Creatures. This next Caufe then, or mineral Virtue, or Spirit, ferves itlelf on the elemen tary Qualities, efpccially ot‘ Heat and Cold, for it’s Inftruments in the Generation of Me tals ; the Heat mixeth uniformly the earthy and humid Parts together, which is the Mat ter whereof Metals are made, then it boils, digefts, and thickens that Matter, and the Cold coagulates and hardens it, and i'o it hath put on the Form of Metal, and is more or lefs per feel, according to the prefent Difpofition of that Matter when the mineral Spirit began to actuate it: Hereupon is ground ed the Opinion of Calli/ihenes, Albertus Mag nus, and others, who fay, there is only one kind of perfcdl Metal, which is Gold ; and that all the others we call fo, are but the Prin ciples or Gradations unto that : Wherefore they conceive it feafible by Art to reduce them to Perfedtion, and turn them into Gold : They that oppofc the Poffibility thereof, place the Force of their Arguments in proving that the feveral Species of Metals are com- pleat in themfelvcs, and diftindt one from an other ; and therefore that a Tranfition ftf one to the other is impoffiblc. But their Reafon convinceth not, and if it were granted, the Inference would not follow ; for we fee the like Tranfmutations, and far more difficult, perform’d both by Art and Nature. By Art Wafps and Beetles are made of the Uung of Animals ; and of the Plant Ahaco rightly placed and order’d Scorpions are pro duc’d. Alfoit is notorioufly known, that in. Scotland Pieces of old Ships and of Fruit that fall *nto the Sea turn into living Ducks; and there D 4 is