THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 51 



bring forth living creatures abundantly, and with- 

 out which those that inhabit the land, even all 

 creatures that have breath in their nostrils, must 

 suddenly return to putrefaction. Moses, the great 

 lawgiver and chief philosopher, skilled in all the 

 learning of the Egyptians, who was called the friend 

 of God, and knew the mind of the Almighty, names 

 this element the first in the creation : this is the ele- 

 ment upon which the Spirit of God did first move, 

 and is the chief ingredient in the creation ; many 

 philosophers have made it to comprehend all the 

 other elements, and most allow it the chiefest in 

 the mixtion of all living creatures. 



There be that profess to believe that all bodies 

 are made of water, and may be reduced back again 

 to water only. They endeavor to demonstrate it 

 thus : - 



Take a willow, or any like speedy-growing plant, 

 newly rooted in a box or barrel full of earth, weigh 

 them altogether exactly when the trees begin to 

 grow, and then weigh them altogether after the 

 tree is increased from its first rooting to weigh an 

 hundred pound weight more than when it was first 

 rooted and weighed ; and you shall find this aug- 

 ment of the tree to be without the diminution of 

 one drachm weight of the earth. Hence they in- 

 fer this increase of wood to be from water or rain 

 or from dew, and not to be from any other element 

 And they affirm they can reduce this wood back 

 again to water ; and they affirm, also, the same may 

 be done in any animal or vegetable. And this I 



