Batman vppon Bartholome his booke De proprietatibus rerum, newly corrected, enlarged and amended: with such additions as are requisite, vnto euery seuerall booke: taken foorth of the most approued authors, the like heretofore not translated in English. Profitable for all estates, as well for the benefite of the mind as the bodie. 1582.

¶Of a cole. Cap. 7.

A Cole is ••re incorporate indéede, and ioyned to earthie matter, as Gregory saith: and so are by his incorporation and ioyning to greater and thicker parts of earthy matter and medled therewith, is held beneth by a certaine violence of kinde. And so as fire in flame moueth vpward, so in a cole it falleth and mo∣ueth downward by heauinesse of mat∣ter, Also when a cole is set on fire, it turneth into rednesse, & when it is quen∣ched, it is wrapped in blacknesse, and lée∣seth all the first fairnesse and lykenes of fire: and the fairer it was by his first ioyning to the fire, the more vnséemelye he séemeth, & the more vnlyke in quen∣ching of the fire. And in a cole substan∣ciall moysture is all wasted, and therfore it is soone broken and brused, when the humour that hath cause of ioyning •••• parts is all wasted by violence of fire. And therefore in a coale, that is quen∣ched

one part is soone broken from ano∣ther: For in his substaunce is nothing founde of moysture, by the which the parts cleaue, and were there held toge∣ther, as Gregory saith, when onely the earthly parts leuen and abide by mastry of drinesse, is oft soone set on fire: but af∣ter y^t he is kinled he is as soone quēched, or sooner, so that therin is nothing found nor séene of fire, and that is because of the blacknesse. By his blacknesse a coale defileth and smotcheth, and berayeth all thing that he toucheth. Also fire of a cole hath most sharpe fire, and most mightie in working in thirling and in percing; Therefore by his sharpnesse coale sou∣dreth yron, and desolueth and slaketh the parts thereof, and maketh it soft. Also with his sharpnesse, coale grieueth the head, and coale raked in ashes, hold∣eth and kéepeth aire, and cole vncouered and set in colde aire, falleth into multi∣tude of ashes, and sodainly vanisheth a∣waye by it selfe, as Gregory sayth. And ••ire of a cole burneth and grieueth the soales of the féete, that tread thereon. Cole quēched, through if grieue not with burning, him that treadeth thereon, it maketh crushing and great noyle.