ADMINISTRATIVE RKI'ORT LXXXV 



In a similar manner, which we can not stop to explain fully, 

 all the attributes of bodies as properties or qnnlities are ;issi<ined 

 to regions by wildwood men and shepherd uieii. Tiie increasing 

 knowledge of the woi-hi leads to a geographic knowledge of 

 immense distances on the horizontal plane of the earth as it is 

 then supposed to be; but the cardinal attributes still continue 

 to be grouj)ed al)out the one which seems to be the most 

 conspicuous 



A sur\ ival of this classification of attributes in world schemes 

 still remains in modern time when attributes of good are assigned 

 to a world of space, as the heaven above, and attrilnites of evil 

 are assigned to the world below — hell. 



The attril)utes which w^ere assigned to the cardinal worlds are 

 grouped about the most conspicuous attribute, as the cardinal 

 worlds are abandoned owing to an increasing knowledge of 

 geogra))liy. Finally, they settle down into four elements; the 

 cardinal w-orlds thus become elements — earth, air, fire, and 

 water — and the bodies of the ^'^•orlds are believed to be com- 

 posed of these elements in varying proportioias. 



In Greek and Roman classics we find much about these four 

 elements; but the development of four elements out of four 

 worlds belongs largely to barbarism, though perhaps it is not 

 fully completed until the stage of monarchy is reached. 



Necromancy — In the monarchical stage of society the four 

 elements — earth, air, fire, and water — play a very important 

 role. It is now the theory that bodies are composed of these 

 elements, and it is a theory that tlie difterence between bodies 

 depends on tlie difi'erent proportions of these elements whicli 

 they severally present. The cardinal worlds thus become 

 cardinal elements, and a birthmark remains when they are ])ut 

 in antithetic pairs. Earth is opposed to air, and fire is opposed 

 to water. This stage of society is the stage of alchemy in the 

 philosophy of bodies. The Wondrous transimitations tliat 

 ap])ear in nature are explained as alchemical changes in com- 

 biniu"- or freeiiiff the elements. The stories now invented are 

 stories of necromancy in which theories of ghosts and theories 

 of alchemy are compounded. This is also the age of chivalry, 



