Robert Boyle

“ The Juice of Grapes after fermentation will yield a Spiritus Ardens ; which if competently rectifyed will all burn away without leaving any thing remaining. The same fermented Juice degenerating into Vinager, yields an acid and corroding Spirit. The same Juice turn’d up, armes it self with Tartar ; out of which may be separated, as out of other Bodies, Phlegme, Spirit, Oyle, Salt and Earth : not to mention what Substances may be drawn from the Vine it self, probably differing from those which are separated from Tartar, which is a body by it self, that has few resemblers in the World. ”

“ For, besides those which the Chymists are pleased to name Hypostatical, most bodies contain two others, Phlegme and Earth, which concurring as well as the rest to the constitution of Mixts, and being as generally, if not more, found in their Analysis, I see no sufficient cause why they should be excluded from the number of Elements. ”

“ Chymist to a great Monarch, the repute he had of a very honest man invited me to desire him to tell me ingenuously whether or no, among his many labours, he had ever really extracted a true and running Mercury out of Metalls ; to which question he freely replyed, that he had never separated a true Mercury from any Metal ; nor had ever seen it really done by any man else. And though Gold is, of all Metalls, That, whose Mercury Chymists have most endeavoured to extract, and which they do the most brag they have extracted ”

“ Nor will it suffice to object, as the Paracelsians are wont to do, that the Tria prima are the most useful Elements, and the Earth and Water but worthlesse and unactive ; for Elements being call’d so in relation to the constituting of mixt Bodies, it should be upon the account of its Ingrediency, not of its use, that any thing should be affirmed or denyed to be an Element : and as for the pretended uselessness of Earth and Water, it would be consider’d that usefulnesse, or the want of it, denotes only a Respect or Relation to us ”

“ And for the more distinct proof of this Proposition, I shall in the first place Represent, That there are divers Bodies, which I could never see by fire divided into so many as three Elementary substances. I would fain ( as I said lately to Philoponus ) see that fixt and noble Metal we call Gold separated into Salt, Sulphur and Mercury : and if any man will submit to a competent forfeiture in case of failing, I shall willingly in case of prosperous successe pay both for the Materials and the charges of such an Experiment. ”

“ But, pursues Carneades, though I think it Evident, that Earth and Phlegme are to be reckon’d among the Elements of most Animal and Vegetable Bodies, yet ’tis not upon that Account alone, that I think divers Bodies resoluble into more Substances then three. For there are two Experiments, that I have sometimes made to shew, that at least some Mixts are divisible into more Distinct Substances then five. ”

“ For some learned Men have been content rather to beleeve what they so boldly Affirm, then be at the trouble and charge, to try whether or no it be True. Others again, who have Curiosity enough to Examine the Truth of what is Averr’d, want Skill and Opportunity to do what they Desire. ”

“ And in the next Page, Quod de sale dixi, saies he, Idem de Sulphure dici potest : but by his favour I must see very good proofs, before I believe such general Assertions, how boldly soever made ; and he that would convince me of their truth, must first teach me some true and practicable way of separating Salt and Sulphur from Gold, Silver, and those many different sort of Stones, that a violent Fire does not bring to Lime, but to Fusion ; and not only I, for my own part, never saw any of those newly nam’d Bodies so resolved ”

“ It is one thing to be able to help Nature to produce things, and another thing to Understand well the Nature 168of the things produc’d. As we see, that many Persons that can beget Children, are for all that as Ignorant of the Number and Nature of the parts, especially the internal ones, that Constitute a Childs Body, as they that never were Parents. Nor do I Doubt, but you’l excuse me, if as I thank the Chymists for the things their Analysis shews me, so I take the Liberty to consider how many, and what they are, without being astonish’d at them ”

“ For whilst they affect that AEnigmatical obscurity with which they are wont to puzzle the Readers of their divulg’d Processes concerning the Analyticall Preparation of Gold or Mercury, they leave wary persons much unsatisfyed whether or no the differing Substances, they promise to produce, be truly 177the Hypostatical Principles, or only some intermixtures of the divided Bodies with those employ’d to work upon them, as is Evident in the seeming Crystalls of Silver, and those of Mercury ”

“ And these will the rather deserve a serious Examination, because those that Alledge them are wont to do it with so much Confidence and Ostentation, that they have hitherto impos’d upon almost all Persons, without excepting Philosophers and Physitians themselves, who have read their Books, or heard them talk. ”

“ Men I say, seeing these Things, and 167Hearing with what Confidence Chymists Averr the Substances Obtain’d from Compound Bodies by the Fire to be the True Elements, or, ( as they speak ) Hypostaticall Principles of them, are forward to think it but Just as well as Modest, that according to the Logicians Rule, the Skilfull Artists should be Credited in their own Art; Especially when those things whose Nature they so Confidently take upon them to teach others are not only Productions of their own Skill, but such as others Know not else what to make of. ”

“ So that according to this Notion, there can be no determinate number assign’d, as 172that of the Elements ; of all sorts of compound Bodies whatsoever, it being very probable that some Concretes consist of fewer, some of more Elements. Nay, it does not seem Impossible, according to these Principles, but that there may be two sorts of Mixts, whereof the one may not have any of all the same Elements as the other consists of ; as we oftentimes see two words, whereof the one has not any one of the Letters to be met with in the other ”

“ And suppose ( pursues Eleutherius ) that you are not so confin’d, for the separation of the Acid parts of these compound Spirits from the other, to employ Corals ; but that you may as well make use of any Alcalizate Salt, or of Pearls, or Crabs eyes, or any other Body, upon which common Spirit of Vinager will easily work, and, to speak in an Helmontian Phrase, Exantlate it self. ”

“ For let me observe to you one thing, which though 187not taken notice of by Chymists, may be a notion of good Use in divers Cases to a Naturalist, that we may well suspect, that there may be severall Sorts of Bodies, which are not Immediate Objects of any one of our senses ”