176 NATURAL HISTORY. 



and flame, and in the superior there is the body of 

 the star and the pure sky. And these pairs, though 

 they be unlike in the primitive differences of matter, 

 yet they seem to have many consents : for mercury 

 and sulphur are principal materials of metals ; water 

 and oil are principal materials of vegetables and ani 

 mals, and seem to differ but in maturation or con 

 coction : flame, in vulgar opinion, is but air incensed ; 

 and they both have quickness of motion, and facility 

 of cession, much alike : and the interstellar sky, 

 though the opinion be vain, that the star is the 

 denser part of his orb., hath notwithstanding so much 

 affinity with the star, that there is a rotation of 

 that, as well as of the star. Therefore it is one of 

 the greatest &quot; magnalia nature,&quot; to turn water or 

 watery juice into oil or oily juice : greater in nature, 

 than to turn silver or quicksilver into gold. 



355. The instances we have wherein crude and 

 watery substance turneth into fat and oily, are of four 

 kinds. First in the mixture of earth and water ; 

 which mingled by the help of the sun gather a 

 nitrous fatness, more than either of them have sever 

 ally ; as we see in that they put forth plants, which 

 need both juices. 



356. The second is in the assimilation of nou 

 rishment, made in the bodies of plants and living 

 creatures,, whereof plants turn the juice of mere 

 water and earth into a great deal of oily matter : 

 living creatures, though much of their fat and flesh 

 are out of oily aliments, as meat and bread, yet they 

 assimilate also in a measure their drink of water, &c. 



