Robert Boyle

“ Nor need it much move us, that there are some who look upon whatsoever the Fire is employ’d to produce, not as upon Natural but Artificial Bodies. For there is not alwaies such a difference as many imagine betwixt the one and the other : Nor is it so easy as they think, clearly to assigne that which Properly, Constantly, and Sufficiently, Discriminates them. ”

“ But as for the Chymists, what they can mean, with congruity to their own Principles, by the Mercury of Animals and Vegetables, ’twill not be so easie to find out ; for they ascribe Tasts only to the Saline Principle, and consequently would be much put to it to shew what Liquor it is, in the Resolution of Bodies, that not being insipid, for that they call Phlegme, neither is inflamable as Oyle or Sulphur, nor has any Tast ; which according to them must proceed from a Mixture, at least, of Salt. ”

“ Wherefore, since the Principles of Chymists may receive their Denominations from Qualities, which it often exceeds not the power of Art, nor alwayes that of the Fire to produce ; And since such Qualities may be found in Bodies that differ so much in other Qualities from one another, that they need not be allow’d to agree in that pure and simple Nature, which Principles, to be so indeed, must have ; it may 234justly be suspected, that many Productions of the Fire that are shew’d us by Chymists, as the Principles of the Concrete that afforded them, may be but a new kind of Mixts. ”

“ I answer, that that might much more reasonably be said, if either we or the Chymists had seen Nature take pure Salt, pure Sulphur, and pure Mercury, and compound of them every sort of Mixt Bodies. But, since ’tis to experience that they appeal, we must not take it for granted, that the Distill’d Oyle ( for instance ) of a plant is mainly compos’d of the pure principle call’d Sulphur, till they have given us an ocular proof, 239that there is in that sort of Plants such an Homogeneous Sulphur. ”

“ The Phlegme of Wine, and indeed divers other Liquors that are indiscriminately condemnd to be cast away as phlegm, are endow’d with qualities that make them differ both from meer water, and from each other; and whereas the Chymists are pleas’d to call the caput mortuum of what they have distill’d ( after they have by affusion of water drawn away its salt) terra damnata, or Earth, it may be doubted whether or 281no those earths are all of them perfectly alike : and it is scarce to be doubted, but that there are some of them which remain yet unreduc’d to an Elementary nature. ”

“ And since I might tell You Divers Examples I have met with, of the Contrariety of Bodies which according to the Chymists must be huddl’d up together under one Denomination ; I leave you to Judge whether such a multitude of Substances as may agree in these sleight Qualities, and yet Disagree in Others more Considerable, are more worthy to be call’d by the Name of a Principle ( which ought to be pure and homogeneous, ) than to have appellations given them that may make them differ, in name too, from the bodies from which they so wildly differ in Nature. ”

“ That in the Bowells of the Earth Nature may, as we see she sometimes does, make strange Mixtures ; That Animals are nourish’d with other Animals and Plants ; And, that these themselves have almost all of them their Nutriment and Growth, either from a certain Nitrous Juice Harbour’d in the Pores of the Earth, or from the Excrements of Animalls, or from the putrify’d Bodies, either of living Creatures or Vegetables, or from other Substances of a Compounded Nature ”

“ That if these sequestred substances where indeed the sulphurs of the Bodies whence they are drawn, there would as well be a great Disparity betwixt Chymical Sulphurs obtain’d by Spirit of Wine, as I have already shewn there is betwixt those obtain’d by Distillation in the forme of Oyles : which will be evident from hence, that not to urge that themselves ascribe distinct vertues to Mineral Tinctures, extolling the Tincture of Gold against such and such Diseases ”

“ And those that are so ambitious to be admir’d by the Vulgar, that rather then go without the Admiration of the Ignorant they will expose themselves to the contempt of the Learned, those shall, by my consent, freely enjoy their Option. ”

