to acknowledge the great service that the Labours of Chymists have done the Lovers of useful Learning; nor even on this occasion shall their Arrogance hinder my Gratitude. But since we are as well examining to the truth of their Doctrine as the merit of their industry, I must in order to the investigation of the first, continue a reply, to talk at the rate of the part I have assum’d; And tell you, that when I acknowledg the usefulness of the Labours of Spagyrists to Natural Philosophy, I do it upon the score of their experiments, not upon that of Their Speculations; for it seems to me, that their Writings, as their Furnaces, afford as well smoke as light; and do little lesse obscure some subjects, then they illustrate others. And though I am unwilling to deny, that ’tis difficult for a man to be an Accomplisht Naturalist, that is a stranger to Chymistry, yet I look upon the common Operations and practices of Chymists, almost as I do on the Letters of the Alphabet, without whose knowledge ’tis very hard for a man to become a Philosopher; and yet that knowledge is very far from being sufficient to make him One.
But (sayes Carneades, resuming a more serious Look) to consider a little more particularly what you alledg in favour of the Chymical Doctrine of the Tria Prima, though I shall readily acknowledge it not to be unuseful, and that the Divisers and Embracers of it have done the Common-Wealth of Learning some service, by helping to destroy that excessive esteem, or rather veneration, wherewith the Doctrine of the four Elements was almost as generally as undeservedly entertain’d; yet what has been alledg’d concerning the usefulness of the Tria Prima, seems to me liable to no contemptible Difficulties.
And first, as for the very way of Probation, which the more Learned and more Sober Champions of the Chymical cause employ to evince the Chymical Principles in Mixt Bodies, it seems to me to be farr enough from being convincing. This grand and leading Argument, your Sennertus Himself, who layes Great weight upon it, and tells us, that the