wherein we find them when the _Analysis_ is over, that the Fire did
only Dis-joyne and Extricate the Corpuscles of one Principle from
those of the other wherewith before they were Blended.
Having thus Explain'd my Proposition, I shall endeavour to do two
things, to prove it; The first of which is to shew that such
Substances as Chymists call Principles May be produc'd _De novo_ (as
they speak.) And the other is to make it probable that by the Fire we
may Actually obtain from some Mixt Bodies such Substances as were not
in the Newly Expounded sence, pre-existent in them.
To begin then with the First of these, I Consider that if it be as
true as 'tis probable, that Compounded Bodies Differ from One Another
but in the Various Textures Resulting from the Bigness, Shape, Motion,
and contrivance of their smal parts, It will not be Irrationall to
conceive that one and the same parcel of the Universal Matter may by
Various Alterations and Contextures be brought to Deserve the Name,
somtimes of a Sulphureous, and sometimes of a Terrene, or Aqueous
Body. And this I could more largely Explicate, but that our Friend Mr.
_Boyle_ has promis'd us something about Qualities, wherein the Theme I
now willingly Resign him, Will I Question not be Studiously Enquired
into. Wherefore what I shall now advance in favour of what I have
lately Deliver'd shall be Deduc'd from Experiments made Divers Years
since. The first of which would have been much more considerable, but
that by some intervening Accidents I was Necessitated to lose the best
time of the year, for a trial of the Nature of that I design'd; it
being about he [Transcriber's Note: the] middle of _May_ before I was
able to begin an Experiment which should have then been two moneths
old; but such as it was, it will not perhaps be impertinent to Give
You this Narrative of it. At the time newly Mention'd, I caus'd My
Gardiner (being by Urgent Occasions Hinder'd from being present
myself) to dig out a convenient quantity of good Earth, and dry it
well in an Oven, to weigh it, to put it in an Earthen pot almost level
with the Surface of the ground, and to set in it a selected seed he
had before received from me, for that purpose, of Squash, which is an
Indian kind of Pompion, that Growes apace; this seed I Ordered Him to
Water only with Rain or Spring Water. I did not (when my Occasions
permitted me to visit it) without delight behold how fast it Grew,
though unseasonably sown; but the Hastning Winter Hinder'd it from
attaining any thing neer its due and Wonted magnitude; (for I found
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