that very durably, that 
 are not elementary, nor have been resolved into elements 
 or principles, that they may be mingled; as is evident 
 in the regulus of colliquated antimony, and iron newly 
 mentioned; and in gold coyne, which lasts so many ages; 
 wherein generally the gold is alloyed by the mixture of a 
 quantity, greater or lesser, (in our mints they use about 
 a i2th part) of either silver, or copper, or both. Next, 
 I consider, that there being but one universal matter of 
 
 S things, as 'tis known that the Aristotelians themselves 
 acknowledge, who call it materia prima (about which 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 87 
 
 nevertheless I like not all their opinions) the portions of 
 this matter seem to differ from one another, but in certain 
 qualities or accidents, fewer or more; upon whose account 
 the corporeal substance they belong to receives its denomi- 
 nation, and is referred to this or that particular sort of 
 bodies; so that if it come to lose, or be deprived of those 
 qualities, though it ceases not to be a body, yet it ceases 
 from being that kind of body as a plant, or animal, or 
 red, green, sweet, sowre, or the like. I consider that it 
 very often happens that the small parts of bodies cohere 
 together but by immediate contact and rest, and that 
 however, there are few bodies whose minute parts stick 
 so close together, to what cause soever their combination 
 be ascribed, but that it is possible to meet with some other 
 body, whose small parts may get between them, and so 
 disjoyn them; or may be fitted to cohere more strongly 
 with some of them, than those some do with the rest; or 
 at least may be combined so closely with them, as that 
 neither the fire, nor the other usual instruments of 
 chymical anatomies will separate them. These things 
 being premised, I will not peremptorily deny, but that 
 there may be some clusters of particles, wherein the 
 particles are so minute, and the coherence so strict, or 
 both, that when bodies of differing denominations, and 
 consisting of such durable clusters, happen to be mingled, 
 though the compound body made up of them may be very 
 differing from either of the ingredients, yet each of the 
 little masses or clusters may so retain its own nature, as 
 to be again separable, such as it was before. As when 
 gold and silver being melted together in a due proportion 
 (for in every proportion, the refiners will tell you that the 
 experiment will not succeed) aquafortis will dissolve the 
 silver, and leave the gold untoucht; by which means, as 
 you lately noted, both the metalls may be recovered from 
 the mixed mass. But (continues Carneades) there are other 
 clusters wherein the particles stick not so close together, but 
 that they may meet with corpuscles of another denomina- 
 tion, which are disposed to be more closely united with some 
 of them, than they were among themselves. And in such 
 case, two thus combining corpuscles losing that shape, or 
 
88 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 size, or motion, or other accident, upon whose account 
 they were endowed with such a determinate quality or 
 nature, each of them really ceases to be a corpuscle of the 
 same denomination it was before; and from the coalition 
 of these there may emerge a new body, as really one, as 
 either of the corpuscles was before they were mingled, or, 
 if you please, confounded: since this concretion is really 
 endowed with its own distinct qualities, and can no more 
 by the fire, or any other known way of analysis, be 
 divided again into the corpuscles that at first concurred 
 to make it, than either of them could by the same means 
 be subdivided into other particles. But (saies Eleutherius) 
 to make this more intelligible by particular examples; 
 If you dissolve copper in aquafortis, or spirit of nitre, (for 
 I remember not which I used, nor do I think it much 
 material) you may by chrystalising the solution obtain 
 a goodly vitriol; which though by vertue of the com- 
 position it have manifestly diverse qualities, not to be 
 met with in either of the ingredients, yet it seems that 
 the nitrous spirits, or at least many of them, may in this 
 compounded mass retain their former nature; for having 
 for tryal sake distilled this vitriol spirit, there came over 
 store of red fumes, which by that colour, by their peculiar 
 stinke, and by their sowrness, manifested themselves to 
 be, nitrous spirits; and that the remaining calx continued 
 copper, I suppose you'll easily believe. But if you 
 dissolve minium, which is but lead powdered by the fire, 
 in good spirit of vinegar, and chrystalise the solution, 
 you shall not only have a saccharine salt exceedingly 
 differing from both its ingredients; but the union of some 
 parts of the menstruum with some of those of the metal 
 is so strict, that the spirit of vinegar seems to be, as such, 
 destroyed; since the saline corpuscles have quite lost 
 that acidity, upon whose account the liquor was called 
 spirit of vinegar; nor can any such acid parts as were 
 put to the minium be separated by any known way from 
 the saccharum saturni resulting from them both; for not 
 only there is no sowrness at all, but an admirable sweetness 
 to be tasted in the concretion; and not only I found not 
 that spirit of wine, which otherwise will immediately hiss 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 89 
 
 when mingled with strong spirit of vinegar, would hiss 
 being poured upon saccharum saturni, wherein yet the 
 acid salt of vinegar, did it survive, may seem to be con- 
 centrated; but upon the distillation of saccharum saturni 
 by itself I found indeed a liquor very penetrant, but not 
 at all acid, and differing as well in smell and other qualities, 
 as in taste, from the spirit of vinegar; which likewise 
 seemed to have left some of its parts very firmly united 
 to the caput mortuum, which though of a leaden nature was 
 in smell, colour, etc. differing from minium; which brings 
 into my mind, that though two powders, the one blew, 
 and the other yellow, may appear a green mixture, with- 
 out either of them losing its own colour, as a good micro- 
 scope has sometimes informed me; yet having mingled 
 minium and sal armoniack in a requisite proportion, and 
 exposed them in a glass vessel to the fire, the whole mass 
 became white, and the red corpuscles were destroyed; 
 for though the calcined lead was separable from the salt, 
 yet you'll easily believe it did not part from it in the forme 
 of a red powder, such as was the minium, when it was put 
 to the sal armoniack. I leave it also to be considered, 
 whether in blood, and divers other bodies, it be probable, 
 that each of the corpuscles that concur to make a com- 
 pound body doth, though some of them in some cases may, 
 retain its own nature in it, so that chymists may extricate 
 each sort of them from all the others, wherewith it con- 
 curred to make a body of one denomination. 
 
 I know there may be a distinction betwixt matter 
 immanent, when the material parts remain and retain 
 their own nature in the things materiated, as some of the 
 schoolmen speak (in which sence wood, stones and lime 
 are the matter of a house) and transient, which in the 
 materiated thing is so altered, as to receive a new forme, 
 without being capable of re-admitting again the old. 
 In which sence the friends of this distinction say, that 
 chyle is the matter of blood, and blood that of a humane 
 body, of all whose parts 'tis presumed to be the aliment. 
 I know also that it may be said, that of material principles, 
 some are common to all mixt bodies, as Aristotle's four 
 elements, or the chymists tria prima ; others peculiar, 
 
go The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 which belong to this or that sort of bodies ; as butter and 
 a kind of whey may be said to be the proper principles 
 of cream : and I deny not, but that these distinctions may 
 in some cases be of use; but partly by what I have said 
 already, and partly by what I am to say, you may easily 
 enough guess in what sence I admit them, and discerne 
 that in such a sence they will either illustrate some of my 
 opinions, or at least will not overthrow any of them. 
 
 To prosecute then what I was saying before, I will add 
 to this purpose, that since the major part of chymists 
 credit, what those they call philosophers affirme of their 
 stone, I may represent to them, that though when common 
 gold and lead are mingled together, the lead may be 
 severed almost unaltered from the gold; yet if instead 
 of gold a tantillum of the red elixir be mingled with the 
 saturn, their union will be so indissoluble in the perfect 
 gold that will be produced by it, that there is no known, 
 nor perhaps no possible way of separating the diffused 
 elixir from the fixed lead, but they both constitute a most 
 permanent body, wherein the saturn seems to have quite 
 lost its properties that made it be called lead, and to have 
 been rather transmuted by the elixir, than barely associ- 
 ated to it. So that it seems not alwaies necessary, that 
 the bodies that are put together per minima should each 
 retain its own nature; so as when the mass itself is 
 dissipated by the fire, to be more disposed to re-appear 
 in its pristine forme, than in any new one, which by a 
 stricter association of its parts with those of some of the 
 other ingredients of the compositum, than with one 
 another, it may have acquired. 
 
 And if it be objected, that unless the hypothesis I 
 oppose 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 mingled remain, only their accidents 
 are destroyed, and though we may with tolerable con- 
 gruity 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 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 91 
 
 concretions, or resulting bodies, than mixt ones; and 
 though perhaps some other and better account may be 
 proposed, upon which the name of mistion may remain; 
 yet if what I have said be thought reason, I shall not 
 wrangle about words, though I think it fitter to alter a 
 terme of art, than reject a new truth, because it suits not 
 with it. If it be also objected that this notion of mine, 
 concerning mistion, though it may be allowed, when 
 bodies already compounded are put to be mingled, yet 
 it is not applicable to those mistions that are immediately 
 made of the elements, or principles themselves; I answer 
 in the first place, that I here consider the nature of mistion 
 somewhat more generally, than 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 immedi- 
 ately of the bodies, that are called principles or elements, 
 the mingled ingredients may better retain their own 
 nature in the compounded mass, and be more easily 
 separatetKfrom thence; yet, besides that it may be 
 doubted, whether^ there be any such primary bodies, I 
 see not why the reason I alledged, 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 privi- 
 ledged. 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 hitherto 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 deduced from the differing 
 substances obtained from a plant nourished only with 
 water, and from some other things, that it was not 
 
92 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 necessary that nature should alwaies compound a body 
 at first of all such differing bodies as the fire could after- 
 wards 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 another 
 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 put 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 Iria prima, we shall 
 find that nature does 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, 
 pass 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, than of the liquid substance of an egg, which will 
 easily mix with water, to produce by the bare warmth of 
 a hatching hen, membrans, feathers, tendons, and other 
 parts, that are not dissoluble in water 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 water, than 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 
 does not act like any of the seminal principles, but de- 
 stroyes them all when they come within its reach. But to 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 93 
 
 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 'tis evident, that either by the 
 plastick principle alone, or that and heat together, or by 
 some other cause capable to contex the matter, it is yet 
 possible that the matter may be anew contrived into such 
 bodies. And 'tis only for the possibility of this that I am 
 now contending. 
 
THE THIRD PART 
 
 WHAT I have hitherto discoursed, Eleutherius (saies his 
 friend to him) has, I presume, shewn you, that a consider- 
 ing man may very well question the truth of those very 
 suppositions which chymists as well as peripateticks, 
 without proving, take for granted; and upon which 
 depends the validity of the inferences they draw from 
 their experiments. Wherefore having dispatched 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 
 imposed 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 believe what they so boldly 
 affirme, than 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 averred, 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 divers strange things, and, 
 among those resolve compound bodies into several sub- 
 stances not known by former philosophers to be contained 
 in them: men I say, seeing these things, and hearing 
 with what confidence chymists averr the substances 
 obtained from compound bodies by the fire to be the true 
 elements, or (as they speak) hypostatical principles of 
 them, are forward to think it but just as well as modest, 
 that according to the logicians rule, the skilfull artists 
 94 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 95 
 
 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 mentioned accounts, 
 not only to delight but amaze, and almost to bewitch 
 even learned men; yet such as you and I, who are not 
 unpractised in the trade, must not suffer ourselves to be 
 imposed upon by hard names, or bold assertions; nor to 
 be dazled 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 produced. 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 child's 
 body, as they that never were parents. Nor do I doubt, 
 but you'll 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 
 astonisht 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 con- 
 sideration, 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 'tis not proved by chymists, that 
 all the compound bodies, which are granted to be perfectly 
 rnixt, 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 
 
96 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 substances, that may plausibly pass for the elementary 
 ingredients of a mixed body, it may be analysed by the 
 fire; but whether each of these be uncompounded, 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 resolved into them, are 
 not wont to be uncompounded. 
 
 Now there are two kinds 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 yourself 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 than three or five; and consequently, that 
 we need not suppose, that in each of the compound bodies 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 97 
 
 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 
 exemplified to you, in that most durable concrete, glass), 
 another sort of mixts may be composed 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 assigned, 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, accord- 
 ing 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 con- 
 vene to compose any body, which are as yet free, and 
 neither as yet contexed and entangled with primary 
 corpuscles of other kinds, but remains liable to be subdued 
 and fashioned by seminal principles, or the like powerful 
 and transmuting agent, by whom they may be so con- 
 nected 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 than those 
 that chymists have hitherto taken notice of. 
 
 To all which I may add, that since it appears, by what 
 I observed 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 
 remain indissoluble in the ordinary analysis that chymists 
 make of bodies by the fire; 'tis not impossible but that, 
 though there were but three elements, yet there may be 
 
 G 
 
98 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 a greater number of bodies, which the wonted waies of 
 anatomy will not discover to be no elementary bodies. 
 
 But, (saies Carneades) having thus far, in compliance 
 to you, talket conjecturally of the number of the elements, 
 'tis now time to consider, not of how many elements it is 
 possible that nature may compound mixed bodies, but 
 (at least as far 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 allowed to be perfectly mixt. 
 
 And for the more distinct proof of this proposition, 
 I shall in the first place represent, 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 salt, sulphur and mercury: and 
 if any man will submit to a competent forfeiture in case 
 of failing, I shall willingly in case of prosperous success 
 pay for both the materials and the charges of such an 
 experiment. 'Tis not, that after what I have tried 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 deprived of its wonted colour. 
 Nor am 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 witness. And for the 
 several processes that promise that effect, the materials 
 that must be wrought upon are somewhat too precious 
 and costly to be wasted upon so groundless adventures, 
 of which not only the success is doubtful, but the very 
 possibility is not yet demonstrated. Yet that which 
 most deterrs me from such tryalls, is not their chargeable- 
 ness, but their unsatisfactorinesse, though they should 
 succeed. For the extraction of this golden salt being in 
 chymists processes prescribed to be effected by corrosive 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 99 
 
 menstruums, or the intervention of other saline bodies, 
 it will remain doubtfull to a wary person, whether the 
 emergent salt be that of the gold itself; or of the saline 
 bodies or spirits employed 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 osteo- 
 calla, from refined silver, from quicksilver, freed from its 
 adventitious sulphur, from Venetian talck, 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 glass-house fire, came out in the figure it's lumps 
 had when put in, though altered to an almost amethys- 
 tine 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 
 satisfied 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 an/d practicable processes to perform 
 what they pretend. / For whilst they affect that asnig- 
 matical obscurity with which they are wont to puzzle 
 the readers of their divulged processes concerning the 
 analytical preparation of gold or mercury, they leave wary 
 persons much unsatisfied whether or no the differing 
 substances, they promise to produce, be truly the hypo- 
 statical principles, or only some intermixtures of the 
 divided bodies with those employed to work upon them, 
 as is evident in the seeming chrystalls 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 aquafortis or other corrosive liquors; as is evident by 
 their being reducible into silver or quicksilver, as they 
 were before. I 
 
 I cannot but confess (saith Eleutherius) that though 
 
TOO The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 chymists may upon probable grounds affirme themselves 
 able to obtain their tria prima, from animals and vege- 
 tables, 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 'tis 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) et ex iis fieri 
 posse omnibus in resolutionibus chymicis versatis notis- 
 simum est." 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 sorts 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 
 named bodies so resolved; but Helmont, who was much 
 better versed in the chymical anatomizing of bodies than 
 either Sennertus or I, has somewhere this resolute passage ; 
 " Scio (saies he) ex arena, silicibus et saxis, non calcariis, 
 numquam sulphur aut mercurium trahi posse; ' nay 
 Quercetanus himself, though the grand stickler for the 
 tria prima, has this confession of the irresolubleness of 
 diamonds; " Adamas (saith he) omnium factus lapidum 
 solidissimus ac durissimus ex arctissima videlicet trium 
 principiorum unione ac cohserentia, quae nulla arte separa- 
 tionis in solutionem principiorum suorum spiritualium 
 disjungi potest." And indeed, pursues Eleutherius, I 
 was not only glad but somewhat surprized to find you 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 101 
 
 inclined to admit that there may be a sulphur and a 
 running mercury drawn from gold; for unless you do 
 (as your expression seemed to intimate) take the word 
 sulphur in a very loose sence, I must doubt whether our 
 chymists can separate a sulphur from gold: for when I 
 saw you make the experiment that I suppose invited you 
 to speak as you did, I did not judge the golden tincture 
 to be the true principle of sulphur extracted from the 
 body, but an aggregate of some such highly coloured 
 parts of the gold, as a chymist would have called a sulphur 
 incombustible, which in plain English seems to be little 
 better than to call it a sulphur and no sulphur. And as 
 for metalline mercuries, I had not wondred at it, though 
 you had expressed much more severity in speaking of 
 them : for I remember that having once met an old and 
 famous artist, who had long been (and still is) chymist 
 to a great monarch, the repute he had of a very honest 
 man invited me to desire him to tell me ingenuously 
 whether or no among his many labours, he had ever really 
 extracted a true and running mercury out of metalls; to 
 which question he freely replyed, that he had never 
 separated a true mercury from any metal; nor had ever 
 seen it really done by any man else. And though gold 
 is, of all metalls, that, whose mercury chymists have most 
 endeavoured to extract, and which they do the most brag 
 they have extracted; yet the experienced Angelus Sala, 
 in his spagyrical account of the seven terrestrial planets 
 (that is the seven metalls) affords us this memorable 
 testimony, to our present purpose; " Quanquam (saies he) 
 etc. experientia tamen (quam stultorum magistram 
 vocamus) certe comprobavit, mercurium auri adeo fixum, 
 maturum, et arete cum reliquis ejusdem corporis 
 substantiis conjungi, ut nullo modo retrogredi possit." 
 To which he sub-joynes that he himself had seen much 
 labour spent upon that design, but could never see any 
 such mercury produced thereby. And I easily believe 
 what he annexes; " that he had often seen detected many 
 tricks and impostures of cheating alchymists. For, the 
 most part of those that are fond of such charlatans, being 
 unskilful or credulous, or both, 'tis very easie for such as 
 
102 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 have some skill, much craft, more boldness, and no 
 conscience, to impose upon them; and therefore, though 
 many professed alchymists, and divers persons of quality 
 have told me that they have made or seen the mercury of 
 gold, or of this or that other metal; yet I have been still 
 apt to fear that either these persons have had a design 
 to deceive others; or have had not skill and circumspec- 
 tion enough to keep themselves from being deceived. 
 
 You recall to my mind (saies Carneades) a certain 
 experiment I once devised, innocently to deceive some 
 persons and let them and others see how little is to be built 
 upon the affirmation of those that are either unskilfull or 
 unwary, when they tell us they have seen alchymists make 
 the mercury of this or that metal; and to make this the 
 more evident, I made my experiment much more slight, 
 short and simple, than the chymists usuall processes to 
 extract metalline mercuries; which operations being 
 commonly more elaborate and intricate, and requiring 
 a much more longer time, give the alchymists a greater 
 opportunity to cozen, and consequently are more ob- 
 noxious to the spectators suspition. And that wherein 
 I endeavoured to make my experiment look the more like 
 a true analysis, was, that I not only pretended as well as 
 others to extract a mercury from the metal I wrought 
 upon, but likewise to separate a large proportion of 
 manifest and inflamable sulphur. I take then, of the 
 filings of copper, about a drachme or two; of common 
 sublimate, powdered, the like weight; and sal armoniack 
 near about as much as of sublimate ; these three being well 
 mingled together I put into a small vial with a long neck, 
 or, which I find better, into a glass urinall, which (having 
 first stopped it with cotton) to avoid the noxious fumes, 
 I approach by degrees to a competent fire of well kindled 
 coals, or (which looks better, but more endangers the 
 glass) to the flame of a candle; and after a while the 
 bottom of the glass being held just upon the kindled coals, 
 or in the flame, you may in about a quarter of an hour, 
 or perchance in halfe that time, perceive in the bottom 
 of the glass some running mercury; and if then you take 
 away the glass and break it, you shall find a parcel of 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 103 
 
 quicksilver, perhaps altogether, and perhaps part of it 
 in the pores of the solid mass; you shall find too, that 
 the remaining lump being held to the flame of the candle 
 will readily burn with a greenish flame, and after a little 
 while (perchance presently) will in the air acquire a 
 greenish blew, which being the colour that is ascribed 
 to copper, when its body is unlocked, 'tis easie to perswade 
 men that this is the true sulphur of Venus, especially 
 since not only the salts may be supposed partly to be flown 
 away, and partly to be sublimed to the upper part of the 
 glass, whose inside (will commonly appear whitened by 
 them) but the metal seems to be quite destroyed, the 
 copper no longer appearing in a metalline forme, but 
 almost in that of a resinous lump; whereas indeed the 
 case is only this, that the saline parts of the sublimate 
 together with the sal armoniack, being excited and 
 actuated by the vehement heat, fall upon the copper, 
 (which is a metal they can more easily corrode, than 
 silver) whereby the small parts of the mercury being freed 
 from the salts that kept them asunder, and being by the 
 heat tumbled up and down after many occursions, they 
 convene into a conspicuous mass of liquor; and as for the 
 salts, some of the more volatile of them subliming to the 
 upper part of the glass, the others corrode the copper, 
 and uniting themselves with it do strangely alter and 
 disguise its metallick form, and compose with it a new 
 kind of concrete inflamable like sulphur; concerning 
 which I shall not now say anything, since I can referr you 
 to the diligent observations which I remember Mr. Boyle 
 has made concerning this odde kind of verdigrease. But 
 continues Carneades smiling, you know I was not cut 
 out for a mountebank, and therefore I will hasten to 
 resume the person of a sceptick, and take up my discourse 
 where you diverted me from prosecuting it. 
 
 In the next place, then, I consider, that, as there are 
 some bodies which yield not so many as the three prin- 
 ciples; so there are many others, that in their resolution 
 exhibite more principles than three; and that therefore 
 the ternary number is not that of the universal and 
 adequate principles of bodies. If you allow of the dis- 
 
104 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 course I lately made you, touching the primary associa- 
 tions of the small particles of matter, you will scarce 
 
 '/think it improbable, that of such elementary corpuscles 
 there may be more sorts than either three, or four, or five. 
 And if you will grant, what will scarce be denyed, that 
 corpuscles of a compounded nature may in all the wonted 
 examples of chymists pass for elementary, I see not why 
 you should think it impossible, that as aqua fortis, or 
 aqua regis will make a separation of colliquated silver and 
 gold, though the fire cannot; so there may be some agent 
 found out so subtile and so powerfull, at least in respect 
 of those particular compounded corpuscles, as to be able 
 to resolve them into those more simple ones, whereof they 
 consist, and consequently encrease the number of the 
 distinct substances, whereinto the mixt body has been 
 hitherto thought resoluble. And if that be true, which 
 I recited to you a while ago out of Helmont concerning 
 the operations of the alkahest, which divides bodies into 
 other distinct substances, both as to number and nature, 
 than the fire does; it will not a little countenance my 
 conjecture. But confining ourselves to such waies of 
 analyzing mixed bodies, as are already not unknown to 
 chymists, it may without absurdity be questioned, 
 
 X whether besides those grosser elements of bodies, which 
 they call salt sulphur and mercury, there may not be 
 ingredients of a more subtile nature, which being extreamly 
 little, and not being in themselves visible, may escape 
 unheeded at the junctures of the destillatory vessels, 
 though never so carefully luted. For let me observe to 
 you one thing, which though not taken notice of by 
 chymists, may be a notion of good use in divers cases to 
 a naturalist, that we may well suspect, that there may be 
 severall sorts of bodies, which are not immediate objects 
 of any one of our senses; since we see, that not only those 
 little corpuscles that issue out of the loadstone, and per- 
 form the wonders for which it is justly admired; but the 
 effluviums of amber, jet, and other electricall concretes, 
 though by their effects upon the particular bodies disposed 
 to receive their action, they seem to fall under the cog- 
 nizance of our sight, yet do they not as electrical immedi- 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 105 
 
 ately affect any of our senses, as do the bodies, whether 
 minute or greater, that we see, feel, taste, etc. But, 
 (continues Carneades) because you may expect I should, 
 as the chymists do, consider only the sensible ingredients 
 of mixt bodies, let us now see, what experience will, even 
 as to these, suggest to us. 
 
 It seems then questionable enough, whether from 
 grapes variously ordered there may not be drawn more 
 distinct substances by the help of the fire, than from most 
 other mixt bodies. For the grapes themselves being 
 dryed into raisins and distilled, will (besides alcali, phlegm, 
 and earth) yeeld a considerable quantity of an empy- 
 reumatical oyle, and a spirit of a very different nature 
 from that of wine. Also the unfermented juice of grapes 
 affords other distilled liquors than wine doth. The juice 
 of grapes after fermentation will yeeld a spiritus ardens ; 
 which if competently rectifyed will all burn away without 
 leaving anything remaining. The same fermented juice 
 degenerating into vinegar, yeelds an acid and corroding 
 spirit. The same juice tunned up, armes itself with 
 tartar; out of which may be separated, as out of other 
 bodies, phlegme, spirit, oyle, salt and earth: not to 
 mention what substances may be drawn from the vine 
 itselfe, probably differing from those which are separated 
 from tartar, which is a body by itself, that has few resem- 
 blers in the world. And I will further consider that what 
 force soever you will allow this instance, to evince that 
 there are some bodies that yeeld more elements than 
 others, it can scarce be denyed but that the major part 
 of bodies that are divisible into elements yeeld more than 
 three. For, besides those which the chymists are pleased 
 to name hypostatical, most bodies contain two others, 
 phlegme and earth, which concurring as well as the rest 
 to the constitution of mixts, and being as generally, if not 
 more, found in their analysis, I see no sufficient cause why 
 they should be excluded from the number of elements. 
 Nor will it suffice to object, as the Paracelsians are wont 
 to do, that the tria -prima are the most useful elements, 
 and the earth and water but worthless and unactive; for 
 elements being called so in relation to the constituting 
 
io6 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 of mixt bodies, it should be upon the account of its ingre- 
 f diency, not of its use, that anything should be affirmed 
 or denyed to be an element: and as for the pretended 
 uselessness of earth and water, it would be considered 
 that usefulness, or the want of it, denotes only a respect 
 or relation to us; and therefore the presence, or absence 
 of it, alters not the intrinsick nature of the thing. The 
 hurtful teeth of vipers are for ought I know useless to us, 
 and yet are not to be denyed to be parts of their bodies; 
 and it were hard to shew of what greater use to us, than 
 phlegme and earth, are those undiscerned stars, which 
 our new telescopes discover to us, in many blanched 
 places of the sky; and yet we cannot but acknowledge 
 them constituent and considerably great parts of the 
 universe. Besides that whether or no the phlegm and 
 -earth be immediately useful, but necessary to constitute 
 the body whence they are separated; and consequently, 
 if the mixt body be not useless to us, those constituent 
 parts, without which it could not have been that mixt 
 body, may be said not to be unuseful to us: and though 
 the earth and water be not so conspicuously operative 
 (after separation) as the other three more active principles, 
 yet in this case it will not be amiss to remember the lucky 
 fable of Menenius Agrippa, of the dangerous sedition of 
 the hands and legs, and other more busie parts of the body, 
 against the seemingly unactive stomack. And to this 
 case also we may not unfitly apply that reasoning of an 
 apostle, to another purpose; " If the ear shall say, because 
 I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore 
 not of the body? If the whole body were eye, where were 
 the hearing? If the whole were for hearing, where the 
 smelling? In a word, since earth and water appear, as 
 clearly and as generally as the other principles upon the 
 resolution of bodies, to be the ingredients whereof they 
 / are made up; and since they are useful (if not immedi- 
 ately to us, or rather to physitians) to the bodies they 
 constitute, and so though in somewhat a remoter way, 
 are serviceable to us; to exclude them out of the number 
 of elements, is not to imitate nature. 
 
 And on this occasion I cannot but take notice, that 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 107 
 
 whereas the great argument which the chymists are wont 
 to employ to vilify earth and water, and make them be 
 looked upon as useless and unworthy to be reckoned 
 among the principles of mixt bodies, is, that they are not 
 endowed with specifick properties, but only with elemen- 
 tary qualities ; of which they use to speak very slightingly, 
 as of qualities contemptible and unactive: I see no 
 sufficient reason for this practice of the chymists: for 
 'tis confessed that heat is an elementary quality, and yet 
 that an almost innumerable company of considerable 
 things are performed by heat, is manifest to them that 
 duly consider the various phenomena wherein it inter- 
 venes as a principall actor; and none ought less to ignore 
 or distrust this truth than a chymist. Since almost all 
 the operations and productions of his art are performed 
 chiefly by the means of heat. And as for cold itself, upon 
 whose account they so despise the earth and water, if 
 they please to read in the voyages of our English and 
 Dutch navigators in Nova Zembla and other northern 
 regions what stupendous things may be effected by cold, 
 they would not perhaps think it so despicable. And not 
 to repeat what I lately recited to you out of Paracelsus 
 himself, who by the help of an intense cold teaches to 
 separate the quintessence of wine; I will only now 
 observe to you, that the conservation of the texture ,of 
 many bodies both animate and inanimate, does so much 
 depend upon the convenient motion both of their own 
 fluid and looser parts, and of the ambient bodies, whether 
 air, water, etc. that not only in humane bodies we see 
 that the immoderate or unseasonable coldness of the air 
 (especially when it finds such bodies overheated) does 
 very frequently discompose the oeconomie of them, and 
 occasion variety of diseases ; but in the solid and durable 
 body of iron itself, in which one would not expect that 
 suddain cold should produce any notable change, it may 
 have so great an operation, that if you take a wire, or 
 other slender piece of steel, and having brought it in the 
 fire to a white heat, you suffer it afterwards to cool 
 leasurely in the air, it will when it is cold be much of the 
 same hardness it was of before. Whereas if as soon as 
 
1 08 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 you remove it from the fire, you plunge it into cold water, 
 it will upon the suddain refrigeration acquire a very much 
 greater hardness than it had before; nay, and will become 
 manifestly brittle. And that you may not impute this 
 to any peculiar quality in the water, or other liquor, or 
 unctuous matter, wherein such heated steel is wont to be 
 quenched that it may be tempered; I know a very skilful 
 tradesman, that divers times hardens steel by suddenly 
 cooling it in a body that is neither a liquor, nor so much 
 as moist. A tryal of that nature I remember I have seen 
 made. And however by the operation that water has 
 upon steel quenched in it, whether upon the account of 
 its coldness and moisture, or upon that of any other of 
 its qualities, it appears, that water is not alwaies so 
 inefficacious and contemptible a body, as our chymists 
 would have it pass for. And what I have said of the 
 efficacy of cold and heat, might perhaps be easily enough 
 carried further by other considerations and experiments; 
 were it not that having been mentioned only upon the by, 
 I must not insist on it, but proceed to another subject. 
 
