FABLE OF CUPJD. G7 



how matter is affected by heat, subdued or changed by it, 

 the subject of cold being entirely overlooked. But I will 

 add what he could, on his principles, have said respecting 

 this subject, for it is my desire to go through, and with im 

 partiality, the theories and suppositions of all the philoso 

 phers. He could have said that the seat of cold, being- 

 fixed and unmoved, most admirably agreed with the mobile 

 and versatile structure of heat, as the anvil to the hammer. 

 For if both principles were possessed of variation and 

 change, they would doubtless produce contrary and momen- 

 taneous entities. That the immense regions of heat (that is 

 the heavens), moreover, were in some degree compensated by 

 the compact nature of the globe of the earth and circumjacent 

 bodies, since not the space but the quantity of matter in the 

 space is taken into the account, but that the nature of 

 cold, its powers and proportions need but few words, since 

 experience does not furnish us with any certain deductions 

 respecting it. We have, therefore, our common fire, the 

 representative, as it were, of the sun, to show to us the 

 nature of heat. But there is no substitution of the cold of the 

 earth, within man s reach, for the trying experiments with. 

 For that those hardenings and congealings of snow which, in 

 winter and in cold regions, breathe themselves out into air 

 from the globe and circuit of the earth, are plainly warmths 

 and baths, owing to the nature of the first cold shut up in 

 the bowels of the earth ; so that the cold, which is in the 

 power and under the perception of men, is something like 

 as if they had no other heat than that which emanates from 

 the sun in summer, and in warm regions ; which, if com 

 pared with the fire of a heated furnace, may be deemed a 

 refreshing coolness. But I shall take up less time upon 

 those things that are pretended on this subject. We will 

 inquire, therefore, in order into the nature of what Telesius 

 has asserted respecting the arrangement of matter upon 

 which heat acts ; the power of which is such as to advance, 

 impede, or change the action itself of heat. The ratio of 

 this is fourfold. The first difference is taken from the pre- 

 inexistent heat or nonpreinexistent heat ; the second from 

 the abundance or the scarcity of the matter; the third 

 from the degrees of the reduction; the fourth from the 

 closing or opening of the body reduced. As for the first, 

 Telesius supposes in all entities known to us, that there 

 exists a certain latent heat, though not subject to the touch, 

 which heat is joined with a new or overspreading heat ; 

 moreover, that itself is excited and inflamed by the same 



