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And if it true were that profit might be,In things which are not Metalline.But some will say, How will you answer the Philosophers, who affirm thattheir Stone is in all things, though in some things nearer, and in somethings at greater distance, yet in all things according to the rule of(propinquius & remotius?). To such I answer, I grant and know that allthings originally owe all their principal material unto Water, and theirformal unto Light; and according to the congress of these two principles,through the command of the Architect, this Light doth illuminate thematerial Water in a singular way, according to the Ideal species which werebefore in the Archetype; so then the Matter resides in Water, the Informingin Light, and the determination of the Form, which is as I may say theForm’s formality, is in the will of the Creator, first impressed or sealed inthe word (fiat,) and ratified in his command (producat unumduodque juxtaspeciem suam.) Now to apply this to our present purpose, in Water andLight all things agree, in the determination of Illumination they differ, Thisdeterminative sentence of the Almighty, sealed a great variety in theproducts of Matter and Form, which are in themselves general, and beingthus sealed, not any thing can pass from its kind to mix with another kind,but it will cause a product partaking of either Parent, nor can mixture bemade but in the same genus or species; as an Apple may be graffed on aCrab-tree, a Man may (though abominably) mix with a Beast (licentianaturali) but out of genus or species nothing can mix. There are also manyparticular exceptions of things in one genus, for many Trees I know whichthe Art of man cannot ingraff one in another, so as to grow, will yet growwell ingraffed elsewhere; so a Dog and a Mouse cannot mix, being one sodisproportionate to another. But this by the by.To return to our intention, we say, that as all things are by the will andpower of God specificated, so with the destruction of that species, the Form(as to that individual) perishing, (for no intire species can perish) thingsmay both by Nature and Art return to their first stable principle material,which is Water, of which Nature, if it be found in a convenient place, might(impregnating it with a Metalline Seed) produce a Metalline Sperm, orviscosity, which then might be a Metal by decoction, and yield unto ourwork a profitable subject.As in Blood, Eggs, hair, urine, or Wine,Or in mean minerals digg’d out of the Mines,Yet must that Element be first purified and seaparate,And with Elements of perfect Bodies be desponsate.88