On the Principles of Nature

...such The text continues from the previous page's discussion of celestial influences. virtues, matter is inclined toward a form similar to those virtues. When the form is prepared and drawn out from the matter through these mediating virtues, Nature then ceases its work; it no longer operates to produce that specific form, as it has been fully prepared and perfected.

However, from that point on, such a thing receives either growth or decay according to how Nature continues to work within it—at least, provided the thing is of a kind that can increase or decrease. These influences of the stars are called the generative virtues original: "virtutes feminalitatis," literally "virtues of feminality." In this philosophical context, it refers to the receptive, nurturing power—likened to a womb—that allows a form to take root and grow in matter. of the form. Because there are generally three types of natural existence—namely, animal (or things that sprout), vegetable, and metallic—there are likewise three influences of generative power and of the virtue of forms: the animal, the vegetable, and the metallic.

Regarding these virtues, a few things must be understood. The formal virtue and the generative force original: "vis feminalis" descend from the higher realms first to the elements. From the elements, they proceed into the general nature of things, where they are included and preserved. They remain there to help "draw out" the natural form from the matter, as stated above.

These virtues descend via the rays of the stars, as if traveling down their own dedicated paths into the lower world—that is, to the four elements. They are gathered in great abundance especially in the earth, because the earth is the center original: "medium," referring to the Aristotelian view of Earth as the heavy center of the universe toward which all things fall. of the elements. It is in the earth that all the rays of the stars are accumulated. The earth, drawing to itself the generative forces of the forms of all things, allows them to be collected and gathered together, just as all the lines of a circle are united at a single center point. And if the rays of the stars accumu- The text breaks here; the catchword "accumu-" suggests the next page continues with the "accumulation" of these stellar rays.