would not deny this so necessary a portion of Nature, without which the condition of their life were worse then that of beasts, as well for the boyling of their meats, as to warme them, and dry them, and infinite other necessary commodities. Besides of that which soares alwayes upwards, being of one celestial original, whither he aspires to returne, it seemes that this belongs properly to man. _Sith other things lookes downe unto the earth It gave man a face, to looke up, and see the heavens, To erect his countenance unto the Stars._ [Sidenote: διάλυσις] Almost all other animals do shun the fire, whence _Lactantius_ to shew that man was a divine Animal, alledgeth for one of his most pregnant reasons, that hee onely amongst others used fire. And _Vitruvius_ in his second booke, sets downe that the first acquaintances of men, were contracted by comming to meete, to warme themselves at common fires: So that the cause why God sent fire downe to men must bee, that by the meanes thereof, they are come to penetrate into the profound and hidden secrets of Nature: whereof they could not well discover, & know the manner of proceeding, for that shee workes so rarely: but by his counterfoote, which the Greeks call διάλυσις the resolution and separation of the Elementary parts, which are made by fire; whereof proceeds the execution almost of all Artifices, that the spirit of man hath invented; So that if the first had no other instrument, and toole, then the fire, as we may lately see by the discoveries of the _West Indies_; _Homer_ in the Song of _Vulcan_ sets downe that hee assisted with _Minerva_, taught men their Arts and brave Workmanship; having formerly beene accustomed to dwel in Caves and hollow Rockes, after the fashion of wilde beasts; willing to inferre by _Minerva_ the Goddesse of Arts, and Sciences, _the understanding and industry, and by the fire, Vulcan, that puts them in execution; wherefore the Ægyptians were accustomed to marry these two Deities together, willing thereby to declare nothing else but that from the understanding proceeds the invention of all Arts and Sciences, which fire afterwards effected, and brought from power to action_; for the Agent in all this world is nothing else but fire and heat, saith _Johannicius_, and _Homer_, _Whom Vulcan and Minerva knew_. Which was the cause (as may bee seen in _Philostratus_ by the birth of _Minerva_) that shee forsooke the _Rhodians_, for that they sacrificed unto her without fire, to goe to the _Athenians_. Moreover _Vulcan_, according to _Diadorus_, was a man, _who from an accident by a clap of Lightning, whereby a Tree was set on fire, first revealed to the Ægyptians the commodity and use of Fire: for being therewithall overcome, all joyfull of his light and heate; he thereunto added other matter to keepe it, whilest hee went to seeke the people, who afterward for this, deified him_. Whereto _Lucretius_ agrees,