Metallic Substances have affinities with each other which differ according to their different kinds: but this is not universal; for some of them are incapable of any sort of union with some others. It must be observed, that Metallic Substances will not unite, except they be both in a similar state; that is, both in a Metalline form, or both in the form of a Glass; for a Metalline Substance retaining its phlogiston cannot contract an union with any metallic glass, even its own. CHAP. VII. _Of_ METALS. There are six Metals, of which two are Perfect and four Imperfect. The perfect Metals are Gold and Silver; the others are Copper, Tin, Lead, and Iron. Some Chymists admit a seventh Metal, to wit, Quick-silver: but as it is not malleable, it has been generally considered as a metallic body of a particular kind. We shall soon have occasion to examine it more minutely. The ancient Chymists, or rather the Alchymists, who fancied a certain relation or analogy between Metals and the Heavenly Bodies, bestowed on the seven Metals, reckoning Quick-silver one of them, the names of the seven Planets of the Ancients, according to the affinity which they imagined they observed between those several bodies. Thus Gold was called _Sol_, Silver _Luna_, Copper _Venus_, Tin _Jupiter_, Lead _Saturn_, Iron _Mars_, and Quick-silver _Mercury_. Though these names were assigned for reasons merely chimerical, yet they still keep their ground; so that it is not uncommon to find the Metals called by the names, and denoted by the characters, of the Planets, in the writings even of the best Chymists. Metals are the heaviest bodies known in nature. SECTION I. _Of_ GOLD. Gold is the heaviest of all Metals. The arts of wire-drawing and gold-beating shew its wonderful ductility. The greatest violence of fire is not able to produce any alteration in it. Indeed Mr. Homberg, a famous Chymist, pretended that he had made this metal fume, and even vitrified it, by exposing it to the focus of one of the best burning-glasses, known by the name of the Lens of the _Palais Royal_: but, there are very good reasons for calling in question the experiments he made on this occasion, or rather for thinking that he was quite mistaken. For, 1. No man hath since been able to vitrify Gold, though several good Experimenters have assiduously tried to effect it, by exposing it to the focus of the same lens, and of other burning-glasses still stronger. 2. It hath been observed, that though Gold, when exposed to the focus of those glasses, did indeed emit some vapours and decrease in weight; yet, those vapours being carefully collected on a piece of paper, proved to be true Gold, in no degree vitrified, and which consequently had suffered no change but that of being carried away by the violence of the heat, its nature not being in the least altered.