ought not to be Expected, that they should be So. For, his Part being
chiefly but to propose Doubts and Scruples, he does enough, if he
shews that his Adversaries Arguments are not strongly Concluding,
though his own be not so neither. And if there should appear any
disagreement betwixt the things he delivers in divers passages, he
hopes it will be consider'd, that it is not necessary that all the
things a Sceptick Proposes, should be consonant; since it being his
work to Suggest doubts against the Opinion he questions, it is
allowable for him to propose two or more severall_ Hypotheses _about
the same thing: And to say that it may be accounted for this way, or
that way, or the other Way, though these wayes be perhaps inconsistent
among Themselves. Because it is enough for him, if either of the
proposed_ Hypotheses _be but as probable as that he calls a question.
And if he proposes many that are Each of them probable, he does the
more satisfie his doubts, by making it appear the more difficult to be
sure, that that which they alwayes differ from is the true. And our_
Carneades _by holding the Negative, he has this Advantage, that if
among all the Instances he brings to invalidate all the Vulgar
Doctrine of those he Disputes with, any one be Irrefragable, that
alone is sufficient to overthrow a Doctrine which Universally asserts
what he opposes. For, it cannot be true, that all Bodies whatsoever
that are reckon'd among the Perfectly mixt Ones, are Compounded of
such a Determinate Number of such or such Ingredients, in case any one
such Body can be produc'd, that is not so compounded; and he hopes
too, that Accurateness will be the less expected from him, because his
undertaking obliges him to maintain such Opinions in Chymistry, and
that chiefly by Chymical Arguments, as are Contrary to the very
Principles of the Chymists; From whose writings it is not Therefore
like he should receive any intentionall Assistance, except from some
Passages of the Bold and Ingenious_ Helmont, _with whom he yet
disagrees in many things (which reduce him to explicate Divers
Chymical_ Phaenomena, _according to other Notions;) And of whose
Ratiocinations, not only some seem very Extravagant, but even the Rest
are not wont to be as considerable as his Experiments. And though it
be True indeed, that some_ Aristotelians _have occasionally written
against the Chymical Doctrine he Oppugnes, yet since they have done it
according to their Principles, And since our_ Carneades _must as well
oppose their_ Hypothesis _as that of the Spagyrist, he was fain to
fight his Adversaries with their own Weapons, Those of the
Peripatetick being Improper, if not hurtfull for a Person of his
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