CENTURY IX. 



same; and that is, because the spirit of the oil 

 by either means exhaleth little, for the cold keepeth 

 it in: and the heat, except it be vehement, doth n o t 

 call it forth. As for cold, though it take hold of 

 the tangible .parts, yet as to the spirits, it doth 

 rather make them swell than congeal them : as when 

 ice is congealed in a cup, ths ice will swell instead of 

 contracting, and sometimes rift. 



Experiment solitary touching hard and soft bodies. 



844. Of bodies, some we see are hard, and some 

 soft : the hardness is caused chiefly by the jejuneness 

 of the spirits, and their imparity with the tangible 

 parts : both which, if they be in a greater degree, 

 make them not only hard, but fragile, and less en 

 during of pressure ; as steel, stone, glass, dry wood, 

 &c. Softness cometh, contrariwise, by the greater 

 quantity of spirits, which ever helpeth to induce 

 yielding and cession, and by the more equal spread 

 ing of the tangible parts, which thereby are more 

 sliding and following : as in gold, lead, wax, &c. 

 But note, that soft bodies, as we use the word, are of 

 two kinds ; the one, that easily giveth place to another 

 body, but altereth not bulk, by rising in other places : 

 and therefore we see that wax, if you put any thing 

 into it, doth not rise in bulk, but only giveth place ; 

 for you may not think, that in printing of wax, the 

 wax riseth up at all ; but only the depressed part 

 giveth place, and the other remaineth as it was. The 

 other that altereth bulk in the cession, as water, or 

 other liquors, if you put a stone or any thing into 



