On the Division of Chymistry. 7

the nature of spirits, in which the phlegm mentioned before follows, but rather it is a mere dense salt, remaining in a state of fluidity by means of water and the subtle matter contained therein, as is the case with spirit of vitriol, salt, and so forth. Sulphur or oil consists of thick, branching particles, mobile and fluid only by the aid of the volatile saline spirit. This is produced in the following way, both in nature and in art: all spirituous particles are by no means stable by themselves and would exist as continuously wandering if they were not restrained in another earthly body. But when caught and imprisoned in these branching earthly bodies, according to the quantity of aqueous particles—there existing in greater or lesser abundance together with the earthly particles—they assume to themselves a branching or viscous nature. Whence, in the beginning, vegetables, animals, and other bodies are mostly aqueous and viscous, so that they obtain a loose structure, adapted for the further entry of more solid and fluid particles, which, afterwards freed from superfluous humidity, pass into a branching or resinous substance. These particles, subsequently subjected to fire, adhere most persistently to one another, and when elevated on high and caught in a receiver, they constitute a fluid, branching body, consisting of mere lighter earthly particles, the most subtle spirit, and a little water.

There is given a double principle of this name, namely the essential and the empyreumatic.