Liable, according to which the least Body may be co-extended with the
greatest: Since in a mixt Body wherein before the Elements were
Mingl'd there was, for Instance, but one pound of water to ten
thousand of Earth, yet according to them there must not be the least
part of that Compound, that Consisted not as well of Earth, as water.
But I insist, Perhaps, too long (sayes _Eleutherius_) upon the proofs
afforded me by the Nature of Mistion: Wherefore I will but name Two or
Three other Arguments; whereof the first shall be, that according to
_Aristotle_ himself, the motion of a mixt Body followes the Nature of
the Predominant Element, as those wherein the Earth prevails, tend
towards the Centre of heavy Bodies. And since many things make it
Evident, that in divers Mixt Bodies the Elementary Qualities are as
well Active, though not altogether so much so as in the Elements
themselves, it seems not reasonable to deny the actual Existence of
the Elements in those Bodies wherein they Operate.
To which I shall add this Convincing Argument, that Experience
manifests, and _Aristotle_ Confesses it, that the _Miscibilia_ may be
again separated from a mixt Body, as is Obvious in the Chymical
Resolutions of Plants and Animalls, which could not be unless they did
actually retain their formes in it: For since, according to
_Aristotle_, and I think according to truth, there is but one common
Mass of all things, which he has been pleas'd to call _Materia Prima_;
And since tis not therefore the Matter but the Forme that Constitutes
and Discriminates Things, to say that the Elements remain not in a
Mixt Body, according to their Formes, but according to their Matter,
is not to say that they remain there at all; Since although those
Portions of Matter were Earth and water, &c. before they concurr'd,
yet the resulting Body being once Constituted, may as well be said to
be simple as any of the Elements, the Matter being confessedly of the
same Nature in all Bodies, and the Elementary Formes being according
to this _Hypothesis_ perish'd and abolish'd.
And lastly, and if we will Consult Chymical Experiments, we shall find
the Advantages of the Chymical Doctrine above the Peripatetick Title
little less then Palpable. For in that Operation that Refiners call
Quartation, which they employ to purifie Gold, although three parts of
Silver be so exquisitely mingl'd by Fusion with a fourth Part of Gold
(whence the Operation is Denominated) that the resulting Mass acquires
severall new Qualities, by virtue of the Composition, and that there
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