On Elements

Porfu, Sage of Laketon

Even the basest and most ignorant among us know of the four elements which comprise the known world. To all my students, I have endeavored to impart knowledge of the fifth element. But to my closest adepts I have revealed the existence of the six element. Also, in reserve, I alone have held knowledge of the seventh and final element. Until now, I have not revealed it or its purpose.

As for this volume, it will concern itself in three parts. The first part belongs to the first four elements with the second part being given over to the fifth and six elements. The third part is concerned with the last and final element.

The four elements are Earth, Water, Fire and Air. Each thing of Erenth, and indeed Erenth itself, may be properly considered an alloy of these elements. That is that each substance known contains the same four elements but the differences we see in the various things are achieved solely as the differences in their proportions.

If a woman makes bread, she may use flour, water, salt and butter. But these same substances may be used to make gravy in the same vessels and in the same kitchen. The woman has intuited what we men of knowledge have discovered – the difference between bread and gravy is not one of composition, but one of proportion in composition.

If one takes quartz, he may properly deduce that it is made of earth and then air and then fire and then water. With the least part being defined as water and so tracely present that it is all but undetectable except when grasped and squeezed tightly. This proportion, however, must be different in Sulfur because that stone’s readiness to burn far exceeds that of quartz.. It may be deduced that Sulfur contains more fire than quartz, yet not enough to cause it to be always burning. Yet, the first part, and biggest part, of Sulfur remains earth or else it would have no solidity.

Therefore, all that can be understood about every substance must be learned by studying the first properties and eminent qualities of the four elements. Properties are these: solidity, liquidity, mobility, and temperature. For all inanimate things that are known, may be understood by at least two of these things. A wall is solid and cold. A ball is mobile and solid. Wine is fluid and warm, and so on. Qualties are the opposing descriptions of cold and hot, combined with wet and dry.


PART THE FIRSTFour Elements
The four elements do not exist in their purest form on the face of Erenth. Even the best example of one element is truly but an alloy containing some proportion of the rest. Water, even that freshly drawn from a well and set in a clear vessel, is soon shown to have earth sediment in it. The application of enough heat, shows that there is air in it as well. For what else are the bubbles are that soon excited within it?

If the four elements are not pure in this plane it follows that they must have originated elsewhere. Therefore, the pure essence of each element must exist in a world which is not of this material plane we know. Indeed the most learned travelers to other planes have confirmed the existence of such places, just as logic demands that they should.

It has been amply recorded that there are elemental planes of earth, water, fire and air. In each of these planes are fantastic creatures and beings unlike those of earth and of tremendous power. From time to time, by whatever portal these fundamental elements were allowed into Erenth, some of these creatures are also able to cross -- such that spirits of fire and water have been witnessed in several reputable laboratories by this author personally. More on these Elementals will follow in the second part of this work.


Earth
Earth is the primessence. It is the most fundamental and base of all the elements. Because it is primitive it may be ascertained using all five of the senses. It may be smelled, seen, tasted, felt and heard. From Earth we understand the property of solidity, and the quality of being dry.

It is earth which keeps back the waters of sea and drains off water from the rains. For this reason, our forebears sought to make pots and vessels from the earth. The quality of such things eventually leads to the drying out of liquids.

Earth is present in all things that can be handled in direct proportion to their weight. A squirrel contains earth, as does the bird, the rock and the various larger animals of wood and forest. Upon the death of these creatures, the earth of their bodies is slowly taken back to the earth itself, leaving behind those things which are made of the less fundamental elements such as bones and fur.

In the bodies of living things, Earth is also present as the black bile which flows from some stomach wounds and is brought up in those deep coughs which have their origin below the sternum. A man possessed of too much black bile may have swelling and distension beneath the skin and unless properly and speedily treated, may find that it overtakes his ability to breath. Tumors are made primarily of earth.

The most learned doctors will treat some illness with the complements of Earth and the most aggressive treatments will come from using its opposite – Air.


