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

We have seen a threefold separation into threefold forms already made from the mystery. There remains, in like manner, a fourth and ultimate separation. It will be the last of all, none will come after it. Then all the others will perish, and not even the Mystery will remain. By that separation all things are reduced to their supreme principle, and that only remains which existed before the Great Mystery, and is eternal. That, however, should not be accepted in the sense that I am to be turned into something, or that, in the ultimate separation something will be produced out of me, except by death. I am reduced to nothing, as if being produced by reason, I came forth from nothing. And when the sum total of things shall return to their principle it is well that we should know how it takes place. When they are turned to nothing, then they exist in their prime. That prime must be sought in the beginning. What that means— the going into nothingness — must be accounted one of the secrets. The soul which dwells in me was made of something. Therefore it does not pass into nothingness, because it is built up of this something. Of nothing nothing comes — nothing is generated. A figure painted into a picture, when it is there, has been certainly made of something. But we are not thus constituted in the aether out of something — like a picture.

Why ? Why, because we came forth from the Great Mystery, not from anything procreated therefrom. So we return to nothing. If the figure be blotted out with a sponge, it leaves nothing behind it, and the picture returns to its former shape. So, assuredly, all creatures will be reduced to their primeval state, that is, to nothingness. And if we would know why all things must be reduced to nothingness, let us learn that it is on account of the eternity that stirs within rational corporeities. Such an ultimate separation is the ultimate matter. There will be centred all the numerous procreations, permixtions, conversions, transmutations, alterations, and the like ; to know the sum total whereof surpasses the scope of the human intelligence.

Moreover, as it is certain from philosophy that all those things which minister as auxiliaries to what is perishable and mortal are themselves equally mortal with that to which they subserve, and that what is divided cannot be again conjoined — as coagulated milk is not restored to its freshness— so we must philosophise that the Great Mystery does not return to that from which it proceeded. Hence it should be realised that all creatures are a picture of the supreme arcanum, and so nothing more than, as it were, the colouring spread over a wall. So we spend our time beneath the aether. One or another may be destroyed and turned to nothingness. As a picture is liable to destruction or conflagration, so is the Great Mystery, and we with it. All creatures, together with the Great Mystery itself, perish, are wiped out, and reduced like some wood which burns down to a small heap of ashes. But out of those ashes is made a little glass ; the glass is made into a small beryl, and the beryl passes away into wind. In the same way shall we be consumed, passing from one thing to another, until nothing more of us any longer survives. Such as was the beginning of creatures, such shall be their end. If from a little seed a cypress tree can be produced, surely it can be

brought back again into as small a compass as that first little seed was. The seed and the beryl are alike ; and as the beginning is from the seed, so in the beryl will be the end. The separation having been thus made, and every single thing brought back to its nature or first principle, that is, to nothing, then within the aether there will be nothing that is not eternal, but all will be without end. That from which the non-eternal came into existence will flourish far more widely than before the beginning of creatures. It has no frailty in it, no mortality. And as glass cannot be consumed by a creature, so neither can that eternal essence ever be reduced to nothingness.

When, therefore, the last separation shall be the dissolution of all created things, and one after another is consumed and perishes, from that circumstance the time of those things is recognised. For after the generation of created things there is in them no passing away. The seed of the old supplies the place of that which perishes. In this way, something eternal shews itself in mortals without any distinction, by the renewal of other seed. This the philosopher ignores. He neither admits nor takes count of any eternal seed. And yet he admits putrefaction ; in course of which that which is eternal is taken back again into the eternal. In this respect, man alone of all created things comprises in himself something eternal joined to that which is mortal. Since, therefore, on the aforesaid reasoning, the mortal and the eternal are combined, it should be known that the mortal prepares an essence in the stomach, and sustains the merit of the body. And this is so because the eternal part of man lives for ever, but the mortal part feebly dies out. And as with the body, so with that eternal part which proceeds from that body. This is the great marvel of philosophy, that the mortal part dominates and sways with its nod the eternal part itself, and this depends upon the man himself. He, therefore, in this way, is more the partner of his eternal portion than is that one from whom emanated both the mortal and the eternal parts of man.

Hence it can be gathered that the mortal parts of all creatures dwell together — that is to say, the rational and the irrational parts— the one subserving the use of the other in succession, and that an eternal element is inserted into a mortal one, both dwelling together simultaneously. Whence philosophy teaches that all those things which dwell together without disagreement, without deceit or fraud, without good or evil, cannot be destroyed and consumed. But this would be the case if one were opposed to the other. In those, however, wherein the eternal does not dwell no indication is found. But those where the eternal is will not lack such indication. Now, if discord ensues in this way, the one eternal is compelled to give account to the other, and to pay what is due for injuries inflicted by the one upon the other. And when compensation regards the eternal it is not undertaken by that which is mortal ; for though bodies conciliate one another, still, if anything remains over and above here, that is eternal. So, then, is

that which alone is eternal judged in us. And whilst one demands account of the other, all the mortal parts which bear the eternal within them are compelled to die out, so that the eternal may alone survive without the concurrence of the body. So is the judgment completed. For that alone is eternal, nor is there more of it ; in the final passing away all is mortal.* If, then, that which they embraced within themselves of an eternal nature thus perished, nothing remains but that it was per se eternal, and that it nourished and increased the mortal portion. That which profits not does not remain in the creature. All the rest is present only for the sake of the eternal. Hence it happens that, together with that which the mortal holds within itself of eternity, all those elements which sustained it perish and die out. So, then, it is clear, that the end of human affairs is in nothingness, whereto they all tend. From their essence they are separated into nothingness— that is, from something to nothing. In man, however, a perfect separation, that is, of the eternal from the mortal, is yet wanting. For here the judgment is clear which, in all things within the sether, denounces frailty. And if no reason could co-exist with frailty, there would be no passing away in creatures ; all would be eternal. There is one single cause for all this, namely, that we mortals do not dwell injustice, nor do we give just judgments, nay, we have not received the faculty of judging what is eternal. This power belongs to the eternal part. And in order that we may gain this power, it is necessary that we should all be collected and come together. And so the passing away of all things is desired.

Since it has been said, then, that all things were created from the Great Primal Mystery, and that they pass away in like manner, it follows as an evident consequence that some such Great Mystery must exist. This is nothing more than saying that a house has been built by a word. This is an attribute of the eternal, just as it is possible for man to elicit fire where there is no fire, and from that which is not fire. The flint has no fire, though it emits fire from itself. So in the Great Mystery all Primal Mysteries were existent in a latent form and after a threefold manner, in respect of vegetative, elementary, and sensible things. The vegetative things were many hundreds, nay, many thousands. Every kind in the Great Mystery had its own specialty. With regard to the elements, there were only four. These four only had their principles. But men were innumerable. One kind were the loripedes, another the Cyclopes, another the giants, another the mechili. In like manner, there are those who dwell in the earth, in the air, in the water, in the fire. So, also, every kind of growing thing had its own proper mystery in the Great Mystery, and from thence emerged all the multifarious created things. There are as many mysteries as there are trees or men. The eternal alone dominates in

* The text at this point is scarcely capable of an intelHgible rendering. man, and in the whole of his mystery, not in one more than in another. In the Great Mystery was no kind which was not infinitely formed and coloured, one differently from another. Now, all these things are to perish. What then happens we forbear to say, but — A new Mysterium Magnum is not possible. That would be a greater miracle than we are able even to speculate about.

SINCE, then, there was a something by which, in the course of separation, all created things issued forth, in the very beginning we must hold that there is some difference of gods, and that of the following kind : Since created things are divided into eternal and mortal, the reason of this is that there existed another creator of mysteries who was not the supreme or the most powerful. For that Supreme One should be the judge and the chastiser of all creatures, and should know how much had been conceded to them, seeing that they might do either good or evil, although not produced by himself. Moreover, created things are continually stirred up and instigated to evil rather than good ; they are driven by the stars, by fate, and by the infernal power ; when, if created things had issued forth from the Supreme himself, it would be impossible that we should be forced to these properties of evil or of goodness, but we should enjoy free will in all respects without any such impulsion ; whereas the creature has not wisdom enough to know good or evil, or to distinguish between what is eternal and what is mortal. For many are foolish and destitute of mind, scarce one in a thousand is wise. The greater part are false prophets, teachers of lies, masters of ignorance. They are openly esteemed foremost persons, though they are in no sense such. The cause is obvious. We are creatures who do not receive what is good and perfect from our masters, but we are chiefly built up by the mortal gods, who in the Great Mystery had indeed some power, but, nevertheless, were placed by the Eternal for judgment, both to themselves and to us.

Now if, as we know by separation, the created universe consisted of four elements only, and proceeded therefrom, these four will be literally the matrices of all creatures, and are called the elements. And although every created thing is so far an element, or has a portion of an element, it is not really like an element, but like the spirit of an element. But then, too, nothing can subsist without an element. Moreover, even the elements themselves cannot coexist. Indeed, there is nothing which consists of four, three, or two elements. Each single element exists apart ; and every created thing has only one element. It is mere blindness on the part of those who set down humidity for an element of water, or burning for an element of fire. An element is not to be defined according to body, or substance, or quality. What is visible to the eyes is only the subject or receptacle. But an element is spirit, and Uves and flourishes in those things as the soul in the body. This primal matter of the elements is invisible and impalpable, but present in all. For the first matter of the elements is nothing else than life, which all created things possess. What is dead subsists no longer in any element but in ultimate matter wherein flourishes neither any taste, nor virtue, nor force.

All created things in the universe, then, were born of four mothers, that is to say, of four elements. These four elements, it should be remarked, exactly sufficed for the creation of all things. Neither more nor fewer were requisite. In mortal things more than four natures cannot subsist. In immortal natures, it is true, temperaments can subsist, not elements. Whatever " elementure " (if I may use that term) exists, is dissoluble; but, on the other hand, temperature does not involve in itself the idea of dissolution. Its condition is such that nothing can be added to it or taken away from it, nothing decays, nothing perishes. This being the mortal condition, therefore, as has been said, it can be understood that all things subsist in four natures, and each nature has the name of its element. The warm is the element of fire. The cold is the element of earth. The moist is the element of water. The dry is the element of air. The next thing to be considered is how each of the aforesaid natures is what it is peculiarly or separately. Fire is only warm, not dry, not moist. Earth is only cold, not dry, not moist. Water is only moist, and not warm, not cold. Air is only dry, and not warm, not cold. Thus it is they are called elements. They are of one single and simple nature, not of a twofold one. This declaration on the subject holds good for all created things, that an element is that which subsists with body and substance, and thus operates. The chief point to be understood on the subject of elements is that they each and all have only a single and simple nature, moist, dry, cold, or hot. This is the condition of spirits. Every spirit is simple, not double, in its nature ; and this is the case with the elements.

Now, if it should be that composites do exist in us mortals, this scarcely coincides with the opinions of the ancients. The colic comes from the element of fire. It is not compounded of heat and dryness, but it is only hot. In like manner with the other complexions. And so, if any disease be detected where heat and dryness are combined, one can only come to the conclusion that the two elements exist, one in the spleen and the other in other members. Two elements cannot be in the same member. It is certain that in every member dwells some one element which is peculiar to it ; a subject which we leave for physicians to define. This, however, cannot consistently be said, that two elements exist at the same time in the same place, or that one and the same element is both warm and moist. Such a composite is not forthcoming-. The elements know nothing of a compound, for the reason already given. Where heat is there cold cannot be, nor dryness, nor humidity. So, in the same way, where cold is, there none of the others is present. The same is the case with moisture and dryness. Every element is per se simple and solitary, not twofold in its composition. Whatever philosophy may concede as to the possibility of conjunction of elements — as of heat with humidity— all this goes for nothing. No element of water bears heat.

