Dialogue

  1 Intro|             the two great agencies of fire and water. The former is
  2 Intro|             the earth is destroyed by fire. At such times, and when
  3 Intro|               At such times, and when fire is the agent, those who
  4 Intro|              Nile is our saviour from fire, and as there is little
  5 Intro|         visible and therefore made of fire,—tangible and therefore
  6 Intro|               between the elements of fire and earth God placed two
  7 Intro|              a continuous proportion—~fire:air::air:water, and air:
  8 Intro|               them. And God lighted a fire in the second orbit from
  9 Intro|               were created chiefly of fire, that they might be bright,
 10 Intro|             sway over the elements of fire, air, earth, water, which
 11 Intro|               portions of earth, air, fire, water, hereafter to be
 12 Intro|             into contact with flaming fire, or the solid earth, or
 13 Intro|               and we go to sleep. The fire or light, when kept in by
 14 Intro|             the heavens there existed fire, air, water, earth, which
 15 Intro|        compelled to speak of water or fire, not as substances, but
 16 Intro|           matter is neither earth nor fire nor air nor water, but an
 17 Intro|              speaking generally, that fire is that part of this nature
 18 Intro|                Is there an essence of fire and the other elements,
 19 Intro|              by water and inflamed by fire, and taking the forms of
 20 Intro|               have made you familiar. Fire, air, earth, and water are
 21 Intro|              the original elements of fire and the other bodies; what
 22 Intro|            affirm that, out of these, fire and the other elements have
 23 Intro|             to the other elements,—to fire the pyramid, to air the
 24 Intro|           more penetrating element of fire, whether acting immediately
 25 Intro|                Water, when divided by fire or air, becomes one part
 26 Intro|              or air, becomes one part fire, and two parts air. A volume
 27 Intro|            air divided becomes two of fire. On the other hand, when
 28 Intro|             condensed, two volumes of fire make a volume of air; and
 29 Intro|             which is fastened upon by fire is cut by the sharpness
 30 Intro|           length, coalescing with the fire, it is at rest; for similars
 31 Intro|             lighter elements, such as fire and air, are thrust into
 32 Intro|          there are different kinds of fire— (1) flame, (2) light that
 33 Intro|             red heat of the embers of fire. And there are varieties
 34 Intro|              melts at the approach of fire, and then spreads upon the
 35 Intro|              the substance cools, the fire passes into the air, which
 36 Intro|           Water which is mingled with fire is called liquid because
 37 Intro|           equable when separated from fire and air, and then congeals
 38 Intro|              the earth, when fused by fire, becomes, on cooling, a
 39 Intro|         soluble by water, but only by fire. Earth itself, when not
 40 Intro|          water; when consolidated, by fire only. The cohesion of water,
 41 Intro|               strong, is dissolved by fire only; when weak, either
 42 Intro|           when weak, either by air or fire, the former entering the
 43 Intro|         condensed is only resolved by fire. Compounds of earth and
 44 Intro|             but begin to liquefy when fire enters into the interstices
 45 Intro|             body and soul.~What makes fire burn? The fineness of the
 46 Intro|                which is the figure of fire, is more cutting than any
 47 Intro|             motion of another sort of fire which forces a way through
 48 Intro|          elicits from them a union of fire and water which we call
 49 Intro|              we call tears. The inner fire flashes forth, and the outer
 50 Intro|          There is yet another sort of fire which mingles with the moisture
 51 Intro|               thrust alternately into fire and water, and thus rendered
 52 Intro|            Creator mingled earth with fire and water and mixed with
 53 Intro|               the head was pierced by fire, and out of the punctures
 54 Intro|               retaining food, but not fire and air. God therefore formed
 55 Intro|         therefore formed a network of fire and air to irrigate the
 56 Intro|               net were made by him of fire, the lesser nets and their
 57 Intro|              within him a fountain of fire, the air which is inhaled
 58 Intro|           entered toward the place of fire. On leaving the body it
 59 Intro|           turn heated by the internal fire and escapes, as it entered,
 60 Intro|         phenomena of respiration. The fire, entering the belly, minces
 61 Intro|              but the colour of red or fire predominates, and hence
 62 Intro|          diseased from the effects of fire is in a continual fever;
 63 Intro|         observation of the effects of fire and water on the earth’s
 64 Intro|              the destructive force of fire, the seeming regularity
 65 Intro|            are put into the refiner’s fire, and the dross and other
 66 Intro|          brighter than any Promethean fire (Phil.), which co-existing
 67 Intro|                consisting at first of fire and earth, and afterwards
 68 Intro|              of two surfaces. Between fire and earth, the two extremes,
 69 Intro|         supposed to be four in number—fire, air, earth, and water.
 70 Intro|          earth was composed of cubes, fire of regular pyramids, air
