The life of wavelike substances, that is to say, of the dung of men and animals, is their strong and fœtid smell. When this is lost they are dead.
The life of aromatic substances, to wit, musk, ambergris, civet, and whatever emits a strong, sweet, and pleasant odour, is nothing but that grateful odour itself. If they lose this they are dead and useless.
The life of sweet things, as sugar, honey, manna, fistula cassiæ, and the like, is a subtle sweetness, with the power to tinge; for if that sweetness be taken away by distillation, or sublimation, the things are dead, fatuous, and no longer of any value.
The life of resins, as caraba, turpentine, and gum, is a mucilaginous, glittering fatness. They all give excellent varnish; when they no longer furnish this, and lose their glitter, they are dead.
The life of herbs, roots, apples, and other fruits of this kind, is nothing else than the liquid of the earth, which they spontaneously lose if they are deprived of water and earth.
The life of wood is a certain resin. Any wood that is deprived of resin is unable longer to flourish.
The life of bones is the liquid of mumia. The life of flesh and blood is none other than the spirit of salt, which preserves them from ill odour and decay, and spontaneously, as the water is separated from them.
But concerning the life of the elements there is this to be known. The life of water is its flowing. When it is coagulated by the cold of the firmament and congealed into ice, then it is dead, and all power of doing harm is taken from it, since no one can any longer be drowned in it.
So, too, the life of fire is air, for the air makes the fire blaze more strongly and with greater impetuosity. Some air proceeds from all fire, sufficient to extinguish a candle or to lift a light feather, as is evident to the eyes. All live fire, therefore, if it be shut up or deprived of the power to send forth its air, must be suffocated.
The air lives of itself, and gives life to all other things. The earth, however, is of itself dead; but its own element is its invisible and occult life.
