Heart is taken in two ways: one improperly,256 of the lump of flesh from which the heart proper is generated. The shape of this mass is as is the shape of a cone, a little before the soul is put in. Heart is taken properly after it has been formed in such wise, on the addition of the soul, and according to the former mode the heart is prior quoad generari to the other members of the body; but not prior quoad generatum esse, by priority of time but only by priority of nature. However, it is prior by priority of time to those other members that are required for the well-being of the body such as arms and legs.257
Or it could be said, the force is in the spirit as in the root,258 and in the body of the heart as in the branch, and therefore the heart is a branch of the force, for it is from the force heart is said to be heart. But spirit is spirit as long as that259 vapour lasts which is called the spirit according to Galen, that is, the temperate vapour, and this statement is not amiss;260 but taking the spirit as brother to the natural heat, as Damascenus says, it only lives as long as the man lives, for it then grows cold, and the natural heat corrupts, and putrescent vapour takes its place. Or I say, the spirit is the root which forms the heart and the heart is comforting branch, for when it (the spirit) helps the heart, the heart helps the members.