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

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CONCERNING THE ELEMENTS (DE ELEMENTIS).

...earth (tellus) in water. Fire thoroughly purifies air (aër), air water (aqua), water earth: each thing assimilates the other to itself and to its own splendor. Do you not see in the summer season how water is drawn up by the sun into the air, and through the air becomes clearer and more subtle (subtilis); so that between water and air, either a tiny or no distinction is perceived? An example is water exposed to the rays of the Sun (Sol), which gradually vanishes, drawn up by the Sun and rendered more subtle; provided that cold (frigus) does not thicken it. For just as the heat (calor) of fire renders all things subtle and pure, so on the contrary cold, being opposed to fire, condenses and constricts all things, and, as it were, compresses water, resisting the heat of fire and the subtlety of air. This is the reason why water, having thickened again into drops, falls down; these drops, absorbed by the earth, become the nourishment (nutrimentum) of things arisen from the elements (elementa); and thus they penetrate even to the root of the seed (semen): but, by the virtue and efficacy of the Sun, emerging once more to the outermost particles of plants, they leave behind the spirits or the nourishment (nutritio) of the earth, which by the heat of the same Sun [is] transmu[...]