18 



ILtUSTRATIONS OF THE 



combinatio 



th fulpl]ureous bod 



To af. 



firm that water was ever capable of diflblving 

 thefe fiibilances, is to afcribe to it powers which 

 it confeffedly has not at prefent ; and, therefore, 



roduce an hypothelis, not merely gra- 



b 



one 



hich, phyfically fpeaking 



abfurd and impoflibl 



Th 



not all, however i for 



if thi 



difficulty were to be pafled over, it would ftill 

 be required to explain, how the water, which, 

 together with the matter which it held in folu- 



■m 



tion, had infinuated itfelf into the pores of the 

 ftrata, became fuddenly difpofed to depofite that 

 matter, and to allow it, by cryllallization or 



*. The Nep. 



afTume a folid form 



tunifts mud either alTign a fufficient reafon for 

 this great and univerfal change, or muft exped 



fee their fyltem treated as 



fi 



cumulation of hypothefes which affigns oppofite 

 virtues to the fame fubjed, and is alike at va- 

 riance wath nature and with itfelf; in a word, 

 a fyftem that might pafs for the invention of 

 an age, when as yet found philofophy had not 

 alighted on the earth, nor taught man that 

 he is but the miniller and interpreter of nature, 

 and can neither extend his power nor his know- 



ledge 



* N&TE VI, 