Water
Water is the second essence. It may be apprehended with four of the senses. It can be tasted, seen, felt and heard, but has no odor of its own. While there are stagnant pools which give off foul odors, they are only so by the presence of Earth in them. From Water we understand the property of fluidity and the quality of moistness.

Water has been found to be present in every liquid. When any liquid is allowed to boil and to separate in glass tubes, there will be some other essence present and an example of water which is quite drinkable left behind.

In the bodies of living things, Water is the phlegm brought forth from deep coughs and dripping noses. It also comprises the second part of fresh wounds. Again, simple wounds and diseases are treated with its complements, but the most aggressive illness require Fire.


Fire
Fire is the tertiessence. It may be seen, heard and felt. There are those who claim to have tasted fire in certain berries and powders, but this is only the feeling of fire upon the tongue and is not a true taste at all in the manner of sweetness or bitters. From Fire we understand the property of temperature and the quality of hotness.

In the bodies of living things, Fire is the yellow bile that oozes from old wounds and disperses the water from them. It is the chief component of fevers and sweats which also drive water from the pores. As with all medicines, minor maladies are treated using the complements of fire, but the most effective therapies are obtained by means of its opposite – Water.


Air
Air is the quartessence. It may be heard and felt, but it is invisible to the eye, cannot be tasted or smelled. Of course, the unlearned claim to see wind, and must be schooled as to the quality of clouds which is but the second essence combined with smoke – the primesssence. From Air we glean the property of mobility and the quality of coldness.

Air is present in some quantity in all living things, but has been found through dissection to be most prominent in birds. For the bones of such creatures have revealed themselves to be hollow as straws and allow for the storage of air taken in through the mouth. By this means, the bird flies though the wings of such creatures enables their maneuvering, they are not, as is often assumed, the source of flight. If that were so, then a man might naturally be able to fly through the vigorous flapping of applied wings and this has been shown to be folly.

In the bodies of living things, Air is manifest as blood which appears red on the surface, but may be blue in some vessels. Medicine can be concocted using fire and water to treat exposure to bad air or bad blood, but the most good is often achieved using its opposing element – Earth.


PART THE SECOND

AetherIn so far as the first four elements are capable of describing and understanding all inanimate objects, they do not succeed in describing all that is. So to the class of things that are not living, we must agree to add the class of things which breathe and are alive. For this purpose we must posit and agree that yet another element must exist.

We have spoken of squirrels and birds in the previous section but we can examine these bodies after death and determine that even if their organs are whole and their bodies intact, some have lost their life. And life is the quality which is not necessarily motility. For there are some creatures which move only a little, but are found still to be alive and may or must be slain. So it follows that some other thing exists which grants to creatures their lives.

Aether is the quintessence. It may be detected solely through the sense of sound, making it hard to detect indeed. Aether is heard as ringing in the ears when no other sounds are present, or else the sound of roaring that is present in some caves which hold it. It has also been noted to exist in sea shells and in large earthen vessels which are partially or fully empty. From Aether, then, we learn of space, which is the absence of fluids or solid things, and is yet the mortar in which all other alloys are mixed.

In the bodies of living things, Aether is the breath. Some unlearned have presumed that breath is but air, however great pains have been taken to trap the breath of men and it has been found to be of quite a different substance than what is found in the air around us. In the experiments conducted by my rival Maimol, cruel and heartless though they were, it was conclusively shown that men who consume the air in a given place, which is sealed off from being refreshed, cannot exist in a room filled only with breath.

In the same experiments, it was found that breath will not complement fire as air will, for the first things to expire were the torches and lanterns of those trapped. But on a more pedestrian example, it can be shown that breath does not suffice in a small room for clearing the senses. Moreover, we may look to the fish. Fish, which have not air, will still have a breath and are seen gasping for it when drawn up from the water. So we can assume that breath is something else, which is also needed for living and is the chief sign of it. For those things which have not breath, have not life, though they may have a second animating principle – more on that to follow.

Breath is the quickening that gives life from its seed or the substance that animates flesh. Aether also is the principle component of spirits malicious and beneficent which haunt this world, though some have been known to buoy along the other elements in their wake, such that some claim to taste, smell, see, or feel such things -- they are sorely mistaken, for aether by its nature cannot be ascertained by those things.

