6 Natural Magick , Doo^ r.

lion and corruption: There be sour principal seeds or beginnings of all things iJu-piter, that is to fay,fire ; PIuto t that is to lay,earth ; Juno, that is to say, air ; andNestis* that is to fay, water: all these sometimes love and concord knits togetherin one, and sometimes discord doth sunder them and make them flic apart. Thi»concord and discord, said he, are found in the Elements by reason of their sundryqualities wherein they agree and disagree i yea,even in heaven it lelf, as Jupiter andVentu love all Planets save Mars and Saturn , Venut agrees with Mars , whereas noPlanet else agrees with him. There is also another disagreement amongst them,which ariseth from the oppositions and elevations of their houses: for even thetwelve signs are both at concord and at discord among themselves, as ManthusihcPoet hath shewed.

C h a p. V.

That divers operations of Nature proceed from the essential forms of things.

A LI the Peripateticks , and most of the latter Philosophers could not fee howall operations should proceed from those causes which the Amients have letdown - for they find that many things work quite contrary to their qualities , andtherefore they have imagined that there is some other matter in it, and that it is thepower and properties of essential formes. Bur now that all things maybe mademore plain, we must consider that it will be a great help unto us, for the making an dfinding out of strange things, to know what that is from whence the venues of anything do proceed: that so we may be able to discern and distinguish one thing fromanother, without confounding all order of truth. Whereas one and the fame com-pound yeelds many effects of different kinds, as we shall find in the proceffe ofthis Book, yet every man confesseth that there is but one only original cause there-in that produceth all these effects. And seeing we are about to open plainly this ori-ginal cause, we must begin a little higher. Every natural substance (I mean a com-pound body) is composed of matter and form, as of her principles: neither yet doI exclude the principal qualities of the Elements from doing their part herein • forthey alscrconctjr, and make up the number o' three principles: for when the Ele-ments meet together in the framing of any compound, the fame compound retainscertain excellent and chief qualities of theirs ; whereof though all help together tobring forth any effects, yet the fuperiour and predominant qualities are held to doall, because they make the power of their inferiours to become theirs : for unleffesome were stronger then other, their venues could not be perceived. Neither yetis the matter quite destitute of all force: I speak here, not of the first and simplematter, but of that which consists of the substances and properties of the Elements,especially the two passible elements, the Earth and the Water: and those whichAristotle calleth sometimes secondary qualities, sometimes bodily effects, we mayterm them the functions and powers of the matter; as thinnesse, thickneffe, rough-neffc, smoothneste,easinesse to be cleft, and such like, are altogether in the power ofthe matter,howbeit they proceed all from the Elements. Therefore to avoid con-fusion, it is better to hold that the effects of the qualities come of the temperatureor mixture of the Elements, but the effects of the matter from the consistence orsubstances of them. But the Form hath such singular venue,that whatsoever effectswesee,allof them first proceed from thence; and it hath a divine beginning; and be-ing the chiefest and most excellent part, absolute of her self, she useth the rest asher instruments, for the more speedy and convenient dispatch of her actions: andhe which is not addicted nor accustomed to such contemplations, supposeth that thetemperature and the matter works all things, whereas indeed they are but as it wereinstruments whereby the form worketh: for a workman that useth a graving Iron inthe carving of an Image, doth not use it as though that could work, but for his ownfurtherance in the quicker and better performance thereof. Therefore whereasthere arc three efficient and working causes in every compound, we must not suppose

any