And there by moving and smiting together of the parts of the heart,
the spirit is more pured, and turned into a more subtle kind. And then
it is called of physicians the vital spirit: because that from the
heart, by the wosen, and veins, and small ways, it spreadeth itself
into all the limbs of the body, and increaseth the virtues spiritual,
and ruleth and keepeth the works thereof. For out of a den of the left
side of the heart cometh an artery vein, and in his moving is departed
into two branches: the one thereof goeth downward, and spreadeth in
many boughs, and sprays, by means of which the vital spirit is brought
to give the life to all the nether limbs of the body. The other bough
goeth upward, and is again departed in three branches. The right bough
thereof goeth to the right arm, and the left bough to the left arm
equally, and spreadeth in divers sprays. And so the vital spirit is
spread into all the body and worketh in the artery veins the pulses of
life. The middle bough extendeth itself to the brain, and other higher
parts and giveth life, and spreadeth the vital spirit in all the parts
about. The same spirit piercing and passing forth to the dens of the
brain, is there more directed and made subtle, and is changed into the
animal spirit, which is more subtle than the other. And so this animal
spirit is gendered in the foremost den of the brain, and is somewhat
spread into the limbs of feeling. But yet nevertheless some part
thereof abideth in the aforesaid dens, that common sense, the common
wit, and the virtue imaginative may be made perfect. Then he passeth
forth into the middle den that is called Logistic, to make the
intellect and understanding perfect. And when he hath enformed the
intellect, then he passeth forth to the den of memory, and bearing
with him the prints of likeness, which are made in those other dens,
he layeth them up in the chamber of memory. From the hindermost parts
of the brain he pierceth and passeth by the marrow of the ridge bone,
and cometh to the sinews of moving, that so wilful moving may be