Whether Water Or Fire Be Most Useful
1. "Water is the best of things, but gold is like burning fire," says Pindar (Olymp. I. 1). Therefore he positively assigns the second place to fire; with whom Hesiod agrees, where he says,
First of all Chaos being had. (Hesoid, Theog. 116)
For most believe that by the word chaos he meant water, from cusis, signifying diffusion. But the balance of argument as to
this point seems to be equal. For there are some who will have it that fire is the
principle of all things, and that like sperm it begets all things out of itself, and
resolves all things again by conflagration. Therefore, not to mention the persons, let us
consider the arguments on both sides, which are to us the most convincing.
2. Now then, it is not that the most useful to us, which in all places
and always and most of all we stand in need of, -- like a piece of house-hold stuff or a
tool, nay, like a friend that is ready at all hours and seasons? But fire is not always
useful; for sometimes it is a prejudice to use and we avoid it if we can. But water is
useful, winter and summer, to the healthy and sick, night and day; neither indeed is there
any time but that a man has need of it. Therefore it is that the dead are called alibantes,
as being without moisture (libas) and by that means
deprived of life; and man may be without fire, but never was any man without water.
Besides, that which was existent from the beginning and with the first creation of man
must be thought more useful than what was afterwards invented. From whence it is apparent,
that Nature bestowed the one upon us as a thing absolutely necessary, the other fortune
and art found for superfluity of uses. Nor was the time ever known when man lived without
water, nor it an invention of any of the Gods or heroes; for it was present almost at
their generation, and it made their creation possible. But the use of fire was a late
invention of Prometheus, at which time life was without fire, but not without water. And
that this is no poetical fiction is demonstrates from this, that there are many sorts of
people without fire, without houses, and without hearths, in the open air. And Diogenes
the Cynic made no use of fire; so that after he had swallowed a raw fish, "This
hazard," said he, "do I run for your sakes." But without water no man ever
thought it convenient or possible to live.
3. But why do I so meanly confine my discourse to the nature of men,
seeing there are many, nay, infinite sorts of creatures? The race of man is almost the
only one that knows the use of fire; the others live and feed without fire. Indeed,
beasts, birds, and creeping things live upon roots, fruits, and raw flesh, without fire;
but without water neither fish nor fowl nor land animals can subsist. For all beasts that
feed upon flesh, of which these are some (as Aristotle reports) that never drink,
nevertheless support life and being merely by moisture. So that of necessity that must be
most profitable without which no sort of life can subsist or endure.
4. Let us therefore make a step from animals that eat things that we
ourselves make use of, such are plants, and fruits; of which some are altogether void of
heat, others enjoy it but imperfectly and obscurely. But moisture causes all things to
germinate, increase, and bring forth. Why should I stand to reckon up wine and oil, milk
and honey, and whatever else, when wheat itself, which is looked upon as a dry
nourishment, grows by alteration, putrefaction, and corruption of the moist matter?
5. Then again, that is most useful which is in no way detrimental. Now
fire easily becomes most pernicious, but the nature of water is never prejudiced. In the
next place, that is most useful which affords the benefit which it brings with least
expense, and without any preparation. But the benefit of fire requires cost and materials,
and therefore the rich make more use of it than the poor, and princes than private
persons; but water has kindness that for mankind, that it freely offers itself to all
alike, a benefit perfect in itself, indigent of nothing, and wanting neither tools nor
implements.
6. Moreover, that which by augmentations loses its benefit is of least
use. Such is fire, which like a devouring beast ravages all before it, useful rather by
art and skillful moderation, than of its own nature. But from water there is nothing to be
feared. Furthermore, that is most useful which may be joined with another. But fire will
not admit of water, neither is it any way profitable by conjunction with it. But water
becomes profitable by joining with fire; and therefore hot waters are wholesome, and
sensibly cure several diseases. Neither shall you ever find moist fire; but water both
cold and hot is profitable for the body of man.
7. Then again, there being four elements, water produces a firth out of
itself, which is the sea, no less beneficial than the rest, as well for commerce as for
many other things. So that it may be said, this element united and perfected our manner of
living, which before was wild and unsociable, correcting it by mutual existence, and
creating community of friendship by reciprocal exchanges of one good turn for another. And
as Heraclitus said, If there were no sun, it would be perpetual night; so may we say, If
there were no sea, man would be the most savage and shameless of all creature. But the sea
brought the vine from India into Greece, and out of Greece transmitted the use of corn to
foreign parts; from Phoenicia translated the knowledge of letters, the memorials that
prevent oblivion; furnished the world with wine and fruit, and prevented the greatest part
of mankind from being illiterate and void of education. How is it possible then but that
water should be the most useful, when it thus furnishes us an entirely new element?
