Hermetic and Alchemical Writings (Coelum Philosophorum, Aurora of the Philosophers, Concerning the Nature of Things, ...)

The same signator marks the beak and talons of a bird with particular signs, so that every practised fowler can judge its age from these. The same signator marks the tongues of pigs with blisters, by which their impurity can be known. If the tongue is foul, so is the whole body. The same signator marks the clouds with different colours, whereby the tempests of the sky can be prognosticated. So also he signs the circle of the moon with distinct colours, each one of which has its own special interpretation. Redness generally indicates coming wind ; greenness or blackness, rain. The two mixed, wind with rain. At sea this is a sign which generally portends tempests and storms. Brightness and clear whiteness are a good sign, especially on the ocean. For the most part they presage quiet and serene weather. So far we have confined our remarks to natural signs. With regard to supernatural signs this is a matter of special science and experience, as Magical Astronomy and the like.* Now here it is most necessary to have certain knowledge. Hence proceed many arts, such as geomancy, pyromancy, hydromancy, chaomancy, and » Whatsoever Nature generates is formed according to the essence of the virtues, vi-hich is to be understood as follows : According to the soul, the property, and the nature of any man, the body is constituted. For this proverb is often quoted— the more distorted the more wicked.

Adam was originally created in such a manner that he was without inherent vice of body or soul ; but when he distinguished between good and evil. Nature then commenced to mark each person according to his constitution. Adam was well pleasing to God before he knew good and evil • but afterwards, God repented having made man. Man was therefore made subject to the rule of Nature, so that Nature treats him even as a flower of the field, which she marks, and so makes recognisable to all. Man also is marked like a flower of the field, so that one person can be discerned from another, after the same way that flowers and all growing things are distinguished each from each. And since there is nothing hidden in man but must be revealed, this must be made known by three diflerent methods-either by the signs of Nature, or the proper mark, or by the judgment of God. Omitting the two latter, I will speak of the first, that is to say, the signs which are exhibited by Nature. It is

necromancy, each of which has its own particular stars, and these stars sign in a supernatural manner.* The stars of geomancy sign or impress their marks on the terrestrial bodies of the whdle world in many and various ways. They change the earth, produce earthquakes and landslips, make hills and valleys, bring forth many new growths, produce gamahei on nude figures and images having remarkable powers and potencies, which they receive from the seven planets, just as the shield or target receives the pellet or the dart from a slinger. But to know how these signs and images of the gamahei may be distinguished one from the other, and what they signify in magic, requires great experience and knowledge of Nature, nor can it be in any way perfectly dealt with here. But this must be noticed, that every stone or gamaheus possesses only the power and properties of one planet, and so can be endowed only by that one planet. And though, indeed, two or more planets may be conjoined in earthly bodies, as in the higher firmament, nevertheless, one is oppressed by the other. For as one house cannot have two masters, but the one thrusts out the other, so is it here also. One remains master ; the other becomes a slave. Or as when one is keeping a house another comes upon him, thrusts him out by force, and makes himself master, arranging all things by his will and pleasure, while the other is reduced to slavery, so also one star expels the other, one planet the other, one ascendant the other, one influence another,

known to all that if a seed be cast into the earth and concealed therein, the latent nature of that seed, at the proper time, manifests it above the earth, and anyone may see clearly what manner of seed has lain in that place. It is the same with the heart if or) and seed of man : out of that seed Nature produces a body so that anyone can see what kind of heart has been there. And, although there be a great difference between herbs or trees and men, yet art in man sufficiently demonstrates and proves those things. We men in this world explore all things which lie hidden in the mountains by means of traces and external signs. For we investigate the properties of all herbs and stones by their signed sign {signnm signatum'). Similarly, nothing can lie hidden in man which is not outwardly marked on him, for, as the physician has his own knowledge, so, also, the astronomer explores from the signed (ex signato). So now there are three things by which the nature of man and of everything that grows is revealed : Chiromancy, which concerns the extremities, as, for example, the hands, the feet, the veins, the lines, and the wrinkles ; Physiognomy, which regards the constitution of the face and the parts belonging to the head ; Proportion, which considers the condition of the whole body. These three should be combined :

according to these three every created thing can be recognised : by the physician, that is to say, the remedy ; by the astronomer, that is, the man ; and by the metallurgist, that is, the metal. Such is the condition of the mother which manifests that which is latent in anything. He who is incapable of understanding these three things can be in no sense a natural philosopher, astronomer, or doctor, or know anything of the arcana and mysteries of Nature. The foundation is in this, that all things have seed, and in seed all things are contained, for Nature first fabricates the form, and afterwards she produces and manifests the essence of the thing. - ExpHcatio Totius Asironomiee.

* 'Hha Liber Pkilosophia,'m a treatise Dg Arte Presnga.r^^axAs, the varieties of sortilege discussed in this book from a totally different standpoint. The four arts of Geomancy, Hydromancy, Pyromancy, and Necromancy are thus noticed : Spirits which are (normally) unable to communicate visibly with men, have by lying arts invaded their imagination, and have raised up therein Geomancy, Pyromancy, Hydromancy, and Necromancy, arts not invented from the light of Nature or of men, but instilled by spirits, who, by their frauds, after they had descried some one or other discoverer suitable for their purposes, then added fitting disciples to these, namely, cultivators and admirers of the said arts. The first discoverers were obsessed by the devil, and sought out through his power and instigation arts of this kind. There are some, indeed, who, hiding the matter, affirm that they have been revealed from God ; but they are deceived, for God is not the author and teacher of inquiries into the future by means of such devices. He in no wise created us that we might devote ourselves to the investigation of what is to come, but ordered rather that, directing His attention to His commandments, we should seek out the knowledge of Himself and His manifest will. It is, therefore, afalse pretence that these arts proceed from God when they emanate from spirits alone. It is, indeed, true that the spirits extracted them from God, not from the devil.

But we on the earth derive them from spirits, not from God. Now, communication with such spirits is forbidden, though they themselves neglect the mandate. It is equally forbidden to the spirits to teach these arts, but here, also, they pay no attention to the command. And this is the reason why they are silent and tell lies when it is least becoming to do so. Thus, in order that man may act disobediently towards God, and plunge into superstitions, they have devised the four above-mentioned methods for inquiring into the future. Geomancy is the art of points, having sixteen signs and figures, which they have arranged according to their property. To these they added translations, creta (,sr'r\ form, points, and similar things, and have taught the erection of the whole figure, fixing certain rules by which each figure could be understood, each recognised in its own house, with a sufficient and necessarj' interpretation,

one impression another, and one element another. As water extinguishes fire, so one planet strikes out the property of the other and brings in its own. And so is it with their signs, which are manifold, and not only characters, as some think, but all those which are found in the entire map of the planets, that is, everything which is cognate with those planets or subject to them. To make myself more easily understood, let me add an example. To the planet Sol there belong the crown, the sceptre, the throne, all the royal power and majesty, all the domination, all the riches, treasures, ornaments, and paraphernalia of this world. To the planet Luna are subject all agriculture, navigation, travelling, and travellers, and everything concerned with matters of this kind. To the planet Mars are subject munitions (as they call them), all breastplates, cuirasses, spears, and all arms, with everything relating to war. To the planet Mercury are subjected all literary men, all mechanical instruments, and every requirement of art. To the planet Jupiter are subject all judgments and laws, the whole Levltical order, all ministers of the church, the decorations of temples, ornaments, and whatever else belongs to this class.

To the planet Venus are subject all things relating to music, musical instruments, amatory exercises, loves, debaucheries, etc. The method is as follows : They guide the hand and mark the points until a judgment is made concerning the proposed matter. But the spirits know exactly how many points are required to make a figure which will explain the matter. If their direction be right, the figure also is correct and valid. For example, suppose I ask who is standing at the door, and what kind of tunic does he wear? Take the seven colours, to each of which attribute a geomantic sign, and consult that figure. Then.whatever sign falls indicates the colour. Now, if I knew what colour it were, but you did not know, I might so direct your hand, forming certain points in one line that, by obliterating or wiping off, there would remain the colour red, and supposing the tunic itself v/as red, then you would reply rightly : It is a red tunic. But I knew that before, and directed your hand to those points. The spirits do likewise with all the figures ; and, since they know all things, it is easy for them to describe the figures and to guide your hand. Every rhombus is described by guiding the hand. In this manner Geomancy is constituted. Moreover, many superstitions are added thereto by men to augment it, as, for example, that it should be performed when the sky is clear and serene, or in the quiet and silence of night.

Also, that you should not operate for your own purposes. Again, that you should say such and such a prayer at the beginning, and commence under good auspices, etc All these are human superstitions : for, not knowing the foundation on which the art depends, they increase it, but it is as much an art as a superstition. Geomantia, as it was called at first, is so constituted that the ascendant is twofold — natural and of spirits. For the natural has its art, namely, Astronomy. The spirit has its Pyromancy. Accordingly, if a nativity be constituted out of the stars it is astronomically erected. If it be made according to spirits it is Pyromancj'. But Pyromancy consists in the spirit being connected with the ascendant, and it leads the infant for example, into whoredom, thefts, lies. And as the art comes forward and succeeds, the spirits suggest to astronomers that if a conjunction of this or that star takes place, say, this or that event will take place, not because Nature herself will accomplish such things, but I myself will see to it, and, being everywhere, will bring about such and such effects ; but as no one can trace my actions, they will be imputed to the stars or the elements. Hence it comes to pass that people pay more attention to the stars than to God. This is an astute feat of the devil. It is the spirits who cause the astronomical and other predictions to be fulfilled that the credit of the art may be sustained, so that men may be involved in errors and loss, while, intent on vain fantasies, they forget the true God.

Their devices are favoured by their dupes, for in the case of twenty prophecies, if only one be fulfilled they will never cease from inquiring until the other nineteen lies have been fulfilled also. Meanwhile, they are so deluded by the spirits themselves that they cannot arrive at the XxM^fiindamentum. For it is the property of spirits to lie. We have finished, then, with the foundation so far as they are concerned. Now one thing is wanting, now another ; now the fault lies with the house, now with the exaltation, etc. In this discipline men have laboured for many thousands of years, nor have yet discovered the truth, which, indeed, is impossible to find, as the whole foundation is on falsehood. We now see for what reason astronomy is called Pyromancy when the operation proceeds pyromantically. The same spirits make their way into the third element, that is, water. For Geomancy has been named from the earth, as if it arose from the nature of the earth. Nor without reason, for the earth also has its own heaven or stars ; but the spirits who are pyromantically recognised have devised them. Similarly, in the element of water there is a star wherein the pyromantic spirits dwell who have instituted Pyromancy, chiefly in the times of the Greeks, who, being easily led into all manner of delusions, promptly subjected themselves to the spirits. Pyromancy is an art consisting of signs and figures harmonising with the universal figure of the heaven. The process is as follows : Take a basin full of water which set down, and notice the direction of the wavy movements as the water quiets down. Notice, also, the tremor the rest

To the planet Saturn are subjected all those who work in and under the earth, as metallurgists, miners, sextons, well-diggers, with all the tools used by them. Pyromancy puts forth its signs by the stars of fire ; in common fire by sparks, flames, crackling, and so forth ; in mines by coruscations ; in the firmament by stars, comets, thunder and lightning, nostoch, and the like ; among spectres by salamanders, ethnic, and other similar spirits which appear in the form of fire. Hydromancy gives its signs by the stars of water, by waves, inundations, droughts, discolorations, lorindi, new floods, washing away of territory. In magic and necromancy by nymphs, visions, and supernatural monsters in the waters and the sea. Chaomancy exhibits its signs by the stars of the air and the wind, by discoloration, the loss and destruction of all tender and subtle things, to which the wind is opposed, by shaking off and stripping flowers, leaves, fronds, stalks. If the stars of chaomancy are excited the Necromicse fall down from the upper air, and frequently voices and answers are heard. Trees are plucked up from the earth by their roots, and houses are thrown down. Lemurs, Penates, Undines, and Sylvans are seen. So also Tereniobin, Tronosia, and Manna fall upon the trees.

