CORNELIUS DREBBEL,

A BELGIAN, original: "Belgae." In the 17th century, this term was often used broadly to refer to people from the Low Countries, including modern-day Netherlands, where Drebbel was born.

THE FIRST TREATISE

ON THE NATURE

OF THE ELEMENTS.

CHAPTER I.

How all things are from God; how the four
elements were brought forth in a most
beautiful order; and what the office of fire may be.

The origin of all things is from God; and toward God again, as if toward their end, all things tend. For the end of anything is the same as its beginning, as daily experience testifies. What sprouts from the Earth returns to the earth; what comes from Water, returns to water. Whatever exists was most perfect in the beginning with God, and likewise one day [will return] to that same perfection The text cuts off here at the catchword "reuer-" (revertetur), meaning "will return."