The Fourth Part.

for the remaining Ashes, the Chymists themselves teach us, that by a further degree of fire they may be indissolubly united into glass. ’Tis true, that the Analysis which the Chymists principally build upon is made, not in the open air, but in close Vessels; but however, the Examples lately produc’d may invite you shrewdly to suspect, That heat may as well compound as dissipate the Parts of mixt Bodies: and not to tell you, that I have known a Vitrification made even in close vessels, I must remind you that the Flowers of Antimony, and those of Sulphur, are very mix’d Bodies, though they ascend in close vessells: And that ’twas in stopt glasses that I brought up the whole Body of Camphire. And whereas it may be objected, that all these Examples are of Bodies forc’d up in a dry, not a Fluid forme, as are the Liquors wont to be obtain’d by distillation; I answer, That besides that ’tis possible, that a Body may be chang’d from Consistent to Fluid, or from Fluid to Consistent, without being otherwise much altered, as may appear by the Easiness wherewith in Winter, without any Addition or Separation of Visible Ingredients, the same substance may be quickly harden’d into brittle Ice, and thaw’d again into Fluid Water; Besides this, I say it would be consider’d, that common Quick-silver it self, which the Eminentest Chymists confess to be a mixt Body, may be Driven over the Helme in its Pristine forme of Quicksilver, and consequently, in that of a Liquor. And certainly ’tis possible that very compounded Bodies may concur to Constitute Liquors; Since, not to mention that I have found it possible, by the help of a certain Menstruum, to distill Gold it self through a Retort, even with a Moderate Fire: Let us but consider what happens in Butter of Antimony. For if that be carefully rectify’d, it may be reduc’d into a very clear Liquor; and yet if You cast a quantity of fair water upon it, there will quickly precipitate a Ponderous and Vomitive Calx, which made before a considerable part of the Liquor, and yet is indeed (though some eminent Chymists would have it Mercurial) an Antimonial Body carryed over and kept dissolv’d by the Salts of the Sublimate, and consequently a compounded one; as You may find if You will have the Curiosity to