THE SECOND PART

Such lightning not infrequently melts a sword in its scabbard or copper in a belt while leaving the container unharmed; or it crushes the hollow and marrowy bones of animals while the flesh remains intact. The cause of this is that such heat, invading very quickly, is deprived of the space to gradually permeate and heat the metal; nor, wishing to return against its nature, does it force and defeat the weaker Element with its strength. For Fire alone is the strongest and most powerful of the Elements, not knowing how to yield to the other three, but to which the others are forced to yield, a privilege with which it was divinely gifted from its cradle.

I posit that the reason for the heat and occult powers of the sun, moon, and other stars is similar, as they hurry forward with their efficacy until they have struck something they cannot penetrate, where, halting their step and being heaped up, they are forced to go backward, seeking a place where they may rest and become corporeal. For the highest heat in the center of the earth grants no delay to any thing, but continuously repels the affluent heat into the porous and moist earth, where the sublimated and occulted rays take on a sensible body and proceed from form to form until, with no impeding accident, they are cooked into perfect metals.

Do not, however, believe that I mean by this that this place is the igneous place mentioned in the scriptures where the souls of the wicked are tormented. Not at all; because I know nothing about such a place, nor do I desire to know anything. This place I describe is pointed out by natural Philosophy, while that