distinct or separable from the Seed it self since it is connatural with it and intimately the same and is indemonstrable à priore as well as the Seed and may be thus defined A Ferment is an Expansive Elastick or Springy power of the Seed of any thing by which motion of its self it also moveth the smallest particles of that Matter in which it is immersed by which motion also which is of divers kinds according to the variety of Seeds the particles of Matter acquire new shapes sizes and postures amongst themselves and so a new texture of the whole is produced agreeable to the peculiar Nature of the Seed and correspondent to its Idea which Idea we shall explain in its place We have likewise declared often that seeds do operate by Odors or scents which we think is not said without cause for if it be well observed it will be found that no seeds do generate but in the time of their acting upon the Matter there are specifick Odors produced that is while they are in Fermentation and the work incompleat for when the Concrete is perfected the Odor is much abated as not to instance in artificial things making of Malt the fermenting of Beer and Wine in the Barrel and the leavening of Dough c. for 't is observable that the Grains of Wheat or other Vegetables sown in the ground when their invisible seed begins to ferment do send forth Odors so also the Eggs of Birds on which the Hen hath sat And that Minerals and Metals whilst in their making they do send forth such plenty of stinking Odors that many times the workmen in Mines are suffocated therewith no body can be ignorant Now these Odors are fine and subtile Effluviums or small particles of the Matter now put into motion by the power of the seed Ferment which having extricated themselves from their Companions and roving in the Air do at last strike against those parts of our Noses that are fitted by Nature to be sensible of the touch of such very small Bodies Odors then are a sign of Fermentation begun and are nothing but small particles of Matter got loose from their Fellows begun to be alter'd and specificated by the seed and therefore are very various according to the diversity of seeds and their Ferments from whence they proceed Having before declared that all Bodies proceed and are made from Seminal Beings and that the real seeds and Ferments of things are invisible and having declared what I would have understood by a seedy Fermenâ— and Odor and also having hinted above that all Bodies are Materially and Primarily nothing but water I shall now endeavour to prove the same more fully and clearly the which I shall do by three sorts of Arguments The first is grounded upon thaâ— Philosophical Axiom viz. Quaesunt prima in Compositione sunt ultima in resolutione Et quae sunt ultima in resolutione sunt prima in Compositione That which is first in the Composition is last in the resolution And those things which are last in the resolution the same are first in the Composition The second Argument is grounded upon another axiom commonly received That is Nutrimur iisdem quibus constamus We are Nourished by those things of which we are constituted or made The third argument shall be to shew and prove a necessity of all Bodies being formed out of water because neither the four Elements of the Peripateticks nor the Tria Prima or three Principles of the Chymists can possibly concur to the constituting of Bodies as either the Efficient or Primary Matter they being themselves but great disguised Schemes of one and the same Catholick Matter Water from whence they were made and into which they are ultimately to be resolved and uniformly to be reduced either by Art or Nature All which assertions I hope to prove both by Experiment and Reason and shall likewise endeavour to strengthen by good and sufficient Authorities Section the Fourth AS to the first Argument founded on that Axiom that All Bodies are made of that Matter into which they are ultimately resolved and è Contra This Maxim is agreed upon of all hands both by the Aristotelians the Old Chymists and the New ones and that almost upon the same ground For the first supposed all Bodies reducible at last into Fire Air Water and Earth and therefore held the Quaternary of Elements which by the way they could never yet sufficiently prove And the Second believed Salt Sulphur and Mercury to be the first Principles of all Bodies And the last sort the modern Chymists hold Spirit Oyl Salt Water and Earth to be the true Primary Principles of Bodies for the same reason viz. because many Concrets are resolvable by fire into the first three if not into the last five distinct Substances before named But that all Bodies are by Art to be brought back uniformly into water hear what that Learned Man Helmont saith Nostra namque operatio Mechanica mihi patefecit omne Corpus puâ—a saxum Lapidem Gemmam Silicem Arenam Marcasitam argillam terram Lapides coctos vitrum Calces Sulphur c. Transmutari in Salem actualem aequiponderantem suo Co pori unde factus est Et quod iste sâ—l aliquoties câ—hobatus cum sale circulato Paracelsi suam omnino fixitatem amittat tandem transmutetur in Liquorem qui etiam tandem in aquam insipidam transit Et quod ista aqua aequiponderet sali suo unde manavit Plantam verò carnes ossa Pisces c. quicquid similium est novi redigere in mera sua