1 70 On the Identity of Silex and Oxygen, 



nature. Here, it Is allowed, the principal element x^ ox- 

 ygen ; but it is now in the gaseous state, that is, it is sa- 

 lurated with caloric. I have said, the principal element, 

 because it is the most important of all others :— it is tht^ 

 matrix of fire, it is the pabulum of life ; in short, such is 

 its consequence and value to the very being of all orcjanized 

 matters, whether in the animal, vegetable, or mineral king- 

 ■dom, that surely some more appropriate name might have 

 been devised, than what it now bears. Though it is a di- 

 gression, and remote from my plan, I shall take the liberty 

 to hint, that i^erely by modifying, that is in soirie measure 

 reversing, the theory which first employed the word phlo- 

 ghtoni both this word and the theory itself might with thfe 

 greatest propriety be revived: and the word phlogiston, 

 even in the theory of the present day, would more aptly suit 

 our comprehension of all the properties of pure air, than 

 that oi oxygen, which implies merely the generator of vine- 

 gar or sourness, a derivation of all others the most puny and 

 incomplete. 



The second grand division, is the ocean, sea, or water, 

 which we may name the aqueous portion of the whole. 

 Here we again recognise our oxygen, not only as the princi- 

 pal ingredient in magnitude, being about four- fifths of the 

 whole, but in all other respects claiming our first atten- 

 tion. In this water, the oxygen is further concentrated, 

 having lost a part of the caloric which it possessed in the 

 gaseous form, or in the atmospheric state ; so that, in this 

 case, we may tiow conceive it to be, in regard to density, 

 midway between earth and a:r; and that, by an abstraction 

 of more of its caloric, it must approach nearer to a state of 

 solidity. 



•V If oxygen, therefore, constitutes such a prominent and 

 ^hiking feature in two-thirds of the works of the Au- 

 thor x>f all creation— -which, in these cases, is a truth that 

 admits of no controversy. Why, it may be aptly demanded, 

 should it not, also, form the most conspicuous ingredient in 

 the other third, that is, the solid or real terrestrial portion of 

 this material world ? Analogy and the general complexion 

 of all the phasnonjcna of nature seem to answer in the 

 afiirmative, and, I think, will aflord &ome of the oipst legiti- 

 1 piate 



