CHAP. XVI.
WE must also speake something as touching that which diuers Au∣thors approue,* 1.1 and where it may be they will be found to be dif∣ferent. True it is that the earth is not without aire, and not on∣ly this aire which maintaineth the same, and tieth the parts thereof together, penetrating likewise thorow stones and other bodies without life: but also this vitall aire which quickeneth and nourisheth all things. If she had it not, how should she giue life to so many plants and seeds, which draw their vigor from no place els? How could she entertain and sustain so many diuers roots in her, the one of one fashion, the other of another; the one entertained in her vpper part, the others buried more deeper, if she had not much soule which engendreth so many and so diuers things, and nourisheth them by her inspiration and vertue? Hitherto haue I ••et downe but coniectures. All the heauens, that are enclosed and arounded with elementarie fire, all these innumerable numbers of the starres,* 1.2 all the celestiall bodies, and amongst th•• rest, the Sunne (shaping his course more neere vnto vs, and which is but twice as great as the globe of the earth) draw nourishment from the earth, and di∣uide it amongst them, being sustained by nothing ••lse but terrestriall vapoures. This is their nourishment and feeding. But the earth could not nourish so ma∣ny creatures, so ample and more greater then her selfe, if she were not full of a soule, that day and night is spread thorow all her parts. For it cannot be but that there remaineth very much in her, from whence there is so much both ex∣pected and gathered, and that which issueth forth should not be bred in his proper t••me. She should not haue continuall abundance of spirit to furnish so many celestiall bodies, if these things had not concurrence amongst themselues, and were not grounded and changed in some other thing. Yet of necessitie shee must abound and be full, and that shee furnish her selfe with it, which shee hath in store. There is no doubt then, but that much spirit is hidden therein, and that within the entrals of the earth there is a maruellous abundance of aire. This being so, that must needes follow, that that which is filled with a thing which is very moueable, should bee oftentimes remoued. Euery one knoweth that there is nothing more inconstant, stirring, and fleeting then the aire.