all of them as indemonstrable as the conclusion to be inferr'd from
them; and some of them so manifestly weak and prooflesse; that he must
be a very courteous adversary, that can be willing to grant them; and
as unskilful a one, that can be compelled to do so.
In the next place, it may be considered, if what those Patriarchs of
the _Spagyrists_, _Paracelsus_ and _Helmont_, do on divers occasions
positively deliver, be true; namely that the _Alkahest_ does Resolve
all mixt Bodies into other Principles than the fire, it must be
decided which of the two resolutions (that made by the _Alkahest_, or
that made by the fire) shall determine the number of the Elements,
before we can be certain how many there are.
And in the mean time, we may take notice in the last place, that as
the distinct substances whereinto the _Alkahest_ divides bodies, are
affirm'd to be differing in nature from those whereunto they are wont
to be reduc'd by fire, and to be obtain'd from some bodies more in
Number than from some others; since he tells us, he could totally
reduce all sorts of Stones into Salt only, whereas of a coal he had
two distinct Liquors.[29] So, although we should acquiesce in that
resolution which is made by fire, we find not that all mixt bodies are
thereby divided into the same number of Elements and Principles; some
Concretes affordding more of them than others do; Nay and sometimes
this or that Body affording a greater number of Differing substances
by one way of management, than the same yields by another. And they
that out of Gold, or Mercury, or Muscovy-glasse, will draw me as many
distinct substances as I can separate from Vitriol, or from the juice
of Grapes variously orderd, may teach me that which I shall very
Thankfully learn. Nor does it appear more congruous to that variety
that so much conduceth to the perfection of the Universe, that all
elemented bodies be compounded of the same number of Elements, then it
would be for a language, that all its words should consist of the same
number of Letters.
[Footnote 29: _Novi saxum & lapides omnes in merum salem suo saxo aut
lapidi & aequiponderantem reducere absque omni prorsus sulphure aut
Mercurio._ Helmont. pag. 409.]
161