Tria unde post modum aquam insipidam Confeci Metallum autem propter sui seminis anaticam commistionem arena quellem difficilimè in salem reducuntur Cum igitur arena sive terra Originalis tam Arti quam Naturae resistat nec queat ullis unico duntaxat Gehennae artificialis igni excepto Naturae vel artis à primaeva sui constantia recedere sub quo igne artificiali arena sal â—it ac tandem aqua quia vim habet agendi super sublunaria quaevis absque reactione c. For our handy-craft Operation that is his Liquor Alkahest hath manifested to me that all Bodies to wit the Rocky Stones the Pebble the Precious stone the Flint Sand Marcasits Clay Earth Brick Metal Glass Lime and Brimstone c. may be reduced into a real Salt equal in weight to its own Body from whence it proceeded And hat Salt being often cohobated with the circulated Salt of Paracelsus doth altogether lose its fixedness and is transmuted into a Liquor which also at length becomes insipid water and that water is of equal weight to the Salt of which it was made But Plants Flesh Bones Fish c. and every such thing saith he I know how to reduce into its three first Principles from whence afterwards I have made an insipid water but Metal by reason of its strict and exact commixture with its
the other Four supposed principles of this Learned mans are reduced both by Art and Nature and of which they were made So that we may truly affirm with the Antient Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One is many and many One So that though this Learned Doctor shewed much witt in building so fair and specious a Philosophical Structure from these five supposed principles yet can it be no safe dwelling in it because the Foundation is unsound I have been the fuller in discussing the Experiments brought by this great man in favour of his five Chymical Printiples First because indeed they have a very fair appearance till they be throughly examined And Secondly I would be very loath to have it thought I would eâ—deavour inconsiderately or upon slight grounds to diminish the â—ame this ingenious man hath already gained in the World by his Writings And now having examined not only the Tria Prima or three first Principles of the Old Chymists but also the five Principles of our Modern Chymical Philosophers and not being able to allow them the Title of Principles for the reasons above alleadged I will likewise examine the Quaternary or four Elements of the Aristotelians and see whether they can plead any better Title to be allowed and established the Principles or Elements of which all Bodies are made Section the Seventh THe Quadriga or four Elements of the Peripateticks hath for a long time gained the priviledge of being esteemed the constituent Principles of all Concretes which therefore are usually stilled compound Bodies for they say of Fire Air Water and Earth all sublunary Bodies are made and from the divers mixtures of these do arise all generations corruptions alterations and changes that happen to all sorts of Bodies And first for the Element of Fire placed by Aristotle under the Globe of the Moon but never yet seen by any man certainly it is nothing else but Heat and that we know is caused by the violent and nimble agitation of the very minute-parts of Matter And though there be Heat and consequently a kind of Fire in the Bodies of Animals yet this is no radical Principle but a product of vital Fermentation The like of which we see is produced by the sermentation of Wines in the Barrel to whose Bung if the flame of a Candle be held the subtil vapours of the Wine take flame and burn which vapours if they be otherwayes debarred of all vent they by their brisk motion cause an intense heat and sometimes burst the Vessels that contain them And this hapneth not only to Wines but even to water it self for it hath been observed in long Voyages which somewhere is also taken notice of by Mr. Boyl that our Thames water being kept close stopt assisted by the motion of the Ship and its own secret fermentation a Candle being brought near the vent upon the opening of it hath set all the Cavity of the Vessel into a flame There is the like reason for the bursting forth of flame from wett and closely compressed Hay as also from the Action of dissolvents upon Mettallin Bodies c. in which action if the Glasses be stopt they break with great violence From the incoercible nature of which we may conclude that Fire if there were such an Element can never enter as a constituant Principle into the Composition of Bodies but it is rather as Helmont stiles it destructor seminum the destroyer of Seeds and is a fitter Instrument to Analize and take Bodies in pieces by not suffering their parts to be at rest amongst themselves to which purpose it is generally employed than to constitute any And therefore in this particular Paracelsus was grosly mistaken where he undeâ—takes to teach us a way to separate the Element of Fire from Bodies and afterwards pretends to make a new separation of Elements from them again For if we will suppose an Element of Fire yet if that be further reducible it must of necessity lose both the name and nature of an Element But Fire is but an Accident no distinct substance or radical Principle of Bodies for Fire or Heat as I have said before doth result from the mâ—tion which the