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elrank of the waters? Yet this was lobe done, and 

 in a short time too, though there be but one way of 

 doing it. Frederic the Third, King of Denmark,, cu- 

 rious to put this operation in practice, engaged some 

 able chymists to attempt it. After many trials, they 

 at last succeeded, but it was in following the me. 

 thod of Moses, by first reducing the gold into small 

 parts by means of fire, and then pounding in a 

 mortar (along with water) till it was so far dissolved 

 as to become potable. This fact cannot be called in 

 question, nor has it any thing supernatural in it. 

 We know that Moses was instructed in all the learn, 

 ing of the Egyptians, among whom the sciences were 

 cultivated with all manner of success, and from whom 

 the most eminent philosophers of Greece derived their 

 knowledge. 



4, How th^y formed that cement, which they ap- 

 plied ia rearing these monuments that still subsist, 

 remains a secret to us ; though it be past ail doubt, 

 that they prepared it in a chymical way, so hidden 

 however to u?, that we daily lament the loss of it. 

 The numberless mummies which still endure, after so 

 long a course of ages, ought to ascertain to the 

 Egyptians the glory of having carried chymistry to 

 a degree of perfection attained but by few. In their 

 mummies alone, there is such a series of operations, 

 that some of them still remain unknown, notwith. 

 standing all the attempts of some of the abbst mo. 

 derus to recover them. The art of embalming bo- 

 dies, and preserving them for many ages, i* absolutely 

 lost, and never could have been carried so far as it 

 was by tite Egyptians, without the greatest skill ia 

 chymistry. Ai the essays to restore this art, have 

 proved ineffectual, nor have the reiterated analysis 

 made of mummies, to discover the ingredients of which 

 they were composed had any better success. Some 

 moderns have attempted, by certain preparations, to 

 preserve dead bodies entire, but to no purpose. The 

 mummies of Lewis dc iiils, who was regarded as emi* 



