NOTE A. 



Philosopher. See also Mandeville on Hypocondriasis, and Male- 

 branche on Truth. The slightest knowledge of Lord Bacon s mind will 

 reject the supposition thai he was likely to he milled l&amp;gt;y any idle 

 imagination, he followed truth, and only truth, wherever she led him. 

 He tried all things, holding fast only that which was good upon this 

 very subject he says, in his Sylva S\ Ivaruin. &quot; The philosophy of Py- 

 &quot; thagoras, which was full of superstition, did first plant a monstrous 

 &quot; imagination, which afterwards was, by the school of Plato and 

 &quot; others, watered and nourished. It was, that the world was one 

 &quot; entire perfect living creature ; insomuch as Apollonius of Tyana, 

 &quot; a Pythagorean prophet, affirmed, that the ebbing and flowing of 

 the sea was the respiration of the world, drawing in water as 

 1 breath, and putting forth again. They went on, and inferred, that if 

 ( the world were a living creature, it had asoul and spirit; which also 

 they held, calling it spiritus mundi, the spirit or soul of the world, 

 ( by which they did not intend God, for they did admit of a Deity 

 1 besides, but only the soul or essential form of the universe. This 

 foundation being laid, they might build upon it what they would; 

 for in a living creature, though never so great, as for example, in 

 ( a great whale, the sense and the effects of any one part of the body 

 instantly make a transcursion throughout the whole body: so that 

 by this they did insinuate, that no distance of place, nor want or 



* indisposition or matter, could hinder magical operations ; but that 

 for example, we might here in Europe have sense and feeling of 

 that which was done in China ; and likewise we might work any 

 effect without and against matter; and this not holpen by the 

 co-operation of angels 01 spirits, but only by the unity and har- 



* mony of nature. There were some also that staid not here ; but 

 went farther, and held, that if the spirit of man, whom they call 

 * the microcosm, do give a fit touch to the spirit of the world, by 

 strong imaginations, and beliefs, it might command nature ; for 

 Paracelsus, and some darksome authors of magic, do ascribe to 

 imagination exalted the power of miracle-working faith. With 



these vast and bottomless follies men have been in part en 

 tertained 



&quot; But we, that hold firm to the works of (iod, and to the sense, 

 &quot; which is God s lamp, lucerna Dei spiraculum hominis, will inquire 

 &quot; with all sobriety and severity, whether there he to be found in the 

 &quot; footsteps of nature, any such transmission and influx of immate- 

 &quot; riate virtues ; and what the force of imagination is ; either upon 

 &quot; the body imaginant, or upon another body: wherein it will be like 

 &quot; that labour of Hercules, in purging the stable of Augeas, to se- 

 &quot; parate from superstitious and magical arts and observations, any 

 &quot; thing that is clean and pure natural ; and not to be either con- 

 &quot; temned or condemned.&quot; 



As a specimen of Bacon s ingenuity and beautiful reasoning upon 

 this subject, I select his mode of explaining the * Condensation of 

 Spirit by Flight. Spirits, he says, are condensed, 

 1. By flight 

 2 By cold. 



1. By respiration. 



2. By vapour. 

 3 By aliment. 



3. By appeasing. 



4. By quelling. 



One of the modes of condensing the spirits is By Flight/ that is 



