satisfi'd with. And this _Sennertus_ Himself, though the Learnedst
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, then
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 _Aristotles_ Language may be call'd [Greek: ousian
analogon [Errata: ousia analogos] to ton astron stoichaio [Errata:
astron stoicheio]]. He sayes that which I confess is not at all
satisfactory to me, who do not love to seem to acquiesce in any mans
Mystical Doctrines, that I may be thought to understand them.
[Footnote 20: _Chm. Tyrocin. lib. 1. Cap. 2._]
If (sayes _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 call'd
the Mercury of a Body, which though it ascend in Distillation, as do
the Phlegme 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 by
the Chymists themselves, of our times, though they have not given us
so Distinct an Explication, as were fit, of what may be call'd the
Spirit of a mixt Body.
I should not perhaps (sayes _Carneades_) much quarrel 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 Tasts
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 Tast; which according to them must proceed from a
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