And, as formerly, so now, to avoid the needless trouble of Disputing
severally with the _Aristotelians_ and the Chymists, I will address my
self to oppose them I have last nam'd, Because their Doctrine about
the Elements is more applauded by the Moderns, as pretending highly to
be grounded upon Experience. And, to deal not only fairly but
favourably with them, I will allow them to take in Earth and Water to
their other Principles. Which I consent to, the rather that my
Discourse may the better reach the Tenents of the Peripateticks; who
cannot plead for any so probably as for those two Elements; that of
fire above the Air being Generally by Judicious Men exploded as an
Imaginary thing; And the Air not concurring to compose Mixt Bodies as
one of their Elements, but only lodging in their pores, or Rather
replenishing, by reason of its Weight and Fluidity, all those Cavities
of bodies here below, whether compounded or not, that are big enough
to admit it, and are not fill'd up with any grosser substance.
And, to prevent mistakes, I must advertize You, that I now mean by
Elements, as those Chymists that speak plainest do by their
Principles, certain Primitive and Simple, or perfectly unmingled
bodies; which not being made of any other bodies, or of one another,
are the Ingredients of which all those call'd perfectly mixt Bodies
are immediately compounded, and into which they are ultimately
resolved: now whether there be any one such body to be constantly met
with in all, and each, of those that are said to be Elemented bodies,
is the thing I now question.
By this State of the controversie you will, I suppose, Guess, that I
need not be so absur'd [Errata: absurd] as to deny that there are such
bodies as Earth, and Water, and Quicksilver, and Sulphur: But I look
upon Earth and Water, as component parts of the Universe, or rather
of the Terrestrial Globe, not of all mixt bodies. And though I will
not peremptorily deny that there may sometimes either a running
Mercury, or a Combustible Substance be obtain'd from a Mineral, or
even a Metal; yet I need not Concede either of them to be an Element
in the sence above declar'd; as I shall have occasion to shew you by
and by.
To give you then a brief account of the grounds I intend to proceed
upon, I must tell you, that in matters of Philosophy, this seems to me
a sufficient reason to doubt of a known and important proposition,
163