SECT. IV. Of the Element of Water.

THE most learned and perspicacious Philosophers amongst the Ancients, have been of opinion, that Water was the first Principle of all things; because it could in their apprehension, by its rarefaction or condensation, produce the other Elements. But as we have heretofore declared this mutual change to be im∣possible, so must we have our recourse to another way of Philo∣phy. We shall not here co•sider Water, as being a constitutive Principle in the Composition of the Mixt; for in this sense we have already spoken of it, where we have treated of Phlegm: But we shall speak of it as of a vast Element, concurring to the frame of this Universe, and containing in it self many particu∣lar Matrixes, which produce a fair and pleasing variety of fruits: First of Animals, viz. Fishes, and all sorts of Water-Insects: Se∣condly, Vegetables, as the herb called Ducks-meat, which hath her root implanted in the Water it self: And finally, Minerals, as Shells, Pearls, and Salt, which is abundantly through Creeks and secret pores conveyed into the Earth, to advance the pro∣duction of her own fruits. The Water then is the second gene∣ral Matrix, where the Universal Spirit takes the Idea of Salt, communicated by the Air, which did receive it from the Light, and the Heavens, for the production of all sublunary things. Paracelsus calls the knowledge of this Philosophy of Water, Hydromancy.