LIBER CHAOS Bl. Raymond Lull Doctor Illuminatus

Part II
5 Universals

F - Accidents

1. Because, as we said, in the first degree of Chaos there is igneity which has in itself the ignificative and the ignificable, accidents arise, namely quantity, quality, relation etc. The accidents which are intense and proper to igneity are universal to those accidents which are produced from the ignificative and the ignificable in the essence of air, water and earth, and the same applies likewise to the other elements.

2. Quantity, quality etc. in the first degree of Chaos are accidents created and seeded in the substance of the first degree of Chaos and they are instilled into the third by means of the second as supposites are produced from which accidents arise, which are generated as particulars and are universals as they corrupt themselves so as to generate a great many accidents from themselves; now as a supposite is corrupted, each accident communicates itself to a great many numerically distinct accidents so that there is reproduction of supposites through which the first degree instills its essence through accidents into the third degree.

3. The form of fire is quantificative, qualificative etc. and its matter is qualifiable, quantifiable etc. and thus quantity, quality etc. are not sufficient for being a substantiated supposite of the essence of quantity, quality etc. but they are instruments through which form and matter join together to make up one essence of igneity in the first degree of Chaos, in which the accidents of air, water and earth accidentally arise, i.e. through the confused mixture of the four essences in the first degree of Chaos.

4. In the elemented supposite which is the first degree of Chaos there is by accident one intense active quantity, i.e. through the four universal forms which produce one universal form under which stands one universal matter produced from four universal matters, and from their intense quantities, namely the intense quantity of the universal form and the intense quantity of the universal matter there accidentally arises in the substance of the Chaos, extended quantity which exists as a quantificative accident universal to all the natural quantities in the third degree of Chaos.

5. In a wheat grain, intense active quantity is composed of the intense quantity of the forms of air, fire, water and earth; and likewise, intense passive quantity is produced from the four matters of the four elements. Now from these two intense quantities there results by accident one extended quantity under which the wheat grain's substance is quantified as the first degree of Chaos instills its accidents into the third, in accordance with similitude, natural habituation and situation.

6. The beginning, middle and end of form and matter consist in making up substance, and the beginning, middle and end of accidents consist in their presence in substance, but as the end of substance is diverse from the end of accidents, so are the beginning and the middle of substance diverse from the beginning and the middle of accidents, hence it follows that there is a difference between the essence of substance and the essence of accidents.

7. There are two kinds of accidents: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic accidents are the ones within the essence of substance, like the quantificative, which is a form limited by passive quantity, and this quantificative is the first degree of Chaos inasmuch as it is a natural quantificative agent producing a quantified result in the third degree of Chaos, given that the substance of the supposite can receive both active and passive intense quantity; an intrinsic accident is that quality which the ignificative has in its own ignificable. An extrinsic accident is when the ignificative qualifies its heat in the essence of air, water and earth; also, an extrinsic accident is a quality present on the outer surface of substance, like color etc.

8. The more intrinsic an accident is, the closer it is to the essence of substance, and the more extrinsic it is, the more distant it is from the essence of substance. This is why the accidents interior to substance are very hidden from us and invisible, although they do appear to us outside of substance, like the heat of hot water does by accident when it is sensed in water outside the essence of fire, and not within the essence of simple fire; and likewise with the coldness of water sensed in earth and in stones but not in simple water, and this shows that simple accidents are present in the simple elements and compound ones in the compound elements.

9. In a supposite, form is so extremely simple as an active part and matter as a passive part that without instruments, form cannot act and matter cannot be passive; therefore they have instruments by accident, but as they are not of the essence of substance, generation and corruption proceed within substance through accidents, and if these were of the essence of substance, there could be no corruption of supposites as form would have its own matter and vice versa.

10. Because accidents arise in the virtue of substance from form and matter as they come from the first Chaos and are specified through form and matter in the third Chaos, active and passive accidental forms are composed, like heat, which is active in fire on account of the calefactive but passive in water due to the frigefactive, and so forth.

11. In a wheat grain, a great many accidents transit confusedly through one specific quantity, one specific quality and so forth, with which the proper specific form and the proper specific matter are the essence of this grain, and this is because the first degree of Chaos conserves the third through its influence, as it conserves the accidents and the radical moisture of this grain with its confused accidents subject to the parts which transit through the grain. And this is enough about the five universals of the first, second and third degrees of Chaos, now let us turn to the subject matter of the ten predicates.