the Candid and Eloquent _Petrus Laurembergius_ in his Notes upon
_Sala's_ Aphorismes affirmes, that he saw an insipid _Menstruum_ that
was a powerfull Dissolvent, and (if my Memory do not much mis-informe
me) could dissolve Gold. And the water which may be Drawn from
Quicksilver without Addition, though it be almost Tastless, You will I
believe think of a differing Nature from simple Water, especially if
you Digest in it Appropriated Mineralls. To which I shall add but
this, that this Consideration may be further extended. For I see no
Necessity to conceive that the Water mention'd in the Beginning of
_Genesis_, as the Universal Matter, was simple and Elementary Water;
since though we should Suppose it to have been an Agitated Congeries
or Heap consisting of a great Variety of Seminal Principles and
Rudiments, and of other Corpuscles fit to be subdu'd and Fashion'd by
them, it might yet be a Body Fluid like Water, in case the Corpuscles
it was made up of, were by their Creator made small enough, and put
into such an actuall Motion as might make them Glide along one
another. And as we now say, the Sea consists of Water, notwithstanding
[Errata: (notwithstanding] the Saline, Terrestrial, and other Bodies
mingl'd with it,) such a Liquor may well enough be called Water,
because that was the greatest of the known Bodies whereunto it was
like; Though, that a Body may be Fluid enough to appear a Liquor, and
yet contain Corpuscles of a very differing Nature, You will easily
believe, if You but expose a good Quantity of Vitriol in a strong
Vessel to a Competent Fire. For although it contains both Aqueous,
Earthy, Saline, Sulphureous, and Metalline Corpuscles, yet the whole
Mass will at first be Fluid like water, and boyle like a seething pot.
I might easily (Continues _Carneades_) enlarge my self on such
Considerations, if I were Now Oblig'd to give You my Judgment of the
_Thalesian_, and _Helmontian_, _Hypothesis_. But Whether or no we
conclude that all things were at first Generated of Water, I may
Deduce from what I have try'd Concerning the Growth of Vegetables,
nourish'd with water, all that I now propos'd to my Self or need at
present to prove, namely that Salt, Spirit, Earth, and ev'n Oyl
(though that be thought of all Bodies the most opposite to Water) may
be produc'd out of Water; and consequently that a Chymical Principle
as well as a Peripatetick Element, may (in some cases) be Generated
anew, or obtain'd from such a parcel of Matter as was not endow'd with
the form of such a principle or Element before.
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