(9) And some fell upon a rock: as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.

(9) For the Harshness is as hard as a Stone [or Flint,] and the Bitterness rushes and rages like a P breaking Wheel, which breaks the Hardness, and stirs up the Fire, so that all comes to be a terrible Crack of Fire, and flies up; and the Harshness or Astringency breaks in Pieces, whereby the dark Tartness is terrified and sinks back, and becomes as it were feeble or weak, or as if it were killed and dead, and runs out, becomes thin, and yields itself to be overcome: But when the strong Flash of Fire shines back again upon or into the Tartness, and is mingled therein, and finds the Harshness so thin and overcome, then it is much more terrified; for it is as if Water was thrown upon the Fire, which makes a Crack: Yet when the Crack or Terror is thus made in the overcome Harshness, thereby it gets another Source, [Condition or Property,] and a Crack, or Noise of great Joy proceeds out of the wrathful Fierceness, and rises up in fierce Strength, as a kindled Light: For the Crack in the Twinkling of an Eye becomes white, clear, and light; for thus the Kindling of the Light comes in that very Moment as soon as the Light (that is, the new Crack of the Fire) is infected or impregnated with the Harshness, the Tartness or Astringency kindles, and shrieks, or is affrighted by the great Light that comes into it in the Twinkling of an Eye, as if it did awake from Death, and becomes soft or tmeek, lively and joyful; it presently loses its dark, rough, harsh, and cold Virtue, and leaps or springs up for Joy, and rejoices in the Light; and its Sting or Prickle, which is the Bitterness, that triumphs in the turning Wheel for great Joy.

(22) For there is in the Original, first, Harshness, which attracts, shuts up, makes Darkness, and sharp Cold; but the Tartness cannot endure the Attracting: For the Attracting in the Cold makes in the Bitterness a Sting, [or Prickle,] which rages and resists against the hard Death, but not being able to come away out of the Tartness, (being its Mother wherein it stands,) therefore it rages very horribly, as if it would break the Harshness [in Pieces;] it flies upwards and sideways, and yet finds no Rest, till that the Birth of the Harshness falls into an aching horhible Essence, like a Brimstone- Spirit, very rough, hard, Stinging in itself, [or Kindling in itself,] like a whirling Wheel, and that the Bitterness flies up very swiftly, from whence proceeds a twinkling Flash; at which the dark Harshness is terrified, and sinks back as vanquished. And so when the Bitterness finds the Mother overcome, and as it were half dead, or soft, [or meek,] it is terrified more than the Mother. But the Shriek or Terror being past in the harsh Mother, which is now half dead, or soft, [pliable or meek,] then the Bitterness loses its terrible Right, [or Property,] and becomes white, light, and clear; and thus is the Kindling and Birth of the Fire, as is mentioned before.

(12) But the Bitterness being so very much affrighted at the Flash of Fire in the Sourness, it catches its Mother (the Sourness) which is become material from the Crack, and flies out, and is clouded or swelled from the material Sourness, as if it also was material, and moves, and strengthens itself continually in the Mother; and that is the Element called Air in this World, which has its Original in the watery Mother, and the Water has its Original from the Air, and the Fire has its Original from the longing Anguish; and the Earth and Stones took their Beginning in the strong Attraction at the Fall of Lucifer, when the Sourness was so fierce, strong, rising, and attractive, which Attraction is stopped again by the Light in the third Principle.

(8) For this is very well to be apprehended and perceived in the Earth and Stones, that the four Elements are of one only Substance, and that the Earth and Stones were generated in the Fierceness from the Kindling of the Elements. For a Stone is but Water; and therefore we should do well to consider, what Kind of Fierceness there must have been, that has drawn the Water so hard together.

