G8 FABLE OF CUPID. 



adventitious heat to the performing its acts even in its pro 

 per measure. He esteems it a considerable proof of this, 

 that there is no one entity, neither metal, stone, water, nor 

 air, which does not acquire warmth by touch, and also by 

 the application of fire or of a warm body. Which would 

 not surely be the case, unless there were a preinexistent 

 heat of a certain latent preparation for a new and manifest 

 heat. That even that excess or diminution, or facility and 

 slowness, which are found in the conceiving of heat in en 

 tities, agrees with the measure of the preinexistent heat ; 

 that the air grows warm by a small heat, and such as is 

 quite imperceptible in an aqueous body ; also that water is 

 more easily endued with warmth than a stone, or metal, or 

 glass. For that any of these, as a metal or a stone, should 

 appear to acquire warmth sooner than water, that is, only 

 on the surface, not within the body, because consistent 

 bodies are less communicable in their parts than liquids. 

 That, therefore, the outermost parts of a metal are sooner 

 warmed than those of water, the whole bulk later. The 

 second difference is made to depend upon the coacervation 

 and extension of matter. If it be dense, the strength of the 

 heat is more united, and through the union increased and 

 made more intense ; if on the other hand it be looser, the 

 strength is more dispersed, and through the dispersion 

 weakened. That the heat, therefore, of unknown metals is 

 more powerful than of boiling water, nay, than of flame it 

 self, unless that the flame would, from its subtle nature, 

 pierce more. For that the flame of coals or of fuel, unless 

 roused by wind, so as through motion to penetrate more 

 easily, is not very violent; nay, that some flames (as of 

 spirit of wine, especially if inflamed, and in a small quan 

 tity and dispersed) is of so mild a heat, as to be endurable 

 by the hand. The third difference, which is taken from the 

 reduction of matter, is manifold; for he makes seven de 

 grees of reduction, of which the first is milder, which is the 

 arrangement of matter, showing the body in some degree 

 yielding to greater violence, and especially susceptible of 

 extension, in fine flexible or ductile. The second is soft 

 ness, when there is no need of greater force, but the body 

 yields even by a light impulsion and to the touch, or the 

 hand itself, without any apparent resistance. The third is 

 viscosity or tenacity, which is in a high degree the prin 

 ciple of fluidity. For a viscous body seems to begin to 

 flow and go on at the contact and embrace of another body, 

 and not to come to an end of itself, although it does not 



