The Summary of Physics Restored

217Experience has taught glassmakers unversed in Nature’s affairs the secret of radical moisture hidden in ashes. By drawing glass from ashes through the keenness of their penetrating melting flame, they make the hidden manifest. Beyond this, neither the powers of art nor those of fire can extend or drive out the matter. The ashes must flow if they are to become a continuous quantity and solid body such as glass; and flowing cannot take place without moisture. That moisture, inseparable from its matter, is therefore finally brought into that noble transparent body, which is almost ethereal.