(2) Those who were going round were far the more, And those were less who lay down to their torment, But had their tongues more loosed to lamentation. O'er all the sand-waste, with a gradual fall, Were raining down dilated flakes of fire, As of the snow on Alp without a wind. As Alexander, in those torrid parts Of India, beheld upon his host Flames fall unbroken till they reached the ground. Whence he provided with his phalanxes To trample down the soil, because the vapour Better extinguished was while it was single; Thus was descending the eternal heat, Whereby the sand was set on fire, like tinder Beneath the steel, for doubling of the dole. Without repose forever was the dance Of miserable hands, now there, now here, Shaking away from off them the fresh gleeds. "Master," began I, "thou who overcomest All things except the demons dire, that issued Against us at the entrance of the gate, Who is that mighty one who seems to heed not The fire, and lieth lowering and disdainful, So that the rain seems not to ripen him?"

(22) Now the Sun and the Stars [or Constellations] continually kindle the Tincture, for it is fiery; and the Tincture kindles the Body, with the Matrix of the Water, so that they are always boiling, [rising] and seething. The Stars [or Constellations] and the Sun are the Fire of the Tincture, and the Tincture is the Fire of the Body, and so all are seething. And therefore when the Sun is underneath, so that its Beams [or Shining] is no more [upon a Thing,] then the Tincture is weaker, for it has no Kindling from the Virtue of the Sun. And although the Virtue of the Stars and the quality are kindled from the Sun, yet all is too little, and so it becomes feeble, [or as it were dead.] And when the Tincture is feeble, then the Virtue in the Blood (which is the Tincture) is wholly weak, and sinks into a sweet Rest, as it were dead or overcome.

(5) "Nature, which had been disturbed, immediately arose from the idle waters. For her ascent was shameful. And nature took to herself the power of fire. She became strong because of the light of the spirit that was in nature. Her likeness appeared in the water in the form of a frightful beast with many faces, which is crooked below. A light went down to chaos filled with mist and dust, in order to harm nature. And the light of astonishment in the middle region came to it after he cast off the burden of the darkness. He rejoiced when the spirit arose. For he looked from the clouds down at the dark waters upon the light that was in the depths of nature.

(7) Some seed fell on stony ground where it had not much earth: and immediately it sprang up, because it had not much deepness of earth:

(23) The Earth is not eternal, and for the Sake of the Fragility [or Corruptibility,] therefore Man's Body must break [or perish,] because he has attracted the Corruptibility to him. Thus also the paradisical Knowledge, Delight and Joy is departed from him, and he is fallen into the kindled Anger, of the kindled four Elements, which (according to their Fierceness) P qualify with the eternal Anger in the Abyss; although the outward Region of the Sun is mitigated, so that it is a pleasant Habitation, as is seen before our Eyes; yet if the Sun should vanish away, then thou wouldst well see and feel the Anger of God. Consider it well.

(44) And when the Light of the Sun appeared in the fierce [Sourness or] Harshness, then the Harshness became thin and a sweet, even Water, and the Fierceness in the Fire-flash was extinguished by the Water, so that the Anger stood still, yet the Will could not rest, but went forth in the Mother, out of the Water, and moved itself, which is the Air: And that which the fierce Sourness had attracted to it, that was thrust out of the Element, in the Water, as you see that the Earth swims in the Water.

(5) We must conceive, that there was then a very pleasant Habitation upon the Earth; for all the Fruits did grow [spring and bud] out of the hidden Element, through the Fierceness of the four Elements; and although the four Elements had also their Fruits, yet Man should not (but the Beasts of the Field should) have eaten thereof. But now when the Lord cursed the Earth, then the Element withdrew from the Root of the Fruit, for God's Cursing is nothing else, but this Flying from a Thing; and thus God's Holiness is flown from the Root of the Fruit, and so the Root [of the Fruits] remains in the four Elements, in the Out-Birth; and Adam and Eve were also fallen thereinto. And thus now like came to like; his Body also was become earthly, and must turn to Earth again.

(8) but when the sun was up, because it had no depth of earth, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

(10) Here observe, the Shriek or Crack of the Fire is kindled in the Anguish in the Brimstone Spirit, and then the Shriek flies up triumphantly; and the aching, or anxious Harshness, or Brimstone- Spirit, is made thin and sweet by the Light. For as the Light or the Flash becomes clearer or brighter from the Crack of the Fire in the vanquished harsh Tartness, and loses its wrathful fierce Property, so the Tartness loses its Authority by the Infection or Mixture of the Light, and is made thin or transparent, and sweet by the white Light: For in the Original the Harshness or Astringency was altogether dark, and aching with Anguish, by Reason of its hardness and attracting; but now it is wholly light, and thereupon it loses its own Quality or Property, and out of the wrathful Harshness there comes to be an Essence that is sharp, and the Light makes the Sharpness altogether sweet. The Gates of God.

