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he aire is an entire element, most worthy of the three in its quality, without, light, and invisible, but within, heavy, visible, and fixed, it is hot, and moist, and tempered with fire, and more worthy then earth, & water. it is volatil, but may be fixed; and when it is fixed, it makes every body penetrable. of its most pure substance the vitall spirits of living creatures are made; that which is lesse pure is taken up into its proper sphere of the aire; but the residue, viz. the grosser part abides in the water, and is circulated with the water, as fire with earth, because they are friendly the one to the other. it is most worthy, as wee have said; and it is the true place of the seed of all things: in it seed is imagined, as in man, which afterward by the circulating motion is cast into its own sperm. this element[pg 96] hath the form of entirenesse to distribute the seed into matrixes by the sperm, and menstruum of the world. in it also is the vitall spirit of every creature, living in all things, penetrating, and constringing the seed in other elements, as males doe in females. it nourisheth them, makes them conceive, and preserveth them; and this daily experience teacheth, that in this element not only mineralls, animalls, or vegetables live but also other elements. for wee see that all waters become putrefied, and filthy if they have not fresh aire: the fire also is extinguished, if the aire be taken from it: (thence chymists come to know how to dispose of their fire into severall degrees by means of the aire, and to order their registers according to the measure of the air:) the pores also of the earth are preserved by aire: in briefe, the whole structure of the world is preserved by aire. also in animalls, man dies if you take aire from him, &c. nothing would grow in the world, if there were not a power of the aire, penetrating, and altering, bringing with it selfe nutriment that multiplies. in this element by vertue of the fire is that imagined seed, which constringeth the menstruum of the world by its occult power, as in trees, and herbs, when through the pores of the earth, by the acting of the spirituall heat, there goeth forth a sperm with the seed, and the vertue of the aire in a proportion constringeth, and congeals it by drops; and so trees by growing day after day, drop after drop, are at length raised to be great trees; as wee have treated in the book of the twelve treatises. in this element are all things entire through the imagination of fire; and it is full of divine vertue: for in it is included the[pg 97] spirit of the most high, which before the creation was carryed upon the waters, as saith the scripture, and did fly upon the wings of the wind. if therefore it bee so, as indeed it is, that the spirit of the lord is carryed in it, why needs thou question but that he hath left his divine vertue in it? for this monarch is wont to adorn his dwelling places; hee hath adorned this element with the vitall spirit of every creature: for in it is the seed of all things, dispersed, in which presently after the creation was (as wee said before) by the great maker of all things included that magneticke vertue which if it had not, it could not attract any nourishment, but so the seed must be left in a small quantity, neither would increase, or bee multiplyed; but as the loadstone drawes to it self hard iron (after the manner of the articke pole, drawing waters to it selfe, as we have shewed in the element of water) so the aire by a vegetable magnetick power, which is in the seed, draws to it selfe the nourishment of the menstruum of the world, i.e. water. all these things are made by aire, for that is the leader of the waters, and the occult vertue thereof is included in all seed for the attracting of radicall moisture, and this vertue is, as wee said before, alwaies the 280th. part in all seed, as wee have shewed thee in the third of the twelve treatises. if therefore any one would successefully plant trees, let him bee carefull that hee turne the attractive point towards the northern part; so hee shall never lose his labour: for as the articke pole drawes to it selfe the waters, so the verticle point draws to it self seed; and every attractive point doth answer to them. thou hast an example in all manner[pg 98] of wood, whose attractive point doth naturally tend to the verticle point, and is drawne by it. for let a bowle of wood, if thou wilt know which is the superior point, be put into water, and let it sink (so that the water exceed the length of the wood) thou shalt alwaies see that point rise up before the opposite part; for nature knows not how to erre in her office: but of these we shall treat further in our book called harmonia, where wee shall speak more of the magneticke vertue (although he shall bee easily able to understand the loadstone, to whom the nature of metalls is knowne). let this suffice that wee have said, that this element is the most worthy of the three in which is seed, and vitall spirit, or dwelling place of the soule of every creature.