No heat can subsist in humidity. Every element stands by itself alone. Cold cannot of itself tolerate dryness. That subsists by itself uncontaminated. This may be said and understood of the special essence of the elements. All dryness is a dissolution of cold. Just as humidity and dryness cannot be conjoined, so much the less can coldness and dryness and humidity, or warmth or dryness meet together and co-exist. As heat and cold are contraries, so heat and cold stand in the relation of contrariety to moisture and dryness.

It would be erroneous if we wished to assert that because all things are made up of four elements, they therefore necessarily exist in conjunction. Every conjunction is a composition. Since they are compounded, they cannot be the Great Mystery. Every Mystery is simple and a single element. There is a similar difference between elements and compounds. An element, as likewise a mystery, can generate a divertallum. A compound can generate nothing except what is like itself, as men make men. But a mystery does not produce a mystery like itself. It produces something different as a divertallum. The element of fire is the producer of stars, planets, and the whole firmament, and yet none of these is formed or constituted like fire. The element of water has constituted water, which is altogether contrary to the element of water. The element of water per se is not at all moist. It is true the element itself has this kind of moisture, that it softens stones and hard metals. But this remarkable power of softening is taken from it by substantial water,- so that its virtue is not perfect. The element of air is so dry that in one moment it dries all waters. But this power is taken away and destroyed by substantial air. The element of earth is so cold that it reduces all creatures to their ultimate matter, as, for example, water to crystal and * to Dualech, animals to marble, and trees to giants. The foundation of the knowledge of the elements is to understand that they are of such remarkable and prompt activity and efficacy that nothing else like them can be found, or even conceived. The

things in which they reside are attracted and assumed by them as if it were by a fate which is corporeal, and without these has not the smallest amount of virtue.

In order more fully to understand what an element is, it should be realised that an element is really neither more nor less than a soul. Not, indeed, that it is of precisely the same essence as a soul, but it corresponds with a certain degree of resemblance. There is a difference between the elemental soul and the eternal soul. The soul of the elements is the life of all created things. Fire which burns is not the element of fire, as we see it ; but its soul, invisible to us, is the element and the life of fire. The element of fire can be present in green wood no less than in fire. But the life itself is not equally present as it is in fire. There is again a difference between the soul and the life. Fire, if it lives, burns. But if it be in its soul, that is, in its element, it lacks all power of burning. It does not follow that a cold thing must have proceeded from a cold element. It may often proceed from a warm one. Many cold things issue forth from the element of fire. Whatever grows is of the element of fire, but in another shape. Whatever is fixed is from the element of earth. Whatever nourishes is from the element of air ; and whatever consumes is from the element of water. Growth belongs only to the element of fire. Where that element fails there is no increment. Except the element of earth supplied it there would be no end to growth. This fixes it ; that is to say, it supplies a terminus for the element of fire. So, also, unless the element of air were to act, no nutrition could be brought about. By the air alone are all things nourished. Again, nothing can be dissolved or consumed unless the element of water be the cause. By it all things are mortified and reduced to nothing.

But although the elements are thus in other respects altogether invisible and impalpable, and are thus hidden from us, they have, nevertheless, the power of putting forth their own mysteries. Thus, the element of fire gives forth from itself the firmament ; not, indeed, by any corporeal method, but on the scale of the elementary essence. The sun has a body different from that which he has received from the element of fire. Nevertheless, in this same he exists essentially with heat. For his heat does not arise from his motion or his rotation ; it is from himself. Though the sun stood still and never moved, he would still put forth his heat and brightness. The crystal has given the sun from the element of fire, though it has no other body than that which it has received from the element of the fire.* For thence the elements are (if I may so say) incorporated. The sun and the other stars, in like manner, * This literal rendering seems to be without a reasonable meaning. derived their origin from the element of fire, but only in a red colour, in which no heat or glow, but only a kind of dead splendour, inheres. And although signs appear in the sky differing in form and species — which we do not enumerate here— still the same form is to be understood as with ourselves on earth. It is not one only but multifarious, whether known or unknown to us.

When the mystery of fire was divided off, a certain something was produced, such as we see. So the stars are daughters of the element of fire, and the sky is nothing but chaos, that is, vapour exhaled from the firmament, and so fervid as to be, in this respect, indescribable. That fervour or heat it is which gives coruscations, and colours, and appearances ; for in that region is the pure element of fire, as shall be pointed out at greater length in its proper place.

In the same way as the fire put forth its different species and essences, so in like manner did the element of air. And yet there is a certain difference in the four elements as to those things which are procreated from them. Each of them produces after his kind. The firmament is like neither of the other three. Fate is from the air, and is not like those other three. Those signed by the earth cannot be in any way compared to the other three. In the same way are marine monsters related to the rest. For each single element has procreated in itself both rational and irrational things. The sky has in its firmaments rational creatures just as much as the element of earth has. In the same way, too, the fate of the air is distinct as to its signature in the matter of rationality and brutality. And the same is true of earth and of water. Who is he, then, who shall assure us as to the truth about these signed elements ? Who are they that have the true faith handed down and entrusted to them, and the right way of salvation, or who alone shall possess eternity — matters which we pass by for the present ? It cannot be but that human beings dwell in all four of these just as in one of them, that is, the earth. And on the subject of fate, it should be made known that its generation from the element is manifold, and yet without any body or substance, according to the property of the air (which is incorporeal), together with its habitation. For some things have it corporeally, others incorporeally, as the thing is understood.

It is perfectly well known that from one seed emerges a root, divided into many filaments. Afterwards rises a stem, then branches are suspended there ; flower, fruit, and seed come forth. Exactly similar is the method of manifold procreations from the four elements. Thus, all those which are from one element cohere, as the herb is produced from one seed. Yet all these growths are not exactly like their own seed. Those things procreated from the water are partly men, partly animals, and partly what these feed upon. One element has left its signature as both its necessity and its sustentation ; then it also gives sign of its course and its advent, w^hich are easily recognised by the stars, not because these rule or influence us, but only because they run concurrently with us, and imitate the inner movement of our body. And no less in the element of water all those things are produced which are produced in the element of earth. The lorind is a commotion and change of this element of water. This moves itself ; and the lorind is like a comet. A monster in the water should be accepted in just the same way as an error of the firmament. So in the water a special world is to be recognised, together with its mystery, even to the end of the world. There is no beginning in these save that which is in the other elements ; nor is there any other end than is found in the other elements. The only difference is of forms, essence, and natures, accruing to them, with their signatures and elements. Thus we must understand the four worlds according to the four elements and their primary habitations. With regard to justice there is only one eternal, which is to be recognised alike in all four.

In the element of earth there is much intelligence for us, because we ourselves came forth thence. Each like thing understands its like. But the understanding of the four elements flows out from philosophy. This, again, is Uke, flowing out as it does from the same source as that from which philosophy afterwards rises. Nevertheless, as the element of earth has procreated its sig nature, so have also the other elements procreated theirs. Just as we have stones, so are they not lacking in the other elements, though those stones may not be made according to the same form as ours, but in their own peculiar form and with their own special properties. The other elements have also their minerals no less than we have. The celestial firmament puts forth its floral growths as well as its mineral products, and these we reckon among miracles. Here, however, we make the greatest possible mistake, because we reckon natural processes among prodigies, and give it out like prophets that this or that appearance of the firmament portends something special, when we ought to understand that such things happen only in the ordinary course of events. But if such thing does occasionally happen we ought to believe that such was our course or condition. In the meantime, if anything suffers from the error of the elements, the other things grow uncertain too. All ought to proceed with a perfect and unimpeded motion, and though the other three elements serve us for nutriment, just in the same way do their other three serve the firmament, the air, the water, and those who dwell in them. One derives its nutriment from the other, just like many trees in a garden. And the defects and errors of the firmament can be observed by us no less than the firmament observes our defects. And the same judgment may be passed as to the rest.

That philosophy, then, is foolish and vain which leads us to assign all happiness and eternity to our element alone, that is, the earth. And that is a fool's maxim which boasts that we are the noblest of creatures. There are many worlds : and we are not the only beings in our own world. And the ignorance becomes more marked when we fail to recognise those human beings who spring from our own element, as the nocturnals, the gnomes, etc. Though they do not live in the open light of day, nor use the brightness of the firmament, but hate what we enjoy and enjoy what we hate, and, moreover, are like us neither in shape, nor in essence, nor in their sustenance ; still, that is not a subject for our wonder. They were made up as they are in the Great Mystery. We are not the only beings made ; there were many more whom we do not know. We ought to conclude, then, that not one simple single body but many bodies were included in the Great Mystery, though there existed only in general the eternal and the mortal. But in how many forms and species the elements produced all things cannot be fully told. But let all doubt be removed that eternity belongs to all these. In this way, certainly, many things which are now unknown will be investigated and in different ways become cognisable by us, not concerning those existences only which have the eternal element in them, but of those which sustain and nourish that eternity.

For eternity maybe understood in two ways. On& is that of kingdom and domination ; the other that of ornamentation and decoration. It is opposed to all true philosophy to say that flowers lack their own eternity. They may perish and die here ; but they will re-appear in the restitution of all things. Nothing has been created out of the Great Mystery which will not inhabit a form beyond the aether.

The universal procreations indicate that all things must have four mothers, neither more nor fewer. Not, however, that this can be understood from the basis of the general demonstration concerning the present Great Mystery as it appears in the beginning according to its properties ; but rather the Great Mystery is known and understood by the ultimate mysteries, and by the procreations which have gone forth having their origin in the first. It is not the beginning but the end which makes either a philosopher or a magistrate. The knowledge of a thing according to its perfect nature is only found at the end of its essence. Perhaps there might have been more elements than have been given to us. In the latest knowledge of all things, however, only four are found. And although we can, indeed, suppose that it would have been easy for God, who only created four, to have created more by the same operation ; still, when we see all mortal things made up of these four only, we shall not do ill to believe that more than these would not have been well. It is reasonable to think, perhaps, that after the destruction of the four elements spoken of, certain others will come into existence essentially unlike those before mentioned ; or.

that after the passing away of the present creation a new Mysterium Magnum may supervene, and we have a better and fuller cognition of it than we had of that which shall then have passed away. We base nothing on this idea, but to every one who would know the origin of the universe we say, that he must understand the world to have sprung from the elements ; and as there are four elements, so there are four worlds, and in each exists a peculiar race, each with its own necessities.

Though all things exist in the four elements whereof we have spoken, we could not, however, insist that there are four elements in all things, or that four elements abide in all things. The reason is this. The world which is separated and procreated from the element of fire needs neither air, nor water, nor earth. By the same argument, the world of air needs neither of the other three. The same is equally true of the earth and the air (sic ? water). For the doctrine of the elements does not lay it down that the world must be sustained by the four elements, but rather that everything is conserved by one element, namely, by that from which it is sprung. And although you may not deny that the firmament nourishes the world by means of its elementary forces, which are all igneous, as they descend to the earth, still that nutrition is not a matter of necessity. Neither is the world going to perish by itself, but suffices for its own sustentation, just as also any other world nourishes itself without the help of the earth. For example, the earth confers nothing on the water as respects its own proper essence, nor, on the other hand, the water on the earth. The same is the case with the air. Yet still we do not take the course hereof to be that each world exists solely, or per se, in its own element, but rather that the light from heaven is, as it were, something drawn from the four elements, and most noble in its full and perfect properties.

