CCCCXvi LIFE OF BACON. 



His History of Life and Death contains his favourite 

 doctrine of Vital Spirit, or excitability, or life, which he 

 notices in various parts of his works, (c) 



In this place more cannot be attempted than, as a 

 specimen of the whole of this important subject, to explain 

 one or two of the positions. 



14. Revivifying. 



9, Softening hard spirits. 10. Purging old juices. 



15. The porches of death. 16. Differences of youth and age. 17. Causes 

 of life and death. 



(c) An imperfect outline may be thus exhibited : 



1. Every tangible body contains a spirit. 



2. The spirit is imperceptible by. the senses. 



3. The spirit is but little known because it is imper 



ceptible by the senses. 



4. This science is of great importance. 



These general observations are explained by a particular 

 investigation of the various properties of spirit, 

 i. Quantity of spirit. 



1. How generated. 



2. Of condensing and dilating the spirit. 



3. Detention of spirit. 



4. Exhaustion of spirit, 

 n. Quality of spirit. 



1. Different spirits of different bodies, and different 



sorts of spirits in the same body. 



2. Of preserving the spirit young and vigorous. 



3. Hot and cold. 



4. Active and quiescent, 

 in. Regulation of spirit. 



iv. Of the perceptible effects of spirit upon the body. 



Sylva Sylvarum, Century 1, Art. 98, v. iv. p. 61. Fable of Proserpine, 

 in the Wisdom of the Ancients, vol. iii. p. 88; and in the History of 

 Henry VII. in his observations on the sweating sickness, 



