The Summary of Physics Restored

231The four radical qualities of the Elements are like Nature’s harmonic tones. They are not mutually contrary but different, standing apart at definite intervals. From their proportionate difference, intensity and relaxation arises Nature’s perfect harmony, perceptible to the intellect and analogous to vocal Music, which is apprehended by sense. Although low and high tones are the extremes in Music, they are not contraries but the boundaries of the intervening tones, which are composed and tempered in different proportions from those two extremes. Thus heat and cold, dryness and moisture are extreme qualities in Nature. They are not therefore contraries, but boundaries of the middle, intervening qualities, which arise from the mixing and tempering of the extremes.