The Summary of Physics Restored

133The foundation of generation and corruption lies in moisture. In both of Nature’s labours, moisture is the first of the elements to undergo action and the first to receive form’s seal. Natural spirits readily unite with it because they flow from it, and readily return into it because it is their root. In it and through it the other elements are mixed. The moist element circulates no less in mixed bodies and individuals than in the world, in the work of nutrition as well as generation. For Nature has chosen that both works be performed through the same instruments of rarefaction and condensation, and through the same intermediaries, namely spirits.