' MINERALS. 
II II Hill ■! f I IIIWM 
''T^HAT all matter was priraordially in a ftate of fluidity, and that 
X the earih arofe from the bofom of the waters, we have have the 
lellimony ofMof.s, Thales, and ^eneca. An'i it man.feft, tha 
the iea envelopint; the chaotic nucleus, produced by flovy and gradual 
means the continent, which by continually exhaling its dews into 
c'ou. s, is regularly moillened by atiherial, redified, deciduous fhowers. 
Genuine remains of the general deluge, as far as I have inveUigated, 
1 have not found ; much let's the adamitic earth : but_ I have every 
where feen earths formed by the riercliaion or depofitton ot waters, 
and in ihefe the remains ot a long and gradual lapie of ages. 
The WATER of the ocean, frigid, paTive, concipient, every where 
toecimdaicd by a dry calelcent adive geneiating atr, ts obierved 
teeming with a double offspring: 
A Jaline male, foiuble, acrid, clear, cryftaliine,^ 
A /rrrrwr female, fixed, vifeid, opake, attradorial. _ 
This water, moreover, affords nouriihment to two other ot its oft- 
Ipring, Animals and Vegetables, continued in their kind by a re- 
gular catenation of feeds, _ and thefe both are reduced into earth 
by a peiennial circle of adlion. 
SALTS arc fapid, manyTuied, diaphanous, foliiMc into infinite mi- 
nute particles always retaining their original form, and coitcret- 
ing again and again into larger malTes of like uniform thape. 
Thefi^ by cryltaliization in and from various earths, generate 
various flones. . , . r„i 
Nitre, which is aerial, and which by obdudion augmems (and. 
Muria, which is marine, and which by corrolion attrads c,ay. 
Natrum, which is animal, and which by refudation coagu- 
lates calx. . .. 
Alum, which is vegetable, and which by ramification cements 
foil. 
Thefe are the fathers of uon?s. 
A 2 
