CHAPTER VIII.

THE VITAL SPIRITS OF NATURE.
" In Nature's infinite book of secresy, a little I can read."
— Antony and Cleopatra.
BACON seems to have been strongly influenced and stimu- lated by the study of the works of the celebrated theo- sophist, physician, and chemist, Paracelsus, whom he often cites (not always with approval), and from whose doctrine of the " Vital Spirits of Nature " it is clear that he must have derived the original germ of those lovely ideas of all-pervading life which re-appear throughout his writings, and pre-eminently in the Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, and The Tempest.
When the comet or new star suddenly shone forth in 1572, in the constellation of Cassiopeia, it was marked as a portent or harbinger of success for the boy Francis, who in that year went up for the first time to Cambridge, and who even at that early age was manifesting signs of future greatness.
Now it is worthy of note that this same portent was observed by Paracelsus as heralding the advent of " the artist Elias," by whose means a revelation was to be made which would be of the highest importance to the human race ; and, again, this prophecy of Paracelsus was accepted by the Rosicrucians as true, and as finding its fulfilment in the fact that in the year 1572 the wonderful boy did make his appearance, and became the founder of their society.
" Paracelsus, in the eighth chapter of his Treatise on Metals, gives utterance to the following prognostication : ' God will permit a discovery of the highest importance to be made ; it must be hidden till the advent of the artist Elias.1
" In the first chapter of the same work he says : ' And it is true, there is nothing concealed which shall not be discovered : for which cause a marvellous being shall come after me, who as yet lives not, and who shall reveal many things.'
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" These passages* have been claimed as referring to the founder of the Rosicrucian order ; and as prophecies of this character are usually the outcome of a general desire rather than of an individual inspiration, they are interesting evidence that then, as now, many thoughtful people were looking for another Saviour of Society. At the beginning of the seventeenth century 1 a great and general reformation,' says Buhle — ' a reformation more radical and more directed to the moral improvement of mankind than that accomplished by Luther — was believed to be impending over the human race, as a necessary forerunner to the day of judgment.' The comet of 1572 was declared by Paracelsus to be ' the sign and harbinger of the coming revolution,' and it will readily be believed that his innumerable disciples would welcome a secret society whose vast claims were founded on the philosophy of the Master whom they also venerated as a supreme factor in the approaching Reformation. Paracelsus, however, had recorded a still more precise prediction, namely, that ' soon after the decease of the Emperor Rudolph, there would be found three treasures that had never been revealed before that time: "
The Author then claims that these are the three great Rosi- crucian documents issued at the time appointed, and which he has recently published for the first time in English. They were entitled " The Universal Reformation of the Whole Wide World," "Fama Fraternitatis ; or, a Discovery of the Fraternity of the Most Laudable Order of the Rosy Cross," and " The Con- fession of the Rosicrucian Fraternity, addressed to the Learned of Europe."
It is easy to picture to ourselves the effect of these prognostica- tions of Paracelsus, joined to the fact that the wonderful star did appear at the very time when the youthful philosopher was himself sent forth to shine as a prodigy and portent — it is easy to imagine the impression produced upon a highly-strung, sensitive boy by such a combination of circumstances, to which, doubtless, his admiring friends and tutors were not slow in drawing his attention. Years afterwards we find him making " experiments," " touching emission of immateriate virtues from the minds and spirits of men, either by affections, imaginations, or by other impressions." He speaks of the force
* The Real History of the Rosicrucians, A. B. Waite, pp. 34-5. Published by Redway.
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of imagination, and of the means to exalt it, and endeavours to solve this problem : Whether a man constantly and strongly believing that such a thing shall be, it doth help anything to the effecting of the thing itself. He decides that it is certain that such effects result ; but that the help is, for one man to work by means of another, in whom he may create belief, and not by himself, and we think it by no means improbable that in childhood his own imagination was thus wrought upon and kindled into enthusiasm concerning the work to which he was called, and which he regarded as sacred.
