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LIBER II · CAPUT 5

OF THE ELEMENTS AND THE PLANETS

OF THE ELEMENTS AND THE PLANETS. Complete modern editorial illustration created specifically for this chapter.
OF THE ELEMENTS AND THE PLANETS · EDITORIAL PLATE II.5 · modern editorial plate
OF THE ELEMENTS AND THE PLANETS. Complete modern editorial illustration created specifically for this chapter.

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Nec de elementis video dubitari quattuor esse ea: ignium summum, inde tot stellarum illos conlucentium oculos; proximum spiritus, quem Graeci nostrique eodem vocabulo aëra appellant, vitalem hunc et per cuncta rerum meabilem totoque consertum; huius vi suspensam cum quarto aquarum elemento librari medio spatii tellurem. ita mutuo conplexu diversitatis effici nexum et levia ponderibus inhiberi quo minus evolent, contraque gravia ne ruant suspendi, levibus in sublime tendentibus. sic pari in diversa nisu in suo quaeque consistere, inrequieto mundi ipsius constricta circuitu, quo semper in se recurrente imam atque mediam in toto esse terram, eandemque uni- verso cardine stare pendentem, librantem per quae pendeat, ita solam inmobilem circa eam volubili universitate; ean- dem ex omnibus necti eidemque omnia inniti.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

I do not find that any one has doubted that there are four elements. The highest of these is supposed to be fire, and hence proceed the eyes of so many glittering stars. The next is that spirit, which both the Greeks and ourselves call by the same name, air. It is by the force of this vital principle, pervading all things and mingling with all, that the earth, together with the fourth element, water, is balanced in the middle of space. These are mutually bound together, the lighter being restrained by the heavier, so that they cannot fly off; while, on the contrary, from the lighter tending upwards, the heavier are so suspended, that they cannot fall down. Thus, by an equal tendency in an opposite direction, each of them remains in its appropriate place, bound together by the never-ceasing revolution of the world, which always turning on itself, the earth falls to the lowest part and is in the middle of the whole, while it remains suspended in the centre, and, as it were, balancing this centre, in which it is suspended. So that it alone remains immoveable, whilst all things revolve round it, being connected with every other part, whilst they all rest upon it.