60 The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony. 



making" actual contact, a particle of a 

 true unicorn. The coin will be as surely 

 repelled and moved backward as the 

 duck which sees the sportsman taking 

 aim at it with his gun. 



That homogeneous substances 

 always attract each other you may learn 

 from the fact, that if you place a piece 

 of pure, unadulterated bread in a bowl 

 of water, so that it floats on the surface, 

 and hold, not very far from it, a piece of 

 true unicorn, the bread will float in any 

 direction in which the piece of unicorn is 

 moved. So great is the attraction of 

 like to like in Nature that poison 

 always draws towards it irresistibly all 

 that is poisonous, and substances which 

 are free from venom exert the same 

 influence over substances which enjoy a 

 similar immunity. 



Hence poison can be removed in 

 two ways : firstly, by its contrary which 

 repels it, as the unicorn repels the spi- 

 der ; secondly, by its like, which attracts 

 it by magnetic power. The poison which 

 is to cure a homogeneous poison must 



