Latin — 1533, repaired
Insunt praeterea rebus virtutes aliae, quae non sunt alicuius elementi, sicut fugare venenum, pellere anthraces, attrahere ferrum, vel quid aliud: et haec virtus est sequela speciei, et formae rei huius, vel istius. Unde etiam exigua quantitate non exiguum habet in agendo effectum: quod non est elementali qualitati concessum. Hae virtutes, quia multum formales sunt, ideo cum minima materia plurimum possunt: elementalis autem virtus, quia materialis est, ut multum agat, multa etiam eget eadem materia. Vocantur autem proprietates occultae, quia causae earum nobis latentes sunt, ita quod humanus intellectus non potest eas usquequaque investigare: quare philosophi maximam earum partem longa experientia, plus quam rationis indagine, adepti sunt. Nam ut in stomacho cibus digeritur per calorem, quem cognoscimus, sic transformatur per virtutem quandam occultam, quam ignoramus: non quidem per calorem, quia sic in foco potius apud ignem quam in stomacho transformaretur. Sic sunt rebus, ultra elementales qualitates quas cognoscimus, innatae quaedam aliae virtutes, et ita a natura cocreatae, quas admiramur, ac saepe stupescimus nobis ignotas, vel raro vel nusquam conspectas: ut de phoenice ave unica seipsam renovante legitur apud Ovidium:
Una est, quae reparat, seque ipsa reseminat, ales, Assyrii phoenica vocant. (verse, summarized — see flag)
Et alibi:
Convenit Aegyptus ranti ad miracula visus, Et raram volucrem turba salutat ovans. (verse, summarized — see flag)
Admirationem grandem tum Graecis tum Romanis olim de se Martes peperit: is dicebatur feram a se nutriri, quae ipsa semet vorarer[†]. Unde et hodie vetus adhuc anxie multi scrutantur, quaenam sit Martes fera. Quis non miretur et fossiles ex terra pisces, de quibus Aristoteles, Theophrastus et Polybius historicus prodiderunt? Et qui de canentibus lapidibus tradidit Pausanias, omnia sunt occultae virtutis opera. Sic avis struthio ferrum frigidum atque durissimum coquit et digerit in corporis sui nutrimentum: cui stomachus tradit etiam ferro ignito non laedi. Sic pisciculus ille echinais, ita frenat venti impetum et domat aequoris rabiem, ut quantumcunque etiam imperet et saeviat procella, infinitis etiam velis per ventum tensis, tamen usque adeo solo tactu compescit et cogit stare navigia, ut moveri nullo modo possint. Sic salamandrae et pyraustae bestiolae vivunt in igne, et licet quandoque ardere videantur, tamen non laeduntur. Simile est de quodam bitumine, quo oblita dicuntur fuisse arma Amazonum, quod nec ferro nec igne solvitur, cum quo etiam et portae Caspiae ex aere fabricatae, illitae fabulantur ab Alexandro Magno; simili etiam bitumine legitur arca Noe conglutinata fuisse, ipsa a tot milibus annorum super montibus Armeniae adhuc durante.
Sunt horum mirabilium alia multa vix credibilia, quae tamen experientia ipsa cognita sunt, cuius vim modi de Satyris prodit antiquitas, quae animalia semi hominis ac semi bruti figura constant, sermonis tamen et rationis capacia: quorum unum quempiam beato Antonio eremitae quondam locutum, et gentilem errorem in se animalibus colendis damnasse, communemque deum pro se precandum orasse, ipse refert sacer Hieronymus, eorumque viventem unum olim in publicum productum affirmat, et mox ad Constantinum principem destinarum.
Close translation
Things possess, moreover, other powers that belong to no element, such as putting venom to flight, driving off carbuncles, drawing iron, or something else: and this power follows upon the species, and the form of this or that thing. Whence too it has no small effect in acting even from a small quantity — which is not granted to an elemental quality. These powers, because they are highly formal, can therefore do a very great deal with the least matter; an elemental power, however, being material, needs much matter in order to do much. They are called hidden properties because their causes lie hidden from us, so that human understanding cannot track them down completely; wherefore philosophers have gained the greater part of their knowledge of them by long experience, rather than by the pursuit of reason. For just as food is digested in the stomach by heat, which we know, so it is also transformed by a certain hidden power, which we do not know — not, indeed, by heat, since in that case it would be transformed rather in a hearth by fire than in the stomach. So there are, beyond the elemental qualities we know, certain other powers innate in things, and thus co-created by nature, which we marvel at, and are often astonished by, unknown to us, or seen rarely or never: as is read in Ovid concerning the phoenix, the bird unique in renewing itself:
One bird there is that remakes and re-seeds itself — the Assyrians call it the phoenix. (verse, summarized — see flag)
And elsewhere:
Egypt gathers eagerly to the wonder of so great a sight, and the crowd greets the rare bird with rejoicing. (verse, summarized — see flag)
The beast called Martes once bred great wonder among both the Greeks and the Romans of old: it was said that a wild creature was kept by it that devoured itself[†]. Whence even today many still anxiously search after what beast the ancient Martes might be. Who would not marvel too at fish dug fossil from the earth, of which Aristotle, Theophrastus, and the historian Polybius have given report? And what Pausanias relates of stones that sing — all these are the works of an hidden power. Thus the ostrich cooks and digests cold and very hard iron into nourishment for its body, whose stomach is granted not to be harmed even by red-hot iron. Thus that little fish, the remora, so reins in the force of the wind and tames the fury of the sea that, however much the storm may rage and rule, though countless sails be stretched to the wind, it nonetheless, by touch alone, restrains and compels ships to stand still, so that they cannot be moved by any means. Thus salamanders and the little firefly-creatures called pyraustae live in fire, and though they sometimes seem to burn, they are nonetheless unharmed. The same holds of a certain bitumen, with which the arms of the Amazons are said to have been coated, which is dissolved by neither iron nor fire, with which also the Caspian Gates, fabricated of bronze, are told in fable to have been coated by Alexander the Great; with a like bitumen it is read that Noah's ark was glued together, itself still enduring these many thousands of years upon the mountains of Armenia.
