This makes me admire at those who affirm the air
to be cold because it is dark and obscure, unless it be because they find others affirming it to be hot because it is
light. For dark is not so proper and familiar to cold, as
heavy and stable; for many things that are void of heat
partake of splendor and light, but there is nothing cold
that is light, nimble, or apt to ascend upward. Even the
clouds themselves, while they preserve the nature of air,
tower aloft in the sky; but changing into moisture, they
presently fall down, and having admitted coldness, they
lose their lightness as well as their heat. And so on the
other side, having regained their heat, they again return
to motion, their substance being carried upward as soon as
it is changed into air.
[p. 320]
Neither is the argument produced from corruption true.
For nothing that perishes is corrupted
into what is opposite, but
by what is opposite to it; as fire extinguished by
water changes into air. And therefore Aeschylus spake
not merely like a tragedian but like a philosopher, when
he said,
The water curb, that punishment of fire.
In like manner Homer opposed in battle Vulcan to the
river, and Apollo to Neptune, more like a philosopher
than a poet or mythologist. And Archilochus spoke not
amiss of a woman whose thoughts were contrary to her
words, when he said,
She, weaving subtle trains and sly vagaries,
Fire in one hand, in th' other water carries.
Among the Persians there were several customs of supplication, of which the chiefest, and that which would admit
of no refusal, was when the suppliant, taking fire in his
hand and entering into a river, threatened, if his supplications were denied, to throw the fire into the water. But
though his suit were granted him, yet he was punished for
threatening, as being against the law and contrary to Nature. And this is a vulgar proverb in everybody's mouth,
to mix fire with water, spoken of those that would attempt
impossibilities; to show that water is an enemy to fire,
and being extinguished thereby, is destroyed and punished
by it,—not by the air, which, upon the change and destruction of it, receives and entertains the substance of it.
For if that into which the thing destroyed is changed be
contrary to it, why does fire seem contrary to air more than
water? For air changes into water by condensation, but
into fire by dissipation; as, on the other side, water is
turned into air by separation, into earth by condensation.
Which, in my opinion, happens by reason of the propriety and near affinity between both, not from any thing of
contrariety and hostility one to another. Others there are,
[p. 321]
that, which way soever they maintain it, spoil the argument. For it is most irrational to say that water is congealed by the air, when they never saw the air congealed
in their lives. For clouds, fogs, and mists are no congelations, but thickenings and condensations of the air moist
and full of vapors; but a dry air void of moisture never
undergoes refrigeration to such a degree. For there are
some mountains that never admit of a cloud, nor dew, nor
mist, their tops being so high as to reach into an air that
is pure and void of moisture. Whence it is manifest that
it is the condensation and consistency below, which contributes that cold and moisture to the air which is mixed
with it.
