former _Analysis_ must be incompetent to prove that Number of
Elements, since by it the burnt Concrete is not reduc'd 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 a 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 excussion, 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 exceptions, 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 prov'd; 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 Discours'd against the Supposition, that
almost every Quality must have some [Greek: dektikon proton], 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 Destroy'd, whatsoever is built upon
it, must fall to ruine of it self.
But I consider further, that Chymists are (for ought I have found) far
from being able to explicate by any of the _Tria 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 deceiv'd 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
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