CENTURY IV. 159 



325. Take an apple, and cut out a piece of the 

 top, and cover it, to see whether that solution of con 

 tinuity will not hasten a maturation : we see that 

 where a wasp, or a fly, or a worm hath bitten, in a 

 grape, or any fruit, it will sweeten hastily. 



326. Take an apple, &c. and prick it with a pin 

 full of holes, not deep, and smear it a little with sack, 

 or cinnamon water, or spirit of wine, every day for 

 ten days, to see if the virtual heat of the wine or 

 strong waters will not mature it. 



In these trials also, as was used in the first, set 

 another of the same fruits by to compare them ; 

 and try them by their yellowness and by their 

 sweetness. 



Experiment solitary touching the making of gold. 



The world hath been much abused by the opi 

 nion of making of gold : the work itself I judge to 

 be possible ; but the means hitherto propounded to 

 effect it are, in the practice, full of error and impos 

 ture, and in the theory, full of unsound imaginations. 

 For to say, that nature hath an intention to make 

 all metals gold ; and that, if she were delivered 

 from impediments, she would perform her own work ; 

 and that, if the crudities, impurities, and leprosities 

 of metals were cured, they would become gold ; and 

 that a little quantity of the medicine, in the work of 

 projection, will turn a sea of the baser metal into 

 gold by multiplying : all these are but dreams; and 

 so are many other grounds of alchemy. And to help 

 the matter, the alchemists call in likewise many 



