LIBER CHAOS Bl. Raymond Lull Doctor Illuminatus

Part II
5 Universals

E - Property

1. In the first degree of Chaos God was proprificative and all properties were proprificable by way of creation; first they existed in potentiality in the first degree of Chaos, then they came to act in the second degree of Chaos through generation and creation, but they came into act from the first degree of Chaos into the third by way of generation.

2. As defined in God's Ideas, properties are habituated, situated and seeded in the Chaos where the properties of the first Chaos exist as universals to all the properties which are in the third and were in the second, as we see in fire: now heat, light, lightness and igneity are universal to all that pertains to heat, light and lightness in a fiery supposite. The same applies likewise to the other elements.

3. Properties exist in a state of confusion in the first degree of Chaos, but they are specified in the third by means of the second, for instance, laughter was a property of the first man, and barking was a property of the first dog, and heating of the first pepper and so forth.

4. The ignificative has its own ignificable and conversely, but in the essence of air, the ignificative has its ignificable by accident, so that the property which is in the essence of fire due to fiery form and matter is substantial whereas the property made of fiery form and airy matter is accidental; the same applies likewise to the properties of the other elements.

5. Action is proper to form and passivity is proper to matter, and because in the Chaos there is one universal form made of the four forms, and one universal matter from the four matters of which the prime Chaos is composed, therefore in the prime Chaos there is both property and improperty, from which follow property and improperty in the third Chaos; there is property inasmuch as fire is hot per se but dry on account of earth, but there improperty inasmuch as fire can be cooled by earth, and the same applies likewise to the other elements.

6. Given that property in the first degree of Chaos is something common, but something specific in the third, property is universal or common in the first degree of Chaos beyond the particulars it has in the third degree, and therefore it is clear that the universal of nature is something real and common.

7. The intense property of simple form and simple matter in the essence of fire is universal to the extended property which exists in the essence of fire, and this is because intense active property and intense passive property are essential parts of the extended compound property which is produced by both of them.

8. The extended property which exists in a pepper in the fourth degree of heat is universal to the other extended properties of the other elements ordered, situated and habituated under the property of fire, or else the fire in the pepper would not predominate in the property of the fourth degree over the other elements compounded in this pepper, which is impossible.

9. Given that fire is hot per se and dry by accident, it is proper for it to ascend and descend; it therefore ascends because its sphere is above, and it descends because the sphere of earth is below; therefore it is proper for it to ascend by the first intention and to descend by the second intention.

10. Given that the essence of fire is substantial, it is proper for it to have a body, but given that it is confused in the first degree of Chaos with the essences of the other elements, it is improper for it to have a body on its own in the first degree of Chaos. Now as fire wants to be a body on its own, but as it cannot achieve this with its own essence, it seeks to have a body in the elemented things in which its property has the majority over the other elements.

11. In a sanguine subject, moisture and heat have the property of generating whereas dryness and cold have the property of corrupting; but because moisture and warmth prevail over dryness and cold in a sanguine subject, the dry and cold properties convert into their improperties, inasmuch as moisture and warmth want another new form potentially present in the matter in which they exist on account of some property.

12. When similar properties exist within the same supposite, some attract others, i.e. the major attract the minor, always in the following way: heat in the fourth degree attracts to itself the heat which is in the third, second and first and heat in the third likewise attracts heat in the second and first, and the one in the second attracts the one in the first.

13. The properties of the first degree come to the third in a confused and potential state, but in the third degree one property is more specified than another according to the way the germs or pores through which the first degree of Chaos instills its essence into the third, exist in greater property and specification, as in a choleric subject in whom there is more heat than moisture, or in a sanguine one in whom there is more moisture than any other element.

14. A supposite which generates another, as for instance a wheat grain or something similar, instills its property into the thing it generates, but not the same numerical identity, because the generator and the generated are numerically distinct, and because the generated subject cannot receive the entire property of the generating one - for then it would be numerically identical with it - when the generating subject is corrupted, the residue of property it cannot instill into the generated subject reverts to the first degree of Chaos.

15. Inasmuch as the first degree finds form in the third degree more disposed than matter, form gives more of its property to the generation and a male is generated, similar to the father; but if it finds matter more disposed than form, a female similar to the mother is generated.

16. It is proper for the vegetative to vegetate, it is likewise proper for the sensitive to sense; and just as the vegetative has properties in one way through appetite, in another way through retention etc. the sensitive likewise has the property of sight in one way, the property of hearing in another way and so forth.