The Celestial Philosophy

Frontispiece of The Celestial Philosophy

THE CELESTIAL PHILOSOPHY,

Where it is treated of God, Nature and its principles; of the union of the Creator with the Creatures; of the relationship which is established between the Microcosm and the Macrocosm; of the return of all Creatures to the Unity their principle, through the intermediary of Man.

Followed by the Apology of the Hermetic Work, where the door of true natural Philosophy is entirely open, and all its operations unveiled.
IN THREE PARTIES

By L.GRASSOT, medical doctor from the University of Montpellier.

FIRST CHAPTER

That it is necessary to know the principle before all things.

It is advisable to know the unit before the number, the father before the son; it is therefore necessary to know God before all things, if one wishes to begin with the principle and the cause, before descending to the effect; it is the true means of establishing a solid foundation, and of penetrating into the most occult things. As the end is always proportionate to its principle, and if the principle is good, the end is the same; I begin with the true principle in order to reach the goal I have set myself.

Many philosophers consider nature, but very few are of a similar feeling; all nevertheless flatter themselves that they have reached the desired end, and maintain their opinion with obstinacy, persuaded as they are, of having truth and reason on their side: let us seek no other causes than in the varieties that nature offers us, whose objects are presented to us under infinitely varied points of view: for just as the cube, without ceasing to be, can present to the eyes of him who changes its face, namely: the part above instead of that below, the front part for the back part and the sides, thus nature, without ceasing to be the same, was able to discover in the eyes of a philosopher, a truth that another will have grasped from an entirely different point of view.

It cannot be denied that there is only one principle, which is eternal, infinite, which occupies the center in all things, and manifests its power to infinity; this great difference which is found in creatures is a proof of its infinity; since this single principle, having manifested itself by the production of things, and having come out as if outside of itself, has produced an infinite number of creatures. This principle is the cause of all essences, and the being of all beings.

All natural compounds are changed one into the other, by a continual revolution of their principle; and the principle is always the same: it cannot be altered or changed; it is he who changes things as being their only driving force; he alone is stable and permanent; everything revolves around it, like a wheel around its axle, and this movement will last until the renewal of all things; for then the center will be at the circumference, so that all will be equal for eternity, and this equality will create harmony; and peace will be in things renewed, because they will have nothing contrary to contend with, all being luminous in the center and in the circumference.

CHAPTER II

Of unity, the principle of all things.

We cannot better define being, the principle of all things, than by saying that it is the unity of all essences, or an infinite whole, containing all forms and things visible and invisible; it belongs only to this all of infinite being, since it alone has unlimited power. All creatures are only like parts to him. Anything that is not a principle cannot be called a whole. When we say that the whole is greater than the part, we mean that the principle is greater than the Principality; for only the principle can be called a whole, because it subsists of itself and the part derives its being and its duration only from it. To demonstrate this truth, I say that a square, or any geometric figure whatsoever, is truly a part with regard to its principle. The mathematical point is the principle of all geometric figures; and like their principle, it is a whole, and the figures are only elapsed parts of this whole: The mathematical point subsists of itself, and the geometrical figures have their existence only from this rational point, which is their principle and their whole, from which they issue as just as many principled parts from this point. Since it is true that they all issue from it, it must therefore be admitted that they were contained therein; and because the container is greater than the content, we must conclude that the mathematical point is greater than all geometric figures. In this way we can say that the whole is greater than the part, since the characteristic of the whole is not to be contained, to be boundless, and of infinite extent, with respect to the part: but the part is finite, bounded and contained, and consequently less than the whole. Unity, the principle of numbers, is a whole with regard to them, since it contains them all. And the numbers are parts with respect to the unity, which is limitless with respect to them, since it contains an infinity of numbers, and has the power to put them all into action.

It should be noted that these two principles, the mathematical point and the unity of numbers, demonstrate to us in their productions the eternal unity, the universal principle of all things. Our soul, being an emanation from the divine essence, produces these two intellectual and infinite principles, in imitation of infinity its principle:

I therefore say that this eternal unity, infinite principle of all things, is the word of God; this eternal principle is a whole infinitely greater than all things, because being the simple unity, it is the infinitely perfect whole, and the inexhaustible principle, which has the power to produce ad infinitum, without its essence being altered or changed. It is this eternal unity which is the cause and the principle of the angelic nature; of the celestial, and of all its parts; as well as elemental nature, and all its compositions. And not one of these things can be eternal unity, since it is infinite, and they are all bounded and finite with respect to their principle. So that the whole being greater than the part, and all things in the world, both visible and invisible, there can be no other principle of all things but eternal unity; since it belongs only to it to contain, to create, and to understand all things; to be a perfectly united whole, of all things, which have been, which are, and which will be; to give being, life, movement and duration to all creatures. Let us therefore be convinced that eternal unity is the universal principle of all that exists in the intelligible world, in the celestial, and in the elementary; and that these three worlds, although very different, nevertheless have only one and unique principle, which is the inexhaustible source of all forms and of all that exists. of all things, which have been, which are, and which will be; to give being, life, movement and duration to all creatures. Let us therefore be convinced that eternal unity is the universal principle of all that exists in the intelligible world, in the celestial, and in the elementary; and that these three worlds, although very different, nevertheless have only one and unique principle, which is the inexhaustible source of all forms and of all that exists.

of all things, which have been, which are, and which will be; to give being, life, movement and duration to all creatures. Let us therefore be convinced that eternal unity is the universal principle of all that exists in the intelligible world, in the celestial, and in the elementary; and that these three worlds, although very different, nevertheless have only one and unique principle, which is the inexhaustible source of all forms and of all that exists.

It is therefore to this divine principle alone that we owe worship, since it is the essence of all essences, the being of all beings, the form of all forms, the creator, the life, the motor, the beginning, the middle, the end, and the duration of all creatures. In a word, it is the Alpha, Omega; whoever worships anything else is in error, and embraces false worship.

When atheists, to fight the principle, ask where was the world before creation? to answer this question, we must say that it was in God, like the numbers in the unity and like the geometrical figures, in the mathematical point, which the artist reduces from power to act; God was an invisible world which emerged as if outside of itself, so that the world having emerged from unity, the invisible made itself visible; so I say the world is a manifested God. As the perfection of the work announces the excellence of the workman, this great universe demonstrates to us a sovereignty without limits, and its beauty a superior intelligence; from there we can conjecture that the whole appeared only for the indication of its author. The world has a relation to its principle, because it is a unity: but it is different from its principle; because the principle is a simple unity, and the world is a composite unity. From this knowledge we pass to the admiration of the perfect and inviolable accord of the superior with the inferior, of the spiritual with the corporeal, and of the finite with the infinite. But as from the knowledge of one extreme, we do not go to that of the other, without a sufficient medium, we discover that to be sensible and mutually united in its parts as it is, it had to be subsistent, that is to say, qualified and distinguished by these degrees of perfection; being an established principle that the whole number is terminated by ten, which represents the same proportion or unity, that is to say the being or the essence of all substance, always remains simple, as to its existence, although a principle of number, or of composition, or external production, signified by the number two; by this same order we find that the instant which appeared with the body, is that of matter and form, that is to say of the subtle and solid universal, by which everything is produced in nature.

