Note 1 — Chapter VI · THE STUDY OF NATURE. FUNDAMENTAL POSITIONS.

A. The general course of the universe. (1) Origin of the world. By virtue of a law inherent in nature, Primary Being passes over into particular objects; for, involving as it does the conception of a forming and creating force, it must as necessarily develop into a universe, as a seed or ovum must develop into a plant or animal.1 Primary fire—so taught the Stoics, following Heraclitus—first goes over into vapour, then into moisture; one part of this moisture is precipitated in the form of earth, another remains as water, whilst a third part evaporating constitutes atmospheric air, and air, again, enkindles fire out of itself. By the mutual play of these four elements the world is formed,2 built round the earth as a centre;3 heat, as it is developed out of water,4 moulding the chaotic mass. By the separation of these elements, a distinction between the active and the passive powers of nature—between the soul of the world and the body of the world—becomes apparent. The moisture into which the primary fire was first changed represents the body, just as the heat5 latent in it represents the soul;6 or, taking the later fourfold division of the elements, the two lower ones correspond to matter, the two higher ones to acting force.7