The Most Secret Rosary of the Philosophers

CAPVT II. Chapter II

There are four elements, and four humors: blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile. There are also four modes: moist, hot, cold, and dry. The elements are fire, air, water, and earth, of which two are friendly and two are hostile, two active and two passive. Fire and air are friendly, just as water and earth are. Fire and water are hostile, just as air and earth are. Fire and air are active; water and earth are passive. Two ascend and two descend. One is in the middle and another is beneath another, and that is because when a contrary is removed from its contrary, they are not joined except through a medium. Heat is contrary to cold, and moisture is contrary to dryness; wherefore it is clear that neither of them is joined to the other except through a medium. Therefore, that which is not contrary by itself is unifying. Just as the hot part of the dry is joined because they do not contradict each other in any way, therefore the element of fire is joined from them. Thus, the hot and the moist do not contradict each other; wherefore the element of air results from them.