The 4 Elements

Why did the Creator make this world of generation?

He was good.* The good can never have any jealousy of anything.

Being free from jealousy, He desired that all things should be as like Himself as they could be.

He found that the whole visible sphere was moving in an irregular and disorderly way.

Out of disorder he brought order, considering that order was better than disorder.

He found generally that:

• the intelligent were fairer than the unintelligent creatures
• intelligence could not be present in anything which was devoid of soul [i.e. rocks and inanimate objects]

This is why, when he was framing the universe, he put intelligence in soul* and soul in body so that his work would be fairest and best.

The world became a living creature truly endowed with soul and intelligence by God’s providence.

In the likeness of what animal did the Creator make the world?

The original of the universe contains in itself all intelligible beings, just as this world comprehends us and all other visible creatures.

The Deity intended to make this world like the fairest and most perfect of intelligible beings.

He framed one visible animal comprehending within itself all other animals of a kindred nature.

Only One World [One Multiverse]

Is there one world? Or are they many and infinite?

If the created copy is to accord with the original, then there must be one only.

For that which includes all other intelligible creatures cannot have a second or companion.

• In that case, there needs to be another Creator which would include both.
• Those worlds would then be parts.
• Their likeness would then be based on that Creator.

Thus, the Creator made only one world.*

The created is necessarily corporeal, visible, and tangible.

The visibility is facilitated by fire [electromagnetism].

The tangibility is facilitated by solidity [strong force].

Nothing is solid without earth [strong force].

• Wherefore in the beginning of creation, the body of the universe was made of fire [electromagnetism] and earth [strong force].

But two things cannot be rightly put together without a third. There must be some bond of union between them.

The fairest bond is that which makes the most complete fusion* of:

• itself and
• the things which it combines

Proportion is best adapted to effect such a union.

And for these reasons, and out of such elements which are in number four, the body of the world was created, and it was harmonized by proportion, and therefore has the spirit of friendship; and having been reconciled to itself, it was indissoluble by the hand of any other than the framer.

If a set of any 3 numbers has a mean, the mean is to the 1st number just as it is to the last number.

Thus:

• the mean becomes first and last
• the first and last both become means

They will all of necessity come to be the same. Having become the same with one another will be all one.

If the universal frame was just a surface with no depth, a single mean would have sufficed to bind together itself and the other terms.

But now, the world must be solid. Solid bodies are always compacted two means, not one.*

And so, God placed water [convertible] and air [spacetime] in the mean between fire [electromagnetism] and earth [strong force].

These have the same proportion as far as possible. Thus he bound and put together a visible and tangible heaven.

This is why the body of the world was created out of 4 such elements.

It was harmonized by proportion, and therefore has the spirit of friendship. Having been reconciled to itself, it was indissoluble.