I therefore say that every compound, as to the natural order, proceeding from the first created being, by means of the universal spirit and salt, derives its being or essence from their first and particular union; the sensible consistency or existence of the first qualities, by means of their elements and quantities, its life from their determinate form, its progress from their specific virtue or innate movement, and its duration from its invariable natural revolution, after which, as finished, it returns to its principles; and these principles are found in the unity of their first substance, distinguished in them, and consequently determined.

Relative to this cause, they are called universal, going from simplicity to composition, to do and redo what they have done, according to their inviolable establishment; whence derives the word nature, which signifies birth, or new reaction, which can be explained by the generation of the number, of the line, of the surface of the cube and of the circle; for this unity, which is the indivisible point in itself pushed, and as if extended externally by its author, which it represents, then appeared under the divisible, that is to say the number two, which is the first diversity of the parts of the compound, which the spirit and universal salt represent under the sensible line. From there having passed to the product under the number three, and the internal means of the line made external and triangular, he distinguishes the particular essence of each thing which are imperceptible, and resting in the number four which is the center of the number three or triangle, and of its lines set out in equal distance from their point or limits and other aspects, under the name of cube; this number according to it and what it represents, renders the same sensible essence having body or depth.

So that the unit drawn out becomes a number, and is multiplied by association of even or odd. The first of which is the two, which by its own combination gives the four; the second, is the number three or five, which again doubled, produces the whole, which is the number ten; perfect number which, without any other form, multiplies and repeats itself ad infinitum, as the circle demonstrates to us. These three different combinations of numbers show us the beginning, the middle and the end of all created things. Two, the first even number, demonstrates the parts of generation. The three, which is the first odd, bears witness to the particular essence of each thing. The four second pair designates the composition. The five, second odd, manifests what is engendered by their union and combination in its corporeal individual. To perfect the whole, he makes it capable of movement which is called life, and by its entire degree of action, he again associates with it this universal spirit, which must be represented by a second and last circle, containing the whole; which makes the squaring of the circle perfect, that is to say, the corporeal is entirely united with the spiritual, which the number twelve signifies, containing the two which composes, and the ten which perfects.

But the moment that the same compound has reached the point of this perfection, finds itself limited on all sides, it immediately retraces its steps, leaves the composition or existence almost in the same form and the same number, diminishing itself, acting and resting always in its point or first unity which represents to us the center of this great universal circle which we cannot imagine.

It is thus that the author of the universe makes himself known to intelligent creatures, first through sensible and corporeal things, as lower and nearer to us, then those which are higher and which flee from nonsense.

To understand well and not to go astray, it is therefore necessary to make a difference between potency and act, genus, species and individual; in this way it will be seen that the individual shows bodily existence; the particular form discovers the spiritual essence, and their virtue common to many, shows the species, and the species the genus, like the act, the pasture, which represents the chaos or universal total without any external distinction of self that can very well be represented by so many circles, one in the other rendered little by little perceptible, passing from the lowest of simplicity to the highest of composition.

CHAPTER III

That the word is the image of God. Man, the image of the word, and made in the image of God.

To demonstrate how man was made in the image of God, I must explain this passage of scripture, faciamus hominem ad imaginem, et similitudinem nostram; since God made man in his image and similarity, we must know that he is the image of God. Scripture teaches us that it is the incarnate word which is the splendor of the father's glory and the essential figure of his substance; as soon as man is made in the image of God, the incarnated word being the image of God, it must therefore be said that man is the image of the word; and man cannot be the image of the word, if the word is not a man-God, and eternal who was incarnate in time, and who was eternally the essential form of man in the divinity. For man cannot be the image of the verb unless he has a relationship and resemblance to the verb: if this resemblance exists, we must conclude that the word was eternally the essential form of man in the divinity; and it is for this reason that Saint Paul says that the word is the first begotten before all creatures. Primo genitus omnis creaturae. Man is the epitome of all things, because he is the image of the word, which is the unity that contains everything in him, since he is the substantial image of the father, who is all things; man is therefore made in the image of God, since he is the image of the word, and the word is the image of God. because he is the image of the word, which is the unity that contains everything in him, since he is the substantial image of the father, who is all things; man is therefore made in the image of God, since he is the image of the word, and the word is the image of God. because he is the image of the word, which is the unity that contains everything in him, since he is the substantial image of the father, who is all things; man is therefore made in the image of God, since he is the image of the word, and the word is the image of God.

But we must not imagine that it is in corrupt and sensual man that God has imprinted his image; the outward and corrupt man has no relation or proportion to the divinity. I speak here of the truly essential man, separated from all that is not substantial. The man we see has things in him which are not all parts of substances, and which are separable: this is why he is subject to death. But the essential man separated from the simulacrum, and freed from all that is not of his substance: this interior man such as he must be after the resurrection; he is the image of God. If I say that this essential and interior man, who in the resurrection must be separated from the corruptible which surrounds him; is he who is in the image of the Divinity, we must not think that we have to wait for the resurrection for this essential man to be in the image of God. He is in this lifetime. But in the sinner, this image is veiled by the shadow of sin. If men reflected on the advantage they received in their creation, to be the perfect image of eternal unity, and to have in them the likeness of the divinity, they would doubtless reveal this image, and would show by their actions and their thoughts only this essential man, who was created for eternity, and who must be renewed to know perfectly in glory the one who created him in his image.

CHAPTER IV

That man is the most accomplished of all creatures.

Someone may say, is an angel who is a simple and purely spiritual intelligence, who has nothing in him that is not substantial, not more accomplished than man, who is subject to death? The sky itself and the stars, which are of such perfect composition that they will last until the end of the centuries, are they not more perfect than man, whose duration is so short, and whose life is exposed to so many accidents, which can cause him to die? There might perhaps be some reason for making this objection, if I had not said that I was speaking of the essential and interior man, over whom the angel has no advantage, and who has much over the angel. Isn't it said in the gospel, that after the glorious resurrection, men will be like angels in heaven, because the essential and interior man, being no longer surrounded by the corruptible simulacrum, nor enveloped in the bonds of sin, which hold him in perpetual captivity during this life, will be spiritual like an angel, and will have all the angelic qualities. He will have much more, because he will be deified because he will be united to God, his principle, as I have said and will show him elsewhere. Jesus Christ confirms this truth to us in his gospel, when he says that men are gods. Dii estis: Has God ever given such a glorious name to angels; and since the spirit of truth gives it to men and not to angels, must we not conclude that they are not as perfect as man. But the man dies, and the angel does not die, you will say?

