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IV. All theſe we are (plainly ſpeaking) to judge formed by the Concretion of Matter pure and equal in its conſtituent Parts; which has been brought together in that State by mere Affiux; or by means of ſome Kind of Percolation; or ſeparated, as before obſerved, from the impurer Matter it was once among, in ſome other
veries have reduced us to a Neceſſity of owning only two, viſible, obvious, and the Objects of our Senſes: and even theſe two may perhaps hereafter be proved to be more nearly allied to each other than we at preſent imagine: theſe are Water and Earth; the very Principles, and the only ones acknowledged by this excellent Author, on whoſe Works I am offering my Remarks; and who, to his immortal Honour be it recorded, diſcovered that by Reaſon and Philoſophy alone, of which we owe the Knowledge to a thouſand tedious Experiments.
His Syſtem, though founded on this excellent Baſis, I do not, as I before obſerved, attempt to juſtify: Obſervations, which it was impoſſible for him to make, have given us the Teſtimony of our Senſes, that Metals do contain more or leſs of an abſolute, genuine, and vitrifiable Earth; and Stones, it is as certain, are never wholly diveſted of that Water which once ſerved to bring their conſtituent Parts together.
But to return to the Principles of mixed Bodies: Reaſon informs us, that theſe two, Water and Earth, alone can never have made all the Differences, and Virtues of them; we are compelled therefore to acknowledge a third, as obvious to our Reaſon as the others to our Senſes; an active Something, to give that to the Maſs, which Water and Earth alone could not: This unknown Principle is what ſome Chemiſts have called Acid, and the Metaphyſicians Fire; Words which in their general and common Acceptation convey Ideas very different from thoſe we mean to expreſs by them on this Occaſion, but in the Uſe of which we muſt be indulged, till a more perfect Knowledge of the Thing we mean to expreſs has taught us to give it a more determinate Name.