 But, (pursues Carneades) though I think it evident, 
 that earth and phlegme are to be reckoned among the 
 elements of most animal and vegetable bodies, yet 'tis 
 not upon that account alone, that I think divers bodies 
 resoluble into more substances than three. For there 
 are two experiments, that I have sometimes made to 
 shew, that at least some mixts are divisible into more 
 distinct substances than five. The one of these experi- 
 ments, though 'twill be more seasonable for me to mention 
 it fully anon, yet in the meantime, I shall tell you thus 
 much of it, that out of two distilled liquors which pass 
 for elements of the bodies whence they are drawn, I can 
 without addition make a true yellow and inflamable 
 sulphur, notwithstanding that the two liquors remain 
 afterwards distinct. Of the other experiment, which 
 perhaps will not be altogether unworthy your notice, I 
 must now give you this particular account. I had long 
 observed, that by the destination of divers woods, both 
 in ordinary, and some unusuall sorts of vessels, the 
 copious spirit that came over, had besides a strong taste, 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 109 
 
 to be met with in the empyreumatical spirits of many 
 other bodies, an acidity almost like that of vinegar: 
 wherefore I suspected, that though the sowrish liquor 
 distilled, for instance, from box-wood, be lookt upon by 
 chymists as barely the spirit of it, and therefore as one 
 single element or principle; yet it does really consist of 
 two differing substances, and may be divisible into them ; 
 and consequently, that such woods and other mixts as 
 abound with such a vinegar, may be said to consist of one 
 element or principle, more than the chymists as yet are 
 aware of, wherefore bethinking myself, how the separation 
 of these two spirits might be made, I quickly found, that 
 there were several waies of compassing it. But that of 
 them which I shall at present mention was this, Having 
 destilled a quantity of box-wood per se, and slowly 
 rectifyed the sowrish spirit, the better to free it both from 
 oyle and phlegme, I cast into this rectifyed liquor a con- 
 venient quantity of powdered coral, expecting that the 
 acid part of the liquor, would corrode the coral, and being 
 associated with it would be so retained by it, that the 
 other part of the liquor, which was not of an acid nature, 
 nor fit to fasten upon the corals, would be permitted to 
 ascend alone. Nor was I deceived in my expectation; 
 for having gently abstracted the liquor from the corals, 
 there came over a spirit of a strong smell, and of a taste 
 very piercing but without any sowrness; and which was 
 in diverse qualities manifestly different, not only from 
 a spirit of vinegar, but from some spirit of the same wood, 
 that I purposely kept by me without depriving it of its 
 acid ingredient. And to satisfy you, that these two 
 substances were of a very differing nature, I might 
 informe you of several tryals that I made, but must not 
 name some of them, because I cannot do so without 
 making some unseasonable discoveries. Yet this I shall 
 tell you at present that the sowre spirit of box, not only 
 would, as I just now related, dissolve corals, which the 
 other would not fasten on, but being poured upon salt of 
 tartar would immediately boyle and hiss, whereas the 
 other would lye quietly upon it. The acid spirit poured 
 upon minium made a sugar of lead, which I did not find 
 
1 1 o The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 the other to do ; some drops of this penetrant spirit being 
 mingled with some drops of the blew syrup of violets 
 seemed rather to dilute than otherwise alter the colour; 
 whereas the acid spirit turned the syrup of a reddish 
 colour, and would probably have made it of as pure a red, 
 as acid salts are wont to do, had not its operation been 
 hindered by the mixture of the other spirit. A few drops 
 of the compound spirit being shaken into a pretty quantity 
 of the infusion of lignum nephriticum, presently destroyed 
 all the blewish colour, whereas the other spirit would not 
 take it away. To all which it might be added, that 
 having for tryals sake poured fair water upon the corals 
 that remained in the bottom of the glass wherein I had 
 rectifyed the double spirit (if I may so call it) that was 
 first drawn from the box, I found according to my expec- 
 tation that the acid spirit had really dissolved the corals 
 and had coagulated with them. For by the affusion of 
 fair water, I obtained a solution, which (to note that 
 singularity upon the by) was red, whence the water being 
 evaporated, there remained a soluble substance much like 
 the ordinary salt of coral, as chymists are pleased to call 
 that magistery of corals, which they make by dissolving 
 them in common spirit of vinegar, and abstracting the 
 menstruum ad siccitatem. I know not whether I should 
 subjoyne, on this occasion, that the simple spirit of box, 
 if chymists will have it therefore saline because it has a 
 strong taste, will furnish us with a new kind of saline 
 bodies, differing from those hitherto taken notice of. 
 For whereas of the three chief sorts of salts, the acid, the 
 alcalizate, and the sulphureous, there is none that seems 
 to be friends with both the other two, as I may, ere it be 
 long, have occasion to shew; I did not find but that the 
 simple spirit of box did agree very well (at least as farr 
 as I had occasion to try it) both with the acid and the other 
 salts. For though it would lye very quiet with salt of 
 tartar, spirit of urine, or other bodies, whose salts were 
 either of an alcalizate or fugitive nature; yet did not the 
 mingling of oyle of vitriol itself produce any hissing or 
 effervescence, which you know is wont to ensue upon the 
 affusion of that highly acid liquor upon either of the 
 bodies newly mentioned. 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 1 1 1 
 
 I think myself, (saies Eleu therms) beholden to you, for 
 this experiment; not only because I foresee you will 
 make it helpful to you in the enquiry you are now upon, 
 but because it teaches us a method, whereby we may 
 prepare a numerous sort of new spirits, which though 
 more simple than any that are thought elementary, are 
 manifestly endowed with peculiar and powerful qualities, 
 some of which may probably be of considerable use in 
 physick, as well alone as associated with other things; </ 
 as one may hopefully guess by the redness of that solution 
 your sowre spirit made of corals, and by some other circum- 
 stances of your narrative. And suppose (pursues Eleu- 
 therius) that you are not so confined, for the separation 
 of the acid parts of these compound spirits from the other, 
 to employ corals; but that you may as well make use of 
 any alcalizate salt, or of pearls, or crabs eyes, or any other 
 body, upon which common spirit of vinegar will easily 
 work, and, to speak in an Helmontian phrase, exantlate 
 itself. 
 
 I have not yet tryed, (saies Carneades) of what use the 
 mentioned liquors may be in physick, either as medicines 
 or as menstruums: but I could mention now (and may 
 another time) divers of the tryals that I made to satisfy 
 myself of the difference of these two liquors. But that, 
 as I allow your thinking what you newly told me about 
 corals, I presume you will allow me, from what I have 
 said already, to deduce this corollary; that there are 
 divers compound bodies, which may be resolved into 
 four such differing substances, as may as well merit the 
 name of principles, as those to which the chymists freely 
 give it. For since they scruple not to reckon that which 
 I call the compound spirit of box, for the spirit, or as 
 others would have it, the mercury of that wood, I see not, 
 why the acid liquor, and the other, should not each of 
 them, especially that last named, be lookt upon as more 
 worthy to be called an elementary principle; since it must 
 needs be of a more simple nature than the liquor, which 
 was found to be divisible into that, and the acid spirit. 
 And this further use (continues Carneades) may be made 
 of our experiment to my present purpose, that it may give 
 
1 1 2 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 us a rise to suspect, that since a liquor reputed by the 
 chymists to be, without dispute, homogeneous, is by so 
 slight a way divisible into two distinct and more simple 
 ingredients, some more skilful or happier experimenter 
 than I may find a way either further to divide one of these 
 spirits, or to resolve some or other, if not all, of those 
 other ingredients of mixt bodies, that have hitherto passed 
 among chymists for their elements or principles. 
 
THE FOURTH PART 
 
 AND thus much (saies Carneades) may suffice to be said 
 of the number of the distinct substances separable from 
 mixt bodies by the fire: wherefore I now proceed to 
 consider the nature of them, and shew you, that though 
 they seem homogeneous bodies, yet have they not the 
 purity and simplicity that is requisite to elements. And 
 I should immediately proceed to the proof of my assertion, 
 but that the confidence wherewith chymists are wont to call 
 each of the substances we speak of by the name of sulphur 
 or mercury, or the other of the hypostatical principles, and 
 te intolerable ambiguity they allow themselves in their 
 writings and expressions^ makes it necessary for me in 
 order to the keeping you either from mistaking me, or 
 thinking I mistake the controversie, to take notice to you 
 and complain of the unreasonable liberty they give them- 
 selves of playing with names at pleasure. And indeed 
 if I were obliged in this dispute, to have such regard to the 
 phraseology of each particular chymist, as not to write 
 anything which this or that author may not pretend, 
 not to contradict this or that sence, which he may give us 
 as occasion serves to his ambiguous expressions, I should 
 scarce know how to dispute, nor which way to turn myself. 
 For I find that even eminent writers (such as Raymund 
 Lully, Paracelsus and others) do so abuse the termes they 
 employ, that as they will now and then give divers things, 
 one name; so they will oftentimes give one thing, many 
 names; and some of them (perhaps) such, as do much 
 more properly signifie some distinct body of another kind; 
 nay even in technical words or termes of art, they refrain 
 not from this confounding liberty; but will, as I have 
 observed, call the same substance, sometimes the sulphur, 
 and sometimes the mercury of a body. And now I speak 
 of mercury, I cannot but take notice, that the descriptions 
 they give us of that principle or ingredient of mixt bodies, 
 113 H 
 
1 14 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 J are so intricate, that even those that have endeavoured 
 to polish and illustrate the notions of the chymists, are 
 fain to confess that they know not what to make of it 
 either by ingenuous acknowledgments, or descriptions 
 that are not intelligible. 
 
 I must confess (saies Eleutherius) I have, in the reading 
 of Paracelsus and other chymical authors, been troubled 
 to find, that such hard words and equivocal expressions, 
 
 / as you justly complain of, do even when they treat of 
 principles, seem to be studiously affected by those writers; 
 whether to make themselves to be admired by their 
 readers, and their art appear more venerable and 
 mysterious, or (as they would have us think) to conceal 
 from them a knowledge themselves judge inestimable. 
 
 But whatever (saies Carneades) these men may promise 
 themselves from a canting way of delivering the principles 
 
 . of nature, they will find the major part of knowing men 
 so vain, as when they understand not what they read, to 
 conclude, that it is rather the writers fault than their own. 
 And those that are so ambitious to be admired by the 
 vulgar, that rather than go without the admiration of 
 the ignorant they will expose themselves to the contempt 
 of the learned, those shall, by my consent, freely enjoy 
 their option. As for the mystical writers scrupling to 
 communicate tneir knowledge, they might less to their 
 own disparagement, and to the trouble of their readers, 
 have concealed it by writing no books, than by writing 
 bad ones.XIf Themistius were here, he would not stick 
 to say, that chymists write thus darkly, not because they 
 think their notions too precious to be explained, but 
 
 v/ because they fear that if they were explained, men would 
 discern, that they are fair from being precious. And 
 indeed, I fear that the chief reason why chymists have 
 written so obscurely of their three principles, may be, 
 that not having clear and distinct notions of them them- 
 selves, they cannot write otherwise than confusedly of 
 what they but confusedly apprehend: not to say that 
 divers of them, being conscious to the invalidity of their 
 doctrine, might well enough discerne that they could 
 scarce keep themselves from being confuted, but by 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 115 
 
 keeping themselves from being clearly understood. But 
 though much may be said to excuse the chymists when 
 they write darkly, and ^enigmatically, about the prepara- 
 tion of their elixir, and some few other grand arcana, 
 the divulging of which they may upon grounds plausible 
 enough esteem unfit; yet when they pretend to teach 
 the general principles of natural philosophers, this 
 equivocal way of writing is not to be endured. For in 
 such speculative enquiries, where the naked knowledge 
 of the truth is the thing principally aimed at, what does 
 he teach me worth thanks that does not, if he can, make 
 his notion intelligible to me, but by mystical termes, and 
 ambiguous phrases darkens what he should clear up; 
 and makes me add the trouble of guessing at the sence 
 of what he equivocally expresses, to that of examining 
 the truth of what he seems to deliver. And if the matter 
 of the philosophers stone, and the manner of preparing it, 
 be such mysteries as they would have the world believe 
 them, they may write intelligibly and clearly of the 
 principles of mixt bodies in general, without discovering 
 what they call the great work. But for my part (continues 
 Carneades) what my indignation at this unphilosophical 
 way of teaching principles has now extorted from me, is 
 meant chiefly to excuse myself, if I shall hereafter oppose 
 any particular opinion or assertion, that some follower 
 of Paracelsus or any eminent artist may pretend not to be 
 his masters. For, as I told you long since, I am not 
 obliged to examine private men's writings, (which were 
 a labour as endless as unprofitable) being only engaged 
 to examine those opinions about the tria prima, which I 
 find those chymists I have met with to agree in most: 
 and I doubt not but my arguments against their doctrine 
 will be in great part easily enough applicable even to 
 those private opinions, which they do not so directly and 
 expressly oppose. And indeed, that which I am now 
 entering upon being the consideration of the things them- 
 selves whereinto spagyrists resolve mixt bodies by the 
 fire, if I can shew that these are not of an elementary 
 nature, it will be no great matter what names these or 
 those chymists have been pleased to give them. And I 
 
1 1 6 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 question not that to a wise man, and consequently to 
 Eleutherius, it will be lesse considerable to know, what 
 men have thought of things, than what they should have 
 thought. 
 
 In the fourth and last place, then, I consider, that as 
 generally as chymists are wont to appeal to experience, 
 and as confidently as they use to instance the several 
 substances separated by the fire from a mixt body, as a 
 /sufficient proof of their being its component elements: 
 yet those differing substances are many of them farr 
 enough from elementary simplicity, and may be yet 
 looked upon as mixt bodies, most of them also retaining, 
 somewhat at least, if not very much, of the nature of those 
 concretes whence they were forced. 
 
 I am glad (saies Eleutherius) to see the vanity or envy of 
 the canting chymists thus discovered and chastised; and I 
 could wish, that learned men would conspire together to 
 make these deluding writers sensible, that they must no 
 longer hope with impunity to abuse the world. For whilst 
 such men are quietly permitted to publish books with 
 promising titles, and therein to assert what they please, 
 and contradict others, and even themselves as they please, 
 with as little danger of being confuted as of being under- 
 stood, they are encouraged to get themselves a name, 
 at the cost of the readers, by finding that intelligent men 
 are wont for the reason newly mentioned, to let their 
 books and them alone: and the ignorant and credulous 
 (of which the number is still much greater than that of 
 
 * the other) are forward to admire most what they least 
 understand. But if judicious men skilled in chymical 
 affaires shall once agree to write clearly and plainly of 
 them, and thereby keep men from being stunned, as it 
 
 */were, or imposed upon by dark or empty words; 'tis to be 
 hoped that these men finding that they can no longer 
 write impertinently and absurdly, without being laughed 
 at for doing so, will be reduced either to write nothing, 
 or books that may teach us something, and not rob 
 men, as formerly, of invaluable time; and so ceasing to 
 trouble the world with riddles or impertinencies, we shall 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 117 
 
 either by their books receive an advantage, or by their 
 silence escape an inconvenience. 
 
 But after all this is said (continues Eleutherius) it may 
 be represented in favour of the chymists, that, in one 
 regard the liberty they take in using names, if it be 
 excusable at any time, may be more so when they speak 
 of the substances whereinto their analysis resolves mixt 
 bodies : since as parents have the right to name their own 
 children, it has ever been allowed to the authors of new 
 inventions, to impose names upon them. And therefore 
 the subjects we speak of being so the productions of the 
 chymists art, as not to be otherwise, but by it, obtainable; 
 it seems but equitable to give the artists leave to name 
 them as they please: considering also that none are so 
 fit and likely to teach us what those bodies are, as they 
 to whom we owed them. 
 
 I told you already (saies Carneades) that there is great 
 difference betwixt the being able to make experiments, 
 and the being able to give a philosophical account of them. 
 And I. will not now add, that many a mine-digger may 
 meet, whilst he follows his work, with a gemm or a mineral 
 which he knowes not what to make of, till he shewes it 
 a jeweller or a mineralist to be informed what it is. But 
 that which I would rather have here observed is, that 
 the chymists I am now in debate with have given up the 
 liberty you challenged for them, of using names at pleasure, 
 and confined themselves by their descriptions, though 
 but such as they are, of their principles; so that although 
 they might freely have called anything their analysis 
 presents them with, either sulphur, or mercury, or gas, 
 or bias, or what they pleased; yet when they have told 
 me that sulphur (for instance) is a primogeneal and simple 
 body, inflamable, odorous, etc. they must give me leave 
 to disbelieve them, if they tell me that a body that is 
 either compounded or uninflamable is such a sulphur; 
 and to think they play with words, when they teach that 
 gold and some other minerals abound with an incom- 
 bustible sulphur, which is as proper an expression, as a 
 sun-shine night, or fluid ice. 
 
 But before I descend to the mention of particulars 
 
1 1 8 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 belonging to my fourth consideration, I think it convenient 
 to premise a few generals; some of which I shall the less 
 need to insist on at present, because I have touched on 
 them already. 
 
 And first I must invite you to take notice, of a certain 
 passage in Helmont; 1 which though I have not found 
 much heeded by his readers, he himself mentions as a 
 notable thing, and I take to be a very considerable one ; for 
 whereas the distilled oyle of oyle-olive, though drawn per se 
 is (as I have tryed) of a very sharp and fretting quality, 
 and of an odious taste, he tells us that simple oyle being 
 only digested with Paracelsus's sal circulatum, is reduced 
 into dissimilar parts, and yeelds a sweet oyle, very differing 
 from the oyle distilled, from sallet oyle; as also that by 
 the same way there may be separated from wine a very 
 sweet and gentle spirit, partaking of a far other and 
 nobler quality than that which is immediately drawn by 
 distillation and called dephlegmed aqua vitce, from whose 
 acrimony this other spirit is exceedingly remote, although 
 the sal circulatum that makes these anatomies be separated 
 from the analyzed bodies, in the same weight and with 
 the same qualities it had before; which affirmation of 
 Helmont if we admit to be true, we must acknowledge 
 that there may be a very great disparity betwixt bodies 
 of the same denomination (as several oyles, or several 
 spirits) separable from compound bodies: for, besides the 
 differences I shall anon take notice of, betwixt those 
 distilled oyles that are commonly known to chymists, it 
 appears by this, that by means of the sal circulatum, there 
 may be quite another sort of oyles obtained from the same 
 body; and who knowes but that there may be yet other 
 agents found in nature, by whose help there may, whether 
 by transmutation or otherwise, be obtained from the 
 bodies vulgarly called mixt, oyles or other substances, 
 differing from those of the same denomination, known 
 either to vulgar chymists, or even to Helmont himself: 
 but for fear you should tell me, that this is but a con- 
 jecture grounded upon another man's relation, whose 
 truth we have not the means to experiment, I will not 
 1 Helmont, Aura vitalis, p. 725. 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 1 1 9 
 
 insist upon it; but leaving you to consider of it at leasure, 
 I shall proceed to what is next. 
 
 Secondly, then, if that be true which was the opinion 
 of Leucippus, Democritus, and other prime anatomists 
 of old, and is in our dayes revived by no mean philosophers ; 
 namely, that our culinary fire, such as chymists use, 
 consists of swarmes of little bodies swiftly moving, which 
 by their smallness and motion are able to permeate the 
 sollidest and compactest bodies, and even glass itself; 
 if this (I say) be true, since we see that in flints and other 
 concretes, the fiery part is incorporated with the grosser, 
 it will not be irrational to conjecture, that multitudes 
 of these fiery corpuscles, getting in at the pores of the 
 glass, may associate themselves with the parts of the mixt 
 body whereon they work, and with them constitute new 
 kinds of compound bodies, according as the shape, size, 
 and other affections of the parts of the dissipated body 
 happen to dispose them, in reference to such combina- 
 tions; of which also there may be the greater number; 
 if it be likewise granted that the corpuscles of the fire, 
 though all exceeding minute, and very swiftly moved, 
 are not all of the same bigness, nor figure: and if I had not 
 weightier considerations to discourse to you of, I could 
 name to you, to countenance what I have newly said, some 
 particular experiments by which I have been deduced 
 to think, that the particles of an open fire working upon 
 some bodies may really associate themselves therewith, 
 and add to the quantity. But because I am not sure, 
 that when the fire works upon bodies included in glasses, 
 it does it by a reall trajection of the fiery corpuscles them- 
 selves, through the substance of the glass, I will proceed 
 to what is next to be mentioned. 
 
 I could (saies Eleutherius) help you to some proofs, 
 whereby I think it may be made very probable, that when 
 the fire acts immediately upon a body, some of its cor- 
 puscles may stick to those of the burnt body, as they seem 
 to do in quicklime, but in greater numbers and more 
 permanently. But for fear of retarding your progress, 
 I shall desire you to deferr this enquiry till another time, 
 and proceed as you intended. 
 
1 20 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 You may then in the next place (sales Carneades) 
 observe with me, that not only there are some bodies, as 
 gold, and silver, which do not by the usual examens, 
 made by fire, discover themselves to be mixt; but if 
 (as you may remember I formerly told you) it be a decom- 
 pound body that is dissipable into several substances, 
 by being exposed to the fire it may be resolved into such 
 as are neither elementary, nor such as it was upon its last 
 mixture compounded of; but into new kinds of mixts. 
 Of this I have already given you some examples in sope, 
 sugar of lead, and vitriol. Now if we shall consider that 
 there are some bodies, as well natural, (as that I last named) 
 as factitious, manifestly decompounded; that in the 
 bowells of the earth nature may, as we see she sometimes 
 does, make strange mixtures; that animals are nourished 
 with other animals and plants; and, that these themselves 
 have almost all of them their nutriment and growth, either 
 from a certain nitrous juice harboured in the pores of the 
 earth, or from the excrements of animalls, or from the 
 putrifyed bodies, either of living creatures or vegetables, 
 or from other substances of a compounded nature; if, I 
 say, we consider this, it may seem probable, that there 
 may be among the works of nature (not to mention those 
 of art) a greater number of decompound bodies, than men 
 take notice of; and indeed, as I have formerly also 
 observed, it does not at all appear, that all mixtures must 
 be of elementary bodies; but it seems farr more probable, 
 that there are divers sorts of compound bodies, even in 
 regard of all or some of their ingredients, considered 
 antecedently to their mixture. For though some seem to 
 be made up by the immediate coalitions of the elements, 
 or principles themselves, and therefore may be called 
 prima mista, or mista primaria ; yet it seems that many 
 other bodies are mingled (if I may so speak) at the second 
 hand, their immediate ingredients being not elementary, 
 but these primary mixt newly spoken of; and from divers 
 of those secondary sorts of mixts may result, by a further 
 composition, a third sort, and so onwards. Nor is it 
 improbable, that some bodies are made up of mixt bodies, 
 not all of the same order, but of several; as (for instance) 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 1 2 1 
 
 a concrete may consist of ingredients, whereof the one 
 may have been a primary, the other a secondary mixt 
 body; (as I have in native cinnaber, by my way of 
 resolving it, found both that courser part that seems 
 more properly to be oar, and a combustible sulphur, and 
 a running mercury): or perhaps without any ingredient 
 of this latter sort, it may be composed of mixt bodies, 
 some of them of the first, and some of the third kind; and 
 this may perhaps be somewhat illustrated by reflecting 
 upon what happens in some chymical preparations of 
 those medicines which they call their Bezoardicurri's. 
 For first, they take antimony and iron, which may be 
 looked upon as prima mista ; of these they compound 
 a starry regulus, and to this they add according to their 
 intention, either gold, or silver, which makes with it a 
 new and further composition. To this they add sub- 
 limate, which is itself a decompound body, (consisting 
 of common quicksilver, and divers salts united by sub- 
 limation into a chrystalline substance) and from this 
 sublimate, and the other metalline mixtures, they draw 
 a liquor, which may be allowed to be of a yet more 
 compounded nature. If it be true, as chymists affirm 
 it, that by this art some of the gold or silver mingled with 
 the regulus may be carryed over the helme with it by the 
 sublimate; as indeed a skilfull and candid person com- 
 plained to me a while since, that an experienced friend 
 of his and mine, having by such a way brought over a 
 great deal of gold, in hope to do something further with it, 
 which might be gainful to him, has not only missed of his 
 aim, but is unable to recover his volatilized gold out of 
 the antimonial butter, wherewith it is strictly united. 
 
 Now (continues Carneades) if a compound body consist 
 of ingredients that are not merely elementary; it is not 
 hard to conceive, that the substances into which the fire 
 dissolves it, though seemingly homogeneous enough, may 
 be of a compounded nature, those parts of each body that 
 are most of kin associating themselves into a compound 
 of a new kind. As when (for example sake) I have caused 
 vitriol and sal armoniack, and salt petre to be mingled 
 and distilled together, the liquor that came over mani- 
 
122 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 fested itself not to be either spirit of nitre, or of sal 
 armoniack, or of vitrioll. For none of these would dissolve 
 crude gold, which yet my liquor was able readily to do; 
 and thereby manifested itself to be a new compound, 
 consisting at least of spirit of nitre, and sal armoniack, 
 (for the latter dissolved in the former, will work on gold) 
 which nevertheless are not by any known way separable, 
 and consequently would not pass for a mixt body, if we 
 ourselves did not, to obtain it, put and distill together 
 divers concretes, whose distinct operations were known 
 beforehand. And, to add on this occasion the experiment 
 I lately promised you, because it is applicable to our 
 present purpose, I shall acquaint you, that suspecting 
 the common oyle of vitrioll not to be altogether such a 
 simple liquor as chymists presume it, I mingled it with 
 an equal or a double quantity (for I tryed the experiment 
 more than once) of common oyle of turpentine, such as 
 together with the other liquor I bought at the dragsters. 
 And having carefully (for the experiment is nice, and 
 somewhat dangerous) distilled the mixture in a small 
 glass retort, I obtained according to my desire (besides, 
 the two liquors I had put in) a pretty quantity of a certaine 
 substance, which sticking all about the neck of the retort 
 discovered itself to be sulphur, not only by a very strong 
 sulphureous smell, and by the colour of brimstone; but 
 also by this, that being put upon a coal, it was immediately 
 kindled, and burned like common sulphur. And of this 
 substance I have yet by me some little parcells, which 
 you may command and examine when you please. So 
 that from this experiment I may deduce either one, or 
 both of these propositions, that a real sulphur may be 
 made by the conjunction of two such substances as 
 chymists take for elementary, and which did not either 
 of them apart appear to have any such body in it; or 
 that oyle of vitrioll though a distilled liquor, and taken for 
 part of the saline principle of the concrete that yeelds 
 it, may yet be so compounded a body as to contain, besides 
 its saline part, a sulphur like common brimstone, which 
 would hardly be itself a simple or uncompounded body. 
 I might (pursues Carneades) remind you, that I formerly 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 123 
 
 represented it, as possible, that as there may be more 
 elements than five, or six; so the elements of one body 
 may be different from those of another; whence it would 
 follow, that from the resolution of decompound bodies, 
 there may result mixts of an altogether new kind, by the 
 coalition of elements that never perhaps convened before. 
 I might, I say, mind you of this, and add divers things 
 to this second consideration; but for fear of wanting time 
 I willingly pretermit them to pass on to the third, which 
 is this, that the fire does not alwaies barely resolve or 
 take asunder, but may also after a new manner mingle 
 and compound together the parts (whether elementary 
 or not) of the body dissipated by it. 
 
 This is so evident, (saies Carneades) in some obvious 
 examples, that I cannot but wonder at their supineness 
 that have not taken notice of it. For when wood being 
 burnt in a chimney is dissipated by the fire into smoake 
 and ashes, that smoake composes soot, which is so far 
 from being any one of the principles of the wood, that 
 (as I noted above) you may by a further analysis separate 
 five or six distinct substances from it. And as for the 
 remaining ashes, the chymists themselves teach us, that 
 by a further degree of fire they may be indissolubly united 
 into glass. Tis true, that the analysis which the chymists 
 principally build upon is made, not in the open air, but 
 in close vessels; but however, the examples lately pro- 
 duced may invite you shrewdly to suspect, that heat may 
 as well compound as dissipate the parts of mixt bodies: 
 and not to tell you, that I have known a vitrification made 
 even in close vessels, I must remind you that the flowers 
 of antimony, and those of sulphur, are very mixed bodies, 
 though they ascend in close vessels: and that 'twas in 
 stopt glasses that I brought up the whole body of camphire. 
 And whereas it may be objected that all these examples 
 are of bodies forced up in a dry, not a fluid forme, as are 
 the liquors wont to be obtained by distillation ; I answer, 
 that besides 'tis possible, that a body may be changed 
 from consistent to fluid, or from fluid to consistent, with- 
 out being otherwise much altered, as may appear by the 
 easiness wherewith in winter, without any addition or 
 
i 24 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 separation of visible ingredients, the same substance may 
 be quickly hardened into brittle ice, and thawed again 
 into fluid water; besides this, I say it would be considered, 
 that common quicksilver itself, which the eminentest 
 chymists confess to be a mixt body, may be driven over 
 the helme in its pristine forme of quicksilver, and conse- 
 quently, in that of a liquor. And certainly 'tis possible 
 that very compounded bodies may concurr to constitute 
 liquors; since, not to mention that I have found it possible, 
 by the help of a certain menstruum, to distill gold itself 
 through a retort, even with a moderate fire: let us but 
 consider what happens in butter of antimony. For if 
 that be carefully rectifyed, it may be reduced into a very 
 clear liquor; and yet if you cast a quantity of fair water 
 upon it, there will quickly precipitate a ponderous and 
 vomitive calx, which made before a considerable part 
 of the liquor, and yet is indeed (though some eminent 
 chymists would have it mercurial) an antimonial body 
 carryed over and kept dissolved by the salts of the sub- 
 limate, and consequently a compounded one ; as you may 
 find, if you will have the curiosity to examine this white 
 powder by a skilful reduction. And that you may not 
 think that bodies as compounded, as flowers of brimstone, 
 cannot be brought to concurr to constitute distilled 
 liquors; and also that you may not imagine with divers 
 learned men that pretend no small skill in chymistry, 
 that at least no mixt body can be brought over the helme, 
 but by corrosive salts, I am ready to shew you, when you 
 please, among other waies of bringing over flowers of 
 brimstone (perhaps I might add even mineral sulphurs) 
 some, wherein I employ none but oleaginous bodies to 
 make volatile liquors, in which not only the colour, but 
 (which is a much surer mark) the smell and some opera- 
 tions manifest that there is brought over a sulphur that 
 makes part of the liquor. 
 
