74 OF THE ORIGIN OF CHEMISTRY. 



foap * ; and Siracides, the covering of earthen 

 veflch with a crurt of glafs f. illiiha, by adding 

 fait to water, rendered it fapid Jj and fo of fc- 

 veral other inflancss that might be adduced of 

 the early acquaintance with chemical arts* But 

 thefc that we have already given, though they 

 dlfcover inventions of general utility in com- 

 mon, yet do they not betray the leart figns of 

 ingenious and fubtle theory, 



Thofe comments on chemical competition 

 and duplication in the royal library at Paris, 

 written in the Greek language, and which are 

 afltgned to Mofes, do no doubt acknowledge a 

 later author. The Pradicc of Chemiftry, and 

 Experiments on the Philofophcr's Stone, fuid to 

 be by Maria the Hebrew, may be ulfo includ- 

 ed in the fume lentimem, As to thofe who en* 

 deavour to fqund Natural Fhilofophy upon the 

 Scriptures, Lord Bacon very juftly remarks, 

 that they feek the dead among the living. And 

 he thinks it neceflary to check andfubdue this 

 vanity; left, from a total confuiion of divine and 

 human affairs, the truth of philofophy iliould be 

 loft in vifionary conjectures; and he recommends 

 ftrongly, that faith fliould be given to nothing, 

 but with deliberation, and to thofe things only 

 which are worthy of it. 



The* 



* Chap. ti. a a. 



I Chap, xxxviii, 34, ^ 



$ : Kings ii. 30* 



