MEDICINE AND PHILOSOPHY IITH AND lliTH CENTURIES 105 



Plato is incorrectly interpreted because Plato did not hold that 

 the elements were actually in an unordered scattering, but that 

 they could be, and in the first creation they were where they 

 now are, but they were thicker, in so far as they were mingled, 

 and obscurer in as much as there were no sun, moon, or stars 

 to light them. The stars, thus, were made from all four ele- 

 ments, the upper elements which are \Tisible and mobile, and 

 the lower elements which are obscure and immobile. The stars, 

 which are visible, shining, and mobile, have their qualities from 

 the interplay of the properties of the elements, and in that 

 interplay each of the four qualities is found in the visible forms 

 in which the elements appear. According to Constantine each 

 of the elements has two qualities, one proper to itself, the other 

 from another element; fire hot of itself, dry from earth; air 

 damp of itself, hot from fire; water cold of itself, damp from air; 

 earth dry of itself, cold from water. 



The stars, being fiery in nature, began to move immediately 

 on their generation and to heat adjacent air and, through it as 

 intermediary, the further removed water. The various genera 

 of animals were created from heated water, birds in the air, 

 fish in the water, and other animals and man on the earth. 

 The theory of elements gives organization to William's encyclo- 

 paedic examination of the world and of its parts. At the 

 beginning of Book II, he describes Book I as a summary 

 exposition, within the limits of his small powers, " concerning 

 the particles of things which are and are not seen and con- 

 cerning elements which some teachers present as visible things," 

 and he proposes now to take up in turn each element and its 

 embellishment (ornatus, i. e., kosmos) . 



The opening chapter of Book II is on ether and its ornatus. 

 Fire is the space above the moon, and it is also called ether; 

 its ornatus is whatever is seen above the moon, that is, the 

 stars, both fixed and wandering. The book presents information 

 concerning the planets and astronomical phenomena. The 

 opening chapter of Book III is on air which extends from the 

 moon to the earth and is damper and thicker nearer to earth. 



