OF THE SUBLUNARY PARTS OF THE WORLD

Of the inferior sublunary parts of the world, the anonymous Pythagorean places first the sphere of fire, then that of air, next that of water, last that of Earth.816

The bodies of all the elements are round, except that of fire, which is conical.⁸¹⁷

Below the Moon all things move in a disorderly manner. Evil therefore necessarily exists about the region of the Earth; that being settled lowest as the basis of the world, the receptacle of the lowest things.⁸¹⁸

The air, which is diffused about the Earth is unmoved and unwholesome, and all things in it are mortal.⁸¹⁹

There, is generation and corruption. For things are produced by alteration, mutation, and resolution of the elements. Motion is a difference or diversity in matter.⁸²⁰

In the world, there is equally proportioned, light and darkness, heat and cold, dryness and humidity. When they are exuberant, the excess of heat causes summer; of cold, winter. When they are equal, then are the best seasons of the year: whereof that which is growing up is the spring, healthful; that which is decaying is autumn, unhealthful.⁸²¹ Even of the day, the morning is growing up, the evening decaying, and therefore more unwholesome.