SECT.  XV.  Of Fire.

Do you see that fire that seems kindled in the stars, and spreads its light on all sides?  Do you see that flame which certain mountains vomit up, and which the earth feeds with sulphur within its entrails?  That same fire peaceably lurks in the veins of flints, and expects to break out, till the collision of another body excites it to shock cities and mountains.  Man has found the way to kindle it, and apply it to all his uses, both to bend the hardest metals, and to feed with wood, even in the most frozen climes, a flame that serves him instead of the sun, when the sun removes from him.  That subtle flame glides and penetrates into all seeds.  It is, as it were, the soul of all living things; it consumes all that is impure, and renews what it has purified.  Fire lends its force and activity to weak men.  It blows up, on a sudden, buildings and rocks.  But have we a mind to confine it to a more moderate use?  It warms man, and makes all sorts of food fit for his eating.  The ancients, in admiration of fire, believed it to be a celestial gift, which man had stolen from the gods.