are able to _separate_ the Air from the Æther by _Glass_, and several other
bodies. And though we are yet unable and ignorant of the ways of
_præcipitating_ Air out of the Æther as we can Tinctures, and Salts out of
several _dissolvents_; yet neither of these seeming _impossible_ from the
nature of the things, nor so _improbable_ but that some happy future
industry may find out ways to effect them; nay, further, since we find that
Nature _does really perform_ (though by what means we are not certain) both
these actions, namely, by _præcipitating_ the Air in Rain and Dews, and by
supplying the Streams and Rivers of the World with fresh water, _strain'd_
through secret subterraneous Caverns: And since, that in very many other
_proprieties_ they do so exactly _seem_ of the _same nature_; till further
observations or tryals do inform us of the _contrary_, we may _safely
enough conclude_ them of the _same kind_. For it seldom happens that any
two natures have so many properties _coincident_ or the _same_, as I have
observ'd Solutions and Air to have, and to be _different_ in the rest. And
therefore I think it neither _impossible_, _irrational_, nay nor
_difficult_ to be able to _predict_ what is _likely_ to happen in other
particulars also, besides those which _Observation_ or _Experiment_ have
declared thus or thus; especially, if the _circumstances_ that do often
very much conduce to the variation of the effects be duly _weigh'd_ and
_consider'd_. And indeed, were there not a _probability_ of this, our
_inquiries_ would be _endless_, our _tryals vain_, and our greatest
_inventions_ would be nothing but the meer _products_ of _chance_, and not
of _Reason_; and, like _Mariners_ in an Ocean, destitute both of a
_Compass_ and the sight of the _Celestial guids_, we might indeed, _by
chance_, Steer _directly_ towards our desired Port, but 'tis _a thousand to
one_ but we _miss_ our aim. But to proceed, we may hence also give a plain
reason, how the Air comes to be _darkned_ by _clouds_, &c. which are
nothing but a kind of _precipitation_, and how those _precipitations_ fall
down in _Showrs_. Hence also could I very easily, and I think truly, deduce