408 THOUGHTS ON THE NATURE OF THINGS. transformations, that is the legitimate subject) but after the ignition, and is, so to speak, the corpse of the flame, not a deposition of the oil or tallow. And this lays open one way to overturn the theory of Democritus, with respect to the diver sity of seminal particles or atoms ; a way, I say, in the process of investigating nature herself: in opinion, indeed, there is another way to overturn it, much more smooth and easy, as the received philosophy assumes its phantasmal matter to be common to the forms of nature, and equally sus ceptible of them all. Of the Remissncss of the Jlncients in investigating of inquiry. For, there is not a doubt that the elementary particles, though they were originally equal, become, after having been cast into certain assemblages and knots, entirely impregnated with the nature of the dissimilar bodies they compose, till the several assemblages or knots of- matter undergo solution ; so that the properties and affec tions of things in concretion, offer no less resist ance and impediment to immediate transmutation, than of things in their simplest elements. But Democritus, acute as he is in tracing the principles of quiescent body, is found unequal to himself, and deficient in knowledge of his subject, when he comes to examine the principles of motion ; a common failing of all the philosophers. And, I know not but the investigations we are now handling, of the primary character of seminal and atomic particles, is of a utility greatly supe rior to all others whatsoever, as forming the sovereign rule of action and of power, and the true criterion of hope and operation. Another inquiry, also, proceeds from it, less comprehen sively useful, indeed, in its scope, but more immediately connected with practice and use ful works. It is respecting separation and al teration, that is, what operations are the effect of separation, and what of the other process. For, it is an error habitual to the human mind, and which has derived great force and depth from the philosophy of the alchymists, to ascribe those appearances to separation which look quite the other way. For instance, when water passes into the state of vapour, one would readily sup pose that the more subtile part of the fluid was extricated, and the grosser remained, as is seen in wood, where part flies off in flame and smoke, part is left in the form of ashes. One might infer that something analogous to this takes place in the water also, though not so discernible to obser vation. For, though the whole mass of water is observed to bubble up and waste away, yet it might occur, that a sort of sediment of it, its ashes, as it were, still remained in the vessel. Yet, such an impression is delusive; for it is most certain, that the entire body of water may be converted into air, and if any portion still continues in the vessel, that does not happen in consequence of its separation and segregation as the grosser part, but because a certain quantity of the fluid, though of precisely the same sub stance with the part which evaporates, remains in contact with the internal surface of the vessel. The same thing is distinctly visible in the case nf quicksilver, the whole of which is volatilized
dthencondensedagainwithout the subtraction of the smallest particle. In the oil of lamps, too, and in the tallow of candles, the whole of the fat is sublimated, and there is no incineration, far the fuliginous matter is formed, not before, Motion and oving Principles, III. To place the investigation of nature chiefly in the consideration and examination of motion, is the characteristic of him who has an eye to prac tical effect as his object. And to indulge in me ditation and revery, respecting the principles of nature viewed as quiescent, belongs to such as desire to spin out dissertations, or supply matter of argumentative subtlety. Now those princi ples I call quiescent, which inform us of what elements things are compounded, and consist; but not by what energy or in what way they effect these, coalitions. For it is not enough, with a view to action and the enlargement of the power and operation of man, nor does it in fact bear materially on these ends at all, to know what are the constituent parts of things, if you are ignorant of the modes and processes of their transformations and metamorphoses. For to take an example from the mechanical adepts, (in whose heated imagination those famous speculations regarding the first principles of nature appear to have had their origin,) is the man who knows the simples that enter into the composition of an alexipharmic, (or antidote.) necessarily able in consequence, to prepare an alexipharmic ? Or is he who has got a correct analysis of the ingre dients of sugar, glass, or canvass, to be therefore supposed a master of the art of their preparation and manufacture] Yet it is in speculating and inquiring with respect to this description of dead principles, that the meditations of men have been hitherto principally absorbed: as if one were, of set purpose and resolution, to employ himself in poring over the dissection of the dead carcass of nature, rather than to set himself to ascertain the powers and properties of living nature. Indeed, the examination of the princi ples of motion is generally looked upon as a matter by the way, so that it passes admiration in what a perfunctory and remiss manner, a sub ject of all others the most momentous and most useful, has been investigated and treated. For, to turn our attention for a moment to the themes
