The Chemical Theater

[so that it might] separate [them]; otherwise, the sun would burn all subsisting things among the creatures. However, GOD established the air as a separator, so that it might not burn what He created on the earth. Do you not see the rising sun overcome the air with its heat? Once the air is heated, the heat reaches those things placed beneath the air. And if the air did not breathe life original: inspiraret; to breathe into or inspire into all subsisting things with the spirits original: spiritibus; in alchemy, "spirit" often refers to a volatile substance or the vital breath of life by which creatures are generated, then the sun would destroy them with its heat. The air is contained by the sun, and the air prevails because its heat is joined to the sun's heat, and its moisture is joined to the moisture of the water. Do you not see thin water rise into the air when the sun's heat occurs, which assists the water against the sun itself? And if the water did not nourish the air with thin moisture, the sun would surely overcome the air; fire, therefore, extracts from the water the moisture by which the air overcomes the fire itself. Fire and water are therefore enemies between whom there is no kinship, because fire is hot and dry, while water is cold and moist. But since air is hot and moist, it has joined its harmony between them—with the moisture of water and the heat of fire—and thus air was made to generate harmony between them. And look, all of you, for the spirit comes from the thin vapor of the air, because when heat is joined to moisture, something thin must exit, which of necessity becomes wind; for the sun's heat extracts from the air something thin which becomes both spirit and life for all creatures. All this is by GOD'S disposition; so too does lightning original: coruscatio; a flash of light or lightning appear when the sun's heat reaches a cloud, and the lightning appears as it breaks the cloud. The Assembly said, you have described fire well according to what you know, and you have trusted the speech of your brother.

The Second Discourse.

Exumdrus Likely a corruption of a Greek name, possibly Anaximander or Anaximenes said: I magnify and honor the air, so that I may strengthen the speech of Iximidrus; because by air itself the work is perfected, and thickened, and thinned, and heated, and cooled. Its thickness term: thickness; here referring to density or "spissitude" occurs when it is separated in the heavens because of the sun's distance. Its rarity term: rarity; referring to being thin or less dense occurs when the sun is high in the heavens and the air grows hot and becomes thin. This happens similarly in the temperament of spring, in the distinction of a time that is neither hot nor cold. For according to the alteration of the established disposition, the winter is changed to alter the distinctions of the mind. Therefore, the air is thickened when the sun is moved far from it, and then cold reaches mankind. But when the air is thinned, heat reaches mankind.