By what I have gathered out of ancient records, I find the compass
of their doctrine took in two-and-thirty points, wherein it would be
tedious to be very particular. However, a few of their most
important precepts deducible from it are by no means to be omitted;
among which, the following maxim was of much weight: That since
wind had the master share as well as operation in every compound, by
consequence those beings must be of chief excellence wherein that
primordium appears most prominently to abound, and therefore man is
in highest perfection of all created things, as having, by the great
bounty of philosophers, been endued with three distinct animas or
winds, to which the sage AEolists, with much liberality, have added
a fourth, of equal necessity as well as ornament with the other
three, by this quartum principium taking in the four corners of the
world. Which gave occasion to that renowned cabalist Bombastus
{119a} of placing the body of man in due position to the four
cardinal points.
In consequence of this, their next principle was that man brings
with him into the world a peculiar portion or grain of wind, which
may be called a quinta essentia extracted from the other four.
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