Salts concur in many operations of Nature by the power they have of dissolving other substances; for, although it is commonly said, that water dissolves salt, it is easy to be perceived, that in reality, when there is a dissolution, both are active, and may be alike called _dissolvents_. Regarding salt as only a dissolvent, the body to be dissolved may be either liquid or solid; and, provided the parts of the salt be sufficiently divided to touch immediately those of the other substances, they will act and produce all the effects of dissolution. By this we see how much the action of salts, and the action of the element of water which contains them, must have influence on the composition of mineral matters. Nature may produce by this mode, all that our arts produce by that of fire. Time only is required for salts and water to produce on the most compact and hard substances, the most complete division and attenuation of their parts, so as to render them capable of uniting with all analogous substances, and to separate from all others; but this time, which to Nature is never wanting, is, of all things, that which is the most deficient to us: the greatest of all our arts, therefore, is that of abridging time, that is, to effect that in one day, which nature takes an age to perform. However vain this pretension may appear, we must not entirely renounce it, for has not man discovered the mode of creating fire, of applying it to his use, and by the means of this element to suddenly dissolve those bodies by fusion which would require a considerable period by any other means?