small parts of Matter are put into by the power of their Seeds and Ferments For Fire cannot subsist of it self as matter can and doth but necesâ—arily requireth some other Body to which it may adhere and upon which it may Act Which Bodies are either of a Vinous nature as the sermented Spirits of Vegetables or their Rozinous and Brimstony parts or else of an unctuous and fatty nature as the Grease and Fatts of Animals or else of a Bituminous substance as the Sulphurs of Minerals and Mettals are And that all this is but disguised Water which hath got new textures by the operatiâ—n of Seeds and Ferments I hope I have sufficiently evinced before So that without we will much injure Truth we must degrade Fire from being an Element or Principle in the constituting of Bodies Nor doth Air enter Bodies as an Element of which they are composed though it be not only useful but absolutely necessary both to Animals and Vegetables without which neither of them live or grow and by the means of which the Circulation and Volatization of the blood in Animals is pâ—omoted By the help of which also the motion of every part is performed It also doth not only afford a convenient help to the Vegetation of Plants by its compressing the surface of the water and so forcing it to ascend into the stringy Roots and Fibers of Trees and Herbs but also by acting the part of a Separator for it is contrary to the received opinion of the Aristotelians a very dry and tenious Body it in its passage over the surface of the water inbibes and takes into its Cavities store of water which it Transports to distant places where Springs and Rivers are wanting and then being no longer able to suspend it by reason of its plenitude and weight it returns it to the Earth where it proves a fit nourishment for Plants and a proper matter for all sort of Seeds to form themselves Bodies out of An other use of the Air is to be a receptacle to receive vapours ascending from the water through the pores of the Earth where finding many Cavities these vapours rove about till by the cold of the place or the great extencion of them the Seminal Principle contained in them and by which they were specifically distinguished from water is forced to desert the Body of the vapour and so at last it returns to the Earth in the form of the Catholike and universal matter water It likewise serveth as a fit Body for the Stars to glide through and move in and also by its Elatery Spring pressing equally upon all parts of this Terraqueous Globe it keeps it firmly supported in its place and doth the same Office which I suppose Zoreastes means by his Prestor
imitating Nature wherefore I took water which I well knew not to be compounded with any other thing than the Spirit of Life and with a heat artificial continual and proportionate I prepared it and disposed it by graduations of Coagulation Congelation and Fixation untill it was turned into Earth which Earth produced Animals Vegetables and Minerals â—he Animals did eat move of themselves c. and by the true Anatomy I made of them I found they were composed of much Suâ—phur little Mercury and less Salt the Minerals began to grow and increase by converting into their own Nature one part of the Earth they were solid and heavy and by this truly demonstrative Science namely Chymistry I â—ound they were composed of much Salt little Sulphur and less Mercury According to this Experiment Minerals were Generated out of and nourished by water From what hath been related both in this and the fore-going Section concerning the growth increase and Vegetability both of Metals Minerals and Stones as also concerning those Mineral Metalline and stony juices called Gur or Bur Soap-coal and the Medulla Lapidis c. I think it will appear that both Metals and Stones are made do grow and are nourished daily and at this time and that from water of which they were at first made by the power of their Seeds And this is the reason that Metals and Mines are now usually found in those places where for many Years before there were as both Sandivogius and Helmont assure us Inde fit quod hodie reperiantur Minerae in locis ubi ante mille annos nullae fuerunt From hence it is come to pass that Minerals may be found in placâ—s where before a thousand years since there have been none And Helmont thus Loca enim quae fodinis Caruêre olim suo quandoque die Maturato semine foenora reddent ditioribus non imparia quia radices sive fermenâ—a Mineralium sedent in loco immediatâ— ac in dierum plenitudinem fine fastidio anhelant quam ubi semen complevit tum Gas obsidens quam ibidem semen à loâ—o suscipit quod aquae sulphur dein impregnat aquam condensat atque sensim aquam Mineralem transplantat For places which have wanted or had no Mines in times past will in their own time their Seed being ripened restore Usury equal to the richer sort of Mines because the Roots or Mineral Ferments are seated immediately in the place and their full time being come they pant or breathe without weariness or loathing and when it hath gained a compleat Seed then the Gas which is seated in the water of that place receiveth that seed of the place which afterwards begets the Sulphur of the water with Child condenseth the water and by degrees turneth or transplants it into a Mineral water And to conclude this Section