Bacon, Francis, Sylva sylvarum : or, a natural history in ten centuries

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            <s xml:id="echoid-s9138" xml:space="preserve">
              <pb file="0276" n="276" rhead="The Preface."/>
            praiſes of Chymical Medicines, firſt puff up with vain hopes, and then fail
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            their admirers.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9139" xml:space="preserve"/>
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            <s xml:id="echoid-s9140" xml:space="preserve">And as for that Death which is cauſed by Suffocation, Putrefaction, and
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            ſeveral Diſeaſes, weſpeak not of it now, for that pertains to an Hiſtory oſ
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            Phyſick; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9141" xml:space="preserve">but onely oſ that Death which comes by a total decay of the
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            Body, and the Inconcoction of old Age. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9142" xml:space="preserve">Nevertheleſs the laſt act of
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            Death, and the very extinguiſhing of Life it ſelf, which may ſo many
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            ways be wrought outwardly and inwardly (which notwithſtanding have,
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            as it were, one common Porch beſore it comes to the point of death) will
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            be pertinent to beinquired of in this Treatiſe; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9143" xml:space="preserve">but we reſerve that for the
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            laſt place.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9144" xml:space="preserve"/>
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            <s xml:id="echoid-s9145" xml:space="preserve">That which may be repaired by degrees, without a total waſte of the
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            firſt ſtock, is potentially eternal, as the Veſtal Fire. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9146" xml:space="preserve">Thereſore when Phy-
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            ſicians and Philoſophers ſaw that living Creatures were nouriſhed and their
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            Bodies repaired, but that this did laſt onely for a time, and afterwards
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            came old age, and in the end diſſolution; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9147" xml:space="preserve">they ſought Death in ſomewhat
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            which could not properly be repaired, ſuppoſing a Radical Moiſture in-
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            capable of ſolid reparation, and which, from the firſt infancy, received
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            a ſpurious addition, but no true reparation, whereby it grew daily worſe
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            and worſe, and, in the end, brought the bad to none at all. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9148" xml:space="preserve">This con-
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            ceit of theirs was both ignorant and vain; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9149" xml:space="preserve">for all things in living Crea-
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            tures are in their youth repaired entirely; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9150" xml:space="preserve">nay, they are for a time in-
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            creaſed in quantity, bettered in quality, ſo as the Matter of reparation
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            might be eternal, if the Manner of reparation did not fail. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9151" xml:space="preserve">But this is
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            the truth of it, There is in the declining of age an unequal reparation;
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            </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9152" xml:space="preserve">ſome parts are repaired eaſily, others with difficulty and to their loſs; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9153" xml:space="preserve">ſo
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            as from that time the Bodies of Men begin to endure the torments of Me
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            zentius, That the living die in the embraces of the dead; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9154" xml:space="preserve">and the parts eaſily repair-
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            able, through their conjunction with the parts hardly repairable, do de-
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            cay: </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9155" xml:space="preserve">For the Spirits, Blood, Flesh, and Fat are, even after the decline of
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            years, eaſily repaired; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9156" xml:space="preserve">but the drier and more porous parts (as the
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            Membranes, all the Tunicles, the Sinews, Arteries, Veins, Bones, Cartilages,
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            moſt of the Bowels, in a word, almoſt all the Organical Parts) are hardly
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            repairable, and to their loſs. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9157" xml:space="preserve">Now theſe hardly-repairable parts, when they
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            come to their office of repairing the other which are eaſily repairable,
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            finding themſelves deprived of their wonted ability and ſtrength, ceaſe
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            to perſorm any longer their proper Functions: </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9158" xml:space="preserve">By which means it comes
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            to paſs, that in proceſs of time the whole tends to diſſolution; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9159" xml:space="preserve">and even
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            thoſe very parts which in their own nature are with much eaſe repair-
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            able, yet through the decay of the Organs of reparation can no more re-
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            ceive reparation, but decline, and in the end utterly fail. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9160" xml:space="preserve">And the cauſe of
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            the termination of Life is this, for that the Spirits, like a gentle flame,
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            continually preying upon Bodies, conſpiring with the outward Air, which
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            is ever ſucking and drying of them, do, in time, deſtroy the whole Fa-
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            brick of the Body, as alſo the particular Engines and Organs thereof,
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            and make them unable for the work of Reparation. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9161" xml:space="preserve">Theſe are the true
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            ways of Natural Death, well and faithfully to be revolved in our mindes; </s>
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            for he that knows not the ways of Nature, how can he ſuccor her, or turn
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            her about?</s>
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            <s xml:id="echoid-s9164" xml:space="preserve">Therefore the Inquiſition ought to be twofold; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9165" xml:space="preserve">the one touching the
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            Conſumption or Depredation of the Body of Man; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9166" xml:space="preserve">the other touching the
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            Reparation and Renovation of the ſame: </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s9167" xml:space="preserve">To the end, that the former </s>
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