Objection drawn from Gold, I must tell You, that though I know very
well that divers of the more sober Chymists have complain'd of the
Vulgar Chymists, as of Mountebanks or Cheats, for pretending so
vainly, as hitherto they have done, to Destroy Gold; Yet I know a
certain _Menstruum_ (which our Friend has made, and intends shortly to
communicate to the Ingenious) of so piercing and powerfull a Quality,
That if notwithstanding much care, and some skill, I did not much
deceive myself, I have with it really destroy'd even refin'd Gold, and
brought it into a Metalline Body of another colour and Nature, as I
found by Tryals purposely made. And if some just Considerations did
not for the present Forbid it, I could Perchance here shew you by
another Experiment or Two of my own Trying, that such _Menstruums_ may
be made as to entice away and retain divers parts, from Bodies, which
even the more Judicious and Experienc'd _Spagyrists_ have pronounc'd
irresoluble by the Fire. Though (which I Desire you would mark) in
neither of these Instances, the Gold or Precious Stones be Analys'd
into any of the _Tria Prima_, but only Reduc'd to new Concretes. And
indeed there is a great Disparity betwixt the Operations of the
several Agents whereby the Parts of a Body come to be Dissipated. As
if (for Instance) you dissolve the purer sort of Vitriol in common
Water, the Liquor will swallow up the Mineral, and so Dissociate its
Corpuscles, that they will seem to make up but one Liquor with those
of the water; and yet each of these Corpuscles retains its Nature and
Texture, and remains a Vitriolate and Compounded Body. But if the same
Vitriol be exposed to a strong Fire, it will then be divided not only,
as before, into smaller parts, but into Heterogeneous Substances, each
of the Vitriolate Corpuscles that remain'd entire in the water, being
it self upon the Destruction of its former Texture dissipated or
divided into new Particles of differing Qualities. But Instances more
fitly applicable to this purpose, I have already given you. Wherefore
to return to what I told you about the Destruction of Gold, that
Experiment Invites me to Represent to you, that Though there were
either Saline, or Sulphureous, or Terrestrial Portions of Matter,
whose parts were so small, so firmly united together, or of a figure
so fit to make them cohere to one another, (as we see that in
quicksilver broken into little Globes, the Parts brought to touch one
another do immediately re-imbody) that neither the Fire, nor the usual
Agents employ'd by Chymists, are pierceing enough to divide their
Parts, so as to destroy the Texture of the single Corpuscles; yet it
would not necessarily follow, That such Permanent Bodies were
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