Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 004.djvu/7

 ''allay'd by Mixtures of a more sullen soyl. And sometimes the Natural surface is so sillen, as to swallow and devour the richest Compost, before it rewards the industrious Husbandman or Gardner: And some do highly pretend to make by Art Nitri-fodinas perpetuas;  to devise the Magnets, which shall draw to our Use the'' Alimental Nitre of the Air. ''I shall not stay to engage for er against either of these, but by those curious Utensils we may soon examine, What may be done in good earnest, and how far clear Experiments will answer to those alluring promises. And though we should fail of the Particulars, yet thence we may chance to dive into some Secrets of very useful Philosophy, and find other Influences, than are either Electrical, or in the common sense Magnetical, but pregnant to disclose the Causes, and to remove the Defects of Fertility, and to impart other no less valuable vertues. For there are more kinds of Vegetables than are commonly so call'd, or so consider'd; as our History of Osteo-colla, and the beautiful Stone-plants growing on the hard Rocks in Jamaica (to omit many other Instances) do testifie. And we see by Experience, that peculiar Earths, Fullers Earth, Tarras for Vessels, and some kinds of Stones, and of Mineral Ores, have their real Increase of Substance in their times of Seasons, and proper plane. Many Noble Persons are Lovers of Gardens, and are willing to entertain Exoticks; and are provided of the Rocks, Grots, and Crypta's: Possibly, if they shall have a desire to search into the Causes of these over-hot ferments, and of the slow-pac'd duller Earth, they may happily fin unexpected Treasures in their own private Inclosures. The Spade and Pick-ax will shew the proximate Causes, or at least some of the Concomitants of every kind of Fertility, and of every kind of Barrenness; and the Scales will distinguish real and substantial growth, and the seasons of it, from deceiving Expansions: And then, by Arches and Vaults, by opening Springs, by heaps of Stones, here of Lime-stones, there of Marl-stones, and in severals of Pebbles, white and black Flints, Marcasites, Mineral Ores, Magnets, and Bodies of the strongest Electricity, where they may be had, some laid as in their Natural Beds, and some dislodged in an unkind posture, we may Artificially frame such subterraneous Furnaces and Stoves, as may, by a calm Process, afford us some of the Wonders of Divine Chymistry. And thus we may have refrigerating Conservatories for cooling'' Lenitives. Here we may feed  Rh