 One thing more there is Eleutherius, (saies Carneades) 
 which is so pertinent to my present purpose, that though 
 I have touched upon it before, I cannot but on this 
 occasion take notice of it. And it is this, that the qualities 
 or accidents, upon whose account chymists are wont to 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 125 
 
 call a portion of matter by the name of mercury or some 
 other of their principles, are not such but that 'tis possible 
 as great (and therefore why not the like) may be produced 
 by such changes of texture, and other alterations, as the 
 fire may make in the small parts of a body. I have 
 already proved, when I discoursed of the second general 
 consideration, by what happens to plants nourished only 
 with fair water, and eggs hatched into chickens, that by 
 changing the disposition of the component parts of a body, 
 nature is able to effect as great changes in a parcell of 
 matter reputed similar, as those requisite to denominate 
 one of the tria prima. And though Helmont do some- 
 where wittily call the fire the destructor and the artificial 
 death of things; and although another eminent chymist 
 and physitian be pleased to build upon this, that fire 
 can never generate anything but fire; yet you will, I 
 doubt not, be of another mind, if you consider how many 
 new sorts of mixt bodies chymists themselves have pro- 
 duced by means of the fire: and particularly, if you 
 consider how that noble and permanent body, glass, is 
 not only manifestly produced by the violent action of the 
 fire, but has never, for ought we know, been produced any 
 other way. And indeed it seems but an inconsiderate 
 assertion of some Helmontians, that every sort of body 
 of a peculiar denomination must be produced by some 
 seminal power; as I think I could evince, if I thought it 
 so necessary, as it is for me to hasten to what I have 
 further to discourse. Nor need it much move us, that 
 there are some who look upon whatsoever the fire is 
 employed to produce, not as upon natural but artificial 
 bodies. For there is not alwaies such a difference as 
 many imagine betwixt the one and the other: nor is it 
 so easy as they think, clearly to assigne that which 
 properly, constantly, and sufficiently, discriminates them. 
 But not to engage myself in so nice a disquisition, it may 
 now suffice to observe, that a thing is commonly termed 
 artificial, when a parcel of matter is by the artificers hand, 
 or tools, or both, brought to such a shape or form, as he 
 designed beforehand in his mind: whereas in many of 
 the chymical productions the effect would be produced 
 
ia6 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 whether the artificer intended it or no ; and is oftentimes 
 very much other than he intended or looket for; and the 
 instruments employed, are not tools artificially fashioned 
 and shaped, like those of tradesmen, for this or that 
 particular work; but, for the most part, agents of nature's 
 own providing, and whose chief powers of operation they 
 receive from their own nature or texture, not the artificer. 
 And indeed, the fire is as well a natural agent as seed: 
 and the chymist that imployes it, does but apply natural 
 agents and patients, who being thus brought together, 
 and acting according to their respective natures, performe 
 the work themselves; as apples, plums, or other fruit, 
 are natural productions, though the garden bring and 
 fasten together the sciens and the stock, and both water, 
 and do perhaps divers other waies contribute to its bearing 
 fruit. But, to proceed to what I was going to say; you 
 may observe with me, Eleutherius, that, as I told you 
 once before, qualities sleight enough may serve to denomi- 
 nate a chymical principle. For, when they anatomize 
 a compound body by the fire, if they get a substance 
 inflamable, and that will not mingle with water, that they 
 presently call sulphur; what is sapid and dissoluble in 
 water, that must passe for salt; whatsoever is fixed and 
 indissoluble in water, that they name .earth. And I was 
 going to add, that whatsoever volatile substance they 
 know not what to make of, not to say, whatsoever they 
 please, that they call mercury. But that these qualities 
 may either be produced, otherwise than by such as they 
 call seminal agents, or may belong to bodies of a com- 
 pounded nature, may be shewn, among other instances, 
 in glass made of ashes, where the exceeding strong-tasted 
 alcalizate salt joyning with the earth becomes insipid, 
 and with it constitutes a body; which though also dry, 
 fixt and indissoluble in water, is yet manifestly a mixt 
 body; and made so by the fire itself. 
 
 And I remember to our present purpose, that Helmont, 
 amongst other medicines that he commends, has a short 
 process, wherein, though the directions for practice are 
 but obscurely intimated; yet I have some reason not to 
 disbelieve the process, without affirming or denying any- 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 127 
 
 thing about the vertues of the remedy to be made by it. 
 " Quando (saies he) oleum cinnamomi etc. suo sali alcali 
 miscetur absque omni aqua, trium mensium artificiosa 
 occultaque circulatione, totum in salem volatilem com- 
 mutatum est, vere essentiam sui simplicis in nobis expri- 
 mit et usque in prima nostri constitutiva sese ingerit." 
 A not unlike process he delivers in another place; from 
 whence, if we suppose him to say true, I may argue, 
 that since by the fire there may be produced a substance 
 that is as well saline and volatile as the salt of hartshorn, 
 blood, etc. which pass for elementary; and since that this 
 volatile salt is really compounded of a chymical oyle and 
 a fixt salt, the one made volatile by the other, and both 
 associated by the fire, it may well be suspected that other 
 substances, emerging upon the dissipation of bodies by the 
 fire, may be new sorts of mixts, and consist of substances 
 of differing natures; and particularly, I have sometimes 
 suspected, that since the volatile salts of blood, hartshorn, 
 etc. are fugitive and endowed with an exceeding strong 
 smell, either that chymists do erroneously ascribe all 
 odours to sulphurs, or that such salts consist of some 
 oyly parts well incorporated with the saline ones. And 
 the like conjecture I have also made concerning spirit of 
 vinegar, which, though the chymists think one of the 
 principles of that body, and though being an acid spirit 
 it seems to be much less of kin than volatile salts to 
 sulphurs; yet, not to mention its piercing smell; which 
 I know not with what congruity the chymist will deduce 
 from salt, I wonder they have not taken notice of what 
 their own Tyrocinium Chymicum teach us concerning the 
 distillation of saccharum saturni ; out of which Beguinus 
 assures us, that he distilled, besides a very fine spirit, no 
 less than two oyles, the one blood-red and ponderous, but 
 the other swimming upon the top of the spirit, and of a 
 yellow colour; of which he saies that he kept then some 
 by him, to verify what he delivers. And though I 
 remember not that I have had two distinct oyles from 
 sugar of lead, yet that it will though distilled without 
 addition yeeld some oyle, disagrees not with my experi- 
 ence. I know the chymists will be apt to pretend, that 
 
128 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 these oyles are but the volatilized sulphur of lead; and 
 will perhaps argue it from what Beguinus relates, that 
 when the distillation is ended, you'l find a caput mortuum 
 extreamly black, and (as he speaks) nullius momenti, as 
 if the body, or at least the chief part of the metal itself 
 were by the distillation carried over the helme. But 
 since you know as well as I that saccharum saturni is a 
 kind of magistery, made only by calcining of lead per se, 
 dissolving it in distilled vinegar, and chrystalyzing the 
 solution; if I had leasure to tell you how differing a thing 
 I did upon examination find the caput mortuum, so slighted 
 by Beguinus, to be from what he represents it, I believe 
 you would think the conjecture proposed less probable 
 than one or other of these three; either that this oyle did 
 formerly concurr to constitute the spirit of vinegar, and 
 so that what passes for a chymical principle may yet be 
 further resoluble into distinct substances; or that some' 
 parts of the spirit together with some parts of the lead 
 may constitute a chymical oyle, which therefore though 
 it pass for homogeneous, may be a very compounded 
 body: or at least that by the action of the distilled vinegar 
 and the saturnine calx one upon another, part of the 
 liquor may be so altered as to be transmuted from an 
 acid spirit into an oyle. And though the truth of either 
 of the two former conjectures would make the example 
 I have reflected on more pertinent to my present argu- 
 ment; yet you'l easily discern, the third and last con- 
 jecture cannot be unserviceable to confirm some other 
 passages of my discourse. 
 
 To return then to what I was saying just before 
 I mentioned Helmont's experiment, I shall subjoyne, 
 that chymists must confess also that in the perfectly 
 dephlegmed spirit of wine, or other fermented liquors, 
 that which they call the sulphur of the concrete loses, by 
 the fermentation, the property of oyle, (which the chymists 
 likewise take to be the true sulphur of the mixt) of being 
 unminglable with the water. And if you will credit 
 Helmont, a pound of the purest spirit of wine may barely 
 by the help of pure salt of tartar (which is but the fixed 
 salt of wine) be resolved or transmuted into scarce half 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 129 
 
 an ounce of salt, and as much elementary water as amounts 
 to the remaining part of the mentioned weight. And it 
 may (as I think I formerly also noted) be doubted 
 whether that fixt and alcalizate salt, which is so unani- 
 mously agreed on to be the saline principle of incinerated 
 bodies, be not, as 'tis alcalizate, a production of the fire? 
 For though the taste of tartar, for example, seem to 
 argue that it contains a salt before it be burned, yet that 
 salt being very acid is of a quite differing taste from the 
 lixiviate salt of calcined tartar. And though it be not 
 truly objected against the chymists, that they obtain all 
 salts they make, by reducing the body they work on into 
 ashes with violent fires, (since hartshorn, amber, blood, 
 and divers other mixts yeeld a copious salt before they 
 be burned to ashes) yet this volatile salt differs much, 
 as we shall see anon, from the fixt alcalizate salt I speak 
 of; which for ought I remember is not producible by any 
 known way, without incineration. 'Tis not unknown to 
 chymists, that quicksilver may be precipitated, without 
 addition, into a dry powder, that remains so in water. 
 And some eminent spagyrists, and even Raimund Lully 
 himself, teach, that merely by the fire quicksilver may 
 in convenient vessels be reduced (at least in great part) 
 into a thin liquor like water, and minglable with it. So 
 that by the bare action of the fire, 'tis possible, that the 
 parts of a mixt body should be so disposed after new 
 and differing manners, that it may be sometimes of one 
 consistence, sometimes of another; and may in one state 
 be disposed to be mingled with water, and in another not. 
 I could also shew you, that bodies from which apart 
 chymists cannot obtain anything that is combustible, 
 may by being associated together, and by the help of the 
 fire, afford an inflamable substance. And that on the 
 other side, 'tis possible for a body to be inflamable, from 
 which it would very much puzzle any ordinary chymist, 
 and perhaps any other, to separate an inflamable principle 
 or ingredient. Wherefore, since the principles of chymists 
 may receive their denominations from qualities, which 
 it often exceeds not the power of art, nor alwaies that of 
 the fire to produce; and since such qualities may be 
 
 i 
 
130 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 found in bodies that differ so much in other qualities from 
 one another, that they need not be allowed to agree in 
 that pure and simple nature, which principles, to be so 
 indeed, must have; it may justly be suspected, that many 
 productions of the fire that are shewed us by chymists, as 
 the principles of the concrete that afforded them, may 
 be but a new kind of mixts. And to annex, on this occa- 
 sion, to these arguments taken from the nature of the 
 thing, one of those which logicians call ad hominem, 
 I shall desire you to take notice, that though Paracelsus 
 himself, and some that are so mistaken as to think he 
 could not be so, have ventured to teach, that not only the 
 bodies here below, but the elements themselves, and all 
 the other parts of the universe, are composed of salt, 
 sulphur and mercury; yet the learned Sennertus, and all 
 the more wary chymists, have rejected that conceit, and 
 do many of them confess, that the tria prima are each of 
 them made up of the four elements; and others of them 
 make earth and water concurr with salt, sulphur and 
 mercury, to the constitution of mixt bodies. So that one 
 sort of these spagyrists, notwithstanding the specious 
 titles they give to the productions of the fire, do in effect 
 grant what I contend for. And, of the other sort I may 
 well demand, to what kind of bodies the phlegm and dead 
 earth, to be met with in chymical resolutions, are to be 
 referred? For either they must say, with Paracelsus, 
 but against their own concessions, as well as against 
 experience, that these are also composed of the tria prima, 
 whereof they cannot separate any one from either of them ; 
 or else they must confess that two of the vastest bodies 
 here below, earth and water, are neither of them com- 
 posed of the tria prima; and that consequently those 
 three are not the universal and adequate ingredients, 
 neither of all sublunary bodies, nor even of all mixt 
 bodies. 
 
 I know that the chief of these chymists represent, that 
 though the distinct substances into which they divide 
 mixt bodies by the fire, are not pure and homogeneous; 
 yet since the four elements into which the Aristotelians 
 pretend to resolve the like bodies by the same agent, are 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 1 3 1 
 
 not simple neither, as themselves acknowledge, 'tis as 
 allowable for the chymists to call the one principles, as 
 for the peripateticks to call the other elements, since in 
 both cases the imposition of the name is grounded only 
 upon the predominancy of that element whose name is 
 ascribed to it. Nor shall I deny, that this argument of 
 the chymists is no ill one against the Aristotelians. But 
 what answer can it prove to me, who you know am dis- 
 puting as well against the Aristotelian elements, as the 
 chymical principles, and must not look upon any body 
 as a true principle or element, but as yet compounded, 
 which is not perfectly homogeneous, but is further 
 resoluble into any number of distinct substances how 
 small soever. And as for the chymists calling a body 
 salt, or sulphur, or mercury, upon pretence that the 
 principle of the same name is predominant in it, that 
 itself is an acknowledgment of what I contend for; namely 
 that these productions of the fire are yet compounded 
 bodies. And yet whilst this is granted, it is affirmed, but 
 not proved, that the reputed salt, or sulphur, or mercury, 
 consists mainly of one body that deserves the name of a 
 principle of the same denomination. For how do chymists 
 make it appear that there are any such primitive and 
 simple bodies in those we are speaking of; since 'tis upon 
 the matter confessed by the answer lately made, that 
 these are not such? And if they pretend by reason to 
 evince what they affirm, what becomes of their confident 
 boasts, that the chymist (whom they therefore, after 
 Beguinus, call a philosophus or opifex sensatus) can con- 
 vince our eyes, by manifestly shewing in any mixt body 
 those simple substances he teaches them to be composed 
 of? And indeed, for the chymists to have recourse in 
 this case to other proofs than experiments, as it is to 
 wave the grand argument that has all this while been given 
 out for a demonstrative one; so it releases me from the 
 obligation to prosecute a dispute wherein I am not engaged 
 to examine any but experimental proofs. I know it may 
 plausibly enough be represented, in favour of the chymists, 
 that it being evident that much the greater part of any- 
 thing they call salt, or sulphur, or mercury, is really such; 
 
132 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 it would be very rigid to deny those substances the names 
 ascribed them, only because of some slight mixture of 
 another body; since not only the peripateticks call 
 particular parcels of matter elementary, though they 
 acknowledge that elements are not to be anywhere found 
 pure, at least here below; and since especially there is a 
 manifest analogic and resemblance betwixt the bodies 
 obtainable by chymical anatomies and the principles 
 whose names are given them; I have, I say, considered 
 that these things may be represented; but as for what is 
 drawn from the custome of the peripateticks, I have 
 already told you, that though it may be employed against 
 them, yet it is not available against me, who allow nothing 
 
 *S to be an element that is not perfectly homogeneous. And 
 whereas it is alledged, that the predominant principle 
 ought to give a name to the substance wherein it abounds ; 
 I answer, that that might much more reasonably be said, 
 if either we or the chymists had seen nature take pure salt, 
 pure sulphur, and pure mercury, and compound of them 
 every sort of mixt bodies. But, since 'tis to experience 
 
 s that they appeal, we must not take it for granted, that the 
 distilled oyle (for instance) of a plant is mainly composed 
 of the pure principle called sulphur, till they have given 
 us an ocular proof, that there is in that sort of plants 
 such an homogeneous sulphur. For as for the specious 
 argument, which is drawn from the resemblance betwixt 
 the productions of the fire, and the respective, either 
 Aristotelian elements, or chymical principles, by whose 
 names they are called; it will appear more plausible than 
 cogent, if you will but recall to mind the state of the con- 
 troversie; which is not, whether or no there be obtained 
 from mixt bodies certain substances that agree in outward 
 appearance, or in some qualities with quicksilver or 
 brimstone, or some such obvious or copious body; but 
 whether or no all bodies confessed to be perfectly mixt 
 were composed of, and are resoluble into a determinate 
 number of primary unmixt bodies. For, if you keep 
 the state of the question in your eye, you'l easily discerne 
 that there is much of what should be demonstrated, left 
 unproved by those chymical experiments we are examin- 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 133 
 
 ing. But (not to repeat what I have already discovered 
 more at large) I shall now take notice, that it will not 
 presently follow, that because a production of the fire has 
 some affinity with some of the greater masses of matter 
 here below, that therefore they are both of the same nature, 
 and deserve the same name; for the chymists are not 
 content, that flame should be lookt upon as a parcel of the 
 element of fire, though it be hot, dry, and active, because 
 it wants some other qualities belonging to the nature of 
 elementary fire. Nor will they let the peripateticks call 
 ashes, or quicklime, earth, notwithstanding the many 
 likenesses between them ; because they are not tasteless, as 
 elementary earth ought to be : but if you should ask me, 
 what then it is, that all the chymical anatomies of bodies 
 do prove, if they prove not that they consist of the three 
 principles into which the fire resolves them? I answer 
 that their dissections may be granted to prove, that some 
 mixt bodies (for in many it will not hold) are by the fire, 
 when they are included in close vessels, (for that condition 
 also is often requisite) dissoluble into several substances 
 differing in some qualities, but principally in consistence. 
 So that out of most of them may be obtained a fixt 
 substance partly saline, and partly insipid, an unctuous 
 liquor, and another liquor or more that without being 
 unctuous have a manifest taste. Now if chymists will 
 agree to call the dry and sapid substance salt, the unctuous 
 liquor sulphur, and the other mercury, I shall not much 
 quarrel with them for so doing: but if they will tell me 
 that salt, sulphur, and mercury, are simple and primary 
 bodies whereof each mixt body was actually compounded, 
 and which was really in it antecedently to the operation 
 of the fire, they must give me leave to doubt whether 
 (whatever their other arguments may do) their experi- 
 ments prove all this. And if they will also tell me that 
 the substances their anatomies are wont to afford them, 
 are pure and similar, as principles ought to be, they must 
 give me leave to believe my own senses; and their own 
 confessions, before their bare assertions. And that you 
 may not (Eleutherius) think I deal so rigidly with them, 
 because I scruple to take these productions of the fire for 
 
134 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 such as the chymists would have them pass for, upon the 
 account of their having some affinity with them ; consider 
 a little with me, that in regard an element or principle 
 ought to be perfectly similar and homogeneous, there is 
 no just cause why I should rather give the body proposed 
 the name of this or that element or principle, because it 
 has a resemblance to it in some obvious quality, rather 
 than deny it that name upon the account of divers other 
 qualities, wherein the proposed bodies are unlike; and if 
 you do but consider what slight and easily producible 
 qualities they are that suffice, as I have already more than 
 once observed, to denominate a chymical principle or 
 an element, you'l not, I hope, think my wariness to be 
 destitute either of example, or else of reason. For we 
 see that the chymists will not allow the Aristotelians that 
 the salt in ashes ought to be called earth, though the saline 
 and terrestrial part symbolize in weight, in dryness, in 
 fixness and fusibility, only because the one is sapid and 
 dissoluble in water, and the other not: besides, we see 
 that sapidness and volatility are wont to denominate the 
 chymists mercury or spirit; and yet how many bodies, 
 think you, may agree in those qualities which may yet be 
 of very differing natures, and disagree in qualities either 
 more numerous, or more considerable, or both. For not 
 only spirit of nitre, aqua fortis, spirit of salt, spirit of oyle 
 of vitriol, spirit of allume, spirit of vinegar, and all saline 
 liquors distilled from animal bodies, but all the acetous 
 spirits of woods freed from their vinegar; all these, I 
 say, and many others must belong to the chymists 
 mercury, though it appear not why some of them should 
 more be comprehended under one denomination than the 
 chymists sulphur, or oyle should likewise be; for their 
 distilled oyles are also fluid, volatile, and tastable, as well 
 as their mercury; nor is it necessary, that their sulphur 
 should be unctuous or dissoluble in water, since they 
 generally referr spirit of wine to sulphurs, although that 
 spirit be not unctuous, and will freely mingle with water. 
 So that bare inflamability must constitute the essence 
 of the chymists sulphur; as uninflamableness joyned 
 with any taste is enough to intitle a distilled liquor to be 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 135 
 
 their mercury. Now since I can further observe to you, 
 that spirit of nitre and spirit of hartshorne being poured 
 together will boyle and hisse and tosse up one another 
 into the air, which the chymists make signes of great 
 antipathy in the natures of bodies, (as indeed these spirits 
 differ much both in taste, smell, and operations) since I 
 elsewhere tell you of my having made two sorts of oyle 
 out of the same man's blood, that would not mingle with 
 one another; and since I might tell you divers examples 
 I have met with, of the contrariety of bodies which 
 according to the chymists must be huddled up together 
 under one denomination; I leave you to judge whether 
 such a multitude of substances as may agree in these 
 slight qualities, and yet disagree in others more consider- 
 able, are more worthy to be called by the name of a 
 principle (which ought to be pure and homogeneous) 
 than to have appellations given them that may make 
 them differ, in name too, from the bodies from which 
 they so wildly differ in nature. And hence also, by the 
 by, you may perceive that 'tis not unreasonable to dis- 
 trust the chymists way of argumentation, when being 
 unable to shew us that such a liquor is (for example) 
 purely saline, they prove, that at least salt is much the 
 predominant principle, because that the proposed sub- 
 stance is strongly tasted, and all taste proceeds from salt; 
 whereas those spirits, such as spirit of tartar, spirit of 
 hartshorn, and the like, which are reckoned to be the 
 mercuries of the bodies that afford them, have manifestly 
 a strong and piercing taste, and so has (according to what 
 (I formerly noted the spirit of box, etc. even after the acid 
 liquor that concurred to compose it has been separated 
 from it. And indeed, if sapidness belong not to the spirit 
 or mercurial principle of vegetables and animals: I 
 scarce know how it will be discriminated from their 
 phlegm, since by the absence of inflamability it must be 
 distinguished from their sulphur which affords me another 
 example, to prove how unacurate the chymical doctrine 
 is in our present case; since not only the spirits of vege- 
 tables and animals, but their oyles are very strongly 
 tasted, as he that shall but wet his tongue with chymical 
 
136 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 oyle of cinnamon or of cloves, or even of turpentine, may 
 quickly find, to his smart. And not only I never tryed 
 any chymical oyles whose taste was not very manifest and 
 strong; but a skilful and inquisitive person who made 
 it his business by elaborate operations to depurate 
 chymical oyles, and reduce them to an elementary 
 simplicity, informes us, that he never was able to make 
 them at all tasteless; whence I might inferr, that the 
 proof chymists confidently give us of a bodies being 
 saline, is so far from demonstrating the predominancy, 
 that it does not clearly evince so much as the presence 
 of the saline principle in it. But I will not (pursues 
 Carneades) remind you, that the volatile salt of hartshorn, 
 amber, blood, etc. are exceeding strongly scented, not- 
 withstanding that most chymists deduce odours from 
 sulphur, and from them argue the predominancy of that 
 principle in the odorous body, because I must not so 
 much as add any new examples of the incompetency of 
 this sort of chymical arguments; since having already 
 detained you but too long in those generals that appertain 
 to my fourth consideration 'tis time that I proceed to the 
 particulars themselves, to which I thought fit they should 
 be previous. 
 
 These generals (continues Carneades) being thus pre- 
 mised, we might the better survey the unlikeness that an 
 / attentive and unprepossessed observer may take notice of 
 in each sort of bodies which the chymists are wont to call 
 the salts or sulphurs or mercuries of the concretes that 
 yeeld them, as if they had all a simplicity, and identity 
 of nature: whereas salts if they were all elementary 
 would as little differ as do the drops of pure and simple 
 water. 'Tis known that both chymists and physitians 
 ascribe to the fixt salts of calcined bodies the vertues of 
 their concretes; and consequently very differing opera- 
 tions. So we find the alcali of wormwood much com- 
 mended in distempers of the stomach; that of eyebright 
 for those that have a weak sight; and that of guajacum 
 (of which a great quantity yeelds but a very little salt) 
 is not only much commended in venereal diseases, but is 
 believed to have a peculiar purgative vertue, which yet 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 1 37 
 
 I have not had occasion to try. And though, I confess, 
 I have long thought, that these alcalizate salts are, for 
 the most part, very near of kin, and retain very little 
 of the properties of the concretes whence they were 
 separated; yet being minded to observe watchfully 
 whether I could meet with any exceptions to this general 
 observation, I observed at the glass-house, that some- 
 times the metal (as the workmen call it) or mass of colli- 
 quated ingredients, which by blowing they fashion into 
 vessels of divers shapes, did sometimes prove of a very 
 differing colour, and a somewhat differing texture, from 
 what was usual. And having enquired whether the 
 cause of such accidents might not be derived from the 
 peculiar nature of the fixt salt employed to bring the sand 
 to fusion, I found that the knowingst workmen imputed 
 these misadventures to the ashes, of some certain kind 
 of wood, as having observed the ignobler kind of glass 
 I lately mentioned to be frequently produced, when they 
 had employed such sorts of ashes, which therefore they 
 scruple to make use of, if they took notice of them before- 
 hand. I remember also, that an industrious man of my 
 acquaintance having bought a vast quantity of tobacco 
 stalks to make a fixt salt with, I had the curiosity to 
 go see whether that exotick plant, which so much 
 abounds in volatile salt, would afford a peculiar kind of 
 alcali; and I was pleased to find that in the lixivium of 
 it, it was not necessary, as is usual, to evaporate all the 
 liquor, that there might be obtained a saline calx, consist- 
 ing like lime quenched in the air of a heap of little cor- 
 puscles of unregarded shapes : but the fixt salt shot into 
 figured chrystal, almost as nitre or sal armoniack and 
 other uncalcined salts are wont to do; and I further 
 remember that I have observed that in the fixt salt of 
 urine, brought by depuration to be very white, a taste not 
 so unlike to that of common salt, and very differing from 
 the wonted caustick lixiviate taste of other salts made by 
 incineration. But because the instances I have alledged 
 of the difference of alcalizate salt are but few, and there- 
 fore I am still inclined to think, that most chymists and 
 many physitians do, inconsiderately enough and without 
 
138 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 warrant from experience, ascribe the vertues of the 
 concretes exposed to calcination, to the salts obtained 
 by it; I shall rather to shew the disparity of salts mention 
 in the first place the apparent difference betwixt the 
 vegetable fixt salts and the animal volatile ones: as (for 
 example) betwixt salt of tartar, and salt of hartshorn; 
 whereof the former is so fixt that 'twill indure the brunt 
 of a violent fire, and stand in fusion like a metal; whereas 
 the other (besides that it has a differing taste and a very 
 differing smell) is so far from being fixt, that it will fly 
 away in a gentle heat as easily as spirit of wine itself. And 
 to this I shall add, in the next place, that even among the 
 volatile salts themselves, there is a considerable difference, 
 as appears by the distinct properties of (for instance) 
 salt of amber, salt of urine, salt of man's skull, (so much 
 extolled against the falling sickness) and divers others 
 which cannot escape an ordinary observer. And this 
 diversity of volatile salts I have observed to be sometimes 
 discernable even to the eye, in their figures. For the salt 
 of hartshorn I have observed to adhere to the receiver 
 in the forme almost of a parallelipipedon ; and of the 
 volatile salt of humane blood (long digested before dis- 
 tillation, with spirit of wine) I can shew you store of 
 grains of that figure which geometricians call a rhombus; 
 though I dare not undertake that the figures of these or 
 other saline chrystals (if I may so call them) will be 
 alwaies the same, whatever degree of fire have been 
 employed to force them up, or how hastily soever they 
 have been made to convene in the spirits or liquors, in the 
 lower part of which I have usually observed them after 
 a while to shoot. And although, as I lately told you, I 
 seldom found any difference, as to medical vertues, in 
 the fixt salts of divers vegetables; and accordingly I have 
 suspected that most of these volatile salts, having so great 
 a resemblance in smell, in taste, and fugitiveness, differ 
 but little, if at all, in their medicinal properties : as indeed 
 I have found them generally to agree in divers of them 
 (as in their being somewhat diaphoretick and very deopila- 
 tive) yet I remember Helmont somewhere informs us, 
 that there is this difference betwixt the saline spirit of 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 139 
 
 urine and that of man's blood, that the former will not 
 cure the epilepsy, but the latter will. Of the efficacy 
 also of the salt of common amber against the same disease 
 in children, (for in grown persons it is not a specifick) I may 
 elsewhere have an occasion to entertain you. And when 
 I consider that to the obtaining of these volatile salts 
 (especially that of urine) there is not requisite such a 
 destructive violence of the fire, as there is to get those 
 salts that must be made by incineration, I am the more 
 invited to conclude, that they may differ from one another 
 and consequently recede from an elementary simplicity. 
 And, if I could here shew you what Mr. Boyle has observed, 
 touching the various chymical distinctions of salts; you 
 would quickly discern, not only that chymists do give 
 themselves a strange liberty to call concretes salts, that 
 are according to their own rules to be looked upon as 
 very compounded bodies; but that among those very 
 salts that seem elementary, because produced upon the 
 anatomy of the bodies that yeeld them, there is not only 
 a visible disparity, but, to speak in the common language, 
 a manifest antipathy or contrariety: as is evident in the 
 ebullition and hissing that is wont to ensue, when the acid 
 spirit of vitriol, for instance, is poured upon hot ashes, or 
 salt of tartar. And I shall beg leave of this gentleman, 
 (saies Carneades) casting his eyes on me, to let me observe 
 to you out of some of his papers, particularly those wherein 
 he treats of some preparations of urine, that not only one 
 and the same body may have two salts of a contrary 
 nature, as he exemplifies in the spirit and alkali of nitre; 
 but that from the same body there may without addition 
 be obtained three differing and visible salts. For he 
 relates, that he observed in urine, not only a volatile and 
 chrystalline salt, and a fixt salt, but likewise a kind of 
 sal armoniack, or such a salt as would sublime in the form 
 of a salt, and therefore was not fixt, and yet was far from 
 being so fugitive as the volatile salt; from which it seemed 
 also otherwise to differ. I have indeed suspected that 
 this may be a sal armoniack properly enough so called, as 
 compounded of the volatile salt of urine, and the fixt 
 of the same liquor, which, as I noted, is not unlike sea- 
 
140 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 salt; but that itself argues a manifest difference betwixt 
 the salts, since such a volatile salt is not wont to unite 
 thus with an ordinary alcali, but to fly away from it in 
 the heat. And on this occasion I remember, that to give 
 some of my friends an ocular proof of the difference 
 betwixt the fixt and volatile salt of (the same concrete) 
 wood, I devised the following experiment. I took 
 common Venetian sublimate, and dissolved as much of it 
 as I well could in fair water : then I took wood ashes, and 
 pouring on them warme water, dissolved their salt; and 
 filtrating the water, as soon as I found the lixivium suffi- 
 ciently sharp upon the tongue, I reserved it for use: 
 then one part of the former solution of sublimate dropping 
 a little of this dissolved fixt salt of wood, the liquors 
 presently turned of an orange colour; but upon the other 
 part of the clear solution of sublimate putting some of the 
 volatile salt of wood (which abounds in the spirit of soot) 
 the liquor immediately turned white, almost like milke, 
 and after a while let fall a white sediment, as the other 
 liquor did a yellow one. To all this that I have said 
 concerning the difference of salts, I might add what I 
 formerly told you, concerning the simple spirit of box, 
 and such like woods, which differ much from the other 
 salts hitherto mentioned, and yet would belong to the 
 saline principle, if chymists did truly teach that all tastes 
 proceed from it. And I might also annex, what I noted 
 to you out of Helmont concerning bodies, which, though 
 they consist in great part of chymical oyles, do yet appear 
 but volatile salts; but to insist on these things, were to 
 repeat; and therefore I shall proceed. 
 
