of any strange Experiment; That He that hath seen it hath more Reason to beleeve it, than He that hath not; yet I have found Helmont so faithful a Writer, even in divers of his improbable Experiments (I alwayes except that Extravagant Treatise De Magnetica Vulnerum Curatione, which some of his Friends affirm to have been first publish’d by his Enemies) that I think it somewhat harsh to give him the Lye, especially to what he delivers upon his own proper Tryal. And I have heard from very credible Eye-witnesses some things, and seen some others my self, which argue so strongly, that a circulated Salt, or a Menstruum (such as it may be) may by being abstracted from compound Bodies, whether Mineral, Animal, or Vegetable, leave them more unlockt than a wary Naturalist would easily beleeve, that I dare not confidently measure the Power of Nature and Art by that of the Menstruums, and other Instruments that eminent Chymists themselves are as yet wont to Empoly about the Analyzing of Bodies; nor Deny that a Menstruum may at least from this or that particular Concrete obtain some apparently similar Substance, differing from any obtainable from the same Body by any degree or manner of Application of the Fire. And I am the more backward to deny peremptorily, that there may be such Openers of compound Bodies, because among the Experiments that make me speak thus warily, there wanted not some in which it appear’d not, that one of the Substances not separable by common Fires and Menstruums could retain any thing of the Salt by which the separation was made.
And here, Eleutherius, (sayes Carneades) I should conclude as much of my Discourse as belongs to the first Consideration I propos’d, but that I foresee, that what I have delivered will appear liable to two such specious Objections, that I cannot safely proceed any further till I have examin’d them.
And first, one sort of Opposers will be forward to tell me, That they do not pretend by Fire alone to separate out of all compound Bodies their