Bacon does not, in his scientific works, often quote Paracelsus 'y in some points he entirely differs from him, disapproving of his doctrines, and of their effects upon popular belief. He protests against the excessive freedom in Scriptural interpretation r which either explains "the divinely-inspired Scriptures as human writings," or else " which pre-supposes such perfection in Scripture that all philosophy likewise should be derived from its sources, as if all other philosophy were something profane and heathen. This distemper has principally grown up in the school of Paracelsus and some others, but the beginnings thereof came from the Rabbis and Cabalists." * He shows the error of Paracelsus and his school, who, " seeking a place for its three principles even in the temple of Juno, that is, the air, established three winds, and for the east found no place.1'! He reproves the intemperate extremes of these " disciples of pretended natural magic," who exalted " Fascination," or " the power and apprehension of the imagination, to be much one with the power of miracle-working Faith.'1 % He laughs at the " prodigious follies" of those who aim at making Paracelsus' pigmies. § " Vast and bottomless follies which ascribe to imagination exalted, the power of wonder-working Faith, || fancies as wild as that by which Paracelsus was to have it that nutrition is caused only by separation, and that in bread and meat lie eye, nose, brain, liver, and in the moisture of the ground root, leaf, and
* De Aug. IX. t Hist of Winds.
X De Aug. IV. (It is curious to see how fashions and delusions return. Note the present " faith-healing " fancies.) § Nat. Hist. I. 99, and Hist. Dense and Eare. II Nat. Hist. I. 1.
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flower."* Neither does he share the " idle notion of Paracelsus that there are parts and correspondences between man's body and all the species of stars, plants, and minerals ; misapplying the emblem of man as a Microcosm or epitome of the world in support of this fancy of theirs."!
Differing on many points.irom Paracelsus, Bacon, as we see, did not wish to be supposed a disciple of his ; yet he studied very closely all that he had to say, and quoted him by name as if to lead others to the consideration of his works, from which he drew so much, although, perhaps, not of the kind, or after the fashion, which the alchemist philosopher might have desired and expected. The notion prominent in the writings of Paracelsus concerning the " Vital Spirits of Nature " fell in perfectly with Bacon's own ideas, and this poetical and beautiful fancy pervades his writings to such a degree as to be inseparable from them. The method in which he handles the subject is also so peculiar as to form another touchstone by which the authorship of certain works may be tested, since the thought of any two men, forming the same fanciful theories, and deriving from them the same subtle thoughts and conclusions, is too improbable to be seriously entertained.
In the preface to the History of Life and Death, the Editor says:
" The idea on which Bacon's idea of longevity is founded, namely, that the principle of life resides in a subtle fluid or spirit, which permeates the tangible parts of the organisation of plants and animals, seems to be coeval with the first origin of speculative physiology. Bacon was one of those by whom this idea was extended from organised to inorganised bodies. In all substances, according to him, resides a portion of spirit which manifests itself only in its operations, being altogether in- tangible and without weight. This doctrine appeared to be to him of most certain truth, but he has nowhere stated the grounds of his conviction, nor even indicated the kind of evidence by which the existence of the spiritus is to be established. In living bodies he conceived that two kinds of spirits exist : a crude or mortuary spirit, such as is present in other substances, and the animal or vital spirit, to which the phenomena of life are to be referred. To keep this vital spirit, the wine of life, from oozing
* Nov. Org. I. 48. f De Aug. IV. 2.
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away ought to be the aim of the physician who attempts to increase the number of our few and evil days." *
The writer is here treating chiefly of the body, but wherever Bacon speaks of inorganic matter, or of organised forms of plants, etc., he uses language which expresses that they are more or less living and sentient, having vital spirits which act somewhat as in the bodies of living creatures. Doubtless his poetical nature led him always into metaphoric language ; his ." nimbleness to perceive analogies," his sense of beauty and of the wonderful harmony in which the world was created tended to make him speak and write thus ; but a deeper feeling still moved him continually to connect the " crude," " gross," and " earthy " with the " rare," " airy and flamy " of the sensitive soul. He was forever mentally endeavouring to bring about a Union or Marriage between things natural and things spiritual, to " mingle earth with heaven." " I am labouring with all my might to make the mind of man a match for the nature of things." |
It may, therefore, be expected, as a single outcome of his cogitations and philosophy, that we shall read of "Motion which invites an excited body ; " " Materials which refuse to be heated ; Master spirits which, in any body, curb, tame, subdue, and regulate other parts," etc. "Bodies which delight in motion and enjoy their own nature," and which, in spontaneous rotation, " follow themselves, and court, so to speak their own embraces."" Some " bodies abhor motion, and remain at rest." Others " move by the shortest path, to consort with bodies of their own nature." " By this appetite for motion all bodies of considerable density abhor motion ; indeed, the desire of not moving is the only appetite they have ; and though, in countless ways, the}' be enticed and challenged to motion, they yet, as far as they can, maintain their proper nature ; and if compelled to move, they, nevertheless, seem ahcays intent on recovering their state of rest, and moving no more. While thus engaged, indeed, they show themselves active, and struggle for it with agility and swiftness enough, as weary and impatient of all
* Pref. Hist. Vitoz et Mortis, by Robert Leslie Ellis. Spedding, Bacon's Works, II. 91. t De Aug. V. 2.
