Metalline Mercuries, I had not _wondred_ at it, though you had expressed much more severity in speaking of them: For I remember that having once met an old and famous Artist, who had long been (and still is) Chymist to a great Monarch, the repute he had of a very honest man invited me to desire him to tell me ingenuously whether or no, among his many labours, he had ever really extracted a true and running Mercury out of Metalls; to which question he freely replyed, that he had never separated a true Mercury from any Metal; nor had ever seen it really done by any man else. And though Gold is, of all Metalls, That, whose Mercury Chymists have most endeavoured to extract, and which they do the most brag they have extracted; yet the Experienced _Angelus Sala_, in his _Spagyrical_ account of the seven _Terrestrial_ Planets (that is the seven metalls) affords us this memorable Testimony, to, our present purpose; _Quanquam_ (saies he) _&c. experientia tamen (quam stultorum Magistrum [Errata: Magistram] vocamus) certe Comprobavit, Mercurium auri adeo fixum, maturum, & arcte cum reliquis ejusdem corporis substantiis conjungi, ut nullo modo retrogredi possit._ To which he sub-joynes, that he himself had seen much Labour spent upon that Design, but could never see any such Mercury produc'd thereby. And I easily beleeve what he annexes; _that he had often seen Detected many tricks and Impostures of Cheating_ Alchymists. For, the most part of those that are fond of such _Charlatans_, being unskilfull or Credulous, or both, 'tis very easie for such as have some Skill, much craft, more boldness, and no Conscience, to impose upon them; and therefore, though many profess'd _Alchymists_, and divers Persons of Quality have told me that they have made or seen the Mercury of Gold, or of this or that other Metal; yet I have been still apt to fear that either these persons have had a Design to deceive others; or have not had Skill and circumspection enough to keep themselves from being deceived. [Footnote 11: Sennert. lib. de cons. & dissens. pag. 147.] [Footnote 12: Helmon. pag. 409.] [Footnote 13: Quercet. apud Billich. in Thessalo redivivo. pag. 99.]