As to the other elements, could not water exist without participating
in the earth? Air could certainly not be said to participate in earth,
because of its penetrability. It is very doubtful that the fire
contains any earth, because it does not seem continuous, and does not,
by itself, seem to be tri-dimensional. True, fire does seem to contain
solidity, but not of a tri-dimensional kind; it seems rather to be a
sort of resistance corporeal nature[214]). Only of earth may hardness
be predicated; indeed, gold, in liquid state, is dense; not because it
is earth, but because it possesses density, and is solidified. It would
therefore not be unreasonable that fire, apart by itself, could subsist
by the power of the Soul which sustains it by her presence. The bodies
of (certain among) the guardian spirits consist of fire.[216]