But let no one on this account imagine that the sun received his brightness and his motion from the element of fire, since neither the planets did this, but rather from an arcanum. The splendour of the firmament irradiating the world emanated, not from the element of fire, but from the arcanum. The earth of itself gives Tronum, the water Turas, and the air Sarnies. These proceed, not from the element but from the arcanum, and are present in the element. In the arcanum the four worlds agree in this way, that they are useful to each other in turn, afford mutual nutriment, and sustain one another; not, however, from the nature of the elements, for they are themselves elements.

That man lives, sees, hears, and the rest, is due not to the elements, but rather to the arcana, and especially to the monarchy. Such is also the case with other creatures. The sole entertainment and nutrition is elementary. Understand that whatever is eternal proceeds from the arcanum, and is the arcanum. Dogs die, and their arcanum remains. A man dies. His arcanum remains, and still more, his soul, which causes him to be so many degrees more worthy than the dog. The same is, in like manner, the case with all growing things. Hence has sprung up an error that in the new Mysterium Magnum all created things which have ever existed, will ultimately appear, not essentially, now, but in an arcane manner. We do not say that the arcanum is an essence like the immortal, but that it is this in its perfection. The element of fire has an arcanum in itself. From this there are added, or there flow out to the other three, light, brightness, influence, increase, but not from the element. These arcana could exist without the element itself, just as the element without the arcanum. But mark, moreover, that the element of air has in itself an arcanum from which nutriment is supplied to all the other three and to itself, not as an element from itself, but as an arcanum by means of the element. The element of earth has in itself the arcanum of permanence and fixation, which imparts to the others the virtues of duration and generation, so that nothing may perish.

The element of water has the arcanum of sustentation for all the elements, and conserves whatever is in them, so that it escapes destruction. In this respect, too, there is a difference between an element and an arcanum. The one is mortal or perishable from the elements, the other permanent in the ultimate Mysterium. Magnum, wherein all things will be renewed, yet no other things will be produced save what have been.

We come to the conclusion, then, that all the elements are not joined together, but that they are altogether aerial, or igneous, or terrestrial, or aqueous, solely and without admixture. This, also, is settled, that every element nourishes itself, or that does which is in it or its world. For this reason a medicine drawn from the element of water is of no avail for tho.se who are from the element of earth, or any other, but only nymphs, sirens, and the like. So, also, a terrene medicine does not benefit the three other worlds, but only the animals of its own world. The same is to be said of the air ; for in the air there are diseases and physicians — learned and unlearned — just as in our own world, each having its own peculiar mode. So with the fire. If it sometimes happens that nymphs copulate with terrestrials, and children are born, it is open to question whether this can happen from the possibility of ravishment. By this power other aerial beings, such as melosinse, have intercourse with terrestrials. So, too, the trifertes are borne from the fire to the earth. Now, if three of these unfamiliar beings should come from their world to ours, as we have said, they would be looked upon as gods compared with us, on account of the vast distance between us, and the entirely foreign essence which they possess. But if a man can be carried to them, there is a corresponding power of being borne to them (sic). So, then, the elements have no need one of the other ; only one is the ark or receptacle of another. As water and earth

are mutually separated, so, in like manner, the air and the fire each occupies a special position without any contact of the four elements, save that which is like the party-wall of a house.

If there is at length to follow a conjunction and a gathering together in which all things shall return to their primal essence, then that will be an arcanum, and, indeed, according to the aspect or appearance of the elements. For there nothing corporeal can appear from generation, but the appearance and present exhibition of all the generations contained will supply that place, and so all those things will be known to everyone which have before been made, or shall afterwards be made, which also will be as well known as if they were seen before the very eyes ; yet, still herein is a hidden perception of the ultimate Great Mystery. And that will be known or made certain not by Nature, but from a knowledge as to the causes of the final separation of the elements and of all created things : where each one will give an account of his own death. That is the cause of the perishable, of the living, and of the permanent. For there will be one Judge who has power from the eternal, and from age to age there has been this one Judge. This, also, is the cause or origin of religions, and of the different mjstae who serve the gods, all of which customs are false and erroneous. For no other judge has ever existed except the one God, who has been the Judge from eternity. It is too impious a piece of folly to wish to worship one who is mortal, perishable, and liable to decay, in place of the Author of creation and the Ruler of the eternal. Whatever dies has no power of governing and of ruling. There is only one wav and one religion, nor should others be rashly adopted.

If, therefore, whatsoever things are created return to that unto which they were predestinated from the beginning, in that place an arcanum will be produced. For predestination is, as it were, the ultimate matter, which will be without element, and without present essence ; but that which is temporated and that which is incorrupt will the more certainly follow. For these things are not understood by the spirit, but from Nature, with this evidence that the eternal follows the mortal. For, if an insensible plant perishes, then something eternal succeeds to its place. There is no frail or fading thing in the whole world which does not substitute in its place something which is eternal. Nothing has been created void, nothing that is mortal without a succession of what is eternal. After the end of all created objects these eternal things will meet together, and be collected not only as nutriments, but as a magistery of Nature, both in the perishable and in the eternal. And thus the eternal is a sign of the dissolution of Nature, and not the beginning of created things, and the end in all things which no nature is without. And although, indeed, the fatal beings, such as melosinse and nymphs, are to have something eternal behind them, yet we will not here treat of their corruption. For a manifold decay is here involved, inasmuch as there are four worlds. For decay is terrestrial, aerial, igneous, and aqueous. Each of these, with those created with it, is turned and led downwards to decay with the eternal which is left. Nevertheless, these four decays will reduce their eternal portion to one similitude, notably and visibly, not with their works, but with their essence. For each eternal thing is a single habitation, prevailing, however, in many differences.

We must not pass by in silence the evestrum, according to its essence ; it is either mortal or immortal. The evestrum is like a shadow on a wall. The shadow grows and originates with the body, and remains with it up to its ultimate matter. The evestrum has its origin with the first generation of everything. Everything animate and inanimate, sensible and insensible, has conjoined with itself an evestrum, just as everything casts a shadow. The trarames is understood to be, as it were, a shadow of the invisible essence. It is born with the reason and the imagination of both intelligent animals and of brute beasts. To philosophise about the evestrum and the trarames belongs to the very highest philosophy. The evestrum gives prophecy, and the trarames gives acumen. To prophecy about what shall happen to a man or animal, or even to a piece of wood, belongs to the shadowed evestrum. What will be the method comes from the trarames. So the evestra either have a beginning or have it not. Those which have a beginning carry dissolution with them, together with something eternal surviving. That which has no beginning possesses the power of sharpening the traramium in the intellect. The mortal evestrum knows the eternal. This knowledge is the mother of prophecy. For the foundation of all intellect is from the evestrum as it is extracted or elicited by the light of Nature. Thus the prophet " evestrates," that is, he vaticinates by means of the evestrum. If the spirit prophecies, that is without the light of Nature. So it is for us fallacious, liable to imposture and uncertain, as also certain and true. And in the same way the trarames also, as the shadow of reason, may be divided.

Moreover, in the dissolution of all things the evestrum also and the trarames will be dissolved, but not without some relics of the eternal. So, then, the evestrum is exactly as it were the firmament in the four worlds. The firmament is fourfold, according to the four worlds, divided into four perfect essences, each world perfectly regarding its own creation, because It is itself of that nature : one in the earth from the firmament, one in the water, air, and fire respectively. But the firmament which is in the evestrum is dispersed, not VOL, II, T stars which are visible, but these are firmaments to the nymphs which are not stars. Neither do they use stars, but they have a peculiar and proper firmament as fates ; the igneous have each their private heaven, earth, abode, dwelling, firmament, stars, planets, and other like things, which are not in the least the one like the other. As water and fire, the substantial and the impalpable, the visible and the invisible, stand mutually related to one another, so is it with matters of this kind. In these the evestrum is divided with respect to fatal things, and remains a shadow of itself after its essence from dissolution ; and the evestrum after fire adheres to the igneous man, as another to the aqueous, and another to the terrene. This evestrum falsifies and deludes the world, shadowing itself by fraud from one world to another, shewing visions, splendours, signs, forms, and appearances. Hence arise the evestrum of comets, the evestrum of impressions, the evestrum of miracles. These three are the prophetic evestra and the shadowed evestra.

It is, however, firstly and chiefly, necessary that we should know this prophet evestrum. For turban is the great essence of this kind, presaging all things which are in the four worlds. For whatever is about to happen by way of prodigy, and against Nature, or against common opinion and life, is known by the prophet evestrum, which is taken, and shadows itself forth from the great turban. It is most necessary that the prophet should know the great turban. It is most difiicult to be understood, and is united with reason. It is, therefore, possible for a mortal man to know the great turban even to its extreme resolution. By this all the prophets spoke ; for in it are all the signs of the world. From it all evestra are born, from it the comets are shadowed, prodigious stars which arise contrary to the usual course of the heavens. From turban all impressions get their beginning, not from the firmament or from the stars. As often as something unheard of and rare is about to happen, outsiders sally forth and messengers in advance, by whom the coming misfortune is announced to the people. These presages are not natural, but they come from the prophetic evestrum. All epidemics, wars, seditions, have their presages, which arise from turban. Whoever has knowledge of the properties of evestra, he is a prophet and a seer of futurity. For the Most High does not parley with men, nor does he send down angels from His throne to announce these things in advance. They are fore-known and understood from the great turban which many pagans and Jews have worshipped as God, being blinded in their senses and intellect as to who the true God was.

Since, then, a shadowed evester is born with every created thing, and arises therefrom, it is well to know that by means thereof may be prognosticated the fortune and life of that thing whose evestrum it is. For example, when an infant is born there is born at the same time with it an evestrum constantly expressed in that same child, so that from the cradle to the hour of death it prophecies concerning the child, and points out what is going to happen. If it is to die, death does not arrive until the evestrum has announced it beforehand, either by knocking, shaking, or falling, or by some other warning of this kind. Whence, if the evestrum be understood, it can be presaged that this is a sign of death. Moreover, the evestrum is united with the eternal. After the death of a man his evestrum remains upon earth and gives signs whether the man is in happiness or misery. Nor should one say, as simple folks do, that this is the spirit or soul of the man, or that the dead himself is walking about. This is the evestrum of the dead man which does not yield its place until the final end, in which all things will meet. This evestrum works signs. The gods, by their evestrum alone, have wrought miracles ; and as the sun in its splendour puts forth his heat, and his nature, and his essence, so it is in our case with the presaging and prophetic evestra, in which our trust should be placed. These evestra regulate sleep and sleeplessness, the prefigurations of future events, the nature of things, reason, concupiscence, and thought.

In this way when future events are predicted in the elements by that in which evestra dwell, there will be evestra in water, some in mirrors, some in crystals, and some in polished surfaces ; some will be understood by the motion of waters, some by songs and animum ; for all these things can — so to say — " evestrate." The great and good God has a mysterious evestrum, in which are seen His essence and attributes. By the mysterial evestrum are known all that is good and all that is illuminated. On the other hand, the Damned Spirit himself has an evestrum in the world by which evil is known, together with all which violates and corrupts the law of Nature. But though these two evestrate, still they do not not in any way affect our life. Only by our evestrum shall we know ourselves. In all creatures are evestra, which are in all respects prophets, whether rational or irrational, whether gifted with sense or destitute of it. The evestrum is the spirit which teaches astronomy (astrology). Not that it is known by prognostications and nativities drawn from the stars ; but its essence, if I may so say, is in the evestra, and its being is in these, as an image in a mirror, or a shadow in water or on the ground. And, just as growing things increase or diminish, so is it with the stars ; not because from their own nature they have such a course, and damp and cold arise from the earth, but because the essence of the earth is such. So it is shadowed forth in heaven and over different parts according to the evestrum, and not as a power.

