452 KovUM dRdANUst [book 11. 



contrive Low to unite tliem in any bodv, so as to transform' it 

 into gold. And this method of operating belongs to primary 

 action ; for it is the same thing to produce one or many simple 

 natures, except that man is more confined and restricted in his 

 operations, if many be required, on account of the difficulty of 

 uniting many natures together. It must, however, be observed, 

 that this method of operating (which considers natures as simple 

 though in a concrete body) sets out from what is constant, eternal, 

 and universal in nature, and opens such broad paths to human 

 power, as the thoughts of man can in the present state of things 

 scarcely comprehend or figure to itself. 



The second kind of axiom (which depends on the discovery of 

 the latent process) does not proceed by simple natures, but by 

 concrete bodies, as they are found in nature and in its usual 

 course. For instance, suppose the inquiry to be, from ^hat 

 beginnings, in what manner, and by what process gold or any 

 metal or stone is generated from the original menstruum, or its 

 elements, up to the perfect mineral : or, in like manner, by w hat 

 process plants are generated, from the first concretion of juices 

 in the earth, or from seeds, up to the perfect plant, with the 

 M'hole successive motion, and varied and uninterrupted efforts of 

 nature ; and the same inquiry be made as to a regularly deduced 

 system of the generation of animals from coition to birth, and so 

 on of other bodies. 



Nor is this species of inquiry confined to the mere generation 

 of bodies, but it is applicable to other changes and labours of 

 nature. For instance, where an inquiry is made into the whole 

 series and continued operation of the nutritive process, from the 

 first reception of the food to its complete assimilation to the re- 

 cipient ;• or into the voluntary motion of animals, from the first 

 mipression of the imagination, and the continuous effects of the 

 spirits, up to the bending and motion of the joints ; or into the 

 free motion of the tongue and lips, and other accessories whicii 

 ^»ive utterance to articulate sounds. For all these investigations 

 relate to concrete or associated natures artificially brought 

 together, and take into consideration certain particular and 

 special habits of nature, and not th(jse fundamental and general 

 laws which constitute forms. It must, however, be plainly 

 owned, that this method appears more prompt and easy, and of 

 greatei* promise than the primary one. 



In like manner the operative branch, which answers to this 



' By the recent discoreries in electric magnetism, copper wires, or, 

 indeed, wires of any metal, may be transformed into magnets; the 

 uiagnetic law, or form, having been to that extent discovered. 



K Hnller has pursued this investigation in his " Physiology," and ha* 

 •ft hi;, successora little cise to do than repeat hia di.sccveries. Ld 