It is true that there is a separation between the earthly man and the heavenly, of the corruptible and the incorruptible, of the material and the spiritual, to which separation has been given the name of death; but it belongs only to the simulacrum, since the celestial man does not die, being immortal and incorruptible; and death, which only separates him from matter and the corruptible, instead of altering something of his perfection, only releases him from his bonds, brings him out of his prison, and gives him the freedom to act according to the excellence of his nature. I speak of men who must be regenerated for glory, for it is not the same with those who die in sin. being immortal and incorruptible; and death, which only separates him from matter and the corruptible, instead of altering something of his perfection, only releases him from his bonds, brings him out of his prison, and gives him the freedom to act according to the excellence of his nature. I speak of men who must be regenerated for glory, for it is not the same with those who die in sin. being immortal and incorruptible; and death, which only separates him from matter and the corruptible, instead of altering something of his perfection, only releases him from his bonds, brings him out of his prison, and gives him the freedom to act according to the excellence of his nature. I speak of men who must be regenerated for glory, for it is not the same with those who die in sin.

If it is true that God has united in man, his creature and his image, all natures, the intellectual, the celestial and the elementary, as we must not doubt, must we not confess that man is the most perfect of all creatures, and that if the angels, the heavens, the luminaries and all elementary creatures have perfections, that they are all united in the essential man, even during this life? since it is a small world and the epitome of all creatures. Now, it is easy to prove that man is the epitome of all creatures. It cannot be disputed that man is the perfect similarity of the word, the word being a man-God, as I have demonstrated, having in him all the natures. The essential man being the perfect similarity of the man-God, therefore has in himself all the natures. This is a truth which is not difficult to prove. The God-man is the eternal unity which is the universal principle of all higher, lower and middle beings. All beings emerge from this incipient principle. As in its imitation, from intellectual unity, the principle of numbers, issue all numbers, and all geometrical figures from the mathematical point; this rational point is the principle of all these figures, it has them all in its centre: they must necessarily be there essentially, since they come out of it. It is also necessary that all the numbers be in unity, as soon as this unity, their principle, produces them and puts them in potency in act; as all creatures issue from the creator, because they are essentially in him. Eternal unity is this man-God, principle of all things, who in creation manifested all his numbers or creatures, and separated by his spirit the intellectual nature, the celestial and the elemental which were essentially and eternally in it, since it produced them. Then she brought them together in man so that he would be the epitome of all creatures and the perfect image of eternal unity. This is why it is called the microcosm, since it is in all like the macrocosm.

But it would perhaps not be enough for a few people to have said that man is the epitome of all nature, if I did not show sensibly how he is. So I would say first that he has the angelic nature, because he has an intellectual mind, and that mind has invisibility, subtlety, insight, and all the other qualities of an intelligence. Man has an intellectual nature, because during this very life he conceives as one intelligence an infinity of objects; his spirit is invisible like an angel; it goes from one extremity of the world to the other in an instant, without passing through mediums, it penetrates the most solid and compact bodies; he goes to the most inaccessible places; he enters the deepest part of the sea, and goes to search the globe of the earth down to its center, to examine there what is most secret; he even ascends into the heavens, observes there the movement of the celestial bodies, their influences, and their qualities; he reads there all that is done in this lower world. His penetration and his subtlety go so far, that he rises even in the empire, seeks there God in his glory, and conceives there an image of eternity. If he does not act in this life as perfectly as the angel, it is because of the bonds and the prison in which he is confined. And it is in this state that the scripture says that he is a step less than the angels, because the angels already enjoy glory, and man is only in the hope of possessing it one day. The scripture here does not speak of men who are in glory, seeing that they are in a perfect state as well as the angels. The regenerated man not only has this same advantage; but still he has more than the angel, because he has the other natures united with his intelligence, and the angel has only one intellectual nature. The essential man has not only the intellectual nature, but also the celestial and the elemental.

Also the eternal unity wishing to reunite all natures for eternity, has not clothed itself with the angelic nature, because the word by uniting itself only with this nature would not have reunited all natures in eternity. But he put on the human because he had made man a small world, an abridgment of all creatures, a perfect and accomplished whole; and it is again because of this union of the word with the man, that we can say with reason, that the man has more than the angel,

CHAPTER V

That man has the celestial nature, the angelic, the elemental; and that God acts directly on the soul, the soul on the spirit, and the spirit on the body.

It cannot be disputed that man is composed of the celestial nature, as soon as we remain in agreement that he is a small world; for it cannot be, if it is not an abridgment of the great; and if he does not have in him all the essential parts which compose the universe, and as the great world is composed of the angelic nature, of the celestial and of the elementary, it is necessary that the man to be the summary of it, and a small world, be composed of its three natures; if he has the celestial, as we cannot doubt, he must therefore have in him the principle of celestial influences. And as this principle exists in him from the moment of his conception, like the other two natures, he must act there from the very moment, as well as the intellectual and the elementary. But to be perfectly penetrated by this truth, it should be known that God acts directly in the soul, that the soul acts directly in the spirit, and the spirit acts directly in the body; so that the soul acts indirectly in the body, and God acts indirectly in the spirit and in the body. The soul, which is an intellectual spirit, having no proportion with the body, cannot act directly in it; there must be a means which comes from the two natures, the spiritual and the corporeal: and the spirit is this means by which the soul acts in the body: God acts directly in the soul, by the proportion it has with him; and this proportion comes from simplicity, spirituality, and the immortality of the soul. God acts indirectly in the spirit and in the body because the spirit has no proportion with the simplicity of God. The body has even less because of its composition.

The soul being the intellectual nature, it acts sovereignly in the spirit by the power which it has received from its principle; it governs as it pleases the spirit which is the celestial nature, and the spirit likewise governs the body which is the elementary nature, and makes there all the material mixtures, which regard the form of the body, and all the mixtures of the planetary influences which concern the passions of man. We cannot be without the soul, the spirit and the body, these three parts being the three natures which compose the world; for the intellectual alone cannot constitute man, any more than the celestial alone, nor the elementary without the other two. God wanted to make man of these three natures, so that he would be the epitome of the great world, and the image of its creator.

CHAPTER VI

That the human sky acts in Man from the moment of his conception.

The celestial nature, as well as the intellectual, are in man from the moment of his conception, in order to act on the elemental for the composition of the organs, and to influence the passions: so that this human heaven acts at the same moment with its influences, and according to its disposition, first shows its power there, and continues its operations in it, from its conception until its death, in this manner.

All the planets of its sky work successively to form it. Saturn begins, by its natural coldness, to gradually condense and thicken the prolific matter, until it coagulates it into a formless mass; and as from this mass a small world must come out of it, it can be compared to the first chaos that God created, to make the great world come out of it. This mass is completed forming in the first month, during which Saturn operates; and when it has made its revolution, Jupiter makes its own there, and by its heat it causes a natural digestion of this mass, changes its first form, and gives it that of an embryo. Jupiter operates throughout the second month. At the beginning of the third, Mars begins to act, and by its heat and dryness divides and separates the parts of this embryo, and lays out the organization of the principal parts of the body of man; so that at the end of the third month, the embryo is prepared for the operations of the Sun; who, at the beginning of the fourth month, nourishes the spirits and strengthens this embryo; the soul then begins to vivify it visibly, by showing its power and its presence there, by movement and life; which cannot be denied, since it is at this time that the mother feels him stirring in her bosom. During the fifth month, Mercury continues the organization of the body, and works out the form of the parts of man, which must be the sense organs, and all the openings of the body, such as the mouth, nostrils, ears, and the rest. Venus, acting in the sixth month, completes the entire formation of the eyes, the eyebrows, and what makes the difference between the sexes. Finally, it is the mother of the generation who puts the finishing touches to the organization of the male body.

