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CHAP. XV.
Of the Nutritive faculty.
a 1.1 THe first and most common faculty of the Soul is the Nutri∣tive; by which life is in all things, the acts and operation thereof are to be generated, and to take nourishment.
Nutriment is received either towards Nutrition or augmen∣tation. Nutrition is the operation of the Nutritive faculty con∣ducing to the substance it self of the animate being. Augmenta∣tion is the operation of the Nutritive faculty, whereby the a∣nimate body encreaseth to perfect Magnitude. In nutrition are considered, the Soul nourishing, the body nourished, and the food by which the nourishment is made; hereto is required a Naturall heat, which is in all living creatures. The aliment is both contrary, or unlike, and like, to the body nourished: as it is undigested, we say nourishment is by the contrary; as altered by digestion, like is nourished by its like.