"But though much may be said to Excuse the Chymists when they write Darkly, and Ænigmatically, about the Preparation of their Elixir, and Some few other grand Arcana, the divulging of which they may upon Grounds Plausible enough esteem unfit; yet when they pretend to teach the General Principles of Natural Philosophers, this Equivocall Way of Writing is not to be endur'd. For in such Speculative Enquiries, where the naked Knowledge of the Truth is the thing Principally aim'd at, what does he teach me worth thanks that does not, if he can, make his Notion intelligible to me, but by Mystical Termes, and Ambiguous Phrases darkens what he should clear up; and makes me add the Trouble of guessing at the sence of what he Equivocally expresses, to that of examining the Truth of what he seems to deliver."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Boyle
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Robert Boyle
Robert William Boyle FRS (25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of modern chemistry, and one of the pioneers of modern experimental scientific method. He is best known for Boyle's law, which describes the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant
77 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Robert Boyle →
Related Quotes
"In this treatise Boyle sets out to prove that the number of the peripatetic elements or principles hitherto assumed b…"
"He became a member of what was known as the , a small association of men interested in the new philosophy, who met at…"
"Boyle's early endorsement of philosophical openness was soon compromised by, as he put it, the sordid requirements of…"
"The "Chemico-physical Doubts and Paradoxes" raised by Boyle "touching the experiments whereby vulgar Spagyrists are w…"
"The words "element" and "principle" are used by him as equivalent terms, and signify those primitive and simple bodie…"
"He concludes... that the Paracelsian elements—their "salt," "sulphur," and "mercury"—are not the first and most simpl…"
"He... discovered the dependence of the of a liquid upon , explained the action of the , the effect of the air on the …"
"He introduced the air-pump into England, and his "pneumatical engine" enabled him to discover many of the fundamental…"
"The supremacy of the old philosophy may be said to have been first distinctly challenged by Robert Boyle. The appeara…"
"In his History of Fluidity he seeks to show that a body seems to be by consisting of corpuscles touching one another …"