HEre Carneades Having Dispach’t what he Thought Requisite to oppose against what the Chymists are wont to alledge for Proof of their three Principles, Paus’d awhile, and look’d about him, to discover whether it were Time for him and his Friend to Rejoyne the Rest of the Company.
But Eleutherius perceiving nothing yet to forbid Them to Prosecute their Discourse a little further, said to his Friend, (who had likewise taken Notice of the same thing) I halfe expected, Carneades, that after you had so freely declar’d Your doubting, whether there be any Determinate Number of Elements, You would have proceeded to question whether there be any Elements at all.
And I confess it will be a Trouble to me if You defeat me of my Expectation; especially since you see the leasure we have allow’d us may probably suffice to examine that Paradox; because you have so largly Deduc’d already many Things pertinent to it, that you need but intimate how you would have them Apply’d, and what you would inferr from them.
Carneades, habiendo representado en vano que su tiempo libre apenas podía ser muy corto, que ya había parloteado durante mucho tiempo y que no estaba preparado para sostener una Paradoja tan grande y tan odiosa, fue al fin persuadido para decirle a su amigo: Puesto que, Eleuterio, quieres que hable Ex Tempore de la paradoja que mencionas, me conformo (aunque tal vez más para expresar mi obediencia que mi opinión) con decirte que (suponiendo la verdad de los experimentos alkahesticos de Helmont y de Paracelsus, si así puedo llamarlos), aunque pueda parecer extravagante, no es absurdo dudar de si, por todo lo que se ha demostrado, hay