The Moon operates in the seventh month, and works by its coldness and humidity to bring the child out of its mother's womb, so that if it is born in this month it can live; and if he is not born, the revolution of Saturn, which begins again in the eighth month, weakens the child by his coldness and his weakness; so that if he is born in this eighth month, he cannot live. This is indisputably proven by experience. But this month is not so soon over that Jupiter makes its revolution again, and during the ninth month, by its heat and its humidity, nourishes the child and repairs its forces, so that it is born happily, and can live if the ninth month is over. it is the generational mother who puts the finishing touches to the organization of the human body. The Moon operates in the seventh month, and works by its coldness and humidity to bring the child out of its mother's womb, so that if it is born in this month it can live; and if he is not born, the revolution of Saturn, which begins again in the eighth month, weakens the child by his coldness and his weakness; so that if he is born in this eighth month, he cannot live. This is indisputably proven by experience. But this month is not so soon over that Jupiter makes its revolution again, and during the ninth month, by its heat and its humidity, nourishes the child and repairs its forces, so that it is born happily, and can live if the ninth month is over. it is the generational mother who puts the finishing touches to the organization of the human body. The Moon operates in the seventh month, and works by its coldness and humidity to bring the child out of its mother's womb, so that if it is born in this month it can live; and if he is not born, the revolution of Saturn, which begins again in the eighth month, weakens the child by his coldness and his weakness; so that if he is born in this eighth month, he cannot live. This is indisputably proven by experience.

But this month is not so soon over that Jupiter makes its revolution again, and during the ninth month, by its heat and its humidity, nourishes the child and repairs its forces, so that it is born happily, and can live if the ninth month is over. and works by its coldness and humidity to bring the child out of its mother's womb, so that if it is born in this month it can live; and if he is not born, the revolution of Saturn, which begins again in the eighth month, weakens the child by his coldness and his weakness; so that if he is born in this eighth month, he cannot live. This is indisputably proven by experience. But this month is not so soon over that Jupiter makes its revolution again, and during the ninth month, by its heat and its humidity, nourishes the child and repairs its forces, so that it is born happily, and can live if the ninth month is over. and works by its coldness and humidity to bring the child out of its mother's womb, so that if it is born in this month it can live; and if he is not born, the revolution of Saturn, which begins again in the eighth month, weakens the child by his coldness and his weakness; so that if he is born in this eighth month, he cannot live. This is indisputably proven by experience. But this month is not so soon over that Jupiter makes its revolution again, and during the ninth month, by its heat and its humidity, nourishes the child and repairs its forces, so that it is born happily, and can live if the ninth month is over. weakens the child by his coldness and weakness; so that if he is born in this eighth month, he cannot live. This is indisputably proven by experience. But this month is not so soon over that Jupiter makes its revolution again, and during the ninth month, by its heat and its humidity, nourishes the child and repairs its forces, so that it is born happily, and can live if the ninth month is over. weakens the child by his coldness and weakness; so that if he is born in this eighth month, he cannot live.

This is indisputably proven by experience. But this month is not so soon over that Jupiter makes its revolution again, and during the ninth month, by its heat and its humidity, nourishes the child and repairs its forces, so that it is born happily, and can live if the ninth month is over.

All the other stars of the human sky operate there in the same way, each according to its power. These feelings are based on the truths of physics; those who know nature perfectly will not disapprove of them.

If the planets of the sky, of man operate successively in him from his conception until his birth, as I have explained, it is a determined necessity of God, who makes them act each according to his power, to form step by step the body of man. But this human sky does not cease to act also with all the luminaries together, according to its determination. So that his position, at the point of conception of man, and at the moment of his birth, forms and determines his temperament, directs him and makes him act from his birth until his death; and man, during his life, shows the power of his celestial nature, by the passions which he acts out; such as joy, sadness, anger, love and hate, inclination or aversion to science, war or peace, to religion or impiety; and all the other passions according to the degrees of mixing of the influences of his sky; the differences of these mixtures make all the differences of temperament and character which are found between men; because there are as many different shades as there are different mixtures.

But it is necessary to know how and at what time these three forms of the soul, which are the vegetative, the sensitive and the intellectual, agree with the nature of the fetus; on this subject I will say that the sperm being contained in the womb of the woman, it increases immediately: this increase comes from the power of the vegetative heart by a communication of that which generates, by giving its sperm; then according to what nature requires, a sensitive soul is added to it, and finally a soul according to the species; these two powers, namely, the vegetative and the sensitive, are distinguished by their operations; being alike, however, as to their essence, though not in the same way: the embryo lives first like a plant; second, he has an animal life, then he lives like an animal of such a species; but man has moreover an intellectual virtue which is not engendered with matter, but which is infused and communicated to him by God, this is what distinguishes him from brutes and makes him consider as the end and the perfection of all the forms which are in the universe, and which in a word makes him call microcosm.

CHAPTER VII

Inclinations of friendship and enmity which meet between men.

According to what I have just said about the operations that the planets carry out in us during the formation of the embryo, we should not doubt the relationship that exists between the human Heaven and the celestial; and by this relation we are able to explain from whence comes the cause of the friendship and enmity which are met among men at first sight.

It is recognized by the wise scrutinizers of nature, that the planets have between them a friendship and enmity, concordances and discordances, from which are born the sympathy and antipathy which exist in all the bodies and compounds of nature: this truth is demonstrated in physics and chemistry, and is designated to us by the names of affinity, attraction, adhesion and aggregation; for chemistry has recognized that all natural beings do not have an equal tendency to combine with each other. There are some which absolutely refuse to unite, or at least which art cannot unite directly, like iron and mercury, water and oil, etc. Others only unite with difficulty and with the help of a very long time. So that the chemical attraction not being equal between all bodies, one can from the knowledge of this phenomenon effect on the spot the separation of two bodies whose union formed a compound; this being admitted, we can conclude that the planet which presided over the conception of the embryo must have endowed it with all its qualities; which will cause two people who have been formed under the domination of two enemy planets to each other, will never be able to sympathize together, and will have a reciprocal aversion. Just as two people who have been formed under the domination of two planets friendly to each other, will see each other with pleasure and form a pleasant society; this truth is confirmed every day. If we reflect for a moment on what I have just said, we will easily recognize that men are all born with inclinations of friendship or reciprocal enmity, and we will no longer be surprised to see people hating each other reciprocally without any subject. It is now necessary to make known the planets which are friendly or enemy.

