Robert Boyle

And of universal nature, the notion I would offer, should be something like this. Nature is the aggregate of the bodies, that make up the world, in its present state, considered as a principle, by virtue whereof, they act and suffer, …

I cannot conceive, how a body, destitute of understanding and sense, truly so called, can moderate and determine its own motions; especially so as to make them conformable to laws that it has no knowledge of.

Doubtless, it shews the wisdom of God, to have so fram'd things at first, that there can seldom or never need any extraordinary interposition of his power; or the employing from, time to time, an intelligent overseer, to regulate, assist, …

And first the Doctrine that all their Theory is grounded on, seems to me Inevident and undemonstrated, not to say precarious.

But if judicious men skilled in Chymical affairs shall once agree to write clearly and plainly

admire most what they least understand.

the ignorant and credulous (of which the number is still much greater then that of the other)

they are encourag'd to get themselves a name, at the cost of the Readers

and therein to Assert what they please, and contradict others, and ev'n themselves as they please

abuse the World. For whilst such Men are quietly permitted to publish Books

I could wish, that Learned Men would conspire together to make these deluding Writers sensible, that they must no longe

are many of them farr enough from Elementary simplicity, and may be yet look'd upon as mixt Bodies

instance the several substances separated by the Fire from a Mixt Body, as a sufficient proof of their being its component Elements: Yet those

it will be lesse considerable to know, what Men Have thought of Things, then what they Should have thought.

I Doubt not but my Arguments against their Doctrine will be

And if the matter of the Philosophers Stone, and the manner of preparing it, be such Mysteries as they would have the World believe them, they may Write Intelligibly and Clearly of the Principles of mixt Bodies in General, without …

when they pretend to teach the General Principles of Natural Philosophers, this Equivocall Way of Writing is not to be endur'd.

divers of them, being Conscious to the Invalidity of their Doctrine, might well enough discerne that they could scarce keep themselves from being confuted, but by keeping themselves from being clearly understood.

I fear that the chief Reason why Chymists have written so obscurely of their three Principles, may be, That not having Clear and Distinct Notions of them themselves, they cannot write otherwise then Confusedly of what they but Confusedly …

Chymists write thus darkly, not because they think their Notions too precious to be explain'd, but because they fear that if they were explain'd, men would discern, that they are farr from being precious.

Those distinct substances, which concretes generally either afford, or are made up of, may, without very much inconvenience, be called the elements or principles of them.

Epicurus... supposes not only all mixt bodies, but all others to be produced by the various and casual occursions of atoms, moving themselves to and fro by an internal principle in the immense or rather infinite vacuum.

It seems not absurd to conceive, that at first production of mixt bodies, the universal matter, whereof they among other parts of the universe consisted, was actually divided, into little particles, of several sizes and shapes, variously …

A Person any Thing vers’d in the Writings of Chymists cannot but Discern by their obscure, Ambiguous, and almost Ænigmatical Way of expressing what they pretend to Teach, that they have no Mind, to be understood at all, but by the Sons of …