148 Of the Sulphu r 



this work) muft by coction be more proximately 

 prepared, and rendered metallic. 



Now, in order to anfwer the queftion; viz. 

 what analogy the fulphur in the pyrites has to the 

 metal-earth, we muft here diftinguifh the times. 

 Firft, if by it we intend only the primordial origi- 

 nation of the pyrites : in this fenfe, the fulphur in 

 the pyrites is not the metallifing, nay, not the mine- 

 ralifing principle \ for, how mould it, when it did 

 not exift ? And though the inflammability of mi- 

 neral or mineralifmg damps mews fomewhat of a 

 fulphur eous nature, yet it does not follow, that 

 they are pofitively fulphur eous : thus the acid of 

 fuch earth-weatherings mews a part, and not the 

 whole of the fulphur. 



But, were we to fpeak with propriety, not of 

 the fulphur itfelf, but of the parts that are to be* 

 come fulphur, it ought to beobferved, that in the 

 bufinefs of generation, the matter may be confi- 

 dered as attive and paffive ; the former as the mod 

 tender, fugitive, and penetrative ; and the latter 

 (or what is to become the metal) the heavieft, 

 coarfeft, and denfeft : though in generations, that 

 is, in productions of a third thing out of two 

 others, both parts fo act and re-ad, as thereby to 

 form a new production. 



(2.) If by the queftion be meant the analogy of 

 the fulphur to the metal-earth in the pyrites already 

 formed, fuch as we find it : to me it feems like 

 the juice, in refpect to the remaining dry body ; 

 or, as a material caufe and property of mineraleity ^ 

 according to which the pyrites, like all other pro- 

 per metal-ore, is diftinguifhed from a formal metal, 



or 



