104 MEMOIR OF DR. DALTON, AND 



proprietates, sunt quatuor, calor, frigiditas, siccitas et humi- 

 ditas ; et yle est res in qua non est calor, nee frigiditas, nee 

 siccitas, nee humiditas et non est corpus. Et Elementa sunt 

 facta de yle ; et unumquodque elementorum convertitur in 

 naturam alterius elementi et omnis res in quamlibet. Nam 

 hordeum est equus per vim, id est, naturam occultam; et 

 triticum est homo per vim, et homo est triticum per vim/'* 



" There are four elements, fire, water, air, and earth, that 

 is the properties of their condition are four, heat, cold, dryness, 

 and wetness, and yle (the true matter) contains no heat, nor 

 cold, nor dryness, nor wetness. The elements are made of 

 yle, and each of the elements is converted into the nature of 

 the other element, and everything into anything else. For 

 barley is a horse by possibility, that is, occult nature, and 

 wheat is a possible man, and man is possible wheat." f 



This explanation is exceedingly clear and rational, and 

 founded on a good deal of observation. We see here in 

 Roger Bacon's ideas, which are truly in the spirit of the 

 ancient philosophers, the atomic being excepted, that all 

 being might arise from this source, called yle. There is, 

 however, an improvement in the mode of expression; we 

 understand perfectly what he means, and there is a terse- 

 ness seldom, if ever attained, either by those before him, or 

 after him. It separates him from the mystics, properly so 

 called, although there is the easy passage of one element into 

 the other, and the unsubstantial principle from which all are 

 made. 



To this scholastic form the mystic method attached itself, 

 coming apparently with the Arabian learning into Europe, as 

 well as by direct transmission through Greece and Rome, 

 having lived for some centuries with little growth, and destined 

 to be led with more vigor towards its extremes by the reviving 

 intellect of the West. 



* De Arte Chymiae. f This y]e is the Greek v\?/, matter. 



