Page:The Sceptical Chymist.djvu/70

Propos. IV.

It may likewise be granted, that those distinct Substances, which Concretes generally either afford or are made up of, may without very much Inconvenience be call’d the Elements or Principles of them.

When I said, without very much Inconvenience, I had in my Thoughts that sober Admonition of Galen, Cum de re constat, de verbis non est Litigandum. And therefore also I scruple not to say Elements or Principles, partly because the Chymists are wont to call the Ingredients of mixt Bodies, Principles, as the Aristotelians name them Elements; I would here exclude neither. And, partly, because it seems doubtfull whether the same Ingredients may not be call’d Principles; as not being compounded of any more primary Bodies; and Elements, in regard that all mixt Bodies are compounded of them. But I thought it requisite to limit my Concession by premising the words, very much, to the word Inconvenience, because that though the Inconvenience of calling the distinct Substances, mention’d in the Proposition Elements or Principles, be not very