fire, and he called this the beneficent hemisphere of the monad and the ascending and the masculine. For the monad, being subtle, flies to the most subtle and purest part of the æther. The two other elements being denser, he assigns to the dyad (to wit) earth and water, and he calls this the descending hemisphere and feminine and maleficent. And again the two upper elements when compounded with themselves have in themselves the male and the female for the fruitfulness and increase of the universals. And the fire is masculine, but the spirit feminine: and again the water is masculine and the earth feminine.[168] And thus from the beginning the fire lived with the spirit and the water with the earth. For as the power of the spirit is the fire, so also (the power) of the earth is the water.... [Sidenote: p. 117.] And the same elements counted and resolved by subtraction of the enneads,[169] properly end some in the male number, others in the female. But again the ennead is subtracted for this cause, because the 360 degrees of the whole circle consist of enneads, and hence the 4 quarters of the cosmos are (each) circumscribed by 90 complete degrees. But the light is associated with the monad and the darkness with the dyad, and naturally life with the light and death with the dyad, and justice with life and injustice with death. Whence everything engendered among the male numbers is benefic, and (everything engendered) among the female numbers is malefic. For example, they reckon that the monad--so that we may begin from this--becomes 361, which ends in a monad, the ennead(s) being subtracted. Reckon in the same way: the dyad becomes 605; subtract the enneads, it ends in a dyad and each is (thus) carried back to its own.[170] 3. With the monad, then, as it is benefic, there are [Sidenote: p. 118.] associated names which end in the uneven number,[171] and they say that they are ascending and male and benefic when observed; but that those which end in an even number are considered descending and female and malefic. For they say that nature consists of opposites, to wit, good and bad, as right and left, light and darkness, night and day, life and death. And they say this besides: that they have calculated the name of God and that it results in a pentad [or in an ennead],[172] which is uneven and which written down and wrapped about the sick works cures. And thus a certain plant (whose name) ends in this number when tied on in the same way is effective by the like reckoning of the number. But a doctor also cures the sick by a like calculation. But if the calculation be contrary, he does not make cures easily. Those who give heed to these numbers count all numbers like it which have the same meaning, some [Sidenote: p. 119.] according to the vowels alone, others according to the total of the numbers.[173] Such is the wisdom of the Egyptians, whereby, while glorifying the Divine, they think they understand it.