 This disparity is also highly eminent in the separated 
 sulphurs or chymical oyles of things. For they contain 
 so much of the scent, and taste, and vertues, of the bodies 
 whence they were drawn, that they seem to be but the 
 material crasis (if I may so speak) of their concretes. 
 Thus the oyles of cinnamon, cloves, nutmegs and other 
 spices, seem to be but the united aromatick parts that did 
 ennoble those bodies. And 'tis a known thing, that oyl 
 of cinnamon, and oyle of cloves, (which I have likewise 
 observed in the oyles of several woods) will sink to the 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 141 
 
 bottom of water: whereas those of nutmegs and divers 
 other vegetables will swim upon it. The oyle (abusively 
 called spirit) of roses swims at the top of the water in the 
 forme of a white butter, which I remember not to have 
 observed in any other oyle drawn in any limbeck; yet 
 there is a way (not here to be declared) by which I have 
 seen it come over in the forme of other aromatick oyles, 
 to the delight and wonder of those that beheld it. In 
 oyle of aniseseeds, which I drew both with, and without 
 fermentation, I observed the whole body of the oyle in 
 a cool place to thicken into the consistence and appearance 
 of white butter, which with the least heat resumed its 
 former liquidness. In the oyle of olive drawn over in a 
 retort, I have likewise more than once seen a spontaneous 
 coagulation in the receiver: and I have of it by me thus 
 congealed; which is of such a strangely penetrating scent, 
 as if 'twould perforate the noses that approach it. The 
 like pungent odour I also observed in the distilled liquor 
 of common sope, which forced over from minium, lately 
 afforded an oyle of a most admirable penetrancy; and he 
 must be a great stranger, both to the writings and prepara- 
 tions of chymists, that sees not in the oyles they distill 
 from vegetables and animals, a considerable and obvious 
 difference. Nay I shall venture to add, Eleutherius (what 
 perhaps you will think of kin to a paradox) that divers 
 times out of the same animal or vegetable, there may be 
 extracted oyles of natures obviously differing. To which 
 purpose I shall not insist on the swimming and sinking 
 oyles, which I have sometimes observed to float on, and 
 subside under the spirit of guajacum, and that of divers 
 other vegetables distilled with a strong and lasting fire; 
 nor shall I insist on the observation elsewhere mentioned, 
 of the divers and unmingleable oyles afforded us by 
 humane blood long fermented and digested with spirit of 
 wine, because these kind of oyles may seem chiefly to 
 differ in consistence and weight, being all of them high 
 coloured and adust. But the experiment, which I devised 
 to make out this difference of the oyles of the same 
 vegetable, ad oculum, (as they speak) was this that f ollowes. 
 I took a pound of aniseseeds, and having grosly beaten 
 
142 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 them, caused them to be put into a very large glass retort 
 almost filled with fair water; and placing this retort in 
 a sand furnace, I caused a very gentle heat to be adminis- 
 tred during the first day, and a great part of the second, 
 till the water was for the most part drawn off, and had 
 brought over with it at least most of the volatile and 
 aromatick oyle of the seeds. And then encreasing the 
 fire, and changing the receiver, I obtained besides an 
 empyreumatical spirit, a quantity of adust oyle; whereof 
 a little floated upon the spirit, and the rest was more 
 heavy, and not easily separable from it. And whereas 
 these oyles were very dark, and smelled (as chymists 
 speak) so strongly of the fire, that their odour did not 
 betray from what vegetables they had been forced; the 
 other aromatick oyle was enriched with the genuine smell 
 and taste of the concrete ; and spontaneously coagulating 
 itself into white butter did manifest itself to be the true 
 oyle of aniseseeds; which concrete I therefore chose to 
 employ about this experiment, that the difference of these 
 oyles might be more conspicuous than it would have been, 
 had I instead of it destilled another vegetable. 
 
 I had almost forgot to take notice, that there is another 
 sort of bodies, which though not obtained from concretes 
 by distillation, many chymists are wont to call their 
 sulphur; not only because such substances are, for the 
 most part, high coloured, (whence they are also, and that 
 more properly, called tinctures) as dissolved sulphurs are 
 wont to be; but especially because they are, for the most 
 part, abstracted and separated from the rest of the mass 
 by spirit of wine : which liquor those men supposing to be 
 sulphureous, they conclude, that what it works upon, and 
 abstracts, must be a sulphur also. And upon this account 
 they presume, that they can sequester the sulphur even 
 of minerals and metalls; from which 'tis known that they 
 cannot by fire alone separate it. To all this I shall answer; 
 That if these sequestred substances were indeed the 
 sulphurs of the bodies whence they are drawn, there 
 would as well be a great disparity betwixt chymical 
 sulphurs obtained by spirit of wine, as I have already 
 shewn there is betwixt those obtained by distillation in 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 143 
 
 the forme of oyles: which will be evident from hence, 
 that not to urge that themselves ascribe distinct vertues 
 to mineral tincture, extolling the tincture of gold against 
 such and such diseases; the tincture of antimony, or of 
 its glass, against others; and the tincture of emerald 
 against others; 'tis plain, that in tinctures drawn from 
 vegetables, if the superfluous spirit of wine be distilled 
 off, it leaves at the bottom that thicker substance which 
 chymists use to call the extract of the vegetable. And 
 that these extracts are endowed with very differing 
 qualities according to the nature of the particular bodies 
 that afforded them (though I fear seldom with so much 
 of the specifick vertues as is wont to be imagined) is freely 
 confessed both by physitians and chymists. But Eleu- 
 therius (saies Carneades) we may here take notice that 
 the chymists do as well in this case, as in many others 
 allow themselves a license to abuse words: for not again 
 to argue from the differing properties of tinctures, that 
 they are not exactly pure and elementary sulphurs ; they 
 would easily appear not to be so much as sulphur's, 
 although we should allow chymical oyles to deserve that 
 name. For however in some mineral tinctures the 
 natural fixtness of the extracted body does not alwaies 
 suffer it to be easily further resoluble into differing sub- 
 stances ; yet in very many extracts drawn from vegetables, 
 it may very easily be manifested that the spirit of wine 
 has not sequestred the sulphureous ingredient from the 
 saline and mercurial ones; but has dissolved (for I take 
 it to be a solution) the finer parts of the concrete (without 
 making any nice distinction of their being perfectly 
 sulphureous or not) and united itself with them into 
 a kind of magistery which consequently must contain 
 ingredients or parts of several sorts. For we see that the 
 stones that are rich in vitriol, being often drenched with 
 rain-water, the liquor will then extract a fine and trans- 
 parent substance coagulable into vitriol; and yet though 
 this vitriol be readily dissoluble in water, it is not a true 
 elementary salt, but, as you know, a body resoluble into 
 very differing parts, whereof one (as I shall have occasion 
 to tell you anon) is yet of a metalline, and consequently 
 
144 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 not of an elementary nature. You may consider also, 
 that common sulphur is readily dissoluble in oyle of 
 turpentine, though notwithstanding its name it abounds 
 as well, if not as much, in salt as in true sulphur; witness 
 the great quantity of saline liquor it affords being set to 
 flame away under a glass bell. Nay I have, which perhaps 
 you will think strange, with the same oyle of turpentine 
 alone easily enough dissolved crude antimony finely 
 powdered into a blood-red balsam, wherewith perhaps 
 considerable things may be performed in surgery. And 
 if it were now requisite, I could tell you of some other 
 bodies, (such as perhaps you would not suspect) that I 
 have been able to work upon with certain chymical oyles. 
 But instead of digressing further I shall make this use of 
 the example I have named. That 'tis not unlikely, but 
 that spirit of wine which by its pungent taste, and by 
 some other qualities that argue it better, (especially its 
 reducibleness, according to Helmont, into alcali and 
 water), seems to be as well of a saline as of a sulphureous 
 nature, may well be supposed capable of dissolving sub- 
 stances that are not merely elementary sulphurs, though 
 perhaps they may abound with parts that are of kin 
 thereunto. For I find that spirit of wine will dissolve 
 gumm lacca, benzoine, and the resinous parts of jallap, and 
 even of guajacum ; whence we may well suspect that it 
 may from spices, herbs, and other less compacted vege- 
 tables, extract substances that are not perfect sulphurs 
 but mixt bodies. And to put it past dispute, there is 
 many a vulgar extract drawn with spirit of wine, which 
 committed to distillation will afford such differing sub- 
 stances as will loudly proclaim it to have been a very 
 compounded body. So that we may justly suspect, that 
 even in mineral tinctures it will not alwaies follow, that 
 because a red substance is drawn from the concrete by 
 spirit of wine, that substance is its true and elementary 
 sulphur. And though some of these extracts may perhaps 
 be inflamable; yet, besides that others are not, and be- 
 sides that their being reduced to such minuteness of parts 
 may much facilitate their taking fire; besides this, I say, 
 we see that common sulphur, common oyle, gumm lac, 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 145 
 
 and many unctuous and resinous bodies, will flame well 
 enough, though they be of very compounded natures: 
 nay travellers of unsuspected credit assure us, as a known 
 thing, that in some northern countries where firr trees and 
 pines abound, the poorer sort of inhabitants use long 
 splinters of those resinous woods to burn instead of 
 candles. And as for the redness wont to be met with in 
 such solutions, I could easily shew, that 'tis not necessary 
 it should proceed from the sulphur of the concrete, dis- 
 solved by the spirit of wine; if I had leasure to manifest 
 how much chymists are wont to delude themselves and 
 others, by the ignorance of those other causes, upon whose 
 account spirit of wine and other menstruum may acquire 
 a red or some other high colour. But to returne to our 
 chymical oyles, supposing that they were exactly pure ; yet 
 I hope they would be, as the best spirit of wine is, but the 
 more inflamable and deflagrable. And therefore since 
 an oyle can be by the fire alone immediately turned into 
 flame, which is something of a very differing nature from 
 it: I shall demand how this oyle can be a primogeneal 
 and incorruptible body, as most chymists would have 
 their principles ; since it is further resoluble into flame, 
 which whether or no it be a portion of the element of fire, 
 as an Aristotelian would conclude, is certainly something 
 of a very differing nature from a chymical oyle, since it 
 burnes, and shines, and mounts swiftly upwards; none 
 of which a chymical oyle does, whilst it continues such. 
 And if it should be objected, that the dissipated parts of 
 this flaming oyle may be caught and collected again into 
 oyl or sulphur; I shall demand, what chymist appears 
 to have ever done it; and without examining whether 
 it may not hence be as well said that sulphur is but com- 
 pacted fire, as that fire is but diffused sulphur, I shall 
 leave you to consider whether it may not hence be argued, 
 that neither fire nor sulphur are primitive and indestruc- 
 tible bodies; and I shall further observe that at least 
 it will hence appear, that a portion of matter may, without 
 being compounded with new ingredients, by having the 
 texture and motion of its small parts changed, be easily, 
 by the means of the fire, endowed with new qualities, more 
 
 K 
 
146 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 differing from them it had before, than are those which 
 suffice to discriminate the chymists principles from one 
 another. 
 
 We are next to consider, whether in the anatomy of 
 mixt bodies, that which chymists call the mercurial part 
 of them be uncompounded, or no. But to tell you true, 
 though chymists do unanimously affirm that their reso- 
 lutions discover a principle, which they call mercury, yet 
 I find them to give of it descriptions so differing, and so 
 aenigmatical, that I, who am not ashamed to confess that 
 I cannot understand what is not sence, must acknowledge 
 to you that I know not what to make of them. Paracelsus 
 himself, and therefore, as you will easily believe, many 
 of his followers, does somewhere call that mercury which 
 ascends upon the burning of wood, as the peripateticks 
 are wont to take the same smoake for air; and so seems 
 to define mercury by volatility, or (if I may coyne such 
 a word) effumability. But since, in this example, both 
 volatile salt and sulphur make part of the smoake, which 
 does indeed consist also both of phlegmatick and terrene 
 corpuscles, this notion is not to be admitted; and I find 
 that the more sober chymists themselves disavow it. Yet 
 to shew you how little of clearness we are to expect in the 
 accounts even of later spagyrists, be pleased to take 
 notice, that Beguinus, even in his Tyrocinium Chymicum, 
 written for the instruction of novices, when he comes to 
 tell us what are meant by the tria prima, which for their 
 being principles ought to be defined the more accurately 
 and plainly, gives us this description of mercury; " Mer- 
 curius (saies he) est liquor ille acidus, permeabilis, penetra- 
 bilis, aethereus, ac purissimus, a quo omnis nutricatio, 
 sensus, motus, vires, colores, senectutisque prseproperse 
 retardatio." Which words are not so much a definition 
 of it, as an encomium : and yet Quercetanus in his descrip- 
 tion of the same principle adds to these divers other 
 epithets. But both of them, to skip very many other 
 faults that may be found with their metaphorical de- 
 scriptions, speak incongruously to the chymists own 
 principles. For if mercury be an acid liquor, either 
 hermetical philosophy must err in ascribing all tastes 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 147 
 
 to salt, or else mercury must not be a principle, but 
 compounded of a saline ingredient and somewhat else. 
 Libavius, though he find great fault with the obscurity 
 of what the chymists write concerning their mercurial 
 principle, does yet but give us such a negative description 
 of it, as Sennertus, how favourable soever to the tria prima, 
 is not satisfied with. And this Sennertus himself, though 
 the learnedest champion for the hypostatical principles, 
 does almost as frequently as justly complain of the 
 unsatisfactoriness of what the chymists teach concerning 
 their mercury; and yet he himself (but with his wonted 
 modesty) substitutes instead of the description of Libavius, 
 another, which many readers, especially if they be not 
 peripateticks, will not know what to make of. For scarce 
 telling us any more, than that in all bodies that which is 
 found besides salt and sulphur, and the elements, or, as 
 they call them, phlegm and dead earth, is that spirit 
 which in Aristotle's language may be called ova-La dvaAoyw 
 rfi aa-rpuv oroix<p. He saies that which I confess 
 is not at all satisfactory to me, who do not love to seem 
 to acquiesce in any man's mystical doctrines, that I may 
 be thought to understand them. 
 
 If (saies Eleutherius) I durst presume that the same 
 thing would be thought clear by me, and those that are 
 fond of such cloudy expressions as you justly tax the 
 chymists for, I should venture to offer to consideration, 
 whether or no, since the mercurial principle that arises 
 from distillation is unanimously asserted to be distinct 
 from the salt and sulphur of the same concrete, that may 
 not be called the mercury of a body, which though it 
 ascend in distillation, as do the phleg;me and sulphur, is 
 neither insipid like the former, nor inflamable like the 
 latter. And therefore I would substitute to the too much 
 abused name of mercury, the more clear and familiar 
 appellation of spirit^ which is also now very much made 
 use of even b~y"~tne chymists themselves of our times, 
 though they have not given us so distinct an explication, 
 as were fit, of what may be called the spirit of a mixt 
 body. 
 
 I should not perhaps (saies Carneades) much quarrel 
 
148 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 with your notion of mercury. But as for the chymists, 
 what they can mean, with congruity to their own principles, 
 by the mercury of animals and vegetables, 'twill not be so 
 easie to find out; for they ascribe tastes only to the saline 
 principle, and consequently would be much put to it to 
 shew what liquor it is, in the resolution of bodies, that 
 not being insipid, for that they call phlegme, neither is 
 inflamable as oyle or sulphur, nor has any taste; which 
 according to them must proceed from a mixture, at least, 
 of salt. And if we should take spirit in the sence of the 
 word received among modern chymists and physitians, 
 for any distilled liquor that is neither phlegme nor oyle, 
 the appellation would yet appear ambiguous enough. 
 For plainly, that which first ascends in the distillation 
 of wine and fermented liquors, is generally as well by 
 chymists as others reputed a spirit. And yet pure spirit 
 of wine being wholly inflamable ought according to them 
 to be reckoned to the sulphureous, not the mercurial 
 principle. And among the other liquors that go under 
 the name of spirits, there are divers which seem to belong 
 to the family of salts, such as are the spirits of nitre, 
 vitriol, sea-salt and others, and even the spirit of harts- 
 horn, being, as I have tryed, in great part, if not totally 
 reducible into salt and phlegme, may be suspected to be 
 but a volatile salt disguised by the phlegme mingled with 
 it into the forme of a liquor. However if this be a spirit, 
 it manifestly differs very much from that of vinegar, the 
 taste of the one being acid, and the other salt, and their 
 mixture in case they be very pure, sometimes occasioning 
 an effervescence like that of those liquors the chymists 
 count most contrary to one another. And even among 
 those liquors that seem to have a better title, than those 
 hitherto mentioned, to the name of spirits, there appears 
 a sensible diversity; for spirit of oak, for instance, differs 
 from that of tartar, and this from that of box, or of 
 guajacum. And in short, even these spirits as well as 
 other distilled liquors manifest a great disparity betwixt 
 themselves, either in their actions on our senses, or in their 
 other operations. 
 And (continues Carneades) besides this disparity that 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 149 
 
 is to be met with among those liquors that the moderns 
 call spirits, and take for similar bodies, what I have 
 formerly told you concerning the spirit of boxwood may 
 let you see that some of those liquors not only have 
 qualities very differing from others, but may be further 
 resolved into substances differing from one another. 
 
 And since many moderne chymists and other naturalists 
 are pleased to take the mercurial spirit of bodies for the 
 same principle, under differing names, I must invite you 
 to observe, with me, the great difference that is conspi- 
 cuous betwixt all the vegetable and animal spirits I have 
 mentioned and running mercury. I speak not of that 
 which is commonly sold in shops that many of themselves 
 will confesse to be a mixt body; but of that which is 
 separated from metals, which by some chymists that 
 seem more philosophers than the rest, and especially by 
 the above mentioned Claveus, is (for distinction sake) 
 called mercurius corporum. Now this metalline liquor 
 being one of those three principles of which mineral bodies 
 are by spagyrists affirmed to be composed and to be 
 resoluble into them, the many notorious differences 
 betwixt them and the mercuries, as they call them, of 
 vegetables and animals will allow me to inferr, either that 
 minerals and the other two sorts of mixt bodies consist 
 not of the same elements, or that those principles where- 
 into minerals are immediately resolved, which chymists 
 with great ostentation shew us as the true principles of 
 them, are but secondary principles, or mixts of a peculiar 
 sort, which must be themselves reduced to a very differing 
 forme, to be of the same kind with vegetable and animal 
 liquors. 
 
 But this is not all; for although I formerly told you 
 how little credit there is to be given to the chymical 
 processes commonly to be met with, of extracting the 
 mercuries of metals, yet I will now add, that supposing 
 that the more judicious of them do not untruly affirme 
 that they have really drawn true and running mercury 
 from several metals (which I wish they had clearly taught 
 us how to do also,) yet it may be still doubted whether 
 such extracted mercuries do not as well differ from 
 
150 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 common quicksilver, and from one another, as from the 
 mercuries of vegetables and animals. Claveus, in his 
 Apology, speaking of some experiments whereby metalline 
 mercuries may be fixt into the nobler metals, adds, that 
 he spake of the mercuries drawn from metals; because 
 common quicksilver by reason of its excessive coldness 
 and moisture is unfit for that particular kind of operation; 
 for which though a few lines before he prescribes in general 
 the mercuries of metalline bodies, yet he chiefly commends 
 that drawn by art from silver. And elsewhere, in the 
 same book, he tells us, that he himself tryed, that by 
 bare coction the quicksilver of tin or pewter (argentum 
 vivum ex stanno prolicitum) may by an efficient cause, 
 (as he speaks) be turned into pure gold. And the experi- 
 enced Alexander van Suchten, somewhere tells us, that 
 by a way he intimates may be made a mercury of copper, 
 not of the silver colour of other mercuries, but green; 
 to which I shall add, that an eminent person, whose name 
 his travells and learned writings have made famous, lately 
 assured me that he had more than once seen the mercury 
 of lead (which whatever authors promise, you will find 
 it very difficult to make, at least in any considerable 
 quantity) fixt into perfect gold. And being by me 
 demanded whether or no any other mercury would not 
 as well have been changed by the same operations, he 
 assured me of the negative. 
 
 And since I am fallen upon the mention of the mercuries 
 of metals, you will perhaps expect, (Eleutherius) that I 
 should say something of their two other principles; but 
 I must freely confess to you, that what disparity there 
 may be between the salts and sulphurs of metals or other 
 minerals, I am not myself experienced enough in the 
 separations and examens of them, to venture to determine : 
 (for as for the salts of metals, I formerly represented it 
 as a thing much to be questioned, whether they have any 
 at all.) And for the processes of separation I find in 
 authors, if they were (what many of them are not) success- 
 fully practicable, as I noted above, yet they are to be 
 performed by the assistance of other bodies, so hardly, 
 if upon any termes at all, separable from them, that it is 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 151 
 
 very difficult to give the separated principles all their due, 
 and no more. But the sulphur of antimony which is 
 vehemently vomitive, and the strongly scented anodyne 
 sulphur of vitriol inclines me to think that not only 
 mineral sulphurs differ from vegetable ones, but also 
 from one another, retaining much of the nature of their 
 concretes. The salts of metals, and of some sort of 
 minerals, you will easily guesse (by the doubts I formerly 
 expressed, whether metals have any salt at all) that I 
 have not been so happy as yet to see, perhaps not for want 
 of curiosity. But if Paracelsus did alwaies write so 
 consentaneously to himself that his opinion were confi- 
 dently to be collected from every place of his writings 
 where he seems to expresse it, I might safely take upon 
 me to tell you, that he both countenances in general what 
 I have delivered in my fourth main consideration, and in 
 particular warrants me to suspect that there may be a 
 difference in metalline and mineral salts, as well as we 
 find it in those of other bodies. For, " Sulphur (saies he) 
 aliud in auro, aliud in argento, aliud in ferro, aliud in 
 plumbo,stanno,etc. sic aliud in saphyro, aliud in smaragdo, 
 aliud in rubino, chrysolitho, amethysto, magnete, etc. 
 Item aliud in lapidibus, silice, salibus, fontibus, etc. nee 
 vero tot sulphura tan turn, sed et totidem salia; sal aliud 
 in metallis, aliud in gemmis, aliud in lapidibus, aliud in 
 salibus, aliud in vitriolo, aliud in alumine: similis etiam 
 mercurii est ratio. Alius in metallis, alius in gemmis, etc. 
 Ita ut unicuique speciei suus peculiaris mercurius sit. 
 Et tamen res saltern tres sunt; una essentia est sulphur; 
 una est sal; una est mercurius. Addo quod et specialius 
 adhuc singula dividantur; aurum enim non unum, sed 
 multiplex, ut et non unum pyrum, pomum, sed idem 
 multiplex, totidem etiam sulphura auri, salia auri, 
 mercurii auri; idem competit etiam metallis et gemmis; 
 ut quot saphyri prsestantiores, laeviores, etc. tot etiam 
 saphyrica sulphura, saphyrica salia, saphyrici mercurii, etc. 
 Idem verum etiam est de turconibus et gemmis aliis 
 universis." From which passage (Eleutherius) I suppose 
 you will think I might without rashness conclude, either 
 that my opinion is favoured by that of Paracelsus, or that 
 
152 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 Paracelsus his opinion was not alwaies the same. But 
 because in divers other places of his writings he seems to 
 talk at a differing rate of the three principles and the four 
 elements, I shall content myself to inferr from the alledged 
 passage, that if his doctrine be not consistent with that 
 part of mine which it is brought to countenance, it is very 
 difficult to know what his opinion concerning salt, sulphur 
 and mercury, was; and that consequently we had reason 
 about the beginning of our conferences, to decline taking 
 upon us, either to examine or oppose it. 
 
 I know not whether I should on this occasion add, that 
 those very bodies, the chymists call phlegme and earth, 
 do yet recede from an elementary simplicity. That 
 common earth and water frequently do so, notwithstand- 
 ing the received contrary opinion, is not denyed by the 
 more wary of the moderne peripateticks themselves: 
 and certainly most earths are much less simple bodies 
 than is commonly imagined even by chymists, who do not 
 so considerately to prescribe and employ earths promis- 
 cuously in those distillations that require the mixture 
 of some caput mortuum, to hinder the flowing together 
 of the matter, and to retain its grosser parts. For I have 
 found some earths to yeeld by distillation a liquor very 
 far from being inodorous or insipid; and 'tis a known 
 observation that most kinds of fat earth kept covered 
 from the rain, and hindred from spending themselves 
 in the production of vegetables, will in time become 
 impregnated with salt petre. 
 
 But I must remember that the water and earths I 
 ought here to speak of, are such as are separated from 
 mixt bodies by the fire; and therefore to restrain my 
 discourse to such, I shall tell you, that we see the phlegme 
 of vitriol (for instance) is a very effectual remedie against 
 burnes; and I know a very famous and experienced 
 physitian, whose unsuspected secret (himself confessed 
 to me) it is, for the discussing of hard and obstinate 
 tumours. The phlegme of vinegar, though drawn exceed- 
 ing leasurely in a digesting furnace, I have purposely 
 made tryal of; and sometimes found it able to draw, 
 though slowly, a saccharine sweetness out of lead; and 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 1 5 3 
 
 as I remember by long digestion, I dissolved corals in it. 
 The phlegme of the sugar of saturne is said to have very 
 peculiar properties. Divers eminent chymists teach, 
 that it will dissolve pearls, which being precipitated by 
 the spirit of the same concrete are thereby (as they say) 
 rendred volatile; which has been confirmed to me, upon 
 his own observation, by a person of great veracity. The 
 phlegme of wine, and indeed divers other liquors that are 
 indiscriminately condemned to be cast away as phlegm, 
 are endowed with qualities that make them differ both 
 from mere water, and from each other; and whereas the 
 chymists are pleased to call the caput mortuum of what 
 they have distilled (after they have by affusion of water 
 drawn away its salt) terra damnata, or earth, it may be 
 doubted whether or no those earths are all of them 
 perfectly alike: and it is scarce to be doubted, but that 
 there are some of them which remain yet unreduced to an 
 elementary nature. The ashes of wood deprived of all 
 the salt, and bone-ashes, or calcined hartshorn, which 
 refiners choose to make tests of, as freest from salt, seem 
 unlike : and he that shall compare either of these insipid 
 ashes to lime, and much more to the calx of talck, (though 
 by the affusion of water they be exquisitely dulcifyed) 
 will perhaps see cause to think them things of a somewhat 
 differing nature. And it is evident in colcothar that the 
 exactest calcination, followed by an exquisite dulcification, 
 does not alwaies reduce the remaining body into elemen- 
 tary earth; for after the salt or vitriol (if the calcination 
 have been too faint) is drawn out of the calcothar, the 
 residue is not earth, but a mixt body, rich in medical 
 vertues (as experience has informed me) and which 
 Angelus Sala afnrmes to be partly reducible into malleable 
 copper; which I judge very probable; for though when 
 I was making experiments upon colcothar, I was destitute 
 of a furnace capable of giving a heat intense enough to 
 bring such a calx to fusion; yet having conjectured that 
 if colcothar abounded with that metal, aquafortis would 
 find it out there, I put some dulcified colcothar into that 
 menstruum, and found the liquor according to my expec- 
 tation presently coloured as highly as if it had been an 
 ordinary solution of copper. 
 
THE FIFTH PART 
 
 HERE Carneades making a pause, I must not deny (saies 
 , his friend to him) that I think you have sufficiently proved 
 *** that these distinct substances which chymists are wont 
 to obtain from mixt bodies, by their vulgar distillation, 
 are not pure and simple enough to deserve, in rigor of 
 speaking, the name of elements, or principles. But I 
 suppose you have heard, that there are some modern 
 spagyrists, who give out that they can by further and 
 more skilfull purifications, so reduce the separated 
 ingredients of mixt bodies to an elementary simplicity, 
 that the oyles (for instance) extracted from all mixts shall 
 as perfectly resemble one another, as the drops of water do. 
 If you remember (replies Carneades) that at the begin- 
 ning of our conference with Philoponus, I declared to him 
 before the rest of the company, that I would not engage 
 myself at present to do any more than examine the usual 
 proofs alledged by chymists, for the vulgar doctrine of 
 their three hypostatical principles; you will easily 
 perceive that I am not obliged to make answer to what 
 you newly proposed; and that it rather grants, than 
 disproves what I have been contending for: since by 
 pretending to make so great a change in the reputed 
 principles that distillation affords the common spagyrists, 
 'tis plainly enough presupposed, that before such artificial 
 depurations be made, the substances to be made more 
 simple were not yet simple enough to be looked upon as 
 elementary; wherefore in case the artists you speak of 
 could perform what they give out they can, yet I should 
 not need to be ashamed of having questioned the vulgar 
 opinion touching the tria prima. And as to the thing 
 itself, I shall freely acknowledge to you, that I love not 
 to be forward in determining things to be impossible, till 
 I know and have considered the means by which they are 
 proposed to be effected. And therefore I shall not 
 peremptorily deny either the possibility of what these 
 
 154 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 155 
 
 artists promise, or my assent to any just inference; how- 
 ever destructive to my conjectures, that may be drawn 
 from their performances. But give me leave to tell you 
 withall, that because such promises are wont (as experi- 
 ence has more than once informed me) to be much 
 more easily made, than made good by chymists, I must 
 withhold my belief from their assertions, till their experi- 
 ments exact it; and must not be so easie as to expect 
 beforehand, an unlikely thing upon no stronger induce- 
 ments than are yet given me : besides that I have not yet 
 found by what I have heard of these artists, that though 
 they pretend to bring the several substances into which 
 the fire has divided the concrete, to an exquisite sim- 
 plicity, they pretend also to be able by the fire to divide 
 all concretes, minerals, and others, into the same number 
 of distinct substances. And in the meantime I must 
 think it improbable, that they can either truly separate 
 as many differing bodies from gold (for instance) or 
 ostiocolla, as we can do from wine, or vitriol; or that 
 the mercury (for example) of gold or saturn would be 
 perfectly of the same nature with that of hartshorn; and 
 that the sulphur of antimony would be but numerically 
 different from the distilled butter or oyle of roses. 
 
