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Quotation from The Sceptical Chymist by Robert Boyle
“I now mean by Elements, as those Chymists that speak plainest do by their Principles, certain Primitive and Simple, or perfectly unmingled bodies; which not being made of any other bodies, or of one another, are the Ingredients of which all those call'd perfectly mixt Bodies are immediately compounded, and into which they are ultimately resolved”
The Sceptical Chymist, The Sixth Part (1661 first edition, Project Gutenberg text)
Boyle's famous definition of an element, given so that he can question whether any such body is found in all mixed bodies.
Citation: "I now mean by Elements, as those Chymists that speak plainest do by their Principles, certain Primitive and Simple, or perfectly unmingled bodies; which not being made of any other bodies, or of one another, are the Ingredients of which all those call'd perfectly mixt Bodies are immediately compounded, and into which they are ultimately resolved" — Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist, The Sixth Part (1661 first edition, Project Gutenberg text). (id boyle-the-sceptical-chymist-q6)
Portrait: The Shannon Portrait of the Hon Robert Boyle, Johann Kerseboom, Public domain.
