ABSTRACT
Whatever the basic element of the world may be, among animals it is the humour, just as of course in the measurement of time it is the season. The humours do not possess a single identity or likeness: rather as regards their active and passive qualities, through which they both owe their existence and have constructed their origins in us, they differ from each other in many ways, and not least in their nomenclature. To begin at the beginning: the elements from which the world is made are air, fire, water and earth; the seasons from which the year is composed are spring, summer, winter and autumn; the humours from which animals and humans are composed are yellow bile, blood, phlegm and black bile.