 71 Intro|           particles of air and one of fire. So because an octahedron
 72 Intro|        resolved into two particles of fire.~The transformation is effected
 73 Intro|             if rarer. This is true of fire, air, and water, which,
 74 Intro|             interchangeable elements, fire, the rarest, can only become
 75 Intro|              seem to be the effect of fire upon air, water, and earth,
 76 Intro|         masses of similar substances; fire to fire, air to air, water
 77 Intro|           similar substances; fire to fire, air to air, water to water,
 78 Intro|           figures: (3) three of them, fire, air, and water, admit of
 79 Intro|               to us that a network of fire and air envelopes the greater
 80 Intro|              speaks of a ‘fountain of fire which we compare to the
 81 Intro|            the body. The ‘fountain of fire’ or heat is also in a figure
 82 Intro|              conversely. The internal fire is in either case the propelling
 83 Intro|              the body to the place of fire; while the impossibility
 84 Intro|              It is this which enables fire and air to permeate the
 85 Intro|            the action of the internal fire, which in the process of
 86 Intro|               minces the food. As the fire returns to its place, it
 87 Intro|               the body—the network of fire and air is spoken of as
 88 Intro|               and fro; the network of fire and air irrigates the veins.
 89 Intro|              light. A sudden flash of fire at once elicits light and
 90 Intro|           around the sun or a central fire; (4) that the beginnings
 91 Intro|               places, and he imagined fire or the exterior aether to
 92 Intro|              seemed to go upwards and fire to pierce through air—when
 93 Intro|             all he places the central fire, around which they are moving—
 94 Timae|              about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser
 95 Timae|             visible where there is no fire, or tangible which has no
 96 Timae|            the universe to consist of fire and earth. But two things
 97 Timae|               air in the mean between fire and earth, and made them
 98 Timae|               far as was possible (as fire is to air so is air to water,
 99 Timae|              the world out of all the fire and all the water and all
100 Timae|          eight courses, God lighted a fire, which we now call the sun,
101 Timae|               the greater part out of fire, that they might be the
102 Timae|          later accretions, made up of fire and air and water and earth,
103 Timae|             they borrowed portions of fire, and earth, and water, and
104 Timae|          collision with some external fire, or with the solid earth
105 Timae|            was as follows: So much of fire as would not burn, but gave
106 Timae|          every-day life; and the pure fire which is within us and related
107 Timae|              the external and kindred fire departs, then the stream
108 Timae|              which is now deprived of fire: and so the eye no longer
109 Timae|             they keep in the internal fire; and the power of the fire
110 Timae|            fire; and the power of the fire diffuses and equalizes the
111 Timae|             necessity arise, when the fire from the face coalesces
112 Timae|               face coalesces with the fire from the eye on the bright
113 Timae|               invisible soul, whereas fire and water, and earth and
114 Timae|           must consider the nature of fire, and water, and air, and
115 Timae|           generation, but we speak of fire and the rest of them, whatever
116 Timae|            raise questions concerning fire and the other elements,
117 Timae|              called water rather than fire, and which should be called
118 Timae|                when inflamed, becomes fire; and again fire, when condensed
119 Timae|               becomes fire; and again fire, when condensed and extinguished,
120 Timae|            changing, as, for example, fire, we must not call ‘this’
121 Timae|                that should be called ‘fire’ which is of such a nature
122 Timae|              termed earth, or air, or fire, or water, or any of their
123 Timae| considerations, we may truly say that fire is that part of her nature
124 Timae|               there any self-existent fire? and do all those things
125 Timae|              by water and inflamed by fire, and receiving the forms
126 Timae|              began to get into order, fire and water and earth and
127 Timae|           then, as is evident to all, fire and earth and water and
128 Timae|              the original elements of fire and the other bodies; but
129 Timae|              true origin of earth and fire and of the proportionate
130 Timae|               triangles, out of which fire and the other elements have
131 Timae|              most moveable of them to fire; and to air that which is
132 Timae|           assign the smallest body to fire, and the greatest to water,
133 Timae|            again, the acutest body to fire, and the next in acuteness
134 Timae|          original element and seed of fire; and let us assign the element
135 Timae|              earth, when meeting with fire and dissolved by its sharpness,
136 Timae|         dissolution take place in the fire itself or perhaps in some
137 Timae|            But water, when divided by fire or by air, on re-forming,
138 Timae|       re-forming, may become one part fire and two parts air; and a