I will give you the Judgment of that great Naturalist Helmont by way of confirmation because I find him exactly to correspond with all that I have hitherto delivered His words are these which you shall find in his Imago Fermenti which because they are long I will only give you their sence in English And indeed because the Schools have been unacquainted with Ferments they have also been ignorant that solid Bodies are framed only of water and Ferment for I have taught that Vegetables and Grain and whatsoever Bodies are nourished by them do proceed only from water for the Fisher-man never found any food in the stomack of a Salmon if therefore the Salmon be made of water only even that of Rivers he is also nourished by it So the Sturgeon wants a mouth and appeareth only with a little hole below in his Throat whereby the whole fish draweth nothing besides water Therefore every Fish is nourished and made of water if not immediately yet at least by Seeds and Ferments if the water be impregnat therewith From the Salt Sea every fresh Fish is drawn therefore the Ferment of the Fish turneth Salt into Lastly Shell-fish do form to themselves stony shells of water in stead of Bones even as also all kind of snails do and Sea-Salt which scarce yieldeth to the force of a very strong fire groweth sweet by the Ferment in Fishes and their flesh becometh volatile for at the time of distributing the nourishment it is wholly dissipated without a residence or dreg So also Salt passeth over into its Original Element of water and the Sea though it receive salt Streams yet is not every day increased in saltness So the most unmixed and most purest water under the Equinoctial Line becometh hory and stinketh strait-way it getteth the colour of a half burnt brick then it is greenish then red and quakesh very remarkably which afterwards of its own accord returns to it self again truly this cometh to pass by reason of the conceived Ferment of that place which being consumed all these appearances cease So the most pure Fountain-water groweth filthy through the musty Ferment of the Vessel it conceiveth worms breedeth Gnats and is covered with a skin Fenns putrifie from the bottom and hence arise Frogs Shell-fish Snails Horse-Ieaches Herbs c. also swiming Herbs do cover the water being contented with drinking only of this putrid water And even as stones are from Fountains wherein a stony Seed exists So the Earth stinking with Metallick Ferments doth make out of water a Metalline or Mineral Buâ— but the water being in other places shut up in the Earth if it be nigh the Air and stirred up with a little heat it putrifieth by continuance and is no longer water but the juice Leffas of Plants by the force of which hory Ferment a Fower is conferred on the Earth of budding forth Herbs For that putrifying juice by the prick of a little heat doth ascend in smoak becomes spungy and is compassed with a skin because the ferments therein hid require it Therefore that putrefaction hath the office of a Ferment and the Virtue of a Seed and by degrees it obtaineth some measure of Life and hasteneth by the Virtue of its Seeds into the Nature of Archeuss Therefore this putrid juice of the Earth is Leffas from whence springs every Plant not having visible seed which nevertheless bring forth seeds according to their destinations Therefore there are as many rank putrid musty smells as there are proper savours of things For Odors are not only the Messengers of Savours but also their promiscuous Parents The smoak Leffas being now comprest together doth first grow pale then somewhat yellowish and presently after is of a whitish green colour and at last fully green And the power of the several species being unfolded it gains divers marks and different colours in which course it imitates the Example of the water under the Equinoctial Line Yet in this it differs that those waters have borrowed too Spiritual and volatile a Ferment from the Stars and place without a Corporal hory putrefaction and therefore through their too
These are some of the Offices and Uses that God and Nature hath designed the Expansum or Firmament or Etherical Air for but that Air we live in and enjoy is very far estranged from the nature of pure Ether it being filled and defiled with the Subtil steames and effluviums of all sorts of Bodies which are there in a constant Flux by which means particles of matter differently figur'd and as yet retaining some slight touch as I may say of their seminate natures meeting together by their action and reaction upon each other generate Metors which having spent themselves return to the bosome of the catholick matter water But before I take leave of this subject give me leave to take notice of a great mistake in the Aristotelians who affirm that Air may be Transmuted into water which change was never yet performed either by Nature or Art For if it be to be done by their own confession it must be performed by the means of compression or condensation But compression will not do the feat as is manifest by winde-Guns in which the Air is forcibly compressed into somtimes the Twentyeth part of the space it possessed before yet for all that it is so far from being Transmuted into water that by the help of this Compression it hath its Elastick or Springy faculty so far advanced