134 NATURAL HISTORY. 



nor leave no work behind them ; but are energies 

 merely: for their working upon mirrors, and places 

 of echo, doth not alter anything in those bodies : but 

 it is the same action with the original, only reper- 

 cussed. And as for the shaking of windows, or rare 

 fying the air by great noises ; and the heat caused by 

 burning-glasses ; they are rather concomitants of the 

 audible and visible species, than the effects of them. 

 Sixthly, they seem to be of so tender and weak a 

 nature, as they affect only such a rare and attenu 

 ate substance as is the spirit of living creatures. 



Experiments in consort touching emission of immateriate 

 virtues from the minds and spirits of men, either by 

 affections, or by imaginations, or by other impressions. 



939. It is mentioned in some stories, that where 

 children have been exposed, or taken away young 

 from their parents, and that afterwards they have 

 approached to their parents presence, the parents 

 (though they have not known them) have had a 

 secret joy or other alteration thereupon. 



940. There was an Egyptian soothsayer, that made 

 Antonius believe that his genius (which otherwise was 

 brave and confident) was, in the presence of Octavia- 

 nus Cffisar, poor and cowardly : and therefore he ad 

 vised him to absent himself as much as he could, and 

 remove far from him. This soothsayer was thought to 

 be suborned by Cleopatra, to make him live in Egypt, 

 and other remote places from Rome. 1 Howsoever the 



xconceit of a predominant or mastering spirit of one 

 man over another is ancient, and received still, even 

 in vulgar opinion. 



1 Plut. in Ant. p. 930. 



