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177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
37
The
alchemical
notion
of
a
natural
state
as
proper
to
each
substance
was
vigorously
combated
by
the
Honourable
Robert
Boyle
(born
1626,
died
1691),
a
man
of
singularly
clear
and
penetrative
intellect.
In
A
Paradox
of
the
Natural
and
Supernatural
States
of
Bodies,
Especially
of
the
Air,
Boyle
says:--"I
know
that
not
only
in
living,
but
even
in
inanimate,
bodies,
of
which
alone
I
here
discourse,
men
have
universally
admitted
the
famous
distinction
between
the
natural
and
preternatural,
or
violent
state
of
bodies,
and
do
daily,
without
the
least
scruple,
found
upon
it
hypotheses
and
ratiocinations,
as
if
it
were
most
certain
that
what
they
call
nature
had
purposely
formed
bodies
in
such
a
determinate
state,
and
were
always
watchful
that
they
should
not
by
any
external
violence
be
put
out
of
it.
But
notwithstanding
so
general
a
consent
of
men
in
this
point,
I
confess,
I
cannot
yet
be
satisfied
about
it
in
the
sense
wherein
it
is
wont
to
be
taken.
It
is
not,
that
I
believe,
that
there
is
no
sense
in
which,
or
in
the
account
upon
which,
a
body
may
he
said
to
be
in
its
natural
state;
but
that
I
think
the
common
distinction
of
a
natural
and
violent
state
of
bodies
has
not
been
clearly
explained
and
considerately
settled,
and
both
is
not
well
grounded,
and
is
oftentimes
ill
applied.
For
when
I
consider
that
whatever
state
a
body
be
put
into,
or
kept
in,
it
obtains
or
retains
that
state,
assenting
to
the
catholic
laws
of
nature,
I
cannot
think
it
fit
to
deny
that
in
this
sense
the
body
proposed
is
in
a
natural
state;
but
then,
upon
the
same
ground,
it
will
he
hard
to
deny
but
that
those
bodies
which
are
said
to
be
in
a
violent
state
may
also
be
in
a
natural
one,
since
the
violence
they
are
presumed
to
suffer
from
outward
agents
is
likewise
exercised
no
otherwise
than
according
to
the
established
laws
of
universal
nature."
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