CENTURY VIII. 4-23 



man, almost, will think on. This would be better 

 inquired : and the quantity of the fifteenth turned to 

 a twentieth ; and likewise with some little additional, 

 that may further the intrinsic incorporation. Note, 

 that silver in gold will be detected, by weight, com 

 pared with the dimension ; but lead in silver, lead 

 being the weightier metal, will not be detected, if 

 you take so much the more silver as will countervail 

 the over- weight of the lead. 



Experiment solitary touching fixation of bodies. 



799. Gold is the only substance which hath no 

 thing in it volatile, and yet melteth without much dif 

 ficulty. The melting sheweth that it is not jejune, or 

 scarce in spirit. So that the fixing of it is not want 

 of spirit to fly out, but the equal spreading of the tan- 

 gible parts, and the close coacervation of them : 

 whereby they have the less appetite, and no means at 

 all to issue forth. It were good therefore to try, 

 whether glass remolten do lose any weight ? for the 

 parts in glass are evenly spread ; but they are not so 

 close as in gold ; as we see by the easy admission of 

 light, heat, and cold ; and by the smallness of the 

 weight. There be other bodies fixed, which have 

 little or no spirit, so as there is nothing to fly out ; as 

 we see in the stuff whereof coppels are made, which 

 they put into furnaces, upon which fire worketh not ; 

 so that there are three causes of fixation ; the even 

 spreading both of the spirits and tangible parts, the 

 closeness of the tangible parts, and the jejuneness or 



