Part 11

Now there are two Kind of Arguments (pursues _Carneades_) which may be brought to make my Third Proposition seem probable; one sort of them being of a more Speculative Nature, and the other drawn from Experience. To begin then with the first of these.

But as _Carneades_ was going to do as he had said, _Eleutherius_ interrupted him, by saying with a somewhat smiling countenance;

If you have no mind I should think, that the Proverb, _That Good Wits have bad Memories_, is Rational and Applicable to You, You must not Forget now you are upon the Speculative Considerations, that may relate to the Number of the Elements; that your Self did not long since Deliver and Concede some Propositions in Favour of the Chymical Doctrine, which I may without disparagement to you think it uneasie, even for _Carneades_ to answer.

I have not, replies he, Forgot the Concessions you mean; but I hope too, that you have not forgot neither with what Cautions they were made, when I had not yet assumed the Person I am now sustaining. But however, I shall to content You, so discourse of my Third general consideration, as to let You see, That I am not Unmindful of the things you would have me remember.

To talk then again according to such principles as I then made use of, I shall represent, that if it be granted rational to suppose, as I then did, that the Elements consisted at first of certain small and primary Coalitions of the minute Particles of matter into Corpuscles very numerous, and very like each other, It will not be absurd to conceive, that such primary Clusters may be of far more sorts then three or five; and consequently, that we need not suppose, that in each of the compound Bodies we are treating of there should be found just three sorts of such primitive Coalitions, as we are speaking of.

And if according to this Notion we allow a considerable number of differing Elements, I may add, that it seems very possible, that to the constitution of one sort of mixt Bodies two kinds of Elementary ones may suffice (as I lately Exemplify'd to you, in that most durable Concrete, Glass,) another sort of Mixts may be compos'd of three Elements, another of four, another of five, and another perhaps of many more. So that according to this Notion, there can be no determinate number assign'd, as that 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; or as we often meet with diverse Electuaries, in which no Ingredient (except Sugar) is common to any two of them. I will not here debate whether there may not be a multitude of these Corpuscles, which by reason of their being primary and simple, might be called Elementary, if several sorts of them should convene to compose any Body, which are as yet free, and neither as yet contex'd and entangl'd with primary Corpuscles of other kinds, but remains liable to be subdu'd and fashion'd by Seminal Principles, or the like powerful and Transmuting Agent, by whom they may be so connected among themselves, or with the parts of one of the bodies, as to make the compound Bodies, whose Ingredients they are, resoluble into more, or other Elements then those that Chymists have hitherto taken notice of.

To all which I may add, that since it appears, by what I observ'd to you of the permanency of Gold and Silver, that even Corpuscles that are not of an Elementary but compounded Nature, may be of so durable a Texture, as to remain indissoluble in the ordinary _Analysis_ that Chymists make of Bodies by the Fire; 'Tis not impossible but that, though there were but three Elements, yet there may be a greater number of Bodies, which the wonted wayes of Anatomy will not discover to be no Elementary Bodies.

But, sayes _Carneades_, having thus far, in compliance to you, talk't conjecturally of the number of the Elements, 'tis now time to consider, not of how many Elements it is possible that Nature may compound mix'd Bodies, but (at least as farr as the ordinary Experiments of Chymists will informe us) of how many she doth make them up.

I say then, that it does not by these sufficiently appear to me, that there is any one determinate number of Elements to be uniformly met with in all the several sorts of Bodies allow'd to be perfectly mixt.

