A Defense of the Introduction to a True and Unheard-of Physics

§. 3. Therefore, he does not seem to argue demonstratively original: apodicticè; referring to a logical proof that is necessarily true and certain. when he reasons as follows: "Air, as a most subtle Water, is the true Principle of the Stars, the Sun, the Moon & the stars; Earth is the true Principle, and respectively the Mother, of all Animals, Vegetables & Minerals: Therefore they are Elements." However, he does not consider that the thing which is made from something else is not the same as that from which it is made. For in Physics, an Element A fundamental, irreducible building block of nature. and a Principle original: Principium; the source or origin of a thing, which may be a derivative of an element rather than the element itself. (as the first elemental product original: Elementatum; in 17th-century philosophy, this refers to a substance that has been shaped or produced from a primary element.) differ as cause and effect. Air, water, and Earth were made, or separated from something else—namely, from that first and unique Element (viscous Water original: Aquâ viscosâ; a term used in early chemistry and alchemy to describe the primordial, thick fluid from which the universe was organized.) created in the beginning. Whatever is now separated and produced from another created thing is not an Element; but Air and Earth (by the Anonymous author's own confession) were separated and produced from water. Therefore they are not Elements. For the Chaos created by GOD, once the Creation was performed, was separated into its first elemental products—specifically into air, water, and Earth; therefore these, as elemental products, were posterior to their own Element.