such body in it; or that Oyle of Vitrioll though a Distill'd Liquor,
and taken for part of the Saline Principle of the Concrete that yields
it, may yet be so Compounded a body as to contain, besides its Saline
part, a Sulphur like common brimstone, which would hardly be it self a
simple or un-compounded body.
I might (pursues _Carneades_) remind You, that I formerly represented
it, as possible, That as there may be more Elements then 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 De-compound body
[Errata: bodies], there may result Mixts of an altogether new kind, by
the Coalition of Elements that never perhaps conven'd 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
alwayes 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, sayes _Carneades_, in some obvious Examples, that
I cannot but wonder at their Supiness that have not taken notice of
it. For when Wood being burnt in a Chimney is dissipated by the Fire
into Smoke and Ashes, that smoke 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 produc'd 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 mix'd Bodies,
though they ascend in close vessells: 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 forc'd up in a dry,
not a Fluid forme, as are the Liquors wont to be obtain'd by
distillation; I answer, That besides that 'tis possible, that a Body
may be chang'd from Consistent to Fluid, or from Fluid to Consistent,
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