Of these marvels there are many others, scarcely credible, which are nevertheless known by experience itself, of which sort antiquity reports concerning the Satyrs, animals that consist in a form half-human and half-brute, yet capable of speech and reason: of these, holy Jerome himself relates that one once spoke to the blessed hermit Anthony, and condemned in himself the pagan error of worshipping animals, and begged that the common God be prayed to on its behalf; and he affirms that one of them, once brought alive into public, was afterward sent on to the emperor Constantine.
Modern rendering
Things also carry powers that belong to no element at all — like repelling poison, driving off carbuncle-sores, or drawing iron. This kind of power follows from a thing's species and form, not its elemental makeup, which is why even a tiny amount of the substance can produce a large effect — something an elemental quality can never do. Because these powers are so bound up with form rather than matter, a small amount of material can do a great deal; an elemental power, being tied to matter, needs a lot of matter to do a lot. These are called hidden (hidden) properties, because their causes are hidden from us — human understanding can't fully trace them. That's why philosophers have learned most of what they know about them through long experience rather than reasoning it out. Food gets broken down in the stomach partly by heat, which we understand, but also by some hidden power we don't understand — it can't be heat alone, or digestion would happen better in a fire than in a stomach. So beyond the elemental qualities we recognize, things carry other powers built into them by nature, powers we marvel at and are often amazed by precisely because we rarely or never see their like — as with the phoenix, the bird that renews itself, described in Ovid:
There is one bird that remakes and re-seeds itself — the Assyrians call it the phoenix. (verse, summarized — see flag)
And elsewhere:
All Egypt gathers eagerly for the spectacle, and the crowds greet the rare bird with celebration. (verse, summarized — see flag)
The creature called Martes once amazed both Greeks and Romans: supposedly it kept a wild animal that devoured itself[†]. Even today people still anxiously debate what this ancient Martes-beast actually was. And who wouldn't marvel at fish dug up fossilized from the ground, which Aristotle, Theophrastus, and the historian Polybius all wrote about? Or the singing stones Pausanias describes? All of these are the work of hidden powers. The ostrich cooks and digests cold, extremely hard iron into food for its body, its stomach able to handle even red-hot iron without harm. The little remora fish reins in the force of the wind and tames the sea's fury so completely that no matter how violently a storm rages, even with countless sails spread to catch the wind, it can stop a ship dead by touch alone, holding it fast so it can't move at all. Salamanders and the little fire-dwelling creatures called pyraustae live inside flame, and though they sometimes look like they're burning, they're unharmed. The same goes for a certain bitumen said to have coated the Amazons' weapons, which neither iron nor fire can dissolve — the same substance, legend says, coated the bronze Caspian Gates built by Alexander the Great, and the same kind of bitumen reportedly held Noah's ark together, an ark that has lasted, we're told, for thousands of years on the mountains of Armenia.
There are many other such wonders, barely believable, yet known through direct experience — like what antiquity reports about the Satyrs, creatures half-human, half-beast in form, yet capable of speech and reason. Saint Jerome himself reports that one once spoke to the blessed hermit Anthony, renouncing the pagan error of worshipping such creatures and asking that the one God be prayed to on its behalf; Jerome also says one of these creatures was once brought alive into public view and afterward sent on to the emperor Constantine.
Editorial flags — draft status
- verse: Two short Ovid quotations (phoenix passage, Metamorphoses bk. XV) given prose-summarized per spec; latin field retains repaired-but-unreconstructed verse lines.
- uncertain: 'Martes' beast and the sentence describing it ('quae ipsa semet vorarer') is obscure both in OCR condition and in classical reference; translated conservatively, flagged rather than confidently identified with a known creature.
- lacuna: Verb form 'vorarer' in the Martes-beast sentence does not parse cleanly; marked [†] at that point in latin/close/modern.