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. 'Tis not, that after what I have try'd my self I dare peremptorily deny, that there may out of Gold be extracted a certain substance, which I cannot hinder Chymists from calling its Tincture or Sulphur; and which leaves the remaining Body depriv'd of its wonted colour. Nor am I sure, that there cannot be drawn out of the same Metal a real quick and running Mercury. But for the Salt of Gold, I never could either see it, or be satisfied that there was ever such a thing separated, _in rerum natura_, by the relation of any credible eye witnesse. And for the several Processes that Promise that effect, the materials that must be wrought upon are somewhat too pretious and costly to be wasted upon so groundlesse adventures, of which not only the successe is doubtful, but the very possibility is not yet demonstrated. Yet that which most deterres me from such tryalls, is not their chargeablenesse, but their unsatisfactorinesse, though they should succeed. For the Extraction of this golden Salt being in Chymists Processes prescribed to be effected by corrosive _Menstruums_, or the Intervention of other Saline Bodies, it will remain doubtful to a wary person, whether the Emergent Salt be that of the Gold it self; or of the Saline Bodies or Spirits employ'd to prepare it; For that such disguises of Metals do often impose upon Artists, I am sure _Eleutherius_ is not so much a stranger to Chymistry as to ignore. I would likewise willingly see the three principles separated from the pure sort of Virgin-Sand, from _Osteocolla_, from refined Silver, from Quicksilver, freed from its adventitious Sulphur, from _Venetian_ Talk [Transcriber's Note: Talck], which by long detention in an extreme _Reverberium_, I could but divide into smaller Particles, (not the constituent principles,) Nay, which, when I caused it to be kept, I know not how long, in a Glasse-house fire, came out in the Figure it's Lumps had when put in, though alter'd to an almost _Amethystine_ colour; and from divers other Bodies, which it were now unnecessary to enumerate. For though I dare not absolutely affirme it to be impossible to Analyze these Bodies into their _Tria Prima_; yet because, neither my own Experiments, nor any competent Testimony hath hitherto either taught me how such an _Analysis_ may be made, or satisfy'd me, that it hath been so, I must take the Liberty to refrain from believing it, till the Chymists prove it, or give us intelligible and practicable Processes to performe what they pretend. For whilst they affect that _Ænigmatical_ 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 the 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; which though by some inconsiderately supposed to be the Salts of those Metalls, are plainly but mixtures of the Metalline Bodies, with the Saline parts of _Aqua fortis_ or other corrosive Liquors; as is evident by their being reducible into Silver or Quicksilver, as they were before.

