28 



must have been at first invented, by those who ex 

 celled in the art, however afterwards they might be 

 put in practice by the meanest artizans. Those who 

 are engaged in the working of copper mines, for in. 

 stance, and know that the metal must pass above^a 

 dozen times through the fire, before it can acquire 

 its proper colour and ductility, will easily enter into 

 this sentiment. It is needless to bring together here 

 all the passages of heathen historians, which speak of 

 Vulcan, in the same manner as the sacred author does 

 of Tubal-Cain, and to shew the reader from the resem- 

 blance, and as it were identity of names, that all of 

 them relate to one and the same person. It is enough 

 to observe that those authors represent Vulcan as 

 skilled in operating upon iron, copper, gold, siher, 

 and all the other bodies capable of sustaining the 

 action of fire. 



3. I likewise pass over whatever carries in it the 

 air of fable, such as the story of the golden fleece, 

 the goldeifapples that grew in the gardens of (he 

 Hesperides, the reports of Manethon and Josephus, 

 ivith relations to Seth's pillars, and come to facts real 

 and established, and for the sake of chronology, I 

 shall still adhere to the sacred text, in contemplating 

 an action of Moses, who having broken the golden 

 calf, reduced it into powder to be mingled with water 

 and given to the Israelites to drink ; in one word, 

 rendered the gold potable ; an operation so difficult, 

 that it is entirely impracticable to most of the chy. 

 mists of our days, and owned by Boerhaave to be of 

 so exalted a kind, that it is unknown at present to 

 the most skilful. Yet it must bo admitted, that it 

 hath been looked upon by some able chymists as 

 practicable, who at the same time acknowledge it to 

 be a most remarkable proof of Moses* eminent skill 

 in all the wisdom of Egypt. For how, w ithout the 

 aid of chymistry, could Moses have dissolved the 

 golden calf, and that too without applying corrosives, 

 which would have poisoned all who had afterwards 