 But suppose (saies Eleutherius) that you should meet 
 with chymists, who would allow you to take in earth and 
 water into the number of the principles of mixt bodies; 
 and being also content to change the ambiguous name 
 of mercury for that more intelligible one of spirit, should 
 consequently make the principles of compound bodies 
 to be five; "would you not think it something hard to 
 reject so plausible an opinion, only because the five 
 substances into which the fire divides mixt bodies are not 
 exactly pure, and homogeneous ? For my part (continues 
 Eleutherius) I cannot but think it somewhat strange, in 
 case this opinion be not true, that it should fall out so 
 luckily, that so great a variety of bodies should be 
 analyzed by the fire into just five distinct substances; 
 which so little differing from the bodies that bear those 
 names, may so plausibly be called oyle, spirit, salt, water, 
 and earth. 
 
156 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 The opinion you now propose (answers Carneades) 
 being another than that I was engaged to examine, it is 
 not requisite for me to debate at this present; nor should 
 I have leasure to do it thoroughly. Wherefore I shall 
 only tell you in general, that though I think this opinion 
 in some respects more defensible than that of the vulgar 
 chymists : yet you may easily enough learn from the past 
 discourse what may be thought of it: since many of the 
 objections made against the vulgar doctrine of the 
 chymists seem, without much alteration, employable 
 against this hypothesis also. For, besides that this 
 doctrine does as well as the other take it for granted, 
 (what is not easie to be proved) that the fire is the true 
 and adequate analyzer of bodies, and that all the distinct 
 substances obtainable from a mixt body by the fire, were 
 so pre-existent in it, that they were but extricated from 
 each other by the analysis ; besides that this opinion, too, 
 ascribes to the productions of the fire an elementary 
 simplicity, which I have shewn not to belong to them; 
 and besides that this doctrine is lyable to some of the 
 other difficulties, wherewith that of the tria prima is 
 incumbered; besides all this, I say, this quinary number 
 of elements, (if you pardon the expression) ought at least 
 to have been restrained to the generality of animal and 
 vegetable bodies, since not only among these there are 
 some bodies, (as I formerly argued) which, for ought yet 
 has been made to appear, do consist, either of fewer or 
 more similar substances than precisely five. But in the 
 mineral kingdom, there is scarce one concrete that has 
 been evinced to be adequately divisible into such five 
 principles or elements, and neither more nor lesse, as this 
 opinion would have every mixt body to consist of. 
 
 And this very thing (continues Carneades) may serve 
 to take away or 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 per- 
 manent, it remains that the five substances under con- 
 sideration be obtained from vegetable and animal bodies, 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 157 
 
 which (probably by reason of their looser contexture) 
 are capable of being distilled. And as to such bodies, 
 'tis natural enough, that, whether we suppose that there 
 are, or are not, precisely five elements, there should 
 ordinarily occur in the dissipated parts a five-fold diversity 
 of scheme (if I may so speak) : for if the parts do not remain 
 all fixed, as in gold, calcined talck, etc. nor all ascend, 
 as in the sublimation of brimstone, camphire, etc. 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 fixed and volatile (I mean, in reference 
 to that degree of heat by which they are distilled) and 
 those volatile parts will, for the most part, ascend either 
 in a dry forme, which chymists are pleased to call, if they 
 be tasteless, 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 called spirit; or else strengthless 
 or insipid, which may be named phlegme, or water. And 
 as for the fixt part, or caput mortuum, it will most com- 
 monly 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 obtained 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. Be- 
 sides that it does not appear, that all mixt bodies (witness, 
 gold, silver, mercury, etc.) nay nor perhaps all vegetables, 
 which may appear by what we said above of camphire, 
 benzoin, etc., are resoluble by fire into just such differing 
 schemes of matter. Nor will the experiments formerly 
 alledged 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 
 
158 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 names which chymists are pleased 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 supposed principles, whose names are ascribed 
 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, than the resemblance is to give 
 them one and the same. And indeed it seems but some- 
 what 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, compared with common ashes, which yet 
 are very dry, and fixed by the vehemence of the fire, as 
 well as they. And as we may likewise gather from what 
 I have formerly observed, touching the spirit of box- 
 wood, which though a volatile, sapid, and not inflamable 
 liquor, as well as the spirits of hartshorn, of blood and 
 others, (and therefore has been hitherto called, the spirit, 
 and esteemed 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 yourself, if you please, (pursues Carneades) 
 accomodate to the hypothesis you proposed what other 
 particulars you shall think applicable to it, in the fore- 
 going discourse. For I think it unseasonable for me to 
 medle 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 myself 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 proposed opinion, but told him ; 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 159 
 
 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 named (whom 
 I have conversed 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 tempered as to obtain a due consistence and com- 
 petent 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 incom- 
 pacted; but that salt might be dissolved into minute 
 parts, and conveyed to the other substances to be com- 
 pacted 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 
 permeate, and as it were leaven the whole mass, and 
 thereby promote the more exquisite mixture and incor- 
 poration of the ingredients. To all which (lastly) a 
 portion of earth must be added, which by its dryness 
 and porosity may soak up part of that water wherein 
 the salt was dissolved, and eminently concurr with the 
 other ingredients to give the whole body the requisite 
 consistence. 
 
 I perceive (saies Carneades smiling) that if it be true, 
 as 'twas lately 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 than once forgot, that I declared to you 
 that I would at this conference examine only the experi- 
 ments of my adversaries, not their speculative reasons. 
 Yet 'tis not (subjoynes Carneades) for fear of medling 
 with the argument you have proposed, 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 
 
160 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 finde it insoluble. And in the meantime 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 
 considered how great variety there is in the textures and 
 consistences of compound bodies; and how little the 
 consistence and duration of many of them seem to 
 accommodate and be explicable by the proposed notion. 
 And not to mention those almost incorruptible substances 
 obtainable by the fire, which I have proved to be some- 
 what 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 shewed 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 acknowledged to be perfectly 
 mixt; may be produced if you do this, I say, you will 
 not, I suppose, be averse from believing, yet 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 
 obliged 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 wondered, chymists should 
 not consider, that there is scarce any body in nature so 
 permanent and indissoluble as glass; which yet them- 
 selves teach us may be made of bare ashes, brought to 
 fusion by the mere 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 itself can of two 
 elements only, or, if you please, one principle and one 
 element, compound a body more durable than almost 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 161 
 
 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, (saies Carneades) having at 
 length gone through the four considerations I proposed 
 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 obtained 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 per- 
 chance have added, the arguments too) wont to be 
 alledged by chymists to prove, that their three hypo- 
 statical principles do adequately compose all mixt bodies, 
 are not so demonstrative as to induce a wary person to 
 acquiesce in their doctrine, which, till they explain and 
 
 L 
 
162 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 prove it better, will by its perplexing darkness be more 
 apt to puzzle than satisfy considering men, and will to 
 r ^hem appear incumbered with no small difficulties. 
 
 And from what has been hitherto deduced (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 resolved into, or rather can be brought to afford 
 two or three differing substances more than 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, etc. 
 styling themselves philosophers by the fire; and the most 
 part not only ascribing, but as far as in them lies, engross- 
 ing 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 itself 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 than 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 near 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 seems to make 
 up the interstellar, and consequently much the greatest 
 part of the world? for as for the opinion commonly 
 ascribed 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 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 163 
 
 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 find not, that it gives us any other 
 than 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 vegetables, that I mentioned to you above, can 
 fashion water into various plants, each of them endowed 
 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 in- 
 stance), such liquors as the white and yolk 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 expli- 
 cate by their three principles, I say not, all the abstruse 
 properties of mixt bodies, but even such obvious and more 
 
164 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 familiar phenomena 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 compared 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, than satisfy an intelligent inquirer 
 after truth. 
 
 But (interposes Eleutherius) this objection seems no 
 more than may be made against the four peripatetick 
 elements. And indeed almost against any other hypo- 
 thesis, that pretends by any determinate number of 
 material ingredients to render a reason of the phae- 
 nomena 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, assignes this noble use of the tria prima, that 
 from them, as the nearest and most proper principles, 
 may be deduced and demonstrated the properties which 
 are in mixt bodies, and which cannot be proximately 
 (as they speak) deduced from the elements. And this, 
 saies he, is chiefly apparent, when we inquire into the 
 properties and faculties of medicines. And I know 
 (continues Eleutherius) that the person you have assumed, 
 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. 
 
 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 deserved 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 by a few less considerable ones) 
 pass for a new philosophy itself; nay, since they boast 
 so much of this phancie of theirs, that the famous Quer- 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 165 
 
 cetanus scruples not to write, that if his most certain 
 doctrine of the three principles were sufficiently learned, 
 examined, 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 axioms 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 knowledge of causes, to that 
 sanctuary of the ignorant, occult qualities; since I say, 
 this domestick notion of the chymists is so much over- 
 valued by them, I cannot think it unfit, they should be 
 made sensible of their mistake; and be admonished to 
 take in more fruitful and comprehensive principles, if they 
 mean to give us an account of the phsenomena of nature ; 
 and not confine themselves, and (as far as they can) others, 
 to such narrow principles, as I fear will scarce enable them 
 to give an account (I mean an intelligible one) of the 
 tenth part (I say not) of all the phsenomena of nature; 
 but even of all such as by the Leucippian or some of the 
 other sorts of principles may be plausibly enough expli- 
 cated. 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 
 maintained 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 other theories are lyable thereunto, as well as the 
 hermetical. For I know not why a truth should be 
 thought less a truth for the being fit to overthrow variety 
 of errors. 
 
 I am obliged to you (continues Carneades, a little 
 smiling) for the favourable opinion you are pleased to 
 express of my equity, if there be no designe 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 
 
1 66 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 my gratitude. But since we are as well examining 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 assumed; 
 and tell you, that when I acknowledge 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 smoak as light; and do 
 little less obscure some subjects, than 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 (saies Carneades, resuming a more serious look) 
 to consider a little more particularly what you alledge 
 in favour of the chymical doctrine of the tria prima, 
 though I shall readily acknowledge it not to be unuseful, 
 and that the divisers and embracers of it have done the 
 commonwealth 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 entertained; yet what has 
 been alledged 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 con- 
 vincing. This grand and leading argument, your Sen- 
 nertus 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, pro- 
 poses thus: "Ubicunque (saies he) pluribus esedem 
 affectiones et qualitates insunt, per commune quoddam 
 principium insint necesse est, sicut omnia sunt gravia 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 167 
 
 propter terrain, calida propter ignem. At colores, odores, 
 sapores, esse < Aoy urrt v, et similia alia, mineralibus, metallis, 
 gemmis, lapidibus, plantis, animalibus insunt. Ergo per 
 commune aliquod principium, et subjectum, insunt. 
 At tale principium non sunt elementa. Nullam enim 
 habent ad tales qualitates producendas potentiam. Ergo 
 alia principia, unde fluant, inquirenda sunt." 
 
 In the recital of this argument, (saies Carneades) I 
 therefore thought fit to retain the language wherein the 
 author proposes it, that I might also retaine the propriety 
 of some Latine termes, to which I do not readily remember 
 any that fully answer in English. But as for the argu- 
 mentation itself, 'tis built upon a precarious supposition, 
 that seems to me neither demonstrable nor true; for, 
 how does it appear that where the same quality is to be 
 met with in many bodies, it must belong to them upon 
 the account of some one body whereof they all partake ? 
 (For that the major of our authors argument is to be 
 understood of the material ingredients of bodies, appears 
 by the instances of earth and fire he annexes to explain 
 it.) For to begin with that very example which he is 
 pleased to alledge for himself; how can he prove, that the 
 gravity of all bodies proceeds from what they participate 
 of the element of earth? Since we see, that not only 
 common water, but the more pure distilled rain water 
 is heavy; and quicksilver is much heavier than earth 
 itself; though none of my adversaries has yet proved, 
 that it contains any of that element. And I the rather 
 make use of this example of quicksilver, because I see 
 not how the assertors of the elements will give any better 
 account of it than the chymists. For if it be demanded 
 how it comes to be fluid, they will answer, that it partici- 
 pates much of the nature of water. And indeed, accord- 
 ing to them, water may be the predominant element in 
 it, since we see, that severall bodies, which by distillation 
 afford liquors that weigh more than their caput mortuum, 
 do not yet consist of liquor enough to be fluid. Yet if it 
 be demanded how quicksilver comes to be so heavy, then 
 'tis replyed, that 'tis by reason of the earth that abounds 
 in it; but since, according to them, it must consist also 
 
1 68 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 of air, and partly of fire, which they affirme to be light 
 elements, how comes it that it should be so much heavier 
 than earth of the same bulk, though to fill up the porosities 
 and other cavities it be made up into a mass or paste 
 with water, which itself they allow to be a heavy element. 
 But to returne to our spagyrists, we see that chymical 
 oyles and fixt salts, though never so exquisitely purifyed 
 and freed from terrestrial parts, do yet remain ponderous 
 enough. And experience has informed me, that a pound 
 (for instance) of some of the heaviest woods, as guajacum, 
 that will sinke in water, being burnt to ashes will yeeld 
 a much less weight of them (whereof I found but a small 
 part to be alcalizate) than much lighter vegetables: as 
 also that the black charcoal of it will not sink as did the 
 wood, but swim; which argues that the differing gravity 
 * of bodies proceeds chiefly from the particular texture, 
 as is manifest in gold, the closest and compactest of 
 bodies, which is many times heavier than we can possibly 
 make any parcel of earth of the same bulk. I will not 
 examine, what may be argued touching the gravity or 
 quality analogous thereunto, of even celestial bodies, 
 from the motion of the spots about the sun, and from the 
 appearing equality of the supposed seas in the moon; 
 nor consider how little those phenomena would agree 
 with what Sennertus presumes concerning gravity. But 
 further to invalidate his supposition, I shall demand, upon 
 what chymical principle fluidity depends? And yet 
 fluidity is, two or three perhaps excepted, the most diffused 
 quality of the universe, and far more general than almost 
 any other of those that are to be met with in any of the 
 chymical principles, or Aristotelian elements; since not 
 only the air, but that vast expansion we call heaven, 
 in comparison of which our terrestrial globe (supposing 
 it were all solid) is but a point; and perhaps too the sun 
 and the fixt stars are fluid bodies. I demand also, from 
 which of the chymical principles motion flowes; which 
 yet is an affection of matter much more general than any 
 that can be deduced from any of the three chymical 
 principles. I might ask the like question concerning 
 light, which is not only to be found in the kindled sulphur 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 169 
 
 of mixt bodies but (not to mention those sorts of rotten 
 woods, and rotten fish that shine in the dark) in the tails 
 of living glow-wormes, and in the vast bodies of the sun 
 and stars. I would gladly also know, in which of the 
 three principles the quality, we call sound, resides as in 
 its proper subject; since either oyl falling upon oyle, or 
 spirit upon spirit, or salt upon salt, in a great quantity, 
 and from a considerable height, will make a noise, or if 
 you please, create a sound, and (that the objection may 
 reach the Aristotelians) so will also water upon water, 
 and earth upon earth. And I could name other qualities 
 to be met with in divers bodies, of which I suppose my 
 adversaries will not in haste assign any subject, upon 
 whose account in must needs be, that the quality belongs 
 to all the other several bodies. 
 
 And, before I proceed any further, I must here invite 
 you to compare the supposition we are examining, with 
 some other of the chyrnical tenents. For, first they do 
 in effect teach, that more than one quality may belong 
 to, and be deduced from, one principle. For, they ascribe 
 to salt, tastes, and the power of coagulation; to sulphur, 
 as well odours as inflamableness ; and some of them 
 ascribe to mercury, colours; as all of them do effumability, 
 as they speak. And on the other side, it is evident that 
 volatility belongs in common to all the three principles, 
 and to water too. For 'tis manifest that chymical oyles 
 are volatile; that also divers salts, emerging upon the 
 analysis of many concretes, are very volatile, is plain from 
 the fugitiveness of salt, of hartshorn, flesh, etc. ascending 
 in the distillation of those bodies. How easily water 
 may be made to ascend in vapours, there is scarce any- 
 body that has not observed. And as for what they call 
 the mercurial principle of bodies, that is so apt to be 
 raised in the form of steam, that Paracelsus and others 
 define it by that aptness to fly up; so that (to draw that 
 inference by the way) it seems not that chymists have 
 been accurate in their doctrine of qualities, and their 
 respective principles, since they both derive several 
 qualities from the same principle, and must ascribe the 
 same quality to almost all their principles and other 
 
i jo The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 bodies besides. And thus much for the first thing taken 
 for granted, without sufficient proof, by your Sennertus: 
 and to add that upon the by (continues Ca,rneades) we 
 may hence learn what to judge of the way of argumenta- 
 tion, which that fierce champion of the Aristotelians 
 against the chymists, Anthonius Guntherus Billichius 
 employes, where he pretends to prove against Beguinus, 
 that not only the four elements do immediately concurr 
 to constitute every mixt body, and are both present in it, 
 and obtainable from it upon its dissolution; but that in 
 the tria prima themselves, whereinto chymists are wont 
 to resolve mixt bodies, each of them clearly discovers 
 itself to consist of four elements. The ratiocination itself 
 (pursues Carneades) being somewhat unusual, I did the 
 other day transcribe it, and (saies he, pulling a paper 
 out of his pocket) it is this. " Ordiamur, cum Beguino, 
 a ligno viridi, quod si concremetur, videbis in sudore 
 aquam, in fumo aerem, inflamma et prunis ignem, terram 
 in cineribus: quod si Beguino placuerit ex eo colligere 
 humidum aquosum, cohibere humidum oleaginosum, 
 extrahere ex cineribus salem; ego ipsi in unoquoque 
 horum seorsim quatuor elementa ad oculum demonstrate, 
 eodem artificio quo in ligno viridi ea demonstravi. 
 Humorem aquosum admoveho igni. Ipse aquam ebullire 
 videbit, in vapore aerem conspiciet, ignem sentiet in 
 sestu, plus minus terrae in sedimento apparebit. Humor 
 porro oleaginosus aquam humiditate et fluiditate per se, 
 accensus vero ignem flamma prodit, fumo aerem, fuligine, 
 nidore et amurca terram. Salem denique ipse Beguinus 
 siccum vocat et terrestrem, qui tamen nee fusus aquam, 
 nee caustica vi ignem celare potest; ignis vero violentia 
 in halitus versus nee ab acre se alienum esse demonstrat; 
 idem de lacte, de ovis, de semine lini, de garyophyllis, 
 de nitro, de sale marino, denique de antimonio, quod 
 fuit de ligno viridi judicium; eadem de illorum partibus, 
 quas Beguinus adducit, sententia, quae de viridis ligni 
 humore aquoso, quae de liquore ejusdem oleoso, quse 
 de sale fuit." 
 
 This bold discourse (resumes Carneades, putting up 
 again his paper) I think it were not very difficult to con- 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 171 
 
 fute, if his arguments were as considerable, as our time 
 will probably prove short for the remaining and more 
 necessary part of my discourse; wherefore referring you 
 for an answer to what was said concerning the dissipated 
 parts of a burnt piece of green wood, to what I told 
 Themistius on the like occasion, I might easily shew you, 
 how slightly and superficially our Guntherus talks of the 
 dividing the flame of green wood into his four elements; 
 when he makes that vapour to be air, which being caught 
 in glasses and condensed, presently discovers itself to have 
 been but an aggregate of innumerable very minute drops 
 of liquor; and when he would prove the phlegmes being 
 composed of fire by that heat which is adventitious to the 
 liquor, and ceases upon the absence of what produced it 
 (whether that be an agitation proceeding from the motion 
 of the external fire, or the presence of a multitude of 
 igneous atonies pervading the pores of the vessel, and 
 nimbly permeating the whole body of the water) I might, 
 I say, urge these and divers other weaknesses of his dis- 
 course. But I will rather take notice of what is more 
 pertinent to the occasion of this digression, namely, that 
 taking it for granted, that fluidity (with which he unwarily 
 seems to confound humidity) must proceed from the 
 element of water, he makes a chymical oyle to consist of 
 that elementary liquor; and yet in the very next words 
 proves, that it consists also of fire, by its inflamability; 
 not remembring that exquisitely pure spirit of wine is 
 both more fluid than water itself, and yet will flame all 
 away without leaving the least aqueous moisture behind 
 it; and without such an amurca and soot as he would 
 deduce the presence of earth from. So that the same 
 liquor may according to his doctrine be concluded by its 
 great fluidity to be almost all water; and by its burning 
 all away to be all disguised fire. And by the like way of 
 probation our author would shew that the fixt salt of 
 wood is compounded of the four elements. For (saies he) 
 being turned by the violence of the fire into steames, it 
 shews itself to be of kin to air; whereas I doubt whether 
 he ever saw a true fixt salt (which to become so, must 
 have already endured the violence of an incinerating fire) 
 
172 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 brought by the fire alone to ascend in the forme of exhala- 
 tions ; but I do not doubt that if he did, and had caught 
 those exhalations in convenient vessels, he would have 
 found them as well as the steames of common salt, etc. 
 of a saline, and not an aereal nature. And whereas our 
 author takes it also for granted, that the fusibility of salt 
 must be deduced from water it is indeed so much the 
 effect of heat variously agitating the minute parts of a 
 body, without regard to water, that gold (which by its 
 being the heaviest and fixtest of bodies, should be the 
 most earthy) will be brought to fusion by a strong fire; 
 which sure is more likely to drive away, than increase its 
 aqueous ingredient, if it have any; and on the other side, 
 for want of a sufficient agitation of its minute parts, ice 
 is not fluid, but solid; though he presumes also that the 
 mordicant quality of bodies must proceed from a fiery 
 ingredient; whereas, not to urge that the light and 
 inflamable parts, which are the most likely to belong 
 to the element of fire, must probably be driven away by 
 that time the violence of the fire has reduced the body 
 to ashes; not to urge this, I say, nor that oyle of vitriol 
 which quenches fire, burnes the tongue and flesh of those 
 that unwarily taste or apply it, as a caustick doth, it is 
 precarious to prove the presence of fire in fixt salts from 
 their caustick power, unless it were first shewn, that all 
 the qualities ascribed to salts must be deduced from those 
 of the elements; which, had I time, I could easily manifest 
 to be no easy task. And not to mention that our author 
 makes a body, as homogeneous, as any he can produce for 
 elementary, belong both to water and fire, though it be 
 neither fluid nor insipid, like water; nor light and volatile, 
 like fire; he seems to omit in this anatomy the element 
 of earth, save that he intimates, that the salt may pass for 
 that: but since a few lines before, he takes ashes for earth, 
 I see not how he will avoid an inconsistency either betwixt 
 the parts of his discourse, or betwixt some of them and his 
 doctrine. For since there is a manifest difference betwixt 
 the saline and the insipid parts of ashes, I see not how 
 substances, that disagree in such notable qualities, can 
 be both said to be portions of an element, whose nature 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 173 
 
 requires that it be homogeneous, especially in this case 
 where an analysis by the fire is supposed to have separated 
 it from the admixture of other elements, which are 
 confessed by most Aristotelians to be generally found 
 in common earth, and to render it impure. And sure if 
 when we have considered for how little a disparities sake 
 the peripateticks make these symbolizing bodies, aire 
 and fire, to be two distinct elements, we shall also consider 
 that the saline part of ashes is very strongly tasted, and 
 easily soluble in water; whereas the other part of the 
 same ashes is insipid and indissoluble in the same liquor: 
 not to add, that the one substance is opacous, and the 
 other somewhat diaphanous, nor that they differ in - 
 divers other particulars; if we consider those things, I * 
 say, we shall hardly think that both these substances are 
 elementary earth; and as to what is sometimes objected, 
 that their saline taste is only an effect of incineration and 
 adustion, it has been elsewhere fully replyed to, when 
 proposed by Themistius, and where it has been proved 
 against him, that however insipid earth may perhaps 
 by additaments be turned into salt, yet 'tis not like it 
 should be so by the fire alone: for we see that when we 
 refine gold and silver, the violentest fires we can employ 
 on them give them not the least relish of saltness. And 
 I think Philoponus has rightly observed, that the ashes 
 of some concretes contain very little salt if any at all; 
 for refiners suppose that bone-ashes are free from it, and 
 therefore make use of them for tests and cuppels, which 
 ought to be destitute of salt, lest the violence of the fire 
 should bring them to vitrification; and having purposely 
 and heedfully tasted a cuppel made of only bone-ashes 
 and fair water, which I had caused to be exposed to a 
 very violent fire, actuated by the blast of a large pair of 
 double bellows, I could not perceive that the force of the 
 fire had imparted to it the least saltness, or so much as 
 made it less insipid. 
 
 But (saies Carneades) since neither you nor I love 
 repetitions, I shall not now make any of what else was 
 urged against Themistius, but rather invite you to take 
 notice with me, that when our authour, though a learned 
 
174 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 man, and one that pretends skill enough in chymistry 
 to ref orme the whole art, comes to make good his confident 
 undertaking, to give us an ocular demonstration of the 
 immediate presence of the four elements in the resolution 
 of green wood, he is fain to say things that agree very 
 little with one another. For about the beginning of that 
 passage of his lately recited to you, he makes the sweat, 
 as he calls it, of the green wood to be water, the smoak 
 aire, the shining matter fire, and the ashes earth ; whereas 
 a few lines after, he will in each of these, nay (as I just 
 now noted) in one distinct part of the ashes, shew the 
 four elements. So that either the former analysis must 
 be incompetent to prove that number of elements, since 
 by it the burnt concrete is not reduced into elementary 
 bodies, but into such as are yet each of them compounded 
 of the four elements; or else these qualities, from which 
 he endeavours to deduce the presence of all the elements 
 in the fixt salt, and each of the other separated substances, 
 will be but a precarious way of probation: especially if 
 you consider, that the extracted alcali of wood, being, 
 for ought appears, at least as similar a body, as any that 
 the peripateticks can shew us, if its differing qualities 
 must argue the presence of distinct elements, it will scarce 
 be possible for them by any way they know of employing 
 the fire upon any body, to shew that any body is a portion 
 of a true element : and this recals to my mind, that I am 
 now but in an occasional excursion, which aiming only 
 to shew, that the peripateticks as well as the chymists 
 take in our present controversie something for granted, 
 which they ought to prove, I shall returne to my excep- 
 tions, where I ended the first of them, and further tell 
 you, that neither is that the only precarious thing that 
 I take notice of in Sennertus his argumentation; for 
 when he inferrs, that because the qualities he mentions, 
 as colours, smels, and the like, belong not to the elements, 
 they therefore must to the chymical principles; he takes 
 that for granted, which will not in haste be proved; as 
 I might here manifest, but that I may by and by have 
 a fitter opportunity to take notice of it. And thus much 
 at present may suffice to have discoursed against the 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 175 
 
 supposition, that almost every quality must have some 
 SKTLKOV Tr/awToi/, as they speak, some native receptacle, 
 wherein as in its proper subject of inhesion it peculiarly 
 resides; and on whose account that quality belongs to 
 the other bodies, wherein it is to be met with. Now this 
 fundamental supposition being once destroyed, whatso- 
 ever is built upon it, must fall to mine of itself. 
 
 But I consider further, that chymists are (for ought 
 I have found) far from being able to explicate by any of 
 the trio, prima, those qualities which they pretend to 
 belong primarily unto it, and in mixt bodies to deduce 
 from it. 'Tis true indeed, that such qualities are not 
 explicable by the four elements; but it will not therefore 
 follow that they are so by the three hermetical principles ; 
 and this is it that seems to have deceived the chymists, ^ 
 and is indeed a very common mistake amongst most 
 disputants, who argue as if there could be but two opinions 
 concerning the difficulty about which they contend; and 
 consequently they inferr, that if their adversaries opinion 
 be erroneous, their' s must needs be the truth; whereas 
 many questions, and especially in matters physiological, 
 may admit of so many differing hypotheses, that 'twill 
 be very inconsiderate and fallacious to conclude (except 
 where the opinions are precisely contradictory) the truth 
 of one from the falsity of another. And in our particular 
 case 'tis no way necessary, that the properties of mixt 
 bodies must be explicable either by the hermetical, or the 
 Aristotelian hypothesis; there being divers other and 
 more plausible waies of explaining them, and especially 
 that, which deduces qualities from the motion, figure, 
 and contrivance of the small parts of bodies; as I think 
 might be shewn, if the attempt were as seasonable, as I 
 fear it would be tedious. 
 
 I will allow then, that the chymists do not causelesly 
 accuse the doctrine of the four elements of incompetency 
 to explain the properties of compound bodies. And for 
 this rejection of a vulgar error, they ought not to be 
 denyed what praise men may deserve for exploding 
 a doctrine whose imperfections are so conspicuous, that 
 men needed but not to shut their eyes, to discover them. 
 
