A goodly gallerye with a most pleasaunt prospect, into the garden of naturall contemplation, to behold the naturall causes of all kynde of meteors, as wel fyery and ayery, as watry and earthly, of whiche sort be blasing sterres, shooting starres, flames in the ayre &c. tho[n]der, lightning, earthquakes, &c. rayne dewe, snowe, cloudes, springes &c. stones, metalles, earthes &c. to the glory of God, and the profit of his creaturs.

¶ Of earthes.

THe earth is an element, one of the foure, cold and drie, moste grosse and solyde, moste heauy and weighty, the lo∣west of all other in place. When I saye an element, I meane a simple body vn∣compounded. This earth is no Meteore, but as it was shewed in the water, to y^e end ther should be generatiō of things, there is no element that we can haue, whiche is pure and symple, but all are mixed and cōpounde. Our fyre is grosse and compounde, so is our ayer our wa∣ter, and our earth. But the earth nota∣bly and aboue the rest is mixed. For the puer and naturall earth is drye and cold, but we sée much to be moist, and much to be hoat The naturall earth is blacke of collor, but we sée many earthes white many yelowe, and many redde. So that first the greatest part of y^e earth is mixed

with water, that maketh it to cleane to¦gether, with ayer and some fyre, which make an oyly fatt or claymy earth, as is claye made. &c. Another great part is dryed not into the natural drienes of the first qualitie, but as a thing ones mixed and after dryed, ether by to cold, as sand grauell, &c. or els by heate, as chalke, oker &c. And yet somwhat more plainly and particularly to discourse vpen these causes, admitting the naturall collour of the earth to be black, of y^e water to be blewe, of the ayre to be whyte, & of the fyre to be ruddy, it followeth that vpon the mixtion of these collours, or chief do¦mination of them, al thinges hath their collour. The grosse substaunce of the earth therefore beinge diuersly myxed with other elementes, and those myx∣tures againe being eftsones altered, by dyuerse and sometime cōtrary qualities, hath brought forth so manye kyndes of earth, as claye, marle, chalke, sand, gra∣uell &c. Claye is mixed with fat moisture takyng his colloure of the mixture with redde from whyte, but beyng colde, it is not so fructfull as marle, whiche is not alwayes so moiste as it. Chalke is an

earth by heat cōcocted, after diuerse mix¦tions and dried vp. Oker both yelow & redde with suche like are of the same na¦ture with mixtiō of redde more or lesse.

Sande and grauell are dried erthes, as it were froasen by colde, grauell is grosse and apparent, sand though it be finer, is of the same generation cōsisting of many small bodies, which ar cōgeled into stones. Sād semeth to be clay dried by cold and coacted together into small stones, wherof some ar through shining which were the moyst partes, the thicke were of the grosse parte. The same is grauel, but of greater stoones consisting. The lyke iudgement is to be geuen of all other kyndes of earth, whose gene∣ration by the similitude of these, wyll not be very harde to fynde out. They that lyst to knowe the diuerse kyndes of earthes, must haue recourse to Plinius, Cardane, and other wryters, that recite a great nomber of them, but these are the chief and most commen kyndes.

Notes

• Of earths
• Plinius. Cardanus