The Summary of Physics Restored

224Innate heat and radical moisture are of different kinds. The former is wholly solar and spiritual; the latter is an intermediate nature between the spiritual and the bodily, sharing in both the Ethereal and the Elemental. The former belongs to the order of higher things, the latter more to that of lower things. In it the first marriage of Heaven and Earth was celebrated, through which Heaven dwells even at the centre of the earth. Those who confuse innate heat with radical moisture are therefore mistaken, for they differ no less than smoke and flame, the Sun’s light and air, or Sulphur and Mercury. In mixed bodies radical moisture is the seat and food of innate, heavenly fire and the bond linking it to the elemental body. That fiery power, however, is the form and soul of mixed bodies. In seeds, this moisture is the immediate guardian and capsule of the fiery spirit imprisoned in the seed, until external heat advances it towards generation in a suitable womb. Finally, this radical substance is Vulcan’s workshop in every mixed body: the hearth in which the immortal Fire is kept, the first mover of all the individual’s faculties.