it suffer] the Liquor to be drawn off, as strong as it was pour'd on) when the Salt of Tartar from which it is Distill'd hath retain'd, or depriv'd it of the Sulphureous parts of the Spirit of Wine, the rest, which is incomparably the greater part of the Liquor, will remigrate into Phlegm. I added that Clause [_In case what he Relates be True_] because I have not as yet sufficiently try'd it my self. But not only something of Experiment keeps me from thinking it, as many Chymists do, absurd, (though I have, as well as they, in vain try'd it with ordinary Salt of Tartar;) but besides that _Helmont_ often Relates it, and draws Consequences from it; A Person noted for his Sobernesse and Skill in Spagyrical Preparations, having been askt by me, Whether the Experiment might not be made to succeed, if the Salt and Spirit were prepar'd according to a way suitable to my Principles, he affirm'd to me, that he had that way I propos'd made _Helmont's_ Experiment succeed very well, without adding any thing to the Salt and Spirit. But our way is neither short nor Easie. I have indeed (sayes _Carneades_) sometimes wonder'd to see how much Phlegme may be obtain'd from Bodies by the Fire. But concerning that Phlegme I may anon have Occasion to note something, which I therefore shall not now anticipate. But to return to the Opinion of _Thales_, and of _Helmont_, I consider, that supposing the _Alkahest_ could reduce all Bodies into water, yet whether that water, because insipid, must be Elementary, may not groundlesly be doubted; For I remember the Candid and Eloquent _Petrus Laurembergius_ in his Notes upon _Sala's_ Aphorismes affirmes, that he saw an insipid _Menstruum_ that was a powerfull Dissolvent, and (if my Memory do not much mis-informe me) could dissolve Gold. And the water which may be Drawn from Quicksilver without Addition, though it be almost Tastless, You will I believe think of a differing Nature from simple Water, especially if you Digest in it Appropriated Mineralls. To which I shall add but this, that this Consideration may be further extended. For I see no Necessity to conceive that the Water mention'd in the Beginning of _Genesis_, as the Universal Matter, was simple and Elementary Water; since though we should Suppose it to have been an Agitated Congeries or Heap consisting of a great Variety of Seminal Principles and Rudiments, and of other Corpuscles fit to be subdu'd and Fashion'd by them, it might yet be a Body Fluid like Water, in case the Corpuscles it was made up of, were by their Creator made small enough, and put into such an actuall Motion as might make them Glide along one another. And as we now say, the Sea consists of Water, notwithstanding [Errata: (notwithstanding] the Saline, Terrestrial, and other Bodies mingl'd with it,) such a Liquor may well enough be called Water, because that was the greatest of the known Bodies whereunto it was like; Though, that a Body may be Fluid enough to appear a Liquor, and