exhibit themselves under multifarious natures and forms. Moreover, as you see, all fruits grow out of the earth into the air, and none of them remain in the earth, but go out of it and separate themselves from it, so, growing out of the water, there go forth metals, salts, gems, stones, talcs, marcasites, sulphurs, etc.—all proceeding from the matrix of this element into another matrix, that is, into the earth, where the water completes its operation, but the root of minerals is in the water, as the root of trees and herbs is in the earth. But they are brought to perfection above the earth, and pass on to their ultimate matter, which is entirely in the air.
In like manner is completed on the earth that which grows in the water. So, then, when the root is in the water the growth takes place on the earth, and hence the doctrine of those writers is clearly erroneous who advance the the opinion that minerals grow out of the earth, and that all these minerals, how many soever they be, recognise the earth as their mother. This idea is worth nothing. Indeed, nothing grows from the earth save leaves, grasses, woods, herbs, and the like. Everything else is from the water. Otherwise, by the same method of reasoning, it might be said of the growing things of the earth that they grow in the air since they live in the air; but this is clearly fallacious. Their roots are found in the earth, and hence we learn that their origin is in the earth, but their perfecting in the air. In the same way, that which originates in the water acquires its perfection in the earth. The growth of minerals follows the same course, convincing us that they are aqueous, and proceed from the water, existing in the water as the primal matter of those same minerals, just as all fruits of the earth are generated in the earth, and after the predestined period they burst forth into harvest, or autumn, and generate that which is in them. When a root of this kind is born, it first rises into its own special tree, that is, its body, from which the particular mineral, metal, or other growth, should be produced in the earth. In like manner, also, the nut or the cherry does not spring straightway out of the earth, but first of all the tree is produced, and afterwards the fruit; so, also, in the water Nature first puts forth a tree, which is the aqueous body, and this afterwards grows out into the earth; that is, it occupies the pores of the earth, just as the tree fills the air. When this tree is now put forth into the earth, the fruits are forthwith born, congenital with the tree, according to their nature and condition. Here the metal grows in its own special kind, there some sort of salt is produced, there again some genus of sulphur breaks forth, and elsewhere some sort of gem is protruded. And, just in the same way as many cherries or pears are found on one tree, so similar fruits of the water are found at the extremities, and, as it were, on the shoots of the trees appertaining to the element of water. Again, like as some trees put forth many fruits, and others only few, so, in this case too, there is a similar property, nature, and condition. Trees of this kind, therefore, should first be sought, and afterwards their fruits. Thus, the rustic who pursues his culture in the element of water will be taught and instructed, as the husband-