Mercury, Jupiter, the Sun and the Moon are friends of Saturn, Mars and Venus are very contrary to it: all the planets, except Mars, are friends of Jupiter, and likewise they all hate Mars, except for Venus; Jupiter and Venus love the Sun; Mars, Mercury and the Moon are contrary to it; they all love Venus, with the exception of Saturn: Mars and Mercury are enemies.

There is an enmity or contrary which exists between them because they have opposite houses, like Saturn to the Sun, and to the Moon; Jupiter to Mercury; Mars to Venus; and the contrariety or enmity is so much the greater when they are higher and opposed, as of Saturn and Jupiter, of Venus and Mercury: but also the friendship is greater of those which have the same nature, quality, substance and power, or virtue; like Mars and the Sun; Venus and the Moon, Jupiter and Venus, and those who have their exaltation in that of another, are friends: as of Saturn and Venus, of Jupiter and the Moon, of Mars and Saturn, of the Sun and Mars, of Venus and Jupiter, of the Moon and Venus.

So as are the enmities and annoyances of the higher bodies, so are the inclinations of things subject to them in the lower bodies.

CHAPTER VIII

Of the stupidity and subtlety of man.

There are so many men on earth that arithmetic could not subdue their number, and yet there is not one like the other; and the difference of their spirit is so great, that it should engage us to recognize and seek in their productions, constitutions and formations, the causes of this great variety.

I therefore say that the soul being divine, immortal, immaterial, and coming from God, we cannot imagine that the creator creates, some stupid and others full of subtlety; it must necessarily come from the body, which is the only organ which the soul uses to exalt its power and its faculties; so that if there is any defect in human bodies, it prevents the soul from acting freely, and from performing what it is capable of, because the organ which is necessary to produce this power of the soul in action, is lacking: as, for example, a dumb man who cannot speak, it is not because his soul has not been able to learn to discourse, but it is because the organs and bodily parts which are necessary to form the voice and the word cannot respond to the desire of the soul.

It is the same with stupidity, because it is not that the soul is stupid: but it comes from the body in which the overly material organs cannot respond to the command of the soul.

Let us therefore see what can cause these defects in the human body; there are several: the figure and conformity of the head, too large and deformed; small brain, large and abundant humidity, are the external causes of human stupidity; cold and damp temperament, abundance of mercurial humidity, little salt and little sulphur, are the internal and formal causes of the same stupidity: in these temperaments the vital and animal nature-spirits, which are the Principal agents in bringing the power of the soul into effect, are so numb, that they cannot manifest any other faculty of the soul, than those of brute beasts, instead of if they were stronger and more vigorous, and that the conformity of the parts was well established, they would manifest the faculties of the soul in all its brilliance.

So that we may conclude from what I have just said, that a man in whom the temperament will be dry and hot, is ordinarily wise, good, full of spirit and subtlety, seeing that all these qualities come from a hot and dry temperature, which is produced by an abundance of sulfur and salt in the subject.

CHAPTER IX

Nature acts in man according to its determined essence of God.

To explain this truth, I say that as the soul, which is the intelligence in man, dominates and directs the celestial nature, so the spirit, which is the celestial nature, dominates and directs the body, which is the elemental nature. It is not that the celestial nature cannot operate things in which the soul has no part; for as God, who acts in the soul, also leaves him the freedom to act, although the soul acts in the spirit, the spirit has the power to act sometimes without the soul. If the operations of the soul were all in conformity with the will of its mover, it would always operate good, because the will of its creator is the sovereign good. But as God has given it freedom, it sometimes acts on its own: it is not that its motor does not concur with it as a first cause: but when by bad use, what it does with the freedom it has received from its creator; it operates without its principle, and in some way outside of it, it allows itself to be carried away by the spirit, which leads it to disordered passions; and from then on it no longer adheres to good, and moves away from it by following the inclinations and the inclination of the senses, which move it away from its principle to plunge it into matter; it is thus that the first man created, moved away from his creator, and rushed into the region of fathers and mothers which was made only for brutes. which take it away from its principle to plunge it into matter; it is thus that the first man created, moved away from his creator, and rushed into the region of fathers and mothers which was made only for brutes. which take it away from its principle to plunge it into matter; it is thus that the first man created, moved away from his creator, and rushed into the region of fathers and mothers which was made only for brutes.

Man would have no attachment to earthly pleasures, and would never do evil, if the operations of his soul were always in conformity with the simplicity of God. Hand as the soul is joined to the spirit, and the spirit to the body; and that to go to good, the soul must rise to the source, which is God; when it descends, it goes to what is opposed to good, since if what is above is good, what is below must be evil in opposition. So that when the soul descends to the spirit, it begins to approach composition, mixture, and therefore evil: because all composition presupposes mixture, and mixture, change, inconstancy and disorder, which are opposed to the simplicity of God, which is the principle of eternally immutable order. If when the man dies, his soul is in this mixture and in the bondage of the body, which for then has absolute dominion over the spirit and over the soul, he leads them both to his home, which is corruption and darkness, eternal death and the source of all evil. But if, on the contrary, the body rises to the spirit, and the spirit to the soul, the composition will come to simplicity, which is the principle; for the body to be renewed in the spirit, the spirit in the soul, and the soul in God. So that the soul will lead them both to its home, which is incorruptibility, light, eternal life and the source of all good. But if, on the contrary, the body rises to the spirit, and the spirit to the soul, the composition will come to simplicity, which is the principle; for the body to be renewed in the spirit, the spirit in the soul, and the soul in God. So that the soul will lead them both to its home, which is incorruptibility, light, eternal life and the source of all good. But if, on the contrary, the body rises to the spirit, and the spirit to the soul, the composition will come to simplicity, which is the principle; for the body to be renewed in the spirit, the spirit in the soul, and the soul in God.

So that the soul will lead them both to its home, which is incorruptibility, light, eternal life and the source of all good.

CHAPTER X

Why is man called Microcosm or small World?

It is not difficult to define the reason why man is considered as the epitome of the universe, since he contains all its anatomy, and we must believe that if the ancient philosophers only called him a small world, it is in consideration of his corpulence, which is like an atom to that of the universe; but if they had considered the perfection, the beauty of his body and his soul, they would certainly not have hesitated to gratify him with the name of great world. God is infinitely greater than the world, yet has no quantity; this title is therefore given to him only because of his spiritual perfection: and if of all creatures, man alone is the most perfect and the most beautiful; if, I say, alone of all corporeal creatures, he has in his soul the image of God, and contains the essence of all natures,

Having considered the nature of the heavens, of the elements, of the stones, of the metals and minerals, of the trees, of the plants, of the birds, of the fishes, and of all the animals; man alone, like the angels, adorned with the image of God, has much more than all this in him, and in a more beautiful way; for, understanding all the perfection of creatures, in a celestial manner, has others of which they are deprived; which makes it much greater than all together: also it is named, par excellence, a simply creature, having united in itself what the others have in parts.

