Fire is one of the four elements, light and with a greater tendency to ascend than the others. It has the power of burning and also of giving light, and it was made by the Creator on the first day. For the divine Scripture says, And God said, Let there be light, and there was light Gen. i. 3.. Fire is not a different thing from what light is, as some maintain. Others again hold that this fire of the universe is above the air Text, ὑπερ. Variant, ὑπο, but this does not agree with the view of the author or the ancients. and call it ether. In the beginning, then, that is to say on the first day, God created light, the ornament and glory of the whole visible creation. For take away light and all things remain in undistinguishable darkness, incapable of displaying their native beauty. And God called the light day, but the darkness He called night Gen. i. 5.. Further, darkness is not any essence, but an accident: for it is simply absence of light. The air, indeed, has not light in its essence Basil, Hom. 2, in Hexaëmeron.. It was, then, this very absence of light from the air that God called darkness: and it is not the essence of air that is darkness, but the absence of light which clearly is rather an accident than an essence. And, indeed, it was not night, but day, that was first named, so that day is first and after that comes night. Night, therefore, follows day. And from the beginning of day till the next day is one complete period of day and night. For the Scripture says, And the evening and the morning were one day Gen. i. 5..