Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/567

 FABLE OF CUPID. appeared a kind of maturity and concoction of water ; and, that a body and mass of water was spread through the whole as a common fuel ; that the sea surrounded the land ; that there was a very vast and subterraneous force of sweet waters, whence come springs and rivers, which, like veins, carry the waters through both the face and bowels of the earth ; and that, in the heights above were immense congregations of vapours and waters, and, as it were, another universe of waters, for the reparation and renovation of the waters below, and of the sea. He, moreover, thought that those waters and vapours fed the heavenly fires, for that those worlds could not subsist without some nourishment, and that this was the only nourish ment that they could possess. He remarked that the figure of water, as seen in drops or particles of water, was that of the universe, round and spherical, and that the undulation of water was apparent even in air and fire ; lastly, that the mo tion of water was suited to its nature, neither too slow nor too quick, and of all generations the most numerous was the generation of fishes and water animals. But Anaximenes chose air for the one sole element. For, if bulk is to come into consideration in treating upon the elements of things, air seems by far the most bulky, and to occupy the greatest space. For, unless a separate vacuum be given, or the superstition of the hete rogeneous nature of the heavenly and sublunary bodies be resorted to, whatever is extended from the globe of the earth to the furthest region of the heavenly expanse, and is neither star nor me teor, seems to be filled with aerial substance. And the abode of this earthly globe is thought to be as a point, in comparison of the circuit of the heavens. But in the ether itself, how very small a portion is besprinkled with stars, when in the nearer spheres they are seen single, in the last, although there, .is a great number of them, yet, considering the interstellar spaces, but a small part of space seems to be occupied by stars ; so that they all appear to swim in one immense sea of ether. Nor is that part of ether and spirit in considerable, which has its seat and settlement in the waters and the hollow places of the earth, whence the waters receive their tides. They are, moreover, extended, and swell ; but not only has the earth its porousness, but also its tremors and agitations, evident signs of wind and air pent up within it. But if a middle nature is proper to elements, in order to the being susceptible of so great a variety, that is certainly found in air. For air is, as it were, the common bond of things, not only because it is everywhere close at hand, and takes the place of other things, and possesses itself of void spaces, but so much the more from its appearing to have a middle and a diaphorous nature. For this is that body which receives and conveys light, darkness, and the tints of all colours and shades, which, by its admirably nice motion, discriminates the impressions and notes of har monic, and, what is by far more remarkable, of articulate sounds, which enters without confusing the differences of scents, not only those general ones of pure and fetid, of dull, acute, and the like, but also the peculiar and specific, as of the rose or the violet; which accommodates itself equally to those remarkable and very powerful qualities of hot and cold, also of wet and dry, in which aqueous vapours, dense fogs, spirits of salts, fumes of metals, fly suspended in the height; lastly, in which the rays of light and the closer agreements and variances of things move and make a noise ; so that the air is, as it were, a second chaos, in which so many seeds of things move, wander, try their powers, and are tried. Lastly, if you consider its genial and vivifying power, which conducts you to the ele ments of things and manifests them, they seem to be also the more excellent parts of the air, so that the words air, spirit, and life, are often used as if they were synonymous. And, with reason, since some degree of respiration seems the insepe- rable companion of life a little more advanced, (excepting those little beginnings of life in em bryos and in eggs,) so that fishes are suffocated by the congealing of water. Also, fire itself, unless kept alive by the surrounding body of air, is extinguished, and seems only worn-out air irri tated and inflamed ; as water, on the other hand, can appear to be the conjunction and reception of air. Nor is there any necessity to maintain that the earth constantly exhales the air, nor that it passes through water into the form of air. But Heraclitus, who was more acute, but not so imu-h to be relied upon, held fire to be the element of things. For it was not a middle nature, which is wont to be extremely uncertain and corrupti ble, but the highest and most perfect nature, which is a considerable bound, as it were, to corruption and change, which Heraclitus sought for instituting the origin of things. Now, he saw that the greatest variety and pertur bation of things was found in solid and con sistent bodies. For such bodies can be organic, and, as it were, a kind of machines, which acquire innumerable variations according to their shape, as the bodies of animals and plants. Even among these, such as are not organic upon a closer inspection, are found to be very dissimilar. For, how great is the dissimilarity between those very parts of animals which are called similar ! the brain, the crystalline humour, the white of the eye, the bones, membranes, cartilages, nerves,, veins, flesh, fat, marrow, blood, sperm, breath, chyle, and the rest; also between the parts of vegetables, roots, barks, stalks, leaves, flowers, seeds, and the like ! But fossils are not certainly organic, but yet are variously mixed together in one kind, and show mutually a very great variety. Wherefore, tint base of the diversity of entities,