Evestra of this kind will be corrupted, yet, nevertheless, they will not perish without the eternal. Nor will the evestra themselves be regarded, but they will dwell near those to whom they belong. Whence each will be its own adviser, so that before all else it may exhort and know itself. The nature and number of evestra is infinite. These guide the sleepers, foreshadow good and evil, search into the thoughts, and accomplish the labours or the works without any bodily motion. So, then, the evestrum is a marvellous matter, and the mother of all things in prophets, in astronomers (astrologers), and in physicians. Unless the understanding thereof be sought through the evestrum there is no knowledge of Nature. As theft betokens punishment, as a cloud foretells rain, and lotium bespeaks disease, so the evestrum shews everything without any exception. By it the sibyls and prophets spoke, but, as it were, in a kind of sleep-wakefulness. In this way the evestra are in the four worlds, the one ever communicating to the other presage, image, and miracle ; and by their regeneration they will be found much more wonderful. Nor let us here omit to say that the evestrum is a remnant of the eternal, the sustainer of religions, and the mode of operation for celestial things. For happiness alone and blessedness, and the chief good, and the last judgment, move us, and instigate us the more keenly and more profoundly to search and to investigate what difference there is between these two, the true and the false ; and this must be weighed and learnt not spiritually, but naturally.

EVERYTHING in existence necessarily has a body. The mode and manner may be understood as being like a smoky spirit, which indeed has substance, but is not a body, nor is it tangible. But, though this be the case, still both bodies and substances can be produced from it. This may be understood from fuming arsenic ; since after the generation of a body, nothing more is seen of the fume of the spirit, just as if it had been all reduced to a body. But this is not so. Something of a most subtle nature still remains in that place of generation. Thus by the process of separation there are produced something visible and something invisible. By this method and in this mode all things are propagated. Wood has still surviving the spirit from which it has been separated. So have stones, and so all things, without any exception. Their essence still survives just as it was separated from It. Man, in like manner, is nothing else than a relic and a survival from the separated fume. But mark this, that a certain spirit existed^ and from that man is made up, and is most subtle in spirit. This spirit is the index of a twofold eternity, one being the caleruthum, and the other the meritorium. The caleruthum is the indication in the first eternity. It seeks or makes for the other, that is, God. That is a natural cause because all things affect or tend towards that from which they proceeded, or those natures which have been in contact with it ;

for whatever anything when building up used in the process, that the thing when it is built up desires after and pursues. And this should be understood, that a thing which has been buijt up does, by Nature, or by natural instinct, tend not towards its builder, but towards that from which it has proceeded. So the human body longs for the matter from which it has been separated, and not for God, since it was not taken out of Him. And that matter is the life and the habitation in which the eternal meritorium abides. So everything returns to its essence.

Since, then, everything has an appetency for its source, that is, for the mystery whence it sprang, it must now be further understood that this is eternal life, and that what comes forth from thence is mortal. None the less, however, there remains in the mortal something eternal, that is, the soul, as may be learnt elsewhere. And if a perishable thing is to return to its pristine condition, that can only be done by a conjunction of what is permanent ; then at length there is a collocation and a union of things. The form and substance, however, both of transitory and of non-transitory things, proceeds from that spirit of fume, just as hail or lightning emerges from a cloud. These are corporeal, and that matter from which they have proceeded remains invisible. So, then, it may be laid down that all things spring from the invisible, yet, without its suffering loss, for the matter has always the power of regenerating and recuperating that loss. Hence, also, it happens that the whole world will pass away like snow and return to the same essence of the spirit of smoke, and then will come together or coalesce apart from all tangible essence. In this way, it can be again re-born as at first. Hence, also, it is known that no created thing exists which has been born, but only as it has been built up or created. So, the chief good is constituted in the beginning of all things that anything shall thus proceed from the invisible and become corporeal, and then shall afterwards be separated again from its body, and once more become invisible.

Then all things are again joined together and united and reduced to their primal matter. And although, indeed, they may be united, yet still they involve some distinction and difference one from the other. One is the abode of the other ; that other is the inmate of the abode. For that is the habitation of all things ; sensible and insensible alike must all return to that condition and to that place. For, whether rational or irrational, nothing is free from this change, but will return to its habitation, from which it has been separated, and there appear.

So, too, every body, or every tangible substance, is nothing else but coagulated smoke. Hence it may be assumed that such coagulation is manifold. One kind refers to wood, another to stone, a third to metal. But the body itself is none other than smoke, breathing forth from the matter or the matrix in which it is present. What grows from the ground is a smoke brought forth from the liquid of Mercury, which is various, and emits a manifold smoke for herbs, trees, and the like. But that smoke, if it issues forth from its primal, or as soon as it expires from the matrix touches foreign air, is thereupon coagulated. So this smoke constantly and persistently evaporates. As long, therefore, as it is driven and disturbed, so long the thing grows, but when the ebullition ceases the smoking also ceases. This terminates, too, both the coagulation and the growth. Wood is the smoke from Derses. Therein is latent a specific from which wood is produced. Nor is it only produced from this smoke ; it may be produced also from other dersic matter. In like manner, leffas is boiling matter, from the smoke of which all herbs are gendered. For the only predestination of herbs is leffa ;

there is no other. God is more wonderful in specifics than in all other natures. Stannar is the mother of metals, furnishing the first matter for metals by its fume. Metals, in fact, are "nothing but the coagulated fume from stannar. Enur is the fume of stones. In fine, whatever is corporeal is nothing but coagulated smoke, in which there is latent a specific predestination. All things, too, will ultimately be resolved like smoke ; for the specific which coagulates has no power save for a definite time. The same may also be said of coagulation. All bodies will at last pass away and vanish in smoke, and will be terminated only in smoke. This is the consumption of everything corporeal, both living and dead.

Man is coagulated smoke. Only from the boiling vapours and spermatic members of the body is the coagulation of spermatic matter produced. Man, too, will be resolved into a vapour of this kind ; so that death may be like birth. Moreover, we see in ourselves nothing else than that man is coagulated smoke formed by human predestination. Whatsoever, too, is taken or given forth is merely the coagulated fume from liquids. And so whatever is injected is consumed by the life on the same principle, so that the coagulation may be again dissolved and liquefied, as ice is liquefied by the sun, that it may afterwards vanish into the air like smoke. Life consumes everything ; for it is the spirit of consumption in all corporeities and substances. Here, too, attention must be given to the preparation of the digested mystery ; for if everything is due to return to that state from which it originated, and so anything is given forth, then it is consumed together with the life. This, however, happens only in those things which are not transmuted. Transmutation is not driven back or repressed ; and some transmutation is produced by means of life. Thus, then, is transmutation altered into the frailty of the body ; but, nevertheless, it is again separated from the body. For in its putrefaction, transmutation has no further power, and in putrefaction the digested mystery ensues as a consequence. In the meantime, there are mutually separated all the properties which man had in himself from herbs and other things, each returning to its own essence.

Separation is, in fact, like that process by which, if ten or twelve things are mixed they are again dissevered, so that each regains its own special essence. Thus, eating is nothing else than a dissolution of bodies. Hence the materials of bodies are separated in vomitings and dejections from the bowels, which are simply foetid smoke mixed with good. Nature, indeed, seeks only the subtle, avoiding what is dense. Stones, metals, and earths — in a word, all things — are dissolved by life ; nor is there any other dissolution of them by the body than that which is brought about by its life.

Moreover, it is equally necessary to understand the process by which each separate thing regains its own essence. This cannot be more fitly compared to anything than to fire, which is elicited from a hard flint, flaming and burning beyond all natural knowledge. For, as that hidden fire takes its origin and proceeds to work its effects, in the same form and appearance also is the essence led to its nature. And here reflect that in the beginning there existed only one thing, without any inclination or speciality, and from this afterwards all things issued forth. This origin exactly resembles some well-tempered colour, purple for instance, having in itself no inclination to any other colour, but conspicuous in its just temperature Yet, notwithstanding, in that colour all colours are existent. For the other colours cannot be separated from it — red, green, blue, clay colour, white, black. Each of these colours, again, brings forth other blind colours, while yet each one is by itself entirely and properly tinted. And although many and various colours are latent in them, still, nevertheless, they are all hidden under one colour. In the same manner, too, everything had its essence in the Great Mystery, which the Supreme Architect afterwards separated. The crystal emits fire, not from a fiery nature, but on account of its hardness and solidity. It also hides in itself other elements, not essentially, but materially, ardent fire, blowing air, moistening water, and earth which is black and dry.

Besides all these things it possesses in the composition of its qualities all colours, but hidden within itself, as the fire lies hid in the steel, betraying its presence neither by burning, nor by shining, nor by casting a colour. In this respect, all colours and all elements are present in everything. But how all things arrive at and penetrate to all other things, if anyone cares to know, let him believe that all these matters are brought about and cared for by Him alone, who is the Maker and Architect of all things.

Although, as has been said, Nature lies invisibly in bodies and in substances ; nevertheless, that invisibility is led to visibility by means of those bodies themselves. According as the essence of each is situated, so is it seen visibly in its virtues and in its colours. Invisible bodies, however, have no other method than this corporeal one. So mark, then, that the invisibles contain within themselves all the elements, and operate in every element. They can send forth from themselves fire and the virtue of its element ; and so, too, do they send forth air, as a man sends forth his breath, or water, as a man sends forth urine. They are also of the nature of earth, and sprung from the earth. Know this, too, that the liquid of the earth always boils, and sends forth on high, beyond itself, the subtle spirit which it contains in itself. From this are nourished the invisibles and the firmament itself, and this could not be done without vapour. Incorporeal as well as corporeal things need food and drink. For this reason stones come forth from the earth from a like spirit of their nature. Each one attracts its own to itself. , From the same source come spectres, fiery dragons, and the like. If, therefore, invisible as ^well as visible are each in its own essence, this is due to the nature of the

Great Mystery, as wood acquires ignition from a light or a taper, though this suffers no loss. And though, indeed, it be not corporeal, still it needs something corporeal in order to escape death, which is produced by the wood. In the same way, all invisibles need to be sustained, nourished, and increased by some visible thing. With these, indeed, they will at length perish and come to an end, still, however, having their activity in them without any waste or loss to other things, that is to say, to the corporeal and the visible, although this is brought about by the invisible, and apprehended by the visible. The rest (Jor doubtless the author advanced further) has not come down to us.

