FABLE OF CUPID. 69 



flow willingly and of itself; for the fluid easily follows it 

 self, but is more viscous with respect to another body. 

 The fourth is the fluid itself, when the body partaking of 

 the interior spirit is in willing motion and follows itself, and 

 is not easily bounded or brought to a stand. The fifth is 

 vapour, when a body is attenuated till it becomes intangible, 

 which yields, flows, undulates, and becomes tremulous, 

 with a greater agility and mobility. The sixth is breath 

 ing, which is a certain vapour more concocted, and ma 

 tured, and subdued, so as to be capable of receiving the 

 nature of fire. The seventh is the air itself, but Telesius 

 contends that the air is endued with a native heat, and that 

 considerable and very powerful, for that in the coldest 

 regions the air is never congealed or condensed : and that 

 another proof of this is, that all air that is confined and 

 separated from the main body of air, and left to itself, evi 

 dently collects heat, as in wool and fibrous substances ; and 

 that the air in confined situations is found to suffocate 

 respiration, which is the consequence of its heat ; and that 

 this arises from the confined air beginning to exert its own 

 nature, since the air out of doors, and under the open sky, 

 is cooled by the cold which the globe of the earth is con 

 stantly emitting and exhaling : and also that our common 

 air hath a certain celestial property, since it in some degree 

 partakes of light ; which appears from the power of those 

 animals which can see in the night and in dark places. 

 And such, according to Telesius, is the order of the arrange 

 ment of matter, in the means, to wit, since the extremes, 

 although on one side hard bodies, and on the other fire 

 itself, are not reckoned as the limits of the means. But be 

 sides these simple degrees, he searches out a great diversity 

 in the arrangement of matter according to the similarity or 

 dissimilarity of the body, sinceportions of matter compounded 

 and united in one body can be referred equally either to one 

 of the beforementioned degrees, or unequally to different. 

 For that a very great difference follows thence in the opera 

 tion of heat. And that so a fourth difference is necessarily 

 brought in from the nature and even position of a body upon 

 which heat acts, whether close or porous and open. For 

 when heat operates in an open and exposed situation, it 

 does so in order and severally, by attenuating and at the 

 same time by drawing out and separating. But when in a 

 confined and compact body, it operates in the mass, not 

 putting out any heat, but by the new and the old heat 

 uniting and conspiring, whence it follows that it causes 



