CENTURY I. 19 



speculations. For flame, if there were nothing else, 

 except it were iu very great quantity, will be suffo 

 cate with any hard body, such as a pellet is ; or the 

 barrel of a gun ; so as the flame would not expel 

 the hard body ; but the hard body would kill 

 the flame, and not suffer it to kindle or spread. 

 But the cause of this so potent a motion, is 

 the nitre, which we call otherwise saltpetre, 

 which having in it a notable crude and windy 

 spirit, first by the heat of the fire suddenly dilateth 

 itself; and we know that simple air, being preter- 

 naturally attenuated by heat, will make itself room, 

 and break and blow up that which resisteth it ; and 

 secondly, when the nitre hath dilated itself, it blow- 

 eth abroad the flame, as an inward bellows. And 

 therefore we see that brimstone, pitch, camphire, 

 wild-fire, and divers other inflammable matters, 

 though they burn cruelly, and are hard to quench, 

 yet they make no such fiery wind as gunpowder 

 doth : and on the other side, we see that quick-silver, 

 which is a most crude and watery body, heated, 

 and pent in, hath the like force with gunpowder. As 

 for living creatures, it is certain, their vital spirits 

 are a substance compounded of an airy and flamy 

 matter ; and though air and flame being free, will 

 not well mingle ; yet bound in by a body that hath 

 some fixing, they will. For that you may best see 

 in those two bodies, which their aliments, water and 

 oil ; for they likewise will not well mingle of them 

 selves ; but in the bodies of plants, and living crea 

 tures, they will. It is no marvel therefore, that a 