Written by the Doctor Theophrastus of Hohenheim. I have accounted it a thing at once convenient and reasonable that, seeing there is an order of the whole of astronomy, myself to explain the method by which it may be taught and known. It is the more needful that I should come forward because all science is completely corrupted and polluted by shameful notions, and imperatively calls for illumination by its true and genuine sense. Yet, having regard to the present times, I do not doubt that my labour will appear absurd and useless to many. I write these things by reason of those very persons— for the detection of their ignorant and random judgment. Such is the blindness of the world that it invariably prefers the name rather than that which the name signifies. Astronomy contains in itself seven faculties or religions ; he who does not know them all is unworthy to be called an astronomer. Let each man remain in that religion or faculty wherein he occupies himself; let the astologer deal with astrology ; he who treats of the religion of magic, let him remain exclusively a magus ; he who is concerned with divination, let him remain a diviner ; he who regards nigromancy, a nigromantic ; he who studies signatures, a signator ; he who is devoted to the uncertain arts, an incertus ; he who investigates matter, a physicist. Let not the astronomer deny that magic is astronomy, nor yet refuse the name to divination, nigromancy, and the rest. All these things are comprehended under astronomy as much as is astrology itself. They are natural and essential sciences of the stars, and he who is acquainted with them all, he is worthy to be called an astronomer. But albeit these sciences are sisters, they have heretofore been ignorant of their relationship, which it is important to recognise, so that one may not be despised by the other.

As, however, astronomy does not lead to the life which is eternal, though it may be called the highest wisdom of mortals in the light of Nature, it is not the highest wisdom of men. Beyond this wisdom there is another given from on high, which transcends the created and surpasses by far all mortal sapience. But, you will reply, the Father made the Light of Nature and also man himself. Blessed is the man who walks in that light for which he was formed, seeing that it derives from the Father ! But what follows? The Son gave the Light of Eternal Wisdom to man that he might also walk therein. Can one contaminate the other? Happy is he that walks in the Father, happy is he that walks in the Son ! It is right to live in both — in one to that which is mortal, in the other to that which is eternal. For whereas the Father is not angry with the Son, neither the Son angry with the Father, how then can the Light of Nature be separated from that which is eternal ? One remains in the other. Nevertheless, these twain are separated by him who hands over to another what does not belong to himself, and speaks from his mouth that which he knows not in his heart. Each one on earth has his special predestinated gift, and it is lawful for him to work therewith. This gift in the light of Nature has regard to the neighbour. But besides this there are the gifts of the Holy Spirit — that is to say, prophetic and apostolic. Those who hunger after the goods of their neighbour possess not the divine gift, and those who speak hypocrisy have not the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I freely confess that I have seen no prophets or apostles. I have, however, seen their writings, which dictate an eternal wisdom, and for this reason I by no means prefer the light of Nature thereto, but tread it under my feet, for the prophets have prophesied such things as no astronomer could have done. The apostles have healed sufferers whom medicine could never have restored. Therefore the relation of the physician to the apostle is the same as that which obtains between the astronomer and the prophet. What physician can restore the dead to life ? Can any astronomer prophesy as David? Medicine is fallible, not so the apostles. But I only teach concerning ourselves as mortals in the light of Nature, with this limitation, that the wisdom of God is before all. The astronomer is acquainted with the figure, form, appearance, and essence of the heaven. The magus operates on the old and new heaven. The diviner speaks from the stars. The nigromancer controls sidereal bodies. The signator is versed in the microcosmic constellation. The adept in uncertain arts rules the imagination. The physicist composes. Now, those who give light on earth as torches in the Light of Nature shall shine, through Christ, as stars for ever. Wherefore let every one so consider these my sayings that he may gain the more from them than is written. The seed is cast into the earth, but it is another who giveth the increase. I, indeed, offer you the seed ; He who brings forth seedtime and harvest, may He so conduct you to the end that ye may rejoice in an abundant vine !

IN order that, before advancing to definitions and proofs, I may communicate to you my full scheme, I would have you know somewhat concerning the stars. The whole machmery of the universe is divided into two parts, a visible body and an invisible body. The visible and tangible is the body of the universe, consisting of three primals, Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt. This is the elemental body of the universe, and the elements themselves are that body. The body which is not tangible, but impalpable and invisible, is the sidereal heaven or firmament. The firmament which we see is corporeal, visible, and material. This, however, is not the firmament itself, but its body. The firmament no one has ever seen, but only its body, just as the soul of man is not visible. The whole universe is thus divided into two parts, into body and firmament. Moreover, the firmament consists of two parts. One is in heaven among the stars ; the other in the globe of the earth. Hence two essences of the firmament are built up. One is peculiar to the firmament of heaven, and the other peculiar to the element of this globe and sphere. The firmament of the globe or sphere is of such a nature that out of it grows whatever the body of the earth or of the elements gives or appoints. Thus from the ground the firmament of the globe brings forth the fruits, which could not be accomplished without the firmament.

And the same is the case with all things that are produced from the ground. The other firmament has its special operation in heaven, that is, it relates solely to man. Now, although both star-systems, the upper and the lower, are linked together, conjoined, united, and run one with the other, still there is this difference, that the upper stars govern the higher senses, and the lower govern growing things ; that is, the upper system arranges the anitnal intellect, and the lower those things which grow, springing forth from the sphere itself.

Beyond what has been already said, I shall enter upon no discussion as to the firmament of the globe, save so far as concerns its fruits and its growths. These are its philosophy. I shall put forward so much, however, with regard to the sense-producing star as will enable us to know that man is divided in himself ; namely, into the body of the globe and the body of the senses, that is into a visible, palpable body and a body that is invisible and impalpable ; or, in other words, into an elementary body of the three primals, Salt, Sulphur, Mercury, and into a sidereal body. So far as relates to the body of man, he is merely flesh and blood. That which is impalpable in him is called spirit. Thus man is made up of flesh, blood, and spirit. . Moreover, the flesh and blood are not the man, but the spirit existing in himself. The spirit of man is wisdom, sense, intellect ; and these are the man. The body is mere brute matter. The spirit is subjected to the stars, and the body is subjected to the spirit. So the star governs the man in his spirit, and the spirit governs the body in the flesh and blood. That spirit, however, is mortal, since it is not the soul. The soul is supernatural, and I do not speak of that here, but only of that which, being created in Adam, trenches on Nature, that is to say, flesh, blood, and this spirit.

Whoever, therefore, is not reborn dies, and cannot sustain that spirit, but is carried off" to death. So, then, there is a certain conjunction of the star and the man, of the elements and the man. It is a single conjunction, and a single alliance, of such a nature that no partition or separation can occur. All which can happen is that the soul departs, and is separated, that it leaves what is produced by the machinery of the world, and takes to itself what is eternal. This I point out in order that the star may be rightly comprehended among the things that are above and in the globe of the world ; whilst, at the same time, it may be duly understood how each constituent part has been united in man. In this way the agreement and the operation of the star, one with another, will be understood, and we shall have ascertained what effect the external stars can have on man, and also what those things which are in man do in external things. For it is true that the external stars affect the man, and the internal stars in man affect outward things, in fact and in operation, the one on the other. For what Mars is able to effect in us, that also can the man effect in himself if he restrain himself in his manly operations. Thus are the double stars related one to the other. Man can affect heaven no less than heaven affects man.

And now we have to discuss the medium between the principal stars and the body. There is one star which governs all things ; in man the animal intelligence, in brutes sensation, in the elements their operation. The star is the one supreme thing created from destruction or dissolution ; and it is that in Olympus which has all these things under itself. Its office is to operate in man, to operate in elements, to operate in animals, to turn and to change their senses and their mind. Now, it is impossible to do this without a medium. This same medium is and must be a star situated in those things where the supreme operates. By this medium is produced an effect on the substance and on the body. Let us illustrate the matter by an example. If Mars is to act on a man, that cannot be done without a medium, which shall serve as the material star. By means of this Mars acts. Thus, if the higher star is to act on a parrot, it is necessary that there should be in the parrot a star as a medium by which the superior star acts. Hence it is clear that there is some star in man, in birds, and in all animals ; and whatever these do, they do by the impulse of the higher influence which is received from the constellation, and regulates the unequal concordance,

Moreover, there is a similar star also in the elements, as in the earth, and that an efficacious one. That star receives an impression from the higher star, and then of itself acts on the earth, so that there is drawn forth from the earth whatever exists or lies hid in it. The same is the case with the element of water and the rest. So a person is first of all an astrologer from the higher star, and another from the star of men. There is an astrologer from the star of the elements, and there is an astrologer from the star of animals. In this way there are four astrologers of the elements, two of the stars of men and animals respectively, which make six ; and then one of the superior star, which is the seventh. Besides these there remains yet another astrology born of the imagination in man, superior to all the rest, and standing eighth in order. This, like the others, has been neglected and passed over by astrologers ; but whoever would be accounted an astrologer must have a perfect knowledge of all the eight. But, although those who are skilled in particular departments ought not to be despised, yet they cannot act universally. The star is divided into eight parts ; one is effective, six are subject to it ; the eighth is in itself effective and like the first, nay, in some respects it is superior to, and more excellent than, the first, as will hereafter be more clearly shewn, when we speak of the new heaven and firmament. But it is only right that the celestial astronomer should know also about the rest. Now, these intermediate stars act, follow one another, and agree, so that nothing shall be predicted from the higher star, with the accomplishment of which the lower star interferes and produces something else, be it better or worse.

Hence, it is clear that astronomy was always highly valued by the ancients from the time of the Deluge up to the birth of Christ. All species of Astronomy, it is well known, were highly cultivated. In the time of Christ, however, this ceased ; and it is (? not) matter for regret that under Christ this should have occurred, because the Father had determined by His mighty love that men should confine their thoughts to Him, and that useless things should be omitted ; and yet many of these things originated and grew up under Christ and afterwards inundated the whole world. In order to understand this, I would have you know that Christ taught eternal wisdom, and took care for the soul, not without a purpose, but that the image of God might be promoted to the kingdom of its Creator, and so the lower wisdom might be neglected while the higher might be more actively cultivated. Although, therefore, in this book I write these things like a heathen man, I profess myself a Christian. The heathen, however, can rejoice in the Father who is not opposed to the Son ; and he is not really a heathen if he walks in the light of Nature. The wisdom of Christ is better than all the wisdom of Nature. I myself avow this, that one prophet in a single hour speaks more certainly and more truly than all the astrologers in many years, and one apostle far excels in truth all the magicians.

What could resist the school of those who spoke with tongues of fire ? And yet, though these gifts were possessed, a certain sect ' rose up in the time of Christ speciously boasting an eternal wisdom which they did not possess, though it grew and spread abroad. This sect cut itself off from the noble science of astronomy, and took its place much as dung might take the place of fruit. Hence it occurred that, in course of time, not only the foundation and light of eternal wisdom, but also the true astronomy itself was obliterated, and the entire light of Nature at length corrupted and obscured. This was a lamentable evil and sin. Woe to those who sin against the Holy Spirit as do these of whom I complain ! I confess that it is better to speak from God than from astronomy ; it is better to heal from God than by means of herbs ; better to preach from God than from false prophets, which is the sin against the Holy Ghost. What comes from God is not halt or maimed, but has, as they say, hands and feet. What comes from Nature is, for the most part, worm-eaten and decayed. All things are not from God ; but some are from Nature. All are not from Nature, but some from God. If the magi, the astronomers, the signators, the necromancers, the incerti, the diviners, should give up their science and follow the prophets, the apostles, and especially Christ Himself, who could impute it to them for a fault that they aspired to the greater from the less, from Nature to Christ ? Yet we cannot but lament that they did not penetrate to that school which spoke with the tongues of fire, though they had almost lost the light of Nature. Hence it happens that they thoroughly detest both kinds of wisdom.

