The Fifth Part.

And in the mean time, we may take notice in the last place, that as the distinct substances whereinto the Alkahest divides bodies, are affirm’d to be differing in nature from those whereunto they are wont to be reduc’d by fire, and to be obtain’d from some bodies more in Number than from some others; since he tells us,Novi saxum & lapides omnes in merum salem suo saxo aut lapidi & æquiponderantem reducere absque omni prorsus sulphure aut Mercurio. Helmont. pag. 409. he could totally reduce all sorts of Stones into Salt only, whereas of a coal he had two distinct Liquors. So, although we should acquiesce in that resolution which is made by fire, we find not that all mixt bodies are thereby divided into the same number of Elements and Principles; some Concretes affordding more of them than others do; Nay and sometimes this or that Body affording a greater number of Differing substances by one way of management, than the same yields by another. And they that out of Gold, or Mercury, or Muscovy-glasse, will draw me as many distinct substances as I can separate from Vitriol, or from the juice of Grapes variously orderd, may teach me that which I shall very Thankfully learn. Nor does it appear more congruous to that variety that so much conduceth to the perfection of the Universe, that all elemented bodies be compounded of the same number of Elements, then it would be for a language, that all its words should consist of the same number of Letters.