CENTURY I. 21 



which we usually see, is merely by accident, and 

 that the air about, by quenching the sides of the 

 flame, crusheth it, and extenuateth it into that form ; 

 for of itself it would be round ; and therefore smoke 

 is in the figure of a pyramis reversed ; for the air 

 quencheth the flame, and receiveth the smoke. Note 

 also, that the flame of the candle, within the flame 

 of the spirit of wine, is troubled ; and doth not only 

 open and move upwards, but moveth waving, and 

 to and fro ; as if flame of its own nature, if it were 

 not quenched, would roll and turn, as well as move 

 upwards. By all which it should seem, that the ce 

 lestial bodies, most of them, are true fires or flames, 

 as the Stoics held ; more fine, perhaps, and rarified 

 than our flame is. For they are all globular and 

 determinate; they have rotation ; and they have the 

 colour and splendour of flame : so that flame above 

 is durable, and consistent, and in its natural place ; 

 but with us it is a stranger, and momentany, and 

 impure : like Vulcan that halted with his fall. 



Experiment solitary touching the different force of flame 



in the midst and on the sides. 



32. Take an arrow, and hold it in flame for the 

 space of ten pulses, and when it cometh forth, you 

 shall find those parts of the arrow which were on the 

 outsides of the flame more burned, blacked, and 

 turned almst into a coal, whereas that in the midst of 

 the flame will be as if the fire had scarce touched it. 

 This is an instance of great consequence for the dis 

 covery of the nature of flame ; and sheweth mani- 



