48 



A HISTORY OP 



CHAPTER XIII. 



OF WATER. 



IN contemplating nature, we shall often find 

 the same substances possessed of contrary 

 qualities, and producing opposite effects. Air, 

 which liquefies one substance, dries up ano- 

 ther. That fire which is seen to burn up the 

 desert, is often found, in other places, to assist 

 the luxuriance of vegetation; and water, 

 which, next to fire, is the most fluid substance 

 upon earth, nevertheless gives all other bo- 

 dies their firmness and durability ; so that 

 every element seems to be a powerful servant, 

 capable either of good or ill, and only await- 

 ing external direction, to become the friend 

 or the enemy of mankind. These opposite 

 qualities, in this substance in particular, 

 have not failed to excite the admiration and 

 inquiry of the curious. 



That water is the most fluid penetrating 

 body, next to fire, and the most difficult to 

 confine, is incontestably proved by a vari- 

 ety of experiments. A vessel through which 

 water cannot pass, may be said to retain any 

 thing. It may be objected, indeed, that syrups, 

 oils, and honey, leak through some vessels 

 that water cannot pass through ; but this is 

 far from facing the result of the greater tenuity 

 and fineness of their parts ; it is owing to 

 the rosin wherewith the wood of such vessels 

 abounds, which oils and syrups have a power 

 of dissolving; so that these fluids, instead of 

 finding their way, may more properly be said 

 to eat their way through the vessels that con- 

 tain them. However, water will at last find its 

 way even through these ; for it is known to 

 ascape through vessels of every substance, 

 glass only excepted. Other bodies may be 

 ifound to make their way out more readily in- 

 deed ; as air, when it finds a vent, will escape 

 at once; and quicksilver, because of its weight, 

 quickly penetrates through whatever chinky 

 vessel confines it : but water, though it oper- 

 ates more slowly, yet always finds a more cer- 

 tain issue. As, for instance, it. is well known 

 that air will not pass through leather ; which 

 water will very readily penetrate. Air also 



may be retained in a bladder; but water will 

 quickly ooze through. And those who drive 

 this to the greatest degree of precision, pre- 

 tend to say, that it will pass through pores 

 ten times smaller than air can do. Be this as 

 it may, we are very certain that its parts are 

 so small that they have been actually driven 

 through the pores of gold. This has been 

 proved by the famous Florentine experiment, 

 in which a quantity of water was shut up in a 

 hollow ball of gold, and then pressed with a 

 huge force by screws, during which the fluid 

 was seen to ooze out through the pores of the 

 metal, and to stand, like a dew, upon its sur- 

 face. 



As water is thus penetrating, and its parts 

 thus minute, it may easily be supposed that 

 they enter into the composition of all bodies, 

 vegetable, animal, and fossil. This every chy- 

 mist's experience convinces him of; and the 

 mixture is the more obvious, as it can always 

 be separated, by a gentle heat, from those 

 substances with which it had been united. 

 Fire, as was said, will penetrate where water 

 cannot pass ; but then it is not so easily to be 

 separated. But there is scarce any substance 

 from which its water cannot be divorced. 

 The parings or filings of lead, tin, and antimo- 

 ny, by distillation, yield water plentifully : the 

 hardest stones, sea-salt, nitre, vitriol, and sul- 

 phur, are found to consist chiefly of water; 

 into which they resolve by force of fire. "All 

 birds, beasts, and fishes," says Newton, " in- 

 sects, trees, and vegetables, with their parts, 

 grow from water ; and, by putrefaction, return 

 to water again." In short, almost every sub- 

 stance that we see, owes its texture and firm- 

 ness to the parts of water that mix with its 

 earth ; and, deprived of this fluid, it becomes 

 a mass of shapeless dust and ashes. 



From hence we see, as was above hinted, 

 that this most fluid body, when mixed with 

 others, gives them consistence and form. Wa- 

 ter, by being mixed with earth or ashes, and 

 formed into a vessel, when baked before the 



