Besides, we shall have to examine whether the earth be invisible
without fire, and the fire intangible without the earth. Were this the
case, nothing would possess its own proper being. All things would be
mixed; each would reclaim its name only by the element preponderating
in it; for it has been claimed that the earth could not exist without
the humidity of water, which alone keeps all its parts united. Even
were this granted, it would, none the less, remain absurd to say that
each of these elements is something, while claiming that it does not
possess any characteristically individual constitution, except by its
union with the other elements, which, nevertheless, would not, any
the more, exist individually, each in itself. What reality, indeed,
would inhere in the nature or being of the earth, if none of its parts
were earth except because the water that operated as a bond? Besides,
with what could water unite without the preliminary existence of an
extension whose parts were to be bound together for the formation of
a continuous whole? The existence of an extension, however small it
be, will imply the self-existence of earth, without the assistance of
water; otherwise, there would be nothing for water to bind together.
Nor would the earth have any need of air, since the air exists before
the observation of any change within it. Nor is fire any more necessary
to the constitution of the earth; fire only serves in making it
visible, like all other objects. It is indeed reasonable to assert that
it is fire which renders objects visible, and it is a mistake[215] to
state that "one sees darkness," which cannot be seen any more than
silence can be heard. Besides, there is no necessity for fire to be in
earth; light suffices (to make it visible). Snow, and many other very
cold substances are, without any fire, very brilliant--that is, unless
we say that the fire approached them, and colored them before leaving
them.