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delay. ... Of the motions I have set forth, some are invincible, some are stronger than others, fettering, curbing, arranging them ; some carry further than others ; some outstrip others in speed; some cherish, strengthen, enlarge, and accelerate others."*
How lifelike all this is ! Surely, it might be supposed that we were reading of two-legged or four-legged creatures instead of particles of matter, fn the same vein the philosopher-poet tells of opiates and kindred medicaments, which put the spirits utterly to flight by their malignant and hostile nature.^ If taken internally, their fumes, ascending to the head, disperse in all directions the spirits contained in the ventricles of the brain, and these spirits, thus withdrawing themselves, and unable to escape into any other part, are .... sometimes utterly choked and extinguished. Rosewater, on the other hand, " cherishes " the spirits.
We read, too, of Continuance as the steward or almoner of Nature ; % of Heat and Cold as the hands by which she works. Cold as an enemy to growth, and bad air an enemy to health ; of the west wind friendly to plants, and of strife and friendship in nature. Bodies, at the touch of a body that is friendly, . . . open themselves ; but, at the. touch of an unfriendly body, they shrink up." §
In the Anatomy of Melancholy (which, as has been said, seems to be the sweepings of Bacon's note-books on all subjects
* Nov. Org. I. 47. Compare with the preceding sentences " Passion invites me." Twelth Night, II, 2. "A spirit too delicate . . . refusing [the foul witch's] grand hests." Temp. I. 2. " All hail, great master." lb. " Her more potent ministers. lb. " My potent master." lb. IV. 1. " Curb this cruel devil of his will." Mer. Ven. IV. 1, and Ham. III. 4. Tame the savage spirit of wild war." John V. 2. " The delighted spirit to bathe in fiery floods." Meas. for Meas. III. 1. " More spirit chased than enjoyed." Mer. Ven. II. 6. " The air smells wooingly here." Macb. I. 6. " Nature doth abhor to make his bed," etc. Cymb. IV. 4. " Night's swift dragons cut clouds full fast . . . damned spirits, all . . . all gone, and must for aye consort with black-browed night." Midsummer Night's Dream, III. 2., etc.
t See Nov. Org. II. 48, 50. Hist. Winds, Qualities, 27. Hist. Heavy and Light, Cog. Naturae, VI., etc.
t " The gifts of Nature." Twelfth Night, I. 3 ; Ham. I. 5, etc. " Frugal nature." IV. I. "Our foster nurse of nature is repose." "Poison and treason are the hands of sin." Pericles, I. 1. " Care's an enemy to life." Twelfth Night, I. 2. " Nature is thy friend." Merry Wives, III. 3.
§ " A south wind friendly." Winter's Tale, V. I. " Friendly drop " (of poison). Romeo and Juliet, V. 3. "A huge infectious troop of pale distemperatures and foes to life." — M . M. V. 1.
224, FRANCIS BACON
connected with the Doctrine of the Union of Mind and Body) all these ideas are reproduced and expanded.
The chapter containing the passages of the Digression of Spirits is particularly interesting and instructive, forming, as it does, a connecting link between the science and the poetry of the plays. Who that reads such sentences as the following, which catch the eye as it travels hastily down those pages, but must be reminded of the scenes and lines in the Tempest, Mac- beth, Lear, the Midsummmer Night's Dream, and other plays, familiar in our mouths as household words ?
" Fiery spirits * are such as commonly work by blazing-stars, fire-drakes, | or ignis fatui ; $ which lead men oft in flumina aut poozcipitia, saith Bodine (lib. 2, Theat. Naturce, fol. 221 ; . . .), likewise they counterfeit suns and moons, § stars oftentimes, and sit on ship-masts, ... or which never appear, saith Cardan, but they signify some mischief or other to come unto men, though some again will have them to pretend good and victory ; . . . and they do likely come after a sea-storm. . . .
"Aerial spirits, or devils, are such as keep quarter most