Finally, we can say that there is nothing in the order of creation, which is not in man, of a nobler quality. The sky, because of its form, its splendor, its movement, and other qualities whose effects we feel, is, according to Aristotle, of all the soulless parts of the world, the most beautiful and the most divine. But I find that in the manufacture of the head of man, the earthly sky surpasses all that in artifice; for, besides the round figure, one sees there the oval with the eyes, the pyramid with the nose, the cylinder, the cube and others which enter into its composition. Yes, the sky has its stars, the head has its senses, whose light shines with more color; by its two luminaries, it illuminates all things; and the. head, through his eyes, makes us see everything. The sky launches its influences from above, and the head flows through the whole body: the circular movement of the sky, the right of the elements, and the compound of all bodies, are found in man; its dry and compact bones are its rocks, its water with a cold and damp brain, is a sea of ​​the Levant, whose waters stream continually on the tongue, and its ebb and flow reaches to the eyes; the heart is its Mediterranean, which transmits, through its arteries, to all the members, the nectar of life, to embellish and vivify this beautiful whole. His arteries and his veins, are they not so many streams and streams which flow to water and moisten all the parts of his being; in the highest part of his body is contained the quintessence of the elements; instead of the southern fire, he has a very pure blood, in which resides the soul in the form of a sovereign, by means of the vital spirit.

The soul in man represents God in the universe; it governs, as I have already said, the spirit, and the spirit the body: when the soul has conceived something, the spirit understands it, makes the body feel it, and the members obey and execute at the same moment what the soul has conceived; for, the body, of itself, knows and can do nothing, since all the movements which it operates, it is the spirit which provokes them by the command of the soul; so that the body is in the mind only as an instrument in the hands of the artist. These are the operations which the soul performs in him and which distinguish him from brutes. Let no one allege a prerogative borrowed from the external senses of animals over those of man, especially since he anticipates them all in a way that surpasses their faculties. If we consider the instinct of animals, will we find something there that is not in man, but in a much more excellent way; because, its form is to be planted upright on its feet, and its glance gives towards the sky, its common sense, its imagination have more force, energy and discernment; his memory is more capable and firmer; he performs operations which the most intelligent brute cannot imitate. Moreover, if God said: let us make man in our image and similarity, can we refuse him the superiority that the creator was good enough to give him above all things: and is it not to establish him sovereign over the other creatures of his world, that he endowed him by preference, with thought, intelligence and speech; which gives him the power to discern everything that makes itself heard and understood; what moves and grows; to see in their center that they are their essences, their quality and property; in order to be able to judge them, to direct them and use them as he pleases, for his utility and his approval.

CHAPTER XI

Cause of human mortality.

Man (according to scripture and theologians) had been created immortal, and God had placed him in a place composed of true elements, not elemental, but very pure, tempered and conjoined together in their greatest perfection: so that as they were incorruptible, all that dwelt in their center should be free from corruption and therefore from death; this is why God placed there man, his beloved creature, as his abode, to live there free from pain and disease, among a thousand delights and innocent pleasures, until the time when God would have wanted him to pass into glory. Meanwhile he was the sovereign of all elementary creatures and had an empire so absolute, that it seemed that the world had been created only for him. But after he had transgressed the commandments of his creator, he was banished from the earthly paradise, to be immediately precipitated into the corruptible and elemental region; which had been created only for brutes. But not being able to subsist there without food, he was forced to nourish himself with the corruptible productions of this elemental abode, which infected the pure elements from which he had been created, and made him fall little by little into corruption, until one quality predominant over the other had entirely corrupted his being: then he was attacked with several infirmities; the separation of the elements took place and death followed; but God who knows the past, the present and the future, having foreseen the fall of man, had created the word before all things in order to regenerate it and bring it back to himself forever by an indissoluble bond. to be immediately precipitated into the corruptible and elemental region; which had been created only for brutes.

But not being able to subsist there without food, he was forced to nourish himself with the corruptible productions of this elemental abode, which infected the pure elements from which he had been created, and made him fall little by little into corruption, until one quality predominant over the other had entirely corrupted his being: then he was attacked with several infirmities; the separation of the elements took place and death followed; but God who knows the past, the present and the future, having foreseen the fall of man, had created the word before all things in order to regenerate it and bring it back to himself forever by an indissoluble bond. to be immediately precipitated into the corruptible and elemental region; which had been created only for brutes. But not being able to subsist there without food, he was forced to nourish himself with the corruptible productions of this elemental abode, which infected the pure elements from which he had been created, and made him fall little by little into corruption, until one quality predominant over the other had entirely corrupted his being: then he was attacked with several infirmities; the separation of the elements took place and death followed; but God who knows the past, the present and the future, having foreseen the fall of man, had created the word before all things in order to regenerate it and bring it back to himself forever by an indissoluble bond.

he was forced to nourish himself with the corruptible productions of this elemental abode, which infected the pure elements from which he had been created, and caused him to fall little by little into corruption, until one quality predominating over the other had entirely corrupted his being: then he was attacked with several infirmities; the separation of the elements took place and death followed; but God who knows the past, the present and the future, having foreseen the fall of man, had created the word before all things in order to regenerate it and bring it back to himself forever by an indissoluble bond. he was forced to nourish himself with the corruptible productions of this elemental abode, which infected the pure elements from which he had been created, and caused him to fall little by little into corruption, until one quality predominating over the other had entirely corrupted his being: then he was attacked with several infirmities; the separation of the elements took place and death followed; but God who knows the past, the present and the future, having foreseen the fall of man, had created the word before all things in order to regenerate it and bring it back to himself forever by an indissoluble bond. then he was attacked with several infirmities; the separation of the elements took place and death followed; but God who knows the past, the present and the future, having foreseen the fall of man, had created the word before all things in order to regenerate it and bring it back to himself forever by an indissoluble bond. then he was attacked with several infirmities; the separation of the elements took place and death followed; but God who knows the past, the present and the future, having foreseen the fall of man, had created the word before all things in order to regenerate it and bring it back to himself forever by an indissoluble bond.

As the children of the first man had not been created in the abode of pure elements, and had been begotten in this world composed of corruptible and passive elemental elements; they found themselves nearer to corruption, and consequently to death, since a seed which is formed only by corruptible food, and to which man must kill before it can use them for food, cannot produce things of long duration; so that the more men are removed from their source, the more they will have penetrated into corruption; they will consequently be more subject to disease and will live less long. There is no denying this truth, since we see that our life is shorter than that of our first fathers; and the human species decline to perhaps the point that man will no longer be able to procreate his fellow man.

With regard to the greater or less brevity of the life of man, it comes from the mixture of the principles of nature which enter into its composition, since those in whom this mixture is more or less well proportioned, live more or less long-times; there are also places where the air is purer than the others, and which by their salubrity prevent the nature of man from destroying itself so quickly. So that those who inhabit them enjoy good health and live a very long time.