Necromancy puts forth its signs by the stars of death, which we also call Evestra, marking the body of the sick and those about to die with red, livid, and purple spots, which are certain signs of death on the third day from their appearance. They also sign the hands and fingers of men with clay-coloured spots, which are sure signs of something, good or bad, about and the bubbles. These four give four figures, and the figures give twelve. Near the figures, rules and such things are found. Now, the spirit moves the bubbles, originates the shaking, the rest, the calm, according to the necessity of the sign, so that there may result a figure which indicates what is desired. Those, therefore, who have well-disposed spirits, to whom few things are forbidden, make good sorcerers in the art. On the other hand, a bad sorcerer has a mute and mendacious spirit. Among spirits one may be more mute and lying than another. When, therefore, one sorcerer is said to be more certain than another, it does not follow that he has greater skill, for he may possess a more reliable spirit. Now, the spirits delight by means of vexing and deluding men to cause them to hate one another, and this, indeed, is their first object. Were the foundation of this art more closely investigated by men, it would be seen that it was a hoax of the spirits.

Yet, even if men arrived at perfection in this art, what solid advantage would it confer on them but a futile prediction and a pretext for wasting time. Suppose I desire to marry, and consult'an'omen as to the result, even if I get an answer I shall be uncertain of its truth ; it is just as likely to speak falsely as truly. But i the prediction be fulfilled, it may be by the devil's arrangement. In any case, how will it help me ? If I escape this evil, it will take shape in another way. Consequently, no faith can be placed in these arts. In addition to the methods which have been already mentioned there is Necromancy, which is the art of the air. And although others define differently what is meant by Mecro^ this is genuine — that it is the art of shades, for shades only are in the air, and these things are known by the shades. . . . Some people, at night, see figures in the air, as in heaven sometimes figures appear which have a certain signification. This is Necromancy. Men appear walking in the air, the clash of arms is heard, etc. Wondrous shades are likewise occasionally visible in water. The cause of all these things is, that the spirits display what they wish according to their own pleasure. A part of their deception is to make men fancy that the spirits must be propitiated by prayers, or compelled by force and conjuration to produce prodigies.

Now, all these things are sheer superstition. It is also thought that men can compel spirits, through God, to do this or that ; but it is highly displeasing to God that we should be occupied with such triflings, and the spirits are rejoicing meanwhile that, in opposition to God, we have become their accomplices. The prayers, conjurations, fasts, and other ceremonies are nothing but a cloak to superstition. The pronunciation of various words is committed to memory, but these are not the real names of the spirits, and they are altogether unimportant. For although each spirit has his own peculiar name, yet they salute one another by diflferent names at different times, and so make game of men.^ Now, concerning the nature of shades, whatever is seen in a figure or image is to be considered such. He who is favoured by spirits sees many things, but otherwise, little or nothing. Did God permit it, these beings would be always in our midst, enticing us to desert God, and devote our mind to them. But if we carefully regard what they have performed during a given year we shall see that it has been mere trifling, devoid of use and profit, destructive to body and soul, health and property, praise and honour, in a word, disgraceful allurements, frauds, and devices, sprung from the root of lies itself. O

immediately to happen. When the stars of necromancy are moved, then the dead give forth miracles and signs, the deceased bleed, dead things are seen, voices are heard from graves, tumults and tremblings arise in the charnel-house, arjd the dead appear in the form and dress of the living, are seen in visions, mirrors, beryls, stones, and waters under different appearances. Evestrum and Tarames give signs by knocking, striking, pounding, falling, throwing, and so on, where only a disturbance or sound is heard, but nothing seen. All these are sure signs of death, presaging it for him in whose dress the spectres appear, or for some one in the place where they are heard. Concernmg these signs much more could be set down than has so far been said. But since these bring with them bad, hurtful, and dangerous phantasies, imaginations, and superstitions, which may be the cause not only of misfortune, but even of death, we pass them over in silence. We are forbidden to reveal them, since they belong only to the ancient school and to the Divine power. So now we bring this our book to an end.* Here end the Nine Books concerning the Nature of Things.

® In certain editions tiie following dedication is prefixed to the Nine Books containing the Nature of Thin^s^ — Theophrastus Paracelsus gives greeting to the honourable and prudent gentleman. John Winckelstein of Friburg, his initimate friend and dearest brother : — It is right, O intimate friend and dearest brother, that I should satisfy your friendly and assiduous prayers and petitions which you have addressed to me in your several letters, and since, in your latest letters of all, you have earnestly and courteously requested that I should at length come to you, if it were consistent with my convenience, it is not meet for me to conceal from you, that this course is, by reason of various hindrances, impossible. But with regard to the second request you have made to me, that I should furnish you with an excellent and clear instruction concerning certain matters, I neither can nor will refuse you, but am compelled to gratify you therein ; for I am well acquainted with your disposition ; moreover, I know that you hear and behold with delight anything that is fresh or marvellous in this art. I know, also, that you have devoted a great portion of your life to the arts, which have formed the chief element of your curriculum. ■ Since, therefore, you have displayed, not only benevolence, but fraternal fidelity towards me, I am rightly powerless to forget either your fidelity or your benefits, but am indeed of necessity grateful, and, in case I should not see you in person again, I must leave a brotherly farewell to you and yours, as a memorial of myself For herein I shall not only answer and clearly explain those points oncerning which you have consulted me and asked me in brotherly fashion, but will dedicate to you a special treatise on those points, which treatise I shall name Concerning the Nature of Things^ and shall divide it into nine books.

This work satisfies all your requests, and, indeed, more than you have requested of me, although you will greatly wonder at its matter, and will doubt whether things are just as I have described them. But do not so act, nor think that they are mere theories and speculations, whereas they are of practice and proceed from experience. And, in spite of the fact that I have not personally verified them all, notwithstanding, I both possess, have proved, and know these things by experience from and by means of other persons, as also from the light of Nature. But if in certain' places you do not rightly understand what I say, and in one or more processes require of me a further explication, write to me secretly, and I will put the matter more clearly before you, and give you a sufficient instruction and understanding, although I do not believe that there will be any need for this, but that you will easily comprehend without it, since I know how richly you have been endowed by God with the arts and with good sense. Moreover, you know myself and my feelings, wherefore you will easily and quickly take my meaning. But, above all, I hope and am confident that you will look upon the present work, and will fittingly regard it as a treasure, will by no means publish it, but exclusively keep it in great secrecy for you and for yours, exactly as a vast hidden treasure, noble gem, and precious thing, which is not to be cast before swine, that is, before sophists, contemners of natural blessings, arts, and secrets, which persons are not worthy to read, much less to have, know, and understand them.

And, although this book be very small containing few and scanty words, yet it is full of many great mysteries, for herein I shall not write from speculation and theory, but practically from the light of Nature and experience itself, nor will I burden you and render it tedious by much speech. Wherefore, dearest friend and most intimate brother, since 1 have addressed this book out of love to you alone, and to no one else, I request you to keep the book as a precious and secret thing, and not to part with it until your dying day. After death, in similar fashion, command your children and heirs to preserve it also in secrecy. Furthermore, it is my special request that it should remain only in your family, and at no time become so public as to fall into the hands of sophists and mockers, who despise all things which do not agree with them, and cover them with calumny ; who also are pleased only with that which is their own, as is the case with all fools ; who are pleased only with their own trumpets, but not with that of another ; and do hate all wisdom, regarding that as of small account and even as folly, which is greater than theirs, that is to say, what is in their own head, because it does them no good nor do they know the use of it.

One workman cannot use the tools of another, and so in the same way a fool can use no better instrument than his own key, nor is any sound sweeter to his ear than the tinkling of his own bells. Wherefore, dearest friend, be faithfully admonished, as I have entreated you ; do that which I expect of you, so shall you do well and rightly. Farewell, under the care of God.— Given at Villacm, in the year J537.

TO extract Mercury from metallic bodies is nothing else but to resolve them, or to reduce them into their first matter : that is, running Mercury, such, in fact, as it was in the centre of the earth before the generation of the metals, namely, a damp and viscous vapour, containing invisibly within itself natural Mercury and sulphur, the principles of all metals. Such Mercury is of unspeakable power and possesses divine secrets. The reduction spoken of is made by mercurial water, which was not known to John of Rupescissa, or to others, however they may boast. It must, therefore, be carefully studied and treated with unwearied assiduity. Let the aforesaid mercurial water be thus prepared : — Take three pounds of Mercury sublimated seven times by Vitriol, SaltNitre, and Alum ; one pound and a half of Sal ammoniac, clear and white, three times sublimated from salt. Grind these well together, alcoholise them, and sublimate in a sublimatory by means of sand for nine hours. When the mass has cooled, remove the sublimate with a feather, and sublimate with the rest as before. Repeat this operation four times, until it will no longer sublimate, and in the bottom there remains a black mass of fluid like wax. Having cooled this, take it out ; grind it again, and imbibe it in a glass dish several times with the prepared water of Sal ammoniac. When it is spontaneously coagulated, imbibe it again and dry it, repeating this process nine or ten times, until it will scarcely coagulate any further.

Grind it very small on marble in a damp place, and dissolve it into a beautiful oil, which you must rectify from all its dregs and residuum by distillation in ashes. Carefully preserve this water, for it is by far the chief of all waters. Take eight ounces of it, and put in it plates of the purest gold or silver carefully cleansed, an ounce and a half in weight. Place this in a closed vessel for digestion over hot ashes during a period of eight hours. Then you will see your body at the bottom of the vessel transmuted into a subtle vapour or Mercury. Having made a solution of the whole mercurial water, separate it, by sublimation in an alembic over a slow fire, from its first matter, and keep it carefully in a glass vessel. You will thus have the true Mercury of the body, the use whereof in desperate

cases, provided only it be carefully employed, is marvellous and celestial*; and on that account, therefore, not to be revealed to unworthy persons. * For example, the red Mercury of Gold constitutes a good medicament for the cure of wounds and of the plague, that is, if it be reduced to a precipitate to prevent vomiting. This is accomplished by the upward separation of its laxative part. For in every preparation of gold the chief point is to remove superfluity from it. In the plague there is no necessity for purging. Gold, however, is a laxative, a tonic, and an astringent. Take it away ; preserve the rest. The medicaments for the plague are divided into those used for the accidentia and those adapted for its cure. Understand concerning the cure that the spirits of gold and of gems are the best medicines whereby all plagues, wheresoever located in the body, are most successfully healed. The principal is gold ; the second are gems, for gems are tonics and preventives. It should at the same time be remembered that all sores are, as far as possible, to be cured from within. For this reason there is no more excellent medicine— speaking of vulnerary potions- than is internal Mumia. No wound is properly healed from without. Internal Mumia is the perfect curative. Otherwise, there is no more sublime incarnative than gold \\,%^t~ Fragment urn de Peste.

