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 premeate [Transcriber's Note: permeate], and as it were leaven
the whole Mass, and thereby promote the more exquisite mixture and
incorporation of the Ingredients. To all which (lastly) a portion of
Earth must be added, which by its drinesse and poracity [Errata:
porosity] may soak up part of that water wherein the Salt was
dissolv'd, and eminently concurr with the other ingredients to give
the whole body the requisite consistence.
I perceive (sayes _Carneades_ smiling) that if it be true, as 'twas
lately rooted [Errata: 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 then once forgot, that
I declar'd to you that I would at this Conference Examine only the
Experiments of my Adversaries, not their Speculative Reasons. Yet 'tis
not (Subjoynes _Carneades_) for fear of medling with the Argument you
have propos'd, 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 find it
insoluble. And in the mean time 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 consider'd how
great Variety there is in the Textures and Consistences of Compound
Bodie; sand [Errata: Bodies; and] how little the consistence and
Duration of many of them seem to accommodate and be explicable by the
propos'd Notion. And not to mention those almost incorruptible
Substances obtainable by the Fire, which I have prov'd to be somewhat
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 shew'd 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 acknowledg'd to be perfectly mixt; if you do this, I
say, you will not, I suppose, be averse from beleeving, that Nature by
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