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Sample text
He imagines the cosmos as made up o f 59 concentric spheres, with the earth at the centre, water making up the next sphere, then air, then fire— though with no hard boundary-lines. Each element has a natural tendency to move to its own place. The union o f contraries prevents what he has called “ excesses” . I f earth gathers in excess, it will destroy the intermovements among the elements which create reality and its diversity o f objects; and so on with each element. In fact then we find an enormous number o f distinct compounds, though any one o f them will be changed into any other if we alter the relative proportions o f the composing elements in the required direction.
But when he found it contained no gold, he still admired its fine colour and so came to discover the process, which is by no means an old one, but dates back some 50 years before the Archonship of Praxiboulos at Athens. From these examples it is clear that techne imitates nature, physis, and yet produces its own peculiar substances, some for utility, some merely for their appearance like wallpaint, and some for both purposes, like quicksilver—for even this has its uses. It is made by pounding cinnabar with vinegar in a copper mortar with a copper pestle.
E. condensed) by the dryness o f the rocks, and congealed or solidified, apparently by cold. The admix ture o f dry exhalation however prevents the metal from reverting to water. “ A ll metals are thus affected by fire and contain earth, since they all contain the dry exhalation. ” The exposure to fire makes metal produce dross and change colour; Olympiodoros adds that for the same reason they rust. The presence o f earthy matter thus explains the difference between the baser and more precious metals.