THE ELEMENTS. 417 
writings. The First Division of the Great Plan relates to the Five Elements. 
"The first is named Water; the second, Fire; the third, Wood; the fourth, Metal; 
the fifth, Earth. The nature of water is to soak and descend ; of fire, to blaze 
and ascend; of wood, to be crooked and to be straight; of metal, to obey and to 
change ; while the virtue of the earth is seen in seed-sowing and in gathering. 
That which soaks and descends becomes salt; that which blazes and ascends be- 
comes bitter; that which is crooked and straight becomes sour; that which obeys 
and changes becomes acrid ; and from seed-sowing and ingathering comes sweet- 
ness."^ 
A similar idea of five elements was also common among the Indian races, 
and is stated by Prof. Rodwell to. have been in existence before the fifteenth 
century B. C, but though the number is the same, the elements themselves are 
not identical with those of the ancient Chinese classic; thus, in the Institutes of 
Menu, the "subtle ether" is spoken of as being the first created, from which, 
by transmutation, springs air, whence, by the operation of a change, rises light 
or fire; from this comes water, and from water is deposited earth. These five are 
curiously correlated with the five senses, and it is very evident that they are not 
looked upon as five independent material existences, but as derived from one 
another. This philosophy was accepted alike by Hindoos and Buddhists. It 
was largely extended over Asia, and found its way into Europe. It is best 
known to us in the writings of the Greeks. Among these people, however, the 
elements were reduced to four — fire, air, earth, and water — though Aristotle 
endeavored to restore the "blue ether" to its position as the most subtle and 
divine of them all. It is true that the fifth element, or " quinta essentia," was 
frequently spoken of by the early chemists, though the idea attracting to it was 
somewhat changed, and the four elements continued to retain their place in pop- 
ular apprehension and still retain it even among many of the scholars who take 
degrees at our universities. The claim of wood to be considered an element 
seems never to have been recognized in the West, unless, indeed, we are to seek 
this origin for the choice of the word " ule " to signify that original chaotic material 
out of which according to Plato and his school, all things were created. ^ The 
idea also of a primal element, from which the others, and everything else, were 
originated, was common in Greece, the difficulty being to decide which of the 
four had the greatest claim to this honor. Thales, as is well known, in the sixth 
century B. C. affirmed that water was the first principle of things ; but Anaxa- 
menes afterwards looked upon air, Heraclytus upon fire, and Theracleides on earth, 
as the primal element. This notion of elements, however, was essentially distinct 
1 Quoted from the translation by the Rev. Dr. Legge. In that most obscure classic, the 
Yi-King, fire and water, wind and thunder, the ocean and the mountains, appear to be recogniz- 
ed as the elements. 
2 Students of the Apocrypha will remember the expression in the " Book of Wisdom,"' xi., 
17, ****.;.♦ ::= (-" Thy Almighty hand, that made the world 
of matter without form "). The same book contains two allusions to the ordinary elements, vii., 
17, and xix., 18 to 20. The word elements is used in the New Testament only in a general sense 
(2 Peter, iii., 10), or in its more popular meaning of the first steps in knowledge. 
