72 FABLE OF CUPID. 



vent to the thinner part, till the thicker part is forced 

 thence, and compresses itself more; which thicker part, 

 nevertheless, if a rather violent heat comes, flows also of 

 itself, as is evident in bricks : for, in the first place, heat, 

 not so fervent, makes the loam into bricks on the thinner 

 part having evaporated ; but a more powerful heat even dis 

 solves that bricky substance into glass. And these two 

 dogmata can be considered as the answers to errors ; the 

 third plainly affirms, and not only so, but clearly distin 

 guishes the method of reduction. This is twofold, either 

 by rejection or conversion : and one or other of these modes 

 is brought out into act, according to the power of the heat, 

 and the arrangement of matter. But two canons belong to 

 this subject. The one is, that when heat and cold concur in 

 vast bulk, and as it were with any even force, an ejection fol 

 lows. For entities, like armies, are moved from their place 

 and thrust forward. But when it takes place in a less 

 quantity, then a conversion follows : for the entities are 

 destroyed, and lose rather their nature than their place. 

 There is a remarkable exemplification of this in the higher 

 regions of the air, which, although they come nearer to the 

 celestial heat, are yet found colder than the confines of the 

 earth. For in those regions, after arriving nearer to the 

 seat of the prime heat, the heat, collecting itself, at once 

 casts down, and thrusts off, and hinders from approach the 

 whole power of the cold which had ascended. He saith 

 that the same thing, moreover, may happen, that there 

 may be through the depths of the earth greater heats than 

 on the surface ; to wit, after the approach to the seat of 

 the prime cold, which rousing itself throws off the heat 

 with great force, and avoids it, and returns into its own 

 nature. The second canon is that in an open body ejec 

 tion in a close conversion follows. He asserts that this is 

 notably instanced in closed vessels, where the emission of 

 an attenuated body (which we commonly call spirit) being 

 restrained, begets deep and intrinsical alterations and fer 

 mentations in bodies ; but that this takes place in like man 

 ner when a body, from its parts being compacted, is to 

 itself like a closed vessel. Such are the opinions of Tele- 

 sius, and, perhaps, of Parmenides, on the elements of 

 things, excepting that Telesius added, of his own accord, 

 Hyle, through his being led astray by the Peripatetic 

 notions. 



And the opinions of Telesius might indeed have an air 

 of probability if man were taken out of nature together 





