The Heaven of the Philosophers, or the Book of Vexations

20.

From this it can be gathered that the 4 elemental forces can be corrupted and can work nothing against the heavenly virtue which is called the fifth Essence: For the Elements can neither add to nor take away from this fifth essence: Heavenly and infernal forces do not obey the 4 elements, whether they be dry, moist, hot, or cold: None of those Elements has the faculty of working against the fifth Essence: but each one contains its own proper forces and operations within itself.

Second Canon.

Of Jupiter and its property.

21.

That which is manifest (understand the body of Jupiter) hides metals in spirituality, one indeed more profoundly and tenaciously than another. Jupiter shares nothing of the fifth Essence, and is of the nature of the 4 Elements: for which reason its liquefaction is manifested by a light fire coming upon it, and is similarly coagulated by approaching cold, and it has an affinity with the liquefactions of all other Elements: for the more similar a thing is to the nature of another, the more easily it is united to it through conjunction: the operation of things that are near is also easier and more natural than that of things that are remote from one another.

22.

Secondly, that which is remote can deceive the sun, in that it appears in itself as the least, even if it exists as the greatest: hence it happens that men do not long for things above because they are far distant from them and do not see their glory: similarly, they do not greatly fear things below