Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/607

 Moses of old. Air is also appropriately spoken of as " spirit," having received the title from the act of respiration. Aristotle l himself admits, " that there is a kind of life, and birth, and death of the Avinds." Finally, we speak of a running stream as "living water/'

These three, therefore, inasmuch as they have a kind of life, appear to act superiorly to the forces of the element, and to share in a more divine nature ; they were, therefore, placed among the number of the divinities by the heathen. When any excellent work or process appeared, surpassing the powers of the naked elements, it was held as proceeding from some more divine agent. "To act with power superior to the powers of the elements," therefore, and, on that acc'ount, " to share in the properties of some more divine thing, which does not derive its origin from the elements," appear to have the same signification.

The blood, in like manner, " acts with powers superior to the powers of the elements" in the fact of its existence, in the forms of primordial and innate heat, in semen and spirit, and its pro- ducing all the other parts of the body in succession ; proceed- ing at all times with such foresight and understanding, and with definite ends in view, as if it employed reasoning in its acts. Now this it does not, in so far as it is elementary, and as de- riving its origin from fire, but in so far as it is possessed of plastic powers and endowed with the gift of the vegetative soul, as it is the primordial and innate heat, and the immediate and competent instrument of life. Ai)ua, TO aTi/cov TOV dvBpwirov : The blood is the living principle of man, says Suidas ; and the same thing is true of all animals ; an opinion which Virgil seems to have wished to express when he says :

" Una eademque via sanguisque animusque sequuntur." And by one path the blood and life flowed out.

The blood, therefore, by reason of its admirable properties and powers, is " spirit." It is also celestial; for nature, the soul, that which answers to the essence of the stars, is the inmate of the spirit, in other words, it is something analogous to heaven, the instrument of heaven, vicarious of heaven.

In this way all natural bodies fall to be considered under a

1 De Gen. Anim. lib. iv, cap. ultimum.