oone passe,
vanish, and flye away. Which thing wee have esteemed to be a principall
good signe of the worthy properties of this rare Fountaine. So that this
water, being newly taken up at the Well, and presently after drunke,
cannot otherwise, but sooner passe by the Hypochondries and through the
body, and cause a speedier effect, then those in _Germany_ can. Whereby
any one may easily collect, and gather, that this getteth his soveraign
faculties better in its passage by and through the variety of minerals,
included in the earth (which only afford unto it an halitious body) then
those doe.

If then wee bee desirous to have this of ours become commodious either
for preserving of our healths, or for altering any distemper, or curing
any infirmity (for which it is proper and availeable) it ought chiefly
to bee taken at the fountaine it selfe, before the minerall spirits bee
dissipated.

_CHAP_. 8.

_=That Vitriol is here more predominant, then any other minerall.=_

We have sufficiently beene satisfied by experience and trialls, through
what minerals this water doth passe: but to know in what proportion they
are exactly mixed therewith, it is beyond humane invention to find out;
nature having reserved this secret to her selfe alone. Neverthelesse it
may very well be conjectured, that as in the frame, and composition of
the most noble creature, Man (the lesser world) there is a temper of the
foure elements rather _ad justitiam_ (as Philosophers say) then _ad
pondus_; so nature in the mixture of these minerals, hath likewise taken
more of some, and lesse of others, as shee thought to be most fit, and
expedient for the good and behoofe of mans health, and the recovery and
restitution of it decayed; being indeed such a worke, as no Art is able
to imitate.

That _Vitriolum_ (otherwise called _Chalcanthum_) is here most
predominant, there needs no other proofe, then from the assay of the
water it selfe; which both in the tart and inky smack thereof, joyned
with a piercing and a pricking quality, and in the savour (which is
somewhat a little vitrioline,) is altogether like unto the ancient
_Spaw_ waters; which according to the consent of all those, who have
considered their naturall compositions, doe most of all, and chiefly
participate of vitrioll.

Notwithstanding, for a more manifest, and fuller tryall hereof, put as
much powder of galls, as will lye on two-pence, or three-pence, into a
glasse full of this wat