Batman vppon Bartholome his booke De proprietatibus rerum, newly corrected, enlarged and amended: with such additions as are requisite, vnto euery seuerall booke: taken foorth of the most approued authors, the like heretofore not translated in English. Profitable for all estates, as well for the benefite of the mind as the bodie. 1582.

¶Of the kindes of things compound∣ed, what relation they haue to the elements, & how the Elements thē∣selues, agree with the soule, senses, and manners.

* 1.1AFter y^e 4. simple elements, immediat∣ly follow 4. kinds of perfected things cōpouned of thē, which are stones, met∣tals, plāts & liuing creatures: & albeit to y^e generation of euery of them, all Ele∣ments do agrée in composition: yet eue∣ry of them, doth follow and imitate one principall element, for all stones are earthly, for by nature they are heauy & descend, & are to framed by drouth that they cannot be molten. But mettalls are waterish, and apte to flowe, and which naturall Philosophers confesse, & Alcumistes do proue, are ingendered of a viscus or slimie water, or els of wate∣rish quick siluer: so plants agrée with the aire, that vnlesse they burgen vp a∣broad, they proue not: so all liuing crea∣tures haue a firie force, & a heuenly be∣ginning, & fire doth touch them so néere, that when it is quenched, immediately all the lyfe doth faile. Againe, eueryone of those kindes is seuered in it selfe, by y^e degrées of elements, for among stones they chiefly are called earthly, which are duschie and heauy: and waterie, which are cléere or maye be seene through, and which do consist of water, the Christal, Berell, the Pearle in shells: and they are airie, which do swim vpon the wa∣ter and are spongeous, as the Sponge, the Pomis, and the Tophus. There bée that are firie, out of the which fire is set, and sometimes is resolued into it, or are ingendred of it, as the vnder stone, the stone called Pyretes, & as Abeston. Likewise among mettalls, lead and sil∣uer are earthly, quicksiluer is waterish, copper & tinne are airie, gold & yron are firie. In plants also the rootes doe imi∣tate the earth, by reson of their thicknes: the leaues the water, by reason of their iuyce: the floures the aire, by reason of their subtiltie: the seedes the fire, by re∣son of their begetting spirit. Moreouer, some are called hot, some colde, some moyst, some dry, and borrowing to them the names of the elements from their qualities. Among liuing things, some are more earthy than others,* 1.2 and inha∣bite the bowells of the earth, as worms called Easses, Moles, and many créeping things: some are watrie, as fishes: some are airie, which cannot liue out of the aire, as the Birde of Paradise, and the Camelion. There are also that are fie∣rie, as the Salamander, and certaine Crickets: and which haue a certayne fierye heate, as Pigeons, Ostriges, Lyons, and those, which the wise man

calleth, beast breathing out a fierie va∣pour. Moreouer in lyuing creatures, the bones represent the Earth, the slesh the Aire, the vitall spirit the Fire, and the humours the Water: and these also are diuided or parted by the Elementes, for red cholar giueth place to the Fire, bloud to the aire, fleame to the water, blacke choler to the earth. To conclude, in the very soule, as August. witnesseth; the vnderstanding representeth y^e fire, re∣son the aire, imagination, the water, and the scuses the earth. And these also a∣mong themselues are diuided by Ele∣mentes, for the sight is firie, neither can it perceiue without fire and lyght: the hearing is airie, for sounde is made by the striking of the aire: but smell & tast are referred to the water, without whose humour, there can be no sauour nor smell: to conclude, all the touchings is earthly, and requireth grose bodyes.

Moreouer, the deedes and operations of men, are gouerned by the Elementes: for a slowe and heauy moouing, betoke∣neth the earth: feare, sluggishnesse, and a lyther worke, signifieth water: chéere∣fulnesse and friendly manners, the aire: a sharpe and an angry vyolence, the fire. Wherefore the Elements are the first of all things, and all things are of them, and according vnto them, and they in all things, and through all things, spred abroad their force.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Cap. 7.
• * 1.2

  Animales