The English Novel and the Principle of its DevelopmentLanier, Sidney
History
The English Novel and the Principle of its Development
Lanier, Sidney
English fiction -- History and criticism
"There came three angels out of the East;
One brought fire, the other brought frost--
Out fire, in frost,
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost."
And the other is, under Sept. 29th, 1662, "To the King's Theatre,
where we saw 'Midsummer's Night's Dream,' which I had never seen
before, nor shall ever again, for it is the most insipid, ridiculous
play that ever I saw in my life."
Indeed, if you should wish to see how recently we are out of the range
of Aristotle, you have only to read the chapter on Human Anatomy,
which occurs in the early part of dear old Robert Burton's _Anatomy of
Melancholy_. Here is an account of the body which makes curious
reading for the modern biologist. I give a line here and there. The
body is divided into parts containing or contained, and the parts
contained are either humors or spirits. Of these humors there are
four: to wit, first, blood; next, phlegm; third, choler; and fourth,
melancholy; and this is part of the description of each.
"Blood is a hot, sweet, temperate, red humor, ... made of the most
temperate parts of the chylus in the liver.... And from it spirits are
first begotten in the heart. Phlegm is a cold and moist humor,
begotten of the colder part of the chylus in the liver. Choler is hot
and dry, begotten of the hotter parts of the chylus. Melancholy, cold
and dry, ... is a bridle to the other two hot humors, blood and
choler. These four humors have some analogy with the four elements and
to the four ages in man." Having disposed thus of humors, we have
this account of spirit or the other contained part of the body.
"Spirit is a most subtle vapor, which is expressed from the blood, and
the instrument of the soul to perform all his actions; a common tie or
medium between the body and the soul, as some will have it; or as
Paracelsus--a fourth soul of itself." Proceeding to other parts of the
body, here are the lungs. "The lungs is a thin spongy part like an
ox-hoof.... The instrument of voice; ... and next to the heart to
express their thoughts by voice. That it is the instrument of voice is
manifest in that no creature can speak ... which wanteth these lights.
It is besides the instrument of breathing; and its office is to cool
the heart by sending air into it by the venosal artery," &c., &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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