“There is a certain secret principle in nature by which liquors are sociable to some things and unsociable to others” – Newton.
The basis of the secret principle of sociability, in turn, was entirely chemical. That is, he justified his assertion of this by chemical phenomenon. Water does not mix with oil but oil does mix readily with spirit of wine and with salts. Water sinks in wood, but quicksilver does not. Quicksilver sinks into metals. But water does not. Aqua Fortis dissolves silver but not gold; aqua Regis dissolves gold but not silver.
Also, he illustrated by chemical phenomenon the principle of mediation by which unsociable substances are brought to mix. Molten lead does not mix with copper or with regulus of Mars, but with the mediation of tin it mixes with either. With the mediation of saline spirits, water mixes with metals; that is acids dissolves metals.
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