The Summary of Physics Restored

66Water readily assumes the likeness of first matter because it is the nature closest to it. For chaos, the ancient parent of things, was a certain subtle, dark vapour, or a moist substance of darkness resembling thin smoke. From its subtlest portion the heavens were brought forth and spread out in order. Their threefold distinction also established its three provinces: the highest, which is noblest; the middle, which holds second place in excellence and dignity; and the last, inferior to the others in position and nobility. The denser substance of matter passed into a watery mass, which is a certain intermediate nature. The densest part settled at the bottom like the dregs of the entire mass and was made firm into the compact globe of earth. The extremes of the whole fabric, namely heaven and earth, departed further from their matter's first state and ancient shape: heaven because of its extreme rarity and lightness, earth because of its extreme density and heaviness. But water, allotted the middle place between them, remained a nature closer to the unformed abyss. Hence it readily converts itself through rarefaction into smoke or vapour, which is the image of ancient hyle.