THE Sulphur of the metals is an oiliness extracted from the metals themselves, endowed with very many virtues for the health of man.* Another sulphur is drawn from metals before they have undergone the fire, as from the golden and silver marchasites and others, which take rank and excellence according to the nobility of the mineral. So also is it drawn from the mineral of marchasite and cobalt, according to the nature and property of each. The more common mode of extraction is to take Acetum carefully distilled, which has stood for twenty-four hours on a Caput Mortuum made out of distilled Vitriol, Salt, Nitre, and Alum, which also has itself been distilled by means of an alembic. This, I say, you must pour on the pulverised metallic body in a glass vessel so that it shall stand above it by the height of seven fingers. Then place it to digest in horse-dung for nine days. The coloured Acetum' distil in the ashes until it comes to a superfluous oil, which you will rectify in a bath, or in the sun. You will then have the very truest Sulphur of the metallic body, which you will rightly use at your discretion.

The extraction can also be made by means of a sharp and thoroughly separated lixivium. But other sulphurs are less suitable for the internal bodily use on account of the alkali of the ashes, out of which we make a clavellated corrosive substance, and also on account of the lime of which such lixivia are composed. The Sulphur thus extracted can be washed with sweet water and precipitated. The subsequent digestion requires a double space of time. The lixivium also ought to be rectified from all earthy deposit by means of sublimation, so that such sulphurs may not be incorporated with it and become corrosive so as to cause injury to sick persons. It is to prevent this that the separation spoken of should be made. So far concerning the crude materials. But now, these having been fused and depurated, you may draw forth their sulphur. There is no more certain, noble, or better way than by the water of salt or by its oil, prepared in the way I have clearly described in my * The Sulphur of Metals, and, indeed, that Sulphur which can also be extracted from minerals, is said to be of special utility in dropsy, for it is of a drying nature, and is, as it were, a sun, or solar beat, which disperses this rain of the body, and causes it to pass off in vapour. ~De Hydropiii.

treatise on Alchemy. Such a water extracts from the very foundations and roots their natural liquid out of all metallic bodies, or a sulphur and a crocus most excellent for all medicinal as well as alchemical purposes. It resolves and breaks every metal changing it from its metallic nature into some other, according to the different intention and industry of the operator.

THE Crocus of the Metals is of four kinds : of the Sun, of Venus, of Mars, and of Chalybs. The best is that of Chalybs. It is extracted by reverberation or by calcination, reducing the aforesaid bodies to dust. In like manner, filed iron is consumed by rust. The consumption of the rust is made by the imbibition of those things which produce rust, and by a decoction extracting the colour of rust. Take old Urine poured away from its deposit, several cups of it, in which dissolve three handfuls of ground Salt. When you have strained it, boil it and skim it carefully. In this again dissolve a handful of bruised Vitriol, with two or three ounces of bruised Sal Ammoniac, and then carefully skim again. With this liquid imbibe some filings, and boil until it can be pulverised. The dust thus produced reverberate over a powerful fire, continually stirring it with an iron rod, until it changes from its own colour to another, and at last into the hues of most brilliant violet. From this you can easily, with spirits of wine or distilled acetum, draw off the Tincture, and when it is extracted by separation of the elements you will collect what remains at the bottom of the glass, by means whereof you will be able to produce wondrous effects, both within and without the body.

For making the crocus of Venus, take one or two pounds of copper-rust carefully alcoholised, pour on it plenty of distilled Acetum, and stir it well three times every day. Gently pour off the coloured Acetum, and thoroughly sublimate it in ashes until it is dry. Let this powder be afterwards washed nine times with warm water from all acridity, and then dried. You will then have the prepared Crocus of Venus, or Flower of Brass, from which, if you wish, you can easily extract an oil according to the instructions given in the great work on Surgery, where also its use is explained. The Crocus of the Sun should be extracted by the water of salt, whereby the metallic nature, or malleability, is destroyed. When the residuum has been washed with warm water, the Crocus can be extracted with spirits of wine ; and, this being again separated, the Crocus will remain at the bottom. This is changed into the liquid, or truest quintessence of the Sun, by means of elevation, and sublimating with five different grades of fire. With tliis you can produce marvellous effects. But there is need not of a merely imaginary, but of an active and skilled, operator.*

* The flow of blood from wounds can be stopped by means of the most skilfully reverberated Crocus of Mars.— Chirurgia Magna, Tract II., c. lo. Moreover, the Crocus and Flower of Mercury may be successfully made use of for the cure of ulcers.— Ckiritrgia Magna, Pars. III., Lib. V. The Crocus of Iron, if it be reduced by the reverberatory into alcool, is supposed to cure the same ulcers that are successfully treated by the Oil of Iron, provided they have ceased to flow, and have reached their proper maturity. — De Tumorous et Pustulis Morbi Gallici, Lib. X. By artificers and mechanics certain arcana are discovered in the things which they daily use. Thus workers in brass have stopped the flow of blood with burnt brass, and have dried flowing wounds. Workers in iron have used their burnt iron, which is called Crocus of Iron, for wounds. Potters also have made some discoveries with what they call silver or golden litharge. Many are the inventions of the vulgar which have been called experiments ; many more, which need not be described here, such as minium, ceruse, and the like, have resulted from the various attempts of the alchemists upon various substances. — Chirurgia Vulnrum, c. 9. The Crocus or Flower of Copper, which is usefully applied to the cure of Corrosive ulcers, is usually prepared in two ways, one of which is that the greenness is abstracted by means of distilled Botin, and the said Botin is then again extracted. Notwithstanding, the strength of Venus is feeble unless .vitriol be added to it. But I regard that as vitriol which is extracted from the body of Venus. — De Tumor, et Ulcer. Morbi Gallici, Lib. X.

Concerning the Element of Air.

IN the beginning, Iliaster, which is nothing, was divided, thus giving and arranging the four elements, t It was even as the seed from which springs the stem. What the seed gives forth it does not receive in the same form into itself again. But this Iliaster again attracts to itself the four elements. Thus, that is dissolved and becomes what it was before the four elements were produced, provided only one year of the world has elapsed. The four elements are the growth produced from the Iliaster. And the seed does not give those very things from which the infant is produced after this year of the world ; but the four elements are both mothers and daughters. Of this family nothing is found surviving after death ; but its end is the same as its origin ; and so whatever is in it perishes at the same time. Although another world follows after, which is the daughter of this one in name, still, it is not so in form, in essence, or the like. For this will not pass away, but. will remain like the N • The philosophy of Paracelsus concerning the generation of the four elements and concerning the three prime principles, Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt, appears to have been regarded by himself and by his editors as an essential part of his doctrine and practice of alchemy. To include it in the first section of this translation is by no means outside the issues of Hermetic Chemistry.

Paracelsus was not the first adept who regarded the process in the accomplishment of the Magnum Opus as offering a rigorous analogy with the creation of the greater world. All alchemy insists on it. He who succeeded in accomplishing the Grand Magisterium, the confection of the Philosophers' Stone, became initiated thereby into the secret of the Mysterium Magman; and, on the other hand, an exact comprehension of the true principles which obtained in the universal genesis, was enough to possess anyone with a full and practical illumination concerning the arcanum of philosophy. The cosmological philosophy of Paracelsus is the necessary complement of his alchemy, and whether or not their combined study is likely to throw light upon either, an opportunity must be offered to the student for the comparison of the two. The treatises which have been selected for the purpose are translated from the second volume of the Geneva folio, and the copious notes which have been added are derived from analagous writings which Paracelsus left unfinished, or which, for some other reason, have come down to us in an imperfect state.

t When God determined to form the world and deliberated with His Divine Prudence concerning its nature and the manner of its creation, He divided it into four parts or bodies, which he designed to be the mother of all things, but subject to him whom God intended to create after His own image, even the man Adam. When, therefore, the matter had been deliberated on and decreed by God, the four said bodies were created — that is, heaven, earth, water, air. For, as the Scripture saith, heaven was created first, then earth, and subsequently the two others. Hence you must know that these four bodies, mothers, or matrices, exist that they may produce fruit, and furnish the necessities for man's nourishment. Thus, for example, the earth brings forth its peculiar products, but it is man and not the earth who makes use of them. Similarly, heaven is a body, free by itself, whence fruits proceed simply for the use of man. — Liber Meteor um, Pref. soul, which is indeed made and created but not mortal. Such is also the lot of this world.

Now, it is quite certain that the Eternal Father, who is not only the father of His own Son, but also of all things, mortal and immortal, permanent and transitory, blessed and damned together, created Domor, that is, heaven and earth, the firmament and the water, to which He also gave His own Divine will. We will not further discuss this subject here, but the same things can be read in the Paramira.* He formed the natural from the nonnatural. From that which had never perceived any nature. He produced another nature, and following that nature He willed that yet another nature should be produced, whilst a year revolves, wherein His majesty Himself carries on the Divine rule, which man now moderates and possesses. Yet these primal natures differ, so that from the earth springs the pear-tree, from the sand the thistle, from the water cachimiae, from the sky chaos, and from the fire snow. But seeing how wonderful these things are, and how unlike they seem to the first source from which they sprang, we ought to make it a matter of knowledge and of philosophy, that the element of water is not water only, but a mineral as well ; that the element of earth is not earth only, but a grape as well, and so with the rest. For that philosophy is vain which gives it out that the earth is an element, indeed, but not a nut, or that fire* is an element, but not snow. So, too, those who say that the four elements exist in all and everything, advance mere nonsense.

■ The earth is an element, and whatever is produced from it. So is the water and all produced therefrom. So then that is an element which produces. And an element is a mother, and there are four of them, air, fire, water, earth. From these four matrices everything in the whole world is produced. And the speech is inconsiderate of those who assert that an element is simply endowed with a complexion, warm, dry, cold, moist, or a compound of these. All these things are in all these four elements. You can understand it thus : the earth is cold and dry, cold and moist, warm and dry, warm and moist. This is how matters stand. Whatever thing which is warm and dry grows out of the earth, grows out of that which in the earth is warm and dry. Whatever is or is produced cold and moist, is produced from that in the earth which is of a similar nature. So also from fire four complexions proceed. Snow, for example, from that in the fire which is cold and dry; and lightning from that in the fire which is warm and dry. It is the same with the other two elements. I would have you then, at this point, before all to be advised not to determine the elements according to their com-

» But more completely .md copiously in the treatises and fragments of treatises from which the ensuing notes have been rendered. plexions, but according to their forms, that is, what are the four matrices which they have within them. The earth is material, clayey, conglutinous. Such it is whether it be warm, dry, cold, or moist. The water is humid, sensible, tangible, but not corporeally, not materially. And such is the element, whether it be cold or warm. The fire is a firmament, and is the element of fire, though it be in one place warm, in another cold. The air is a heaven which comprises all things, and is moist, warm, cold, or dry, as shall hereafter be set forth.