(84) And so instead of the paradisical Joy and Refreshment, there has been a mere Brimstone-Spirit, which stands in Anguish and Trembling, of Corruption [or Fragility,] which kindles the Tincture of the Blood, wherein Tearing, Stinging, and Tormenting is wrought; and if the Fire in the Brimstone-Spirit be too much kindled, then it burns the Tincture up, and the Light of Life goes out, and then the Body falls away to be a dead-Carcase; and if the tart Sourness be kindled too much by the hard Attracting and Holding, then also the Light of Life goes out, and the Body perishes; so also of the Water; if the Tincture kindles itself in the Meekness, then it becomes windy, gross, swelled, wholly dark, also infectious.and corrupt, wherein the Flash of the Life is as a pricking Thorn. And so Man's Life is every where begirt with Enemies, and the poor Soul is always in a close Prison fettered with many Chains, and is continually in Fear that (when the Body shall [die or] break) it may fall into the Kingdom of the Executioner, the Devil.

(1) Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost. Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say What was this forest savage, rough, and stern, Which in the very thought renews the fear. So bitter is it, death is little more; But of the good to treat, which there I found, Speak will I of the other things I saw there. I cannot well repeat how there I entered, So full was I of slumber at the moment In which I had abandoned the true way. But after I had reached a mountain's foot, At that point where the valley terminated, Which had with consternation pierced my heart, Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders, Vested already with that planet's rays Which leadeth others right by every road. Then was the fear a little quieted That in my heart's lake had endured throughout The night, which I had passed so piteously. And even as he, who, with distressful breath, Forth issued from the sea upon the shore, Turns to the water perilous and gazes;

(14) Of the corporeal thus brought into being by Nature the elemental materials of things are its very produce, but how do animal and vegetable forms stand to it?

Are we to think of them as containers of Nature present within them?

Light goes away and the air contains no trace of it, for light and air remain each itself, never coalescing: is this the relation of Nature to the formed object?

It is rather that existing between fire and the object it has warmed: the fire withdrawn, there remains a certain warmth, distinct from that in the fire, a property, so to speak, of the object warmed. For the shape which Nature imparts to what it has moulded must be recognized as a form quite distinct from Nature itself, though it remains a question to be examined whether besides this form there is also an intermediary, a link connecting it with Nature, the general principle.

The difference between Nature and the Wisdom described as dwelling in the All has been sufficiently dealt with.

(9) And God said; In the Sweat of thy gFace, thou shalt eat thy Bread till thou turn to Earth again. Here now all is clear [and manifest] in the Light; for he had lost the heavenly Fruit, which grew for him without Labour [or Toil of his;] and now he must dig and delve in the Earth, and sow and plant, and so in the four Elements must get Fruit, in Cares, Labour, Toil, and Misery. For while the Element, or the Virtue [or Power] out of the Element, sprung forth through the Earth, there was so long a continual lasting Root to the Fruit; but when the Element (by the Curse) withdrew, then the congealed Death, Frailty, and transitory Fading, was in the Root, and they must now continually be i planted again: Thus the turmoiling Life of Man took Beginning, wherein we must now bathe ourselves.

(83) And when it fell to the earth I saw how the earth was swallowed up in a great abyss, and mountains were suspended on mountains, and hills sank down on hills, and high trees were rent from their stems, and hurled down and sunk in the abyss.

(60) Timaeus: but because there was no void space above them, therefore it pressed against the adjacent air; and it, being heavy, when pressed and poured round the mass of earth, crushed it forcibly and compressed it into the spaces from which the new air was ascending. But when earth is thus compressed by the air so as to be indissoluble by water it forms “stone”; of which the fairer sort is that composed of equal and uniform parts and transparent, and the coarser sort the opposite. That kind from which all the moisture has been carried off by the rapidity of fire, and which is more brittle