On tJie Identity of Silex and Oxygen. 1 69 



published, though unaccompanied with any explanation or 

 proof, and as the work * has now arrived at 'us second edi- 

 tion, it becomes my duty to absolve its author from all re- 

 sponsibility 'y and, rather than any blame should attach to 

 him, avow myself as the only person, who is accountable for 

 promulgating tenets, which to many philosophers must 

 have appeared to be visionary. 



It is scarcely necessary to explain what Is here meant by 

 the word silex. But, that I may be clearly understood, I shall 

 define it to be, the very pure part of rock-crystal, and that 

 which constitutes by far the greatest portion of all sand, flint, 

 gravel, and other well described rocks, stones, and minerals : 

 a substance common in every spot of the globe, in every 

 zowQ^ anjd in every climate; and an article so obvious and 

 familiar to the meanest capacity, that any further descrip- 

 tion would be superfluous, I shall just observe, that 'in 

 rock-crystal, in quartz, and in hot-springs, silex is nearly in 

 its pure and primitive stale of perfection. 



There is no subject, in which analogical reasoning is more 

 admissible or more conducive to arrive at the truth, than the 

 one before us : and indeed, whenever the discussion has for 

 its object the works of nature, as in chemistry and its sister- 

 science, geology, I do not see it possible how this mode of 

 argument can be wciravoided. It was analogy that led the 

 penetrating mind of a Newton to some of the most brilliant 

 of his discoveries ; and it was the same faithful guide that 

 conducted this immortal philosopher to predict some of the 

 most important truths, which have since been so completely 

 established by the experiments of his successors. The com- 

 'bustible nature of the diamond, and likewise that of water, 

 are among these examples : they are facts that will for ever 

 bear testimony to the great advantages that may be derived 

 from this nicthod of searching into the secrets of Nature*s 

 unerring works^ and the laws which these obey. 



Now, to apply this mode of reasoning to the present 

 object of research, let us consider this our sublunary 

 world under its three grand divisions. The first, is the at- 

 piosphere, which surrounds and compresses the whole of 

 the others; an4 this may be called iht^ aerijorrn division of 



* " Clicii^ical Cjitechisnx." 



nature 



