Crooke, Helkiah (1576-1648)

ΜΙΚΡΟΚΟΣΜΟΓΡΑΦΙΑ: A Description of the Body of Man [Mikrokosmographia, Microcosmographia]

London

Printed by William Iaggard

1615

"But by spirits we understand the primary and immediate instrument of the soul, which the Stoicks calleth 'the Band which tyeth the soul and the body.'"

[...] Now by the word Spirit, I do not vnderstand a wind, for these are [GREEK], Bastard, or as Auicen termeth them Fraudulent spirits, whose violence is sometimes so great & furious, that they are the cause of many tumults in the houshold gouernement, or naturall constitution of the body, which is oftentimes miserably distressed with their furious gusts: read what Hippo. in his Book de Flatibus hath written of the power of winds. But by spirits we vnderstand the primary and immediate instrument of the soule, which the Stoicks calleth the Band which tyeth the soule and the body. The force of these spirits is such, & so great the subtilty and thinnesse of their Nature, that they can passe suddenly through all parts, & do insinuate themselues through the fastest and thickest substances, as wee may perceyue in the passions of the minde, in sleepe and in long watchinges. By the ministerie of these spirits, all the motions of liuing creatures are accomplished, both naturall, vitall, and animall, and by these, life, nourishment, motion and sence, do flow into all the parts. Finally, the motion of the spirits is perpetuall, both of themselues, and by another. By themselues, that is, they are mooued continually from an inbred principle both wayes, vpward and downward; vpward because they are light, downward toward their norishment. They are mooued by another when they are driuen, and when they are drawne. The vitall spirits are driuen, when the heart is contracted, the animall when the braine is compressed. The spirits therefore are [GREEK] impetuous substances. They are fiery and ayery, and therefore very fine, subtle, and swift: so the seede although it be thicke and viscid, yet in a moment it passeth through the vessels of generation, which haue no conspicuous cauities, and that because it is spirituous, or full of spirits.
(I.xviii, p. 30)

Fetters::Bands

Reading in EEBO

Helkiah Crooke, ΜΙΚΡΟΚΟΣΜΟΓΡΑΦΙΑ: A Description of the Body of Man (London: Printed by William Iaggard, 1615). <Link to EEBO>

09/28/2011