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Benedictus FIGULUS
A Golden and Blessed Casket of Nature’s Marvels
Concerning The Blessed Mystery of the Philosopher’s Stone,
Containing the Revelation of the Most Illuminated Egyptian King and
Philosopher, Hermes Trismegistus,
Translated by our German Hermes, the Noble Beloved Monarch and Philosopher
Trismegistus, A. Ph. Theophrastus Paracelsica,
With an Excellent Explanation by the Noble and Learned Philosopher,
Alexander von Suchten, M.D.;
Together with
Certain hitherto Unpublished Treatises,
By this Author,
And Also Other Corollaries of the Same Matter,
As Specified in the Preface.
Now Published for the Use and benefit of all Sons of the Doctrine of
Hermes,
By Benedictus Figulus, of Utenhofen.
Contents
1. An Epigram concerning the Philosopher’s Stone, by Alexander de S., to Gulielmus Blaucus.
2. Prolocutory Dedicatory Address.
4. Concerning the True Medicine of the Most Distinguished Man, Alexander von Suchten.
7. Extracts from the Book of the Three Faculties, by Alexander von Suchten.
10. Certain Notable Facts Concerning the Philosopher’s Stone.
11. The Four Degrees in the Regimen of Fire.
14. Philosophical Rules or Canons Concerning the Philosopher’s Stone.
15. An Anonymous Treatise Concerning the Philosopher’s Stone
16. A Short Admonition to the Reader.
17. Certain Verses of an Unknown Writer Concerning the Great Work of the Tincture.
18. Enigmas Concerning the Tincture.
19. Short Admonition to the True Hearted Reader and Son of the Doctrine.
20. Concerning the Potable Gold of Theophrastus Paracelsus
An Epigram concerning the Philosopher’s Stone.
by
Alexander de S., to Guliemus Blancus.
We dissolve the living body with Apollo’s fire ---
So that what was before a Stone may become a Spirit.
From the inmost parts of this we extract Gold,
Which, with natal seed, cleanses impure ores from the dross of their
mother.
After we have separated the bones, these kindred we then wash with
water.
From them is born a Bird, arrayed in various colours, and, being made
white, it flies into the air.
So we with new fire paint its wings, and, being coloured, imbue them
with its milk:
As for the rest, we feed it with Blood,
Until, full grown, it may bear the fury of Mulciber (i.e., Vulcan-fire).
This Bird, O Gulielmus! The Thrice Great Hermes called his own,
And the whole world has not its like.
O Christ, graciously grant that this blessed long-desired bird be born
in our Garden!
To the Worshipful, Noble, etc., etc., Master Michael Daniel Pleickhard, Surnamed Poland, of the High and Reverend Cathedral Chapter at Strasburg, Councillor; And to the Honoured, Learned, etc., etc., Master Balthazar Keyben, I.V. Doctor, in Frankfort-on-the-Main; as also to the Honoured, Most Experienced, etc., etc., Master John Enoch Meyer, Master Builder of the City of Strasburg, and Steward of the Convent of St. Nicholas in Undis, in that Ilk; His Generous, Well-Beloved Masters and Beneficient Patrons.
Here Follows the Prolocutory, Dedicatory Speech.
Worshipful, Noble, etc., generous Masters and Patrons, when reviewing the whole course of my studies, from my youth up, I find ---- and have indeed hitherto found in my work, and clearly experienced more and more with the lapse of time, as daily experience shews is wont to happen to the true believer and right naturalist --- that there are three kinds of Philosophy or Wisdom, of which the world partly makes use, some more than others, some of this and others of that. Yet one of these Three alone is Eternal, Indestructible, and may stand before God Almighty (of which, however, but few students are found) because it proceeds and flows from above from the Father of Light. Now, the First is the Common Philosophy of Aristotle, of Plato, and of our own time, which is but a Cagastrian Philosophy, Speculation, and Phantasy, with which, even at the present day, all the Schools are filled, and by which they are befouled, and beloved youth thereby led astray. The same is inane, erroneous, empty chatter; and far removed from the foundation of Truth. Even at the present day it is blasphemously defended, tooth and nail, with all sorts of opinions, ideas, imaginations, and erroneous thoughts of the old heathen (who were held to be Sages), which were accepted as the Truth. For it is derived from an unpropitious Heaven and Stars, evil Influences, also Inspirations of Satan, and at that time was considered a great mystery and Sacred Thing, as it also is at this present by the great majority of learned me. But this is an erroneous, false, fatal, misleading sophistry, which, like the body in the grave, is brought to naught but dust and ashes, and is the same against which the inspired Apostle Paul warns us in his Epistle: “Beware of vain Philosophy”, and “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit”.
This Philosophy, although, from my youth up, it was earnestly and diligently inculcated, and forced upon me, in the Schools (as unfortunately occurs to others at the present day), yet, by special interposition of the Holy Spirit, it became so suspected by me that I never would, nor could, torture my head, mind, and soul with it, nor persuade my heart that the same was a sacred thing, nor cleave unto it as others did; but, according to my childish judgment, let the matter rest there until, about the year 1587 or 1588, another philosophy came into my hands. At the same time I had, in my own mind, firmly resolved not to remain the least among my fellow scholars, but in due time to graduate in advance of all.
But it has pleased God otherwise in His Divine Providence, and all sorts of impediments on the part of my superiors hindered on the part of my superiors hindered the course of my studies, until at last, in 1587-88, the books and writings of Theophrastus, of Roger Bacon, and of M. Isaac the Hollander, fell into my hands; in which I, especially in medicine) for they wrote about the Universal Stone and Medicine), saw and found a better foundation, and yet understood it not at first. But I took such a liking to the subject that I resolved not to die, nor yet to take my ease, until I had obtained this Universal Stone and Blessed Heavenly Medicine. However, the poverty of my parents and the impossibility of obtaining the necessary funds (for at that time but few princes and nobles patronized this study) compelled me unwillingly to relinquish my plan, although I was so eager for it that, for many months, I could not sleep on account of it. At last, in 1590, I found myself plunged by the devil and his friends into great misery, misfortune, and sickness, out of which God mercifully helped me when my death would have been preferred to my recovery, and when, from reasons of poverty, I had been held to commerce against my will, by my relatives, suffering all manner of persecution, partly from the Anti-Christian mob, partly from false brethren, wife and friends, tortured, plagued and agitated, and thus thoroughly tried by the devil.
But having been rescued from the same by God’s fatherly care, I turned my attention for some years to poetry, whereunto, when I found that it was irksome to all, I said good bye; and, only three years ago, I returned to this true Philosophy, the Study of Medicine and the Theophrastic School --- for which God be praised --- and have publicly declared myself a disciple of Paracelsus. From this neither the devil nor the world, with is serpents and viper brood, shall, or can, ever turn me away.
The other philosophy can never teach us the “know thyself”, nor the foundation of Natural Revelation, in which some heathen philosophers, particularly Pythagoras, had progressed so far that they might with reason be preferred to many professed Christians of today. He especially from the stars and the creatures of this earth learnt more about Nature than our arrogant, boasting philosophers, who, at bottom, understanding nothing themselves, would fain teach others.
But this our Hermetic Philosophy, which comprises the true Astronomy, Alchemy, and magic, as also Cabala, etc., is an extremely ancient, true, Natural Science, derived from Adam, who, both before and after the Fall, had full knowledge of all things, and handed it down from father to son through the patriarchs and dear friends of God. After the Flood the general understanding and knowledge of this true natural philosophy became weakened in force and scattered in fragments in all directions; hence arose a subdividing of the whole into parts ---- and one has become an Astronomy, another a Magician, a third a Cabalist, a fourth an Alchemist, and especially did it afterwards flourish in Egypt. For instance, the smith, Abraham Tubalkain, past master in all kinds of brass and iron work, and also an excellent Astrologer and Arithmetician, brought these arts with him from Egypt into the Land of Canaan. And the great skill, wisdom, and knowledge in the above arts attained by the Egyptians was by them also communicated to other nations.
The Chaldeans, Hebrews, Persians, Egyptians, have also always possessed and cultivated this knowledge, together with Theology and instruction in Divine things. Thus, Moses was so informed by all good arts in the schools of the Egyptians that he became perfect in wisdom, and therefore was not in vain chosen by God to be the leader f the people of Israel.
Thus also Daniel, from his youth up, learnt and imbibed this art in the Schools of the Chaldeans, as his Prophecies, and his skill in all kinds of interpretation before King Nebuchadnezar and King Belshazar, clearly and wondrously testify. Such Philosophers and Magi were also the Three Wise Men from the East, who sought Christ Jesus from the Rising of the Sun, and found him in a manger at Bethlehem.
But subsequent to the origin of this Divine Magic and natural true Philosophy, namely, 27 years after the Flood --- about the year 1680, A.M. --- among the Chaldeans, Persians, and afterwards in Egypt, the idolatrous and superstitious Greeks, having heard of the same, their noblest and sagest men proceeded to Chaldea and Egypt, in order that they might learn such wisdom in their Schools. But they did not relish the teaching of God’s word from the Holy Bible and the Law of Moses, and, depending upon their reason and understanding, wished to be cleverer and wiser than God Himself, as is the wont of Lucifer and his disciples; for it always happens that where God builds a Church, the devil sets his chapel up beside it; as is also recorded in the New Testament, for when Christ, the greatest Spagyric Philosopher and Heavenly Sower, sowed His good seed, the Enemy immediately threw his tares and weeds upon it, which, alas, happens to this day. Therefore have they fallen away from the foundation and essence of all Natural Mysteries and hidden Arts, and have sought wisdom in the senseless, stupid, erroneous, and deceptive Star of Satan, with which they have obscured and diluted the truth. For their own pride and presumption have hindered, befooled, and plunged them into error. For, after having learnt a little from the Chaldeans and Egyptians, they became to puffed up and proud, depending more than was meet on their own understanding, that they began to criticize things with many false and vain inventions, and took themselves to ascribe them to a false philosophy, concocted in their own subtle brains, under the influence of that evil star; which false philosophy not only go the upper hand among the Greeks, but spread from them to the Latins, who, not less than the former, also wished to shew their own understanding immediately they had acquired a kittle knowledge, whence, instead of improving, increasing, or adorning, they have only made things worse.
Now, by these this so-called Philosophy has been disseminated throughout entire Europe. Almost all Academies and High Schools teach it, to the neglect of Moses and the Prophets , even of Christ Himself not only in Germany, but in almost all other nations. When anyone advances aught of the true Philosophy, grounded in the Word of God, but which is contrary to theirs, he is not only condemned, mocked, and laughed at, but is called an eccentric, a heretic, and haeresiarch --- as has happened to me at the hands of certain pseudo-Levites --- or is even persecuted. The old proverb remains true: “The world wished to be deceived”. Satan is a clever juggler, using many deceptions with which he leads astray all Christendom, shewing the way unto the eternal night of hell with his dark lantern, which they take to be a true guiding light. Let him who would be deceived continue in his present course; on a certain day he will find, with eternal lamentations, howling, and gnashing of teeth, how hot hell is.
But, generous Masters and Friends, if we would follow after the true Natural Philosophy, founded on the Light of Nature; if we would acquire the same as our Spagyric Philosophy, true Astronomy, and Magic, where and under whom we shall study this? Shall we seek the teachers and professors in the Universities? Verily, we shall not find it there, for they are the true enemies, mockers and persecutors of our Philosophy, and of all its adherents. “Art has no haters but the ignorant”. They would rather remain with the husks and chaff, which the wind strews hither and thither, than with the good nourishing grain, ye, and wheat from the great store-houses or treasury of the Eternal God and Bountiful Lord, which He gives and invites us to partake of Where then, I ask, shall we seek it, and in what school? Dear Masters and Friends, we neither can, nor should, nor must look for it elsewhere than in the Stars; there is the school from which everything is learned.
All Natural Art and Wisdom are given by the Stars to men, and we are the disciples of the Stars. The Constellations are our natural teachers. From the light of Nature we must learn as from our father from whom we are made and begotten. The Stars are our lawful instructors, for all understanding and Art come to us from them. God has so ordered it that the natural light is in the Stars, and in the same has He laid the treasure of men to b obtained from them. But what man learns from the stars in all temporal knowledge, reason, art; what also is of the light of Nature must be derived from the same source. In short, the firmament teaches us whatsoever pertains to things temporal. But that which pertains to the immortal soul, and to the godly conversation of the inner man, all that must be learned from God. For it concerns the Image of God, and it is the office of the Holy Spirit to instruct men in things eternal.
