of XFO <R$>-S HIXE. 231 



ingan opinion fo very rational and unlikely to fail, when brought 

 to the teft, I thought fit to propound it to the Ingenious, though 

 the Pre/? would not give us leave firft to experiment ic our felves-* 

 Whence I proceed, . 



38. To fuch Afti as relate to the Fire, which I have placed next, 

 in regard we have knowledge of no other but what is Culinary 

 that in the concave of the Mcon being only a dream of t\\eJncU 

 ents. Amongft which, we muft not forget the perpetual, at 

 leaft long-lived Lamps, invented by the Right Worfhipful Sir 

 Chriftopher Wren ; nor his Regifters of Chymical Furnaces for keepi- 

 ingaconftant heat in order to divers ufes ; fuch as imitation of 

 Nature in the produ&ion of Foff/les, Plants, Infecls ; batching of 

 Eggs, keeping the motions of Watches equal, in reference to Lon^- 

 gitudes and Agronomical ufes, and feveral other advantages b . 



39. But amongft all the Fire-worh ever yet produced by the 

 Art of Man, there is none fo wonderful as that of Frier Bacon, 

 mention'd in his Epiftle ad Parifienjem, where fpeaking of the 

 fecret works of Nature and Arts, he has thefe words, In omnem 

 diSiantiam quam volumws poffumusartificialiter,componere ignem,com- 

 burentem ex [ale Petr<z, (sr aliis c ; which alia, as the Reverend and 

 Learned Dr.fohnWallis faw it in a MS. Copy of the fame Roger 

 Bacon, in the hands of the Learned Dr. Ger. Langbain, late Pro- 

 voft of Queens College, were Sulphur, and Carbonumpulvh : con- 

 cerning which, after awhile he further adds: Prater h<xc(\.e. 

 combvfUcnem) funt alia flupenda nature, nam font velutTonitrut, {*? 

 corufcationes peffunt fieri in aere, imo majore horrore, quam ilia qu< 

 fiunt per naturam : Nam modica materia adapta, fc. ad quant it at em 

 uniu* polUcit, fonum facit horribilem (y corufcationem ojlendit violent 

 tern, is hoc fit multitmodh quibws Civitasaut Fxercitws deftruatur. 



Igneexfiliente cum fragore in&flimabili Mir a h&c funt fi quh 



Jciretuti ad plenum in debita quantitate isr materia. 



40. That is, that of Salt-peter, and other matters, viz^. Sul- 

 phur, and the duft of coal, he could make fire that fhould burn at 

 what diftance he pleafed ; and further, that with the fame mat- 

 ter he could make founds like Thunder, and corufcations in the 

 air more dreadful than thofe made by Nature : For, fays he, a 

 little of this matter rightly fitted, though not bigger than ones 

 Thumb, makes a horrible noife, and (hews a violent corufcation, 



k Hiftory of the Royal Society, Part.i-futfmim. c JnEpifl.adTarifienfetn.cap >'>. 



which 