176 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 But I am mistaken, if our hermetical philosophers them- 
 selves need not, as well as the peripateticks, have recourse 
 to more fruitfull and comprehensive principles than the 
 tria prtma, to make out the properties of the bodies they 
 converse with. Not to accumulate examples to this 
 purpose (because I hope for a fitter opportunity to prose- 
 cute this subject) let us at present only point at colour, 
 that you may guess by what they say of so obvious and 
 familiar a quality, how little instruction we are to expect 
 from the tria prima in those more abstruse ones, which 
 they with the Aristotelians stile occult. For about 
 colours, neither do they at all agree among themselves, 
 nor have I met with any one, of which of the three 
 ' persv/asions soever, that does intelligibly explicate them. 
 The vulgar chymists are wont to ascribe colours to 
 mercury; Paracelsus in divers places attributes them 
 to salt; and Sennertus, having recited their differing 
 opinions, dissents from both; and referrs colours rather 
 unto sulphur. But how colours do, nay, how they may, 
 arise from either of these principles, I think you will 
 scarce say that any has yet intelligibly explicated. And 
 if Mr. Boyle will allow me to shew you the experiments 
 which he has collected about colours, you will, I doubt 
 not, confess that bodies exhibite colours, not upon the 
 account of the predominancy of this or that principle in 
 them, but upon that of their texture, and especially the 
 disposition of their superficial parts, whereby the light 
 rebounding thence to the eye is so modified, as by differing 
 impressions variously to affect the organs of sight. I 
 might here take notice of the pleasing variety of colours 
 exhibited by the triangular glass (as 'tis wont to be called) 
 and demand, what addition or decrement of either salt, 
 sulphur, or mercury, befalls the body of the glass by being 
 prismatically figured; and yet 'tis known, that without 
 that shape it would not afford those colours as it does. 
 But because it may be objected, that these are not real, 
 but apparent colours ; that I may not lose time in examin- 
 ing the distinction, I will alledge against the chymists, a 
 couple of examples of real and permanent colours drawn 
 from metalline bodies; and represent, that without the 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 177 
 
 addition of any extraneous body, quicksilver may by the 
 fire alone, and that in glasse vessels, be deprived of its 
 silver-like colour, and be turned into a red body; and 
 from this red body without addition likewise may be 
 obtained a mercury bright and specular as it was before; 
 so that I have here a lasting colour generated and de- 
 stroyed (as I have seen) at pleasure, without adding or 
 taking away either mercury, salt, or sulphur; and if you 
 take a clean and slender piece of hardened steel, and apply 
 to it the flame of a candle at some little distance short 
 of the point, you shall not have held the steel long in the 
 flame, but you shall perceive divers colours, as yellow, 
 red and blew, to appear upon the surface of the metal, and 
 as it were run along in chase of one another towards the 
 point; so that the same body, and that in one and the 
 same part, may not only have a new colour produced 
 in it, but exhibite successively divers colours within 
 a minute of an hour, or thereabouts; and any of these 
 colours may by removing the steel from the fire, become 
 permanent, and last many years, and this production 
 and variety of colours cannot reasonably be supposed to 
 proceed from the accession of any of the three principles, 
 to which of them soever chymists will be pleased to ascribe 
 colours; especially considering, that if you but suddenly 
 refrigerate that iron, first made red hot, it will be hardened 
 and colourless again; and not only by the flame of a 
 candle, but by any other equivalent heat conveniently 
 applied, the like colours will again be made to appear and 
 succeed one another, as at the first. But I must not any 
 further prosecute an occasional discourse, though that 
 were not so difficult for me to do, as I fear it would be 
 for the chymists to give a better account of the other 
 qualities, by their principles, than they have done of 
 colours. And your Sennertus himself (though an author 
 I much value) would I fear have been exceedingly puzled 
 to resolve, by the tria prima, halfe that catalogue of 
 problems, which he challenges the vulgar peripateticks 
 to explicate by their four elements. And supposing it 
 were true, that salt or sulphur were the principle to which 
 this or that quality may be peculiarly referred, yet though 
 
178 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 he that teaches us this, teaches us something concerning 
 that quality, yet he teaches us but something. For 
 indeed he does not teach us that which can in any tolerable 
 measure satisfie an inquisitive searcher after truth. For 
 what is it to me to know, that such a quality resides in 
 such a principle or element, whilst I remain altogether 
 ignorant of the cause of that quality, and the manner of its 
 production and operation? How little do I know more 
 than any ordinary man of gravity, if I know but that the 
 heaviness of mixt bodies proceeds from that of the earth 
 they are composed of, if I know not the reason why the 
 earth is heavy? And how little does the chymist teach 
 the philosopher of the nature of purgation, if he only 
 tells him that the purgative vertue of medicines resides 
 in their salt: for, besides that this must not be conceded 
 without limitation, since the purging parts of many 
 vegetables extracted by the water wherein they are 
 infused, are at most but such compounded salts (I mean 
 mingled with oyle, and spirit, and earth, as tartar and 
 divers other subjects of the vegetable kingdom afford) 
 and since too that quicksilver precipitated either with 
 gold, or without addition, into a powder, is wont to be 
 strongly enough cathartical, though the chymists have not 
 yet proved, that either gold or mercury have any salt at 
 all, much less any that is purgative; besides this, I say, 
 how little is it to me, to know that 'tis the salt of the 
 rhubarb (for instance) that purges, if I find that it does 
 not purge as salt; since scarce any elementary salt is in 
 small quantity cathartical. And if I know not how 
 purgation in general is effected in a humane body? In 
 a word, as 'tis one thing to know a man's lodging, and 
 another, to be acquainted with him ; so it may be one thing 
 to know the subject wherein a quality principally resides, 
 and another thing to have a right notion and knowledge 
 of the quality itself. Now that which I take to be the 
 reason of this chymical deficiency, is the same upon whose 
 account I think the Aristotelian and divers other theories 
 incompetent to explicate the origine of qualities. For 
 I am apt to think, that men will never be able to explain 
 the phenomena of nature, while they endeavour to 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 179 
 
 deduce them only from the presence and proportion of 
 such or such material ingredients, and consider such 
 ingredients or elements as bodies in a state of rest; where- 
 as indeed the greatest part of the affections of matter, 
 and consequently of the phenomena of nature, seems to 
 depend upon the motion and the contrivance of the small 
 parts of bodies. For 'tis by motion that one part of 
 matter acts upon another; and 'tis, for the most part, 
 the texture of the body upon which the moving parts 
 strike, that modifies the motion or impression, and 
 concurrs with it to the production of those effects which 
 make up the chief part of the naturalists theme. 
 
 But (saies Eleutherius) methinks for all this, you have 
 left some part of what I alledged in behalf of the three 
 principles, unanswered. For all that you have said will 
 not keep this from being a useful discovery, that since in 
 the salt of one concrete, in the sulphur of another, and 
 the mercury of a third, the medicinal vertue of it resides ; 
 that principle ought to be separated from the rest, and 
 there the desired faculty must be sought for. 
 
 I never denyed (replies Carneades) that the notion of 
 the tria prima may be of some use, but (continues he 
 laughing) by what you now alledge for it, it will but appear / 
 that it is useful to apothecaries rather than to philosophers : 
 the being able to make things operative being sufficient 
 to those, whereas the knowledge of causes is the thing 
 looked after by these. And let me tell you, Eleutherius, 
 even this itself will need to be entertained with some 
 caution. 
 
 For first, it will not presently follow, that if the purga- 
 tive or other vertue of a simple may be easily extracted 
 by water or spirit of wine, it resides in the salt or sulphur 
 of the concrete; since unless the body hath before been 
 resolved by the fire, or some other powerful agent, it will, 
 for the most part, afford in the liquors I have named, 
 rather the finer compounded parts of itself, than the 
 elementary ones. As I noted before, that water will 
 dissolve not only pure salts, but chrystals of tartar, 
 gumme arabick, myrrhe and other compound bodies. 
 As also spirit of wine will dissolve not only the pure 
 
i8o The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 sulphur of concretes, but likewise the whole substance 
 of divers resinous bodies, as benzoin, the gummous parts 
 of jalap, gumme lacca, and other bodies that are counted 
 perfectly mixt. And we see that the extracts made 
 either with water or spirit of wine are not of a simple 
 and elementary nature, but masses consisting of the 
 looser corpuscles, and finer parts of the concretes whence 
 they are drawn ; since by distillation they may be divided 
 into more elementary substances. 
 
 Next, we may consider that even when there intervenes 
 a chymical resolution by the fire, 'tis seldom in the saline 
 or sulphureous principle, as such, that the desired faculty 
 of the concrete resides ; but, as that titular salt or sulphur 
 is yet a mixt body, though the saline or sulphureous 
 nature be predominant in it. For, if in chymical resolu- 
 tions the separated substances were pure and simple 
 bodies, and of a perfect elementary nature; no one would 
 be indued with more specifick vertues, than another; 
 
 ^and their qualities would differ as little as do those of 
 water. And let me add this upon the by, that even 
 eminent chymists have suffered themselves to be repre- 
 hended by me for their over great diligence in purifying 
 some of the things they obtain by fire from mixt bodies. 
 For though such compleatly purifyed ingredients of 
 bodies might perhaps be more satisfactory to our under- 
 standing; yet others are often more useful to our lives; 
 the efficacy of such chymical productions depending most 
 upon what they retain of the bodies whence they are 
 separated, or gain by the new associations of the dissi- 
 pated among themselves; whereas if they were merely 
 elementary, their uses would be comparatively very small; 
 and the vertues of sulphurs, salts, or other such substances 
 of one denomination, would be the very same. 
 And by the way (Eleutherius) I am inclined upon this 
 
 , ground to think, that the artificial resolution of compound 
 bodies by fire does not so much enrich mankind, as it 
 divides them into their supposed principles; as upon the 
 score of its making new compounds by new combinations 
 of the dissipated parts of the resolved body. For by 
 this means the number of mixt bodies is considerably 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 181 
 
 increased; and many of those new productions are 
 endowed with useful qualities; divers of which they owe 
 not to the body from which they were obtained, but to 
 their newly acquired texture. 
 
 But thirdly, that which is principally to be noted is this, 
 that as there are divers concretes, whose faculties reside 
 in some one or other of those differing substances, that 
 chymists call their sulphurs, salts, and mercuries, and 
 consequently may be best obtained, by analyzing the 
 concrete whereby the desired principles may be had 
 severed or freed from the rest; so there are others wherein 
 the noblest properties lodge not in the salt, or sulphur, 
 or mercury, but depend immediately upon the form, or 
 (if you will) result from the determinate structure of the 
 whole concrete ; and consequently they that go about to 
 extract the vertues of such bodies, by exposing them to 
 the violence of the fire, do exceedingly mistake, and take 
 the way to destroy what they would obtain. 
 
 I remember that Helmont himself somewhere confesses, 
 that as the fire betters some things and improves their 
 vertues, so it spoyles others and makes them degenerate. 
 And elsewhere he judiciously affirmes, that there may 
 be sometimes greater vertue in a simple, such as nature 
 has made it, than in anything that can by the fire be 
 separated from it. And lest you should doubt whether 
 he means by the vertues of things those that are medical: 
 he has in one place this ingenuous confession; " Credo 
 (saies he) simplicia in sua simplicitate esse sufficientia 
 pro sanatione omnium morborum." Nay, Barthius, 
 even in a comment upon Beguinus, scruples not to make 
 this acknowledgment; " Valde absurdum est (saies he) 
 ex omnibus rebus extracta facere, salia, quintas essentias; 
 prgesertim ex substantiis per se plane vel subtilibus vel 
 homogeneis, quales sunt uniones, corallia, moscus, 
 ambra, etc.' ' Consonantly whereunto he also tells us, (and 
 vouches the famous Platerus, for having candidly given 
 the same advertisement to his auditors), that some things 
 have greater vertues, and better suited to our humane 
 nature, when unprepared, than when they have past the 
 chymists fire; as we see, saies my author, in pepper; of 
 
1 82 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 which some grains swallowed perform more towards the 
 relief of a distempered stomack, than a great quantity 
 of the oyle of the same spice. 
 
 It has been (pursues Carneades) by our friend here 
 present observed concerning salt-petre, that none of the 
 substances into which the fire is wont to divide it, retaines 
 either the taste, the cooling vertue, or some other of the 
 properties of the concrete; and that each of those sub- 
 stances acquires new qualities not to be found in salt- 
 petre itself. The shining property of the tayls of glow- 
 worms does survive but so short a time the little animal 
 made conspicuous by it, that inquisitive men have not 
 scrupled publickly to deride Baptista Porta and others; 
 who, deluded perhaps with some chymical surmises, have 
 ventured to prescribe the distillation of a water from 
 the tayles of glowwormes, as a sure way to obtain a liquor 
 shining in the dark. To which I shall now add no other 
 example than that afforded us by amber; which, whilst 
 it remains an intire body, is endowed with an electrical 
 faculty of drawing to itself feathers, strawes, and such 
 like bodies ; which I never could observe either in its salt, 
 its spirit, its oyle, or in the body I remember I once made 
 by the reunion of its divided elements; none of these 
 having such a texture as the intire concrete. And how- 
 ever chymists boldly deduce such and such properties 
 from this or that proportion of their component principles; 
 yet in concretes that abound with this or that ingredient, 
 'tis not alwaies so much by vertue of its presence, nor its 
 plenty, that the concrete is qualifyed to perform such 
 and such effects; as upon the account of the particular 
 texture of that and the other ingredients, associated after 
 a determinate manner into one concrete : though possibly 
 such a proportion of that ingredient may be more con- 
 venient than another for the constituting of such a body. 
 Thus in a clock the hand is moved upon the dyal, the bell 
 is struck, and the other actions belonging to the engine 
 are performed, not because the wheeles are of brass or 
 iron, or part of one metal and part of another, or because 
 the weights are of lead, but by vertue of the size, shape, 
 bigness, and co-aptation of the several parts; which would 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 183 
 
 performe the same things though the wheels were of 
 silver, or lead, or wood, and the weights of stone or clay; 
 provided the fabrick or contrivance of the engine were 
 the same : though it be not to be denyed, that brass and 
 steel are more convenient materials to make clock-wheels 
 of than lead, or wood. And to let you see, Eleutherius, 
 that 'tis sometimes at least, upon the texture of the small 
 parts of a body, and not alwaies upon the presence, or 
 recess, or increase, or decrement of any one of its principles, 
 that it may loose some such qualities, and acquire some 
 such others as are thought very strongly inherent to the 
 bodies they reside in; I will add to what may from my 
 past discourse be referred to this purpose, this notable 
 example, from my own experience; That lead may without 
 any additament, and only by various applications of the 
 fire, lose its colour; and acquire sometimes a gray, some- 
 times a yellowish, sometimes a red, sometimes an ame- 
 thystine colour ; and after having past through these, and 
 perhaps divers others, again recover its leaden colour, 
 and be made a bright body. That also this lead, which 
 is so flexible a metal, may be made as brittle as glasse, 
 and presently be brought to be again flexible and malleable 
 as before. And besides, that the same lead, which I find 
 by microscopes to be one of the most opacous bodies in 
 the world, may be reduced to a fine transparent glass; 
 whence yet it may return to an opacous nature again; 
 and all this, as I said, without the addition of any ex- 
 traneous body, and merely by the manner and method 
 of exposing it to the fire. 
 
 But (saies Carneades) after having already put you 
 to so prolix a trouble, it is time for me to relieve you 
 with a promise of putting speedily a period to it; and to 
 make good that promise, I shall from all that I have 
 hitherto discoursed with you, deduce but this one pro- 
 position by way of corollary. [That it may as yet be 
 doubted, whether or no there be any determinate number 
 of elements ; or, if you please, whether or no all compound 
 bodies, do consist of the same number of elementary 
 ingredients or material principles] 
 
 This being but an inference from the foregoing discourse, 
 
1 84 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 it will not be requisite to insist at large on the proofs of 
 it; but only to point at the chief of them, and referr you 
 for particulars to what has been already delivered. 
 
 In the first place, then, from what has been so largely 
 discoursed, it may appear, that the experiments wont to 
 be brought, whether by the common peripateticks, or 
 by the vulgar chymists, to demonstrate, that all mixt 
 bodies are made up precisely either of the four elements, 
 or the three hypostatical principles, do not evince what 
 they are alledged to prove. And as for the other common 
 arguments, pretended to be drawn from reason in favour 
 of the Aristotelian hypothesis (for the chymists are wont 
 to rely almost altogether upon experiments) they are 
 commonly grounded upon such unreasonable or precarious 
 suppositions, that 'tis altogether as easie and as just for 
 any man to reject them, as for those that take them 
 for granted to assert them, being indeed all of them as 
 indemonstrable as the conclusion to be inferred from 
 them; and some of them so manifestly weak and proof- 
 lesse; that he must be a very courteous adversary, that 
 can be willing to grant them; and as unskilful a one, that 
 can be compelled to do so. 
 
 In the next place, it may be considered, if what those 
 patriarchs of the spagyrists, Paracelsus and Helmont, do 
 on divers occasions positively deliver, be true; namely 
 that the alkahest does resolve all mixt bodies into other 
 principles than the fire, it must be decided which of the 
 two resolutions (that made by the alkahest, or that made 
 by the fire) shall determine the number of the elements, 
 before we can be certain how many there are. 
 
 And in the meantime, we may take notice in the last 
 place, that as the distinct substances whereinto the 
 alkahest divides bodies, are affirmed to be differing in 
 nature from those whereunto they are wont to be reduced 
 by fire, and to be obtained from some bodies more in 
 number than from some others; since he tells us, he could 
 totally reduce all sorts of stones into salt only, whereas 
 of a coal he had two distinct liquors. So although we 
 should acquiesce in that resolution which is made by fire, 
 we find not that all mixt bodies are thereby divided into 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 185 
 
 the same number of elements and principles; some con- 
 cretes affording more of them than others do; nay and 
 sometimes this or that body affording a greater number 
 of differing substances by one way of management, than 
 the same yeelds by another. And they that out of gold, 
 or mercury, or muscovy-glass, will draw me as many 
 distinct substances, as I can separate from vitriol, or 
 from the juice of grapes variously ordered, may teach me 
 that which I shall very thankfully learn. Nor does it 
 appear more congruous to that variety that so much 
 conduceth to the perfection of the universe, that all 
 elemented bodies be compounded of the same number of 
 elements, than it would be for a language, that all its 
 words should consist of the same number of letters. 
 
THE SIXTH PART 
 
 A PARADOXICAL APPENDIX TO THE FOREGOING TREATISE 
 
 HERE Carneades having dispacht what he thought 
 requisite to oppose against what the chymists are wont 
 to alledge for proof of their three principles, paused 
 a while, and looked about him, to discover whether it 
 were time for him and his friend to rejoyne the rest of 
 the company. But Eleutherius perceiving nothing yet 
 to forbid them to prosecute their discourse a little further, 
 said to his friend, (who had likewise taken notice of the 
 same thing) I halfe expected, Carneades, that after you 
 had so freely declared your doubting, whether there be 
 any determinate number of elements, you would have 
 proceeded to question whether there be any elements at 
 all. And I confess it will be a trouble to me if you defeat 
 me of my expectation ; especially since you see the leasure 
 we have allowed us may probably suffice to examine that 
 paradox; because you have so largely deduced already 
 many things pertinent to it, that you need but intimate 
 how you would have them applyed, and what you would 
 inferr from them. 
 
 Carneades having in vain represented that their leasure 
 could be but very short, that he had already prated very 
 long, that he was unprepared to maintain so great and 
 so invidious a paradox, was at length prevailed with to 
 tell his friend; Since, Eleutherius, you will have me 
 discourse ex tern-pore of the paradox you mention, I am 
 content, (though more perhaps to express my obedience, 
 than my opinion) to tell you that (supposing the truth 
 of Helmont's and Paracelsus's alkahestical experiments, 
 if I may so call them) though it may seem extravagant, 
 - yet it is not absurd to doubt, whether, for ought has been 
 v proved, there be a necessity to admit any elements, or 
 hypostatical principles, at all. 
 
 And, as formerly, so now, to avoid the needless trouble 
 1 86 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 187 
 
 of disputing severally with the Aristotelians and the 
 chymists, I will address myself to oppose them I have 
 last named, because their doctrine about the elements 
 is more applauded by the moderns, as pretending highly 
 to be grounded upon experience. And, to deal not only 
 fairly but favourably with them, I will allow them to 
 take in earth and water to their other principles. Which 
 I consent to the rather, that my discourse may the better 
 reach the tenents of the peripateticks ; who cannot plead 
 for any so probably as for those two elements; that of 
 fire above the air being generally by judicious men 
 exploded as an imaginary thing; and the air not con- 
 curring to compose mixt bodies as one of their elements, 
 but only lodging in their pores, or rather replenishing, 
 by reason of its weight and fluidity, all those cavities of 
 bodies here below, whether compounded or not, that are 
 big enough to admit it, and are not filled up with any 
 grosser substance. 
 
 And, to prevent mistakes, I must advertize you, that 
 I now mean by elements, as those chymists that speak 
 plainest do by their principles, certain primitive and 
 simple, or perfectly unmingled bodies; which not being 
 made of any other bodies, or of one another, are the 
 ingredients of which all those called perfectly mixt bodies 
 are immediately compounded, and into which they are 
 ultimately resolved: now whether there be any one such 
 body to be constantly met with in all, and each, of those 
 that are said to be elemented bodies, is the thing I now 
 question. 
 
 By this state of the controversie you will, I suppose, 
 guess, that I need not be so absurd, as to deny that there 
 are such bodies as earth and water, and quicksilver, and 
 sulphur : but I look upon earth and water, as component 
 parts of the universe, or rather of the terrestrial globe, 
 not of all mixt bodies. And though I will not peremp- 
 torily deny that there may sometimes either a running 
 mercury, or a combustible substance be obtained from 
 a mineral, or even a metal; yet I need not concede either 
 of them to be an element in the sence above declared; 
 as I shall have occasion to shew you by and by. 
 
1 88 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 To give you then a brief account of the grounds I intend 
 
 to proceed upon, I must tell you, that in matters of 
 
 philosophy, this seems to me a sufficient reason to doubt 
 
 , of a known and important proposition, that the truth 
 
 * of it is not yet by any competent proof made to appear. 
 
 And congruously hereunto, if I shew that the grounds, 
 
 upon which men are perswaded that there are elements, 
 
 are unable to satisfie a considering man, I suppose my 
 
 doubts will appear rational. 
 
 Now the considerations that induce men to think, that 
 there are elements, may be conveniently enough referred 
 to two heads. Namely, the one, that it is necessary that 
 nature make use of elements to constitute the bodies that 
 are reputed mixt. And the other, that the resolution 
 of such bodies manifests that nature had compounded 
 them of elementary ones. 
 
 In reference to the former of these considerations, there 
 are two or three things that I have to represent. 
 
 And I will begin with reminding you of the experiments 
 I not long since related to you concerning the growth of 
 pompions, mint, and other vegetables out of fair water. 
 For by those experiments it seems evident, that water 
 may be transmuted into all the other elements; from 
 whence it may be inferred, both, that 'tis not everything 
 chymists will call salt, sulphur, or spirit, that needs 
 alwaies be a primordiate and ingenerable body. And, 
 that nature may contex a plant (though that be a perfectly 
 mixt concrete) without having all the elements previously 
 presented to her to compound it of. And, if you will 
 allow the relation I mentioned out of Mounsieur De 
 Rochas to be true ; then may not only plants, but animals 
 and minerals too, be produced out of water. And how- 
 ever there is little doubt to be made, but that the plants 
 my tryals afforded me, as they were like in so many other 
 respects to the rest of the plants of the same denomination; 
 so they would, in case I had reduced them to putrefaction, 
 have likewise produced wormes or other insects, as well 
 as the resembling vegetables are wont to do; so that 
 water may, by various seminal principles, be successively 
 transmuted into both plants and animals. And if we 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 189 
 
 consider that not only men, but even sucking children 
 are, but too often, tormented with solid stones; and that 
 divers sorts of beasts themselves, (whatever Helmont 
 against experience think to the contrary) may be troubled 
 with great and heavy stones in their kidneys and bladders, 
 though they feed but upon grass and other vegetables, 
 that are perhaps but disguised water, it will not seem 
 improbable that even some concretes of a mineral nature, 
 may likewise be formed of water. 
 
 We may further take notice, that as a plant may be 
 nourisht, and consequently may consist of common water; 
 so may both plants and animals, (perhaps even from their 
 seminal rudiments) consist of compound bodies, without 
 having anything merely elementary brought them by 
 nature to be compounded by them: this is evident in 
 divers men, who whilst they were infants were fed only 
 with milk, afterwards live altogether upon flesh, fish, 
 wine, and other perfectly mixt bodies. It may be seen 
 also in sheep, who on some of our English downs or plains, 
 grow very fat by feeding upon the grass, without scarce 
 drinking at all. And yet more manifestly in the magots 
 that breed and grow up to their full bignesse within the 
 pulps of apples, pears, or the like fruit. We see also, 
 that dungs that abound with a mixt salt give a much 
 more speedy increment to corn and other vegetables, 
 than water alone would do : and it hath been assured me, 
 by a man experienced in such matters, that sometimes 
 when to bring up roots very early, the mould they were 
 planted in was made over-rich, the very substance of the 
 plant has tasted of the dung. And let us also consider 
 a graft of one kind of fruit upon the upper bough of a tree 
 of another kind. As (for instance) the scion of a pear 
 upon a white-thorne; for there the ascending liquor 
 is already altered, either by the root, or in its ascent by 
 the bark, or both wayes, and becomes a new mixt body: 
 as may appear by the differing qualities to be met with in 
 the saps of several trees; as particularly, the medicinal 
 vertue of the birch-water, which I have sometimes drunk 
 upon Helmont' s great and not undeserved commendation. 
 Now the graft, being fastened to the stock, must neces- 
 
190 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 sarily nourish itself, and produce its fruit, only out of this 
 compound juice prepared for it by the stock, being unable 
 to come at any other aliment. And if we consider, how 
 much of the vegetable he feeds upon may (as we noted 
 above) remain in an animal; we may easily suppose, that 
 the blood of that animal who feeds upon this, though 
 it be a well constituted liquor, and have all the differing 
 corpuscles, that make it up, kept in order by one presiding 
 form, may be a strangly decompounded body, many of 
 its parts being themselves decompounded. So little is it 
 necessary that even in the mixtures which nature herself 
 makes in animal and vegetable bodies, she should have 
 pure elements at hand to make her compositions of. 
 
 Having said thus much touching the constitution of 
 plants and animals, I might perhaps be able to say as 
 much touching that of minerals, and even metals, if it 
 were as easy for us to make experiment in order to the 
 production of these, as of those. But the growth or 
 increment of minerals being usually a work of excessively 
 long time, and for the most part performed in the bowels 
 of the earth, where we cannot see it, I must instead of 
 experiments make use, on this occasion, of observations. 
 
 That stones were not all made at once, but that some 
 of them are nowadayes generated, may (though it be 
 denyed by some) be fully proved by several examples, 
 of which I shall now scarce alledge any other, than that 
 famous place in France known by the name of Les Caves 
 Goutieres, where the water falling from the upper parts 
 of the cave to the ground does presently there condense 
 into little stones, of such figures as the drops, falling 
 either severally or upon one another, and coagulating 
 presently into stone, chance to exhibit. Of these stones 
 some ingenious friends of ours, that went a while since 
 to visit that place, did me the favour to present me with 
 some that they brought thence. And I remember that 
 both that sober relator of his voyages, Van Linschoten, 
 and another good author, inform us that in the diamond 
 mines (as they call them) in the East-Indies, when having 
 diged the earth, though to no great depth, they find 
 diamonds and take them quite away; yet in a very few 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 191 
 
 years they find in the same place new diamonds produced 
 there since. From both which relations, especially the 
 first, it seems probable that nature does not alwaies stay 
 for divers elementary bodies, when she is to produce 
 stones. And as for metals themselves, authors of good 
 note assure us, that even they were not in the beginning 
 produced at once altogether, but have been observed 
 to grow; so that what was not a mineral or metal before, 
 became one afterwards. Of this it were easie to alledge 
 many testimonies of professed chymists. But that they 
 may have the greater authority, I shall rather present 
 you with a few borrowed from more unsuspected writers. 
 " Sulphuris mineram (as the inquisitive P. Fallopius 
 notes) quse nutrix est caloris subterranei fabri seu archsei 
 fontium et mineralium, infra terram citissim renasci tes- 
 tantur historiae metallicse. Sunt enim loca quibus si 
 hoc anno sulphur effossum fuerit; intermissa fossione 
 per quadriennium redeunt fossores et omnia sulphure, 
 ut antea, rursus inveniunt plena." Pliny relates, " In 
 Italiae insula Ilva, gigni ferri metallum. Strabo multo 
 expressius; effossum ibi metallum semper regenerari. 
 Nam si effossio spatio centum annorum intermittebatur, 
 et iterum illuc revertebantur, fossores reperisse maximam 
 copiam ferri regeneratam." Which history not only is 
 countenanced by Fallopius, from the income which the 
 iron of that island yeelded the Duke of Florence in his 
 time; but is mentioned more expressely to our purpose, 
 by the learned Cesalpinus. " Vena (saies he) ferri copio- 
 sissima est in Italia; ob earn nobilitata Ilva Tyrrheni 
 maris . insula incredibili copia etiam nostris temporibus 
 earn gignens : nam terra quse eruitur, dum vena off oditur 
 tota, procedente tempore in venam convertitur." Which 
 last clause is therefore very notable, because from thence 
 we may deduce, that earth, by a metalline plastick 
 principle latent in it, may be in processe of time changed 
 into a metal. And even Agricola himself, though the 
 chymists complain of him as their adversary, acknow- 
 ledges thus much and more; by telling us that at a town 
 called Saga in Germany, they dig up iron in the fields, 
 by sinking ditches two foot deep; and adding, that within 
 
192 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 the space of ten years the ditches are digged again for 
 iron since produced, as the same metal is wont to be 
 obtained in Ilva. Also concerning lead, not to mention 
 what even Galen notes, that it will increase both in bulk 
 and weight if it be long kept in vaults or sellers, where 
 the air is gross and thick, as he collects from the swelling 
 of those pieces of lead that were imployed to fasten to- 
 gether the parts of old statues. Not to mention this, I 
 say, Boccacius Certaldus, as I find him quoted by a 
 diligent writer, has this passage touching the growth 
 of lead. " Fessularum mons (saies he) in Hetruria, 
 Florentiae civitati imminens, lapides plumbarios habet; 
 qui si excidantur, brevi temporis spatio, novis increments 
 instaurantur; ut (annexes my author) tradit Boccacius 
 Certaldus, qui id compertissimum esse scribit. Nihil hoc 
 novi est; sed de eodem Plinius, lib. 34. Hist. Natur. cap. 
 17. dudum prodidit, inquiens, mirum in his solis plumbi 
 metallis, quod derelicta fertilius reviviscunt. In plum- 
 bariis secundo lapide ab amberga dictis ad asylum recre- 
 menta congesta in cumulos, exposita solibus pluviisque 
 paucis annis, reddunt suum metallum cum fcenore." I 
 might add to these (continues Carneades) many things 
 that I have met with concerning the generation of gold 
 and silver. But for fear of wanting time, I shall mention 
 but two or three narratives. The first you may find 
 recorded by Gerhardus the physick professor, in these 
 words. " In valle (saies he) Joachimica argentum 
 graminis modo et more lapidibus minerae velut e radice 
 excrevisse digiti longitudine, testis est Dr. Schreterus, 
 qui ejusmodi venas aspectu jucundas et admirabiles domi 
 suae aliis ssepe monstravit et donavit. Item aqua cserulea 
 inventa est Annebergse, ubi argentum erat adhuc in 
 primo ente, quae coagulata redacta est in calcem fixi et 
 boni argenti." 
 
