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The first of which is Invocation of God. The second, Contemplation of Nature. The third, True Preparation. The fourth, the Way of Using. The fifth, Utility and Fruit. For he who regards not these, shall never obtain place among true Chymists, or fill up the number of perfect Spagyrists.
'Tis known among Chymists, that the white Calx of Antimony, by the further and more vehement operation of the fire, may be melted into Glass, which we have obtain'd of a Red Colour, which is far deeper than that of the Calx of Burnt Antimony, and though common Glafs of Antimony being usually Adulterated with Borax, have its Colour thereby diluted, oftentimes to a very pale Yellow; yet not onely ours made more sincerily, was, as we said, of a Colour less remote from Black, than was the Calx; but we observ'd, that by Melting it once or twice more, and so exposing it to the further operation of the Fire, we had, as we expected, the Colour heightned.
Tin also, that wants not, according to the Chymists, a Sulphur Joviale, when throughly burned by the fire into a Calx, is not Black, but eminently White. And I lately noted to you out of Bellonius, that the Charcoals of Oxy-cedar are not of the former of these two Colours, but of the latter.
I find a sensuous pleasure, almost a sensual, in dabbling in delicate drugs like Helen, for that matter, and Medea, and Calypso, and the great antique women, who were all excellent chymists. To study the human ship in a gale, and the slow drama of its foundering isn't that a quite thrilling distraction? And I want you to get into the habit at once of letting me have my little way
When first I collected these authorities, I was desirous that every quotation should be useful to some other end than the illustration of a word; I therefore extracted from philosophers principles of science; from historians remarkable facts; from chymists complete processes; from divines striking exhortations; and from poets beautiful descriptions.
Nay, that Black Mineral Antimony it self, being reduc'd by and with the Salts that concurr to the Composition of common Sublimate, into that Cleer though Unctuous Liquor that Chymists commonly call Rectifi'd Butter of Antimony, will by the bare affusion of store of Fair Water be struck down into that Snow-white Powder, which when the adhering Saltness is well wash'd off, Chymists are pleas'd to call Mercurius Vitæ, though the like Powder may be made of Antimony, without the addition of any Mercury at all.
Having then observ'd, that Mercury being dissolv'd in Some Menstruums, would yield a dark Yellow Precipitate, and supposing that, as to this, common Water, and the Salts that stick to the Mercury would be equivalent to those Acid Menstruums, which work upon the Quick-silver, upon the account of their Saline particles, I substituted a Solution of Sublimate in fair Water, instead of a Solution of Mercury in Aqua-fortis, or Spirit of Nitre, that simple Solution being both clearer and free from that very offensive Smell, which accompanies the Solutions of Mercury made with those other corrosive Liquors; then I consider'd, that That, which makes the Yellow Colour, is indeed but a Precipitate made by the means of the Oyl of Tartar, which we drop in, and which, as Chymists know, does generally precipitate Metalline Bodies corroded by Acid Salts; so that the Colour in our case results from the Coalition of the Mercurial particles with the Saline ones, wherewith they were formerly associated, and with the Alcalizate particles of the Salt of Tartar that swim up and down in the Oyl.
You know that of late divers Learned Men, having adopted the three Hypostatical Principles, besides other Notions of the Chymists, are very inclinable to reduce all Qualities of Bodies to one or other of those three Principles, and Particularly assign for the cause of Blackness the Sootie steam of adust or torrifi'd Sulphur.
It would much contribute to the History of Colours, if Chymists would in their Laboratories take a heedfull notice, and give us a faithfull account of the Colours observ'd in the Steams of Bodies either Sublim'd or Distill'd, and of the Colours of those Productions of the Fire, that are made up by the Coalition of those Steams.
What certain Kinds of Commotion or Dislocation of the Parts of a Body may do towards the Changing its Colour, is not only evident in the Mutations of Colour observable in Quick-silver, and some other Concretes long kept by Chymists in a Convenient Heat, though in close Vessels, but in the Obvious Degenerations of Colour, which every Body may take notice of in Bruis'd Cherries, and other Fruit, by comparing after a while the Colour of the Injur'd with that of the Sound part of the same Fruit.
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