The Sceptical Chymist | Page 4

Confidently against what they appear so little to understand.
And Lastly, Carneades hopes, he shall doe the Ingenious this Piece of
service, that by having Thus drawn the Chymists Doctrine out of their
Dark and Smoakie Laboratories, and both brought it into the open light,
and shewn the weakness of their Proofs, that have hitherto been wont
to be brought for it, either Judicious Men shall henceforth be allowed
calmly and after due information to disbelieve it, or those abler
Chymists, that are zealous for the reputation of it, will be oblig'd to
speak plainer then hitherto has been done, and maintain it by better
Experiments and Arguments then Those Carneades hath examin'd: so
That he hopes, the Curious will one Way or other Derive either
satisfaction or instruction from his endeavours. And as he is ready to
make good the profession he makes in the close of his Discourse, he
being ready to be better inform'd, so he expects either to be indeed
inform'd, or to be let alone. For Though if any Truly knowing Chymists
shall Think fit in a civil and rational way to shew him any truth
touching the matter in Dispute That he yet discernes not, Carneades
will not refuse either to admit, or to own a Conviction: yet if any
impertinent Person shall, either to get Himself a Name, or for what
other end soever, wilfully or carelesly mistake the State of the
Controversie, or the sence of his Arguments, or shall rail instead of
arguing, as hath been done of Late in Print by divers Chymists;[1] or
lastly, shall write against them in a canting way; I mean, shall express
himself in ambiguous or obscure termes, or argue from experiments not
intelligibly enough Deliver'd, Carneades professes, That he values his
time so much, as not to think the answering such Trifles worth the loss
of it.
[Footnote 1: G. and F. and H. and others, in their books against one
another.]

And now having said thus much for Carneades, I hope the Reader will
give me leave to say something too for my self.
And first, if some morose Readers shall find fault with my having made
the Interlocutors upon occasion complement with one another, and that
I have almost all along written these Dialogues in a stile more
Fashionable then That of meer scholars is wont to be, I hope I shall be
excus'd by them that shall consider, that to keep a due decorum in the
Discourses, it was fit that in a book written by a Gentleman, and
wherein only Gentlemen are introduc'd as speakers, the Language
should be more smooth, and the Expressions more civil than is usual in
the more Scholastick way of writing. And indeed, I am not sorry to have
this Opportunity of giving an example how to manage even Disputes
with Civility; whence perhaps some Readers will be assisted to discern
a Difference betwixt Bluntness of speech and Strength of reason, and
find that a man may be a Champion for Truth, without being an Enemy
to Civility; and may confute an Opinion without railing at Them that
hold it; To whom he that desires to convince and not to provoke them,
must make some amends by his Civility to their Persons, for his severity
to their mistakes; and must say as little else as he can, to displease
them, when he says that they are in an error.
But perhaps other Readers will be less apt to find fault with the Civility
of my Disputants, than the Chymists will be, upon the reading of some
Passages of the following Dialogue, to accuse Carneades of Asperity.
But if I have made my Sceptick sometimes speak sleightingly of the
Opinions he opposes, I hope it will not be found that I have done any
more, than became the Part he was to act of an Opponent: Especially,
if what I have made him say be compar'd with what the Prince of the
Romane Orators himself makes both great Persons and Friends say of
one anothers Opinions, in his excellent Dialogues, De Natura Deorum:
And I shall scarce be suspected of Partiality, in the case, by them that
take Notice that there is full as much (if not far more) liberty of
sleighting their Adversaries Tenents to be met with in the Discourses of
those with whom Carneades disputes. Nor needed I make the
Interlocutors speak otherwise then freely in a Dialogue, wherein it was
sufficiently intimated, that I meant not to declare my own Opinion of

the Arguments propos'd, much lesse of the whole Controversy it self
otherwise than as it may by an attentive Reader be guess'd at by some
Passages of Carneades: (I say, some Passages, because I make not all
that he says, especially in