this Elementary commixture, and said, There were many bodies out of which none of the four Elements could be extracted by any degree of Fire whatsoever; and that, on the other side, there were divers bo∣dies, whose resolution by fire reduced them into more then four different ingredients; and these affirmed, that the onely principles of natural bodies were Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury: Others again declared, That none of the forementioned could be called the True principles of natural bodies, but that by their industry and pains which they had taken in the Art of Chymi∣stry, they had discovered, that all natural bodies were produced but from one Principle, which was Water; for all Vegetables, Minerals and Animals, said they, are nothing else, but simple water distinguished into various figures by the vertue of their seeds. But after a great many debates and contentions about this sub∣ject, the Emperess being so much tired that she was not able to hear them any longer, imposed a general silence upon them, and then declared her self in this following discourse:I am too sensible of the pains you have taken in the Art of Chymistry, to discover the principles of natural bodies, and wish they had been more profita∣bly bestowed upon some other, then such experi∣ments; for both by my own contemplation, and the ob∣servations which I have made by my rational and sensi∣tive perception upon Nature, and her works, I find, 0