Now, there are two bodies in man, one formed from the elements, and the other from the stars. Through death the elementary body, with its spirit, is brought to the grave, and the ethereal body and spirit are consumed in their firmament. But the spirit of the Image foes to Him in whose image it is. Thus each one dies in that of which he is, and is buried in the same. Thus, also, does death divide from each other the three spirits of man. Therefore, the wise man is he who lives in the wisdom of the Lord, the same ruling over his planetary and elementary body. But, brethren, man should walk, as regards his earthly body, according to the law of Nature, as did the old heathen Sages; and, for the rest, in the Will of God and the Holy Spirit, and not set the mortal body with its wisdom above the Immortal Image (as almost all the world now des, with its fancied, spurious wisdom). Neither should he reject the Eternal Image for the animal body in his fancied wisdom, wherefore the Lord Jesus has not said in vain in His Gospel, concerning the tax penny.” “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s”. What did He mean to convey by that? Why this, that the body, according to the natural life, belongs to Caesar, and shall be subject to him as to its earthly head upon earth. But the soul belongs to God, and the same shall be given again to God, and shall make answer for its work. That is, he shall return Him His Image according to the spiritual life, as to his Heavenly Lord, from whom body and soul each separately come. Therefore he shall walk in His laws according to the Will of God, that he may return to God his Image, and the eternal fiery breath of life entrusted him, as it were, shall be given into Abraham’s bosom, and no be cast out from before His Face eternally into outermost darkness on account of godless, devilish life and conversation. Such was Christ’s meaning and object. Now, he who lives according to the Image of the Lord, overcomes the stars, and should with reason be considered a wise man, although by a blind and senseless world he may be held as a fool.
But to philosophize further concerning these things belongs not in this place to mortal philosophy, but to the Eternal, Immoral wisdom, which we have alluded to, which has Christ Jesus as its Founder, concerning whom we have the voice of the Father, saying: “Hear ye him”; so also His own voice calls to us (Matthew xi.): “Come unto Me all ye who are heavy laden… Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart”, etc. From Him must we derive the Heavenly and Eternal Philosophy in order that we may come to the Kingdom of Heaven. Of the above Philosophy we will, D.V., treat briefly elsewhere. But in this place we must consider somewhat more at length the Mortal and Natural Philosophy. For I am, and will remain to my grave, the fervent disciple and follower of the Natural and Mortal, and the Supernatural Heavenly Instruction, having totally repudiated the false, heathen wisdom which proceeds not from the true light and groundwork of Nature, since beside Christ and His Wisdom there is in the world only vanity of vanities. But to return to our intention of exploring Nature. Generous Masters and Friends, this cannot be done by sitting at the fireside nor by poring over philosophical tomes. No, if we would explore Nature in our Philosophy, and attain the desired successful results, we must tread the books of Nature with our feet. Writings are examined by means of letters, but Nature by going from land to land. In this way one finds occasionally pious and faithful Nicodemuses, Naturalists, Philosophers, Explorers of Nature, and Lovers of our Spagyric Philosophy (I speak not now of the knavish, vagabond, false Alchemists, on whose account I would not move a step). From such as these, in addition to one’s own observations, one can often obtain much useful knowledge. Hence each fresh country is a new leaf in the Book of Nature. Thus is our Codex Naturae sufficiently large and ample, the leaves of which must be turned over with our feet, and examined with the spirit of understanding, and, although we be called vagabonds and land loupers by the big wigged doctors and syrup boilers, that matters nothing to me. The disciple should not fare better than his master, and the same thing has happened to Theophrastus, our dear Preceptor and Monarch of Arts, also to Alex. von Suchten, Phaedro, and others. Therefore, on my journeys I regard but little what is made by men’s hands though others think much of it, but the works of God alone, these I regard, admire, and seek to explore. To find out their three principles, to separate the pure from the impure, and thereby, to the praise and glory of God, to benefit myself and my neighbors in body and soul, is my highest endeavor. For all created things are living letters and books in which can be deciphered the origin of man, in which also may be read what man is. Before al things, let everyone commend to himself the Nosce teipsum, that he may know himself, as Aristotle said to Alexander the Great: “Know thyself and thou shalt possess all things”; and Morienus: “Those who do in themselves hold all things, are in need of no other aid”.
Therefore also am I content with these three books, from which I may learn every wisdom.
The first is the great, full-meaning Book of Nature, written not with ink or stylus, but by the finger of God, wherein, lying open before our eyes, are inscribed and registered Heaven, Earth, and all creatures therein, through the sacred impress of the Three in One --- which volume is called Macrocosmus.
The second is the Small Book, which with all its leaves and pieces is taken from the larger work, and this is Man himself, for whose sake all that God has ever created is there; the same also is called Microcosmus. And man alone is the instrument of Natural Light, to fulfill and shew by arts and wisdom what God has ordered in the firmament. Also He has further ordered that man have a twofold magnet --- viz., one composed of three elements (his body), and hence also he attracts them to himself --- another of the stars, by which he attracts from the stars the Microcosmic tense. Therefore, the Reason of man has a magnet which attracts into itself the mind and thoughts of the Stars. From these, I say, yet another arises in the true believers, Magi, and Cabalists, and this third magnet is hidden in the image of God, in man’s soul. The same penetrates, through faith, to Him from whom it came, and seeks eternal wisdom from the Holy Ghost, promised by Christ to it. It must be well remembered that there are two souls in man, the Eternal and the Natural, that is, two lives. One is subject to death, the other resists death. Thus there also are two souls, the Eternal and the Natural --- the Natural soul is the starry body, and the starry body in the fleshly, and these two together form one man but two bodies.
There are also two heavens in man, the one is Luna Cerebrum, the Cagastrian heaven. But in the heart of man is the true Iliastic, Necrocosmic heaven. Yes, the heart of man itself is the true heaven of Immortal being, out of which the Soul has never yet come, which New Olympus and Heaven Christ Jesus has chosen for a dwelling in all true believers. The third Book is the Holy Bible, the Holy Writ of the Old and New Testaments, which explains to us the two preceding Books. The Divine Chronicles, inspired by the Holy Ghost, shew how the Great World was created for the Small World (Man), who in the great world is fed, nourished, and preserved by God the Father. The same, after the Fall, was by God’s Son delivered from everlasting punishment, who also has ben born again through water and the Spirit, is fed with the Heavenly Manna and Immortal Food of the new Creature, and is guided by the Holy Ghost to the knowledge of all truth.
Generous Masters and Friends, from these three Books we can, by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit, learn that which will profit us in body and soul for Time and Eternity, and avoid all heathenish deceitful books, of which the world is full.
But to return to our occult Hermetic Philosophy: Beloved Masters and Friends, we, with others, have to complain not a little that, although innumerable devilish philosophers have written about the Universal medicine and the Philosopher’s Stone, yet both Heathens and Christians have left us true writings, which godless Cacosophists and pseudo-sophists have, for the most part, either wholly kept back or altered.
Truly this is a trick of the devil, that his jugglery and lies, with which he for many centuries dazzled and befooled the world, may not be brought to light.
We have further to complain of those who mutilate and falsify the works of true seekers after natural Wisdom and Art, for I have clearly discovered defects, alterations, and foreign matter in the Triumphal Chariot of Fr. Basilius, and also in the writings of A. von Suchten and Theophrastus. More especially, dear Friends, have we to complain of the devilish cunning way in which the works of Theophrastus have hitherto been suppressed, only a few of which (and those to be reckoned the very worst) having appeared in print. For although they have been collected together from all countries in which Theophrastus has lived and traveled --- the books he has written in Astronomy, Philosophy, Chemistry, Cabala, and Theology, numbering some thousand volumes --- yet the same has only been done from avarice to get riches. For, having been trafficked in and sold for great sums, they have become scattered among the courts of princes and nobles, while Christendom at large, for whose use and benefit Theophrastus wrote, has no part in them. Particularly his theological works (because they annihilate the godless, and do not suit children of this world --- belly-servers, deceived by the devil), have hitherto been totally suppressed. For which devilish end Thurneyser, a true instrument of Satan, who with his lies and false Alchemy has cheated all the world, Electors and Princes, great and small, has (amongst others whom I will here spare) been made great us of.
But, at the Last Day, before the Judgment Seat of Christ, I, together with all true sons of the Doctrine, shall demand an account of them for having stolen, sold, divided, and shut Truth away in boxes, walls, and vaults, and behind locks and bolts. Now, these precious and revered writings were ordered by God in our latter times, through Theophrastus, for the use and weal of the whole of Christendom. As regards our dear, highly-favoured Monarch and Preceptor, Ph. Theophrastus, of blessed memory, we, for our part, will not suppress his Life, his well-merited praise, and his immortal fame, given him by God, the Angels, and the whole Firmament, but will heartily the whole Firmament, but will heartily defend his honour and teaching to the very end of our life. Therefore (D.V.), we shall shortly endeavor to promote the same in an especial manner by publishing, to begin with, his Cabalistic and Theological Books, for the weal and salvation of Christendom, in order that the three-headed Antichrist, or three unclean spirits in the Apocalypse, may be right well recognized and avoided by all. Being therefore resolved, with the aid of Christ, to publish as many of Theophrastus’ works as can be got together, I shall do so in the comforting assurance and hope of cordial assistance and support from all zealous, Christian lovers and followers of the true and Christian Philosophy, derived from our Heavenly Philosopher, Christ Jesus. Therefore, for the Honour and Glory of Christ, and for the long-suppressed Truth, and for the sake of this beloved and noble Philosophy, Magic, and Alchemy, as also for God’s sake, I call upon persons of high and low degree to assist me with such writings. For the same they shall be humbly and gratefully rewarded when we (D.V.) shortly reach our goal in Philosophy and Medicine. For then shall they learn and appreciate the truth of that which we and others have long sought for.
“What though adverse omens be scanned by a reprobate world! Yet the goddess will fully triumph at last.
“Sacred Truth is always enshrouded in darkness”.
Generous masters and friends, as regards the present little book, called by me The New Golden and Olympic Pandora, I have wished to publish the same (faithfully and without guile, jus as I have received it) for the benefit of disciples of the Spagyric Doctrine. It treats of the Philosopher’s Stone, and has never appeared in print before. And, seeing that your Worships have for many years been special patrons of Alchemy and the Spagyric Art, possessing no little information and understanding in the same, I have wished to publish this book under your noble patronage, humbly begging your noble patronage, humbly begging you to accept thereof as from a well-known, yet poor disciple of the Theophrastian and Immortal Christian Philosophy, and to defend me and this philosophical book against all slanderers, mockers, and persecutors of these beloved Arts, and to assist in promoting and confirming the truth in every way. For which protection and favour, I will, by God’s Grace and Blessing, faithfully testify my gratitude by word and deed.
Herewith commend I all and each of us to the Gracious Ward and Protection of God.
Done in our Scholarly Hermit’s Cell, near Hagenau, on the day after the Festival of the Birth of Jesus Christ, our Trismegistus Spagyrus, into this world, December 26th, 1607.
Your Worships’, etc., etc.,
Most Officious Servant,
Benedictus Figulus of Utenhofen, Fr. Poet; L.C. Theologian; Theosopher; Philosopher; Physician; Hermit, T.M.
Interpreted by Theophrastus Paracelsus,
Concerning
The Supreme Secret of the World.
Hermes, Plato, Aristotle, and the other philosophers, flourishing a different times, who have introduced the Arts, and more especially have explored the secrets of inferior Creation, all these have eagerly sought a means whereby man’s body might be preserved from decay and become endued with immortality. To them it was answered that there is nothing which might deliver the moral body from death; but that there is One Ting which may postpone decay, renew youth, and prolong short human life (as with the patriarchs). For death was laid as a punishment upon our first parents, Adam and Eve, and will never depart from all their descendants. Therefore, the above philosophers, and many others, have sought this One Thing with great labour, and have found that which preserves the human body from corruption, and prolong life, conducts itself, with respect to other elements, as it were like the Heavens; from which thy understood that the Heavens are a substance above the Four Elements. And just as the Heavens, with respect to the other elements, are held to be the fifth substance (for they are indestructible, stable, and suffer no foreign admixture), so also this One Thing (compared to the forces of our body) is an indestructible essence, drying up all the superfluities of our bodies, and has been philosophically called by the above-mentioned name. It is neither hot and dry like fire, nor cold and moist like water, nor warm and moist like air, nor dry and cold like earth. But it is a skillful, perfect equation of all the Elements, a right commingling of natural forces, a most particular union of spiritual virtues, an indissoluble uniting of body and soul. It is the purest and noblest substance of an indestructible body, which cannot be destroyed nor harmed by the Elements, and is produced by Art. With this Aristotle prepared an apple prolonging life by its scent, when he, 15 days before his death, could neither eat nor drink on account of old age. This spiritual Essence, or One Thing, was revealed from above to Adam, and was greatly desired by the Holy Fathers, this also Hermes and Aristotle called the Truth without Lies, the most sure of all things certain, the Secret of all Secrets. It is the Last and the Highest Thing to be sought under the Heavens, a wondrous closing and finish of philosophical work, by which are discovered the dews of Heaven and the fastnesses of Earth. What the mouth of man cannot utter is all found in this spirit. As Morienus says: “He who has this has all things, and wants no other aid. For in it are all temporal happiness, bodily health, and earthly fortune. It is the spirit of the fifth substance, a Fount of all Joys (beneath the rays of the moon), the Supporter of Heaven and Earth, the Mover of Sea and Wind, the Outpourer of Rain, upholding the strength of all things, an excellent spirit above Heavenly and other spirits, giving Health, Joy, Peace, Love; driving away Hatred and Sorrow, bringing in Joy, expelling all Evil, quickly healing all Diseases, destroying Poverty and Misery, leading to all good things, giving man his heart’s desire, bringing to the pious earthly honour and long life, but to the wicked who misuse it, Eternal Punishment”.