Now, in order to advance towards the established principle with regard to the elements, understand this. The Iliaster was originally distributed into four parts— the air, which is a heaven embracing all things ; fire, which is a firmament producing day and night, cold and heat ; earth, which aff"ords fruits of all kinds and a solid foundation for our feet ; and water from whence are given forth all minerals and half the means of nutriment for living things. These nutriments are twofold, one found in air and fire, the other in earth and water. The two former nourish us as if spiritually and invisibly ; the two latter materially and corporeally. These four elements are divided into two classes. One is constituted of air and fire ; the other of earth and water. The air sustains fire, the earth water. Air and fire hold water and earth; while these two hold air and fire. So then all things were created in due order, that the one might support, seek for, and nourish the other. Thus the Iliaster was divided into one domor, of which there are two globules, an outer and an inner, each enclosed with two elements.

Beyond is nothing, so far as we know. Within is what we see, and touch, and what the light of naiture suggests to us. He who created these things is not among us, but dwells without us. But He who was begotten of Him is amongst us. Still we must not philosophise further concerning the four elements than Nature teaches and points the way for us.

In the beginning the body of the four elements was founded with that form and amplitude in which the heaven lies extended ; and it was made corruptible or perishable so far as the air surrounds it.'" There was the throne • But now we must understand what is the nature of the body of heaven. Earth, water, air have each their peculiar bodies, but, indeed, all the four bodies of the four elements are made of nothing, that is, they are made only by the Word of God. This nothing, whence is produced something, turns into substance and body, which body of all the four elements is distinguished into three species, so that the creative Jiat resulted in a triple body. Thus the earth and the other elements are all threefold. At the same time, there is such a distinction between the elements that the four things are not one body. The air is one body, the earth is another, the water a third. So also would be heaven if these four had a like body. But the earth has three bodies, and so also have water, heaven, and air, and yet a piece of wood is one body, a metal another, a stone another, a sponge another. So also the four elements of bodies are distinct and separate, as though someone were to take lead and make of it minium, ceruse, glass, and spirit of Saturn. So then, these three species are distributed into four elements, a peculiar body being assigned to each. To pay more exact attention to these numbers, God Himself chose three, and constituted all things out of three, and separated all three. For the origin of this number is immediately from God, the principle

of God and the centre of His Kingdom, from which centre the world was created, but so that it should be something mortal and perishable created by God. To rightly understand this you must know that from that centre the world arose and was made material. On this seat Christ hung from the cross ; on this seat sat the prophets ; it is the footstool of God. Here, therefore, material and corporeal things are made God, and His work, the centre of His Kingdom, and His throne. It should be known, then, at the outset, and before the philosophy itself is unfolded, that God has made the centre of His heaven, and even Himself, perishable. For as corporeally He is called the Son, so the world is His house. But although it be thus made and created, still we must believe that it will not perish as it was produced. Of man the heart will endure : of the world the flower will be permanent.

As to the manner in which God created the. world, take the following account. He originally reduced it to one body, while the elements were developing. This body He made up of three ingredients, Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt, so that these three should constitute one body. Of these three are composed all the things which are, or are produced, in the four elements. These three have in themselves the force and the power of all perishable things. In them lie hidden the mineral, day, night, heat, cold, the stone, the fruit, and everything else, even while not yet formed. It is even as with wood which is thrown away and is only wood, yet in it are hidden all forms of animals, of plants, of instruments, which any one who can carve what else would be useless, invents and produces. So the body of Iliaster was a mere trunk, but in it lay hidden all herbs, waters, gems, minerals, stones, and chaos itself, which things the supreme Creator alone carved and fashioned most in the Deity being three. Now, the word also was threefold, and the word is the beginning of heaven and earth and of all creatures. All things are synthesized in three, and there is nothing on earth which consists not of and in three, and is reduced again into that three. On the one hand, then, it is evident that each creature can be distributed into three, each in its place ;

but, on the other hand, what they dogmatize concerning the four things or elements, to the effect that each thing consists of four elements— that is false; each thing, however, contains in itself one complexion and not more, nor can it have any other element than that which it receives from its mother. For instance, every herb has only one element — that is, of the earth ; every stone has one element— that is, of the water. But in addition to this it receives a complexion, frigid and humid, frigid and dry, warm and humid, warm and dry. Yet that is not a whole element, but the element is the matrix, as water or earth. For instance, man is taken from the slime of the earth ; but the element is not slime, it is quintessence. Yet it again becomes an element, that is, it returns to the element with the distinction which subsists between an element and flesh. Hence the elements only recur into three, and these three are the prime matter of the elements. However, the fashion of the prime matter of water, earth, air, and heaven is diverse, for the number three ccrnstitutes only three species in reality, which three make a perfect body, and these same are found by art in all bodies of Nature. These three are the first matter and have only one name. The first matter is as God ; and as in the Deity there are three persons, so here each species is separate by itself as to its ofhce, but the three offices are comprehended under the one name of the first matter.

This first matter has been distributed by God among four parts or elements. Whatsoever resides in the first matter of the earth is being separated or has been separated into earth. The case is the same with the other elements. So, everything has been ordained into its predestinated form, earth having been ordained to be earth, with its office, and so of the rest. So all things consist of one body, and yet there are four bodies, and the four elements are all distributed into four bodies and are formed from one matter which is in itself triple, having been originally formed out of the word. The three first things are three parts, namely, fire, salt, and balsam. All bodies consist of these three- all elements and all fruits thereof. Earth is threefold in its body— fire, salt and balsam- while that which grows from it is similarly distributed into three species. The body of a tree is fire, salt, and balsam, and the things which are generated from balsam are

subtly, having removed and cast away all that was extraneous. First of all He produced and separated the air. This being formed, from the remainder issued forth the other three elements, fire, water, earth. From these He afterwards took away the fire, while the other two remained, and so on in due succession. The four fields, therefore, having been in this way set apart and separated, there remained also four storehouses for keeping the four elements, namely, the hot, the cold, the moist, the dry. Each of these was far from being unimportant. First the air was arranged ; afterwards the fire ; then the earth ; and, lastly, the water, in the following way : From the air proceeded chaos, the throne, the chain, the foundation. From the fire, night and day, the sun and the moon. From the earth, trees and herbs, grasses and fruits. From the water, minerals and stones. Of these the succession was so arranged that from the superfluity was continually produced something else. For instance, from the Iliaster of the earth beech wood was extracted and the wood of apples removed. Each was disposed in its own place ; nothing being corrupted or intermixed. In water gold was separated from the rest of the metals, and afterwards the others also were removed in turn. In the fire, the cold withdrew from the heat, the light from the darkness. In the air, chaos was set in order for preserving all things, and for separating earth from heaven. These four Iliastri having been created and arranged according to elements, that is, according to the matrices of their fruits, the air was prepared before all else ; then afterwards the fire. These two were linked together in union. Afterwards the earth, too, and the water, being separated from the two former, were joined in one. These are now conjoined Iliastri. The air is by itself, and the fire. In like manner, also, the earth and the water.

fire, salt, and balsam. It is the same with those fruits which have water for their matrix. It is the same with heaven, of which the fruits are the sun, etc. It is in like manner with snow and rain. The art, therefore, of Nature does not, then, teach us how to extract anything out of fruits except fire, salt, and balsam, which also are so separated from one another by the force of fire that the fire, salt, and balsam become separate. Now, fire is also called sulphtu: ; salt, balm ; and liquor, mercury. It is necessary, however, that we should have a clear idea what an element is. Now, man has a large body, containing many substances. But that which is the man himself, namely, soul and spirit, is a small thing. The reason why the body i.s called man is because the man remains bidden in the body. So also the eye is a considerable part in man, but the force which sees is very small in respect of the eye. In like manner, the earth is called an element, whereas it is a rude body, and its true element is hidden therein, invisibly, like the spirit in man. It is the same with the other elements, which are, indeed, corporal, but are yet spirits according to their nature and substance. So often, then, as you hear that this or that proceeds from an element, understand that it proceeds from the element itself, and not from its body. In man the tongue speaks and does not speak, for the spirit speaks in it,

whose intimate permixture and union with the body causes it to be thought that the body does everything The odour of the box tree is the spirit of the box tree ; what there is else is its body. The soul of musk is in its odour. In corals the colour is the spirit. Thus, all fruits, like their element, have spirit as well as body, and the true fruit is not seen by the eyes. Yet there is a certain difference between the natural and the supernatural spirit, for the first is corporeal and material, subsisting in a corporeal body, but the second is altogether destitute of a body. The body of the natural spirit is clothed by Nature with another body of its own element. But concerning heaven it is to be noted that God has given it the name of firmament. The firmament is the heaven and its whole substance. The three other elements are included in the firmament, as the egg in its shell. By the demonstration of the name which He has given to it God teaches that He has endowed the firmament with power that it may be as a sure shell, wherein all the creatures of Nature are firmly contained. And, just as the yolk remains immovable in its place, whether the egg be put up or down, so is it with heaven. Wherever we dwell, we live at a high level or a low, and can call ourselves dwellers on high or dwellers below. For a circle has neither summit nor base. — Liber Meteoruin, c. 2.

Thus it was that God made the material centre of His throne, and afterwards sundered it in three primal elements, from which constantly emerges everything that is born. Without these three, nothing in the four Iliastri can grow. But while they grow they are elements, and so, moreover, they lose their name of Iliastri and are called elements.

'"'^ These four elements were sundered into their own places and seats, so that none of them should be mixed. All these were removed, just as a sculptor when making a statue throws away what does not suit the intended image. So there are four elements, but only three primary ones ; three in the air, three in the fire, three in the earth, and three in the water. Everywhere there is only a single triad of the primaries, that is, one Mercury in all, one Sulphur in all, one Salt in all. Yet they differ in their properties. Whatever is growing, herb, leaf, grass, or the like, was relegated to the earth. Whatever is mineral withdrew into the water. Whatever is warm, cold, day, night, betook itself to the fire. Whatever is air spread itself out over chaos. And all these three are one, each in itself. It is just as when a stone is divided into four parts, and out of one is made a statue, out of another a pitcher, out of a third some other kind of a vessel, and out of the fourth a milestone ; yet all are stones, nay, all one stone, though divided into four portions.

Of these Iliastri there are four, and no more ; these being sufficient. So God disposed the world in a quaternary. He was satisfied with this number, though He could have made eight parts. One portion of nutriment He conferred on the air, a second on the fire, a third on the earth, a fourth on the water. Nowhere was there any deficiency. And now it is further necessary that in the course of our philosophising we should go on to treat of these four under the name of elements, to tell of their possibilities and performances, and to state in what they excel. We will begin with the air, and conclude our philosophy with the water, adding such explanations as the nature of insensible things requires.

