It was noted that there was very little presence of quintessence within the terrestrial sphere. Quintessence (□) is the Latinate name of the fifth element used by medieval alchemists for a medium similar or identical to that thought to make up the heavenly bodies. The symbol for aether in the works of Torbern Bergman (ca. Fludd cites the 3rd-century view of Plotinus, concerning the aether as penetrative and non-material. Robert Fludd stated that the aether was "subtler than light". Medieval scholastic philosophers granted aether changes of density, in which the bodies of the planets were considered to be more dense than the medium which filled the rest of the universe. The idea of aethereal spheres moving with natural circular motion led to Aristotle's explanation of the observed orbits of stars and planets in perfectly circular motion. Aristotle also noted that celestial spheres made of aether held the stars and planets. Aether naturally moved in circles, and had no contrary, or unnatural, motion. Īether differed from the four terrestrial elements it was incapable of motion of quality or motion of quantity. With this addition the system of elements was extended to five and later commentators started referring to the new first one as the fifth and also called it aether, a word that Aristotle had not used. It was neither hot nor cold, neither wet nor dry. The first element however, located in the celestial regions and heavenly bodies, moved circularly and had none of the qualities the terrestrial classical elements had. He noted that the four terrestrial classical elements were subject to change and naturally moved linearly. However, in his Book On the Heavens he introduced a new "first" element to the system of the classical elements of Ionian philosophy. Aristotle, who had been Plato's student at the Academy, agreed on this point with his former mentor, emphasizing additionally that fire has sometimes been mistaken for aether. In Plato's Timaeus (58d) speaking about air, Plato mentions that "there is the most translucent kind which is called by the name of aether (αἰθήρ)" but otherwise he adopted the classical system of four elements. The innermost spheres are the terrestrial spheres, while the outer are made of aether and contain the celestial bodies.
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