Proportion of such or such material Ingredients, and consider such
ingredients or Elements as Bodies in a state of rest; whereas indeed
the greatest part of the affections of matter, and consequently of the
_Phaenomena_ of nature, seems to depend upon the motion and the
continuance [Errata: contrivance] of the small parts of Bodies. For
'tis by motion that one part of matter acts upon another; and 'tis,
for the most part, the texture of the Body upon which the moving parts
strike, that modifies to motion or Impression, and concurrs with it
to the production of those Effects which make up the chief part of the
Naturalists Theme.
[Footnote 25: _De Cons. & dissen. cap. 11. pag. 186._]
[Footnote 26: _Sennert. de Con. seus. [Transcriber's Note: Consens.] &
Dissens. pag. 165. 166._]
But (sayes _Eleutherius_) me thinks for all this, you have left some
part of what I alledg'd in behalf of the three principles, unanswer'd.
For all that you have said will not keep this from being a useful
Discovery, that since in the Salt of one Concrete, in the Sulphur of
another and the Mercury of a third, the Medicinal vertue of it
resides, that Principle ought to be separated from the rest, and there
the desired faculty must be sought for.
I never denyed (Replyes _Carneades_) that the Notion of the _Tria
Prima_ may be of some use, but (continues he laughing) by what you now
alledg for it, it will but appear That it is useful to Apothecaries,
rather than to Philosophers, The being able to make things Operative
being sufficient to those, whereas the Knowledge of Causes is the
Thing looked after by These. And let me Tell You, _Eleutherius_, even
this it self will need to be entertained with some caution.
For first, it will not presently follow, That if the Purgative or
other vertue of a simple may be easily extracted by Water or Spirit of
Wine, it Resides in the Salt or Sulphur of the Concrete; Since unlesse
the Body have before been resolved by the Fire, or some Other Powerful
Agent, it will, for the most part, afford in the Liquors I have named,
rather the finer compounded parts of it self, Than the Elementary
ones. As I noted before, That Water will dissolve not only pure Salts,
but Crystals of Tartar, Gumme Arabick, Myrr'h, and Other Compound
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