Fifthly, to make Compositions and Coagulations of several Salts together into the same mass, to observe of what Figure the product of them would be; and in all, to note as many circumstances as I should judge conducive to my Enquiry.
Sixthly, to enquire the closeness or rarity of the texture of these bodies, by examining their gravity, and their refraction, &c.
Seventhly, to enquire particularly what operations the fire has upon several kinds of Salts, what changes it causes in their Figures, Textures, or Energies.
Eighthly, to examine their manner of dissolution, or acting upon those bodies dissoluble in them; The texture of those bodies before and after the process. And this for the History.
Next for the Solution, To have examin'd by what, and how many means, such and such Figures, actions and effects could be produc'd possibly.
And lastly, from all circumstances well weigh'd, I should have endeavoured to have shewn which of them was most likely, and (if the informations by these Enquiries would have born it) to have demonstrated which of them it must be, and was.
But to proceed, As I believe it next to the Globular the most simple; so do I, in the second place, judge it not less pleasant; for that which makes an Enquiry pleasant, are, first a noble Inventum that promises to crown the successfull endeavour; and such must certainly the knowledge of the efficient and concurrent causes of all these curious Geometrical Figures be, which has made the Philosophers hitherto to conclude nature in these things to play the Geometrician, according to that saying of Plato, Ὁ Θεὀς γεωμετρει. Or next, a great variety of matter in the Enquiry; and here we meet with nothing less than the Mathematicks of nature, having every day a new Figure to contemplate, or a variation of the same in another body,
Which do afford us a third thing, which will yet more sweeten the Enquiry, and that is, a multitude of information; we are not so much to grope in the dark, as in most other Enquiries, where the Inventum is great; for having such a multitude of instances to compare, and such easie ways of generating, or compounding and of destroying the form, as in the Solution and Crystallization of Salts, we cannot but learn plentifull information to proceed by. And this will further appear from the universality of the Principle which Nature has made use of almost in all inanimate bodies. And therefore, as the contemplation of them all conduces to the knowledg of any one; so from a Scientifical knowledge of any one does follow the fame of all, and every one.
And fourthly, for the usefulness of this knowledge, when acquir'd; certainly none can doubt, that considers that it caries us a step forward into the Labirinth of Nature, in the right way towards the end we propose our selves in all Philosophical Enquiries. So that knowing what is the form of Inanimate or Mineral bodies, we shall be the better able to proceed in our next Enquiry after the forms of Vegeta-
