together _per minima_, should each retain its own Nature; So as when
the Mass it Self is dissipated by the Fire, to be more dispos'd to
re-appear in its Pristine Forme, then in any new one, which by a
stricter association of its Parts with those of some of the other
Ingredients of the _Compositum_, then with one another, it may have
acquired.
And if it be objected, that unless the _Hypothesis_ I oppose be
admitted, in such Cases as I have proposed there would not be an Union
but a Destruction of mingled Bodies, which seems all one as to say,
that of such Bodies there is no mistion at all; I answer, that
_though_ the Substances that are mingl'd remain, only their Accidents
are Destroy'd, and _though_ we may with tollerable Congruity call them
_Miscibilia_, because they are Distinct Bodies before they are put
together, however afterwards they are so Confounded that I should
rather call them Concretions, or Resulting Bodies, than mixt ones; and
_though_, perhaps, some other and better Account may be propos'd, upon
which the name of mistion may remain; yet if what I have said be
thought Reason, I shall not wrangle about Words, though I think it
fitter to alter a Terme of Art, then reject a new Truth, because it
suits not with it. If it be also Objected that this Notion of mine,
concerning mixtion, though it may be allow'd, when Bodies already
Compounded are put to be mingl'd, yet it is not applicable to those
mixtions that are immediately made of the Elements, or Principles
themselves; I Answer in the first place, that I here Consider the
Nature of mixtion somewhat more Generally, then the Chymists, who yet
cannot deny that there are oftentimes Mixtures, and those very durable
ones, made of Bodies that are not Elementary. And in the next place,
that though it may be probably pretended that in those Mixtures that
are made immediately of the Bodies that are call'd Principles or
Elements, the mingl'd Ingredients may better retain their own Nature
in the Compounded Mass, and be more easily separated from thence; yet,
besides that it may be doubted, whether there be any such Primary
Bodies, I see not why the reason I alleadg'd, of the destructibility
of the Ingredients of Bodies in General, may not sometimes be
Applicable to Salt Sulphur or Mercury; 'till it be shewn upon what
account we are to believe them Priviledged. And however, (if you
please but to recall to mind, to what purpose I told you at First, I
meant to speak of Mistion at this Time) you will perhaps allow that
what I have hitherto Discoursed about it may not only give some Light
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