Beginning of the treatise on water.

Man is said by the ancients to be a lesser world,1 and to be sure, the use of this name is well employed, since, insofar as man is composed of earth, water, air, and fire, this body of the earth is his likeness. If man has bones as the support and framework for his flesh, the world has stones2 that support the earth.  If man has a lake of blood within himself, where his lung grows and diminishes with his breathing, the body of the earth has its Ocean Sea,3 which also grows and diminishes every six hours, with the breathing of the world. If veins derive from this lake of blood, which branch throughout the human body, similarly,4 the Ocean Sea fills the body of the earth with infinite veins5 of water.  The body of the earth lacks sinews, which are not there,6 because sinews are made for the purpose of movement; and as the world is in perpetual stability, no movement occurs to it; and as no movement occurs to it, sinews are not necessary for it.  But in all other things, they are very similar.

On the veins7 of water on mountain tops.

It is clearly apparent that the whole8 surface of the Ocean is of an equal distance from the center of the earth, when there are no tempests9, and that the tops of the mountains10 are as much farther away from this center11 as they rise above the surface of this sea.  Therefore, if the body of the earth were not similar to that of man, it would be impossible for the water of the sea, which is so much lower than the mountains, to be able to rise naturally to the tops of these mountains.  So it ought to be believed that the cause that keeps the blood at the top of a man's head is the same one that keeps water at the tops of mountains.

On the heat in the world.12

Where there is life, there13 is heat; and where there is vital heat, there are movements of humors.14  This is proved, since it is seen, by effect, that the heat from the element of fire always draws moist vapors, dense fogs, and thick15 clouds to itself, which rise from the seas and other marshes,16 rivers, and wet valleys.  And as these draw, little by little, up to the cold region, that first part stops, because the hot and humid is not suited to the cold and dry.  So, once the first part has stopped, it orders the other parts there,17 and thus, part joining with part, it becomes thick, dark clouds.  And often these are moved18 and carried by winds from one region to another, where, because of their density, they make such a thick heaviness that they fall in dense rain.  And if the heat from the sun is added to the power of the element of fire, the clouds are drawn higher and find more cold, so that they freeze and tempestuous hail is caused.  Now, that same heat that holds such a great weight of water, as is seen raining from the clouds, wrests19 the waters from down at the bases of the mountains on upward, and it leads them into and holds them20 at the tops of the mountains, where, finding various fissures, they continue.  These waters cause rivers when they flow out.21