The element of the air was appointed for no other purpose than to be the abode of the other three, each to be conserved, as it were, within its close in the following way.* The air encloses in itself every mortal thing, • The elements and all that exists are built upon the element of air, even as a house upon its foundations. We should philosophise, however, concerning that which sustains the air. This power is situated in the exterior part of the air in which the Triune God dwells, so ruling and sustaining the air that it does not yield, nor is broken. For it is impossible that perishable things should fall into the sphere of the imperishable. Moreover, it cannot fall, because all things tend upwards, nothing downwards, nor is there any bottom or profundity- For the air is so compacted and confirmed in its circle that it can no more be broken or dissolved than the external kingdom can perish till its time arrives, when it will collapse inward towards the centre, the air and stars rushing towards the globe of earth, and then the globe shall by them be so utterly consumed that not a single ash shall remain. For the manner of this destruction shall be such that nothing shall collapse outwardly from the circle, but all inwardly to the centre. And this is the highest secret of philosophy — that the circle rushes to the centre because there is no profundity outside. — Alius Liber Primus Meteorum^ De Etemento Aeris,

and shuts it off from what is immortal, as a wall divides a city from the fields. It strengthens the world and keeps it together, as a dam does a marsh. And just as there is nothing in an &^^ to one who looks at it from without, or outside the &^^, which agrees with what is inside, so the sky is a shell dividing heaven and earth, just as the egg-shell separates the e.^^ from what is outside it. The air, again, is like a skin in which is stored up a body, the whole world, to wit, and wherein the earth is contained and preserved. The air, then, is this sky, a skin, or egg-shell, or wall, or mound, beyond which nothing can burst through, and within which nothing can break in. Moreover the air is breath, from which all draw their life. This is truly air itself, and puts forth the air which nourishes the four elements, and at the same time sustains the life of man. Without it none could live. Without this no element could advance, no wind could blow, no rain or snow could fall, no sun could shine, no summer could flourish, no water could flow, no earth could sustain. All this force proceeds from the air, and is attracted by the four elements. For as the lungs every moment inhale air, so does the earth, while the water and the fire each do the very same thing. That is a palpable error which lays it down that winds are caused by the air. They burst in upon us like poison, not as a means of life. The first element brings air, but fire gives the winds.

From this same element, too, flows forth a power by which fire is joined to the air, so that it may not fall down. Thus it is like a chain which, without materiality or visibility, holds together and binds. This it does by means of its chaos, which it inserts between the pellicle and the earth. There is also a middle space extending from heaven to earth, in which are balanced the fire, the earth, and the water. And as the chicken is sustained in the Eggr by its albumen without touching the shell, so chaos sustains the globe arid prevents it from tottering. This chaos is invisible, though it appears of a slight green tint. It is an intangible albumen, having the power and property of sustaining, so that the earth shall not fall from its position. As the chick in its albumen, so this globe of earth and water is balanced in the air. As a ship is borne up by the ocean, so is this globe by the air. It is one vast and marvellous albumen which invisibly supports the globe of earth and water. It bears up even the firmament itself, which is placed in it as the seed of the cucumber is placed in its mucilage. And as every morsel of flesh lies in its own liquid, or the generating seed in the sperm, so the stars lie in this albumen, and move therein like a bird in its flight. In no other way are they borne up than in what is clear from the illustrations which are named. There is at least only this difference : that the chaos is unlike the albumen or the sperm, in that it is impalpable and extremely subtle. Otherwise, in all its powers and energies it corresponds exactly to those things which have been enumerated.

While discussing the powers of this element, it should, moreover, be pointed out that the air and its chaos and the sky exist in a round form which is inherent in them. No one can point out or distinguish what is above or what is below. Let us give an example. If it could be brought about that one should be shut up within an s.gg., it would be impossible to know which part looked towards the sky and which towards the earth.* The rotundity prevents there being any "up" or "down." So we are prisoned within a shell, and do not know which is up and which is down. Walking over the whole world, we look up to the sky, and everywhere there is height, whilst at the same time everywhere there is depth. The cause lies in the rotundity of the globe and of the sky, and thus it is natural to every mortal body that all things grow in a threefold line, and not only man v/alks, but also trees, veins of metal, and springs take this course. As God created the circle of the globe and the sky, so he founded also the semicircle, the diameter and the meridian — a threefold line — and other similar ones. For in heaven and earth, in fire and water, are found all lines and all circles. Here, too, are the true Geography, Cosmography, and Geometry. By the elementary geography of the air are conserved the structures of the air, that is, the sun and moon, all the stars, the trees of the earth, and other things, as the minerals of the water and the rest.

Here, too, beyond a doubt, is found the true basis of all geometry, where man stands like the straight line looking up to heaven. Of this geometry God alone is the artificer, the mason, the geometrician. From this line nothing falls away or emerges, be it water, fire, ea,rth, tree, man, beast. All things tend towards this aerial geometry, which God made and graved as a mason does the statues on a tower.

~^ Now, as to the philosophy of the three prime elements, it must be seen how these flourish in the element of air. Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt are so prepared as the element of air that they constitute the air, and make up that element. Originally the sky is nothing but white Sulphur coagulated with the spirit of Salt and clarified by Mercury, and the hardness of this element is in this pellicle and shell thus formed from it. Then, secondly, from the three primal parts it is changed into two — one part being air and the other chaos in the following way. The Sulphur resolves itself by the spirit of Salt in the liquor of Mercury, which of itself is a liquid distributed from heaven to earth and is the albumen of the heaven, andthe mid space. It is clear, a chaos subtle, and diaphanous. All density, dryness, and all its subtle nature, are • Air preserves the dements and all creatures, so that they may persist in their course and centre. Land and sea are the centre of a circle of which the air is the circumference. Earth and water constitute one globe, resting on nothing, but free on all sides, being encompassed by the element of air, which is like a vast chaos, which conceals that which is called heaven by the ignorant. Within this chaos all creatures are included and involved. Between the circle of the air and the globe of earth and water which is at the centre, a sustaining operation intervenes, which may be compared to the albumen interposed between the shell and yolk of an &%g.—lbid.

resolved, nor is it any longer the same as it was before. Such is the air. The third remnant of the three primals has passed into air, thus : If wood is burnt it passes into smoke. So this passes Into air, remains in its air to the end of its elements, and becomes Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt, which are substantially consumed and turned into air, just as the wood which becomes smoke. It is, in fact, nothing but the smoke of the three primal elements of the air. So, then, nothing further arises from the element of air beyond what has been mentioned. Many of the ancients and later writers, nay, even some now living, ascribe wind to the air, making out its cause to be the mobility of the sky. That is all nothing. It never reaches the sky ; and the air is by itself, coming forth from its element as smoke from wood. Whoever wishes to understand more clearly about it, and what its motion is, let him read about the properties of fire, where more is set down than can be here comprised.

Concerning the Element of Fire. WE have spoken thus far concerning the element of air, according to the position in which the elements have been arranged. The air is first in position ; next to it is the fire. These two constitute and surround the entire globe.* We shall next philosophise as to w^hat concerns the element of fire. First of all, from the Iliaster were separated the air and the fire. Afterwards these two were sundered the one from the other, so that the air occupied the first place, as we pointed out in the former book. The next place to this the fire occupied. By a process of separation, these two elements, air and fire, were divided. From the air were produced the heavens ; from the fire came forth the firmament. As in the air there is only chaos and nothing besides, so, in the element of fire we find nothing but heat and cold, light and darkness. But, whatever withdraws from the globe and from the air, is sustained in the element of fire. It is not, however, called the element of fire because it can only burn, as many have foolishly said. It is not the element of fire which burns, but that which burns and is contrary- to it, is congelation. The element of fire is not by its constitution warm and dry ; the cold and the moist come from the element of fire.

They are quite beside the mark, then, who seek the element of fire in the element of earth or of water. Though these probably produce something of a warm complexion, still that warmth does not constitute the element of fire. This element is not, therefore, called an element because it is fire, but rather because in it the whole firmament subsists. It is an element from which should proceed day, night, brightness, white or red, rain, tempests, winds, and all impressions. It is also the place and portion of the four parts of creatures. Therefore it is called an element. For as the earth gives heat and cold together, though it be the element of

* Fire and air constitute the chaos which encircles the glohe of earth and water. The two superior elements send down their impressions upon the two inferior. Fire is disposed and digested hy God into the stars. - Ibid.^ c, 7. Concerning the Generations of the Elements. 2 1 [ earth, so is it to be understood also of fire. Yet there is a difference, because material fire is called an element when it is not really an element. It is not even produced by the element of fire, but it is like elementary fire in that position when it looks towards the sun. So also the water is like the element of fire in a place where it rains. Material fire, which we use, is in the four elements ; it is called Tristo, and exists in them thus : The element of water requires the element of fire for its operation. That fire remains in the element of water, and shews itself in steel and in those stones where it exists. So is it with the air, and so with the other elements. Each has its own Tristo within itself, as is demonstrated in the Nature of Things. So, too, the sun can shew its element in wood, can kindle and burn it, because it is of the same nature as that by which the element of fire moistens the earth with rain. As the element of fire moistens the earth, and it is its nature and property to do so, it kindles wood also by a mirror in the sun.

The material fire is brought to the globe just as rain to the earth. Both come from one element divided as to their nature. But the fire which is extracted from stones and metals has penetrated thither from the sun by means of its own Ares. As the earth is nourished by the sun, so is the one element by another. Of the three primaries, Salt could not coagulate unless the element of fire were in it. So Mercury could not give a body unless it contained in itself the element of water. So neither is Sulphur without its terrestrial quality. The air is without material or body, impalpable. Therefore, of itself, like the other elements, it cannot give a body ; but it works together with it, as the rest do.

Having thus far explained the separation of the two elements, fire and water, it remains to speak of their order, which is as follows : — Originally the distribution of them was made into the sun, the moon, and the other stars. Beyond these there is no element of fire. Whatever virtue they are endowed with beyond this is only trifling. This is more fully shewn in the treatise De Natiird. Here it is sufficient to know that this element, the firmament, to wit, is nothing but stars. What these produce and send on the earth, as snow, rain, wind, hail, cold, heat, night, day, summer, winter, and the like ; all these things come from the element of fire, as an infant from its mother, or an apple from its tree. This element of fire is placed in the element of air. For as the water and the earth are comprised in one globe, so the fire and the air are mingled in one, neither injuring the body of the other. They move freely in the air, not leaning or propped up on any foundation. As birds fly in the air, so the sun moves in the sky, that is, in the air. For just as it is appointed that

man walks on the earth, the bird flies in the air, the fish swims in the water, and the gnome lives within the earth, so has it been arranged concerning the elements, that one lies still, another flies, one is in this mode, another in that, not moving from one seat or place. Every star has its own special orbit, nor does one collide with another. For as no one man walks exactly like another, and yet there is one mode of progress for all, so is it with the stars. And as men by Nature are not precisely alike, neither are the stars ; so manifold is their nature and condition. On this topic one need not philosophise more deeply than to say that all these things are arranged and constituted by fate.

Concerning the Sun, Light, Darkness, and Night.* IN the first treatise it was stated that the primal Iliaster was furnished with all the colours, and with brightness and splendour all mingled together. From thence the four elements were secreted. Herein shall be stated in due succession what was added or subjected to the element of fire. In the beginning the first element, that is to say, the air, was extracted from the Iliaster, and afterwards the element of fire. From this a separation was made. First of all the white brightness was drawn out, and therefrom was made a material body, the sun. Therein is all the white brightness of the element of fire, and besides this is no white brightness at all in the whole element. The red transparency was also extracted and transferred to the stars, that is, to the moon and the other stars, which were distributed into man)' parts. While the white brightness was conglobated into one form, the red brightness was divided into many parts. Hence now follow day and night. For since all the white brightness was coagulated into one globe, it will be day wherever that globe is. Where that globe is not, there is no white brightness, but it is night and darkness ; for the red brightness transfers no light to the white brightness. Moreover, it must also be known that in the element of fire two natures exist, a warm and a cold one.

