Therefore let all the Searchers of this Art know, that the Earth, and Water make one globe, and being together make all things, because they are tangible Elements, in which the other two being hid doe work. The Fire preserves the Earth, that it bee not drowned, or dissolved: the Aire preserves the Fire that it bee not extinguished: the Water preserves the Earth that it bee not burnt. It seemed good to us to describe these things, as conducing to our purpose, that the studious may know, in what things the foundations of the Elements consist, and how Philosophers have observed their contrary actings; joining Fire with Earth, and Aire with Water: although when they would doe any excellent thing, they have boiled Fire in Water, considering that one blood is purer then another, as a tear is purer then urine. Let that therefore suffice which we have spoken, _viz._ that the Element of Water is the Sperm, and Menstruum of the world, as also the receptacle of the Seed. [Illustration: *decorative divider*] OF The ELEMENT of AIRE. The Aire is an entire Element, most worthy of the three in its quality, without, light, and invisible, but within, heavy, visible, and fixed, it is hot, and moist, and tempered with Fire, and more worthy then Earth, & Water. It is volatil, but may be fixed; and when it is fixed, it makes every body penetrable. Of its most pure substance the vitall spirits of living Creatures are made; that which is lesse pure is taken up into its proper sphere of the Aire; but the residue, _viz._ the grosser part abides in the Water, and is circulated with the Water, as Fire with Earth, because they are friendly the one to the other. It is most worthy, as wee have said; and it is the true place of the Seed of all things: in it Seed is imagined, as in man, which afterward by the circulating motion is cast into its own Sperm. This Element hath the form of entirenesse to distribute the Seed into Matrixes by the Sperm, and Menstruum of the world. In it also is the vitall spirit of every Creature, living in all things, penetrating, and constringing the seed in other Elements, as Males doe in Females. It nourisheth them, makes them conceive, and preserveth them; and this daily experience teacheth, that in this Element not only Mineralls, Animalls, or Vegetables live but also other Elements. For wee see that all Waters become putrefied, and filthy if they have not fresh Aire: The Fire also is extinguished, if the Aire be taken from it: (Thence Chymists come to know how to dispose of their Fire into severall degrees by means of the Aire, and to order their registers according to the measure of the Air:) The pores also of the Earth are preserved by Aire: In briefe, the whole structure of the world is preserved by Aire. Also in Animalls, Man dies if you take Aire from him, &c. Nothing would grow in the world, if there were not a power of the Aire, penetrating, and altering, bringing with it selfe nutriment that multiplies.