This is the Spirit of Truth, which the world cannot comprehend without the interposition of the Holy Ghost, or without the instruction of those who know it. The same is of a mysterious nature, wondrous strength, boundless power. The Saints, from the beginning of the world, have desired to behold its face. By Avicenna this Spirit is named the Soul of the World. For, as the Soul moves all the limbs of the Body, so also does this Spirit move all bodies. And as the Soul is in all the limbs of the Body, so also is this Spirit in all elementary created things. It is sought by many and found by few. It is beheld from afar and found near; for it exists in every thing, in every place, and at all times. It has the powers of all creatures; its action is sound in all elements, and the qualities of all things are therein, even in the highest perfection. By virtue of this essence did Adam and the Patriarchs preserve their health and live to an extreme age, some of them also flourishing in great riches.
When the philosophers had discovered it, with great diligence and labour, they straightway concealed it under a strange tongue, and in parables, lest the same should become known to the unworthy, and the pearls be cast before swine. For if everyone knew it, all work and industry would cease; man would desire nothing but this one thing, people would live wickedly, and the world would be ruined, seeing that they would provoke God by reason of their avarice and superfluity. For eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath the heart of man understood what Heaven hath naturally incorporated with this Spirit. Therefore I have briefly enumerated some of the qualities of this Spirit, to the Honour of God, that the pious may reverently praise Him in His gifts (which gif of God shall afterwards come to them), and I will herewith shew what powers and virtues it possesses in each thing, also its outward appearance, that it may be more readily recognized.
In its first state, it appears as an impure earthly body, full of imperfections. It then has an earthly nature, healing all sickness and wounds in the bowels of man, producing good and consuming proud flesh, expelling all stench, and healing generally, inwardly and outwardly.
In its second nature, it appears as a watery body, somewhat more beautiful than before, because (although still having its corruptions) its Virtue is greater. It is much nearer the Truth, and more effective in works. In this form it cures cold and hot fevers, and is a specific against poisons, which it drives from heart and lungs, healing the same when injured or wounded, purifying the blood, and, taken three times a day, is of great comfort in all diseases.
But in is third nature it appears as an aerial body, of an oily nature, almost freed from all imperfections, in which form it does many wondrous works, producing beauty and strength of body, and (a small quantity being taken in food) preventing melancholy and heating of the gall, increasing the quantity of the blood and seed, so that frequent bleeding becomes necessary. It expands the blood vessels, cures withered limbs, restores strength to the sight, in growing persons removes what is superfluous and makes good defects in the limbs.
In its fourth nature it appears in a fiery form (not quite freed from all imperfections, still somewhat watery a d not dried enough), wherein it has many virtues, making the old young and reviving those at the point of death. For if to such an one there is given, in wine, a barleycorn’s weight of this fire, so that it reach the stomach, it goes to his heart, renewing him at once, driving away all previous moisture and poison, and restoring the natural heat of the liver. Given in small doses to old people, it removes the diseases of age, giving the old young hearts and bodies. Hence it is called the elixir of Life.
In its fifth and last nature, it appears in a glorified and illuminated form, without defects, shining like gold and silver, wherein it possesses all previous powers and virtues in a higher and more wondrous degree. Here its natural works are taken for miracles. When applied to the roots of dead trees they revive, bringing forth leaves and fruit. A lamp, the oil of which is mingled with this spirit, continues to burn for ever without diminution. It converts crystals into the most precious stones of all colours, equal to those from the mines, and does man other incredible wonders which may not be revealed to the unworthy.
For it heals all dead and living bodies without other medicine. Here Christ is my witness that I lie not, for all heavenly influences are united and combined therein.
This essence also reveals all treasures in earth and sea, converts all metallic bodies into gold, and there is nothing like unto it under Heaven.
This spirit is the secret, hidden from the beginning, yet granted by God to a few holy men for the revealing of these riches to His Glory --- dwelling in fiery form in the air, and leading earth with itself to Heaven, while from is body there flow whole rivers of living water.
This spirit flies through the midst of the Heavens like a morning mist, leads its burning fire into the water, and has is shining realm in the heavens.
And although these writings may be regarded as false by the reader, yet to the initiated they are true and possible, when the hidden sense is properly understood. For God is wonderful in His works, ad His Wisdom is without end.
This spirit in its fiery form is called a Sandaraca, in the aerial a Kybrick, in the watery an Azoth, in the earthly Alcohoph and Aliocosoph. Hence they are deceived by these names who, seeking without instruction, think to find this Spirit of Life in things foreign to our Art. For although this spirit which we seek, on account of its qualities, is called by these names, yet the same is not in these bodies and cannot be in them. For a refined spirit cannot appear except in a body suitable to its nature. And, by however many names it be called, let no one imagine different spirits, for, say what one will, there is but one spirit working everywhere and in all things.
That is the spirit which, when setting incorporates the purity of Earth, and when brooding has embraced the Waters. This spirit is named Raphael, the Angel of God, the subtlest and purest, whom the others obey as their King.
This spiritual substance is neither heavenly nor hellish, but an airy, pure and hearty body, midway between the highest and lowest, without reason, but fruitful in works, and the most select and beautiful of all other heavenly things.
This work of God is far too deep for understanding, for it is the last, greatest and highest secret of nature. It is the Spirit of God, which in the beginning filled the earth and brooded over the waters, which the world cannot grasp without the gracious interposition of the Holy Spirit and instruction from those who know it, which also the whole world desires for its virtue, and which cannot be prized enough. For it reaches to the planets, raises the clouds, drives away mists, gives light to all things, turns everything into Sun and Moon, bestows all health and abundance of treasure, cleanses the leper, brightens the eyes, banishes sorrow, heals the sick, reveals all hidden treasure, and, generally, cures all diseases.
Through this spirit have the philosophers invented the Seven Liberal Arts, and gained thereby their riches. Through the same Moses made the golden vessels in the Ark, and King Solomon did many beautiful works to the honour of God. Therewith Moses built the Tabernacle, Noah the Ark, Solomon the Temple. By this Ezra restored the Law, and Miriam, Moses’ sister, was hospitable; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and other righteous men, have had lifelong abundance and riches; and all the saints possessing it have therewith praised God. Therefore is its acquisition very hard, more than that of gold and silver. For it is the best of all things, because, of all things mortal that man can desire in this world, nothing can compare with it, and in it alone is truth. Hence it is called the Stone and Spirit of Truth; in its works is no vanity, its praise cannot be sufficiently expressed. I am unable to speak enough of its virtues, because its good qualities and powers are beyond human thoughts, unutterable by the tongue of man, and in it are found the properties of all things. Yea, there is nothing deeper in Nature.
O unfathomable abyss of God’s Wisdom, which thus hath united and comprised in the virtue and power of this One Spirit the qualities of all existing bodies! O unspeakable honour and boundless joy granted to mortal man! For the destructible things of Nature are restored by virtue of the said Spirit.
O mystery of mysteries, most secret of all secret things, and healing and medicine of all things! Thou last discovery in earthly natures, last best gift to Patriarchs and Sages, greatly desired by the whole world! Oh, what a wondrous and laudable spirit is purity, in which stand all joy, riches, fruitfulness of life, and art of all arts, a power which to its initiates grants all material joys! O desirable knowledge, lovely above all things beneath the circle of the Moon, by which Nature is strengthened, and heart and limbs are renewed, beauty in its perfection preserved, and abundance ensured in all things pleasing to men! O thou spiritual substance, lovely above all things! O thou wondrous power, strengthening all the world! O thou invincible virtue, highest of all that is, although despised by the ignorant, yet held by the wise in great praise, hour and glory --- wakest the dead, expellest diseases, restorest the voice of the dying!
O thou treasure of treasures, mystery of mysteries, called by Avicenna “an unspeakable substance”, the purest and most perfect soul of the world, than which there is nothing more costly under Heaven, unfathomable in nature and power, wonderful in virtue and works, having no equal among creatures, possessing the virtues of all bodies under Heaven! For from it flow the water of life, the oil and honey of eternal healing, and thus hath it nourished them with honey and water from the rock. Therefore, saith Morienus: “He who hath it, the same hath all things”. Blessed art Thou, Lord God of our fathers, in that Thou hast given the prophets this knowledge and understanding, that they have hidden these things (lest they should be discovered by the blind, and those drowned in worldly godlessness) by which the wise and pious have praised Thee! For the discoverers of the mystery of this thing to the unworthy are breakers of the seal of Heavenly Revelation, thereby offending God’s Majesty, and bringing upon themselves many misfortunes and the punishments of God.
Therefore, I beg all Christians, possessing this knowledge, to communicate the same to nobody, except it be to one living in Godliness, of well-roved virtue, and praising God, Who has given such a treasure to man. For many seek, but few find it. Hence the impure and those living in vice are unworthy of it. Therefore is this Art to be shewn to all God-fearing persons, because it cannot be bought with a price. I testify before God that I lie not, although it appear impossible to fools, that no one has hitherto explored Nature so deeply.
The Almighty be praised for having created this Art and for revealing it to God-fearing men. Amen.
And thus is fulfilled this precious and excellent work, called the revealing of the occult spirit, in which lie hidden the secrets and mysteries of the world.
But this spirit is one genius, and Divine, wonderful, and lordly power. For it embraces the whole world, and overcomes the Elements and the fifth Substance.
To our Trismegistus Spagyrus, Jesus Christ, Be praise and glory immortal.
Amen.
Concerning the True Medicine of the Most Distinguished Man, Alexander von Suchten, Doctor of Medicine and Philosophy.
An Elegy to Charles of Salzburg.
The Song begun was left unfinished, for he, who was to all as the Sun’s light, perished.
The Knowledge of Medicine, by which Podilavius, Machaon, Apollo, and Hippocrates were famous, is not to be sought from Galenus, Avicenna, Mesnis, and other writers of this stamp, but from Magic; and he, who shall have rightly perceived the same, shall at length cure all diseases admitting of cure from death. But Magic has three Books:
Firstly, Theology; Secondly, Medicine; and Thirdly, Astronomy.
Whence the Magus knows and worships Trinity in Unity, and imparts the power he receives from God to suffering mortals. And those, be they Theologians, Astronomers, or Physicians, who shew not by their works what they profess with their mouths, are Caco-Magi and Pseudo-Prophets. By their fruits shall ye know them!
XVII. Positions by which it is clearly demonstrated what a Physician is, and what his Medicine, also by means of what remedies diseases are expelled from human bodies.
1. All diseases, whatever their nature, have their origin, or lie hidden in one of the principal members.
2. Diseases can only be expelled by the generation of good blood in the diseased member.
3. Good blood is generated by the nourishing of the sick member by means of digesting heat.
4. By sickness natural heat is impeded, whereby nourishment digests less.
5. Unless food be digested, blood is not generated.
6. Natural heat, by which everything is digested for sustaining and multiplication of individuals, is the heat of the Sun and Moon.
7. If the heat of the Sun and Moon existing in human bodies be impeded by any diseases, whereby it does is office less effectually, it is to be comforted with the heat of the Sun and Moon of the greater world, or with those things in which is the most potent virtue of Sun and Moon, applied by art.
8. The heat of the Sun and Moon of the greater world cannot comfort the heat of the Sun and Moon of the lesser world except it be conjoined with the same, i.e., be converted into a simple spirit, like the spirit of life, which is done by dissolving it in nutriment.
9. Nutriment, or that matter remaining in the stomach after the separation of superfluities, is a crude and undigested thing, convertible by natural heat into the substance of our bodies.
10. The heat of the Sun and Moon is extracted, by a wonderful and occult art, from those things through which matter is most simply generated by the great and good God, from the Spirit of the World, for the restoration and conservation of human nature. The same is entirely unknown to Galenus, Avicenna, and all the other physicians of our time, who seek medicines in apothecaries’ shops.
11. The spirit of the World and the spirit of our bodies are one and the same spirit. Therefore the heat of the Sun and Moon, generated from the food itself of this spirit, is a thing more decocted and digested, and consequently more perfect, and is called, by Plato Nature of the World, and by Pythagorus Philosophers’ Primal Mind, Divine Intellect, Image of Divine Intelligence, Visible Son of God; Orpheus, a most ancient theologian, calls it Jupiter; Dionysius, a disciple of St Paul, names it a Visible Image of God.
