land, even all creatures that have breath in their nostrils, must suddenly
return to putrefaction. Moses, the great lawgiver and chief philosopher,
skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians, who was called the friend of
God, and knew the mind of the Almighty, names this element the first
in the creation: this is the element upon which the Spirit of God did first
move, and is the chief ingredient in the creation: many philosophers
have made it to comprehend all the other elements, and most allow it
the chiefest in the mixtion of all living creatures.

There be that profess to believe that all bodies are made of water, and
may be reduced back again to water only; they endeavour to
demonstrate it thus:

Take a willow, or any like speedy growing plant newly rooted in a box
or barrel full of earth, weigh them all together exactly when the tree
begins to grow, and then weigh all together after the tree is increased
from its first rooting, to weigh a hundred pound weight more than when
it was first rooted and weighed; and you shall find this augment of the
tree to be without the diminution of one drachm weight of the earth.
Hence they infer this increase of wood to be from water of rain, or from
dew, and not to be from any other element; and they affirm, they can
reduce this wood back again to water; and they affirm also, the same
may be done in any animal or vegetable. And this I take to be a fair
testimony of the excellency of my clement of water.

The water is more productive than the earth. Nay, the earth hath no
fruitfulness without showers or dews; for all the herbs, and flowers, and
fruit, are produced and thrive by the water; and the very minerals are
fed by streams that run under ground, whose natural course carries
them to the tops of many high mountains, as we see by several springs