Book Two, chapter 8

1Chapter 8

2And know that the ancients' ordering of the degrees of the natures became apparent to them only by this way, until they knew the ranks of the powers of drugs and foods and other things. Then after that they compounded some of them with others, until the benefits of the drugs and the kinds of their actions became apparent to them. And it is necessary here to mention what is needed of that.

3So I say that the ancients disagreed about the matter of the simple natures, which they are, and contended over their number. And a group of them, and they are the verifiers, said that the simple natures and the first mothers are heat, cold, moisture and dryness; and these are in reality qualities and simple first principles, and they did not disagree about that.

4Then they named them the compounded ones, and they are our saying 'hot', 'cold', 'moist' and 'dry'; that is, our saying 'hot' is a material that heat has accompanied, and likewise the matter in the rest of them; and that is not like our saying 'heat', 'cold' and the rest of them.

5Then after this compounding there is a second compounding, and it is our saying 'hot dry', 'hot moist', 'cold dry' and 'cold moist'; for these are second in compounding, because it has become clear that they are not one, since heat is other than dryness and moisture, and likewise the case with cold together with the others.

6Then this compounding is followed by a third compounding, and it is our saying 'fire', 'air', 'water' and 'earth'; and these are compounded in the third degree in relation to the first simple and the first and second compounded ones. Then that compounding is followed by the fourth compounding, and it is that which is in individuals; and that is divided into divisions: as for in the world, it is the four seasons, and it is our saying spring, autumn, winter and summer. As for men and animals, [they are] yellow bile, blood, black bile and phlegm. And know that the elements that are in man are much subtler than what is in the animals, because the natures of the animals are very dense and turbid. As for those that are in plants, they are what are called the oils, the dyes, the seeds and the roots; and likewise is the case in the natures of stone.

7And whoever reflects on what we have said about the natures of animals and man must also make the measure in the natures of plants and stone likewise, equally, and make the plant, in the subtlety of [its] natures, like the case in man, and make the stone like that which is in the animal. Then after these compounds [come] the prepared things, which are those called the compounds of the compounds: seven degrees [sense uncertain]. And they are the last compounds, such as medicines and buildings and the rest of the things whose condition is this.

8So all the things, then, into which the kinds of natures are divided, the simple of them and the compound, are seven divisions, which twenty-eight letters encompass. And let us set down an example for them after the drawing of a form and figure, so that it may gather together what was dispersed in the exposition, after this pattern:

9The simple natures: heat, coldness, moisture, dryness. | The first compound natures: the hot, the cold, the moist, the dry. | The second compound natures: the hot-dry, the cold-moist, the hot-moist, the cold-dry. | The third compound natures: fire, water, air, earth. | The fourth compound natures: summer, winter, spring, autumn. | The fifth compound natures: yellow bile, phlegm, blood, black bile. | The sixth compound natures: dye, seeds, oil, roots.

10So I say that heat, coldness, moisture and dryness are before fire, air, water and earth in many respects, evident by reasoning and sense. Among them: that fire is described by heat only in that it is hot and dry, and heat is not described as being fire, nor as being compound. And among them: that every compound is either composed of its first [constituents] by which it is described, or is a compound that has always been. So heat is before fire, moisture before air, coldness before water and dryness before earth; but that is by way of analysis.

11And likewise is the case in the liver, the spleen, the gall bladder, the heart, the lung, the head, the two feet and the two hands, and the rest of what remains of these parts. And heat, as has gone before, is from the perpetuity of the motion of the sphere, and coldness is from the side of the centre, I mean the earth, which is what is called the centre of the sphere of the All; and for this [reason] there was matter, in which is the benefit of all generation [sense uncertain].

12And coldness contradicts heat in all its states altogether, I mean in nature, motion and rest. And just as heat is a quality that gathers like things and separates contrary things, likewise is the case in the definition of coldness: that is, it gathers contrary things and separates like things. And that is so that opposition and hostility may fall upon the essences of the contraries equally; otherwise the part would be corrupted.

13So it is incumbent on you, O you who study, to search and to study in these sciences, arduous and difficult of comprehension; you will attain what you seek. And I did not confuse [matters] for you by bringing you wondrous points from all the sciences except so that you may purify your soul, so that you may search earnestly into these wondrous sciences, so that you may attain what the first sages attained and ascend where they ascended.