NOTES. 



NOTE A. 



Referring to page 1 14. 



THIS doctrine of vital spirit, to which Lord Bacon thus alludes in 

 his observations upon the sweating sickness, appeared to him to be of 

 great importance and but little understood. An imperfect syllabus 

 of his observations, as scattered over his works may, perhaps, 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 imperceptible 



by the senses. 



4. This science is of great importance. 



These general observations are explained by a particular investi 

 gation 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. 



II. 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. 



III. Regulation of spirit. 



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



As a poet, he considers the subject in the fable of Proserpine, 



contained in this volume* ; and, as a philosopher, in various parts of 



his works. His opinion of the existence of this spirit, as stated in 



the Sylva Sylvaruin, is contained in the preface to this volume. f So 



n the history of &quot; Life and Death, 11. Ax. 2. he says, &quot;All tan- 



gible bodies contain a spirit covered over and 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 attenuat- 



ing 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 spirit 



is not a virtue, an energy, a soul, or a fiction : but a real, subtle, 



and invisible body, circumscribed by place and dimension. Nor 



again is this spirit air, any more than the juice of the grape is 



* Page 88. f Pa e xxvii. 