Heat is universal in the white brightness, cold in the red. All fire which is warm is in the sun, and not in any element besides. All coldness is in the stars ; there is none in the sun. Hence it is clear that summer comes from the sun, winter and cold from the stars. In the sun is an expulsive heat, in the stars an expulsive cold — thus : The sun emits from himself heat to the earth by means of his rays. For just as the wind blows from its cave, or as from the ground a stalk rises above the earth, so heat goes forth from the sun over the globe.

* All the clarity which in the element produces night is liery and twofold— white and red. The white is from mercury and salt, the red from pure sulphur. These two colours inhere in the three principles by rexson of the predominant fire in the substance. The same are divided, the red into one part, the white into the other. The first is distributed among all the stars, the second into one only. But if the red, like the white, were compacted and digested into a" single star, instead of into so many, the red splendour would be equally great with reference to redness as is the white with reference to whiteness. On the other hand, were the white star distributed after the manner of the red, there would be a faint and perpetual daylight. Such a perfect and condensed splendour would not illuminate the earth, but one weaker and more divided. The universal splendour of the mercury has, however, been concentrated from the three prime principles into one orb or star, which receives its motion according to the will of the Creator. The motion of this star takes place round the globe. When it radiates upon the earth there is day, but elsewhere night reigns, for all the brilliance of day is in it, and without its radiation there is no brilliance upon earth. The red brilliance of the other stars is the light of the fire in red, only in sulphur, where there is no mercury or salt — De Meleoris^ c. 32

Heat is the fruit of the sun on the globe, and it has no other fruit. Hence it follows that the sun has two operations, a greater and a lesser heat, in this way. The sun divides his heat in two modes. Hence it is granted to the stars to lose their coldness. The matter stands thus : For us Germans if the sun is supreme his heat is greatest with us. Then the autumn and harvest are at hand. In winter the cold comes on, not because the sun is low and depressed (for it is the same sun which can by his rays shed heat everywhere), but because his harvest is not then imminent as in June. All fruits are then in a state of repose, and have been harvested. But below us, in Ethiopia and other places which verge towards the antarctic pole, the sun is warm v.'hile with us he is cold, for this reason : because it is his harvest-time, but with us the fallow season. This fallow season he makes more or less. Everything which has to produce fruit needs rest and sleep ; and unless the sun were lying fallow, its heat would be equally intense with us in winter as it is in summer.

In the meantime, while the sun. is lying fallow, the harvest and autumn of the cold stars are substituted, so that during the whole year there shall be no sterility, but fruits shall be constantly produced. Now the snow falls, and the north wind blows. Then follow the east and the south winds, which are the attendants of the sun. Thus are produced v/inter and summer, night and da)^, and the whole year. In this way is there transition from one autumn to another through the year of the sun and the }'ear of the stars. Moreover, on this subject it must be remarked that dr3ness and humidity occur thus : Dryness is in heat, that is, in the sun. There is no other dryness in the whole element of fire save that which the sun has in himself. Moisture is in cold, that is, in the cold stars, which are of red brightness. This is the true state of the case. Humidity cannot coexist with heat. Heat consumes all moisture and brings back dryness. Coldness never coexists with dryness. What is cold is dissolved if heat coagulates itself. Thus the element of fire is divided into two. In one is dryness, and this is in the sun ; in the other is humidity, and this is in the cold. If coldness sometimes seems to be dry, the dryness is only as when one sweats in the sun, where that moisture is quite foreign.

So is that coldness foreign too. It is true, indeed, that a humid body on the earth can be dried by the stars, though not on account of their dry nature, but on account of their cold nature, whereby they are able to coagulate so that a thing seems dried up. Thus must their nature be understood as frozen water. Such, too, is the method of the sun for rendering moist. By its heat it melts wax, so that it liquefies, as does tallow. But what has this to do with the matter ? Nothing. These things are only given as illustrations. There is dryness, too, in the stars, for instance, snow, hoar-frost, sleet, hail, lightning and the like, as metals and stones coming thence. But what is the dryness of snow, which does not last ? In what respect is a metal dry which returns to its original matter ? And so of the sun. Where is his humidity? It does not last. What is it if, indeed.

Concerning the Generatiotis of the Elements. i 1 5 he moistens fat ? No sooner has he withdrawn than it is dry again. Afterwards it is no longer moistened. It is the same, too, with fire. It dries wood so that it never afterwards grows damp again, that is, so long as it is ashes. But what does the star do ? It wets Salpalla so that it never again returns to dryness, but always remains moist. The stars moisten the rain, which always remains moist, and is never again dried. Wherever it is poured out, wherever it breaks forth, it is always moist, always wet. So, that which is dry remains in heat ; what is wet, in cold ; dryness never grows wet, and moisture never grows dry. In like manner, lime remains lime ; glass, glass ; wine, wine, etc. But in order that the element of fire may be more thoroughly understood, we will, in the first place, describe the sun, the account of which is as follows : All heat is drawn together and rounded out into Magdalion. The whole white light is therein. Thus, then, white light and heat make up Magdalion, composed of ignited white Sulphur, congested into one body of noblest Mercury, pre-eminent over all the other elements, and coagulated by the most subtle spirit of salt. Out of these three the sun exists, so dry and so warm that there is place for no humidity, but it would all be consumed.

In this way, both the daily rain and whatever water is poured out by the three other elements is consumed by the force of the sun, lest a too copious supply of water should cause inundation. So, then, the sun is the death of aqueous nature, both of the sea and of the Rhine, Danube, Nile, and Tiber. They are consumed by the heat of the sun so that they do not increase in volume. Death exists in all things for this very purpose, that they may not increase too much but may keep within bounds. So man has his own form of death, which is invisible. So dryness has its death, namely, water. So, too, the waters have their death, fire ; and it is not true to say, that what the fire consumes reappears elsewhere. It perishes entirely in its own form.

But the spirit remains, and this the sun consumes. It is the veritable death, consuming and taking away the other three elements — alike with man on the earth and with the bear in the cave. But now to philosophise more about the sun. It regulates its course by Divine providence, which decides when and how all things should exist. By this it is arranged that the sun going round the globe rounds out its circle for the sake of this autumn and harvest of the sun. In this course is nothing but day and night, summer and winter, light and darkness ; and the darkness which falls upon some lands is intercepted from others in due succession. From this impetus and m.otion no wind is aroused ; but the sun moves and proceeds just as a ball is driven along the surface of the earth, without any wind arising, or as a ship in the sea, which does not of itself generate any wind. So neither does the sun produce wind. It does not grow warm by its motion ; for, although the globe should roll on for a hundred years, it would not of itself grow warm. If it be warm, it must have been warm before. So the sun going upon its course is a globe, and may be compared to birds in its

mode of motion. It even diminishes heat, that is to say, if it be fallow. But its brightness remains always and under all circumstances. For Magdalion is fixed, and will remain from the first point of time to the latest in one shape and appearance and one proportion of light, of Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury. These have only one year of their fixation, which will endure from the first Iliaster to the last Iliaster, wherein the world will be renewed. I say there is one year, the year of the sun. In like manner all the stars have fixity. That is the year of fire, or the stellar year, yielding place to the time of the year, as if to its own daughter. But, now, in due course, we must speak of the other stars in which exist coldness and red brightness, as, for instance, in the moon, planets, and the rest. In this red brightness is a different kind of rest from that in the sun. For the moon has no fallow season, but simply dies and departs. The seed only is left there, from which the new moon is born. And the generation is of such a nature that it gains its power of increase from the sun. Whatever grows does so by force of the sun's heat, and without that heat nothing grows at all. When, therefore, the Creator made the moon after such a manner as that she should wane and wax, He did it for this purpose, that the moon, like seed, should be united with the sun, and should thence acquire her power of increase.

Thus it is that she increases and comes to fulness, and then afterwards wanes. For whatever increases, the same also decreases. As man by disease wastes away and dies, so the decrease of the moon is her sickness even to death, wherein she passes away, leaving only her seed behind. The moon is, in fact, the phoenix of the firmament, from which, when it dies, a new one constantly issues forth. So, in like manner, there are other stars, and they are made up of the redness of Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt. And there is a cold of Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt, too, which has its origin in that virtue from which the sun, too, received its own. Thus it is that the moon has such strong influence over the earth on account of her coldness and her humidity. She is superior to all the other stars in this element of the coldness of fire. The other stars, too, are composed of these three primal elements ; but, still they are divided into many parts. For the cold in the element of fire is divided into a thousand essences and natures. Thus, in some stars are produced winds circling over the entire globe ; in others, snow, rain, and the like, have their origin. In truth, so manifold are they, that manifold natures and virtues flow down from them to the earth ; and this could not otherwise be the case if there were but one Magdalion, like the sun, possessing only a single nature, heat.

Therefore, in the stars there are many cold natures. Now, cold produces many more forms of effluence than heat. A warm man is a healthy man. A cold man is exposed to more misfortunes than twenty warm ones. Since, therefore, cold has a nature which is contrary and opposed to the sun, the element of fire is divided into many stars, so that each virtue should exist by itself without the impediment of another nature. From these come forth warm winds, warm showers, warm tempests, and the rest,

coruscations, dragons, lanceae, and the like. Yet, all these are cold fire, without ardour. On the other hand, what is warm and burns has its origin from accident, as the special chapters demonstrate. An entire section follows on the properties of the stars, as to the necessities they produce, and giving what is necessary for a description of their natures. Concerning Winds.* Through the course of the globe, there are scattered the windy stars which continually bring round their autumn and harvest. They surround Zedoch in a circle and at the same time embrace the globe above and below, As, therefore, the firmament goes round the globe in its rotundity, and the round globe lies therein, so the stars consist in the circle of Zedoch, and the globes touch Zedoch in the midst. Two winds, therefore, proceed to the two sides, and separate above and below, that is, one part to the arctic and the other to the antarctic pole. These stars are actual stars of the winds, because they blow upon us annually, and have their own year, which is the year of the winds. The other stars of the winds blow above and below us, not according to the year, but sometimes they blow and sometimes they do not^ and infringe upon one region only, wherever that may be. The true stars of the winds blow each according to its year continually, above and below, across the whole globe, and are without hail, without lightning, without frost, without coruscation.

° Since the meteorological principles have now been abundantly explained and recognised, the next thing is to impart some information concerning meteoric things generated, or their generations. But we will first write of the rise or generation of the winds, proceeding from their predestined circles. There are four parts of the orb and circle of the winds ; one looks to the east, another to the west, a third to the south, a fourth to the north. The manner of the circles is as follows. As in the middle of the firmament there are placed two elements, earth and water, and the element of air stands between the element of heaven and the lower globe— as, I say, the earth is placed in the middle, and the heaven surrounds it completely, so there proceeds or advances a circle transversely on a level in the middle of heaven, earth, and water, similarly surrounding. ... In the same way you, will further note that heaven goes round the world with a certain circle. In this circle stand the mother of the winds, and the places whence arise the predestinated winds. If these are about to emerge from that circle, they blow upon the globe through the element of air. But while they are arriving at the rotundity of the terrestrial globe and dash upon it, it is possible that the winds maybe either stirred up below the globe and impelled towards those who live below us, or may be driven above the globe to the dwellers on higher ;

or again may be divided and driven in either direction through the heights and the depths of the globe. Thus the winds are impelled through the air beyond land and sea, and persist until they are worn out by reason of the distance, the way, or the violent motion, etc. Each of these four parts has a nature peculiar and proper to itself, for the oriental part is warm and dry, not being so on account of the sun, or because it occupies the east, but because such a nature is derived from the three prime principles. Therefore, also, in the true south-east wind and its satellites no other nature and operation are perceived than warm and dry. On the other hand, the west wind, by the setting of the sun, is cold and humid, not because it rises from the west (for the complexion of the east and the west is one and the same), but because the matter of the winds has been created cold and humid in the west. From the north blow winds of a cold and dry nature, which they also impart to those regions, not that the winds are so affected by the regions, but the regions receive that nature from the winds. The south wind is warm and humid, not because much water is accumulated there, or that moist and humid places abound there, but because such is the peculiar nature of this wind, and it is imparted to the region that it occupies.