12. For that heat is a most perfect spiritual entity, the greatest among all God’s creatures, and the nutriment in the stomach is the imperfect, corporeal matter, undergoing transmutation.
13. Therefore we have here a task which, in some measure, has reference to both, viz., Solar and Spiritual Heat, and Material Nutriment, which medium is also called by philosophers the Fifth Essence.
14. The heat of Sun and Moon, Fifth Essence, and Nutriment, when thus mixed in our bodies, produces the purest blood in which is heavenly virtue, freeing us from all disease, which nothing else in the whole world can do. For there are in this compound the virtues of all celestial and terrestrial bodies, so that the whole world is present in one drop of this same medicine.
15. The Fifth Essence alone, by the aid of the physician, brings about durable health, which physician, however, is not Galena, nor Avicenna, nor Rhasis, nor Mesne, nor Serapio, but the same heat of Sun and Moon, the treasure of the wise, and inestimable glory of the whole world.
16. The Fifth Essence is neither known by apothecaries nor sold in their shops. Therefore, apothecaries prepared not medicines, but rather poisons, with which they corrupt the complexion of the human body.
17. The heat of Sun and Moon is not to be met with in the Schools of Bologna, Padua, Ferraria, Paris Louvain, or Wittenberg. Therefore, Doctors of Medicine graduating there are not physicians, but impostors and cheats, who, entering the temple of Apollo, not by the door but through the roof, occupy his seat, even as did the Scribes and Pharisees the seat of Moses.
Therefore, not without cause do those whose intellect is obscured by the precepts and traditions of fools, and are hence unwilling to follow the wise, knowing the secrets of Nature, and curing so-called incurable maladies by natural means, accuse them of having a devil. For if they owned that these cures had been effected by means of that Medical Science, the very threshold of which they have never crossed, then doubtless all men would know tem to be no physicians, but impostors and shedders of human blood.
Christ, Theologian, Astronomer, Physician.
To Christ alone be Glory.
Amen
A More Complete Exposition of this Medical Foundation for the Less Experienced Student.
Aristotle says that every form of every nature, animal, vegetable, and mineral, is produced by the power of matter, intrinsically, except the Human Soul, which, being of a different and higher nature than matter, is given, extrinsically, by the Prime Motor, God Himself. It is this thing concerning which, all theologians and physicians disputing, nevertheless mostly conclude the Soul of man to be not produced from a germ, but, as it were, to be inspired and poured into the foetus in its mother’s womb, by God the Author of all life.
But, since two different things cannot be mixed or joined into one, and the Soul being a certain Divine light and substance, emanating immortal from Divine springs, so produced, incorporeally, that it is dependent on the virtue of the Agent, no on the bosom of matter, the same is a primum mobile, and. As they say, spontaneous and self-moving: And, on the other hand, the Body is wholly earthly matter, having its origin in gross, rank. Elementary matter, mortal of itself, unfit for motion, and therefore far inferior to the Soul; wherefore it can never be united to the Soul, so different from itself, except through a third, a medium participating in the nature of each, a quasi-body and quasi-soul, by which the Soul may be added and joined to the Body.
But such medium they suppose to be the Spirit or Soul of the World, i.e., what we call Fifth Essence, because it consists not of the four elements, but is a certain fifth one, above and beside them. Such Spirit necessarily requires, as it were, a binding chain, whereby Celestial Souls may bestow on grosser bodies strength and wondrous gifts; as also God and Man cannot be united except through a Medium, our Savior Christ, participating in the two natures, Celestial and Terrestrial, Divine and Human. But this spirit is of the same form in the greater world as in the lesser, i.e., the human body, our spirit, which arises from the former, and is with it one and the same spirit.
For, as the forces of our soul are through the natural spirit applied to the members, so is the virtue of the World’s soul diffused through all things by the same spirit, or fifth essence. For the life and forces of all inferior species, which philosophers are wont to call souls or lives, are distributed by that ethereal or celestial spirit throughout all the elements, as it were, by the members, into the body of the Universal World, first by God Himself, then by intelligent beings, then by the stars, and lastly by the Sun, as it were the Heart of Heaven. And again, this Spirit being taken away, bodies return to that whence they came; and thus the Human Soul, according to the Platonic School, proceeding from Highest Heaven, from God Himself, is, by proper media, joined to our viler body. In that first descent, also, the soul is enfolded in the ethereal and ardent corpuscle which they call the ethereal vehicle of the Soul, while we name it the Spirit of the World and Fifth Essence. Through this medium, by command of God, Who is the Centre of the greater world, the Soul descends and is poured into the heart, which is the center of the lesser world i.e., the human body), and from thence is diffused through all the parts and members of its body, when, joining its vehicle (or chariot) to natural heat, through the spiritual heat born in the heart, the Soul is immersed in the blood, and by it equally diffused in the members. Thus it is patent how the Immortal Soul is enclosed in this viler body, viz., by means of the ethereal vehicle. But when the bonds between the Celestial Soul and natural vital spirit are loosened by disease, then the Soul, withdrawing from the members, flows back to the heart, the first receptacle of Soul and Life. From the heart, the Soul, leaving the vital natural spirit, flies away with its vehicle into the Heavens, when, being followed by guardian genii and demons, they lead it before the Judge. Then, according to the Sentence, God joyfully conducts the good souls to glory, but a raging demon snatches away the bad to punishment. And the Body returns to the earth whence it came. Thus man dies. Hence it is plain that the daily preserving of the Soul in the body --- that is, our life --- and the avoiding of diseases, and that the greatest dissolution of Soul and Body, called death, depend on the vehicle of the Soul, viz., the Celestial and our natural Spirit, and so the same has been by various authors called by different names. Some term it Spirit or Soul of the World, others Celestial Fire, others again Vital Spirit, Natural Heat, by which nothing else is denoted than that oft mentioned Spirit of things celestial and inferior, the gluten of Body and Soul. On examining the thing more fully, this is simply the heat and humour of Sun and Moon, for we know the administration of the Heavens and all bodies under the Heavens to be appointed to the Sun and Moon; the Sun is the Lord of al virtues of the elements; the Moon, by virtue of the Sun, the mistress of generation, of increase and decrease. Hence Albumansar says that life is poured into all things through the Moon and Sun; and therefore they are called by Orpheus the vivifying eyes of Heaven. Whence also the saying --- the Sun and man generate man; for the Sun sits as a King among the planets, in magnitude, beauty, and light excelling all, illuminating all, dispensing virtue to them as well as to inferior things, and abundantly bestowing light and life, not only in Heaven and the Air, but also in the earth and profoundest depths of the Abyss. Whatever good we possess is from the Sun whence Heraclitus deservedly calls it the Fount of Heavenly Light, and many of the Platonic School have located the World’s Soul principally therein, which Soul, filling the Sun’s whole globe, pours its rays (or spirit) everywhere, throughout all things, distributing Life, Sense, and Motion to the Universe itself. And as in animate beings the heart rules the whole body, so does the Sun rule and govern Heaven and Earth and all that in tem is. But the Moon, the Earth’s nearest neighbor, by the velocity of its monthly course, is joined to the Sun and other planets, and receiving their rays and influences as in an espousal, and, as it were, bringing forth, communicates to and shed upon its near neighbor, the earth, all life and motion.
From these two founts arises that mundane, natural, and vital spirit, permeating all entities, giving to all things life and consistence, binding, moving, and filling all things, Immense Renewer in Nature’s charge, through whom, as a mediator, every hidden property, every virtue, all life, are propagated in inferior bodies, in herbs, in metals, in stones, in things inanimate, so that, in the whole world, there is nothing wanting in a spark of this spirit. For it is in all things, penetrating through all; it is diffused in stones (being struck from the same by steel); it is in the water (which smokes in ditches); and in the earth (which heats springs and wells). It is in the depths of the sea (becoming warm when agitated by the wind), and in the air (which we often perceive to grow hot); also all animals and all things living are nourished by heat, and all sentient beings do live by reason of their latent heat. Whence Virgil says this inward principle nourishes heaven and earth, the sunlit plains, the glowing orb of the Moon, and the Tithonian Stars. The same is elsewhere called: That Vigour and Celestial Origin. Therefore this spirit, when whole and undiminished in our bodies, and not impeded by things extraneous, is our natural heat, by which everything is digested for the sustenance and multiplying of individuals.
For it digests man’s food, generating good blood in all his members. Now, with pure blood there is a strong, pure, and healthy vital spirit of the heart, and thus the whole body is healthy. But if, by some impediment, it does its office less fully, there arises bad decoction of nutriment, whence generation of impure blood. By this the heart’s vital spirit is weakened, whence arises old age and, at length, full extinction, consumption, and dissipation of that spirit, which is natural death. Therefore, to avoid this, the said spirit and natural heat, thus diminished, or impeded, must be increased and comforted that it may better and more strongly perform its functions. But as agents act not with inferiors but with equals, so also must this comforting take place through the spirit’s equal, viz., through the celestial heat of Sun and Moon and other planets, or with those things in which the virtue of Sun and Moon are most potent, abundant, and least bound up with matter. For these things act more quickly and effectually; they generate their like more promptly, and from them is more easily obtained that Spirit or Celestial Fire whose properties are heat, not consuming like the elementary, but fructifying all things; and light, bestowing life on all things. But the properties of elementary and inferior fire are burning, consuming all things, and filling them with barrenness and darkness. Therefore is the same excluded, as also all other inferior and elementary subjects. For all these things of natural composition, and not freed from grosser matter, are subject to corruption and transmutation. Now, medicines ought, all the more, to be durable and free from corruption, since they are to cure the human body from corruption; otherwise they would do more harm than good. I add that it would be vain to preserve the corruptible body by a putrid and corruptible thing, or to attempt to heal an infirm nature with a thing inform, or yet to fashion a thing by deformity. For the corruptible, inform, and weak added to its like increases the corruptibility and does not diminish it. Thus we see many, and even most, of the physicians of our time in vain attempt to heal, and secure immunity from disease, by means of the crass and corporeal compositions of their medicaments. But this speculation goes farther. For all diseases which are spiritual, not corporeal, also demand spiritual medicines. Therefore, to those wishing to preserve that vital spirit in the young (which is the humid and warm radical), to restore the lost powers in old men and to bring them back, as it were, to youth, and to educe to their highest perfection the powers of man’s life, I would say that such will do well to seek, no the Elemental, but that Celestial heat of the Sun and Moon, dwelling in a more incorruptible substance, under the Moon’s intermittent orb, and to make this similar to our heat or spirit; so that, prepared as medicine and sweet food, when taken into the mouth it may immediately penetrate the human frame, greatly holding to itself every fleshly thing, increasing, restoring, and nourishing the incorrupt virtue and spirit of life, digesting the crude and undigested, removing the superfluous, making natural water abound, and augmenting, comforting, and inflaming natural heat or fire.
The above will be the duty of the true physician and sane philosopher. For thus will he be able to preserve our body from corruption, to retard old age, retain florid youth in full vigour, and, if possible, to perpetuate it, at least to preserve it from death and destruction. But here we speak of natural death philosophically, which is only a natural consumption of moisture and heat, as is demonstrated by a lighted lamp; not theologically, of that fatal death and last end of Nature destined by God for each one, by which we are compelled not only to pay our debts, but also, by reason of our sins, to suffer punishment. For we know that, for his sins, man must once die, Job saying: “Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with Thee; Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass”, --- which text plainly sets forth that these bounds, once constituted by God, cannot be passed by human aid or skill; for which cause also Adam was driven forth from the paradise of Joy, lest, after the Fall, he should become equally as immortal as before by eating of the Tree of Life. Neither is it credible that, outside Paradise, God should have given Adam anything whereby he and his descendants might live for ever, when by the very expulsion he forthwith deprived Adam of access to the Tree of Life. Therefore no aid can be found, still less invented, beyond those last bounds set us by God. On the other hand, there is a remedy against many infirmities, and against the weakening of radical moisture and innate heat.
For Adam, created by God full of understanding and perfect knowledge of natural things, doubtless knew those which were capable of prolonging human life and securing immunity from disease. Doubtless he also taught the same to some of his descendants, and they again to others. Hence many of the fathers lived to the age of 700, 800, and more years; but some did not live so long, this secret not being revealed to all.
Therefore it is conceded that (on this side of that limit of death) there may be found something to restore our sick body. For just as man, through disease and other causes, often fails to reach to the appointed limit of life, so, on the other hand, by removing these impediments, he may prolong life to the very utmost limit set him.