that it will with as much impetuosity and vigour throw forth a Bullet as Gunpowder set on fire would do Nor will condensation serve the turn For the moysture which we see affix it self to the walls of Cellars and Caves or any other subteranious places is not Air Transmuted but the vapours of water lodged in the Cavities of the Air which being compressed by the cold of those places becoms drops too bigg and heavy for the Air to keep up and so falling down they settle in their pristin shape of water And as Air is not Transmutable into water neither is water into Air. For it is manifest in distillations that though water be converted into very subtile vapours yet by the touch of the cold Air it returns again into water as before and so distils into the Receiver And I have shewed above that in natures Circulations though water be so distended as to become a most subtile vapour or Gas it doth yet constantly at last return in its own Shape to its own fountainwater from whence it sprang From what hath been said it will follow that though we do allow Air to be a very great Body and a considerable part of the Universe and also exceeding useful to all Bodies we cannot yet afford it to be a material Principle or Element out of which any sublunary body is Constituted or Made Lastly let us examine whether the Earth have any right to be counted an Element or Principle of which Bodies are constituted For although the Aristotelians as well as the Chymists pretend to resolve all concretes into their first Principles by Fire which they think they evince by the example of burning wood For say they That which supplies the flame is Fire That which sweats forth of the ends of the wood is water and that which ascends in smoak is Air but that which remaines fixed viz. the Ashes after the Fire hath disbanded the other parts is Earth Yet if we examine this experiment of theirs it will be found too Gloss to make out what they endeavour to Illustrate by it For first the Phlegme of the wood is not a simple water but contains a sower Salt and doth both need and will admit of a further division to reduce it to Elementary water Nor were those parts which are converted into flame Fire but Roziny or as the Chymists phrase it Oyly or Sulphury parts which I have before shewed to be far from an Elementary simplicity Neither is the smoak which is seen to arise in the conflagrationâ— Air. For it will affix it self to the funnel of the Chimny in the form of Soot after which it may be divided into Water Oyl Salt and Earth as they call it And the Ashes which they are pleased to take the liberty to call Earth every Wash-maid knows are far enough from being so since they are yet so compound a Body that they contain very much of a lixiviate and fixt Salt So that in reason it cannot be called an Element For Elements ought to be pure and simple Bodies not capable of a further reduction into different parts And here it is necessary to remember my promise and to take notice that the modern Chymists after they have washed the Salt from these Ashes do not scruple to call it Earth and allow it the place of one of their five Principles of which they affirm all Bodies are compounded and framed But as I declared before so I do now again affirm that the separating of these parts from Concrets by the force of Fire is not a true Analisis or proper way of taking Bodies to pieces and therefore is no Genuine reduction of them but a forcing of their parts asunder by the Fire by which new combinations of the parts of Matter are made and consequently the products of the Fire are not to be looked upon as Principles which were existing in Bodies under that form in which the Fire presents them us Besides were Fire an adequate and proper Agent to dissolve the Texture of Bodies and to present us with their real Principles it would act uniformly upon all Bodies and exhibit to us the same Schemes of matter with certainty from all alike which it doth not do For as for example from Gold Silver Talk Diamonds Rubies common Stones Sand and many other Bodies who ever separated not to say the four Elements or the five Chymical Principles but even any two of them and yet if we may credit that worthy man Helmont all these Bodies by the operation of his Alkahest are to be reduced into simple water equal to their own weight So that this soluent must from the uniformity of its operation be allowed to be a much more fit instrument to discover what Bodies are composed of then Fire alone can be supposed to be And if we strictly examine the business we shall find that Earth doth not enter any natural Body as a constitutive Principal thereof but indeed Earth or Ashes may help to compose Artificial Bodies such as Pots and Glasses For all sorts of Earths are but various Coagulations of water diversified by different Seeds and Ferments and are as much the products of water as I have shewed Mineral Salts middle Minerals Stones c. to be All which as Helmont assureth us are reducible to water by his great Solvent the Alkahest which possibly I have somwhat more reason to affirm than I am willing to declare Earth I confess to me appeareth to be the first product of the water and is designed by nature as a firm foundation or Pedestal to support the weight of Animals Vegetables and Minerals and to afford proper