The Pneumatics

vanishes. Wherefore it is mixed with it, and becomes earth itself. But if anyone should say that it is driven off, and not absorbed by the earth, but evaporates and is dried up by the heat of the sun or of some other thing, he will be found to speak falsely. For the same water, poured into some vessel, whether of glass or of bronze, or consisting of any other dense material, and exposed to the sun for a long time, is not diminished, except in a very small portion of itself. Wherefore water also is changed into an earthy substance. For mud and mire are transformations of water into an earthy substance; a thinner substance is also changed into a thicker one, just as we see that the flame from extinguished lamps, when the oil fails, is carried upward a little way and, as if impelled, withdraws into its proper place. I mean the highest place, and that which is above the air; but being overcome by the much intervening air, it is no longer carried to its destined place, but having been mixed and entangled with the bodies of the air, it is turned into air. Something similar must also be understood in the case of air. For when it, being in some vessel that is not large and is closed