d it, and consider
of it, as Childrens Play, in a high and weighty Matter, that you may
search it out with advantage; as followeth:

A common Peasant casts forth (or sows) his Seed in a Field well dunged
and prepared, this Seed after putrefaction, sprouts forth of the Earth
by the operation and furtherance of the Elements, and sets before our
Eyes the Matter of Flax together with its Seed which it brings with it
augmented; this Flax is pluck'd up, and separated from its Seed; but
this Flax cannot be used and prepared for any work profitably, except it
be first putrefied and rotted in water, whereby the Body is opened, and
gains an ingress of its doing good; after this putrefaction and opening,
it is again dried in the Air and Sun, and by this coagulation it is
again brought into a Formal Being, that it may do future service. This
prepared Flax is afterwards buck'd, beaten, broken, peel'd, and last of
all dress'd, that the pure may be separated from the impure, the clean
from the filth, and the fine from the course; which otherwise could not
be done at all, or brought to pass without the preceding preparation;
this done, they spin Yarn of it, which they boil in water over the Fire,
or else with Ashes set in a warm place, whereby it is purified afresh,
whereby the filth and superfluities are fully separated from it, and
after a due washing the Yarn is dried again, delivered to the Workmen,
and Cloth weaved of it; this Cloth is purified or whitened by a frequent
casting of water upon it, cut in pieces by Taylors, and other people, so
converted to future services in houshold affairs, and when this Linnen
is quite worn out, and torn, the old Rags are gathered together, and
sent to the Paper-Mills, whereof they make Paper, which is put unto
divers uses.

If you lay Paper upon a Metal or Glass, kindle and burn it, the
vegetable _Mercury_ comes forth and flies away into the Air, the Salt
remaines in the ashes and the combustible _Sulphur_ which is not so
quickly consumed in the burning, dissolves to an Oil, which is a good
Medicine for dim and defective Eyes. This Oil hath in it a great
fatness, which is the Matter of the Paper, contained originally in the
Seed of the Flax; so that the last Matter of the Flax which is Paper,
must again be dissolved into the first Matter, which is the fat
Sulphurous Oyliness of the Flax-seed, together with the separation of
its _Mercury_ and _Salt_, that so the first may be made of the last, an