AN ANGLER, A HUNTER, AND A FALCONER 



water is the eldest daughter of the creation, the element upon 

 which the Spirit of God did first move, Gen. i. 2. the element 

 which God commanded to bring forth living creatures abun- 

 dantly; and without which, those that inhabit the land, even 

 all creatures that have breath in their nostrils, must suddenly 

 return to putrefaction. Moses, the great Law-giver 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 element 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 

 endeavour 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 all together 

 exactly when the trees begin to grow, and then weigh all 

 together after the tree is increased from it's first rooting to 

 weigh an hundred pound weight more than when it was first 

 rooted and weighed; and you shall find this augment of the 

 tree to be without the diminution of one dram weight of the 

 earth. Hence they infer this increase of wood to be from water 

 of 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 take to be a fair testimony of the 

 excellency of my element of water. 



The water is more productive than the earth. Nay, the 

 earth hath no fruitfulness without showers or dews; for all 

 the herbs, and flowers, and fruit are produced and thrive by 

 the water; and the very minerals are fed by streams that run 

 under ground, whose natural course carries them to the tops 

 of many high mountains, as we see by several springs breaking 

 forth on the tops of the highest hills ; and this is also witnessed 

 by the daily trial and testimony of several miners. 



Nay, the increase of those creatures that are bred and fed 

 in the water, are not only more and more miraculous, but more 



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