hem; nay, further, since we find that
Nature _does really perform_ (though by what means we are not certain) both
these actions, namely, by _praecipitating_ the Air in Rain and Dews, and by
supplying the Streams and Rivers of the World with fresh water, _strain'd_
through secret subterraneous Caverns: And since, that in very many other
_proprieties_ they do so exactly _seem_ of the _same nature_; till further
observations or tryals do inform us of the _contrary_, we may _safely
enough conclude_ them of the _same kind_. For it seldom happens that any
two natures have so many properties _coincident_ or the _same_, as I have
observ'd Solutions and Air to have, and to be _different_ in the rest. And
therefore I think it neither _impossible_, _irrational_, nay nor
_difficult_ to be able to _predict_ what is _likely_ to happen in other
particulars also, besides those which _Observation_ or _Experiment_ have
declared thus or thus; especially, if the _circumstances_ that do often
very much conduce to the variation of the effects be duly _weigh'd_ and
_consider'd_. And indeed, were there not a _probability_ of this, our
_inquiries_ would be _endless_, our _tryals vain_, and our greatest
_inventions_ would be nothing but the meer _products_ of _chance_, and not
of _Reason_; and, like _Mariners_ in an Ocean, destitute both of a
_Compass_ and the sight of the _Celestial guids_, we might indeed, _by
chance_, Steer _directly_ towards our desired Port, but 'tis _a thousand to
one_ but we _miss_ our aim. But to proceed, we may hence also give a plain
reason, how the Air comes to be _darkned_ by _clouds_, &c. which are
nothing but a kind of _precipitation_, and how those _precipitations_ fall
down in _Showrs_. Hence also could I very easily, and I think truly, deduce
the cause of the curious _sixangular figures_ of Snow, and the appearances
of _Haloes, &c._ and the sudden _thickning_ of the Sky with Clouds, and the
_vanishing_ and _disappearing_ of those Clouds again; for all these things
may be very easily _imitated_ in a _glass of liquor_, with some slight
_Chymical preparations_ as I have often try'd, and may somewhere else more
largely relate, but have not now time to set them down. But to proceed,
there are other bodies that consist of particles more _Gross_, and of a
more _apt_ figure for _cohesion_, and this requires _somewhat greater_
agitation; such, I suppose [Mercury], _fermented vinous_ _Spirits_, several
_Chymical Oils_, which