is scarce any sensible part of it that is not Compos'd of both the
metalls; Yet if You cast this mixture into _Aqua Fortis_, the Silver
will be dissolv'd in the _Menstruum_, and the Gold like a dark or
black Powder will fall to the Bottom of it, and either Body may be
again reduc'd into such a Metal as it was before, which shews: that it
retain'd its Nature, notwithstanding its being mixt _per Minima_ with
the other: We likewise see, that though one part of pure Silver be
mingled with eight or ten Parts, or more, of Lead, yet the Fire will
upon the Cuppel easily and perfectly separate them again. And that
which I would have you peculiarly Consider on this Occasion is, that
not only in Chymicall Anatomies there is a Separation made of the
Elementary Ingredients, but that some Mixt Bodies afford a very much
greater Quantity of this or that Element or Principle than of another;
as we see, that Turpentine and Amber yield much more Oyl and Sulphur
than they do Water, whereas Wine, which is confess'd to be a perfectly
mixt Bodie, yields but a little Inflamable Spirit, or Sulphur, and not
much more Earth; but affords a vast proportion of Phlegm or water:
which could not be, if as the Peripateticks suppose, every, even of
the minutest Particles, were of the same nature with the whole, and
consequently did contain both Earth and Water, and Aire, and Fire;
Wherefore as to what _Aristotle_ principally, and almost only Objects,
that unless his Opinion be admitted, there would be no true and
perfect Mistion, but onely Aggregates or Heaps of contiguous
Corpuscles, which, though the Eye of Man cannot discerne, yet the Eye
of a _Lynx_ might perceive not to be of the same Nature with one
another and with their _Totum_, as the Nature of Mistion requires, if
he do not beg the Question, and make Mistion to consist in what other
Naturalists deny to be requisite to it, yet He at least objects That
as a great Inconvenience which I cannot take for such, till he have
brought as Considerable Arguments as I have propos'd to prove the
contrary, to evince that Nature makes other Mistions than such as I
have allowed, wherein the _Miscibilia_ are reduc'd into minute Parts,
and United as farr as sense can discerne: which if You will not grant
to be sufficient for a true Mistion, he must have the same Quarrel
with Nature her self, as with his Adversaries.
Wherefore (Continues _Eleutherius_) I cannot but somewhat marvail that
_Carneades_ should oppose the Doctrine of the Chymist in a Particular,
wherein they do as well agree with his old Mistress, Nature, as
dissent from his old Adversary, _Aristotle_.
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