Anterior to the construction of the Kosmos, the Forms or Ideas of the four elements had already begun to act upon this primitive recipient or receptacle, but in a confused and irregular way. Neither of the four could impress itself in a special and definite manner: there were some vestiges of each, but each was incomplete: all were in stir and agitation, yet without any measure or fixed rule. Thick and heavy, however, were tending to separate from thin and light, and each particle thus tending to occupy a place of its own.[69] In this condition (the primordial moving chaos of the poets and earlier philosophers), things were found by the Demiurgus, when he undertook to construct the Kosmos. There was no ready made Fire, Water, &c. (as Plato had assumed at the opening of the Timæus), but an agitated _imbroglio_ of all, with the portions tending to separate from each other, and to agglomerate each in a place of its own. The Demiurgus brought these four elements out of confusion into definite bodies and regular movements. He gave to each a body, constructed upon the most beautiful proportions of arithmetic and geometry, as far as this was possible.[70] [Footnote 69: Plato, Timæus, pp. 52-53. 53 A: [Greek: ta\ te/ttara ge/nê seio/mena u(po\ tê=s dexame/nês, kinoume/nês au)tê=s oi(=on o)rga/nou seismo\n pare/chontos, ta\ me\n a)nomoio/tata plei=ston au)ta\ a)ph' au(tô=n o(ri/zein, ta\ d' o(moio/tata ma/lista ei)s tau)to\n xunôthei=n; dio\ dê\ kai\ chô/ran tau=ta a)/lla a)/llên i)/schein, pri\n kai\ to\ pa=n e)x au)tô=n diakosmêthe\n gene/sthai.] 57 C: [Greek: die/stêke me\n ga\r tou= ge/nous e(ka/stou ta\ plê/thê kata\ to/pon i)/dion dia\ tê\n tê=s dechome/nês ki/nêsin.] 58 C.] [Footnote 70: Plato, Timæus, p. 53 B. [Greek: to\ de\ ê(=| dunato\n ô(s ka/llista a)/rista/ te e)x ou)ch ou(/tôs e)cho/ntôn to\n theo\n au)ta\ xunista/nai, para\ pa/nta ê(mi=n, ô(s a)ei/, tou=to lego/menon u(parche/tô.] This is the hypothesis pervading all the Timæus--construction the best and finest which the case admitted. The limitations accompany the assumed purpose throughout.] [Side-note: Geometrical theory of the elements--fundamental triangles--regular solids.]