 The other two relations I have not met with in Latine 
 authors, and yet they are both very memorable in them- 
 selves, and pertinent to our present purpose. 
 
 The first I meet with in the commentary of Johannes 
 Valehius upon the Kleine Baur, in which that industrious 
 chymist relates, with many circumstances, that at a mine- 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 193 
 
 town (if I may so English the German Bergstat) eight 
 miles or leagues distant from Strasburg called Mariakirch, 
 a workman came to the overseer, and desired employment ; 
 but he telling him that there was not any of the best sort 
 at present for him, added that till he could be preferred 
 to some such, he might in the meantime, to avoid idle- 
 ness, work in a grove or mine-pit thereabouts, which at 
 that time was little esteemed. This workman after some 
 weeks labour, had by a crack appearing in the stone upon 
 a stroak given near the wall, an invitation given him to 
 work his way through, which as soon as he had done, 
 his eyes were saluted by a mighty stone or lump which 
 stood in the middle of the cleft (that had a hollow place 
 behind it) upright, and in shew like an armed-man; but 
 consisted of pure fine silver having no vein or ore by it, 
 or any other additament, but stood there free, having 
 only underfoot something like a burnt matter; and yet 
 this one lump held in weight above a 1000 marks, which, 
 according to the Dutch account, makes 500 pound weight 
 of fine silver. From which and other circumstances my 
 author gathers ; that by the warmth of the place, the noble 
 metalline spirits, (sulphureous and mercurial) were carried 
 from the neighbouring galleries or vaults, through other 
 smaller cracks and clefts into that cavity, and there 
 collected as in a close chamber or cellar; whereinto when 
 they were gotten, they did in process of time settle into 
 the forementioned precious mass of metal. 
 
 The other Germane relation is of that great traveller 
 and laborious chymist Johannes (not Georgius) Agricola; 
 who in his notes upon what Poppius has written of 
 antimony, relates, that when he was among the Hungarian 
 mines in the deep groves, he observed that there would 
 often arise in them a warm steam, (not of that malignant 
 sort which the Germans call Shwadt, which (saies he) is 
 a meer poyson, and often suffocates the diggers) which 
 fastened itself to the walls; and that coming again to 
 review it after a couple of dayes, he discerned that it was 
 all very fast, and glistering; whereupon having collected 
 it and distilled it per retortam, he obtained from it a fine 
 
 N 
 
194 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 spirit: adding, that the mine-men informed him, that 
 this steam, or damp (as the English men also call it, 
 retaining the Dutch term) would at last have become 
 a metal, as gold or silver. 
 
 I referr (saies Carneades) to another occasion, the use 
 that may be made of these narratives towards the explicat- 
 ing the nature of metalls; and that of fixtness, malleable- 
 ness, and some other qualities conspicuous in them. And 
 in the meantime, this I may at present deduce from these 
 observations; That 'tis not very probable, that, whenso- 
 ever a mineral, or even a metal, is to be generated in the 
 bowels of the earth, nature needs to have at hand both 
 salt, and sulphur, and mercury to compound it of; for, 
 not to urge that the two last relations seem less to favour 
 the chymists than Aristotle, who would have metals 
 generated of certain halitus or steams, the forementioned 
 observations together, make it seem more likely that the 
 mineral earths or those metalline steams (wherewith 
 probably such earths are plentifully imbued) do contain 
 in them some seminal rudiment, or something equivalent 
 thereunto; by whose plastick power the rest of the 
 matter, though perhaps terrestrial and heavy, is in tract 
 of time fashioned into this or that metalline ore; almost 
 (as I formerly noted) as that fair water was by the seminal 
 principle of mint, pompions, and other vegetables, con- 
 trived into bodies answerable to such seeds. And that 
 such alterations of terrestrial matter are not impossible, 
 seems evident from that notable practice of the boylers of 
 salt-petre, who unanimously observe, as well here in 
 England as in other countries, that if an earth pregnant 
 with nitre be deprived, by the affusion of water, of all 
 its true and dissoluble salt, yet the earth will after some 
 years yeeld them salt-petre again; for which reason some 
 of the eminent and skilfullest of them keep it in heaps as 
 a perpetual mine of salt-petre; whence it may appear, 
 that the seminal principle of nitre latent in the earth does 
 by degrees transforme the neighbouring matter into a 
 nitrous body; for though I deny that some volatile nitre 
 may by such earths be attracted (as they speak) out of 
 the air, yet that the innermost parts of such great heaps 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 195 
 
 that lye so remote from the air should borrow from it all 
 the nitre they abound with, is not probable, for other 
 reasons besides the remoteness of the air, though I have 
 not the leasure to mention them. 
 
 And I remember, that a person of great credit, and well 
 acquainted with the wayes of making vitriol, affirmed to 
 me, that he had observed, that a kind of mineral which 
 abounds in that salt, being kept within doors and not 
 exposed (as is usual) to the free air and rains, did of itself 
 in no very long time turn into vitriol, not only in the 
 outward or superficial, but even in the internal and most 
 central parts. 
 
 And I also remember, that I met with a certain kind 
 of marchasite that lay together in great quantities under 
 ground, which did, even in my chamber, in so few hours 
 begin of itself to turne into vitriol, that we need not 
 distrust the newly recited narrative. But to return to 
 what I was saying of nitre; as nature made this salt- 
 petre out of the once almost an inodorous earth it was 
 bread in and did not find a very stinking and corrosive 
 acid liquor, and a sharp alcalizate salt to compound it of, 
 though these be the bodies into which the fire dissolves it; 
 so it were not necessary that nature should make up all 
 metals and other minerals of pre-existent salt, and sulphur, 
 and mercury, though such bodies might by fire be obtained 
 from it. Which one consideration duly weighed is very 
 considerable in the present controversy: and to this 
 agree well the relations of our two German chymists; 
 for besides that it cannot be convincingly proved, it is 
 not so much as likely that so languid and moderate a 
 heat as that within the mines, should carry up to so great 
 a height, though in the forme of fumes, salt, sulphur, and 
 mercury; since we find in our distillations, that it requires 
 a considerable degree of fire to raise so much as to the 
 height of one foot not only salt, but even mercury itself, 
 in close vessels. And if it be objected, that it seems by 
 the stink that is sometimes observed when lightning falls 
 down here below, that sulphureous steams may ascend 
 very high without any extraordinary degree of heat; it 
 may be answered, among other things, that the sulphur 
 
196 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 of silver is by chymists said to be a fixt sulphur, though 
 not altogether so well digested as that of gold. 
 
 But, (proceeds Carneades) if it had not been to afford 
 you some hints concerning the origine of metals, I need 
 not have deduced anything from these observations; it 
 not being necessary to the validity of my argument that 
 my deductions from them should be irrefragable, because 
 my adversaries the Aristotelians and vulgar chymists do 
 not, I presume, know any better than I, a priori, of what 
 ingredients nature compounds metals and minerals. For 
 their argument to prove that those bodies are made up 
 of such principles, is drawn a posteriori ; I mean from 
 this, that upon the analysis of mineral bodies they are 
 resolved into those differing substances. That we may 
 therefore examine this argument, let us proceed to con- 
 sider what can be alledged in behalf of the elements from 
 the resolutions of bodies by the fire ; which you remember 
 was the second topick whence I told you the arguments 
 of my adversaries were desumed. 
 
 And that I may first dispatch what I have to say con- 
 cerning minerals, I will begin the remaining part of my 
 discourse with considering how the fire divides them. 
 
 And first, I have partly noted above, that though 
 chymists pretend from some to draw salt, from others 
 running mercury, and from others a sulphur; yet they 
 have not hitherto taught us by any way in use among 
 them to separate any one principle, whether salt, sulphur, 
 or mercury, from all sorts of minerals without exception. 
 And thence I may be allowed to conclude that there is not 
 any of the elements that is an ingredient of all bodies, 
 since there are some of which it is not so. 
 
 In the next place, supposing that either sulphur or 
 mercury were obtainable from all sorts of minerals. Yet 
 still this sulphur or mercury would be but acompounded, 
 not an elementary body, as I told you already on another 
 occasion. And certainly he that takes notice of the 
 wonderful operations of quicksilver, whether it be common, 
 or drawn from mineral bodies, can scarce be so incon- 
 siderate as to think it of the very same nature with that 
 immature and fugitive substance which in vegetables 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 197 
 
 and animals chymists have been pleased to call their 
 mercury. So that when mercury is got by the help of the 
 fire out of a metal or other mineral body, if we will not 
 suppose that it was not pre-existent in it, but produced 
 by the action of the fire upon the concrete, we may at 
 least suppose this quicksilver to have been a perfect body 
 of its own kind (though perhaps less heterogeneous than 
 more secondary mixts) which happened to be mingled 
 per minima, and coagulated with the other substances, 
 whereof the metal or mineral consisted. As may be 
 exemplyfied partly by native vermilion wherein the 
 quicksilver and sulphur being exquisitely blended both 
 with one another, and that other course mineral stuff 
 (whatever it be) that harbours them, make up a red body 
 differing enough from both; and yet from which part 
 of the quicksilver, and of the sulphur, may be easily 
 enough obtained; partly by those mines wherein nature 
 has so curiously incorporated silver with lead, that 'tis 
 extremely difficult, and yet possible, to separate the 
 former out of the latter; and partly too by native vitriol, 
 wherein the metalline corpuscles are by skill and industry 
 separable from the saline ones, though they be so con- 
 coagulated with them, that the whole concrete is reckoned 
 among salts. 
 
 And here I further observe, that I never could see any 
 earth or water, properly so called, separated from either 
 gold or silver (to name now no other metalline bodies) 
 and therefore to retort the argument upon my adversaries, 
 I may conclude, that since there are some bodies in which, 
 for ought appears, there is neither earth nor water; I 
 may be allowed to conclude, that neither of those two is 
 an universal ingredient of all those bodies that are counted 
 perfectly mixt, which I desire you would remember 
 against anon. 
 
 It may indeed be objected, that the reason why from 
 gold or silver we cannot separate any moisture, is, because 
 that when it is melted out of the oar, the vehement fire 
 requisite to its fusion forced away all the aqueous and 
 fugitive moisture; and the like fire may do from the 
 materials of glass. To which I shall answer, that I 
 
198 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 remember I read not long since in the learned Josephus 
 Acosta, who relates it upon his own observation; that in 
 America (where he long lived) there is a kind of silver 
 which the Indians call papas, and sometimes (saies he) 
 they find pieces very fine and pure like to small round 
 roots, the which is rare in that metal, but usual in gold 
 concerning which metal he tells us, that besides this they 
 find some which they call gold in grains, which he tells us 
 are small morsells of gold that they find whole without 
 mixture of any other metal, which hath no need of melting 
 or refining in the fire. 
 
 I remember that a very skilful and credible person 
 affirmed to me, that being in the Hungarian mines he had 
 the good fortune to see a mineral that was there digged 
 up, wherein pieces of gold of the length, and also almost 
 of the bigness of a humane finger, grew in the oar, as if 
 they had been parts and branches of trees. 
 
 And I have myself seen a lump of whitish mineral, that 
 was brought as a rarity to a great and knowing prince, 
 wherein there grew here and there in the stone, which 
 looked like a kind of sparr, divers little lumps of fine gold, 
 (for such I was assured that tryal had manifested it to be) 
 some of them seeming to be about the bigness of pease. 
 
 But that is nothing to what our Acosta subjoynes, which 
 is indeed very memorable, namely, that of the morsels 
 of native and pure gold, which we lately heard him men- 
 tioning, he had now and then seen some that weighed 
 many pounds; to which I shall add, that I myself have 
 seen a lump of oar not long since digged up, in whose 
 stony part there grew, almost like trees, divers parcels 
 though not of gold, yet of (what perhaps mineralists will 
 more wonder at) another metal which seemed to be very 
 pure or unmixt with any heterogeneous substances, and 
 were some of them as big as my finger, if not bigger. But 
 upon observations of this kind, though perhaps I could, 
 yet I must not at present, dwell any longer. 
 
 To proceed therefore now (saies Carneades) to the con- 
 sideration of the analysis of vegetables, although my 
 tryals give me no cause to doubt but that out of most of 
 them five differing substances may be obtained by the 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 199 
 
 fire, yet I think it will not be so easily demonstrated that 
 these deserve to be called elements in the notion above 
 explained. 
 
 And before I descend to particulars, I shall repeat and 
 premise this general consideration, that these differing 
 substances that are called elements or principles, differ 
 not from each other as metals, plants and animals, or as 
 such creatures as are immediately produced each by its 
 peculiar seed, and constitutes a distinct propagable sort 
 of creatures in the universe; but these are only various 
 schemes of matter or substances that differ from each 
 other, but in consistence (as running mercury and the 
 same metal congealed by the vapor of lead) and some 
 very few other accidents, as taste, or smell, or inflamability. 
 or the want of them. So that by a change of texture 
 not impossible to be wrought by the fire and other agents 
 that have the faculty, not only to dissociate the small 
 parts of bodies, but afterwards to connect them after a 
 new manner, the same parcel of matter may acquire or 
 lose such accidents as may suffice to denominate it salt, 
 or sulphur, or earth. If I were fully to clear to you my 
 apprehensions concerning this matter, I should perhaps 
 be obliged to- acquaint you with divers of the conjectures 
 (for I must yet call them no more) I have had concerning 
 the principles of things purely corporeal: for though 
 because I seem not satisfied with the vulgar doctrines, 
 either of the peripatetick or Paracelsian schooles, many 
 of those that know me, (and perhaps, among them, 
 Eleutherius himself) have thought me wedded to the 
 Epicurean hypothesis, (as others have mistaken me for 
 an Helmontian) yet if you knew how little conversant 
 I have been with Epicurean authors, and how great a part 
 of Lucretius himself I never yet had the curiosity to read, 
 you would perchance be of another mind; especially if 
 I were to entertain you at large, I say not, with my present 
 notions; but with my former thoughts concerning the 
 principles of things. But, as I said above, fully to clear 
 my apprehensions would require a longer discourse than 
 we can now have. 
 
 For, I should tell you that I have sometimes thought 
 
200 The Sceptical|Chymist 
 
 it not unfit, that to the principles which may be assigned 
 to things, as the world is now constituted, we should, if we 
 consider the great mass of matter as it was whilst the 
 . universe was in making, add another, which may con- 
 / veniently enough be called an architectonick principle 
 or power; by which I mean those various determinations, 
 and that skilfull guidance of the motions of the small 
 parts of the universal matter by the most wise Author of 
 things, which were necessary at the beginning to turn 
 that confused chaos into this orderly and beautiful world; 
 and especially, to contrive the bodies of animals and 
 plants, and the seeds of those things whose kinds were 
 to be propagated. For I confess I cannot well conceive, 
 how from matter, barely put into motion, and then left 
 to itself, there could emerge such curious fabricks as the 
 bodies of men and perfect animals, and such yet more 
 admirably contrived parcels of matter, as the seeds of 
 living creatures. 
 
 I should likewise tell you upon what grounds, and in 
 what sence, I suspected the principles of the world, as it 
 v/ now is, to be three, matter, motion, and rest. I say, as 
 the world now is, because the present fabrick of the 
 universe, and especially the seeds of things, together with 
 the establisht course of nature, is a requisite or condition, 
 upon whose account divers things may be made out by 
 our three principles, which otherwise would be very hard, 
 if possible, to explicate. 
 
 I should moreover declare in general (for I pretend 
 not to be able to do it otherwise) not only why I conceive 
 that colours, odours, tastes, 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, 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 Aristotelian privation, 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 201 
 
 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, than 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, 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) 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 lessening their motion (whilst the 
 body formerly at rest receives all or part of it into itself) 
 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, seemed to me to be 
 the catholick principles of the universe, I thought the 
 principles of particular bodies might be commodiously 
 enough reduced to two, namely matter, and (what com- 
 prehends the two other, and their effects) the result, or 
 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, and the thence resulting 
 qualities of the small parts, which are necessary to intitle 
 the body whereto they belong to this or that peculiar * 
 denomination ; and discriminating it from others to appro- 
 priate it to a determinate kind of things, (as yellowness, 
 fixtness, such a degree of weight, and of ductility, do 
 make the portion of matter wherein they concur, to be 
 reckoned among perfect metals, and obtain the name of 
 gold) this aggregate or result of accidents you may if you 
 please, call either structure, or texture, (though indeed, 
 that do not so properly comprehend the motion of the 
 constituent parts especially in case some of them be fluid) 
 or what other appellation shall appear most expressive. 
 
202 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 Or if, retaining the vulgar terme, you will call it the 
 jorme of the thing it denominates, I shall not much oppose 
 it; provided the word be interpreted to mean but what 
 I have expressed, and not a scholastick substantial jorme, 
 which so many intelligent men profess to be to them 
 altogether unintelligible. 
 
 But, (saies 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 proposed, rather 
 as a narrative of my former conjectures touching the 
 principles of things, than 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 proposed without those 
 reasons and explanations by which I could perhaps make 
 them appear much less extravagant; yet I want time to 
 offer you what may be alledged to clear and countenance 
 these notions; my design in mentioning them unto you 
 at present being, partly, to bring some light and confirma- 
 tion to divers passages of my discourse to you; partly 
 to shew you, that I do not (as you seem to have suspected) 
 f embrace all Epicurus his principles; but dissent from 
 him in some main things, as well as from Aristotle and 
 the chymists, in others ; and 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 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 determi- 
 nate 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 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 203 
 
 both in the productions of nature, and in those of art; 
 of the first sort I might name multitudes; but to shew 
 how slight a variation of textures without addition of 
 new ingredients may procure a parcel of matter divert 
 names, and make it be lookt upon as different things; 
 
 I shall invite you to observe with me, that clouds, rain, 
 hail, snow, frost, 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 
 chrystals of tartar) of glass, regulus martis stellatus, and 
 particularly of the sugar of lead, which though made of 
 that insipid metal and sowre salt of vinegar, has in it 
 a sweetness surpassing that of common sugar, and divers 
 other qualities, which being not to be found in either of 
 its two ingredients, must be confessed to belong to the 
 concrete itself, upon the account of its texture. 
 
 This consideration premised, 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 argu- 
 ments formerly imployed 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 Helmont's 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 inexistent in the concrete 
 whence they are obtained, when the chymist first goes 
 about to resolve it; ^or, not to insist upon the uninflam- 
 able spirit of such concretes, because that may be pre- 
 tended to be but a mixture of phlegme and salt; the oyle 
 or sulphur of vegetables or animals is, according to him, 
 
204 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 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 Helmont's tryals 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. 
 
 For I know (saies he, in the place formerly alledged 
 to another purpose) a way to reduce all stones into a mere 
 salt of equal weight with the stone whence it was produced, 
 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 employed 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 Helmont's method, been exhibited 
 to us in the form of salt. 
 
 But though (saies Eleutherius) you have alledged yery 
 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 com- 
 mitted to distillation, there is regularly and constantly 
 separated from it a phlegme or aqueous part, and a caput 
 mortuum or earth. 
 
 I readily acknowledge (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 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 205 
 
 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 taste of these qualities, I think 
 you have never seen any of those separated substances 
 that the chymists call phlegme which was perfectly devoid 
 both of taste and smell: and if you object, that yet it may 
 be reasonably supposed, that since the whole body is 
 liquid, the mass is nothing but elementary water faintly 
 imbued with some of the saline or sulphureous parts of 
 the same concrete, which it retained with it upon its 
 separation from the other ingredients. To this I answer, 
 that this objection would not appear so strong as it is 
 plausible, if chymists understood the nature of fluidity 
 and compactness; and that, as I formerly observed, 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 other's 
 surfaces. So that although a concrete were never so dry, 
 and had not any water or other liquor inexistent 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, 
 employed 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 afterwards 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 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 shaped, 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 obtained such another 
 concrete, both as to taste and smell, and casie sublimable- 
 ness as common salt armoniack, which you know is made 
 
206 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 up of gross and undistilled sea salt united with the salts 
 or urine and of soot, which two are very near 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 regained his spirit of urine in a liquid form by itself, 
 the sea salt staying behind with the salt of tartar. Where- 
 fore it is very possible that dry bodies may by the fire be 
 reduced to liquors without any separation of elements, 
 but barely by a certain kind of dissipation and com- 
 minution 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 taste needs but a very small proportion of salt 
 to impart it; it may be replyed, that for ought appears, 
 common salt and divers other bodies, though they be 
 distilled never so dry, and in never so close vessels, will 
 yeeld 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 itself (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 reduced to such a shape and bigness, 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 than 
 were now seasonable. But I desire you would with me 
 reflect upon what I formerly told you concerning the 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 207 
 
 change of quicksilver into water; for that water having 
 but a very faint taste, 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 turned 
 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 anything like water; I hope I may 
 be allowed to conclude against them, that water itself 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 con- 
 cerning them, and to alledge that he could transmute all 
 reputed mixt bodies into insipid and mere water; to 
 those I shall represent, that though his affirmations 
 conclude strongly against the vulgar chymists (against 
 whom I have not therefore scrupled to employ them) 
 since they evince that the commonly reputed principles 
 or ingredients of things are not permanent and inde- 
 structible, since they may be further reduced into insipid 
 phlegme differing from them all; yet till we can be 
 allowed to examine this liquor, I think it not unreasonable 
 to doubt whether it be not something else than mere 
 water. For I find not any other reason given by Helmont 
 of his pronouncing it so, than that it is insipid. Now 
 sapour being an accident or an affection of matter that 
 relates to our tongue, palate and other organs of taste, 
 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 perceptible impression 
 upon the nerves or membranous parts of the organs of 
 taste, and yet may be fit to work otherwise upon divers 
 other bodies than mere water can, and consequently to 
 disclose itself to be of a nature fair enough from elemen- 
 tary. In silke dyed red or of any other colour, whilst 
 many contiguous threads make up a skein, the colour of 
 
208 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 the silke is conspicuous; but if only a very few of them 
 be lookt upon, the colour will appear much fainter than 
 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 observed, that the best sort of oyl-olive is almost 
 tasteless, 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 an eye-witness, 
 that mercury might be transmuted, has sometimes but 
 a very languid, if any taste ; and yet its operations even 
 upon some mineral bodies are very peculiar. Quicksilver 
 itself also, though the corpuscles it consists of be so very 
 small, as to get into the pores of that closest and com- 
 pactest of bodies, gold, is yet (you know) altogether 
 tasteless. And our Helmont several times tells us, that 
 fair water, wherein a little quantity of quicksilver has lain 
 for some time, though it acquire no certain taste or other 
 sensible quality from the quicksilver; yet it has a power 
 to destroy wormes in human 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, confessed 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, cider, or other strongly tasted liquors, there may be 
 in several of those liquors, that are wont to pass for insipid 
 phlegme, very peculiar and distinct tastes, though unheeded 
 (and perhaps not to be perceived) 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 tryed in myself) discern very sensibly a great 
 difference of tastes in several waters, which one unaccus- 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 209 
 
 tomed 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 
 vinegar 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 
 than the vinegar was before; but (what is more consider- 
 able) though the acid salts that are carried up with quick- 
 silver 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 sub- 
 limate being twice or thrice re-sublimed 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 prepared is judged 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 subjoyne a casual but memorable experiment made 
 by Johannes Agricola upon the terra damnata of brim- 
 stone. Our author then tells us (in his notes upon 
 
 o 
 
210 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 Popius) 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 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 marvelled 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 itself had only been dissolved in 
 linseed oyle; this regulus he found heavy and malleable 
 almost as lead; having caused a goldsmith to draw him 
 a wire of it, he found it to be of the fairest copper, and so 
 rightly coloured, that a Jew of Prague offered him a great 
 price for it. And of this metal he saies 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 anything else than 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 yeelded them 
 is ended; which yet, if they were long and skilfully 
 examined by the fire, would appear to be differing from 
 elementary earth. And I have taken notice of the 
 unwarrantable forwardness of common chymists to pro- 
 nounce 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 reduced into copper, but with a certain flux powder 
 I sometimes make for recreation, I have in two or three 
 minutes obtained that metal from it. To which I may 
 add, that having for tryall sake kept Venetian talck in 
 no less a heat than that of a glass furnace, I found after 
 all the brunt of the fire it had indured, the remaining 
 body, though brittle and discoloured, had not lost very 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 2 1 1 
 
 much of its former bulke, and seemed still to be nearer 
 of kin to talck than to mere 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 enquired of him why he seemed 
 so greedy of it: he confessed 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 pro- 
 cured a little of it; and having tryed it with a peculiar 
 flux, separated from it near a third part of pure gold; so 
 great mistakes may be committed in hastily concluding 
 things to be useless earth. 
 
 Next, it may be supposed, that as in the resolution of 
 bodies by the fire some of the dissipated parts may, by 
 their various occursion occasioned 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 called ashes or 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 informed 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. 
 
 And indeed, I see not why it should be necessary that 
 all agents that resolve bodies into portions of differing 
 qualified matter must work on them the same way, and 
 divide them into just such parts, both for nature and 
 number, as the fire dissipates them into. For since, 
 (as I noted before) the bulk and shape of the small parts 
 of bodies, together with their fitness and unfitness to be 
 easily put into motion, may make the liquors or other 
 substances such corpuscles compose, as much to differ 
 from each other as do some of the chymical principles: 
 why may not something happen in this case, not unlike 
 what is usuall in the grosser divisions of bodies by mecha- 
 nical instruments ? Where we see that some tools reduce 
 
2 1 2 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 wood, for instance, into parts of several shapes, bigness, 
 and other qualities, as hatchets and wedges divide it into 
 grosser parts; some more long and slender, as splinters; 
 and some more thick and irregular, as chips; but all of 
 considerable bulk ; but files and saws make a comminution 
 of it into dust; which, as all the others, is of the more 
 solid sort of parts ; whereas others divide it into long and 
 broad, but thin and flexible parts, as do planes : and of 
 this kind of parts itself there is also a variety according 
 to the difference of the tools employed to work on the 
 wood; the shavings made by the plane being in some 
 things differing from those shives or thin and flexible 
 pieces of wood that are obtained by borers, and these 
 from some others obtainable by other tools. Some 
 chymical examples applicable to this purpose I have 
 elsewhere given you. To which I may add, that whereas, 
 in a mixture of sulphur and salt of tartar well melted and 
 incorporated together, the action of pure spirit of wine 
 digested on it is to separate the sulphureous from the 
 alcalizate parts, by dissolving the former and leaving the 
 latter: the action of wine (probably upon the score of its 
 copious phlegme) upon the same mixture is to divide it 
 into corpuscles consisting of both alcalizate and sul- 
 phureous parts united. And if it be objected, that this 
 is but a factitious concrete; I answer, that however the 
 instance may serve to illustrate what I proposed, if not 
 to prove it; and that nature herself doth in the bowels 
 of the earth make decompounded bodies, as we see in 
 vitriol, cinnaber, and even in sulphur itself; I will not 
 urge that the fire divides new milk into five differing 
 substances; but runnet and acid liquors divide it into 
 a coagulated matter and a thin whey: and on the other 
 side churning divides it into butter and buttermilk, which 
 may either of them yet be reduced to other substances 
 differing from the former. I will not press this, I say, 
 nor other instances of this nature, because I cannot in few 
 words answer what may be objected, that these concretes 
 sequestred without the help of the fire may by it be further 
 divided into hypostatical principles. But I will rather 
 represent, that whereas the same spirit of wine will 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 2 1 3 
 
 dissociate the parts of camphire, and make them one 
 liquor with itself; aquajortis will also disjoyne them, and 
 put them into motion; but so as to keep them together, 
 and yet alter their texture into the form of an oyle. I 
 know also an uncompounded liquor, tha,t an extra- 
 ordinary chymist would not allow to be so much as 
 saline, which doth (as I have tryed) from coral itself 
 (as fixt as divers judicious writers assert that concrete 
 to be) not only obtain a noble tincture without the inter- 
 vention of nitre or other salts; but will carry over the 
 tincture in distillation. And if some reasons did not 
 forbid me, I could now tell you of a menstruum I make 
 myself, that doth more odly dissociate the parts of minerals 
 very fixt in the -fire. So that it seems not incredible, 
 that there may be some agent or way of operation found, 
 whereby this or that concrete, if not all firme bodies, may 
 be resolved into parts so very minute and so apt to stick 
 close to one another, that none of them may be fixt enough 
 to stay behind in a strong fire, and to be incapable of 
 distillation; nor consequently to be looked upon as earth. 
 But to return to Helmont; the same author somewhere 
 supplys me with another argument against the earth's 
 being such an element as my adversaries would have it. 
 For he somewhere affirmes, that he can reduce all the 
 terrestrial parts of mixt bodies into insipid water; whence 
 we may argue against the earth's being one of their 
 elements, even from that notion of elements, which you 
 may remember Philoponus recited out of Aristotle him- 
 self, when he lately disputed for his chymists against 
 Themistius. And here we may on this occasion consider, 
 that since a body, from which the fire hath driven away 
 its looser parts, is wont to be looked upon as earth, upon 
 the account of its being endowed with both these qualities, 
 tastlesnesse and fixtnesse, (for salt of tartar, though fixt, 
 passes not among the chymists for earth, because 'tis 
 strongly tasted) if it be in the power of natural agents to 
 deprive the caput mortuum of a body of either of those 
 two qualities, or to give them both to a portion of matter 
 that had them not both before, the chymists will not 
 easily define what part of a resolved concrete is earth, 
 
214 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 and make out, that that earth is a primary, simple, and 
 indestructible body. Now there are some cases wherein 
 the more skilful of the vulgar 'chymists themselves pretend 
 to be able, by repeated cohobations and other fit opera- 
 tions, to make the distilled parts of a concrete bring its 
 own caput mortuum over the.helme, in the forme of a 
 liquor, in which state being both fluid and volatile, you 
 will easily believe it would not be taken for earth. And 
 indeed by a skilful, but not vulgar, way of managing 
 some concretes, there may be more effected in this kind, 
 than you perhaps would easily think. And on the other 
 side, that either earth may be generated, or at least bodies 
 that did not before appear to be near totally earth, may 
 be so altered as to pass for it, seems very possible, if 
 Helmont have done that by art which he mentions in 
 several places; especially where he saies that he knowes 
 waies whereby sulphur once dissolved is all of k fixed 
 into a terrestrial powder, and the whole body of salt- 
 petre may be turned into earth : which last he elsewhere 
 saies is done by the odour only of a certain sulphureous 
 fire. And in another place he mentions one way of doing 
 this, which I cannot give you an account of; because 
 the materials I had prepared for trying it, were by a 
 servant's mistake unhappily thrown away. 
 
