Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)

19. We ask if the elementative power is essentially different from elemented things. We answer that it is not, because if it was essentially different, the elements would not have a subject in which they could enter into composition, and the elementative would arise not from generation but from creation. Moreover, the qualities of the elements would be altered as they migrated into new subjects; for instance, the heat of fire in a stone would not belong to the same subjective species as the heat of fire in the sphere of fire, which is impossible; just as the quality of humanity is not different from that of the soul and the body inasmuch as they are joined, because humanity consists of both of these things in conjunction and not of either one by itself; likewise, the elementative is not different from the conjoined elements that make it up.

20. With the first species of rule C we ask what the elementative is. We answer that its definition was already given above, in #1 of the previous chapter.

21. With the second species of rule C we ask what the elementative has in itself, essentially and consubstantially. We say that it has its correlatives of which it is made and with which it acts in elemented things, as in stones, flames, plants and animals.

22. With the third species of rule C we ask what the elementative is in other things. We say it is an instrument enabling the elements to act in elemented things. In addition, it is what it is in the ten predicates. Moreover, it is the foundation of the vegetative power. Further, the elementative potentiality of fire is an image of God's infinity and eternity, for if fire had an infinite amount of fuel, it could burn infinitely and eternally, but since it does not have it, this potentiality remains as a merely finite disposition for lack of an infinite amount of combustible matter.

23. With the fourth species, we ask what the elementative has in other things. We say that in the subjects in which it exists it has its matter, its form, its quantity, quality, movement and so forth as we see in plants and animals.

24. With the first species of rule D we ask what the elementative originates from. We say that it originates from its primordial principles disposed in elemented things, and elemented things are made of these universal principles along with universal form and universal matter.

25. With the second species of rule D we ask what the elementative is made of. We say that it is made of its own specific form and matter with which it can act according to its own species by elementing elemented things.

26. With the third species of rule D we ask to whom the elementative belongs. We say that it belongs to the subjects in which it exists as a part belongs to its whole, as we can see when a plant elements another plant while engendering it.

27. With the first species of rule E we ask why the elementative exists. We answer that it is because it is made of the composition of elements in elemented things, and because through its mediation elements enter into composition in elemented things.

28. With the second species of rule E we ask why the elementative exists. We say that it exists for enabling elemented things to exist and so that the vegetative, sensitive and imaginative powers can be founded upon it and nourished by it.

29. With the first species of rule F we ask if the elementative has continuous quantity. We answer that it has, so that its continuous quantity can be general to the individual quantities that are delineated and sustained in it.

30. With the second species of rule F we ask if the elementative has discrete quantities. We answer that it has, as we see in individual elemented things with numerically different quantities or sizes. In addition, its quantity is punctual, because it is made of the conjunction of the four elements.

31. With the first species of rule G we ask about the proper quality of the elementative power. We answer that it has the proper qualities of its elements, for instance, choler is elemented and has the proper quality of heat.

32. With the second species of rule G we ask about the appropriated quality of fire. We say that dryness is its appropriated quality because it receives dryness from earth; and with the exception of heat, the remaining qualities are also appropriated, because fire receives them from the other elements.

33. With rule H we ask how the elementative exists in time. We answer that it exists in time in view of the ‘now’ in which it is present. In addition, it exists in time because it is in motion as it augments, alters and moves the subject in which it exists from place to place.

34. With rule I we ask where the elementative is. We say that it is in elemented things, but in a subjective way, unlike sight that is objectively present in coloured objects. Now if the elementative was not present in elemented things, either there would be no qualities in them, or the qualities would have no subject, which is impossible, as we see in a flame, that contains heat, or in ice that contains cold and so forth.

35. The intellect wonders if the dryness of earth and the coldness of water are present in the sphere of fire, for they belong to the lower elements, and moisture resists and opposes earth's dryness while the heat of fire opposes the coldness of water. Then it remembers that if all four elements were not present in the sphere of fire as well as in every one of the remaining elemental spheres, the general mixture of elements would be destroyed along with the mixtures particular to elemented things, because the destruction of a universal is followed by the destruction of its particulars.

36. Moreover, fire, which is hot per se in its own sphere and dry because of earth, would be dry per se. Air, which is moist per se and warm because of fire, would be warm per se. Then water, which in its own sphere is cold per se and moist because of air, would be moist per se. Likewise, earth, which is dry per se in its own sphere and cold because of water, would be cold per se. Thus, each element would have two general qualities. There would be two warm, two moist, two cold, and two dry qualities, resulting in eight elements in accordance with these supposed qualities, namely two igneities, two aereities, two aqueities and two terreities. This is an absurd thing to say, just as it would be absurd to state that there are two general whitenesses, two general vegetative essences and two general sensitive essences.

37. Further, natural appetite would be destroyed as it would be deprived of an object, fire would not seek out other fire, nor would fire have any appetite for earth given that it would be dry per se, and the same can be said about the other elements in their own way. In addition, appropriated quality would be destroyed, along with the second species of rule G that signifies this quality. Moreover, the ascending and descending appetites of movement would be destroyed, bringing about the destruction of nature because it would have no subject to sustain it. The elementative itself would be destroyed, as well as all elemented, vegetated and sentient beings. The entire sublunar body would be totally deprived of its final purpose, so that the intent of nature would be a privative natural habit like blindness is to the sight, or deafness to the hearing. All these things are utterly impossible. Thus, rule B and the definition of truth show that all the elements are mixed together in their spheres, in their masses and in all elemented things where they exist in a greater degree of mixture and composition. In plants, the elements are in composition with the vegetative power, and in animals they are in composition with the sensitive and imaginative powers by means of the elementative coming into composition with them.

38. Now the intellect wants to know the process through which earth, which is here below, can ascend to the sphere of fire up above although there is air in between, and air opposes earth. Likewise, how can fire descend if water stands in the way and opposes it. Then it remembers the ladder of concordance depicted in the second figure. Fire descends through its affinity with air as it gives its heat to air, and air descends through its affinity with water as it gives its moisture to water. Thus, fire descends to water through heated moisture, and water descends to earth by giving it its moistened and heated coldness, and earth ascends to fire by giving it its cooled, moistened and heated dryness. The qualities never leave their own subjects in the process of ascent and descent while the elements ascend and descend along with them, giving rise to circular motion and mixture.

39. With the first rule K we ask how the elementative is made of the mixture and composition of the four elements. Then, the intellect recalls what we just said in the previous paragraph, where the solution to this question is implicitly signified. This is sufficient, for the sake of brevity.

40. With the second rule K we ask with what means the elementative elements elemented things. We answer that it is with the appetite and instinct of its constitutive principles, as it moves in accordance with the natural definitions of the principles and rules through which it runs its course. The elementative also elements elemented things by imprinting itself in the ten predicates as its movement is impelled along by the general movement of heaven. This matter requires a lengthy clarification, and this clarification is accessible enough to those who know this art.