But some may affirm that such a medicine cannot be found in the whole sphere of this nether world, because all things created, being either elements or composed and congenital with them, are therefore corruptible, and hence that this medicine and incorruptible root of life can nowhere be found. Those speaking thus learnedly, without having ever entered the Sanctuary of Nature, fail to consider there is in the elements something besides corruptible qualities. For the elements and their compounds, in addition to crass matter, are composed of a subtle substance, or intrinsic radical humidity, diffused through the elemental parts, simple and wholly incorruptible, long preserving the things themselves in vigor, and called the Spirit of the World, the one certain life, filling and fathoming all things, so that from the three genera of creatures, Intellectual, Celestial, and Corruptible, there is formed the one Machine of the whole world.
This Spirit by its virtue fecundates all subjects natural and artificial, pouring into them those hidden properties which we have been wont to call the Fifth Essence. We do not say that Medicine is quite as incorruptible as Heaven (or I could not in the stomach be converted into nutriment), but being generated from matter above all others and incorruptible with respect to them, and simply formed b y the separation therefrom of all corruptible elements, it could be kept, if necessary, 10,000 years.
For this cause skillful physicians advise us to use less incorruptible (indigestible?) food. This thing has the same bearing with respect to the four qualities of our Body as Heaven has with respect to the four elements. For Heaven is called by philosophers the Fifth Essence with respect to the four elements, because Heaven is in itself incorruptible, immutable, not receiving foreign impressions, unless acting on the elements by God’s command.
Thus the whole thing we seek is, in relation to the four qualities of our body, a Fifth Essence, incorruptible in itself, made by art. It is not hot and dry like fire, for it cools hot things, diminishing and expelling fevers; nor does it cool humid tings like water, for it burns, which is repugnant to the element water. Nor, again, does it moisten hot things, like air, for it corrupts not like air, which is easily decomposed, as we see in the generation of spiders and flies; nor is it cold and dry like the earth, for it sharpens and warms. But it supplies to each a contrary quality, like unto the incorruptible Heaven, which, according to necessity, furnishes the hot, cold, moist, or dry quality, and just as Supreme Heaven does not by itself alone preserve the world, but through the virtue of the Sun, Moon, and other Stars, so also does this our Heaven, or Fifth Essence, wish and deserve to be adorned by a splendid, wondrous, and occult Sun, from which it has incorruptibility, virtue and heat.
But this is the root of life, i.e., the Fifth Essence, created by the Almighty for the preservation of the four qualities of the human body, even as Heaven is for the preservation of the Universe. Therefore in this Fifth Essence and Spiritual Medicine, which is of Nature and the Heat of Heaven, and not of a mortal or corrupt quality, is indeed possible the Fount of Medicine, the preservation of life, the restoration of health, and in this may the cherished desire for the renewal of lost youth and serene health be found. For, briefly, in the whole world there is no better medicine than this. Even as in every genus there is something holding the first rank in that genus, so also this medicine, being prepared from the most efficacious and incorruptible matter under Heaven, viz., from the Soul and Spirit of the World, containing within itself the virtues of all things celestial and terrestrial, will hold first rank among medicines, and man, by using the same, together with other food, in moderation, may attain to the age of the Patriarchs. For of this composition, combining as it does the virtues of all things, there may truly be said that in one drop the whole world is present. It is this most famous medicine which philosophers have been wont to call their Stone, or Powder. This is its fount and fundament, and the Medicine whereby Aesculapius raised the dead. This is the herb by which Medea restored Jason to life. This is the secret substance brought from Colchis by the Argonauts under Jason with so much journeying and pains, and hence called the Golden Fleece; partly because this Science excels in virtue all others, as the Sun does the stars and gold the other metals; and partly because that Fleece was a Book written with golden letters (according to the testimony of Suidas, Historiographer of the Chemical and Medical Arts) and containing a full account of the preparation of the Medicine. For in that Book is the first material for the creation, restoration, and preservation of our most true Medicine.
Chemistry can be easily understood by the intelligent, and chemistry, i.e., altering metals, may properly be including in the teaching of the theory of the True Medicine aforesaid, both flowing from the same fount, namely, the World’s Soul, which, being as it were, the only life of things, and the author of generation, will contain within itself the seeds of all inferior natures.
In harmonious order it rules, vivifies, and fecundates. But, for younger disciples, it has pleased us to describe somewhat more fully the principles of chemistry, which each one may easily prove for himself. For, when he has considered the matter, he will perceive that God would be compelled, perpetually and each moment, to create new creatures, lest the species of all things in that beautiful house, the universal world, should perish entirely, had He not, when breathing the breath of life into man and all other beings, at the same time given them the command: “Increase and multiply in the earth”. By which breath and command He imparted unto them not only natural life, or a living soul, but also the power, which may be called the generative spirit, whereby every genus may preserve and perpetuate its race eternally. For everything which may generate is necessarily alive, as, on the other hand, that having life, unless prevented, will generate. Therefore, at the Creation the generative spirit began the order of continuous production which shall only cease with the world. Hence God commanded Noah to build so great an Ark that it might receive and save from destruction some of each species and both sexes, which, after the Deluge, should again propagate their kind.
And everyone attentively observing the universal world will doubtless perceive this perpetual order of generation everywhere, not only in these crass, inferior, elementated bodies, but also in the simple celestial bodies and in the elements themselves. Elements generate their own kind, as we are taught by the infallible rule of daily experience. A fire converts the matter it consumes into its own nature, viz., fire, thereby augmenting itself. Air does likewise, easily corrupting things and dissolving them into air like itself. Earth, foul and dissolved, becomes water; the latter through heat made gross and dense, becomes earth; but evaporated by heat, is changed into air, and this again, by overheating, into fire. Fire, when extinguished, returns to air, cooled air becomes water, and that again, by coagulation, earth. But the natural order of generation is more plainly perceived among inferior and composite bodies, which philosophers have divided into the three orders: Animals, Vegetables, Minerals. For these have their own seed, implanted by Nature herself, by which they manifestly and visibly produce similar fetuses, thus augmenting their kind by propagation, From horse, man, bull, are respectively generated horse, man, and bull. Likewise all vegetables, herbs, trees, shrubs, cast their own seeds on to the ground, which, in course of time, produce species similar to themselves. Indeed, the minerals and metals lying hid in the very center of the earth have also undergone the same changes, although their seed and generations are not visibly shown, as in the preceding orders --- for, by reason of the great mass of the earth concealing the hidden, contained seed, the same is by many believed neither to grow nor to generate.
But the attentive observer of Nature, it origin, increase, and incrementation, will certainly not dispute its possession of vital spirit and generative power, by which it not only originates and has nutriment, life, and consistence, but also must be admitted to possess the power of generating its kind. For everything increasing, originating, growing, and receiving nourishment has vegetative life, hence propagating power. And the reason of the generation of minerals being so patent to the eye as that of vegetables and animals, is the earth’s great and abundant fecundity, its vast mass, by which that spirit is restrained and impeded as in a prison and chains, by which it can less perform its functions and generate its kind. The same when freed by art from its terrestrial house and sepulcher, doubtless, like others, sharers of generative virtue, will be able to bring forth fruit by its seed, and thus metal will produce metal and gold generate gold.
From this it is manifest that the generation of metals, and especially of gold, is not only permitted by God, and possible to Nature, but also to human art. Consequently the Art of Chemistry is not fictitious, not detestable, not base, as today it is falsely called by many, but true, admirable, holy, and well proven. For by natural means seeding out the invisible, impalpable, generative spirit, elsewhere called the Seed of Metals, it so treats the same that it bears fruit similar to itself, etc. Therefore, many philosophers, moved by this argument, have sought that golden seed in gold itself; and having found what they wished, have cut out, or extracted, the same from a mass of gold. As it were, from the stones placed by Nature about it, which, being thus separated, and afterwards applied by them to anything of a similar nature --- i.e., any metal --- has immediately changed the same into gold and silver. Hence they have proved by experiment that gold can generate its like, but have thereby gained no lucre or emolument. For this spirit, or seed, of gold, when mixed with any of the other metals, can convert into gold only a quantity equal to the gold whence the seed was extracted, and not more. Hence the process was a tedious and most difficult one, requiring much time and a large outlay. That, therefore, this generation and manufacture of gold might be carried on more easily and abundantly, with less expense and yet more profit and utility, the Ancient Sages were compelled to relinquish common gold, and, with the spirit of which we in this place treat, viz., the generating spirit of all creatures, were forced to seek a method of making gold elsewhere; in respect of which they spared neither labour, nor time, nor expense, and a length arrived at one thing in which all their wishes were fulfilled, for they obtained a nature, or body, or certain compound, in which the metallic, gold-producing spirit was unlimited and unstraitened, not limited in quantity proportionate to the matter, but so intense, exuberant, possessing more of form (essence) than of matter, that , by artificial fire, it may be reduced to its greatest purity, and may be so treated, diffused, extended, and multiplied that, after completion, it is a thousand thousand times stronger than bodies naturally perfect, i.e., gold and silver. --- For the more form a thing has, the more entity, virtue, and operation it has. Those things in which the idea (which is the form) is least merged into the body, or matte, have the most potent virtues, because being the most formal (spiritual), they can with very little matter effect very much. This matter thus formed and taken possession of by all sons of this science, lest it should become known to the unworthy, and equally that it might be known by the worthy, we read of as described by the sages in divers enigmatical ways only to be understood by the initiated. The following are some of the principal circumlocutions designed indirectly to make known this great secret: What is the strongest creature in the whole world, the most conservative, most penetrative, most volatile, the most unalterable and fixed in fire? The thing that fire has not touched is accessible and known to all men, of much superfluity, to be found everywhere, and by all. It is a part of man, begets and is begotten by man, is heavy in weight, soft (or at least not hard) to the touch, not rough, sweet to the taste but of a sharp nature, sweet to the smell but at the same time having a fetid and sepulchral odour, pleasant to sight and hearing, yet of obtuse sound, not the less fire for being almost wholly earth, nor yet simply water, neither very acute nor obtuse but mediocre in quality, revealed by reflection, various in colour, white, black, and last red, most easily fusible, and also of metallic fusion, without much sound, in action animal, vegetable, and mineral. It is a thing which the earth produces and which descends from Heaven, both active and passive, masculine and feminine, consisting of Soul, Spirit, and Body.
It is the one subject of everything wonderful in Heaven and Earth, without which neither Alchemy, Medicine, nor Natural Magic can exhibit their complete aim. It is also the first and last, greatest of all creatures, by most commonly called red, or Adamic Earth. From these and similar attributes, or circumstances, and in no other way, may this matter be known and prepared by a proper, natural method, at length excelling in that naturally desired by all, and pursued by all with great eagerness, viz., daily and healthy life, without all infirmity, until natural death. And it will further afford gold, silver, pearls, gems, and such precious things, as well as all that is necessary to the hones sustenance of life, abundantly and affluently. Thus the object of Chemistry is identical with that of Medicine, the same Spirit, same Heat, same Quintessence, the same Soul, Medium of Nature, which permits one thing to be converted into another; finally there are the same uses, rewards, and emoluments for the disciples of either science who shall have known how to separate this Quintessence from its defilements and impurities, and to reduce it to pure simplicity. For he who shall have been able, from its impure and manifold elements, to convert it to purity and simplicity, discerning the nature, virtue and power of these elements in their number, degrees and order, without division of substance, the same is truly a Physician, natural Magus, and consummate Philosopher. For by the same heat of Sun and Moon, the same Spirit of the World, by which human bodies are healed from infirmities and accidents, he can restore imperfect or impure metals to True Health --- which is Conversion into Gold --- and his he will have thoroughly discovered the whole virtue of Nature’s occult operations, and will easily obtain a perfect knowledge and grasp of all natural and celestial secrets. On the other hand --- if ignorant of all these things --- he can attain to no knowledge of such wonderful agencies.
Hence it is plain that this art, and most secret of Nature’s secrets is in vain attempted and sought by those who daily join themselves to princes and magnates, and immediately attempt Hermes’ Stone, the Sacred Stone, Philosophers’ mercury, all kinds of furnaces and burnings, strong waters, King of Antimony, perpetual fire, and many more inept things of that sort, and, with this gullible art in their mouths, [promise whole mountains of gold; knowing, nevertheless, not a single word of Latin, and still less having tasted a single drop from Nature’s hidden founts. For unless one be instructed in the discipline of the great arts, he can become but little proficient therein. Wherefore the above has been collected from Natural, mathematical, and Supernatural Precepts, etc.
Here follows the Practice --- which, however, is wanting owing to
the sudden death of the Excellent author, A.V.S.
By
Alexander von Suchten
Doctor of Chemistry and Famous Philosopher.
Introducing Two Interlocutory Personages, viz., Alexander and Bernhardus.
Alexander: That is the cause of my departure. I therefore beg you to give me the good counsel you have already been asked for by me.
