believe them; besides these things, I say, I shall represent, That, as to
the few Experiments I have borrowed from the Chymists, if they be very
Vulgar, 'twould perhaps be difficult to ascribe each of them its own
Author, and 'tis more than the generality of Chymists themselves can do:
and if they be not of very known and familiar practise among them, unless
the Authors wherein I found them had given me cause to believe, themselves
had try'd them, I know not why I might not set them down, as a part of the
_Phænomena_ of Colours which I present you; Many things unanimously enough
deliver'd as matters of fact by (I know not how many Chymical Writers)
being not to be rely'd on, upon the single Authority of such Authors: For
Instance, as some Spagyrists deliver (perhaps amongst several deceitful
processes) that _Saccarum Saturni_ with Spirit of Turpentine will afford a
Balsom, so _Beguinus_ and many more tell us, that the same Concrete
(_Saccarum Saturni_) will yield an incomparably fragrant Spirit, and a
pretty Quantity of two several Oyles, and yet since many have complain'd,
as well as I have done, that they could find no such odoriferous, but
rather an ill-sented Liquor, and scarce any oyl in their Distillation of
that sweet Vitriol, a wary person would as little build any thing on what
they say of the former Experiment, as upon what they averr of the later,
and therefore I scrupled not to mention this Red Balsom of which I have not
seen any, (but what I made) among my other experiments about redness.

_Annot. II._

We have sometimes had the Curiosity to try what Colours Minerals, as
Tinglass, Antimony, Spelter, &c. would yield in several _Menstruums_, nor
have we forborn to try the Colours of stones, of which that famous one,
(which _Helmont_ calls _Paracelsus's Ludus_) though it be digg'd out of the
Earth and seem a true stone, has afforded in _Menstruums_ capable to
dissolve so solid a stone, sometimes a Yellowish, sometimes a Red solution