“ For scarce telling us any more, then that in all bodies that which is found besides Salt and Sulphur, and the Elements, or, as they call them, Phlegm and Dead Earth, is that Spirit which in Aristotles Language may be call’d ουσιαν αναλογον τω των αϛρων ϛοιχαιω. ”

“ As for the Mystical Writers scrupling to Communicate their Knowledge, they might less to their own Disparagement, and to the trouble of their Readers, have conceal’d it by writing no Books, then by Writing bad ones. If Themistius were here, he would not stick to say, that Chymists write thus darkly, not because they think their Notions too precious to be explain’d, but because they fear that if they were explain’d, men would discern, that they are farr from being precious. ”

“ I have already prov’d, when I discours’d of the second General Consideration, by what happens to plants nourish’d only with fair water, and Eggs hatch’d into Chickens, that by changing the disposition of the component parts of a Body, Nature is able to effect as great Changes in a parcell of Matter reputed similar, as those requisite to Denominate one of the Tria Prima. And though Helmont do somewhere wittily call the Fire the Destructor and the Artificial Death of Things ”

“ And if the matter of the Philosophers Stone, and the manner of preparing it, be such Mysteries as they would have the World believe them, they may Write Intelligibly and Clearly of the Principles of mixt Bodies in General, without Discovering what they call the Great Work. ”

“ But that these Qualities may either be produc’d, otherwise then by such as they call Seminal Agents, or may belong to bodies of a compounded Nature, may be shewn, among other Instances, in Glass made of ashes, where the exceeding strongly-tasted Alcalizate Salt joyning with the Earth becomes insipid, and with it constitutes a Body, which though also dry, fixt, and indissoluble in Water, is yet manifestly a mixt Body ”

“ If, I say, we consider this, it may seem probable, that there may be among the Works of Nature ( not to mention those of Art ) a greater Number of De-compound Bodies, then men take Notice of ; And indeed, as I have formerly also observ’d, it does not at all appear, that all Mixtures must be of Elementary Bodies ; but it seems farr more probable, that there are divers sorts of 215compound Bodies, even in regard of all or some of their Ingredients, consider’d Antecedently to their Mixture. ”

“ Yet You will, I doubt not, be of another mind, If You consider how many new sorts of mixt Bodies Chymists themselves have produc’d by means of the Fire : And particularly, if You consider how that Noble and Permanent Body, Glass, is not only manifestly produc’d by the violent action of the Fire, but has never, for ought we know, been produc’d any other way. And indeed it seems but an inconsiderate Assertion of 225some Helmontians, that every sort of Body of a Peculiar Denomination must be produc’d by some Seminal power ”

“ For whilst such Men are quietly permitted to publish Books with promising Titles, and therein to Assert what they please, and contradict others, and ev’n themselves as they please, with as little danger of being confuted as of being understood, they are encourag’d to get themselves a name, at the cost of the Readers, by finding that intelligent Men are wont for the reason newly mention’d, to let their Books and Them alone : And the ignorant and credulous ( of which the number is still much greater then that of the other ) are forward to admire most what they least understand. ”

“ You would quickly discern, not only that Chymists do give themselves a strange Liberty to call Concretes Salts, that are according to their own Rules to be look’d upon as very Compounded Bodies ; but that among those very Salts that seem Elementary, because produc’d upon the Anatomy of the Bodies that yield them, there is not only a visible Disparity, but, to speak in the common Lan253guage, a manifest Antipathy or Contrariety : As is evident in the Ebullition and hissing that is wont to ensue, when the Acid Spirit of Vitrioll, for Instance, is pour’d upon pot ashes, or Salt of Tartar. ”

“ And since many moderne Chymists and other Naturalists are pleased to take the Mercurial spirit of Bodies for the same Principle, under differing names, I must invite you to observe, with me, the great difference that is conspicuous betwixt all the Vegetable and Animal spirits I have mention’d and running 273Mercury. I speak not of that which is commonly sold in shops that many of themselves will confesse to be a mixt Body ”

