316 HISTORY OF 



parency, will soon after wax white, and lose the transpa 

 rency, again the watery vapour exhaling ; but oiled paper 

 will keep the transparency long, the oil not being apt to 

 exhale ; and therefore they that counterfeit men s hands 

 will lay the oiled paper upon the writing they mean to 

 counterfeit, and then essay to draw the lines. 



11. Gums all of them last very long; the like do wax 

 and honey. 



12. But the equal or unequal use of things conduceth 

 no less to long lasting or short lasting than the things 

 themselves ; for timber, and stones, and other bodies stand 

 ing continually in the water, or continually in the air, last 

 longer than if they were sometimes wet, sometimes dry; 

 and so stones continue longer if they be laid towards the 

 same coast of heaven in the building that they lay in the 

 mine. The same is of plants removed, if they be coasted 

 just as they were before. 



Observations. 



(1.) Let this be laid for a foundation, which is most sure, 

 that there is in every tangible body a spirit, or body pneu- 

 matical, inclosed and covered with the tangible parts ; and 

 that from this spirit is the beginning of all dissolution and 

 consumption, so as the antidote against them is the de 

 taining of this spirit. 



(2.) This spirit is detained two ways; either by a straight 

 enclosure, as it were in a prison, or by a kind of free and 

 voluntary detention. Again, this voluntary stay is per 

 suaded two ways : either if the spirit itself be not too move- 

 able or eager to depart, or if the external air importune it 

 not too much to come forth. So then, two sorts of sub 

 stances are durable, hard substances and oily : hard sub 

 stance binds in the spirits close; oily partly enticeth the 

 spirit to stay, partly is of that nature that it is not impor 

 tuned by air ; for air is consubstantial to water, and flame 

 to oil; and touching nature durable and not durable in 

 bodies inanimate, thus much. 



The History. 



13. Herbs of the colder sort die yearly both in root and 

 stalk ; as lettuce, purslane, also wheat and all kind of corn ; 

 yet there are some cold herbs which will last three or four 

 years, as the violet, strawberry, burnet, primrose, and 

 sorrel. But borage and bugloss, which seem so alike when 

 they are alive, differ in their deaths ; for borage will last 

 but one year, bugloss will last more. 