I cannot but Confesse (saith _Eleutherius_) that though Chymists may upon probable grounds affirm themselves Able to obtain their _Tria Prima_, from Animals and Vegetables, yet I have often wondred that they should so confidently pretend also to resolve all Metalline and other Mineral bodies into Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. For 'tis a saying almost Proverbial, among those Chymists themselves that are accounted Philosophers; and our famous Countryman _Roger Bacon_ has particularly adopted it; that _Facilius est aurum facere quam destruere_. And I fear, with You, that Gold is not the only Mineral from which Chymists are wont fruitlessly to attempt the separating of their three Principles. I know indeed (continues _Eleutherius_) that the Learned _Sennertus_, even in that book where he takes not upon him to play the Advocate for the Chymists, but the Umpier betwixt them and the Peripateticks, expresses himself roundly, thus;[11] _Salem omnibus inesse (mixtis scilicet) & ex iis fieri posse omnibus in resolutionibus Chymicis versatis notissimum est._ 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; but _Helmont_, who was much better vers'd in the Chymical Anatomizing of Bodies then either _Sennertus_ or _I_, has somewhere this resolute passage;[12] _Scio_ (saies he) _ex arena, silicibus & saxis, non Calcariis, nunquam Sulphur aut Mercurium trahi posse_; Nay _Quercetanus_ himself, though the grand stickler for the _Tria Prima_, has this Confession of the Irresolubleness of Diamonds;[13] _Adamas_ (saith he) _omnium factus Lapidum solidissimus ac durissimus ex arctissima videlicet trium principiorum unione ac Cohærentia, quæ nulla arte separationis in solutionem principiorum suorum spiritualium disjungi potest._ And indeed, pursues _Eleutherius_, I was not only glad, but somewhat surprized to find you inclined to Admit that there may be a Sulphur and a running Mercury drawn from Gold; for unlesse you do (as your expression seem'd to intimate) take the word Sulphur in a very loose sence, I must doubt whether our Chymists can separate a Sulphur from Gold: For when I saw you make the experiment that I suppose invited you to speak as you did, I did not judge the golden Tincture to be the true principle of Sulphur extracted from the body, but an aggregate of some such highly colour'd parts of the Gold, as a Chymist would have called a _Sulphur incombustible_, which in plain English seems to be little better than to call it a Sulphur and no Sulphur. And as for Metalline Mercuries, I had not _wondred_ at it, though you had expressed much more severity in speaking of them: For I remember that having once met an old and famous Artist, who had long been (and still is) 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; yet the Experienced _Angelus Sala_, in his _Spagyrical_ account of the seven _Terrestrial_ Planets (that is the seven metalls) affords us this memorable Testimony, to, our present purpose; _Quanquam_ (saies he) _&c. experientia tamen (quam stultorum Magistrum [Errata: Magistram] vocamus) certe Comprobavit, Mercurium auri adeo fixum, maturum, & arcte cum reliquis ejusdem corporis substantiis conjungi, ut nullo modo retrogredi possit._ To which he sub-joynes, that he himself had seen much Labour spent upon that Design, but could never see any such Mercury produc'd thereby. And I easily beleeve what he annexes; _that he had often seen Detected many tricks and Impostures of Cheating_ Alchymists. For, the most part of those that are fond of such _Charlatans_, being unskilfull or Credulous, or both, 'tis very easie for such as have some Skill, much craft, more boldness, and no Conscience, to impose upon them; and therefore, though many profess'd _Alchymists_, and divers Persons of Quality have told me that they have made or seen the Mercury of Gold, or of this or that other Metal; yet I have been still apt to fear that either these persons have had a Design to deceive others; or have not had Skill and circumspection enough to keep themselves from being deceived.

[Footnote 11: Sennert. lib. de cons. & dissens. pag. 147.]

[Footnote 12: Helmon. pag. 409.]

[Footnote 13: Quercet. apud Billich. in Thessalo redivivo. pag. 99.]

You recall to my mind (sayes _Carneades_) a certain Experiment I once devis'd, innocently to deceive some persons, and let them and others see how little is to be built upon the affirmation of those that are either unskillfull or unwary, when they tell us they have seen _Alchymists_ make the Mercury of this or that Metal; and to make this the more evident, I made my Experiment much more Slight, Short and Simple, than the Chymists usuall processes to Extract Metalline Mercuries; which Operations being commonly more Elaborate and Intricate, and requiring a much more longer time, give the _Alchymists_ a greater opportunity to Cozen, and Consequently are more Obnoxious to the Spectators suspicion. And that wherein I endeavour'd to make my Experiment look the more like a True _Analysis_, was, that I not only pretended as well as others to extract a Mercury from the Metal I wrought upon, but likewise to separate a large proportion of manifest and inflamable Sulphur. I take then, of the filings of Copper, about a Drachme or two, of common sublimate, powder'd, the like Weight, and _Sal Armoniack_ near about as much as of Sublimate; these three being well mingl'd together I put into a small Vial with a long neck, or, which I find better, into a Glass Urinall, which (having first stopped it with Cotton) to avoid the Noxious Fumes, I approach by degrees to a competent Fire of well kindled coals, or (which looks better, but more endangers the Glass) to the Flame of a candle; and after a while the bottom of the Glass being held Just upon the Kindled Coals, or in the flame, You may in about a quarter of an Hour, or perchance in halfe that time, perceive in the Bottom of the Glass some running Mercury; and if then You take away the Glass and break it, You shall find a Parcel of Quicksilver, Perhaps altogether, and perhaps part of it in the pores of the Solid Mass; You shall find too, that the remaining Lump being held to the Flame of the Candle will readily burn with a greenish Flame, and after a little while (perchance presently) will in the Air Acquire a Greenish Blew, which being the Colour that is ascrib'd to Copper, when its Body is unlocked, 'Tis easie to perswade Men that this is the True Sulphur of _Venus_, especially since not only the Salts may be Suppos'd partly to be Flown away, and partly to be Sublim'd to the upper part of the Glass, whose inside (will Commonly appear Whitened by them) but the Metal seems to be quite Destroy'd, the Copper no longer appearing in a Metalline Forme, but almost in that of a Resinous Lump; whereas indeed the Case is only this, That the Saline parts of the Sublimate, together with the _Sal Armoniack_, being excited and actuated by the Vehement heat, fall upon the Copper, (which is a Metal they can more easily corrode, than silver) whereby the small parts of the Mercury being freed from the Salts that kept them asunder, and being by the heat tumbled up and down after many Occursions, they Convene into a Conspicuous Mass of Liquor; and as for the Salts, some of the more Volatile of them Subliming to the upper part of the Glass, the others Corrode the Copper, and uniting themselves with it do strangely alter and Disguise its Metallick Form, and compose with it a new kind of Concrete inflamable like Sulphur; concerning which I shall not now say any thing, since I can Referr You to the Diligent Observations which I remember Mr. _Boyle_ has made concerning this Odde kind of Verdigrease. But Continues _Carneades_ smiling, you know I was not cut out for a Mountebank, and therefore I will hasten to resume the person of a Sceptick, and take up my discourse where You diverted me from prosecuting it.

