It seems also by what is delivered in _Strabo_[8] out of another Author, concerning the _Indians_, That they likewise held that all things had differing Beginnings, but that of which the World was made, was Water. And the like Opinion has been by some of the Antients ascrib'd to the _Phoenicians_, from whom _Thales_ himself is conceiv'd to have borrow'd it; as probably the Greeks did much of their Theologie, and, as I am apt to think, of their Philosophy too; since the Devising of the Atomical _Hypothesis_ commonly ascrib'd to _Lucippus_ and his Disciple _Democritus_, is by Learned Men attributed to one _Moschus_ a _Phoenician_. And possibly the Opinion is yet antienter than so; For 'tis known that the _Phoenicians_ borrow'd most of their Learning from the _Hebrews_. And among those that acknowledge the Books of _Moses_, many have been inclin'd to think Water to have been the Primitive and Universal Matter, by perusing the Beginning of _Genesis_, where the Waters seem to be mention'd as the Material Cause, not only of Sublunary Compounded Bodies, but of all those that make up the Universe; whose Component Parts did orderly, as it were, emerge out of that vast Abysse, by the Operation of the Spirit of God, who is said to have been moving Himself as hatching Females do (as the Original [Hebrew: merachephet], _Meracephet_[9] is said to Import, and as it seems to signifie in one of the two other places, wherein alone I have met with it in the Hebrew Bible)[10] upon the Face of the Waters; which being, as may be suppos'd, Divinely Impregnated with the seeds of all things, were by that productive Incubation qualify'd to produce them. But you, I presume, Expect that I should Discourse of this Matter like a Naturalist, not a Philologer. Wherefore I shall add, to Countenance _Helmont's_ Opinion, That whereas he gives not, that I remember, any Instance of any Mineral Body, nor scarce of any Animal, generated of Water, a French Chymist, _Monsieur de Rochas_, has presented his Readers an Experiment, which if it were punctually such as he has deliver'd it, is very Notable. He then, Discoursing of the Generation of things according to certain Chymical and Metaphorical Notions (which I confess are not to me Intelligible) sets down, among divers Speculations not pertinent to our Subject, the following Narrative, which I shall repeat to you the sence of in English, with as little variation from the Literal sence of the French words, as my memory will enable me. _Having_ (sayes he) _discern'd such great Wonders by the Natural Operation of Water, I would know what may be done with it by Art Imitating Nature. Wherefore I took Water which I well knew not to be compounded, nor to be mix'd with any other thing than that Spirit of Life_ (whereof he had spoken before;) _and with a Heat Artificial, Continual and Proportionate, I prepar'd and dispos'd it by the above mention'd Graduations of Coagulation, Congelation, and Fixation, untill it was turn'd into