Bernhardus: Why do you, an old Physician and Chemist, allow yourself to be misled by the popular cry? Know you no the way of the world, that he who praises not himself has no consideration? The popular cry should not have moved you to leave wife and child at home, wandering about and seeking in other lands what you might perhaps have found sooner and better at home. For old acquaintance sake, I will no refuse you the desired counsel. For, as you say, we were good friends in Italy, at Padua, Ferraria, Bologna, and Rome, when seeking there what we did not find. But, before I speak further with you, tell me what god you have experienced and learned at Basel, Cologne, in Switzerland, on the Rhine, in Silesia, in the marches (Brandenburg), and in Denmark, where you were with the Paracelsian doctors?
Alexander: As I came to them, so I left them; what they told me I had already read in Paracelsus, where he speaks of Flowers of Antimony, of Matter of Pearls, of Juice of Coral, of the virtues of hellebore, of Potable Gold, and of the Quintessence. But I thought to hear from these learned persons what Paracelsus means by those names and terms. For I had long remarked that his Vitriol and Tartar were not sulphuric acid and common tartar; and so on with the other names. But I saw the good gentlemen still read it literally. Hence I did not learn from them the mysteries hidden by Paracelsus under the said names. Each one has his preparations, highly praised by himself; but I ask not for preparation, knowing that in the things prepared by them there are not the secrets sought by us. I have spent much time and labour over the substances they occupy themselves with, which they, as Chemists of the new School, hold in great honour. But I think nothing of all that, as they also will find out in time. Hence you can easily guess what I have learnt from them.
Berhardus: But I hear they do much with their Chemical medicines?
Alexander: Yes, as luck would have it, sometimes much, sometimes little; as also happens with us Galenian doctors, Parcelsus writes that Medicine is a certain art, which a physician must be as fully master of as a tanner of his trade. He says not it is easier to learn than the tanner’s trade. But such perfection have I found in none, and they all speak of different things and long labor. What shall I, then, think of these professors? I know you have earnestly occupied yourself with the secrets of medicine of the last 27 years, and I pray that you do not refuse your old true comrade what you, in that long period, have learn concerning these hidden matters.
Berhardus: Vitriol, Tartar, Coral, Pearls, Jewels, are not that upon which the medicine of Paraceslsus is built. For the first philosophers and inventors of medicine have spoken concerning weighty things in parables and other figures of speech Thus also Paracelsus, who, in his teaching, has invented some names, having received others from the Ancients --- excepting some in which Medicinal Virtues, but not perfections, are found. Marvel no that Paracelsian doctors take the similitude for truth.
Alexander: But I have left home to discover the same, yet have found no one to teach me. I well know there is something in Vitriol, also in Tartar, Antimony, Mercury, but find not in them what Paracelsus ascribes to them.
Bernhadus: Perhaps you know not the proper preparation of these substances.
Alexander: Bother the preparation! I see others do as little with their preparations as I with mine; therefore, there must be another reason for it.
Bernhardus: Have you read the chapter in Paracelsus concerning Dropsy? Therein you find the simples which may help to cure your brother of this complaint.
Alexander: Certainly, I have read it more than once, but what simples are there in it other than Mercurium Columbinum, Crocus, Sulphur, the Element of Fire, and Diaphoretic Gold? I would not put Mercury sublimated, precipitated, sublimated, etc., into my brother’s mouth, neither would I Sulphur; and when I apply Columbinum, or Gallinaceum, and other poultices, according to our custom, they are of no avail. What Element of Fire is I know not. I do know that Diaphoretic Gold, as Alchemists make it, with Mercury, acids, oil of salt, and with urine, is a poison – and tat the Diaphoretic Gold of Paracelsus mus be something else. Are Crocus and Sal Martis burnt iron, which us used by the doctor for restoring health?
Bernhardus: I plainly perceive that since you have taken a wife, are laden with domestic cares, and are practicing according to the Galenian method to keep a family, you have ceased to reflect on these matters.
Alexander: I must make shift with Galenian Medicine until I can get a better master. Nevertheless, I always am working and seeking the arcane, but I have hitherto had little success; why, I know not, for I am not wanting in diligence.
Bernhardus: I will tell you, God is a Searcher of all minds, and Medicine is in His hand: He grants it according to our heart. When we were at Padua I know you took the opinions of Galenus for Gospel, that you graduated in the same, and that you then went with some other doctors to Friaul, there to try the new medicine. But what happened to you and your comrades? You thought you had collected from your professors the golden fleece of medicine, --- no disease could resist you. Then you found that your fleece was nothing but asses’ figs, and the peasants who ate the same died, or were rippled and lamed. Do you remember what a quarrel you thereupon had with your preceptors? But what answer did you get? That you were only a young doctor; that Practice was not so easily learned; that you must exercise yourself therein, and go on killing people, and at last you would become a clever doctor. That is also the experience of others who get their medicine from the universities. Hence it is a Gift of God, and comes not from Padua, Paris, or Wittenberg. He Himself has created and compounded medicine, not Galenus, not Avicenna, not Paracelsus, but He alone, and from Hi we must learn the Truth --- not from this or that author. Each one has written according to the measure of Truth he has found. We may, therefore, take them for guides, but not for the way itself, as we did when spending our youth so uselessly at the High Schools. Since Galenus knew and described medicine, and his professors made a physician of thee, tell me, when thou seekest information from others, what does Paracelsus concern thee?
Alexander: Everyone knows that Paracelsus was a learned man who has written many clever things, but he invented not Medicine himself, having received it from Hippocrates and others. Therefore, God has bestowed upon him great understanding, whereby he has brought Medicine into a right order and one method, through which it has acquired a reputation no possessed by it before. Hence Galenus is so highly considered by the learned, and alone taught in the Schools. The reason for my having go into the Medicine of Paracelsus is this: I have long been a Chemist, seeking that which others seek, and yet I cannot attain it, but find in Paracelsus that, by Alchemistic preparation, medicine should be made to act. I have also in High Germany heard of incredible cures effected by Paracelsus --- as his Epitaph also testifies --- and, therefore wished to make use of my chemical studies in preparing medicaments, thinking to discover the secrets of medicine of I might not make gold and silver. For I cannot deny that, since we have mighty principles and authors of our medicine, and yet can do so little in dangerous sickness, we must be, for some cause, deficient in medicine.
Bernhardus: Yes, truly, a great deficiency. You write and chatter much, and when at the patient’s bedside, you cannot drive away a fever. You purge, anoint, and poultice in vain, putting hi off with fine words and dieting, until Nature herself overcomes the disease; then you have excellently shown your skill. But if he dies, killed by your quackery, the disease was incurable. What shall I say of other maladies ore serious than fevers? As you understand and treat the one, so you so the others. Tell me, on your conscience, can you, with your Galenian method, drive away a fever?
Alexander: I cannot do so with certainty. A doctor is but the minister of Nature, not her master.
Bernhardus: We know well that Nature herself is our medicine, and that she helps the sick person when the impediments are removed. With respect to these impediments we must assist Nature, but I have never seen one who could cure a fever, without fail, in a certain fixed time.
Alexander: I have known one, but cannot sufficiently wonder at the medicine.
Bernhardus: What think you is the cause that you Galenians cannot do so?
Alexander: That our theory has a false foundation I cannot assert, but must confess that the result does not correspond with the principles.
Bernhardus: Were the principles good, the result also could not fail to be so. But your principles were invented by phantastic, unlearned scatterbrains, who knew not Nature.
Alexander: You must not thus despise the famous and praiseworthy doctors; they are, after all, very learned men.
Bernhardus: I despise no one, but it is my duty to rescue the Truth. As the Greeks say: I am a friend of Socrates and Plato, but still more so of Truth. If Nature have not taught their principles, they are learned but with their own sort.
Alexander: Not only with their own sort, but at the courts of Emperors, Kings, and Princes, and with many honest men.
Bernhardus: Your citing mighty Potentates only shews they know nothing about Medicine; if they did, you would soon have other news.
Alexander: High Potentates of Christendom have other things to do; hence they have learned person to serve and help them.
Bernhardus: Yes, certainly help them --- from this life into the next. I could tell you something about Princes, did I not wish to spare the heads of those who have driven them from one illness into another, and, at last, even killed them. I myself have been present when a young prince was sick, and not knowing what to do, one of them said: Let us proceed according to the method and we shall be excused. How like you this advice? Your method must be right, should every prince give up the ghost under it. What says Paracelsus of the physicians of the Emperor and great lords? Does he not declare that they know less than peasants, rather helping their princes to death than to life, and that, having such physicians, it is impossible for them to reach old age? Have you never heard a prince lament: This multitude of physicians has destroyed me? Also, what said the Emperor Adrian when about to die? The concourse of physicians frequently changes the Emperor! But what sort of doctors were these? Just the same who the Burgomaster of Rome drove away and forbade the city. The truth about medicine was not discovered at that time, when the phantasy concerning humours was believed in.
Alexander: From the beginning of the world this Medicine has been held in high honour; that it should now be brought into contempt and replaced by another is difficult to believe.
Bernhardus: Adam, our first father, who had knowledge of all arts, also received that of Medicine from God, and it was kept secret by the learned (as the great gift of God) until Noah’s time. When God destroyed the world by the Flood, the art of Medicine, with many other controlled arts, was lost. No one remained who knew them except Noah, called by some Hermogenes, or Hermes, to whom Antiquity ascribes the knowledge of all things celestial and terrestrial. The same Noah, before his death, described Medicine, skillfully concealing it among another matter. After his death this knowledge returned to God, and thus, through the Flood and Noah’s death, was taken away from the Human Race.
Alexander: Who can believe God to have been so ungracious to man as to have taken from him this knowledge of Medicine?
Bernhardus: Tell me, does God think more of our Souls’ salvation than that of our mortal bodies?
Alexander: Doubtless most of that of our Souls.
Bernhardus: Why, then, has he concealed Salvation during the 5000 years before Christ was made man? When Christ was revealed to the world, then men heard the news of their Salvation, and there fell to the ground hundreds of idols, raised by men according to their own imaginations, although they knew not what was their souls’ salvation. For the notion of the Deity is naturally innate in man, which is even a better idea than knowledge; by which is incited the natural desire of good, reasoning, and judgment. Thus do idols spring from the imagination of men. And, forasmuch as human reason, the origin of philosophy, of which Erastus and writers of his stamp boast much in our time, need not necessarily be without deceit and guile, it has always fallen short of the truth until God assumed human reason through the mind, and His Word became flesh and man. It s not possible for our Reason --- although mind --- to grasp the Truth, until our intellect has been lighted by God’s Word, and Reason receives Divine Illumination through the mind, which then took place when the Word became flesh and dwelt in us. Before that time Theology was man’s vain suppositions (I speak not of the few enlightened by God through the Holy Ghost before the incarnate Word), and he understands not his soul’s salvation. If God has concealed the same from humanity for 5000 years, is it incredible that he should withhold the body’s salvation --- i.e., Medicine --- for 4000 years?
Alexander: If Medicine, as you say, has only appeared in our own time, whence comes the medicine which has been practiced during the last 4000 years?
Bernhardus: Whence came the idols which, before Christ, were in Europe, Africa, and Asia? Our human reason has speculated them out, and thus also has it happened with Medicine. After Noah’s time, men, harassed by diseases, sought refuge, one in herbs, another in animals, a third in stones and metals, and thus one thing after another was tried, without full knowledge of the same, which had some appearance of virtue. But there was as yet no doctor. The sick were carried to some public place, those who had had similar complaints shewing them the remedies used by themselves, which the patients tried on chance. Such was Medicine until the time of Apollo, i.e., 1915 B.C. This Apollo was a clever and learned man, and carefully noting those things which proved efficacious in diseases, he began to visit the sick, and thus became a public physician, to whom, after his death, a temple was erected and divine honours were paid. In such honour was medicine then held which today begs its bread. Aesculapius succeeding his father, also treated the sick with skill and knowledge inherited from his father, and to him there was a temple erected, as to a god. After his death the kings commanded that all medical discoveries and observations should be written down and publicly exhibited on the walls of the Temple of Aesculapius. 457 years after came Hippocrates Cous, who was commanded to arrange the experiments in the Temple of Aesculapius, which he did; and, from these experiments, first invented methodical Medicine. Hence from him Medicine, as now taught in the schools, derives its origin. When Empirical Medicine thus came into great honour in Greece, many physicians arose, as Diocles, Chrysippus, Coristinus, Anaxagorus, Erostratus. 500 years after Hippocrates came Galenus, a plausible man who described the Hippocratic Medicine, painting it in beautiful colours, inventing causes and symptoms of diseases, ascribing virtues to herbs, and teaching the cure of feverish illnesses by cold, that of cold ones by heat. Thus did Human Speculation, from experiments, deduce the Science of medicine --- yet, at bottom, it was no Science, but mere opinions, accepted as Truth itself. But God, who is not always wrath with man, has, in our own time, chosen Philip Theophrastus Bombast, of Hohenheim, to rekindle the light of Medical Science, and to expose the deceit practiced in his day. Therefore, this Theophrastus is the True Monarch of Medicine, and will remain so until the end of time. Therefore, it behooves us to thank God and his chosen man, and not lightly reject or revile what we do not understand. This science is above human knowledge, a gift and miracle of God. He errs that would grasp the same with human understanding, for, without the Revelation of the Holy Ghost and Inspiration of God, no one will obtain it --- be he bachelor, master, or doctor.
