UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. 7 



answer in matter of policy to union of countries by 

 conquest, where the conquering state doth ex 

 tinguish, extirpate, and expulse any part of the state 

 conquered, which it findeth so contrary as it cannot 

 alter and convert it. And therefore, leaving violent 

 unions, we will consider only of natural unions. 



The difference is excellent which the best ob 

 servers in nature do take between &quot; compositio&quot; and 

 &quot; mistio,&quot; putting together, and mingling : the one 

 being but a conjunction of bodies in place, the other 

 in quality and consent : the one the mother of sedi 

 tion and alteration, the other of peace and con 

 tinuance : the one rather a confusion than an union, 

 the other properly an union. Therefore we see 

 those bodies, which they call &quot; imperfecte mista,&quot; last 

 not, but are speedily dissolved. For take, for exam 

 ple, snow or froth, which are compositions of air and 

 water, and in them you may behold how easily they 

 sever and dissolve, the water closing together and 

 excluding the air. 



So those three bodies which the alchemists do so 

 much celebrate as the three principles of things ; 

 that is to say, earth, water, and oil, which it pleaseth 

 them to term salt, mercury, and sulphur, we see, if 

 they be united only by composition or putting 

 together, how weakly and rudely they do incor 

 porate : for water and earth make but an imperfect 

 slime ; and if they be forced together by agitation, 

 yet upon a little settling, the earth resideth in the 

 bottom. So water and oil, though by agitation it be 



