The Summary of Physics Restored

124Nature’s fire is very different from our artificial or accidental fire, and the two disagree greatly. Nature’s fire is twofold: universal, and particular or individual. The universal fire is diffused everywhere through all parts of the universe. It gently rouses and moves the inclinations and powers of heavenly bodies; it impregnates and cherishes this globe of ours, destined for the generation of things, with a seed productive of offspring; it pours powers into seeds, unfolds Nature’s folded powers, mixes the elements, gives form to matter, and finally opens Nature’s secret. Its fountain is in the sun, which, like the heart of the universe, pours life-giving heat into every region as though pouring out its love. The particular fire of Nature is implanted and innate in every mixed body and individual being. It flows like a little stream from the universal fire and performs by analogy in its own microcosm everything that its father, the sun, performs in the macrocosm. But who would not call our common fire—which opposes all generation, lives only on plunder, subsists on another’s ruin, destroys life, and destines everything for ashes—Nature’s enemy rather than her guest, destruction rather than life’s support? Fires generated in the airy region are due more to chance than to Nature’s design.