122 NATURAL HISTORY. 



spirits and imagination, have this ; that they work 

 at distance, and not at touch ; and they are these, 

 being distinguished. 



904. The first is the transmission or emission of the 

 thinner and more airy parts of bodies ; as in odours and 

 infections ; and this is, of all the rest, the most corpo 

 real. But you must remember withal, that there be a 

 number of those emissions, both wholesome and un 

 wholesome, that give no smell at all : for the plague, 

 many times, when it is taken, giveth no scent at all : 

 and there be many good and healthful airs, that do ap 

 pear by habitation and other proofs, that differ not in 

 smell from otKer airs. And under this head you may 

 place all imbibitions of air, where the substance is mate 

 rial, odour-like ; whereof some nevertheless are strange, 

 and very suddenly diffused ; as the alteration which the 

 air receiveth in Egypt, almost immediately, upon the 

 rising of the river of Nilus, whereof we have spoken. 



905. The second is the transmission or emission of 

 those things that we call spiritual species: as visibles 

 and sounds ; the one whereof we have handled, and the 

 other we shall handle in due place. These move swiftly, 

 and at great distance ; but then they require a medium 

 well disposed, and their transmission is easily stopped. 



906. The third is the emissions which cause attrac 

 tion of certain bodies at distance ; wherein though the 

 loadstone be commonly placed in the first rank, yet we 

 think good to except it, and refer it to another head : 

 but the drawing of amber and jet, and other electric 

 bodies ; and the attraction in gold of the spirit of 

 quicksilver, at distance ; and the attraction of heat at 

 distance ; and that of fire to naphtha ; and that of some 



