Page "belles_lettres" Paragraph 504

To return now to the four-element physics, a mixture of muddy, frothy water will, when standing in a jar, separate out with earth at the bottom, water on top, and the air on top of that.

A candle alight in the air directs its flame and smoke upwards.

This gives a clue to the cosmical order of elements.

Thus earth has fallen to the center of the universe.

It is covered ( partly ) with water, air is atop of that.

Pure fire ( the stars ) is in the heavens.

When combined with the metaphysical notion that pure forms of this universe are best appreciated when least embodied in a material substratum, it becomes clear that while earth will be dross on a scale of material-formal ratios, celestial bodies will be of a subtle, quickened, ethereal existence, in whose embodiment pure form will be the dominant component and matter will be absent or remain subsidiary.