pal ones, and others
arise out of them. The principal ones are of one character and simple; but
those which arise out of them are various, and, as it were, multiform.
Therefore, air (we use the Greek word {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH VARIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~} as Latin), fire, water, and
earth are principal ones; and out of them there arise the forms of living
creatures, and of those things which are produced out of the earth.
Therefore, those first are called principles and (to translate the Greek
word) elements: from which air and fire have the power of movement and
efficiency: the other divisions--I mean, water and the earth--have the power
of receiving, and, as it were, of suffering. The fifth class, from which
the stars and winds were formed, Aristotle considered to be a separate
essence, and different from those four which I have mentioned above.

But they think that there is placed under all of these a certain matter
without any form, and destitute of all quality (for we may as well, by
constant use, make this word more usual and notorious), from which all
things are sketched out and made; which can receive everything in its
entirety, and can be changed in every manner and in every part. And also
that it perishes, not so as to become nothing, but so as to be dissolved
with its component parts, which again are able to be cut up and divided,
_ad infinitum_; since there is absolutely nothing in the whole nature of
things which cannot be divided: and those things which are moved, are all
moved at intervals, which intervals again are capable of being infinitely
divided. And, since that power which we have called quality is moved in
this way, and is agitated in every direction, they think also that the
whole of matter is itself entirely changed, and so that those things are
produced which they call qualities, from which the world is made, in
universal nature, cohering together and connected with all its divisions;
and, out of the world, there is no such thing as any portion of matter or
any body.

And they say that the parts of the world are all the things which exist in
it, and which are maintained by sentient nature; in which perfect reason
is placed, which is also everlasting: for that there is nothing more
powerful which can be the cause of its dissolution. And this power they
call the soul of the world, and also its intellect and perfect wisdom. And
they call it God, a