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"No less inquisitive have they been about the first Principle of Life, which sets the Wheels of this curious Engine on Work."

— Nourse, Timothy (c.1636–1699)

Author

Nourse, Timothy (c.1636–1699)

Work Title

A Discourse Upon the Nature and Faculties of Man

Place of Publication

London

Publisher

Printed for Jacob Tonson

Date

1686, 1689, 1697

Metaphor

"No less inquisitive have they been about the first Principle of Life, which sets the Wheels of this curious Engine on Work."

Metaphor in Context

Many nice and subtle Questions are started by the Curious, concerning the Use and Frame of each particular Organ of the Body, as also how the Blood, Nutrition, and Sensation are made. No less inquisitive have they been about the first Principle of Life, which sets the Wheels of this curious Engine on Work; As first, Whether there be one or more Souls in Man conformable to the Animal and Rational Faculties: Also whether the Rational Soul be propagated in the same manner as that of other living Creatures: Or, whether it be immediately Created and Infus'd by God? For the better Understanding of which Questions, I shall first give my Sense and Notion of that which we call a Sensitive or Animal Soul, which I conceive to be nothing but an Ethereal Mass of Spirit, or Flame rarified, which the Almighty in the first Creation of Things, infus'd into every living Creature after its Kind, ordaining also a seminal Power in each of them, to propagate the same to new Ofsprings successively. As soon as ever the Parts begin to be form'd by Nature, this Animal and active Principle begins to exert its Heat and Force, being lodged in the Heart as in the Centre of the Body, from whence, as the Vessels begin also to be form'd, it distributes it self towards the extreme Regions, communicating its Vital Heat by the Ministry of the Spirits; which Spirits also are nothing but Particles of that Original and Ethereal Flame, which is contracted and united in this Centre: The boyling Heat which flows from the union of so many Spirits, begets a Motion in the Heart, to which the Arteries being fastned, the same Pulse or Motion is communicated to them also; and least the Spirits should be made too Volatile, the wise Framer of Nature hath ordered the Blood to be their Vehicle, being of a liquid and glutinous Substance, and so most fit both to retain and to distribute them together with its self into the remoter parts of the Body: all which is extreamly facilitated by the continual Operation of the Lungs, whose Function 'tis by attracting fresh Supplies of cool Air to refrigerate the Heart, and to communicate thin and subtle Matter to make the Blood more florid and fluid: Now because the Blood by reason of the great Volatility of the Spirits which are mix'd with it, is continually wasting; this Loss is repaired by Nutrition, or a fresh supply of new Spirits from the Aliment we take in, which after several percolations becomes Blood also, and is then conveighed to the Heart, and so into the Arteries, where it becomes the Vehicle of Life, and carries along with it new Spirits, by undergoing the same Circulations of Nature. Whosoever therefore shall duly weigh this Order, and consider the Fabrick of each Part, will easily be able to give a rational Account of Nutrition, Respiration, Motion, Sensation, with all the other Faculties belonging to a Sensitive or Animal Body.
(pp. 3-5)