14 
MicROGRAPHIA. 
fe.and expand it felf into a waft space, if it have room enough, and 
Efect 4 it eee part of that fpace. But,as on the other fide,if there 
be but fome few grains of the liquor, it may extraé all the colour of the 
tinging fubftance, and may difolve all the Sale, and thereby become 
much more impregnated with thole fubftances, fo may al! the air that faf 
ficed ina rarifyd ftate to fill {ome hundred thoufaud {paces of Hither, be 
pestis in = — in a pofition proportionable dene. And though 
we have not yet found out fuch framers for Tinctures and Salts as we 
have for the Air, being yet unable to /eparate them from their diflolving 
liquors by any kind of fire, without rareee as we are'able to /e- 
a 
parate the Air from the ther by G/a/s, and feveral other bodies: And 
though we are yet unable and ignorant of the ways of precipitating Air 
out of the A‘ther as we can Tinctures, and Salts out of feveral difolvents; 
yet neither of thefe feeming s~polfible from the nature’ of the things, nor 
{o improbable but that fome happy future induftry may find out ways to 
effect them; nay, further, fince we find that Nature does really perform 
(though by what means we arenot certain) both thefe actions, namely, 
by precipitating the Ait in Rain and Dews, and by fupplying the Streams 
and Rivers of the World with frefh water, ffrain’d through fectet fub- 
terraneous Caverns: And fince, that in very many other proprieties they 
do {6 exactly feew of the fame nature 5 till further obfervations or 
tryals do inform us of the contrary, we may fafely enough conclude them of 
the fame kind. For it feldomhappens that any two natures have fo ma- 
ny properties coswcident or the fame, as 1 have obferv'd Solutions and. 
Air to have, and to be different in the reft. And therefore I think itnei- 
ther tmpoffible, irrational, nay nor difficult to be able to predi&: what is 
Lekely to happen in othereparticulars alfo, befidesthofe which Obfervation 
or Experiment have declared thus or thus; efpecially, ifthe circum — 
féances that do often very much conduce to the variation of the effeéts be _ 
duly meigh'd and confider'd. Andindeed, weretherenot a probability of 
this, our ixquiries would be endlefs, our tryals vain, and our greateft ins 
ventions would be nothing but the meer produés of chance, and not of 
Reafon and, like Mariners in an Ocean, deftitute both of a Compajs and 
the fight of the Celeftialguids, we might indeed, by chance, Steer diretly 
towards our defired Port, but ‘tis ¢ thoufand to one but we mi our aim. 
But to proceed, we may hence alfo give a plain reafon, how the Air comes 
to be darkned by clouds, &c. which are nothing but-a kind of precipitati« 
on, and how thole precipitations fall down in Showrs. Hence alfacould 
I very ealily, and I think truly, deduce the caufe of the curious fixangu- 
lar figures of Snow, and the appearances of Haloes, Oc. and the fadden 
thickving of the Sky with Clouds, and the vanifhing and difappearing of 
thofe Clouds again; for all thefethingsmay be very eafily imitated ina 
gla/s of liquor with fome flight Chymical preparations as I have often try d, 
and may fomewhere elfe more largely relate, but have not now time to 
fet them down. But to proceed, there are otherbodies that confiftcf — 
particles more Gros, and of a more apt figure for cobelion, and this re- 
quires a fomewhat greater agitation; fuch, I fuppofe ¥. fermented vinous 
| : Spirits 
