Of the (pauses of Wmderful things. 5

and is called the Earth; a thick and groffe substance very solid, and by no means10 be pierced through: so that there is no solid and firm body but hath earth in it,sr also there is no vacant space but hath air in ir. This Element of earth is situate in•he middle and centre of all, and is round beset with all the fell. and this onlystands still and unmoveabie, whereas ;ll the test are carried with a circular motionroun d about it. But Hippen and (fritLts held that the vapours of the Elements werethe first beginnings j Parmentdes held that their qualities were the prin.iples ; forall things (faith he) cms st of cold and heat The Physicians hold that all things consistof four qualities, heat, cold, moisture, drouth, and of their predominancy whenthey meet together; for every Element doth embrace as it were wfch certain armeshis neighbour-Element which is nex: situate co him; and yet they have aho contraryand sundry qualities whereby they differ: for the wisdom of nature hath framedthis workmanship of the world by due and set measure, and by a wonderful fitnesseand conveniency of one thing with another- for whereas every Element had twoqualities, wherein it agreed with some, and disagreed with other Elements, naturehath bestowed such a double quality upon every one, as finds in other two her like,which (he cleaves unto : as for example, the air and the fire; this is hot and dry,that is hot and moist : now dry and moist are contraries, and thereby fire and airdisagree; but because either of them is hor, thereby they are reconciled. So theEarth is cold and dry, and the water cold and moist; lo that they disagree, in thatthe one is moist, the other dry ; but yet are reconciled, in asmtich as they are bothcold ; otherwise they could hardly agree. Thus the fire by little and little is changedinto air, because either of them is hot; the air into the water, because either ofthem is moist; the water into the earth, because either of them is cold; and theearth into fire, because either of them is dry: and lo they succeed each other after* most provident order.From thence also they are turned back again into themselves,the order being inverted, and so they are made mutually of one another: for thechange is easie in thole that agree in any one common quality; as fire and air be ea-sily changed into each other, by reason of heat: but where either of the qualitiesare opposite in both, as in fire and water, there this change is not so easie. So then,heat,cold, moisture and drouth,are the first and principal qualities, in as much asthey proceed immediately from the Elements, and produce certain secondary ef-fects. Nowtwoof them,namely heat and cold, are active qualities,fitter to be do-ing themselves,then to suffer of others: the other two,namely moisture and drouth,arc passive - not because they are altogether idle,but because they follow and are pre-firve'd by the other. There are certain secondary qualities,which attend as it wereupon the first; and these are said to work in a second sort - as to soften, to ripen, toresolve, tomakelesse or thinner: as when heat works into any mixe body, icbrings out that which is unpure,and so whilst ic strives to make it fit for his purpose,that it may be more simple, the bodybecomech thereby smaller and thinner: socold doth preserve, binde, and congeal; drouth doth thicken or harden, andmakes uneven ; for when there is great store of moisture in the utter parts, thatwhich the drouth is not able to consume, it hardens, and so the utter parts becomerugged ; for that part where the moisture is gone, sinking down, and the otherwhere it is hardened, rising up, there must needs be great roughnessc and rugged-ness;: so moisture doth augment, corrupt, and for the most part works one thingby it less, and another by some accident • as by ripening, binding, expelling, andsuch like, it brings forth milk, urine, monetbly flowers, and sweat; which the Phy-sicians call the third qualities, that do so wait upon the second, as the second uponthe first: aud sometime they have their operations in some certain parts, as tostrengthen the head, to succour the reins ; and these, some call fourth qualities. Soth en,these are the foundations, as they call them, of all mixe bodies, and of allwonderful operations: and whatsoever experiments they proved, the causes hereofrested (as they supposed) and were to be found in the Elements and their qualities.But Empedocles Agrtgent inns not thinking that the Elements were sufficient for thispurpose, added unto them moreover concord and discord, as the causes of genera-tion