And by the Way (Eleutherius) I am inclin’d upon this ground to Think, That the artificial resolution of compound bodies by Fire does not so much enrich mankind, as it divides them into their supposed Principles; as upon the score of its making new compounds by now combinations of the dissipated parts of the resolv’d Body. For by this means the Number of mixt Bodies is considerably increased. And many of those new productions are indow’d with useful qualities, divers of which they owe not to the body from which they were obtein’d, but to Their newly Acquired Texture.
But thirdly, that which is principally to be Noted is this, that as there are divers Concretes whose Faculties reside in some one or other of those differing Substances that Chymists call their Sulphurs, Salts, and Mercuries, and consequently may be best obtain’d, by analyzing the Concrete whereby the desired Principles may be had sever’d or freed from the rest; So there are other wherein the noblest properties lodge not in the Salt, or Sulphur, or Mercury, but depend immediately upon the form (or if you will) result from the determinate structure of the Whole Concrete; and consequently they that go about to extract the Vertues of such bodies, by exposing them to the Violence of the Fire, do exceedingly mistake, and take the way to Destroy what they would obtain.
I remmember