 And these last arguments may be confirmed by the 
 experiment I have often had occasion to mention con- 
 cerning the mint I produced out of water. And partly 
 by an observation of Rondeletius concerning the growth 
 of animals also, nourished but by water, which I remem- 
 bered not to mention, when I discoursed to you about 
 the production of things out of water. This diligent 
 writer then in his instructive book of fishes, affirmes that 
 his wife kept a fish in a glass of water without any other 
 food for three years; in which space it was constantly 
 augmented, till at last it could not come out of the place 
 at which it was put in, and at length was too big for the 
 glass itself, though that were of a large capacity. And 
 because there is no just reason to doubt, that this fish, 
 if distilled would have yeelded the like differing substances 
 with other animals; and however, because the mint, 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 215 
 
 which I had out of water, afforded me upon distillation 
 a good quantity of charcoal; I think I may from thence 
 inferr, that earth itself may be produced out of water; 
 or if you please, that water may be transmuted into earth; 
 and consequently, that though it could be proved, that 
 earth is an ingredient actually inexistent in the vegetable 
 and animal bodies whence it may be obtained by fire: 
 yet it would not necessarily follow, that earth, as a pre- 
 existent element does with other principles convene to 
 make up those bodies whence it seems to have been 
 separated. 
 
 After all is said (saies Eleutherius) I have yet some- 
 thing to object, that I cannot but think considerable, 
 since Carneades himself alledged it as such; for, (continues 
 Eleutherius smiling) I must make bold to try whether 
 you can as luckily answer your own arguments, as those 
 of your antagonists, I mean (pursues he) that part of your 
 concessions, wherein you cannot but remember, that 
 you supplyed your adversaries with an example to prove 
 that there may be elementary bodies, by taking notice 
 that gold may be an ingredient in a multitude of differing 
 mixtures, and yet retain its nature, notwithstanding all 
 that the chymists by their fires and corrosive waters are 
 able to do to destroy it. 
 
 I sufficiently intimated to you at that time (replies 
 Carneades) that I proposed this example, chiefly to shew 
 you how nature may be conceived to have made elements, 
 not to prove that she actually has made any; and you 
 know, that a posse ad esse the inference will not hold. 
 But (continues Carneades) to answer more directly to the 
 objection drawn from gold, I must tell you, that though 
 I know very well that divers of the more sober chymists 
 have complained of the vulgar chymists, as of mounte- 
 banks or cheats, for pretending so vainly, as hitherto 
 they have done, to destroy gold; yet I know a certain 
 menstruum (which our friend has made, and intends 
 shortly to communicate to the ingenious) of so piercing 
 and powerful a quality, that if notwithstanding much 
 care, and some skill, I did not much deceive myself, I 
 have with it really destroyed even refined gold, and 
 
216 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 brought it into a metalline body of another colour and 
 nature, as I found by tryals purposely made. And if 
 some just considerations did not for the present forbid it, 
 I could perchance here shew you by another experiment 
 or two of my own trying, that such menstruums may be 
 made as to entice away and retain divers parts from 
 bodies, which even the more judicious and experienced 
 spagyrists have pronounced irresoluble by the fire. 
 Though (which I desire you would mark) in neither of 
 these instances, the gold or precious stones be analyzed 
 into any of the tria prima, but only reduced to new con- 
 cretes. And indeed there is a great disparity betwixt 
 the operations of the several agents whereby the parts 
 of a body come to be dissipated. As if (for instance) you 
 dissolve the purer sort of vitriol in common water, the 
 liquor will swallow up the mineral, and so dissociate its 
 corpuscles, that they will seem to make up but one liquor 
 with those of the water; and yet each of these corpuscles 
 retains its nature and texture, and remains a vitriolate 
 and compounded body. But if the same vitriol be 
 exposed to a strong fire, it will then be divided not only, 
 as before, into smaller parts, but into heterogeneous 
 substances, each of the vitriolate corpuscles that remained 
 entire in the water, being itself upon the destruction of its 
 former texture dissipated or divided into new particles of 
 differing qualities. But instances more fitly applicable 
 to this purpose I have already given you. Wherefore 
 to return to what I told you about the destruction of gold; 
 that experiment invites me to represent to you, that 
 though there were either saline, or sulphureous, or terres- 
 trial portions of matter, whose parts were so small, so 
 firmly united together, or of a figure so fit to make them 
 cohere to one another, (as we see that in quicksilver broken 
 into little globes, the parts brought to touch one another 
 do immediately reimbody) that neither the fire, nor the 
 usual agents, employed by chymists, are piercing enough 
 to divide their parts, so as to destroy the texture of the 
 single corpuscles; yet it would not necessarily follow, 
 that such permanent bodies were elementary; since 'tis 
 possible there may be agents found in nature, some of 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 217 
 
 whose parts may be of such a size and figure as to take 
 better hold of some parts of these seemingly elementary 
 corpuscles than these parts do of the rest, and conse- 
 quently may carry away such parts with them, and so 
 dissolve the texture of the corpuscle by pulling its parts 
 asunder. And if it be said, that at least we may this way 
 discover the elementary ingredients of things by observing 
 into what substances these corpuscles, that were reputed 
 pure are divided; I answer, that 'tis not necessary that 
 such a discovery should be practicable. For if the 
 particles of the dissolvent do take such firm hold of those 
 of the dissolved body, they must constitute together new 
 bodies, as well as destroy the old; and the strickt union, 
 which according to this hypothesis may well be supposed 
 betwixt the parts of the emergent body, will make it as 
 little to be expected that they should be pulled asunder, 
 but by little parts of matter, that to divide them associate 
 themselves and stick extremely close to those of them 
 which they sever from their former adherents, besides 
 that it is not impossible, that a corpuscle supposed to be 
 elementary may have its nature changed, without suffering 
 a divorce of its parts, barely by a new texture effected 
 by some powerful agent; as I formerly told you, the same 
 portion of matter may easily by the operation of the fire 
 be turned at pleasure into the form of a brittle and trans- 
 parent, or an opacous and malleable body. 
 
 And indeed, if you consider how farr the bare change 
 of texture, whether made by art or nature (or rather by 
 nature with or without the assistance of man) can go in 
 producing such new qualities in the same parcel of matter, 
 and how many inanimate bodies (such as are all the 
 chymical productions of the fire) we know are denomi- 
 nated and distinguished not so much by any imaginary 
 substantial form, as by the aggregate of these qualities; 
 if you consider these things, I say, and that the varying 
 of either figure, or the size, or the motion, or the situation, 
 or connexion of the corpuscles whereof any of these 
 bodies is composed, may alter the fabrick of it, you will 
 possibly be invited to suspect with me, that there is no 
 great need that nature should alwaies have elements 
 
2 1 8 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 beforehand, whereof to make such bodies as we call 
 mixts. And that it is not so easie as chymists and others 
 have hitherto imagined, to discern, among the many 
 differing substances that may without any extraordinary 
 skill be obtained from the same portion of matter, which 
 ought to be esteemed exclusively to all the rest, its 
 inexistent elementary ingredients ; much less to determine 
 what primogeneal and simple bodies convened together 
 to compose it. To exemplify this, I shall add to what 
 I have already on several occasions represented, but this 
 single instance. 
 
 You may remember (Eleutherius) that I formerly 
 intimated to you, that besides mint and pompions, I 
 produced divers other vegetables of very differing natures 
 out of water. Wherefore you will not, I presume, think 
 it incongruous to suppose, that when a slender vine-slip 
 is set into the ground, and takes root there, it may likewise 
 receive its nutriment from the water attracted out of the 
 eartlxby its roots, or impelled by the warmth of the sun, 
 or pressure of the ambient air into the pores of them. 
 And this you will the more easily believe, if you ever 
 observed what a strange quantity of water will drop out 
 of a wound given to the vine, in a convenient place, at 
 a seasonable time in the spring; and how little of taste 
 or smell this aqua vitis, as physitians call it, is endowed 
 with, notwithstanding what concoction or alteration it 
 may receive in its passage through the vine, to dis- 
 criminate it from common water. Supposing then this 
 liquor, at its first entrance into the roots of the vine, to be 
 common water; let us a little consider how many various 
 substances may be obtained from it; though to do so, 
 I must repeat somewhat that I had a former occasion to 
 touch upon. And first, this liquor being digested in the 
 plant, and assimilated by the several parts of it, is turned 
 into the wood, bark, pith, leaves, etc. of the vine; the 
 same liquor may be further dryed, and fashioned into 
 vine-buds, and these a while after are advanced unto 
 sowre grapes, which expressed yeeld verjuice, a liquor 
 very differing in several qualities both from wine and 
 other liquors obtainable from the vine: these sowre 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 219 
 
 grapes, being by the heat of the sun concocted and 
 ripened, turne to well tasted grapes; these, if dryed in 
 the sun and distilled, afford a foetid oyle and a piercing 
 empyreumatical spirit, but not a vinous spirit; these 
 dryed grapes or raisins, boyled in a convenient proportion 
 of water, make a sweet liquor, which, being betimes 
 distilled, afford an oyle and spirit much like those of the 
 raisins themselves; if the juice of the grapes be squeezed 
 out and put to ferment, it first becomes a sweet and 
 turbid liquor, then grows lesse sweet and more clear, and 
 then affords in -common distillations not an oyle but 
 a spirit, which, though inflamable like oyle, differs much 
 from it, in that it is not fat, and that it will readily mingle 
 with water. I have likewise without addition obtained 
 in processe of time (and by an easie way which I am 
 ready to teach you) from one of the noblest sorts of wine, 
 pretty store of pure and curiously figured chrystals of 
 salt, together with a great proportion of a liquor as sweet 
 almost as honey; and these I obtained not from must, 
 but true and sprightly wine; besides the vinous liquor, 
 the fermented juice of grapes is partly turned into liquid 
 dregs or leeze, and partly into that crust or dry feculancy 
 that is commonly called tartar; and this tartar may by 
 the fire be easily divided into five differing substances; 
 four of which are not acid, and the other not so manifestly 
 acid as the tartar itself; the same vinous juice after some 
 time, especially if it be not carefully kept, degenerates 
 into that very sowre liquor called vinegar; from which 
 you may obtain by the fire a spirit and a chrystalline salt 
 differing enough from the spirit and lixiviate salt of 
 tartar. And if you poure the dephlegmed spirit of the 
 vinegar upon the salt of tartar, there will be produced 
 such a conflict or ebullition, as if there were scarce two 
 more contrary bodies in nature; and oftentimes in this 
 vinegar you may observe part of the matter to be turned 
 into an innumerable company of swimming animals, 
 which our friend having divers years ago observed, hath 
 in one of his papers taught us how to discover clearly 
 without the help of a microscope. 
 
 Into all these various schemes of matter, or differingly 
 
220 The Sceptical Chymist * 
 
 qualifyed bodies, besides divers others that I purposely 
 forbear to mention, may the water, that is imbibed by the 
 roots of the vine, be brought, partly by the formative 
 power of the plant, and partly by supervenient agents or 
 causes, without the visible concurrence of any extraneous 
 ingredient; but if we be allowed to add to the productions 
 of this transmuted water a few other substances, we may 
 much encrease the variety of such bodies; although in 
 this second sort of productions, the vinous parts seem 
 scarce to retain anything of the much more fixed bodies 
 wherewith they were mingled, but only to have by their 
 mixture with them acquired such a disposition, that in 
 their recess occasioned by the fire they came to be altered 
 as to shape, or bigness, or both, and associated after a 
 new manner. Thus, as I formerly told you, I did by the 
 addition of a caput mortuum of antimony, and some other 
 bodies unfit for distillation, obtain from crude tartar, store 
 of a very volatile and chrystalline salt, differing very 
 much in smell and other qualities from the usuall salts of 
 tartar. 
 
 But (saies Eleutherius, interrupting him at these words) 
 if you have no restraint upon you, I would very gladly 
 before you go any further, be more particularly informed, 
 how you make this volatile salt, because (you know) that 
 such multitudes of chymists have by a scarce imaginable 
 variety of waies, attempted in vain the volatilization of 
 the salt of tartar, that divers learned spagyrists speak 
 as if it were impossible to make anything out of tartar, 
 that shall be volatile in a saline forme, or, as some of them 
 express it, in Jorma sicca. I am very farr from thinking 
 (answers Carneades) that the salt I have mentioned is that 
 which Paracelsus and Helmont mean, when they speak 
 of sal tartan volatile, and ascribe such great things to it. 
 For the salt I speak of falls extremely short of those 
 vertues, not seeming in its taste, smel, and other obvious 
 qualities, to differ very much (though something it does 
 differ) from salt of hartshorn, and other volatile salts 
 drawn from the distilled parts of animals. Nor have I 
 yet made tryals enough to be sure, that it is a pure salt 
 of tartar without participating anything at all of the 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 221 
 
 nitre, or antimony. But because it seems more likely 
 to proceed from the tartar, than from any of the other 
 ingredients, and because the experiment is in itself not 
 ignoble, and luciferous enough (as shewing a new way to 
 produce a volatile salt, contrary to acid salts, from bodies 
 that otherwise are observed to yeeld no such liquor, but 
 either only, or chiefly, acid ones,) I shall, to satisfie you, 
 acquaint you before any of my other friends with the 
 way I now use (for I have formerly used some others) 
 to make it. 
 
 Take then of good antimony, salt-petre and tartar, of 
 each an equal weight, and of quicklime halfe the weight 
 of any one of them; let these be powdered and well 
 mingled; this done, you must have in readiness a long 
 neck or retort of earth, which must be placed in a furnace 
 for a naked fire, and have at the top of it a hole of a con- 
 venient bigness, at which you may cast in the mixture, 
 and presently stop it up again; this vessel being fitted 
 with a large receiver must have fire made under it, till 
 the bottom of the sides be red hot, and then you must 
 cast in the above prepared mixture, by about half a 
 spoonful (more or less) at a time, at the hole made for 
 that purpose; which being nimbly stopt, the fumes will 
 pass into the receiver and condense there into a liquor, 
 that being rectified will be of a pure golden colour, and 
 carry up that colour to a great height; this spirit abounds 
 in the salt I told you of, part of which may easily enough 
 be separated by the way I use in such cases, which is, 
 to put the liquor into a glass egg, or bolthead with a long 
 and narrow neck. For if this be placed a little inclining 
 in hot sand, there will sublime up a fine salt, which, as 
 I told you, I find to be much of kin to the volatile salts 
 of animals: for like them it has a saltish, not an acid 
 salt; it hisses upon the affusion of spirit of nitre, or oyle 
 of vitriol; it precipitates corals dissolved in spirit of 
 vinegar; it turnes the blew syrup of violets immediately 
 green; it presently turnes the solution of sublimate into 
 a milkie whiteness; and in summ, has divers operations 
 like those that I have observed in that sort of salts to 
 which I have resembled it: and is so volatile, that for 
 
222 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 distinction sake, I call it sal tartari Jugitivus. What 
 vertues it may have in physick I have not yet had the 
 opportunity to try; but I am apt to think they will not 
 be despicable. And besides that, a very ingenious friend 
 of mine tells me he hath done great matters against the 
 stone with a preparation not very much differing from 
 ours: a very experienced Germane chymist finding that 
 I was unacquainted with the waies of making this salt, 
 told me that in a great city in his country, a noted chymist 
 prizes it so highly, that he had a while since procured 
 a priviledge from the magistrates, that none but he, or by 
 his licence, should vent a spirit made almost after the 
 same way with mine, save that he leaves out one of 
 the ingredients, namely the quicklime. But, (continues 
 Carneades) to resume my former discourse where your 
 curiosity interrupted it; 
 
 Tis also a common practice in France to bury thin 
 plates of copper in the marc (as the French call it) or 
 husks of grapes, whence the juice has been squeezed out 
 in the wine-press; and by this means the more saline 
 parts of those husks, working by little and little upon the 
 copper, coagulate themselves with it into that blewish 
 green substance we in English call verdigrease. Of 
 which I therefore take notice, because having distilled 
 it in a naked fire, I found, as I expected, that by the 
 association of the saline with the metalline parts, the 
 former were so altered, that the distilled liquor, even 
 without rectification, seemed by smell and taste, strong 
 almost like aqua Jortis, and very much surpassed the 
 purest and most rectified spirit of vinegar that ever I 
 made. And this spirit I therefore ascribe to the salt of 
 the husks altered by their co-mixture with the copper 
 (though the fire afterwards divorce and transmute them) 
 because I found this latter in the bottom of the retort 
 in the forme of a crocus or reddish powder: and because 
 copper is of too sluggish a nature to be forced over in close 
 vessels by no stronger a heat. And that which is also 
 somewhat remarkable in the distillation of good verdi- 
 grease, (or at least of that sort that I used) is this, that I 
 never could observe that it yeelded me any oyl, (unless 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 223 
 
 a little black slime which was separated in rectification 
 may pass for oyle) though both tartar and vinegar (espe- 
 cially the former) will by distillation yeeld a moderate 
 proportion of it. If likewise you poure spirit of vinegar 
 upon calcined lead, the acid salt of the liquor will by 
 its commixture with the metalline parts, though insipid, 
 acquire in few hours a more than saccharine sweetness; 
 and these saline parts being by a strong fire distilled from 
 the lead wherewith they were imbodyed, will, as I formerly 
 also noted to a different purpose, leave the metal behind 
 them altered in some qualities from what it was, and will 
 themselves ascend, partly in the form of an unctuous 
 body or oyle, partly in that of phlegme, but for the greatest 
 part in the forme of a subtile spirit, indowed, besides 
 divers new qualities which I am not now willing to take 
 notice of, with a strong smell very much other than that 
 of vinegar, and a piercing taste quite differing both from 
 the sowreness of the spirit of vinegar, and the sweetness 
 of the sugar of lead. 
 
 To be short, as the difference of bodies may depend 
 merely upon that of the schemes whereinto their common 
 matter is put; so the seeds of things, the fire and the 
 other agents are able to alter the minute parts of a body 
 (either by breaking them into smaller ones of differing 
 shapes, or by uniting together these fragments with the 
 unbroken corpuscles, or such corpuscles among them- 
 selves) and the same agents partly by altering the shape 
 or bigness of the constituent corpuscles of a body, partly 
 by driving away some of them, partly by blending others 
 with them, and partly by some new manner of connecting 
 them, may give the whole portion of matter a new texture 
 of its minute parts, and thereby make it deserve a new 
 and distinct name. So that according as the small parts 
 of matter recede from each other, or work upon each other, 
 or are connected together after this or that determinate 
 manner, a body of this or that denomination is produced, 
 as some other body happens thereby to be altered or 
 destroyed. 
 
224 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 Since then those things which chymists produce by the 
 help of the fire are but inanimate bodies: since such 
 fruits of the chymists' skill differ from one another but 
 in so few qualities that we see plainly that by fire, and 
 other agents we can employ, we can easily enough work 
 as great alterations upon matter, as those that are requisite 
 to change one of these chymical productions into another; 
 since the same portion of matter may without being com- 
 pounded with any extraneous body, or at least element, 
 be made to put on such a variety of formes, and conse- 
 quently to be (successively) turned into so many differing 
 bodies; and since the matter, cloathed with so many 
 differing formes, was originally but water, and that in its 
 passage through so many transformations, it was never 
 reduced into any of those substances which are reputed 
 to be the principles or elements of mixt bodies, except 
 the violence of the fire, which itself divides not bodies 
 into perfectly simple or elementary substances, but into 
 new compounds; since, I say, these things are so, I see 
 not why we must needs believe that there are any 
 primogeneal and simple bodies, of which, as of pre- 
 existent elements, nature is obliged to compound all 
 others. Nor do I see why we may not conceive that she 
 may produce the bodies accounted mixt out of one another 
 by variously altering and contriving their minute parts, 
 without resolving the matter into any such simple or 
 homogeneous substances as are pretended. Neither, to 
 dispatch, do I see why it should be counted absurd to 
 think, that when a body is resolved by the fire into its 
 supposed simple ingredients, those substances are not 
 true and proper elements, but rather were, as it were, 
 accidentally produced by the fire, which by dissipating 
 a body into minute parts does, if those parts be shut up 
 in close vessels, for the most part necessarily bring them 
 to associate themselves after another manner than before, 
 and so bring them in to bodies of such different consistences, 
 as the former texture of the body and concurrent circum- 
 stances make such disbanded particles apt to constitute; 
 as experience shews us (and I have both noted it, and 
 proved it already) that as there are some concretes whose 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 225 
 
 parts, when dissipated by fire, are fitted to be put into 
 such schemes of matter as we call oyle, and salt, and 
 spirit; so there are others, such as are especially the 
 greatest part of minerals, whose corpuscles being of 
 another size or figure, or perhaps contrived another way, 
 will not in the fire yeeld bodies of the like consistences, 
 but rather others of differing textures; not to mention, 
 that from gold and some other bodies, we see not that the 
 fire separates any distinct substances at all; nor that 
 even those similar parts of bodies, which the chymists 
 obtain by the fire, are the elements whose names they 
 bear, but compound bodies, upon which, for their resem- 
 blance to them in consistence, or some other obvious 
 quality, chymists have been pleased to bestow such 
 appellations. 
 
 
THE CONCLUSION 
 
 THESE last words of Carneades being soon after followed 
 by a noise which seemed to come from the place where 
 the rest of the company was, he took it for a warning, 
 that it was time for him to conclude or break off his 
 discourse; and told his friend; By this time I hope you 
 see, Eleutherius, that if Helmont's experiments be true, 
 it is no absurdity to question whether that doctrine be 
 one, that doth not assert any elements in the sence before 
 explained. But because that, as divers of my arguments 
 suppose the marvellous power of the alkahest in the 
 analyzing of bodies, so the effects ascribed to that power 
 are so unparalleled and stupendous, that though I am 
 not sure but that there may be such an agent, yet little 
 less than dvro^La seems requisite to make a man sure 
 there is. And consequently I leave it to you to judge, how 
 farr those of my arguments that are built upon alkahes- 
 tical operations are weakned by that liquors being 
 matchless; and shall therefore desire you not to think 
 that I propose this paradox that rejects all elements, 
 as an opinion equally probable with the former part of 
 my discourse. For by that, I hope, you are satisfied, 
 that the arguments, wont to be brought by chymists to 
 prove that all bodies consist of either three principles, 
 or five, are far from being so strong as those that I have 
 employed to prove, that there is not any certain and 
 determinate number of such principles or elements to be 
 met with universally in all mixt bodies. And I suppose 
 I need not tell you, that these anti-chymical paradoxes 
 might have been managed more to their advantage; but 
 that having not confined my curiosity to chymical experi- 
 ments, I, who am but a young man, and younger chymist, 
 can yet be but slenderly furnished with them, in reference 
 to so great and difficult a task as you imposed upon me : 
 besides that, to tell you the truth, I durst not employ 
 226 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 227 
 
 some even of the best experiments I am acquainted with, 
 because I must not yet disclose them; but, however, I 
 think I may presume that what I have hitherto discoursed 
 will induce you to think, that chymists have been much 
 more happy in finding experiments than the causes of 
 them; or in assigning the principles by which they may 
 best be explained. And indeed, when in the writing of 
 Paracelsus I meet with such phantastick and unintelligible 
 discourses as that writer often puzzels and tires his reader 
 with, fathered upon such excellent experiments, as 
 though he seldom clearly teaches, I often find he knew; 
 methinks the chymists, in their searches after truth, are 
 not unlike the navigators of Solomon's Tarshish fleet, who 
 brought home from their long and tedious voyages, not 
 only gold, and silver, and ivory, but apes and peacocks 
 too; for so the writings of several (for I say not, all) of 
 your hermetick philosophers present us, together with 
 divers substantial and noble experiments, theories, which 
 either like peacocks' feathers make a great shew, but are 
 neither solid nor useful; or else like apes, if they have 
 some appearance of being rational, are blemished with 
 some absurdity or other, that when they are attentively 
 considered, make them appear ridiculous. 
 
 Carneades having thus finished his discourse against 
 the received doctrines of the elements, Eleutherius judging 
 he should not have time to say much to him before their 
 separation, made some haste to tell him; I confess, 
 Carneades, that you have said more in favour of your 
 paradoxes than I expected. For though divers of the 
 experiments you have mentioned are no secrets, and were 
 not unknown to me, yet besides that you have added 
 many of your own unto them, you have laid them to- 
 gether in such a way, and applyed them to such purposes, 
 and made such deductions from them, as I have not 
 hitherto met with. 
 
 But though I be therefore inclined to think, that 
 Philoponus, had he heard you, would scarce have been 
 able in all points to defend the chymical hypothesis 
 against the arguments wherewith you have opposed it; 
 yet methinks that however your objections seem to 
 
228 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 evince a great part of what they pretend to, yet they 
 evince it not all; and the numerous tryals of those you 
 call the vulgar chymists, may be allowed to prove some- 
 thing too. 
 
 Wherefore, if it be granted you that you have made it 
 probable, 
 
 f First, that the differing substances into which mixt 
 ' bodies are wont to be resolved by the fire are not of a pure 
 and an elementary nature, especially for this reason, that 
 they yet retain so much of the nature of the concrete 
 that afforded them, as to appear to be yet somewhat 
 compounded, and oftentimes to differ in one concrete 
 from principles of the same denomination in another: 
 
 Next, that as to the number of these differing substances, 
 neither is it precisely three, because in most vegetable 
 and animal bodies earth and phlegme are also to be 
 found among their ingredients; nor is there any one 
 determinate number into which the fire (as it is wont 
 to be employed) does precisely and universally resolve all 
 compound bodies whatsoever, as well minerals as others 
 that are reputed perfectly mixt. 
 
 Lastly, that there are divers qualities which cannot 
 well be referred to any of these substances, as if they 
 primarily resided in it and belonged to it; and some other 
 qualities, which though they seem to have their chief and 
 most ordinary residence in some one of these principles 
 or elements of mixt bodies, are not yet so deducible from 
 it, but that also some more general principles must be 
 L taken in to explicate them. 
 
 If, I say, the chymists (continues Eleutherius) be so 
 liberall as to make you these three concessions, I hope you 
 will, on your part, be so civil and equitable as to grant 
 them these three other propositions, namely; 
 
 First, that divers mineral bodies, and therefore probably 
 all the rest, may be resolved into a saline, a sulphureous, 
 and a mercurial part; and that almost all vegetable and 
 animal concretes may, if not by the fire alone, yet by 
 a skilfull artist employing the fire as his chief instrument, 
 be divided into five differing substances, salt, spirit, oyle, 
 phlegme and earth; of which the three former by reason 
 
The Sceptical Chymist 229 
 
 of their being so much more operative than the two latter, 
 deserve to be lookt upon as the three active principles, 
 and by way of eminence to be called the three principles 
 of mixt bodies. 
 
 Next, that these principles, though they be not per- 
 fectly devoid of all mixture, yet may without incon- 
 venience be stiled the elements of compounded bodies, 
 and bear the names of those substances which they most 
 resemble, and which are manifestly predominant in them ; 
 and that especially for this reason, that none of these 
 elements is divisible by the fire into four or five differing 
 substances, like the concrete whence it was separated. 
 
 Lastly, that divers of the qualities of a mixt body, and 
 especially the medical virtues, do for the most part lodge 
 in some one or other of its principles, and may therefore 
 -usefully be sought for in that principle severed from the 
 others. 
 
 And in this also (pursues Eleutherius) methinks both 
 you and the chymists may easily agree, that the surest 
 way is to learn by particular experiments, what differing 
 parts particular bodies do consist of, and by what wayes 
 (either actual or potential fire) they may best and most 
 conveniently be separated, as without relying too much 
 upon the fire alone, for the resolving of bodies, so without 
 fruitlessly contending to force them into more elements 
 than nature made them up of, or strip the severed prin- 
 ciples so naked, as by making them exquisitely elementary 
 to make them almost useless. 
 
 These things (subjoynes Eleu.) I propose, without 
 despairing to see them granted by you ; not only because 
 I know that you so much prefer the reputation of candour 
 before that of subtility, that your having once supposed 
 a truth would not hinder you from imbracing it when 
 clearly made out to you; but because, upon the present 
 occasion, it will be no disparagement to you to recede 
 from some of your paradoxes, since the nature and 
 occasion of your past discourse did not oblige you to 
 declare your own opinions, but only to personate an 
 antagonist of the chymists. So that (concludes he, with 
 a smile) you may now by granting what I propose, add 
 
230 The Sceptical Chymist 
 
 the reputation of loving the truth sincerely to that of 
 having been able to oppose it subtilly. 
 
 Carneades's haste forbidding him to answer this crafty 
 piece of flattery; Till I shall (saies he) have an opportunity 
 to acquaint you with my own opinions about the con- 
 troversies I have been discoursing of, you will not I hope, 
 expect I should declare my own sence of the argument 
 I have employed. Wherefore I shall only tell you thus 
 much at present; that though not only an acute natura- 
 list, but even I myself could take plausible exceptions 
 at some of them; yet divers of them too are such as will 
 not perhaps be readily answered, and will reduce my 
 adversaries, at least, to alter and reform their hypothesis. 
 I perceive I need not mind you that the objections I made 
 against the quaternary of elements and ternary of prin- 
 ciples needed not to be opposed so much against the 
 doctrines themselves, either of which, especially the 
 latter, may be much more probably maintained than 
 hitherto it seems to have been, by those writers for it I 
 have met with) as against the unaccurateness and the 
 unconcludingness of the analytical experiments vulgarly 
 relyed on to demonstrate them. 
 
 And therefore, if either of the two examined opinions, 
 or any other theory of elements, shall upon rational and 
 experimental grounds be clearly made out to me; 'tis 
 obliging, but not irrational, in you to expect, that I shall 
 not be so fair in love with my disquieting doubts, as not 
 to be content to change them for undoubted truths. And 
 (concludes Carneades smiling) it w r ere no great disparage- 
 ment for a sceptick to confesse to you, that as unsatisfyed 
 as the past discourse may have made you think me with 
 the doctrines of the Peripateticks, and the chymists, about 
 the elements and principles, I can yet so little discover 
 what to acquiesce in, that perchance the enquiries of 
 others have scarce been more unsatisfactory to me, than 
 my own have been to myself. 
 
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