But the intemperate ones shorten their life by their bad diet and their disorder; experience also shows us that the children of valetudinarians are not of long duration. Finally we can say that all these infirmities, inconveniences and miseries remained to Adam's posterity as a heritage. Being all exposed to hunger, to thirst, to irregularities, to the harshness of the seasons and to all the disorders that we see here below; nothing can exempt us from it, we are all subject to it more or less; and we can never flatter ourselves that we are in a state where we are not subject to change. We seek happiness everywhere because we feel that there is one, but it is not in this abode of exile that we can flatter ourselves that we will find it: its seat being very high, and having nothing earthly, to come to know it, it is necessary to abandon all affections for the things of here below, to raise our spirit to what is above us, and above all to examine what we are; for it will only ever be through a perfect knowledge of ourselves and of what surrounds us that we will come to know this divine source, which has for its subject the sole work of the creator, since it is the mother of all intelligence and of all faculty, since it is from it that the knowledge proceeds which instructs man, makes him good and gives him the love of a God who fills him with benefits. In a word, it is necessary that the intellectual nature, and the celestial separate themselves from the elementary, so that the soul can return to the central point from which it came; it is then that the essential man will be able to enjoy all the happiness for which he felt himself created, and that he seeks in vain in this abode of pain, where true good cannot exist.

Of all the conditions to which man is subjected, death appears to him the most humiliating and the most terrible; but if he reflects on all that I have said with regard to his creation and his existence, he will rejoice at it instead of being alarmed at it, and will agree that it is for him the happiest moment; for we can compare the time that man is obliged to spend on earth, to that of a convict, who, being condemned to thirty years of galley, wishes to see the moment arrive which must deliver him from his slavery, and give him the freedom to return to the bosom of his family.

SECOND PART.

Where it is treated of the substance, the elements, the finished principles, and the union of the creator with his creatures.

FIRST CHAPTER

To know things perfectly, one must study their cause, in order to be able to descend from cause to effect. Having begun with the universal principiant principle of all that exists, I will speak of its effects, and show all the natural gradations, and the proportion that creatures have with the creator, as well as that which they have with each other. For without this knowledge one cannot penetrate into the secret operations of nature, because it is these gradations and this proportion which make the order and harmony of all things. Being an indisputable truth, that God in creating the universe, made everything with numbers, weights and measures. Wanting to establish a just proportion in all things, so that they are necessary to each other; whereas without this proportion, all creatures would be in perpetual confusion; and there would be between them neither liaison, nor union, nor gradation. There would never even have been a manifestation of eternity in time, nor a return of what is in time to eternity, nor a participating means for the renewal of all things, as well as generation and duration. There would be no union of the creator with the creature; the cause would not produce its effects; there would be no union of principle with principle, neither of heaven with earth, nor of male with female, of form with matter, of agent with patient, of unity with numbers, of physical point with geometric figures, nor of center with circumference. And as without the union of all these things, the world would be in confusion, or rather in chaos; and that it is by this means that all creatures subsist in this beautiful determined order of the creator; we must conclude that proportion makes the harmony of the universe, and that it is through it that all creatures will return to the creator, and time to eternity.

He who knew perfectly the proportion that creatures have with the creator, and those that they have among themselves, would be just as happy in this world as one can be, because he would possess the science of the divine mysteries and of those which God has hidden in nature. He who knew the proportion that the elements have with the substance, could reduce them to their principle. He who knew the elementary proportion would make the combination of the elements, would know their strength as well as their virtues; and could cause art to imitate nature perfectly. In the same way, he who knew the proportion that the stars have between them, would operate by the harmony of their influences all those marvels which the ancient sages of Egypt did.

But what would he not do who would understand the proportion he has with the eternal unity his principle?…….

CHAPTER II

Of substance and its gradations.

Being a truth that the ternary unity is the eternal and infinite principle of all things, the creator, the being, the life, the essential form and the motor of all creatures. The order of the natural principles should be explained; and what is this first created principle, from which the eternal unity made all things, in order to discover, how they were made by the creator; what they are and how they occur in nature, of which most men are ignorant, because they do not know that the eternal unity came out as if outside of itself, by creating the substance or natural point, principle of all quantity, and first creature, which was very different from its principle; the ternary unity being spiritual and invisible, and the created substance being material and visible.

But as nothing can produce without an engine, the spirit of divine unity is the universal agent of substance for the production of all creatures. And this is what Moses means when he says in Genesis, spiritus domini incubaba aquis. These waters were nothing else than the substance hidden under the simulacrum of a vapor which served as the subject of this eternal and infinite spirit: so that the uncreated unity and the created number being united, made this perfect natural principle, which we call nature-essence, and which the ancient sages named Hejoly, which signifies God operated with me. From this substantial principle which is the universal form and matter of all things, God made the elements which are the succeeding principles, and from the combination of the elements, he made of it a determined silt to the generation of individuals; which contains in itself all the elementary virtues in potency and not in act. And it is this silt which is the seed of all things.

But it would not be enough to say that this silt is the seed of all things, if I did not prove what I say. It is an axiom received from philosophers that all things resolve themselves into what they have been. Experience teaches us that all individuals resolve themselves into silt for the generation and multiplication of their species; we must therefore conclude that all these individuals were silt; which is their next subject. After this digression which seemed to me necessary, I return to substance, and I say that it is the principle of the elements; that the elements are the principle of the silt, and that this silt is the principle of the individuals. The first is the primordial, natural, naturalizing principle. The second is the succeeding, natural, elemental principle. And the third is the middle and engendering principle; this is the order of gradations which eternal unity has established in nature. All the things of the world go successively one after the other: the substance goes before the elements, the cause before the effect, the motor before the thing moved, just as the mathematical point goes before the physical point, and the physical point before the line, the line before the surface, and the surface before the body. Unity goes before numbers, and component before compound: and this order which God has established in nature must be imitated in all things. just as the mathematical point goes before the physical point, and the physical point before the line, the line before the surface, and the surface before the body. Unity goes before numbers, and component before compound: and this order which God has established in nature must be imitated in all things. just as the mathematical point goes before the physical point, and the physical point before the line, the line before the surface, and the surface before the body.

Unity goes before numbers, and component before compound: and this order which God has established in nature must be imitated in all things.

Whoever wishes to know nature must form a true idea of ​​these principles and their gradations, so that his knowledge may be perfect: it must be noted that the substantial created principle cannot directly engender the seminal principle, nor can the succeeding principles, which are the elements, directly produce individuals; because the creator established this gradation in nature, wanting all creatures to be necessary to each other, and each to act according to his determination, and to be a proportionate part of this accomplished whole.

CHAPTER III

Art imitates nature and nature the creator.

