THE CONFERENCE. 47 



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 to- 

 gether exactly when the tree begins to grow, and then 

 weigh all together after the tree is increased from its first 

 rooting, to weigh a 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 

 drachm 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 underground, 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 is not only more and more miraculous, but 

 more advantageous to man, not only for the lengthening of 

 his life, but for preventing of sickness ; for it is observed by 

 the most learned physicians, that the casting off of Lent 



