SUBTERRANEAN PHYSICS

Book One.

Section One: Regarding the Creation of the Universal World.

> N. 1. Explanation of the word "create." N. 2. Why heaven was created first. N. 3. It differs from that heaven which is called the firmament. N. 4. Heaven is established as the first principle and element of the World. N. 5. To the same is ascribed the power of rarefaction and condensation. N. 6. The cause of all motions is assigned to rarity and density. N. 7. Heaven is the principle of all motions. N. 8. Its state in creation and its first motion. N. 9. The perpetual motion of the world. N. 10. The consensus of Ancient and more recent Philosophers with this opinion. N. 11. Many things in Physics are more conveniently explained in this way. N. 12. The container of heaven.

N. 1. Nowhere do we read that God, in the beginning of Creation, created anything besides heaven and earth, for all other things were produced from these. Therefore, heaven and earth are properly said to be "created." Even though sacred Scripture testifies that God also created man, this creation is nevertheless only to be understood as a "production" from the first things created; for man was made from the earth, which God formed and arranged into a fleshy substance. This arrangement ought to be called a "production" rather than a "creation." Therefore, no one will deny that the word create or having been created regarding the origin of man must be understood as referring to his nobler part—namely, his soul, which was created by God. Furthermore, it is inferred from what has been said that in Physics Original: "Physicis"; referring to the study of natural philosophy and the material world. nothing was created besides heaven and earth, for the text says: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, etc. original: "In principio creavit Deus coelum & terram".

N. 2. Heaven is indeed placed first, and not without cause. For since heaven (as will be clear from what follows) denotes only the place in which all created things subsist, it necessarily had to precede—as a place precedes the thing placed within it—by some interval of time, however small,

N. 3. so that those things which were later created and produced could be situated. Truly, anyone can see that this Heaven is different from the other one which Moses mentions in the eighth verse of the same chapter, when he says, And God called the firmament heaven, original: "vocavitque Deus firmamentum coelum" etc. For the latter was produced, while the former was created; nor could the later Heaven be this first primary one, since the firmament did not yet exist as the matter for it. It must therefore be

N. 4. concluded that this first heaven, which we have proved was created, was the first Universal and Catholic The author uses "Catholic" in its original Greek sense meaning "universal" or "all-encompassing," rather than referring to the Church. principle of the World: which, for profound reasons, we shall henceforth call the Hyperphysical Element of the World. For as will be taught below, there exist only two primordial principles of the world: one Hyperphysical, and the other Physical. Here, however, we speak only of the first Hyperphysical one, namely, Heaven.