All Things in All

Before you read

• Chapters V and VI are praise. Each one takes two elements and lists what they can do. Chapter VII sorts things on earth by element. Chapter VIII goes upward, into the heavens and beyond.
• This is the hardest English of the year. The spelling is old (“Aire,” “vertue,” “Divels”), and some sentences run for half a page. Slow reading is normal. Read a long sentence twice, and say it aloud if it helps.
• Agrippa leans on authorities all the time: Pliny, Ovid, Moses, Aristotle. You don’t need to know who they all are. Just notice that he backs up each claim with an old name. The poems in Chapter VI are Ovid’s, put into English verse.
• Chapter VII is a big sorting table in words. Keep a sheet with four columns, one for each element, and fill it in as you read. The quiz asks about some of the rows.

In a nutshell

Chapter V: Of the wonderfull Natures of Fire, and Earth

Agrippa opens by saying that fire and earth are enough to work all wonders. Fire is the active one and earth the passive one. Fire is one thing in itself, he says, but it takes many forms in the things that hold it. It is hidden in stones, in the earth, in springs and in the air. Fire from above gives light and life. Fire from below burns and makes things barren. He adds that light drives off spirits of darkness. That, he says, is why old religions used candles in worship. Then he turns to earth. Earth is the base of all the other elements. It holds the seeds of all things and takes in the powers of the heavens. He calls it the center and mother of all things.

Chapter VI: Of the wonderfull Natures of Water, Aire, and Winds

Water comes first. Nothing can live or grow without it, Agrippa says, and it is needed in worship too. He notes that some old thinkers called water the first of all elements. Then he gives a long list of strange rivers, springs and lakes from old writers. Next comes air. Air is a living spirit that binds all things together. It carries the powers of the stars down to the other elements. It also holds the images given off by things and by speech, like a mirror. Agrippa says these images can cause dreams and sudden fears. He tells of mirror tricks and echoes, and he claims he can send his thoughts to a friend far away. He ends with the four winds, one from each corner of the sky, with verses about each.

Chapter VII: Of the kinds of Compounds

Now the elements mix. Agrippa says they make four kinds of “perfect Bodies”: stones, metals, plants and animals. All four elements are in each kind. But one element rules each kind, and each kind is sorted again inside itself. Then he sorts the parts of the body and its four humors, the parts of the soul, the five senses and even a person’s temper. Each lines up with an element. He closes by saying the elements are the first of all things, and their powers run through all things.

Chapter VIII: How the Elements are in the Heavens, in Stars, in Divels, in Angels, and lastly in God himself

The last chapter climbs upward. Agrippa says that, as the followers of Plato teach, all things are in all things. So the elements are in the heavens too, only purer. Here heavenly fire shines without burning. He gives each planet an element. He gives each of the twelve signs of the zodiac an element too, three signs to each: one for its beginning, one for its middle and one for its end. Then he finds the elements among devils, in the four rivers of the underworld and in the orders of angels. Last, he points to Bible verses that speak of God as fire, water, breath and earth. He ends with a ladder of four steps, from the pure ideas in God’s mind down to the gross things of our world.

Fire signs

Aries begins fire, Leo carries it on, Sagittarius ends it.

Earth signs

Taurus begins earth, Virgo carries it on, Capricorn ends it.

Air signs

Gemini begins air, Libra carries it on, Aquarius ends it.

Water signs

Cancer begins water, Scorpio carries it on, Pisces ends it.

Highlights

Words to know

Vertue

Old spelling of virtue. In Agrippa it nearly always means a power or property of a thing, not being good.

Celestiall, sublunary, inferiour

Heavenly; below the moon (our world); lower. Agrippa sorts things into the higher world of the heavens and the lower world we live in.

Species

Not a kind of animal. Here it means the images or likenesses that Agrippa says flow off things into the air.

Humors

The four fluids that old medicine said were in the body: yellow choller (bile), blood, flegme (phlegm) and black choller, or melancholy.

Compounds, mixtions

Things made by mixing the elements together.

Divels

Old spelling of devils, the evil spirits of Christian belief.

Intelligencies

Spirits that are pure mind, such as angels.

Exemplary world

The world of ideas in God’s mind, the pattern that our world is copied from. The word comes from the followers of Plato.

Quiz

Answer from the notes or the reading, in any order; you can change an answer at any time. Each answer says why, with a link to the page.