“ You may then in the next place ( sayes Carneades ) observe with me, that not only there are some Bodies, as Gold, and Silver, which do not by the usual Examens, made by Fire, Discover themselves to be mixt ; but if ( as You may Remember I formerly told You ) it be a De-compound Body that is Dissipable into several Substances, by being expos’d to the Fire it may be resolv’d into such as are neither Elementary, nor such as it was upon its last mixture Compounded of ; but into new 214Kinds of mixts. ”

“ Yet besides that others are not, and besides that their being reduc’d to such Minuteness of Parts may much facilitate their taking Fire ; besides this, I say, We see that common Sulphur, common Oyle, Gumm Lac, and many Unctuous and Resinous Bodies, will flame well enough, though they be of very compounded natures : Nay Travellers of Unsuspected Credit assure Us, as a known thing, that in some Northern Countries where Firr trees and Pines abound, the poorer sort of Inhabitants use Long splinters of those Resinous Woods to burne instead of Candles. ”

“ For how do Chymists make it appear that there are any such primitive and simple bo237dies in those we are speaking of ; since ’tis upon the matter confess’d by the answer lately made, that these are not such ? And if they pretend by Reason to evince what they affirm, what becomes of their confident boasts, that the Chymists ( whom they therefore, after Beguinus, call a Philosophus or Opifex Sensatus ) can convince our Eyes, by manifestly shewing in any mixt body those simple substances he teaches them to be compos’d of ? ”

“ For none of these would dissolve crude gold, which yet my Liquor was able readily to do ; and thereby manifested it self to be a new Compound, consisting at least of Spirit of Nitre, and Sal Armoniack, ( for the latter dissolv’d in the former, 218will Work on Gold ) which nevertheless are not by any known way separable, and consequently would not pass for a Mixt Body, if we our selves did not, to obtain it, put and Distill together divers Concretes, whose Distinct Operations were known before hand. ”

“ And if we should take Spirit in the sence of the Word receiv’d among Modern Chymists and Physitians, for any Distill’d Liquor that 271is neither Phlegme nor oyle, the Appellation would yet appear Ambiguous enough. For, plainly, that which first ascends in the Distillation of Wine and Fermented Liquors, is generally as well by Chymists as others reputed a Spirit. ”

“ But if Judicious men skill’d in Chymical affaires shall once agree to write clearly and plainly of them, and thereby keep men from being stunn’d, as it were, or imposd upon by dark or empty Words; ’tis to be hop’d that 207these men finding that they can no longer write impertinently and absurdly, without being laugh’d at for doing so, will be reduc’d either to write nothing, or Books that may teach us something, and not rob men, as formerly, of invaluable Time ”

“ But whether or no all Bodies confess’d to be perfectly mixt were compos’d of, and are resoluble into a determinate number of primary unmixt Bodies. For, if you keep the state of the question in your Eye, you’l easily discerne that there is much of what should be Demonstrated, left unprov’d by those Chymical Experiments we are Examining. ”

“ I answer, that their Dissections may be granted to prove, that some mixt bodies ( for in many it will not hold ) are by the fire, when they are included in close Vessels, ( for that Condition also is often requisite ) dissolube into several Substances differing in some Qualities, but principally in Consistence. So that out of most of them may be obtain’d a fixt substance partly saline, and partly insipid, an unctuous Liquor, and another Liquor or 241more that without being unctuous have a manifest taste. ”

“ Thus the Oyles of Cinna256mon, Cloves, Nutmegs and other spices, seem to be but the United Aromatick parts that did ennoble those Bodies. And ’tis a known thing, that Oyl of Cinnamon, and oyle of Cloves, ( which I have likewise observ’d in the Oyles of several Woods ) will sink to the Bottom of Water : whereas those of Nutmegs and divers other Vegetables will swim upon it. The Oyle ( abusively call’d spirit ) of Roses swims at the Top of the Water in the forme of a white butter, which I remember not to have observ’d in any other Oyle drawn in any Limbeck ”