139 Timae|            air divided becomes two of fire. Again, when a small body
140 Timae|           Again, when a small body of fire is contained in a larger
141 Timae|              both are moving, and the fire struggling is overcome and
142 Timae|               up, then two volumes of fire form one volume of air;
143 Timae|          elements is fastened upon by fire, and is cut by the sharpness
144 Timae|          sides, it coalesces with the fire, and then ceases to be cut
145 Timae|            the conquering nature, and fire becomes air and air water.
146 Timae|           left void. Wherefore, also, fire above all things penetrates
147 Timae|             there are divers kinds of fire. There are, for example,
148 Timae|               thirdly, the remains of fire, which are seen in red-hot
149 Timae|              its uniformity. But when fire gets in and dissolves the
150 Timae|              flowing. Again, when the fire goes out of the fusile substance,
151 Timae|             which was occupied by the fire, and unites it with itself.
152 Timae|              with itself, because the fire which was the author of
153 Timae|             and this departure of the fire is called cooling, and the
154 Timae|           Water which is mingled with fire, so much as is fine and
155 Timae|            earth, when separated from fire and air and isolated, becomes
156 Timae|              is suddenly drawn out by fire, a more brittle substance
157 Timae|               which has been fused by fire becomes, when cool, a certain
158 Timae|              soluble by water, but by fire only, and for this reason:—
159 Timae|              for this reason:—Neither fire nor air melt masses of earth;
160 Timae|          consolidated, by nothing but fire; for this is the only body
161 Timae|               strong, is dissolved by fire only—when weaker, then either
162 Timae|         weaker, then either by air or fire—the former entering the
163 Timae|         strongly condensed, then only fire can dissolve it. As to bodies
164 Timae|     undissolved; but the particles of fire, entering into the interstices
165 Timae|               water does to earth and fire to air (The text seems to
166 Timae|           what we mean by saying that fire is hot; and about this we
167 Timae|                We all of us feel that fire is sharp; and we may further
168 Timae|              this makes the action of fire violent and sharp, so that
169 Timae|           that the original figure of fire (i.e. the pyramid), more
170 Timae|             is the appointed place of fire, and where there is the
171 Timae|            there is the great mass of fire to which fiery bodies gather—
172 Timae|              to abstract particles of fire and put them in scales and
173 Timae|             balance, were to draw the fire by force towards the uncongenial
174 Timae|           them the greatest amount of fire and air. Now we must conceive
175 Timae|                and too wide to detain fire and air; and for this reason
176 Timae|         motion of a different sort of fire which strikes and dilates
177 Timae|        eliciting from them a union of fire and water which we call
178 Timae|              being itself an opposite fire which comes to them from
179 Timae|          opposite direction—the inner fire flashes forth like lightning,
180 Timae|              There is another sort of fire which is intermediate, and
181 Timae|            flashing; and in this, the fire mingling with the ray of
182 Timae|               at all—as, for example, fire, water, and the rest of
183 Timae|              of passion was caused by fire, formed and implanted as
184 Timae|           their perfection to produce fire and water, and air and earth—
185 Timae|             after that he put it into fire and then into water, and
186 Timae|             water, and once more into fire and again into water—in
187 Timae|              things, mixed earth with fire and water and blended them;
188 Timae|          power pierced all round with fire, and out of the punctures
189 Timae|             of necessity consisted of fire and breath, and it therefore
190 Timae|            lesser. Now of all natures fire has the smallest parts,
191 Timae|            but it cannot hold air and fire, because the particles of
192 Timae|         weaving together a network of fire and air like a weel, having
193 Timae|        interior of the net he made of fire, but the lesser weels and
194 Timae|             the body, and the rays of fire which are bound fast within
195 Timae|             going in and out, and the fire, which is fast bound within,
196 Timae|               an internal fountain of fire, which we compare to the
197 Timae|             creel, being woven all of fire and extended through the
198 Timae|           driven round falls into the fire and becomes warm, and that
199 Timae|           towards its native element, fire, pushes round the air at
200 Timae|        discussion originated. For the fire cuts the food and following
201 Timae|              breath surges up within, fire and breath rising together
202 Timae|              by the cutting action of fire and by the impression which
203 Timae|               is compacted, earth and fire and water and air, and the
204 Timae|            are more kinds than one of fire and of the other elements—
205 Timae|            flesh is decomposed by the fire which surrounds the internal
206 Timae|               disordered by excess of fire, continuous heat and fever
207 Timae|          sluggish element than either fire or air, then the fever is