CENTURY I. 61 



Experiment solitary touching the secret processes of 



nature. 



98. The knowledge of man hitherto hath been 

 determined by the view or sight ; so that whatsoever 

 is invisible, either in respect of the fineness of the 

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

 subtilty of the motion, is little inquired. And yet 

 these be the things that govern nature principally ; 

 and without which you cannot make any true ana 

 lysis and indication of the proceedings of nature. 

 The spirits or pneumaticals, that are in all tangible 

 bodies, are scarce known. Sometimes they take 

 them for &quot;vacuum;&quot; 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 them souls. And such 

 superficial speculations they have ; like prospectives, 

 that shew things inward, when they are but paint 

 ings. Neither is this a question of words, but infi 

 nitely material in nature. For spirits are nothing 

 else but a natural body, rarified to a proportion, and 

 included in the tangible parts of bodies, as in an 

 integument. And they be no less differing one from 



