The Summary of Physics Restored

134Earth is the vessel of generation; water is Nature’s menstruum, embracing within itself seminal and also formal powers, which it borrows from the sun as the male and the formal and universal principle. From the sun, Nature’s fire and formal spirits flow into the seeds of things. These contain everything necessary for generation, innate heat lying hidden in moisture. Hippocrates * excellently affirmed that these two elements, fire and water, can do all things and contain all things. For from the first flow the two male qualities, heat and dryness, and from the second the two female qualities, cold and moisture; these meet and mingle in the generation of mixed bodies. The two greater luminaries preside over these two as the chief elements: the sun, author of Nature’s fire, and the moon, mistress of moistures.