Chapter VI, Section 1a

CHAPTER VI. Of the Wonderful Natures of Water, Air and Winds . The other two Elements, viz., Water and Air, are not less efficacious than the former; neither is Nature wanting to work wonderful things in them. There is so great a necessity of Water, that without it no living thing can live. No herb nor plant whatsoever, without the moistening of Water can branch forth. In it is the seminary virtue of all things, especially of animals. The seeds also of trees and plants, although they are earthy, must notwithstanding of necessity be rotted in Water before they can be fruitful; whether they be imbibed with the moisture of the Earth, or with dew or rain or any other Water that is on purpose put to them. For Moses writes, that only Earth and Water bring forth a living soul. But he ascribes a twofold production of things to Water, viz., of things swimming in the Waters, and of things flying in the Air above the Earth. And that those productions that are made in and upon the Earth are partly attributes to the very Water, the same Scripture testifies, where it saith that the plants and the herbs did not grow, because God had not caused it to rain upon the Earth. Such is the efficacy of this Element of Water that spiritual regeneration cannot be done without it, as Christ himself testified to Nicodemus. Very great, also, is the virtue of it in the religious worship of God, in expiations and purifications; yea, the necessity of it is no less than that of Fire. Infinite are the benefits, and divers are the uses thereof, as being that by virtue of which all things subsist, are generated, nourished and increased. Thence it was that Thales, of Miletus, and Hesiod concluded that Water was the beginning of all things, and said it was the first of all the Elements, and the most potent, and that because it hath the mastery over all the rest. For, as Pliny saith, Waters swallow up the Earth, extinguish flames, ascend on high, and by the stretching forth of the clouds, challenge the Heaven for their own; the same falling become the cause of all things that grow in the Earth. Very many are the wonders that are done by Waters, according to the writings of Pliny, Solinus, and many other historians of the wonderful virtue whereof. Ovid also makes mention in these verses: Horn’d Hammon’s Waters at high noon Are cold; hot at Sun-rise and setting Sun. Wood, put in bub’ling Athemas is Fir’d, The Moon then farthest from the Sun retir’d; Ciconian streams congeal his guts to Stone That thereof drinks, and what therein is thrown Crathis and Sybaris (from the Mountains rol’d) Color the hair like Amber or pure Gold. Some fountains, of a more prodigious kinde, Not only change the body but the minde. Who hath not heard of obscene Salmacis? Of th’ Æthiopian lake? for, who of this But only taste, their wits no longer keep, Or forthwith fall into a deadly sleep. Who at Clitorius fountain thirst remove Loath Wine and, abstinent, meer Water love. With streams oppos’d to these Lincestus flowes— They reel, as drunk, who drink too much of those. A Lake in fair Arcadia stands, of old Call’d Pheneus, suspected as twofold— Fear and forbear to drink thereof by night— By night unwholesome, wholesome by day-light.