88 Mayow 



not easily permit it to descend out of the glass. So that 

 it may be clearly inferred that air is deprived, by respir- 

 ation and by the burning of fires, of certain solid and 

 heavy particles, because it becomes lighter when it 

 passes out from flame or from the lungs of animals. 



Here one is led to admire the providence of the 

 highest and best Artificer by whose most wise counsel 

 it has been arranged that air, when deprived of its 

 nitro-aerial particles and vital spirit, should lose at 

 once its elasticity and its weight, so that it is borne 

 aloft by the elastic force and pressure of the remaining 

 air and fresh air comes in place of the effete ; for 

 otherwise there would be no society at all of men 

 or even of animals, for we should be obliged to spend 

 our lives single and separate, namely, where a ration 

 of nitro-aerial spirit sufficient for sustaining life might 

 be obtained for each. And indeed between mortals 

 there would be perpetual strife about the acquisition 

 and the determination of the boundaries not so much 

 of fields as of tracts of air. Moreover the life of each 

 would be a sort of perpetual pilgrimage, inasmuch as 

 we should find it necessary to wander by night and by 

 day, through the world and in desert places, not so 

 much to gain wealth and foreign dainties as to hunt 

 after aerial nourishment, and to banish ourselves far 

 to avoid the popular breath. But how much better 

 has our best Father consulted for us, who has fashioned 

 this air which surrounds us with such skill, that nitro- 

 aerial spirit, the most necessary Elixir of life, should 

 come to us everywhere of its own accord — nay, even 

 rush uninvited into our very mouths and inmost 

 vitals. 



