1 60 



A particular 

 declaration 

 touching the 

 generation of 



recalls. 



r A rreattfe of B O DI E S. Chap. 14. 



little parts of fire which were gotten into their greater parts:and 

 (ticking on all fides about them, they do fo enelofe them that 

 they have no more femblancc of fire : and if afterwards by any 

 accident there cometh a great compre/Tion,, they force them to 

 lofc their naturall rarity, and to become fome other Elemenr. 

 Thus it farerh with fire, both in acting and in fuffering. And 

 the famecourle, we have in borh thefe regards expreflfed of it, 

 pafieth hkewife in the reft of the Elements to the proportion of 

 their contrarieties 



Hence it followeth that when fire meetcth with humidity in 

 any bo'iy, itdivideth and fubtilifccb it, and difperfech it gently, 

 and in a kind of equall manner through the whole body it is 

 in, ( if the operation of it be a naturall and a gentle one ) and 

 fo driveth it into other parts,whieh at the fame rime it preparcth 

 to receive it by fubcilifing likewife thofe parts. And thus mode- 

 rate fire, maketh humour in very imall parts to incorporate it 

 felf in an even or uniform manner with the dry parts it meet- 

 cth withall : which being done whether the heat doth after- 

 wards continue, or that cold fucceedeth in lieu of it, the cffeit 

 jntift of necefluy b?, that the body thus eompofed, be bound up 

 and fattened, more or lefle according to the proportion of the 

 matter it is made of, and of the Agents that work upon it, and 

 of the time they employ about it. This is everyday feen, in the 

 ripening of fruits and in other frequent works, as well of art as 

 of nature,and is fo obvious, and fenfible to any reafonableobfer- 

 vation that it is needles to enlarge my felf much upon this fubjedt 



Onely, it will not be amifle, for examples fake, to confider 

 tine progrefle of it in the composing or augmenting of metalls, 

 or of earths of divers forts: firft heat ( as we have laid ) draw- 

 eth humour out of all the bodies it worketh upon : then if th 

 extracted humour be in quantity and the fleams of it do happen 

 to come together in fbme hollow place,fit to affcmble them into 

 greater parts ; they arecondenfed and they fall down in a li- 

 quid and running body. Thcfe fleams being thus corporified, 

 the body refulting out of them, maketh it felf in the earth a 

 channel! to runnc in : and if there be any loofe parts in the 

 channcll,thcy mingle themfelves with the running liquotir: and 

 though there be none fuch.yct in time the liquotir it felf loofen- 

 eth thcchannell all aboutj and iiwbibeth into its own fubftancc 



the 