For this is to be observed, that the winds acquire no property from without, but are tempered from themselves, and are not aflTected by their regions. The generations, therefore, of the winds are circular, from their proper nature. They are produced from their stars, and the stars are their mothers. Stars of this kind are innumerable in the four quarters From these all the winds proceed. For although winds are also stirred up by the stars of rain or hail, yet they are not enumerated with the circle or the four cardinals. And since we have already spoken of the place and dispersion of the winds, because they flow from the farthest heaven across sea and land, it must now be added that those stars have the power of generating winds, and disposing of them according to their nature and quality. As a tree puts forth its fruit out of its internal nature, which consists in wood and marrow, so also the same is to be understood of the stars. But the seed of the winds is the first matter of the three principles, salt, sulphur, and liquor. These three are the mothers _ from which are born those foetuses which we call winds. In the northern quarters they are of a cold and dry nature ; in the south, warm and humid ; in the east, warm and dry ; in the west, cold and humid. For as is the nature of the three principles, so are their fruits. Moreover, you must know that the winds arise from their stars by

2i8 The Hermetic and Alcke7nical Writings of Paracelsus, There are very many which surround the whole Zedoch, like the Galaxy, and over against the Galaxy is Deneas. Concerning the elementary nature of these stars it may be said that they are all humid. Antiquity has given to these four names which we retain, though not with the ancient interpretation. All those stars which are situated at the north throughout the entire Zedoch are called Boreas. Censeturis is dry and cold, yet not altogether dry. It is cold and congelated, that is, its humidity is coagulated, whence it appears dry. Zephyrus comprises the western stars, all being humid and cold, but not congelated. So it is that by comparison with these Boreas is accounted dry, on account of its congelation. The other stars in Zedoch, Eurus and Auster, are altogether cold. As soon, however, as the winds issue forth from their stars, they become warm by the sun whose beams they pass through, and thus they are held to be warm, which they are not by their own nature. Eurus is accounted dry, but is not so. The sun consumes the humidity which it possesses until it comes to that moisture contained within it, which the sun cannot take away. Auster is called humid, and is so because the sun does not take away so much of its humidity as in the case of Eurus. That is prevented by the sea, which supplies to the sun sufficient moisture for its consumption. So Auster with its humidity bursts forth on us throughout the lower and the upper part of the globe.

rule of time and season. For they retain the nature of the three principles. The variations of their strength are in proportion to the distance they have travelled. . . . Boreas is affected by the summer but not by the winter stars, and if it be impregnated with sulphur it produces sulphureous maladies ; if with salt, it dries up and cracks the skin. The south wind at its proper season, namely, in spring, is most healthful. These risings of the winds we are able to prove by a terrestrial example. Water boiling in a jar emits a wind ; so do all boiling substances, whether dry or humid. Moist coction, as of water, produces a moist wind ; the dry coction which is known to the alchemists occasions a dry wind. There is no other generation of the winds than when the three principles are set in motion and driven to their work by Vulcan. This action produces wind, and imposes its own nature thereon, whether warm, cold, humid, or diy. We must understand that God has constituted a generation of the firmament of such a nature that the three principles should generate and produce all things in their places to which they were ordained by God, and should by their operations tend towards the centre of the earth. Above all things, therefore, it is necessary that the three principles should be rightly recognised. These three principles are all of an igneous nature till they arrive at their operation, that is, at their ultimate matter.

Sulphur is a fire which burns ; salt nitre burns also ; and it is in like manner with mercuiy. Now, fire cooks wind, and in the generation of winds the stars are vials and cucurbites, containing in themselves meteoric sulphur, mercurj', and salt, which operate in these phials by means of our ethereal Vulcan. From these ethereal operations ethereal works are produced, such as the winds. . . . From earthly e.\-amples we understand the operations of the firmament, not, indeed, according to one grade, for as the heaven is higher than the earth, so also is it stronger ; and as the heaven has more of clarity than has earth of grossness, so much more sublimely graded and intense is its operation. That which is unseen by the eye is judged analogically by things which the eye beholds. But you must know that the hour and time of the generation of those winds must be fundamentally understood by astronomy and all its branches. If the winds blow, they .advance to places suited for them. Much concordance produces strong wind. To frequently concord and generate is frequently to excite winds. Many species and a strong Vulcan generate mighty and violent winds, which root up trees and demolish houses. For the wind is, according to its own nature, as corporeal, and substantial as stone or any matter hurled down from a great height. And although a stone is one body and wind is another, yet the latter is capable of great bodily destruction, for therein are invisible as well as visible corporeities created by God, diverse in appearance but equal in virtue.

Concerning the origin of winds it is then to be concluded that they are generated in windy stars above, and by the operation of Vulcan they are matured at their proper time, when they dash forth into the centre of the globe, transforming all obstacles into their own nature and property. As Boreas coagulates, so the south wind dissolves, the east preserves, the west putrefies. They perform their operation according to their implanted nature. But if they blow at those times when their innate malice is removed from them and modified, they effect nothing of importance. Among other things, the wind exercises great force upon the waters of the sea, stirring up tempests, and so penetrating through everything that it enters through the depths of the sea into the earth itself, whence it again iss\ies through mountains, caverns, etc. In this way tremblings of the earth are generated, although this is not the sole cause of such occurrences. Wind has the power of penetrating all stones, all metals, and all things without ex-ception.— Liber Mete oruvt^ c. 5.

Concerning the Generations of the Elements, ±ig As to how wind proceeds from the stars, this must be held to be the method. As the sun pours its heat on the world, so in these stars there is no other nature and property except to produce winds, which are decocted from Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt, and issue forth according to Adech. Their wind is daily, hourly, blowing gently and peacefully over the whole world. So the respective winds must be learnt in the course of our exposition as to the other windy stars. Concerning the Temperate Stars. Zedoc/i. The following is the theory concerning the stars in the firmament.* Every star has in it a certain amount of frigidity. This causes winds. Cold is the parent of all winds. But the nature of cold is that some cold produces winds with rain, some with snow, some with hail and the like. The truth is that all winds, intermittent and temporary, proceed not from Zedoch, but are collected from all quarters out of particular stars. The mode in which all winds are generated is as follows : — By means of frigidity the stars periodically beget their own vacuum, which is manifold in

* The philosophy concerning the stars in the firmament and, generally, concerning the constitution of heaven, is discussed elsewhere at greater length by Paracelsus, and in connection with the four elements, as follows : Of the elements it has been said that they are four. Man has need of these. Bat they are divided into four complexions, which are by no means as the ancients have imagined them, as, for example, that the eai'th is cold and dry. This is without foundation ; certainly in some places it is cold and diy, but in others it is cold and wet, while in yet others it is warm and dry. Nevertheless, it is an element, that is, the mother of fruits. It is called an element, inasmuch as it is the mother of these things, not on account of the complexion. The case is the same with water. This is specified to be cold and humid. It ought certainly to be humid, but not equally -cold. At the same time, that humidity is often dry and warm, by reason of the virtue. The body itself, in its corporal nature, is humid. The earth is dry, so that its fruit can be conceived in it and come forth from it. So, al?o, the heaven is not of one complexion, but of many complexions. It is not fire, but is understood as fire, because it proceeds therefrom. The fire thereof is at times a water, at others a fire, now cold, now warm, etc.

We must consider, therefore, that the elements are only matrices, nor are they restricted to one complexion. For, as the offspring is, so is that which generated and produced it. Thus, a flammula proceeds from a flammula, and solatrum from solatrum, Accordingly, hearken concerning these things. It pertains to the eaith to bear and sustain man and his dwelling-place, as also rocks, stones, sands, and all growing things. Hence it is clear that the earth is necessarily compact and solid, so as to be capable of bearing them. Consequently it is hard, and requires to be cut and ploughed. It is, in like manner, equally necessary for water to be moist, so that fishes may move and swim through it, which can by no means take place on land. The same ought also to produce salt and stones. Now, all these things must be humid in their first matter, and must pass from humidity into a coagulate. But that which is born from the earth has seed, that is, a dry body, such as are seeds, roods, trees, etc. For all these things are dry and compacted from the first matter. But in the first matter of water there is no compact body, the whole being liquid. The matrix hereof is from the element of water. In this element grow those ultimate matters, the principle of which is liquid and humid. The third body is the air. This element has need of another kind of body, which must not be humid like water, or solid like earth.

Out of this element whatsoever things are born have their ingress in the body of the air, just as the fish in water. Man has been surrounded by an aeriform vehicle that he may walk in it, as the fish moves in water. Thus the air also sustains all trees and whatsoever grows. It is necessarj-^, therefore, that the air should be a chaos; not earth, not water, but something perspicuous, diaphanous, impalpable, invisible, so that the palpable and the visible may be insphered (literally, tovched') by it, and may be seen through it as through glass. Furthermore, the heaven is a body of this kind, not humid as the water, not perspicuous as air, nor solid as the earth, but one of another essence, so that heaven is not earthy, but is yet compact in its essence, not, however, with terrene compactness. It is also tenuous and permeable as water, but still is not water; it is likewise limpid and perspicuous without being air. It is most comparable to smoke, which is diverse from other bodies in respect of corporality and substance— that is, it is not like stone or wood, earth, water, or air, but is a body without mixture or affinity with others. It is in like manner with heaven, and the bodies which are born therefrom are at once bodies and not bodies, compact and not compact, permeable like water, yet not water, perspicuous and impalpable as air, yet not air.

Such a body is the sun, such is the moon, and such are the other stars. Heaven is without complexion and the element of fire, and the matrix out of which fire is generated and grows. For as fire has a certain corporality, so have heaven and the stars, which take their nature and substance from heaven. Consider, therefore, that such corporality is derived from heaven, the peculiar quality thereof, and the very element of fire ; and whatsoever fire is about to do, the same is performed by heaven, whence fire proceeds. But we must make inquiry concerning the colour of heaven.

character. But as to the winds, the following is the received theory. The stars have their own emunctorles, by means of which they excrete 'those things produced in them to which the emunctories refer. The duration of the wind is as long as that required for the purpose of emptying. The stars Zedoch perform this process of emptying every day, and raise up winds in the world for moderating the heat of the sun and dispersing the cold in the frigid portions of the earth. They mitigate both heat and cold, and are the most perfect moderators of summer and of winter alike. When these winds do not obviate such a result chaos is frozen just like water. The reason why water is frozen is that the winds of Zedoch do not penetrate it. They penetrate chaos, and therefore do not allow it to be frozen. There is no other use of winds except to mitigate each season of the year, and to moderate their excesses, which might otherwise do damage. The common nature of all the stars comprised in the sky and the firmament is that, every day, nay, every hour and moment, they exude. For the stars attract to themselves the heat of the sun, just as the fruits of the earth absorb the same. The solar heat causes the stars to be resolved from their

That of earth tends towards black. Whatsoever is of another colour therein belongs to minera. So water has its own colour alike through all things. Its colour, however, has no name, for it is neither white, nor grey, nor blue, nor green, and yet it can be called all these. Earth, too, is really neither black nor purple, and yet up to a certain point it corresponds with both. The case is the same with air, which is pure and pellucid in chaos, and yet is neither white, nor blue, nor citrine, etc., while it is still partially assimilated to these. So also heaven has its special colour - like blue, like red, like green, and yet none of these colours is present therein otherwise than apparently. For elementary bodies are so formed as to have no perfect colour by which they may be named. But the things which are produced from them have their distinct, determinate colours, and to these names can be given. Thus, many colours are produced from the elements, and they are therefore composed of many, even of that number which they produce from themselves. From the earth proceed blue, red, black, etc., while from water all colours come forth, and so also from air and heaven. Accordingly, colours are collected from many into one, heaped together and mixed, and such mixture produces no express, determinate, and definite colour. Give heed to an example taken from heaven and its fruits.

