But thirdly, that which is principally to be Noted is this, that as
there are divers Concretes whose Faculties reside in some one or other
of those differing Substances that Chymists call their Sulphurs,
Salts, and Mercuries, and consequently may be best obtain'd, by
analyzing the Concrete whereby the desired Principles may be had
sever'd or freed from the rest; So there are other wherein the noblest
properties lodge not in the Salt, or Sulphur, or Mercury, but depend
immediately upon the form (or if you will) result from the determinate
structure of the Whole Concrete; and consequently they that go about
to extract the Vertues of such bodies, by exposing them to the
Violence of the Fire, do exceedingly mistake, and take the way to
Destroy what they would obtain.
I remmember that _Helmont_ himself somewhere confesses, That as the
Fire betters some things and improves their Vertues, so it spoyles
others and makes them degenerate. And elsewhere he judiciously
affirmes, that there may be sometimes greater vertue in a simple, such
as Nature has made it, than in any thing that can by the fire be
separated from it. And lest you should doubt whether he means by the
vertues of things those that are Medical; he has in one place[27] this
ingenuous confession; _Credo_ (sayes he) _simplicia in sua
simplicitate esse sufficientia pro sanatione omnium morborum._ Nag.
[Errata: Nay,] Barthias, even in a Comment upon _Beguinus_,[28]
scruples not to make this acknowledgment; _Valde absurdum est_ (sayes
he) _ex omnibus rebus extracta facere, salia, quintas essentias;
praesertim ex substantiis per se plane vel subtilibus vel homogeneis,
quales sunt uniones, Corallia, Moscus, Ambra, &c._ Consonantly
whereunto he also tells Us (and Vouches the famous _Platerus_, for
having candidly given the same Advertisement to his Auditors,) that
some things have greater vertues, and better suited to our humane
nature, when unprepar'd, than when they have past the Chymists Fire;
as we see, sayes my Author, in Pepper; of which some grains swallowed
perform more towards the relief of a Distempered stomack, than a great
quantity of the Oyle of the same spice.
[Footnote 27: Helmont Pharm. & Dispens. Nov. p. 458.]
[Footnote 28: Vide Jer. ad Begu. Lib. 1. Cap. 17.]
It has been (pursues _Carneades_) by our Friend here present observ'd
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