Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/223

 be Modern Inventions, since the whole Business of Clocks and Watches was unknown to all, even the Arabian, Antiquity (f): Their Astronomers measured their Time by Hour-Glasses of Water, or Vibrating Strings of several Lengths; which would, indeed, serve them, in most Cases, to measure Time nicely by, whilst they were observing; though they were of no Use upon other Occasions; and even then were liable to great Hazards.

Hymistry, or the Art of Dividing Bodies by Fire, comes next to be considered. So great Things have thereby been discovered in Nature, that were unknown without it, that it may justly be esteemed as one of the chiefest Instruments whereby Real Knowledge has been advanced. It has been cultivated by three Sorts of Men, for very different Reasons; by Refiners, Alchemists, and Chymists, properly so called. The Refiner's