Inscrutable Chemico-Philosophical Harmonies

And it should be noted The Latin transcription reads "potandum" (to drink), but the context and typical manuscript shorthand strongly suggest "notandum" (to be noted). how in every visible thing—that is, visible to the eyes—heat (which is fire) is enclosed within earth, and air within water. Exactly how these things come to be is not very important to know here. Rather, we must simply understand that from the beginning, by joining the four elements, nature prepares the common matter common matter: also known as "prime matter," the basic, formless substance from which all things are made of all things. The more nature makes this matter subtle, active, and fit—digesting and preparing it for a specific form—the closer it is to its eventual shape, and the more quickly the form of the thing form: in medieval philosophy, the "form" is the essential nature or identity of a thing that gives the raw matter its specific characteristics appears.

This is just as a craftsman at the beginning of his work takes a rough material and works a likeness out of it: the more finely he shapes, removes, and moves the material, the more the image appears. Once the material is prepared and the excess parts are removed, the completed form of the object is revealed. In this way, the form is led out and extracted by stripping away the excesses of the material; nature acts in exactly the same way.

First, nature creates a suitable matter from the four elements and applies its operation to this matter until it removes and separates the impurity and the excess parts. It refines the matter until it is so subtle and active that the form of the thing perfectly appears and exists. But if the matter still retains some stain or impurity, then the form of the thing does not appear perfectly or in its entirety, but is instead defiled by that impurity. Thus, all forms of natural things are drawn out from the pre-existing matter, and every natural thing—whether it be animal, vegetable, or mineral—takes its primary matter from the four ele- The word continues on the next page as "elementorum" (elements).