Aether has no opposition or complements. Those who have lost it are truly dead and cannot be revived short of intervention from powers and deities beyond comprehension. Since Aether has no place in medicine, its existence is often discounted by the unlearned who insist that the number of elements is but four.


Aim
From the knowledge of spirits and from the consideration of man himself, it can be deduced that there exists a sixth element. This element cannot be ascertained by any of the five senses, but it must exist for its effect upon the world can be seen and its effect upon the Aether of the living may be apprehended as moods such as foreboding or elation.

This sextessence we may call Aim, which is the purpose or intent of all bodies. By what other means may we explain the differences among similarly tempered, but differently behaving men? Some are given to acts which arouse a lightness of Aether within other men, such that there is laughter and merriment or else the desire for friendship and companionship. Yet also, there are those whose acts are given to produce a heaviness. Such men are seen as corrupt and people desire to flee from their presence.

In the previous part I we spoke of elemental beings which have bodies comprised of elements and have mobility, but these things do not have Aether. They neither breathe nor have need to breathe. Yet they have purpose and intents. Their actions, when not properly restrained, show themselves to be of a character altogether different than those who command them. The element present in such things, as with all things, is Aim.

I have ever taken to demonstrate that Aim may carry a charge. That is, be positive or negative, which is to say good or evil. But my teacher, noble Pyrthes of Watersedge held to the maxim of his father and teacher, Palinus, saying that there was but one condition of Aim – the negative. The presence of too much Aim indicated an evil disposition, while the presence of very little Aim would be seen as good. By his observation that no man is truly good, Pyrthes sought to say that even in the most noble of men, some Aim was present.

So it is with beasts. For some are friendly and playful and yet others, of their same kind, may suddenly turn upon their captors with a negative Aim. Under such as these have many people fallen victim to fang or claw. Yet there is something in consideration of the beasts which must be understood as the weakness of Pyrthes. For it can be observed that the majority of the beasts are neither positively or negatively disposed, but only act according their brutish natures – which is to say a neutral state.

For this reason we must postulate that Aim must carry a charge for if there is a neutral state then there must be a equivalent number of something which is positive to counterbalance the negative. So while the old worthy scholars must be lauded for the discovery of the sixth element, the student is well to remember that their understanding of some things was too simple.

Some, unaware of my discovery of the Seventh Element, have assumed that Negative Aim is one element and Positive Aim is still another. By this means they claim to have laid a hold of the perfect number of elements – seven. But I am comfortable allowing my rivals to believe such things are true, I will not tolerate it of my adepts. For if there are two separate things called Aim, then the number of my discovered (and proven!) element would be eight, and such a thing is not possible. Therefore, I have considered Aim to be a solitary thing which may carry charges, but made of the same fundamental thing.

Note that by admitting the presence of charged Aim, a very good man may be possessed of some evil, but this modern explanation also shows the possibility that even the very evil may be, in part, good. This also can be demonstrated when a man feels at war with himself over two courses of direction. He may feel drawn to the evil, but avoid it by the ascendance of positive Aim in his body.

We must not fall into the error of assuming that only those things which have Aether also have this sextessence. For there are places which even the most foolhardy may be perceive to have Aim. As a common example, who has not seen an old woman spit and make the ward against a darkened corner or neglected grave? What other explanation could be given for a group of well-behaved men who are suddenly stirred to great violence such as riots, drunkeness or vigilantism?

Miners have also told of caves and shafts which show evidence of Aim, as well. For there are those which seek to crush or strangle those who labor within. So that these mere places, which have no bodies to contain Aether can be still understood to have Aim.

I myself have been witness to men of great power who insist that they can perceive the Aim of their fellow man. One such man I believe to be incapable of speaking falsehood. He told me personally that objects and locations may be endowed with a purpose which may be good, evil or neutral, though he could but feel the evil, which initially gave creedance to the weakness of Pyrthes.


PART THE THIRD

The Final Element
[The following section has been damaged by fire.]