A Defense of the Introduction to a True and Unheard-of Physics

[Elemen]ts The syllable "tis" completes the word Elementis (Elements) from the heading on the previous page. lie hidden; namely that such Minerals are generated from them, and especially from Water; this is a supposition of the Anonymous Author. As if Dr. Helbig Johann Otto von Hellwig (1654–1698), a German physician and alchemist. had ever denied that in Metals and Minerals there is a potential Fire. But indeed, who will not acknowledge that it is one thing for something to exist actually, and another for it to exist potentially in some thing? These are Aristotelian terms: "actually" (actu) refers to a state currently in existence, while "potentially" (potentiâ) refers to a capacity to become something else or to be activated under the right conditions. That potential Fire is within Metals or Minerals is clear enough from these things: because Fire is produced through a violent and disordered motion from the central Salt of Stone and iron. A reference to the sparks created by striking flint (stone) against steel (iron). It does not follow from this that something is in a thing actually just because it is in it potentially: otherwise we would be speaking a denial of GOD and Nature themselves. For in all good, there is evil potentially. Thus also running Mercury original: Mercurius currens; this refers to liquid quicksilver. lies hidden in all animals potentially, and yet not actually, unless eventually through the [alchemical] art. From the good Angels, the evil and most wicked Devil fell away, because evil was potentially in the good; otherwise a good Angel could not have become evil. Therefore, he will be a fool—and more so—who, because of this potential malice, would declare good Angels to be evil;