In the next place, then, I consider, that, as there are some Bodies which yield not so many as the three Principles; so there are many others, that in their Resolution Exhibite more principles than three; and that therefore the Ternary Number is not that of the Universal and Adequate Principles of Bodies. If you allow of the Discourse I ately [Errata: lately] made You, touching the primary Associations of the small Particles of matter, You will scarce think it improbable, that of such Elementary Corpuscles there may be more sorts then either three, or four, or five. And if you will grant, what will scarce be deny'd, that Corpuscles of a compounded Nature may in all the wonted Examples of Chymists pass for Elementary, I see not, why you should think it impossible, that as _Aqua Fortis_, or _Aqua Regis_ will make a Separation of colliquated Silver and Gold, though the Fire cannot; so there may be some Agent found out so subtile and so powerfull, at least in respect of those particular compounded Corpuscles, as to be able to resolve them into those more simple ones, whereof they consist, and consequently encrease the number of the Distinct Substances, whereinto the mixt Body has been hitherto thought resoluble. And if that be true, which I recited to you a while ago out of _Helmont_ concerning the Operations of the _Alkahest_, which divides Bodies into other Distinct Substances, both as to number and Nature, then the Fire does; it will not a little countenance my Conjecture. But confining our selves to such wayes of Analyzing mix'd Bodies, as are already not unknown to Chymists, it may without Absurdity be Question'd, whether besides those grosser Elements of Bodies, which they call Salt Sulphur and Mercury, there may not be Ingredients of a more Subtile Nature, which being extreamly little, and not being in themselves Visible, may escape unheeded at the Junctures of the Destillatory Vessels, though never so carefully Luted. For let me observe to you one thing, which though not 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; since we See, that not only those little Corpuscles that issue out of the Loadstone, and perform the Wonders for which it is justly admired; But the _Effluviums_ of Amber, Jet, and other Electricall Concretes, though by their effects upon the particular Bodies dispos'd to receive their Action, they seem to fall under the Cognizance of our Sight, yet do they not as Electrical immediately Affect any of our senses, as do the bodies, whether minute or greater, that we See, Feel, Taste, &c. But, continues _Carneades_, because you may expect I should, as the Chymists do, consider only the sensible Ingredients of Mixt Bodies, let us now see, what Experience will, even as to these, suggest to us.