Two Treatises on the Nature of the Elements and the Fifth Essence

ON THE ELEMENTS.

CHAPTER II.

How fire acts upon water and earth: how contraries are united: that the separation (secretio) of the Elements (Elementa) must be diligently observed: That Fire (Ignis) is the life of all things.

Furthermore, no differently than Fire acts upon the air, so it acts also upon Water (Aqua) and Earth (Terra), as we discern in turfs composed of juices and in dry wood; these, no less than the air, emerge illuminated and splendid. Do you not see how black charcoals (Carbones) are outside the fire? How bright they are, how shining in the fire, no less than the fire itself. Fire imparts so much splendor to them that they are even transformed into a thoroughly different form; then they return to their former nature. Even ash (Cinis) itself does not refuse at last to be changed into a substance not unlike glass (Vitrum), and finally into an invisible one. Perhaps you will say it cannot be that water originates from the same matter as fire; for indeed it is necessary that those things which are so constituted should have received some similarity with [...]