Works of Constantine the African, Vol. II

passions. For what in the same would oppose itself? Likewise Hippocrates: If, he says, he did not suffer in different ways, he would not be restored by different medicines. But it is absurd to believe this, because for different passions there ought to be different medicines. It is clear, therefore, that there are four elements, which appear simple to the sense, but are composed to the intellect. For earth never subsists without some part of water, fire, or air, nor do the others likewise. Nevertheless, whatever of these is contained by its own proper quality, that is properly an element. This is not apparent to the sense, yet it is to the intellect. Whence philosophers said that there are four elements in the world, that is, hot, cold, dry, and moist. Nor do they understand only the qualities in these, but their subjects. For they say that the heat perfectly realized is fire. The cold, actual and perfect, they say is water; the moist, naturally perfect, is air; and the dry, perfectly so, is earth. Yet in their own mixture, they borrow other qualities from one another. For on account of the continuous motion of the lunar circle, fire has acquired dryness, being near to it. Air, however, on account of the affinity of fire, has attained heat. Water, from the proximity of air, seems to have moisture. Earth, on account of water, becomes cold. Therefore, fire is naturally hot and dry. Air is hot and moist. Water is cold and moist. Earth is cold and dry. From these qualities, some seem to differ. For fire is subtle and light, and therefore it seeks higher things. Earth is coarser and heavier, and for that reason more coagulated and weighted toward the bottom. Air is heavier than fire, but water is lighter. These things are sufficient concerning the qualities and natures of the elements. By their mixtures and their changes into this the state of the body which is not possessed, whatever is built is effected. Nor, however, in the way that different bodies are mixed by us. For if we mix wine and water, when mixed they appear to the senses to be one. But each one subsists in its own nature, and by intellect, nor is it changed into another essence, just as eaten bread is transformed into blood. Seed committed to the earth received the nature of the herb.

However, the mixture of elements is not equal in all created bodies. For in some it is greater, in others smaller. For the quantity of hot and cold, moist and dry, is not the same in a man as it is in a horse, nor even in a bull as it is in a horse, nor in Socrates as it is in Plato. Nor is that which is in the vine the same as that in the fig tree. This quantity of elements in bodies being diverse was quite necessary for the diversity of genera into species, and species into individuals. For if it were the same, all created things would have one form and property. But although the mixtures are unequal among themselves, they are not so discordant that they are not neighboring, just as Hippocrates says in his book On Human Nature: If the hot, he says, is not tempered by the cold, and the dry by the moist in the temperament of the body, or if one outweighs another, the body to be built cannot stand. O words of Hippocrates to be weighed above all kinds of metals! For if heat abounds and is more than it ought to be, it is certain that the matter is inflamed. And thus the body is destroyed. And if it is colder than it ought to be, the matter being coagulated and thickened, it cannot be formed. If, however, it is moist beyond measure, it cannot subsist because the matter is not informed. It flows away entirely. If, however, dryness exceeds, the matter is not softened so as to be able to be formed. Likewise in the same book On Human Nature: It is impossible, he says, for one thing to be constructed from many and diverse things, unless they are congruent in their qualities and their virtues. Just as we find a donkey is mixed with a beast of burden, and wolves with dogs, because they are near in their nature and property. Let these things suffice concerning the mixtures of natural elements.