Concerning the stars, I lay it down that they it is which confer all animal intelligence. As the body is conferred by the globe, in the same way is the intellect conferred by the star. One cannot exist without the other. I am forced to admit that it repented the Father that He had made man, whom the Son regenerates. It is therefore wiser to be in communion with the Son than with the Father, though the light of the Father must not be abandoned. For the Father is not opposed to the Son, nor the Son to the Father. Woe to him who sins againt the Holy Spirit ! I acknowledge that man is dust ; for he was taken from the elements. What are the elements ? Nothing. What is man ? Nothing. Better is it then to follow, not that which is nothing, but that which is something. But when it comes to recognising the wondrouS works of God, it cannot be but that I shall feel a difficulty. For the gifts of God are given to the Prophets, are given to Apostles, and to Saints. But so also those gifts are bestowed on astronomers and on physicians. All are by God and from God. Whatever is pre-destined to Prophets and Apostles will succeed. May that too succeed which is pre-destined to astronomy and to medicine, but all by means of God and of His operations !

It is not everything that regards what is eternal or that regards even Nature ; everything looks to its own. What I have to say of man, of animal, of elementary body, or of wisdom from the stars, is strictly true ; and since man remains as he was formed at the beginning, I describe him as such, making in this place no mention of the new birth. Still, if the old birth and the new could not coexist, I would not describe the one or the other, but would vote all things vain. In the

meantime, as to the accusation that I, being a Christian, treat a heathen topic, if the Father and the Son be agreed, and the one exist in the other, I would hope that this fact need cause no strife with any person ; and unless, indeed, opposition were raised by that sect which has darkened the light of Christ as well as the light of Nature, and so brought it about that between two stools one comes to the ground, any one would readily undertake to write on these matters. In the meantime, if the renovation of the world takes place, then will be brought to pass the saying that was uttered by the eternal Virgin, "He has filled the hungry with good things ; and the rich He has sent empty away."

By Dr. Theophrastus Hohenheim. Concerning the Mass and the Matter out of which Man was Made. IT follows next in order to consider how it comes about that external causes are so powerful in man. It must be realised, first of all, that God created all things in heaven and on earth — day and night, all elements, and all animals. When all these were created, God then made man. And here, on the subject of creation, two remarks have to be made. First, all things were made of nothing, by a word only, save man alone. God made man out of something, that is to say, from a mass, which was a body, a substance — a something. What it was — this mass — we will briefly enquire. God took the body out of which He built up man from those things which He created from nothingness into something. That mass was the extract of all creatures in heaven and earth, just as if one should extract the soul or spirit, and should take that spirit or that body. For example, man consists of flesh and blood, and besides that of a soul, which is the man, much more subtle than the former. In this manner, from all creatures, all elements, all stars in heaven and earth, all properties, essences, and natures, that was extracted which was most subtle and most excellent in all, and this was united into one mass.

From this mass man was afterwards made. Hence man is now a microcosm, or a little world, because he is an extract from all the stars and planets of the whole firmament, from the earth and the elements ; and so he is their quintessence. The four elements are the universal world, and from these man is constituted. In number, therefore, he is fifth, that is, the fifth or quint-essence, beyond the four elements out of which he has been extracted as a nucleus. But between the macrocosm and the microcosm this difference occurs, that the form, image, species, and substance of man are diverse therefrom. In man the earth is flesh, the water is blood, fire is the heat thereof, and air is the balsam. These properties have not been changed, but only the substance of the body. So man is man, not a world, yet made from the world, made in the likeness, not of the world, but of God. Yet man comprises in VOL, II. U

himself all the qualities of the world. Whence the Scripture rightly says we are dust and ashes, and into ashes we shall return ; that is, although man, indeed, is made in the image of God, and has flesh and blood, and is not like the world, but more than the world, still, nevertheless, he is earth and dust and ashes. And he should lay this well to heart lest from his figure he should suffer himself to be led astray ; but he should think what he has been, what he now is, and what hereafter he shall be. Attend, therefore, to these examples. Since man is nothing else than what he was, and out of which he was made, let him not, even in imagination, be led astray. The knowledge of the fact tends to force upon him the confession that he is nothing but a mass drawn forth from the great universe. This being the case, he must know that he cannot be sustained and nourished therefrom. His body is from the world, and therefore must be fed and nourished by that world from which he has sprung. So it is that his food and his drink and all his aliment grow from the ground. The great universe contributes less to his food and nourishment. If man were not from the great world but from heaven, then he would take celestial bread from heaven along with the angels.

He has been taken from the earth and from the elements, and therefore must be nourished by these. Without the great world he could not live, but would be dead, and so he is like the dust and ashes of the great world. It is settled, then, that man is sustained from the four elements, and that he takes from the earth his food, from the water his drink, from the fire his heat, and from the air his breath. But these all make for the sustentation of the body only, of the flesh and the blood.

Now, man is not only flesh and blood, but there is within him the intellect which does not, like the complexion, come from the elements, but from the stars. And the condition of the stars is this, that all the wisdom, intelligence, industry of the animal, and all the arts peculiar to man are contained in them. From the stars man has these same things, and that is called the light of Nature ; in fact, it is whatever man has found by the light of Nature. Let us illustrate our position by an example. The body of man takes its food from the earth, to which food it is destined by its conception and natural agreement. This is the reason why one person likes one kind of food, and another likes another, each deriving his pleasure from the earth. Animals do the same, hunting out the food and drink for their bodies which has been implanted in the earth. Now as there is in man a special faculty for sustaining his body, that is, his flesh and blood, so is it with his intellect. He ought equally to sustain that with its own familiar food and drink, though not from the elements, since the senses are not corporal but are of the spirit as the stars are of the spirit. He then attracts by the spirit of his star, in whom that spirit is conceived and born. For the spirit in man is nourished just as much as the body. This special feature was engrafted on man at his creation, that although he shares the divine image, still he is not nourished by divine food, but by elemental. He is divided into two parts ; into an elemental body, that is, into flesh and

Hermetic Astronomy. 29 r blood, whence that body must be nourished ; and into spirit, whence he is compelled to sustain his spirit from the spirit of the star. Man himself is dust and ashes of the earth. Such, then, is the condition of man, that, out of the great universe he needs both elements and stars, seeing that he himself is constituted in that way. And now we must speak of the conception of man, how he is begotten and made. The first man was made from the mass, extracted from the machinery of the whole universe. Then there was built up from him a woman, who corresponds to him in his likeness to the universe. For the future, there proceeds from the man and the woman the generation of all children, of all men. Moreover, the hand of God made the first man after God's own image in a wonderful manner, but still composed of flesh and blood, that he may be very man. Afterwards the first man and his wife were subjected to Nature, and so far separated from the hand of God that man was no longer built up miraculously by God's hand, but by Nature. The generation of man, therefore, has been entrusted to Nature and conferred on one mass from which he had proceeded. That mass in Nature is called semen. Most certain it is, however, that a man and woman only cannot beget a man, but along with those two, the elements also and the spirit of the stars.

These four make up the man. The semen is not in the man, save in so far as it enters into him elementarily. When, in the act of conception, the elements do not operate, no body is begotten. Where the star does not operate, no spirit is produced. Whatever is produced without the elements and the spirit of the stars is a monster, a mola, an abortion contrary to Nature. As God took the mass and infused life into it, so must the composition perpetually proceed from those four and from God, in whose hand all things are placed. The body and the spirit must be there. These two constituents make up the man— the human being, that is, the man with the woman, and the semen, which comes from without, and is, as it were, an aliment, something which the man has not within himself, but attracts from without, just as though it were a potion. Such as the principle of food and drink isj such is also that of the sperm, which the elements from without contribute to the body as a mass. The star, by means of its spirit, confers the senses. The father and mother are the instruments of the externals by which these are perfected. In order to make this intelligible, I will adduce an example : In the earth nothing grows unless the higher stars contribute their powers. What are these powers ? They are such that one cannot exist without the other, but of necessity one must act in conjunction with the other.

As those without are, such are those within, so far as man is concerned. Hence it is inferred that the first man was miraculously made, and so existed as the work of God. After that, man was subjugated to Nature, so that he should beget children in connection with her. Now, Nature means the external world in the elements and in the stars. Now it is evident from this that those elements have their prescribed course and mode of operation, just

as the stars, too, have their daily course. They proceed in their daily agree- ment, and at particular epochs Nature puts forth new ones. Now, if this form of operation — if the father and mother — with this concordance meet together for the work of conception, then the foetus is allotted the Nature of those from whom it is born, namely, of the four parents — the father, the mother, the elements, the stars. From the father and mother proceed a like image and essence of flesh and blood. Besides this, from their imagination, which is the human star, there is allotted the intellect, in proportion wherein the concordance and constellation have exhibited themselves. So, too, from the elements there is allotted the complexion and the quality of the nature. So, too, from the external stars their intelligence. As these meet, the influence which is stronger than the others, preponderates in the foetus, or else there is a mutual commingling of all. Thus man becomes a microcosm. The father and mother are made from the universe, and the universe is constantly contributing to the generation of man. In this way, there is constituted a single body, but a double nature, a single spirit, but a twofold sense. At length the body returns to its primal body, and the senses to the primal sense. They die, pass away, and depart, never to return. The ashes cannot again be made wood, neither can man from that state in which he is ashes be brought back so as to be man again.

Now we have traced the generation of man to this point as a general and universal probation of the whole of astronomy, in order that it might be understood from thence why the astronomer studies and gets to know men by the stars, namely, because man is from the stars. As every son is known by his father, so is it here ; and this science is very useful if a man knows who is from heaven, from the elements, from father and mother. The knowledge of the father and mother lies at the root. The knowledge of the elements pertains to medicine. The knowledge of the stars is astrological. There are many reasons why these cognitions are useful and good. Many men are mere brutes, and yet make themselves out angels. Many speak from their mother, calling themselves Samuels or Maccabees. Many in their earthly complexion fast and pray, and call themselves divine. Many handle those things which are not really what they are said to be. Anyone who is an astrologer knows what that spirit is which speaks and is seen. It is matter for regret that many hesitate between the two lights, culling and stealing from each in order to make themselves conspicuous. The spirits are known, indeed, to each, but in a different way, and this should not be so. But though things are thus, man is the work of God, but one only is His very son, that is, Adam.

Others are sons of Nature, as Luke in his genealogy recounts of Joseph, that he was the Son of Helus, which Helus was the son of Mathat, which Mathat was the son of Levi, and so on back to Adam ; yet there is no mention of the son of God. Thus man is a son in Nature, and does not desert his race, but follows the nature of his parents, the stars. Now, he who knows the father and mother of the stars and of the elements, and also the father and mother of the flesh and blood, he is in a position to discuss concerning that offspring,

concerning its nature, essence, properties, in a word, concerning its whole condition. And as a physician compounds all simples into one, preparing a single remedy out of all, which cannot be made up without these numerous ingredients, so God performs His much more notable miracle by concocting man into one compound of all the elements and stars, so that man becomes heaven, firmament, elements, in a word, the nature of the whole universe, shut up and concealed in a slender body. And though God could have made man out of nothing by His one word " Fiat," He was pleased rather to build man up in Nature and to subject him to Nature as its son, but still so that He also subjected Nature to man, though still Nature was man's father. Hence it results that the astronomer knows man's conception by man's parentage. This is the reason why man can be healed by Nature through the agency of a physician, just as a father helps a son who has fallen into a pit. In this way Nature is subjected to man as to its own flesh and blood, its own son, its own fruit produced from itself; in the body of the elements wherein diseases exist ; in the body of the spirit, where flourish the intelligence and reason ; and the elements, indeed, by means of medicine, but the stars by their own knowledge and wisdom. Now, this wisdom in the sight of God is nothing ; but the Divine wisdom is preeminent above all.''' So the names of wisdom differ. That wisdom which comes from Nature is called animal, because it is mortal. That which comes from God is named eternal, because it is free from mortality. These two parts, therefore, seemed to me necessary to be treated before I commented upon astronomy itself, so that from these universal proofs the whole foundation might be the more easily gathered.

