And having thus, _Eleutherius_, Evinc'd that 'tis possible that such
Substances as those that Chymists are wont to call their _Tria Prima_,
may be Generated, anew: I must next Endeavour to make it Probable,
that the Operation of the Fire does Actually (sometimes) not only
divide Compounded Bodies into smal Parts, but Compound those Parts
after a new Manner; whence Consequently, for ought we Know, there may
Emerge as well Saline and Sulphureous Substances, as Bodies of other
Textures. And perhaps it will assist us in our Enquiry after the
Effects of the Operations of the Fire upon other Bodies, to Consider a
little, what it does to those Mixtures which being Productions of the
Art of Man, We best know the Composition of. You may then be pleas'd
to take Notice that though Sope is made up by the Sope-Boylers of Oyle
or Grease, and Salt, and Water Diligently Incorporated together, yet
if You expose the Mass they Constitute to a Graduall Fire in a Retort,
You shall then indeed make a Separation, but not of the same
Substances that were United into Sope, but of others of a Distant and
yet not an Elementary Nature, and especially of an Oyle very sharp and
Faetid, and of a very Differing Quality from that which was Employ'd to
make the Sope: fo [Errata: so] if you Mingle in a due Proportion, _Sal
Armoniack_ with Quick-Lime, and Distill them by Degrees of Fire, You
shall not Divide the _Sal Armoniack_ from the Quick-Lime, though the
one be a Volatile, and the other a Fix'd Substance, but that which
will ascend will be a Spirit much more Fugitive, Penetrant, and
stinking, then _Sal Armoniack_; and there will remain with the
Quick-Lime all or very near all the Sea Salt that concurr'd to make up
the _Sal Armoniack_; concerning which Sea Salt I shall, to satisfie
You how well it was United to the Lime, informe You, that I have by
making the Fire at length very Vehement, caus'd both the Ingredients
to melt in the Retort it self into one Mass and such Masses are apt to
Relent in the Moist Air. If it be here Objected, that these Instances
are taken from factitious Concretes which are more Compounded then
those which Nature produces; I shall reply, that besides that I have
Mention'd them as much to Illustrate what I propos'd, as to prove it,
it will be Difficult to Evince that Nature her self does not make
Decompound Bodies, I mean mingle together such mixt Bodies as are
already Compounded of Elementary, or rather of more simple ones. For
Vitriol (for Instance) though I have sometimes taken it out of
Minerall Earths, where Nature had without any assistance of Art
prepar'd it to my Hand, is really, though Chymists are pleas'd to
reckon it among Salts, a De-compounded Body Consisting (as I shall
69