chrysolito, amethisto, magnete, &c. Item aliud in lapidibus, silice,
salibus, fontibus, &c. nec vero tot sulphura tantum, sed & 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, &c. Ita ut
unicuique speciei suus peculiaris Mercurius sit. Et tamen res saltem
tres sunt; una essentia est sulphur; una est sal; una est Mercurius.
Addo quod & 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 & gemmis; ut quot saphyri praestantiores, laevioris, &c.
tot etiam saphyrica sulphura, saphyrica salia, saphyrici Mercurii, &c.
Idem verum etiam est de turconibus & 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 _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 my self to inferr from the alledg'd 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.
[Footnote 22: Paracel. de Mineral. Tract. 1. pag. 141.]
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,
notwithstanding the received contrary opinion, is not deny'd by the
more wary of the moderne Peripateticks themselves: and certainly, most
Earths are much lesse simple bodies then is commonly imagined even by
Chymists, who do not so consideratly to prescribe and employ Earths
Promiscuously 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 yield by
distillation a Liquor very far from being inodorous or insipid; and
'tis a known observation, that most kinds of fat Earth kept cover'd
from the rain, and hindred from spending themselves in the production
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