Alexander: How can Paracelsus have rediscovered the true medicine, since he has written so many contradictory things about which his very disciples are not agreed? One says his Art is in Antimony, another in Mercury, Gold, Pearls, and Corals, or in Vitriol, Tartar, and many other poisonous things, that destroy men’s lives. I know princes and lords who are terrified at the very mention of Paracelsian doctors.
Bernhardus: Only those who do not understand the writings of Paracelsus call them contradictory. But Holy Writ also must suffer the same imputation; as, for instance, Sebastian Franck exclaimed with regard to it: But is it true? However, I cannot deny that much is attributed to Paracelsus which he has never written. So also he himself, in a Theological Treatise, confesses that in his youth, when seeking the first principles of Medicine, he had written things afterwards repudiated by himself, and doth warn us against the same, which (he says) had in time come to be accepted as true and perfect books. What you advance against his disciples is not the fault of Paracelsus. But what think you is the cause of their disagreement?
Alexander: I would hear it from you.
Bernhardus: You know that Christian Theology is one and united; whence come so many Sects among Christians in Europe?
Alexander: There have always been Sects in our Religion. I hold God permits this the better to prove the Righteous; but what has that to do with Medicine?
Bernhardus: The fact of there being so many heretics in our Religion is a sure sign and argument that the instigators of the Sects understand not theology. Thus also in Medicine --- the letter is the cause of all errors, yet no one will see that the letter is dead. What has Paracelsus written other than the letter, the right understanding of which comes from God? If it comes from ourselves, the medical heretics are there.
Alexander: Many laud Paracelsian Medicine. Who shall say which of these understand Paracelsus aright?
Bernhardus: What says Christ, when asked by what false prophets shall be known?
Alexander: “By their fruits shall ye know them”, Christ replied.
Bernhardus: Thus also shall a physician be discerned by his works, not words. By works Paracelsus proved that he had received Medicine from God, and was a physician born, whom also hypocrites hate.
Alexander: But what think you of the Medicine derived from the Experiments arranged and methodized by Hippocrates --- is it good for nothing?
Bernhardus: I say not so; they are to be praised who have made known to us herbs and natural simples. But philosophy is not necessary for the sick, as Serapion testifies. For the causes of serious diseases, as Apoplexy, Paralysis, Podagra, Dropsy, are all not natural but metaphysical, having their own Medicine as regards the fleshly body and vital parts, as heart, lungs, liver, etc., and for them Medicines enough are found --- but what is taught concerning the causes of disease is all mere opinion. Since Noah’s time no one has understood the causes of so-called incurable diseases, but Paracelsus alone.Therefore, to Hippocrates and Galen, but also to Paracelsus, let due praise be given according to the respective merits of each. With regard to the internal organization of man, Galenus was blind, as are also his disciples. Paracelsus has been the first Medicus Microcosmi (physician of man’s body). Hence, he rightly calls himself Monarchus Medicorum, at which title Erastus the Calumniator is like to burst.
Alexander: Paracelsus ascribes the cause of diseases to the Stars, administering such poisonous Medicines against these Stars that the Galenists doctors are aghast.
Bernhardus: The inner man is astral, hence he must have astral medicine. What Medicines have you in which there is not poison, of which people die who would otherwise live? Take, for instance, wine. Is that not a necessary and useful thing? And yet how great poison there is in it!
Alexander: Those who swill wine every day find no poison in it.
Bernhardus: They have to thank their strong constitution for that. When weakened they will soon find out whether there be poison in it. Know you not that the less poison there is, the less Medicine, and the stronger the poison, the stronger the Medicine. But you Galenians will not recognize poison, speaking of phlegma, melancholy, and cholera --- wherein is nonsense --- knowing not that the poison in medicine and food does everything.
Alexander: I have long noticed that the excrements of food and drink produce many diseases in us. Paracelsus has also written much concerning Tartar. But what the excrements in us are composed of, how they become a disease, what transmutes them into another substance, I know not, and cannot learn from his writings, much less understand the fabricator of the disease, the instrument with which it works, and the subject out of which it is made and multiplied.
Bernhardus: The true doctor must know more than of melancholy and cholera; with them the patient is not served. We thank God, are better acquainted with man, and with what constitutes his sickness and health. Therefore we may well laugh at Erastus, Bernhardus Dessenius, Croneburgius, Lucas Stengeleinus, and other pseudo-doctors like them. Did not Christian love, and the misery and need of the sick, so compel us, we had rather be silent than mention the true Medicine to such blind, stubborn persons.
Alexander: It is our duty to assist our neighbor where we can. Medicine, which, next to God, should be man’s refuge in sickness, is despised in our time. The peasants, observing that doctors understand it not, prefer to die than to entrust to them their bodies. Be not afraid because some rail at the truth. Help those who seek it. Let the choleric and melancholic dogs bark; they cannot harm you. Not everyone may understand the truth, yet it must be taught, should but one in a thousand receive it. Therefore, for our old friendship’s sake, I beg you to instruct me concerning the simples enumerated by Paracelsus in the chapter about Dropsy, what they are and where to be found. Also shew me how to get to the bottom of the matter, since Galenus knew the true cause of disease, and the Stars of Paracelsus are beyond me.
Bernhardus: Paracelsus prescribes three things for the cure of dropsy. The same cannot be explained in a few words. Natural Magic is extinct in our day, hence also its terms are not understood. I will tell you as much as necessary for this time. In order that the ignorance of doctors concerning the cause of dropsy may be plainly shown, let us examine the cure set up by Erastus in vol. iv of his Disputation against Paracelsus! You will then perceive the hideous labyrinth of doctors, and what a coarse fellow Erastus is, wholly ignorant of man’s creation and composition. Therefore, say on about what you would know; this afternoon I will devote to our colloquies; tomorrow I have other things to do. What says Paracelsus concerning the cure of dropsy?
Alexander: He divides the same into Diagnosis, Purgation, and Strengthening. The disease is to be resolved into water, without which it cannot be cured. But how shall the medicine resolve into water a disease consisting of water? I have myself seen more than a pailful of water taken from a dropsical patient. If the disease be water, what is to be digested?
Bernhardus: The water can and ought not to be digested, but that which is not yet water, and which clings to the nutriment of the blood. That is the excrement of food, called Tartar by Paracelsus. This Tartar is the disease to be resolved by digestion.
Alexander: How does this resolution take place?
Bernhardus: Through digestion.
Alexander: What is digestion?
Bernhardus: It is a medicinal power, separating Tartar from Nutriment, bad from good, disease from health. In this separation Tartar --- which is a mucilage or viscous matter --- melts into water. For Tartar in its first matter is nothing but water.
Alexander: In what form does this medical force act?
Bernhardus: Its action is like the Sun. Thus, Medicine is a Sun, and is called the Earthly Sun, or Sun of the Lower Firmament. That Tartar melts into water is well known to all experts in Natural Medicine, but when melted in water it still remains Tartar, even as salt cast into water remains salt. Hence as Astrum (Star) must be there
Alexander: What is an Astrum?
Bernhardus: That you will learn when we speak of medicines to be taken from the excrement.
Alexander: I understand that the Tartaric Phlegm is the matter of disease, and that this phlegm is an excrement of food. Does this matter proceed alone from food?
Bernhardus: No; also from the air, poisoned by the vapours of the Earth, Water, or Firmament, which in us becomes a Tartar.
Alexander: Does Tartar come from every, or from one particular, food?
Bernhardus: Herein lies not a little philosophy. The Humorists are not worthy to learn it. However, I will discover to you somewhat of this secret. The Tartar of Dropsy is the excrement of various foods, as bread, fruit, and all kinds of roots and herbs. This Tartar is, in its essence, cold.
Alexander: How should his Tartar be cold when we in preparing it see that it is nothing but water, and sharper, more burning, than salt?
Bernhardus: Every essence is water, and externally hot from the resolution of the elemental body; therefore this Tartar is cold fire. Now, these Tartars which come into us through meat and drink are divided into four genera. One kind is in the fruits of the earth; another in the food obtained from water, such as fish, etc. The third is in the flesh of animals and birds. The fourth is from the firmament. Each king has its place in the body which it possesses. Had philosophers rightly apprehended these excrements, Melancholy and Cholera had never been imported into Medicine. They were good, lazy fathers, judging things by external. It is not written on everyone’s forehead what in him is. Virtue must be sown ex radice centri, not by its superficies.
Alexander: Can one detect the kind of Tartar present in the patient, or must it be assumed?
Bernhardus: In Medicine what cannot be understood should not be assumed, for Medicine is subject to its works, as Theology is to Faith, which, however, must be confirmed by works.
Alexander: Where does one find the Tartar of Disease? Is it found in Urine?
Bernhardus: It is present in urine, but is imperceptible.
Alexander: Why?
Bernhardus: Urine there is not Tartar alone, but many other things in which Tartar is hidden.
Alexander: How is it detected in Urine?
Bernhardus: The art of separation distinguishes the parts from one another, viz., Fumus Salis (Smoke of Salt), called gore by Paracelsus; water from food; superfluous salt; Sulphur; finally we find Tartar in its four kinds. He who can distinguish them perceives of what kind the Tartarus Morbi is.
Alexander: I have never heard of this separation, nor do I know how it is done, but I admit that this art is most necessary to a physician.
Bernhardus: He who is unacquainted therewith will remain a Melancholic or Choleric doctor, for he cannot thoroughly understand the matter of the disease, and therefore it is impossible for him to know wherewith the “fabricator of diseases” plagues us, breaking the machine of the Lesser World (human body) and driving out life. Now, no one can deny that Galenus, Avicenna, and all other doctors writing before Paracelsus, knew nothing of this Tartar, and a clever physician of Heidelberg would be equally ignorant. It is a great impertinence to belittle a thing one does not understand. It is just as of a cobbler wished to teach a tailor his trade. I tell you tat he who can find and judge this Tartar in Urine is more worthy in Medicine than if the four volumes written by Erastus against Paracelsus had wiped his posterior extremities. I mention not other secrets far greater than this.
Alexander: You said just now that each genus of Tartar possesses a particular portion of the human body. In what part is the Tartar we are now speaking about?
Bernhardus: In the part subject to Venus and Mars.
Alexander: What and whence is this philosophy? I have never yet heard of this phantasy.
Berhardus: I believe you. Had you attended the School of Physic as long as that of Sophistry, you would not call it phantasy.
Alexander: How shall I understand this?
Bernhardus: Those are the places within us in which the spirits of the kidneys, mother, and gall rejoice and exult.
Alexander: The astronomers say dropsy comes from Saturn. What did you say about Venus and Mars?
Bernhardus: Although some astronomers subject dropsy to Mars, yet Saturn is the cause of disease when we come to the cause. I speak here not of the cause, but place.
Alexander: What is the place (locus)?
Bernhardus: Open your eyes and search in Astronomy, and you will find it --- also from the following description ---
Alexander: Before proceeding to the means of cure, tell me, are there other excrements in food and drink besides Tartar?
Bernhardus: Food and drink have three excrements, viz., (1) Water, (2) Salt or Tartar, (3) Sulphur.
Alexander: I understand the water. But what are Salt and Sulphur?
Bernhardus: Salt is the earth found in every creature. Sulphur is a solid, burning when cast into fire, and is the fire in wood, in fishes, in stones, in metals.
Alexander: According to Paracelsus, there is in a body not more than three substances, Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt. You say they are excrements. If there are but these three in food, what then is excrement?
Bernhardus: Now you ask me not a little thing. Rather tell me from Galenus what nutriment is.
Alexander: What should it be but the most subtle and purest (essence) in food, which “is assimilated to the body”, as Galenus says.
Bernhardus: A peasant, not a doctor, might put it so.
Alexander: One must speak according to one’s understanding.
Bernhardus: Behold, is it not lamentable that all the lot of you know not what becomes flesh and blood in us? Why speak you of diseases and their origin, not knowing the least thing in Physics? All your writing and chatter is nought but a plausible deceit; how long have you befooled us! Think you, the world will always remain blind? O excellent man, that have not yet learnt the alphabet of Medicine, not to speak of anything more! Shame on you for opening your reviling mouths against the beloved man through who God has restored to us the Science of Medicine! What would you say to a cobbler boasting that he could make the best shoes and never having seen the leather they are made of? Would you not rebuke him? What shall be said of you, writing great books and chattering in your lecture-rooms? It is easy to preach about colours to the blind. You have never seen Medicine, and know not whether it be black or blue. I speak here of the Science of Medicine, not of local remedies --- called by you specifics --- that is, of things good for stomach, liver, etc., etc., aperients and so forth. These are not the things that dignify the physician, and whence he has his name. But you have set your specifics in the place of Medicine, and adulterated them by your own compositions. Is it not true that the Sisters of Ulm restore more sick persons with their specifics, than you by your method?
