On the Principles of Nature

...elements, Nature receives them, and from them the form form: in medieval philosophy, the "form" is the essential nature or identity that makes a substance a specific thing, like a "lion" or "gold," rather than just raw matter is subsequently drawn out. Thus, all things are included in these three categories: they are either things that must sprout—such as all plants, trees, and herbs—or they are things that neither sprout nor grow The author is distinguishing between biological growth and the "growth" or formation of minerals in the earth, such as all stones and minerals, and these are called metallics. Each of these three categories is further divided into many various parts.

So it is that among animal things there are humans, lions, bears, sheep, cattle, and so on. Likewise, the vegetable nature is divided into many parts: for some are either the vine original: "vinum", literally "wine", but here referring to the source plant, or wheat, or an apple or a pear, the pear tree or the apple tree, and so forth. In the same way, metallic things are multiplied: for some are stones, and others are minerals, and so on.

And just as things are multiplied or divided, so they have many various materials. Such a complex natural character comes from the many ways the elements original: "metallorum". While the Latin word usually means "metals," the author immediately lists the four elements (earth, water, air, fire), suggesting he views these as the "metallic" or fundamental building blocks of matter are joined together. For example, perhaps five parts of earth, three parts of water, two parts of air, and one part of fire are joined; or in another compound, six parts of water, four parts of earth, one part of fire, and three parts of air are joined; and this is true for every individual thing.

In other things it is done differently, and the ways these elements can be joined in unequal proportions are beyond counting. So too, the parts and the materials of all things are innumerable. Such a joining of elements according to the right proportion proportion: the specific "recipe" or ratio of the four elements that defines a specific substance of any given thing is known only to Nature. She alone knows the certain measure of how much to take from each element as it suits the matter of things. And when she has reached the right proportion through her mediating actions, and has adapted it to the common matter common matter: the basic, underlying substance shared by all physical things before they take on a specific identity, then the form and essence of the thing...