For ye see that everything which grows from the earth has its palpable foot and root, as are trees and herbs, etc. But the stars are the fruits of heaven, yet they do not put forth their roots in heaven, for they stand immovable below the heaven, without any support,or attachment. Earth and heaven are opposite in this respect -one yields its fruits with roots, the other without; one tends upwards, the other downwards, and as fishes rest upon nothing, and, without feet, swim about in the water, so in like manner, stars swim about in the heaven, that is, in the body of heaven, preserving that order which God has prescribed them, some moving at a higer,someat a lower, level, at different distances apart, and with a quicker or slower motion. The details of this question must be referred to astronomers, but this, at least, should be remembered, that heaven is a body which, like water, is capable of sustaining a swimming thing, yet it is not water, but dry, while that which floats in it is also dry. It is not strictly swimming, but has analogy therewith ; it is not going or running, since it is not efl^ected by hands or feet ; it is the miraculous work of God, and an element which contains and includes all the rest, and drives them in a round or a circle. The stars were born from heaven, and stand therein as if they flew like a bird through the air, according to the order and circle, even as God has destined and formed them to motion.

Having been once formed they henceforth remain for ever the same. The trees and fruits of the earth fall and are re-born. The stars can perish once only, namely, at the end of the world. Whatever else is formed in the elements is eaten away by mould, moth, and death. 1 1 is only the stars of the celestial heaven which remain in immunity, and yet their fruits rise and fall as rain, snow, etc. But they have a unique and special colour, which is fiery. Thus, earth chiefly displays greenness though it has also other colours. The sun is peculiar in colour, and if the same be igneous, it is not after the manner

of wood, but of an element We must repeat concerning fire that it has been enumerated as one of the elements, but with manifest absurdity. The earth, indeed, exhibits itself as an element, water in like manner, and so also air. But consider the fourth element. This cannot be fire, for it confers nothing elemental and no fruits upon man, nor does it possess any afiinity with man, or vice versa, but it has an altogether fatal power, whereby the soul is separated from the body. It is, therefore, necessary that heaven should be regarded as the fourth element, for this is akin to man, nor can man dispense therewith, whereas he can dispense with fire and can live without it. The possibility of his dispensing with fire shews that it is not an element, but such rather is that heaven which brings forth day and night, summer and winter, increasing all fruits, and helping the other elements. The Scripture states that God created the heaven and the earth first. In heaven are the other elements, and even as the jar is made ready before the wine is pressed out, so the element of heaven is in reality the first element, which we h.-ive here named for the fourth.— Z/fc;- Meteorum, c. i.

Concerning the Generations of thd Elements. 2 2 1 frigidity. This resolution is one and the same with that of a cold stone, which exudes on account of the vapour which it has acquired from Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt. That vapour exists in all elementated bodies. For as man, by natural exercise and the process of excretion, purges the phlegm from his nostrils, so do the stars also and all the elements undergo these excretions. This vapour flows down every day from the stars, and falls on the earth. During the day it is consumed by the sun. But by night it glides down to the earth before the sun rises, and is called dew. Through the winter, or during a cold autumn, it is frozen, and becomes hoar-frost. This is nothing else than the exudation of the stars in the whole firmament, which thus falls drop by drop. For as boiling water evaporates upwards towards the sky, or sends its dew on high, so the stars send their exudation downwards. Nebula is nothing else but a vapour of this kind, differing from the former only in this, that while not yet quite matured, it is excreted by certain stars. When it falls to the earth like hoar-frost, it rests on the earth and the water, and is like smoke. It cannot be completely resolved into hoar-frost or dew. A certain part of the vapour passes into dew, the rest into nebula.

Nebula is imperfect dew which has not yet fully matured. If it is thin it falls to the earth and vanishes. But if it is dense, but not yet prepared, it descends to a higher region of its own, where it is consumed by the sun. If, however, it be mixed with rain-clouds, then rain is produced from it, but of a more subtle kind than other rain. Very often nebulae of this nature descend and produce a spell of rainy weather. For if the stars are rainy they cannot be resolved into dew, but only into nebula. But if sometimes they bring clear weather, the cause is that the nebula, being more subtle in its preparation, disappears on the surface of the globe.*

• Earth is black, gross, rough, clayey, impure, dirty, and nothing could he cruder. Water is more subtle, pure, and clear, so that the eye can penetrate far into its depths. The air is completely pellucid and intangible, so perfectly purified that nothing foreign can he seen in it. Heaven is, however, by far superior to the air, but, though it is the clearest of all the elements, it is yet a body, which is proved by the fact that its fruits are bodies, such as rain, snow, hail, the thunderbolt, etc., for a body can only be generated from a body. But inasmuch as the heaven is more subtle than the earth , so are its fruits in comparison, and not only in subtlety but in operation. We have said enough of the heaven, but there remains something to be imparted concerning the stars and their risings. The stars bear the same relation to the sky as do trees to earth. But whereas trees have their roots in the earth, the stars are without foundation in- heaven. The reason is this ; trees do not need to be removed from the place where they are planted, but the stars must describe their orbit, for which reason they are separated from the heaven, while at the same time they are in the heaven. At the same time, they do not remove from their own mansions any more than the tree from its garden.

Now, so often as there is a new genus among trees, there is likewise a new genus among stars. The same must be understood of herbs and all things that grow on the earth. Growing things correspond exactly to the number of influences and stars. Every genus corresponds to its like. But as some trees produce pears and others apples, so some stars yield rain, others snow, hail, etc., and in this fashion is generated whatsoever falls from heaven. The qualities which are specialised on earth exist more strongly in the heaven, because that element is superior to earthly things. And as the magnet attracts towards itself, so also the stars attract in the heaven. Accordingly, as certain natures on earth are dry and others humid, so throughout the whole firmament some stars are drier than others. Concerning the operations of the stars, they are produced out of congenital properties, and they arise from the three prime principles. That meteorology is false which makes absurd statements about the heat of the sun, of its motion, or other modes of generation, made by attraction from the earth. There is no star which attracts rain, and then again pours it down. The operation of rain proceeds from a nature congenital thereto. Even summer and winter are produced from the stars, the sun being supreme among those of the calorific kind, which arise at the beginning of summer, and

Concerning Metals.* HE metals which come from the upper regions derive their origin from the seven planets. But these planets are manifold. There are many suns, many moons, many Marses, Mercuries, Jupiters, and Saturns. They are only called seven because they produce seven metals, and one kind of metal is ascribed to each planet. Those are not planets which the astronomers point out ; and they are in error when they assign these to the metals : nor are they unanimous among themselves in what they do say. From these seven kinds of planets proceed the seven metals, and they are the same in the first three, just as in the element of water. The only difference is that in the first three they are volatile, not fixed, in their species. In this way the metals which are found do not stand the test of the lower metals. Neither, again, do the lower metals stand the test of the superior ones. There is not one and are strengthened by their own heat till they reach the supreme grade, when again they gradually fail. Then the winter stars rise in their turn, display their own nature, afterwards die out, and are succeeded by another summer. The varying cold of winter and the varying heat of summer are occasioned by mutations in the potency of the respective stars. The moon is chief among the stars of winter, and is furnished with no small escort.

Were the summer stars to fail, there would be no summer, for the sun, whether high or low, dispenses an even heat. Unless, therefore, the summer stars were to arrive, perpetual winter would prevail. The summer stars, however, derive their increment from the sun. So, also, we must not assign a diverse origin to day and night. The day arises from the light of the sun, but the night from the light of the moon. The departure of the sun by no means causes night. It is the peculiar nature of certain stars to produce darkness, which is so gross that unless the moon interfered with her presence, nothing whatever would be visible. Such a course, therefore, has God imposed upon the stars, that, going round the whole firmament, they retain their order and continual progress. For lest they should cease, or ha*e a general holiday, God has ordained that when some are absent, others are present to fulfil their operations. So the nocturnal stars take the place of the receding sun. The bodies of the three prime principles are the cause of those bodies whence day and night proceed. The sun is a perspicuous and diaphanous salt, clarified and extracted from these principles, being purified from all obscurity. Its brilliancy has been extracted from the mass of the first matter of heaven. And whereas that is a white brilliancy which has been digested into the sun, so has a red into the moon and stars. The transparency and perspicuity of the white were extracted in sulphur, salt, and liquor, to make the sun thereof. Afterwards tba brilliance of the red was put into a body of sulphur. Thus salt is the body of the sun, sulphur that of the moon, while liquor is the body of darkness. — Ibid. , c. 3.

« Metallic natures also subsist in the element of fire, for as in heaven there are stones, so also there are metals but differentiated beyond all recognition from those of earth. Fiery thunderbolts, with their corruscations, are only metals, harder than all iron or steel, fluxible as copper, mixed with colours, and formed like a thunderbolt. Their fall is solely owing to some miraculous conjunction of elements, which produces them in bodily form. Many marvellous matters are carried up into the heaven and fall down to us. If it were possible for the stars of mercury, salt, and sulphur to be joined in a like copulation, several impressions of this kind would fall hourly. But the disposition of things is not favourable herein, except in the case of the thunderbolt,— Z>^ Metdorls^ I^ib. \\. the same ductility, or fluxibility, or hardness in the one as in the other. Neither are they uniform in colour ; there is a distinct difference in them. So, again, there is a volatile nature of this kind in the element of fire, which is the metallic operation and nature of all the seven stars, which also falls down from them to the earth at the same time, just like rain and similar effluxes. Many such metals lie under their own stars, some in Asia, a few in Africa, and fewer still in Europe. These stars do not reach our earth, so that these metals are not found amongst us.

All those grains, however, which are among the seven metals, and are rough in external appearance, come down from the stars, and not from the element of water. And all the metals which are coagulated without fire, and are rounded in shape like pulse, of whatever kind they are, have come down from the seven stars, whether they lie above them or not ; and the earth strikes against them just as rivers do. But where they are found is neither their source nor their root, but they come forth just like kidneys. Their origin is in the stars, and all have come down from thence. For there, in the element of fire, is no rudeness or density to mix itself up. It purges itself according to its own stars, and coagulates of itself purely and entirely. These metals, just like those in the element of water, exist in commixture with Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury, save that the igneous metals have not a watery fixation, just as the aqueous metals have not a firmamental fixation.