LIFE AND DEATH. CCCCXVll 



The foundation position is, that &quot; All tangible bodies All bodies 

 contain a spirit enveloped with the grosser body. There -^ 

 is no known body, in the upper parts of the earth, without 

 its spirit, whether it be generated by the attenuating and 

 concocting power of the celestial warmth, or otherwise; 

 for the pores of tangible bodies are not a vacuum, but 

 either contain air, or the peculiar spirit of the substance; 

 and this not a vis, an energy, or a fiction, but a real, subtile, 

 and invisible, and, therefore, neglected body, circumscribed 

 by place and dimension.&quot; (&amp;lt;z) 



This doctrine is thus stated in the Excursion : 



&quot; To every form of being is assigned 

 An active principle, howe er removed 

 From sense and observation ; it subsists 

 In all things, in all natures, in the stars 

 Of azure heaven, the unenduring clouds, 

 In flower and tree, and every pebbly stone 

 That paves the brooks, the stationary rocks, 

 The moving waters, and the invisible air. 

 Whate er exists hath properties that spread 

 Beyond itself, communicating good, 

 A simple blessing or with evil mixed : 

 Spirit that knows no insulated spot, 

 No chasm, no solitude : from link to link 

 It circulates, the soul of all the worlds.&quot; (6) 



(a) &quot; The knowledge of man (hitherto) hath been determined by the 

 view or sight ; so that whatsoever is invisible, either in respect of the fine 

 ness of the body itself, or the smallness of the parts, or of the subtilty of 

 the motion, is little inquired. The spirits, or pneumaticals, that are in all 

 tangible bodies, are scarce known. Sometimes they take them for vacuum ; 

 whereas they are the most active of bodies. Sometimes they take them for 

 air; from which they differ exceedingly, as much as wine from water, and 

 as wood from earth. Sometimes they will have them to be natural heat, 

 or a portion of the element of fire ; whereas some of them are crude and 

 cold. And sometimes they will have them to be the virtues and qualities 

 of the tangible parts, which they see; whereas they are things by them 

 selves, and then, when they come to plants and living creatures, they call 



(ft) Excursion, B. 9. See note (o), next page. 

 VOL. XV. ee 