The following are the numbers, religions, and faculties of the whole of astrology, which are treated naturally and artificially. Neither more nor fewer than these exist essentially and spiritually. Their names and differences are as follows: — i.. Astrology; ii., Magic; iii.. Divination; iv., Nigromancy; v., * In an exceedingly abstruse treatise on The Foundation of Wisdom and the Sciences, Paracelsus thus delivers himself upon the subject of sapience and knowledge: Whosoever undertakes a treatise on the foundation of wisdom, the same before all things should admonish or teach the reader concerning the origin of the sciences and of sapience. So also the physician who has decided to write concerning diseases must first explain from what foundation he writes, and the author whom he follows, as also how he teaches, in order that the same may be proved in the case of diseases. For out of these the probity and truth of his doctrine and science can be judged: Similarly, we who are about to treat of the foundation of the sciences and the arts must necessarily teach their origin, whence they have proceeded, and whence they are to be learned. Having done this, we must proceed to explain the matter itself. This book treats not of corporal matters, but of things invisible, that is, of reason itself. Hereof I have been impelled to write, seeing that many persons before me have supposed many kinds of wisdom, whereas, so far as regards man, there is only one wisdom ;

for how can one carpenter differ from another carpenter when both construct the same house, both use the same axe, and both have one method of building ? There is one compass. Concerning this, it must be stated in a treatise on science that two compasses are not to be used, for the compass is one and not two. In the same fashion, the carpenter, the quarryman, and the bricklayer can use no compass diflferent from this. Thus the house of wisdom neither can nor ought to be established except upon one foundation. And as the builder's art is defined by one circle, one number, one line, one square, so also through all methods there is one wisdom ; and as the distribution takes place from one circle into a triangle, quadrangle, etc., which, however, are all one circle, the same is to be understood concerning the distribution of sapience. So also, as heaven, earth, air, and water use one and the same line, thus according to one line all wisdom is educed and extended. And as all men and all things are numbered by one number, so there is one number of wisdom itself, nor is any other beyond it to be taken. But inasmuch as a line is drawn by a free hand, yet by no means a correct one, or a circle, also by no means accurate, is described by hand, etc., so also lines, circles, and other figures proceed from sapience, but are by no means correct. For such sapience is by no means a true circle, quadrangle, or line. Hence I have determined to treat shortly of the foundation of science and wisdom, whence they proceed, what they are, and who bestows or imparts them. Artificers are greatly in need of the knowledge

Signature; vi., Uncertain Arts ; vii., Manual Arts. What will be handled in each religion, and what the religion itself is, seek in the sequel. Astrology. — This science teaches and treats concerning the whole firmament, how it stands with the earth and with man according to the primaeval order, and what is the connection between man, the earth, and the stars. Magic. — This science brings down and compels heaven from above to stones, herbs, words, etc. It teaches also the change of one thing into another, as well as the knowledge of the supernatural stars, comets, etc., and what their signification is. Divination. — This science is from heaven to man without any formal institution, so that he knows how to speak of things future, present, and past, though he has never looked into those things himself, and speaks nothing save what heaven impresses upon him. This science is most of all seen among simple persons. NiGROMANCY. — This treats of sidereal bodies, which are without actual body, flesh, and blood. This operation stands related to the necromancer as a servant to his master, the latter commanding the former. Signature. —This science teaches one to know the stars, what the heaven of each may be, how the heaven has produced man at his conception, and in the same way constellated him.

Uncertain Arts. — These sciences are without any principles on which they rest, or from which they proceed, and are ruled by the imagination, offering a new spirit and a new firmament by which they work. Manual Art. — This science teaches the preparation of instruments for all astronomy, and with slender material expresses or comprises the form of the stars, and brings heaven and earth into one figure. For the sake of fuller understanding I will add how many species each religion has, in this way: — of such foundation, for what else is sapience but an art or science which one man has derived from another. He who by counsel flourishes in prudence, what has such a man learned except the art of provident wisdom, which another man does not know? Thus, the artificer has a skill in regulating the fire in which the tailor is completely wanting. This, therefore, is his art. Hence in different persons there are different arts. What, therefore, is science save art ? It becomes this art to proceed out of a circle, out of a line, out of a number, for this gives a mode, and thusamode obtains in arts. From his individual art the turner derives his special mode, and this also is true — the line, the circle, etc, give a mode of wisdom, and the said mode is wisdom itself. Further, sciences are distributed after many methods, nor could they all consist in one.

One man knows one thing, and one another. No person can know and accomplish ever>'thing. Who is familiar with, who performs all things ? And as no one perfects two labours in one labour, but it is necessary that one thing only should be performed at one time, so the case is the same with the arts and sciences. For the sciences are so extensive and so profound that they cannot be contained and held by one brain. One part is given to one, a second to another, etc. For as in one street of a city there are many gold beaters, in another many shoemakers, and in a third many tailors, so there is an analogous distribution of the sciences. Now, all undertakings proceed from one fount ; from one fount flow all works and all sciences. Their ramifications are distributed like fruit on a tree, none of which can so separate itself as to deny that it was produced with the others from the same tree. If a guide and teacher be needed in this kind of wisdom, so that the source of a writer's instruction may be known, it becomes right and just that I should divide this discourse into two parts. The sapience of man is twofold — one relating to the soul, the other to the body. Having made this distinction, it is necessary that we should understand the animal, that is, the corporeal, and also, so to speak, the mental, that is, the eternal.

But as we have elsewhere described the origin of the animal man, so here we shall chiefly concern ourselves with the man which is spiritual, and here is explained the invisible source of science and wisdom.— The rest of the work, which contains several treatises, and is at the same time only of a fragmentary nature, attributes, as might be expected, all wisdom to God, for man has nothing of himself. Man, however, is the heir of heaven, and the world exists solely for his benefit. It further divides wisdom into the anim.il and the angelical, and affirms that men themselves are angels, and are before all heaven and all angels.

Astrology has three species, as referring to man, the inferior bodies, animals. Magic has six species. It belongs to comets, images, gamahei, characters, spectres, incantations. Divination has five species, dreams, brutes, the mind, speculation, phantasy. Nigromancy, of which there are three species, material visions or spectres, astral spirits, and inanimate, phantastical bodies, that is, those assumed by the dead or by lifeless things. Signature has three species, chiromancy, physiognomy, and proportion. Uncertain Arts, of which there are four species, geomancy, pyromancy, hydromancy, ventinina. Manual Art has five species, arithmetic, geometry, cosmography, instrument, sphere (a mathematical instrument). The Interpretation of the Species according to each religion. Astrology— The First Religion. This science embraces three species in which it is occupied. It operates against man, against elements, against animals. For since heaven and the lower bodies are mutually connected, the heaven teaches us to know the lower bodies by means of a figure which represents the whole heaven. From this figure is inferred the property of the inferior bodies, and what effect heaven produces in those inferior bodies. Of Comets. This species teaches us to recognise all these supernatural signs in the sky, and to understand what they signify. Of this class are comets, halos, and the other figures of the sky. This science is founded on the Apocalypse, on dreams, and on the saying of Christ, "There shall be signs in the sun, moon, and stars.'' Since all these signs are supernatural, they refer not to astrology, but to magic.

Of Images. This science represents the properties of heaven and impresses them on images, so that an image of great efficacy is compounded, moving itself and significant. Images of this kind cure exceptional diseases, and avert many remarkable accidents, such as wounds caused by cutting or by puncturing. A like virtue is not found in any herbs. Of Gamahei. These are stones graven according to the face of heaven. Thus prepared they are useful against wounds, poisons, and incantations. They render persons invisible, and display other qualities which, without this science. Nature of herself cannot exhibit. Of Characters. These species are words which are either spoken or written. They have power against all diseases, which they also avert. They divert misfortune and all accidents, they set free prisoners so that they are loosed from their chains, and produce those effects which Nature itself is not able to bring about, but only magical science can accomplish. Of Spectres. This species exhibits the likenesses of men, so that something appears which is not really present. These visions with their signs are produced by night, not by day, and lack the body, blood, flesh, soul, and spirit of man. Of Incantations. This species teaches how to turn men into dogs, cats, etc. It teaches a man how to convert himself into all kinds of appearances and forms. It renders people invisible, changes the minds of men at the will of the artificer, impels, leads, and directs impressions and generations according to his pleasure.

Dreams. If anything is presented to a person by means of a dream, be it present, future, or past, be it knowledge, a treasure, or any other secret, it bears reference to this art. It can direct the stars to a dream, so that anything may be thereby revealed. Brutes. This species teaches us to distinguish the prophecies which come from animals, so that man may see and understand what the heaven does or is about to do. It operates also in fools, in animals, and in other simple beings. The Soul. This species refers only to the mind of man, so that by chance and not by premeditation it is suggested to the mind of man what he ought to do. This species is of great importance, and should be studied among the very first by man, so that he may know what the mind suggests to him from its true foundation. Speculation. If any one carefully weighs and speculates, and, by means of a strong imagination, finds what he seeks, it ought to be referred to this species. It arises from the stars, which are occupied about man and teach him. Phantasy.- If any one in mere sport finds out or learns anything, this also is from the star, when it is matured. This often reveals many things such as treasures, mines, and others which are hidden, operating without any previous knowledge or investigation, and benefiting him who does not seek it.

Visions. This species sees in crystals, mirrors, polished surfaces, and the like, things that are hidden, secret, present or future, which are present just as though they appeared in bodily presence. Astral Spirits. This species teaches how to deal with sidereal spirits separated from the body, so that they may be compelled to serve men like slaves. Inanimates are men without a soul produced by the stars, dwelling and conversing with men and doing the same as they. Signature. Chiromancy, by which the star is exhibited in man with that appearance in which the heaven was at the time of his nativity. It appears in the hands, feet, and other lines and veins of the body, shewing themselves diflFerently in different bodies. Physiognomy. This species teaches how to know a man by his countenance, manners, and gestures. This also has for its cause the hour of birth, which signs a man, and by those signs forms his nature. Proportion. This species judges the properties from the general habit of a man, whether he be lame, too tall, too short, etc. Geomancy. This science is practised with a free mind without foundation or certain knowledge or signs (tesserae). It agrees with astrology.

Pyromancy. This species is fortune telling by fire. By fire is seen what is the motion of the heaven, what its nature and condition. In this the moon is principally consulted. Hydromancy. This species teaches how to see in water certain secret and hidden things, closed and sealed letters, and persons who are travelling in distant countries, whether they are living or dead. This operation proceeds from the constellation of the new firmament, by means of imagination. Ventinina. This teaches how to determine from the wind what the future state of the heaven will be as regards man, whether good or bad, fruitful or sterile, and other similar things in the future which cannot be determined by Nature. Arithmetic. This species teaches how to find the number of heaven and earth in the stars and the like. Geometry teaches how to measure the height of heaven and earth, and of the things contained in them. Cosmography teaches the situation and distance of all things, the manners and nature of peoples. Instrumentation. This species teaches how to make instruments, with which is known how heaven and earth are connected. Sphere. This species teaches how to learn by means of an instrument what is the knowledge and correspondence of heaven and earth.

