The Summary of Physics Restored

104Let no one imagine, then, that Nature admits intense fire into the family of her Elements. Such fire would destroy rather than generate and would act against Nature, who shuns violence and delights in temperate things, from which all battle and contrariety are absent. Nature’s dominion does not endure the fury of scorching heat or devastating cold, nor the excess of wet or dry; it rests gently in temperateness. Therefore let no one seek intense qualities in the Elements of things: he will find them abated in greater or lesser degree.