8. Or can any man speak as follows in defence of the contrary? We say
then that God, as a master workman, had before him the four elements, to complete the
fabric of the universe; and then again were different one from another. But earth and
water were placed at the foundation, like matter, to be formed and fashioned,
participating of form and order and of power to procreate and bring forth, so far as they
are assisted by air and fire, -- the great artificers that mould them into various
shapes,-- and lying dead till roused by them to act and generate. Of these two latter,
fire is the ruling agent. This is manifest by induction. For earth without warmth and heat
is altogether barren and unfruitful; but fire, by virtue of its rousing and inflaming
quality, renders it diffusive, and swells it into generation. Nor can any man find out any
other cause why rocks and the dry tops of mountains are not productive, but because they
participate either nothing at all or very little of fire.
9. Then generally for water, it is so far from being sufficient of
itself for the generation and preservation of other things, that it is itself destroyed
for want of fire. But fire is that which upholds ever thing in its proper being, and
preserves it in its proper substance, as well water itself as all other things; so that
when fire leaves it, water will stink, and it may be said that the want of fire is the
death and destruction of water. And thus we find in regard to pools and all manner of
standing waters, and such as are settled in pits and holes without issue, what an
offensive and dead stench they send forth, and all for want of motion; for this kindles
and preserves heat in all things, and more especially in running waters and swift streams,
which being thus agitated and enlivened by heat, we commonly say such waters
"live." Why then should not that be accounted the most useful of the two, that
affords to other the cause of its being, as fire does to water? Moreover, that is the most
useful, of which if an animal be wholly deprived, it must perish; for it is evident, that
anything without which an animal cannot live affords the reason and cause it exists. There
is moisture also in things after they are dead, nor are they altogether dried up; for
otherwise moist bodies would never putrefy; since the putrefaction is the alteration of
dry into moist, or rather the corruption of moisture in flesh. Neither is death any other
than an absolute defect and want of heat; so that if you do but touch them with a razor,
they will blunt the edge of it through excess of coldness. Also in living creatures, those
parts that least partake of heat are most insensible, as the bones and hair, and those
parts which are most distant from the heart. Nay, to some of the most important things the
absence of fire and the presence of water are destructive. For plants and fruits are not
produced by moisture, but by the warmth of the moisture; and cold waters are most
certainly either less productive, or altogether barren. For if water were fruitful in
itself it would always, and that spontaneously too, bear fruit. But the contrary is
apparent, and it is rather baneful to generation.
10. Let us begin anew. As to the use of fire, considered as fire, we
have no need of water. Rather the contrary is to be made out; for water extinguishes fire.
And as for water, there is no use to be made of it in most things without fire. For water
heated becomes more useful, whereas otherwise it is prejudicial. So that, of the two, that
is to be accounted best which is profitable of itself without the assistance of another.
Besides, water is beneficial only to the feeling, when you either wash with it or touch
it; but fire is profitable to all the senses, being not only felt, but also seen at a
distance; so that you may add this to the rest of the virtues of it, that its uses are
manifold.
11. Then to say that man did once subsist without fire is a mistake, it
being impossible that man should be without it. But we must acknowledge that there are
differences in this kind, as well as in other things. Thus heat has rendered the sea more
beneficial, as having a greater portion of heat in it than other waters, from which it
otherwise differs not at all. And as for those that have no need of outward fire, they do
not avoid it because they do not want it, but because they should abound in heat within
themselves. So that the use of fire seems to be more excellent in this, that water is
never in such a condition as not to want external aids, but fire, endued with manifold
virtues, contents itself with its sufficiency. Therefore, as he is the best commander who
manages the affairs of his city as not to have any need of foreign assistance, so that
element excels that supplies us in such a manner as to want the least of others helps from
without. And this is to be said of other creatures that have no need of external heat.
Now, to argue on the other side, a man may say thus, that whatever we
singly and alone make use of its more profitable, since we are by our reason best fitted
to choose what is best. For what is more useful and beneficial to us than reason? …
And yet brute animals want fire. What then? Is it the less profitable, because found out
by foresight of higher power?
12. And since our discourse has brought us to it, what is more
beneficial to life than art? Yet fire invented and preserves all manner of arts. And
therefore Vulcan is feigned to be the prince of all artificers. Man has allowed him but a
little time to live; and as Aristo said, sleep, like a toll-gatherer, deprives him of the
one-half of that too. I would rather say that the darkness does this; for a man may watch
all night. But he would have no benefit of his watchfulness unless fire afforded him the
benefit of the light of day. Since then there is nothing more beneficial to man than life,
and this is prolonged by fire, why should not fire be accounted the most beneficial of
things?
13. Lastly, that is to be thought most profitable, of which the
temperament of the senses participate most. Now do you find that there is any of the
senses, which of itself, makes use of moisture without an intermixture of air and fire?
But every sense partakes of fire, as being that which quickens the vital faculty; more
especially the sight, which is the most acute of all the senses in the body, being a
certain fiery efflux, that gave us our first light into the belief of a Deity, and by
virtue of which we are able, as Plato says, to conform our souls to the motions of the
celestrial bodies.