CENTURY VIII. 61 



stuff whereof copples are made, which they put into 

 furnaces ; upon which fire worketh not. So that there 

 are three causes of fixation ; the even spreading both 

 of the spirits and tangible parts ; the closeness of the 

 tangible parts ; and the jejuneness or extreme com 

 minution of spirits : of which three, the two first may 

 be joined with a nature liquefiable, the last not. 



Experiment solitary touching the restless nature of things 

 in themselves, and their desire to change. 



800. It is a profound contemplation in nature, to 

 consider of the emptiness (as we may call it) or in- 

 satisfaction of several bodies ; and of their appetite to 

 take in others. Air taketh in lights, and sounds, and 

 smells, and vapours ; and it is most manifest that it 

 doth it with a kind of thirst, as not satisfied with his 

 own former consistence ; for else it would never re 

 ceive them in so suddenly and easily. Water and 

 all liquors do hastily receive dry and more terrestrial 

 bodies, proportionable : and dry bodies, on the other 

 side, drink in waters and liquors : so that (as it was 

 well said by one of the ancients, of earthy and watery 

 substances) one is a glue to another. Parchment, 

 skins, cloth, &c., drink in liquors, though themselves 

 be entire bodies, and not comminuted, as sand and 

 ashes, nor apparently porous : metals themselves do re 

 ceive in readily strong-waters ; and strong-waters like 

 wise do readily pierce into metals and stones : and that 

 strong-water will touch upon gold, that will not touch 

 upon silver ; and e converso. And gold, which seem- 

 eth by the weight to be the closest and most solid 

 body, doth greedily drink in quicksilver. And it 

 seemeth that this reception of other bodies is not vio- 