Alexander: I know Princes of the Empire who have been treated and cured by Galenian doctors.
Berhardus: They use Simples as given by God. What the doctor and apothecary concoct often does more harm than good. But one dare not say so for fear of being called an idiot. Both are most honourable gentlemen who would fain blind these that see. Yet their wise Worships know not what is the nutriment in bread and wine. But, not knowing this, you also know not what are excrements, and what is the matter of many diseases. You see there must be something, you know no what, and therefore it must be Cholera, Melancholy, Phlegm, or Blood. Were you skilled in Physics, you would therein find --- not Cholera and Melancholy --- but excrements, comprised by Paracelsus under the name of Tartar. But, being ignorant of Tartar, you know not on what the Medicine must act, nor what that is which separates Tartar from Nutriment. Hence, as you will hear, the Resolution of Tartar is a mystery. I have thus described Tartar, what it is, into how many kinds divided --- to which certainly dropsy belongs --- that you may understand Paracelsus’s saying: Dropsy arises not from the element Water, but from the Earth.
Alexander: I have often wondered at that saying since the disease is dropsy. Now, I see that Tartar --- the disease in man --- proceeds from the products of the earth used as food by him. But I should have thought that our nature would remove the excrements and feces.
Bernhardus: That it does when well, but when infected, or impeded by outward accident, it cannot perform its office, and the excrements remain in the chyle. Hence in stomach and liver proceed stomach and liver complaints, in the kidneys diabetes, calculus, putrefactions, in the joints Podagra, Arthetica, etc.
Alexander: Is everything we eat and drink mingled with these excrements, i.e., Tartar?
Bernhardus: Everything. God has so ordered it that no food is free from this poison.
Alexander: Can the excrements be separated from food outside of man’s body?
Bernhardus: The grossest can be separated, viz., those falling out of the stomach into the intestines --- not the others. Hence also the juice of herbs should be extracted, the rest thrown away. Look at rectified spirits, how subtle they are, yet in them is still the Tartar which Nature alone separates. This Tartar, by reason of its subtlety, is most similar to Tartar of the Firmament, a strong kind, whence arise plague, pleurisy, and various fevers.
Alexander: Is the water in dropsical patients resolved Tartar?
Bernhardus: In a patient who has been tapped, and in whom the water reappears not, in that water is resolved. But where the water reappears in the patient, the Tartar remains in him.
Alexander: But what is the water?
Bernhardus: Our blood and flesh, and the nutriment of the food, together with its liquid excrement.
Alexander: How are these changed into water?
Bernhardus: Through water. Thus, in Tartar is (1) its own Elemental Water, (2), Astral Water which is the cause of disease. These two waters untie in Tartar, like male and female semen, producing a poison fatal to our flesh and blood.
Alexander: How is this fatal result produced?
Bernhardus: The Salt in flesh and blood being the medium of the other two, when the former is in health flesh and blood remain whole; on the separation of salt destruction begins. The same can be converted into all kinds of salts. According to the transmutation of the disease. Thus, in dropsy, the microcosmic salt is melted, by the above poisons, to water; now flesh and blood lose their being, and are changed into water, their primary matter. The Nutriment (which is not yet blood) is not water, but a viscous liquor, a medium between primary and final matter, i.e., between water and blood, or flesh, or whatever else was to become of the Nutriment. This medium is also resolved into water.
Alexander: How comes it that Nature resolves some Tartars, driving them out with the water, and others not?
Bernhardus: In the Tartar resolvable by Nature, the elemental poison alone does the mischief. This your laxatives and herbs may expel. Hence you may cure such dropsy. But when the elemental poison is united to the firmamental, then Nature’s laxatives have no power, and --- the water reappearing after tapping --- you call the disease incurable. Hence it is evident that you understand not medicine and the causes of diseases.
Alexander: I have seen some dropsical patients cured, and also many die. Now, I understand that elemental diseases are cured with elemental Medicines. But firmamental ones alone with firmamental remedies, of which we Galenists know nothing. I understand also what Paracelsus calls elemental disease. I would know something more concerning Tartar before we come to the Medicine for Tartar.
Berhardus: How can I treat of all the mysteries of Tartar in a single disease? Tartar is a wonderful creation of God’s --- in it is the mother of all creatures. The upper Heaven procreates from it wondrous things on earth, and the Astra Microcosmi (stars of the lesser world, i.e., human body), many diseases, of which I will now say nothing. Would that physicians knew Tartar --- not only its transmutations in food and drink --- but also what God has created from it in Nature! They would then behold great wonders, daily before our eyes but not recognized. Hence many despise Paracelsus’s writings through ignorance, not knowing Tartar more than the peasant who says Tartar is the crust in wine barrels. The time has come when this, and other, blindness must be exposed, to the praise of God and weal of the sick.
Alexander: In the future I will pay more attention to Tartar and its diseases. Tell me, now, how is it resolved and expelled?
Bernhardus: Paracelsus names two Medicines, an external and an internal one. The former is to digest, mature, and resolve the disease, expelling the inward, viscous Tartar.
Alexander: He says the Medicines to expel Tartar are dung, and come from dung, as: Columbinum and Gallinaceum; what these things are I know not, e.g., Rebis!
Bernhardus: The learned are wont, when treating of Nature’s secrets, to wrap up the truth in other matter. Here he gives the Medicine its right name, i.e., Rebis, adding Columbinum and Gallinaceum to mislead his enemies.
Alexander: I doubt whether external poultices are able to resolve Tartar, which lies so deep in the body.
Bernhardus: Poultices, liniments, etc., are not to be rejected; although they resolve not the Tartar, they promote the action of the medicine.
Alexander: Must Rebis be applied externally, like Gallinaceum and Colubinum?
Bernhardus: Know that man is divided into inner and outer man. Each has its Medicine, and, since the outer man is but dust and ashes, and of a like nature is the Materia Morbi which plagues us, so also must the Medicine consist of things similar to these --- called by Paracelsus stercora (filth). Not that the Medicine is filth, but it arises in filth, as the inner in the outer man; and, even as death divides the inner and outer man, so does art separate Medicine from filth.
Alexander: What is this dung from which the Medicine to cure Tartar is taken?
Bernhardus: You may learn this from Paracelsus who says: External and Internal Medicine are similar; both have a head; one helps the other. From these words it follows that Columbinum and Gallinaceum are not the external Medicine, for, how are they similar to Mercury? And how have they a head?
Alexander: I don’t know what he calls Mercury. Mercury is commonly called Quicksilver.
Bernhardus: Mercury is a general term; it exists in all creatures, and is water.
Alexander: Here he means metallic Mercury.
Bernhardus: Not at all, although it may appear so. That is not our Mercury which is found in Quicksilver and all other metals. The matter (primary) of Quicksilver and metals is water --- frozen water, like crystal. Thus, also, there is water in metals. A mineral, sulphureous, igneous Spirit pervades this water and transmutes it into a metal. Chemists call it a generating spirit, and say: Dry water and the generating spirit are Nature’s principles.
Alexander: I see I must have a better knowledge of metals to thoroughly understand this Mercury.
Bernhardus: Many, both Ancients and Moderns, have written about the metals. Read them.
Alexander: I have read them long ago. They differ. I fancy they have had but little experience. By reading and speculation Truth cannot be attained. Seeing and handling is necessary. You have seen and experienced a resolution of metals. Hence you can inform me correctly. Seeing is Believing! As the Proverb says: The ocular witness of one is better than the hearsay evidence of ten.
Bernhardus: I admit you cannot discover the truth about Tartar without knowing what Mercury is. But what shall I tell you about secrets which are said to be unfathomable?
Alexander: Let a thing be hidden ever so long, it must come to light at last.
Bernhardus: It is said: Time brings Roses. Time also reveals nature’s secrets. Time has given me knowledge which I will here impart to you. Basel, Cologne, Denmark, Silesia, and where else the great Paracelsian doctors dwell, wish to reveal nothing before the time. I like not these long prefaces. They affirm that our Autumn is not yet come, and therefore are our fruits sour. That is not bringing Paracelsian Medicine to light.
Alexander: I have heard many learned men say the same.
Bernhardus: Wherefore much talk and no instruction. Who would guess we had tasted a drop of Paracelsian Truth?
Alexander: I should think more highly of it, were the students first taught the right foundation on which Occult Medicine stands. But one chatters of Antimony, another of Gold, Pearls, Coral, etc. I know Antimony is a strong emetic and purgative, as also Hellebore. I know that Pearls comfort, as also Melissa, Crocus, etc. Here in dropsy Mercury cures, but so also does Coloquint. Although I am acquainted with this, yet my knowledge is no knowledge, since I am ignorant of the basis and cause. Hence those who are instructed should lecture and write concerning the foundation, that young doctors might understand Paracelsus’ books. If that be not done, the Paracelsian tree, which began to flourish Anno ’58, will bear no fruit for many years.
Bernhardus: You are right. Our opponents believe us to have no other foundation than what we know concerning the three principles, S., Sulphur, and Salt. But these learned gentlemen are so misled by their envy and hatred, that they judge of unknown matters as a blind man of colours. The lost art of Medicine --- recovered by Paracelsus --- had an externally sure foundation, against which the gates of Hell cannot prevail, let alone the trashy books which Erastus, with his blind, stubborn adherents, has vomited forth against God and the truth. The true principles will remain as we teach them, but it is untrue to say that they are our foundation. I well know this house stands on the earth, and the earth is its foundation. But what the earth stands on, and what its foundation is, every peasant does not know, also not Dr Fortyle at Heidelberg, although he be a good Dialectician and Rhetorician, and well read in Aristotle. He who is acquainted with the basis of our three principles, knows our foundation, not Galenus and his spawn, Erastus. Be not surprised that many followers of Paracelsus are ignorant of this foundation. Remember rather the text: “Many are called but few chosen”. Medicine comes not from seeing and hearing, or much reading, but from God, through inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is in God, and comes from Him. From Him we should speak and write, not from ink and paper, as many of our followers do.
Alexander: I have read in Paracelsus that many would adopt his practice, did he not beg them not to attempt this until after long experience.
Bernhardus: We wish to fly before the time, hence we must drown with Cato in the deep sea. What think you, who shall explain the mysteries of Paracelsus? Truly we consider ourselves great philosophers, and yet our knowledge is nothing but vanity. Hence the proverb: The world is ruled by opinions. The present time is not ripe for the knowledge of these mysteries, for it has never tasted rest. When the time cones --- before the Day of Judgment --- in which the secrets of all hearts are laid bare, at that time, says Paracelsus: I order my writings to be judged.
Alexander: I understand not this passage concerning rest. Be that as it may, I know neither doctor nor master is born so. All must be learnt. In this is labour and trouble until one has understood what one would learn. Then one has rest from learning.
Bernhardus: Happy is he who is at rest. He has conquered all labour and trouble. E now lives in knowledge; therein his heart abides, which in time was troubled and bound fast in woes. The physician must be at rest who expound Paracelsian to youth. Whether the doctor is at rest who spends much time in preparing Vitriol and Tartar, I leave to the judgment of every learned man. Our aim should be a very different one. Hence you must not take my speaking of these things in a manner beyond you comprehension amiss. What I know of these secrets I have acquired with great pains and labour.
Alexander: I would have instruction from your experience, not from this or that author. When we were young comrades in Italy you would be subject to no sect, but you said with Horace: “A stranger I, whithersoever the winds may bear me; No lord claims my allegiance”. Hence I would listen to your views, not those of Galenus or of any other contained in Books and Writings.
Bernhardus: It would not be easy to do without books, but what is contained and hidden in books can only be expounded by those who have penetrated into the hidden meaning and spirit of the same. We all know that our Christian New Testament has been written by men full of the Holy Ghost. But when men, possessing little of the Holy Spirit and much of their own, approach these mysteries, what harm and trouble they cause in the world! Thus also must happen, in or Faculty, to those who --- knowing how to prepare Oil of Mercury or Vitriol, etc. --- would meddle with the medicine of Paracelsus. Hence I would beg every reasonable man not to attempt to discover the mysteries of Medicine with such vain and mechanical work, but to reflect on the names of the mysteries, what Oil of Mercury, Juice of Coral, Resin of Gold, really mean, for they must not be taken literally. Behold the disciples of Galenus, how many thousand books they have made out of a single one of his! Were we to do so, the literature of Paracelsus would soon grow up.
Alexander: I believe Galenus is easier to understand than Paracelsus; hence easier to write a