With this brief discourse I have endeavoured to describe the different species of religions that astronomy itself may thus be more rightly understood. Ail these make up astronomy. But how each one may be proved is afterwards described, with this view, that it may be clear that astronom)' is no inconsistent or mendacious science, but that it is based on a solid foundation drawn from the light of Nature itself; which, indeed, is necessary for establishing all truth and knowledge. Proof in Astrological Science.* Having treated of the generation of man we must now deal with his sustenance, and in this way astrology will be sufficiently proved. There is a certain congenital virtue in man which attracts into man from the external * The proofs in astrological science, magic, and divination are wanting in the treatise, and the deficiency has been supplied from another work, the iLxplicatio tothis Asii-onoiiiicp., which duplicates the Hermetic Astronomy i^hiicr* pretatio alia Asiroiwmue). It has been thought advisable at this point to compress somewhat the prolixity which further obscures the original. sphere. Now, from that which is attracted man is sustained, and he is well and ill according to that which he has attracted. The attractive virtue is twofold, one of the elementary body, the other of the sidereal body. The desire of man for sustentation is to be understood as follows : The rays of the external sphere penetrate to us ; the internal economy of man accomplishes the rest.

Thus the sphere extends its fruits from the radix even to the outward locust. Hence it follows that there is a certain nature, namely, hunger and thirst, which is implanted in us and compels us to eat those fruits. So do the rays of this sphere enter us. Now, even as the food of the physical body comes to us from the elements, so is the sidereal body supplied by the constellation with all science, all arts, all prudence. Man is formed in such a manner that he should derive all his knowledge in the same way as he gathers fruit from a tree. Thus originates music, the metallic art, medicine, agriculture : whatsoever the earthly body requires, that he finds in the wisdom of the stars, and all wisdom, whether good or bad, is derived to him from the stars. Two things only, namely, justice and holy scripture, proceed immediately from the Holy Spirit. In the stars then is the whole light of Nature founded. For as man seeks food from the earth in which he was born, so also does he seek it from the stars in which he is likewise born. Thus the wisdom to which he is born is twofold — one is animal — but of the other Christ said, " For this I was born," as if He had affirmed " I was born in the Eternal Wisdom." The wisdom of earth should be employed only over carnal matters ; the other and higher wisdom should be learnt and employed according to the words of Christ.

Now, the sidereal wisdom is foolishness before God, whence comes that saying : The wise man rules the stars, in the sense that eternal wisdom governs the animal. Thus natural wisdom is given to the body and not to the soul. Those things, therefore, which concern the soul are by no means to be polluted by the light of Nature. This must only be used with Nature. By the light of Nature all arts and operations have been invented. In the mansions of the planets there are workmen who have taught all other workmen, and they, indeed, are the best of all, for they have their arts implanted from birth. These, were they men, would everywhere forge iron and handle it as if it were wax. Mortals as yet have not learnt this arcanum, but they would do so did they drink from the true fountain. So also masons dwell in the habitations of the planets, from whom all other masons learn, and if they did this fully all matter would be plastic in their hands. Thus the firmament formed by God is our perfect instructor in all the arts if we refer to their true source. Thus, too, the palmary physician is in the firmament, who is acquainted with all diseases, and even sees those things which are hidden from our eyes. God created him such that he might beget physicians on earth. Now, concerning evil sources, there are unskilled artificers in heaven even as on earth. This ignorance and clumsiness may be discerned even by the animal wisdom, which is given for this end, that the good and

not the bad may be chosen. So does the natural light lead up to the higher light. Further, Lucifer in heaven made himself other than he was created, together with his companions, and the same thing can also take place in the stars. Hence contrary conceptions may arise, adverse and perverse arts. We must not, therefore, believe every spirit, since of spirits there are two kinds, even as there are two kinds of angelic intelligences— those who remained as they were and those who fell from their first estate. Astronomy is important, in that it teaches us to discern between these two kinds of spirits. This same science also contains a great arcanum, nor can anything be learnt without it. Wisdom is eternal and natural. The eternal is immutable and constant ; the natural, from its mutable conception, generates a false spirit which misinterprets scripture. But if astronomy is acquainted with this, and if, indeed, nothing is so hidden as not to be revealed thereby, who shall not extol it with the highest praises ? It has already been shewn after what manner man was made, how he possesses hunger and thirst, an elementary and sidereal body, to produce an appetite for nourishment, and finally that he tends to that which was implanted in him at conception. Hence it follows that such virtue, nature, property, and condition, and finally all the concordance and constellation, can be described by the astronomer, for in this way various nativities are constituted, and hidden things are prognosticated.

In all who live according to Nature nothing is hidden from the astrologer, and thus for the generation of man a figure of heaven is erected, in order to know the properties of the stars, as also the particular mode. Understand, therefore, concerning astrology that it knows the whole nature, wisdom, and science of the stars, according as they perfect their own operation in conception and constitute an animal man. The astrologer can easily describe a man or an animal by reason of such a conjunction and concordance. But if astrology be fundamentally and properly known, and the nativities of infants be erected rightly according to the mode of the influence,- may evils will be avoided which would otherwise be occasioned by the unpropitious constellations.

Proof in the Science of Magic. In the first place let us define the nature of Magic. It is that which brings celestial virtue into the medium, and thence is able to perfect its own operation. The medium is the centre. The centre is man. By means of man, therefore, the celestial force can be transmitted into man so that in man may be found such an operation as the constellation itself can produce. Moreover, in magic there is a further operation which it performs itself while exercising its art, that is to say, while the nature itself of the constellation does that which the magus ought to do. If the magus' be himself the medium and centre, and, what is more, be capable of performing the operation of the constellation for man by means of man, it is in addition given to this art to produce another medium which is to be understood as a subject, by which subject that operation is just as well performed as by man, who is the true medium. Thus in magical science there exist two operations, one which Nature herself produces, selecting man as the instrument, and as the recipient of her influence, whether bad or good, the other operates by means of arbitrary instruments, such as statues, stones, herbs, words, also comets, similitudes, halos, and any other supernatural generation of the constellation. Thus Nature herself is able to prepare her magical powers and perform her own operations by their means, as, for example, when something extraordinary takes place amidst a rude populace and is referred to miraculous agency, whereas it is only Nature who has worked magically.

Whatsoever Nature is able to accomplish in a foreign body, the same also can man accomplish, if he direct his operation so that conception can be attained, namely, the image, having neither flesh nor blood, and being like to the comet, so that the words and characters possess their own virtues equally with medicaments. It is, in like manner, possible to bring about such a condition in herbs and gamahei, that they become like to the planets and the dwellers therein. Now, it is no matter for astonishment that man accomplishes such things, for if it be true, as the scripture says, that ye are gods, we shall certainly be superior to the stars. If the stars as a fact are found to govern the majority of men, that is because men have abdicated their power as gods ; few, indeed, are those who have exercised gifts such as those of the apostles and saints. The difference between the saint and the magus is this, that one operates by means of God and the other by means of Nature. Magic is a sublime science, and by reason of its operations is very hard of attainment. We must have regard to the word of Christ, which passes not away, when He said; "If ye believe, ye shall accomplish more things than these." Now, if we can exceed that which is accomplished by Christ, we can also exceed that which Nature accomplishes, seeing that she was created on our account and is therefore in our power. The wise man rules Nature, not Nature the wise man. For the same reason we can accomplish more than the stars. In us, then, should abound so great a wisdom that we shall thereby control all things, not only firmamental virtues, but also living animals which yet are much stronger than man. The will of man extends over the depth of the sea and the height of the firmament.

Nature herself is a magus. If about to announce anything, she creates for herself messengers, such as comets and other celestial signs. The magus man is comparable to the physician. The physician knows the hidden virtues of herbs, but the magus the hidden potencies of the stars. The physician extracts the virtues of herbs, and produces a remedy which is small in weight but represents the powers contained in a whole field of vegetation. The magus can transfer the powers of a whole celestial field into a small stone, which is called the gamaheus. As the physician infuses herbal virtues into the sick man, and so heals his disease, so the magus infuses into man the heavenly virtues just as he has extracted them. Medicines are renewed yearly, but the stars have their exaltations in place of a summer. The sun is the highest grade of diurnal light, plus the congenital heat which belongs to it. How shall this light and heat be brought downward by means of man into a subject, so that its light will be intolerable to the eyes and sense shall scarcely be able to endure its heat ? This takes place in the sphere of the crystal, which then is termed Beryl.

If the Magus can draw down virtues from heaven and infuse them into a subject, why should we be unable to make images conducive to health or disease ? If poison, and the rest, can arise from earth, it can issue also from heaven. But why should not similar things take place in the case above, whether the subject be images, herbs, stones, or woods ? The birth corresponds to what is sown in the constellation, and it is not man alone who operates such things ; Nature also variously exercises herself. But if it be possible to Nature, why not also to map ? Let Nature be an example to us. As she works we must follow in imitation. Herein lie hidden medical science, all artifices, all arts, all animal industries. It frequently happens that Nature advances some person beyond the knowledge he can derive from man, who also by skill and industry surpasses all the rest. Such a man is born like the comet, which differs from other stars. Thus it becomes possible that the Magus also, by means of magic science, may produce such an industrious man like a comet. These are the mysteries and the great things of God. The firmament, by means of the magi, exhibits the glory of God. By means of the magi out of Satra and Tharsis, by the ascendant of Christ in Bethlehem, is made manifest whatsoever the firmament and heaven do reveal in the Arcana of God. ^^

Proof in the Science of Divination. Astronomy creates herself, and from herself performs astronomical operations which do not require art and industry. This mostly takes place among those who are of a good and honest disposition, as also temperate. The ancients preserved both their bodies and souls from pollution, so that they might more successfully perform operations of this kind in themselves. This is divination. When men, having no knowledge of astronomy, perform such operations, they are considered miraculous, and the operators are regarded as gods. The operation is revealed by dreams, by the soul, by speculation, and by animals. Divination was of much importance among the ancients. It is a part of astronomy, but it is not a science, for the operation occurs spontaneously. It is often said in common parlance : " My angel told me this." Here the operation is called an angel, as if it took place by God ; it is ascribed to the angel, as if to a medium between God and the man. At the same time, the whole operation is merely celestial. Now this is the origin of divination. Man possesses a sidereal body united with an external constellation. These two communicate when the sidereal body is not affected by the elementary. In sleep, when the elementary body is quiescent, the sidereal body performs its functions. Hence arise insomnia, according as the

constellation operates them, and as the constellations are badly or well disposed, so also are the insomnia. When the constellation and the sidereal body are favourably co-ordinated, future things are truly predicted. In this manner, also, many remedies have been discovered which prevail over different diseases, also hidden treasures and other concealed things, so that scarcely anything can be compared to this very great science. The firmament foreknows all future things, nor does anything escape its knowledge, whether of things past or things present. If a sidereal body of this kind be found suitable by the constellations, and if the constellations be prepared, many marvels are manifested, both present and past. In this manner old men and women, unendowed by any knowledge, as it were by their simplicity and fatuity, have often made prophecies which the event marvellously verified. In the same way, also, many have become learned men, who, having attained a suitable sidereal body, have sedulousl}' exercised themselves in their native influence. Hence it happens that they at last draw down upon themselves the influence of their native constellation, just as rays from the sun. So an admirable science, doctrine, and wisdom are discovered, yet is the whole animal alone, not from on high, but taken from the stars alone. Heaven being thus constituted, and producing for itself a sidereal body, there arise many great minds, many writers, doctors, interpreters of Scriptures, and philosophers, according as each is formed from its constellation.