I have said elsewhere that all things in the world imitate their principle. All natural productions demonstrate this truth to us. When man, for example, conceives the form of a building, his idea is not the building in action; but the human understanding produces this idea, and successively the idea manifests itself by producing the edifice. When the animal engenders its like, it first gives the seed which it contains, which is next matter, which is successively changed into animal. These gradations are necessary for the generation of the animal. It passes from one degree to another successively to imitate the principiant principle, in its natural productions: in the same way the mathematical point does not make the physical point, the line, the surface, and the body at the same time, and by one and the same operation. We see that he produces all these forms one after another; and thus successively the rational point makes the geometrical gradations. It is the same with all the productions that are made in this world, both natural and artificial, so that art can imitate nature, and nature its creator. Man can develop his reason only on natural reasons; and it is impossible for him to imagine any form, or to produce any idea whose model is not in nature. Man can develop his reason only on natural reasons; and it is impossible for him to imagine any form, or to produce any idea whose model is not in nature. Man can develop his reason only on natural reasons; and it is impossible for him to imagine any form, or to produce any idea whose model is not in nature.

We cannot doubt this truth, when we know that God created a substance, and that of this substance he made the elements, from which he made the seeds, which are the principles terminated at the generation of individuals; God made the primordial substance, which is very different from its principle, since it is the creature, and its principle the creator. Substance makes two different principles, which are the elements, and the finished seminal principle, which I have called silt, next matter of individuals. Although this slime is only one thing, that does not prevent it from doing several different things; like the animal, for example, which is composed of several things different from each other, as well as from other genera; and this finite principle makes all these differences in imitation of substance, its natural principle.

God has placed these differences in creatures, so that they may combine and unite with each other, since the differences are absolutely necessary for action and for the union of things; for there is no generation without union, which supposes two different things relative to a principle. A single thing can well be the principle of differences, as we see that substance is; but it is not the differences: although it produces them. God, wanting to make the world with all these differences, first created the substance; so that it was the subject in which he had to act, to draw from it all the natural forms of the world, and to be consequently the natural principle of all the differences, but as the substance being alone, could produce nothing, having no subject on which it can act; its infinite motor divided it into elements, or elementary substances, so that it had a subject, which was proper to it to be able to act naturally. It was also necessary for the elements to fuse together in a silt, so that these succeeding principles would have a suitable subject to circulate, and so that by circulating in this determined vase, they would make, by their composition, a perfect individuated whole, which is the end and the intention of nature.

We see by the gradations of the natural principles that the first substance has the elements hidden in its center, since it produces them, and that it is occult in the center of the elements, as soon as they return by retrogradation to the substance; the elements produce the silt, a principle terminated in the production of genera; and this silt is demoted to the elements. Individuals emerge and flow from their semital point; which is their next matter; and by this continual ebb and flow of nature, these individuals bring forth from their center this next matter, and cause it to flow for life. generation and innltiplication of their species. So that all principles are at the center of their principles, and the principles at the center of their principles.

I say that the natural principles, although very different, are all in each other; to show the proportion they have between them, and that this proportion makes them act in each other, by the relation they have to a single principle. Infinite unity acts in substance, because substance is in the center of infinite unity. The substance acts in the elements, because they are in its center, and the elements act one in the other, for the new composition of things; because they are inside each other; and they all act in the silt determined at the generation, because this silt is hidden in their center.

If, as I said, art imitates nature, and both imitate the creator; it must be the same with artificial and natural principles. The mathematical point acts in the physical point, because the physical is in the mathematical. The physical point acts in the line, because the line is hidden in its center; also it is nothing other than the flux and flow of the point. The line, for these same reasons, acts in the surface, which is only a composition of several lines, and the surface acts in the body, because it contains the body in itself; and the body issues its principle from the surface. In the same way unity acts in number, and number in those numbered, because they are reciprocally one in the other. So it is with all other things.

The proportion alone between natural causes would not be sufficient for them to combine together for the production of things; there must also be difference, so that they can act on each other, since there is neither proportion nor action in nature except between different things. It is impossible for like to act on each other; but on the contrary acts on its opposite, as the creator acts on the creature, the sky on the earth, the form on the matter, the agent on the patient; the simple uncreated unity in the substance, which is the created unity, like the primordial created principle, acts in the succeeding and elemental principles; the elements in the finite, the finite in the individuals, and as finally, the fire acts on the water and the air on the fire. The contrariety comes from the difference without which there would be no proportion; this proportion makes the union, and the union of the natural causes makes and maintains this beautiful order, which God established in the universe, without which the world could not subsist.

CHAPTER IV

That only God can create many things from one, and that nothing is done without the help of the prime mover.

God did not give his creatures the power to produce several things from a single one, he reserved this power to himself, and wanting all creatures to be necessary to each other, he made them all different, so that one would serve as agent and the other as patient; let matter serve as subject to form, air as food to fire, and water to earth; and this so that the fed cannot do without the food: so that all natural things are dependent on each other. There is only God alone, who is independent; all created species are subject to him, as if to their principle, and he has chained them as it were by the proportion he has placed between them, which unites the differences and makes all the natural and artificial productions; and maintains, as I said, the harmony,

One could perhaps object that I support two different things, by saying that it belongs only to the creator to produce several things different from one: having said elsewhere that the rational point makes all the geometrical figures of the single physical point: that the intellectual unity makes all the numbers of the material unit: that the vegetable giving the seed of this single seminal point, makes several different forms, and so of the animal; this objection will destroy itself when one remembers that I said, that the principle is the creator the cause, the being, the essence, the form, the life and the motor of all things, without whom nothing is done. It is this eternal and infinite principle which has created the substance, from which it has produced the elements, and from the elements the mean principles terminated at the generation of individuals. It is this universal engine which makes all numbers emerge from intellectual unity, because it is the engine of intelligence; and which for this same reason causes all geometric figures to come out of the rational point. It is he also who produces from the seminal point all the different forms which constitute the animal; and likewise from the vegetable and the mineral, he created the substance from which he made all the things of the world, and with which he still operates. So that creatures are never without substance, without the elements, and without the seminal principle. All these things work together and the creator with them: nothing is done without his help. But that does not prevent the secondary causes each from acting according to its own determination, and those that the creator has given birth to free,

Although all things have their determined principle, and flow from it as from their source, they all nevertheless issue from unity, and return to it each in its determined manner: this is what the ancient philosophers explained by this axiom: From one many, and from many, one. From the union of man and woman, there results a third, because these two came from one, who is the first man, who had in him all men in power, and who having all come out of him, are the flux and flow of their principle; like the line, is the flux and flow of the point; the numbers, the flux and the flow of one; plants the flux and flow of their seminal point; and all creatures, the flux and flow of substance.

The physical point produces an infinity of geometric figures; the unit number produces an infinity of numbers, the seminal point terminating at the animal, produces an infinity of animal species, according to our way of conceiving: it is the same with vegetables. And as I have already said, all these productions, through man, will return to unity, as I will demonstrate in a chapter, by the similarity of numbers. Each geometrical figure, is a unit relative to the physical point its principle; although the line is composed of several points, and the area of ​​several lines, the line and the area are units, and so are the other geometrical figures. All numbers come from one which is their material principle: every time two is different from one; three is different from two and one; but although they are really different in numeral form, they do not fail to unite in a number, which is a product quite different from the numbers which constitute it. For example, two and three make five, and because two and three were begotten from one, in imitation of their principle, of which they are the likeness; by their combination they compose five, which is a unit relative to the first numeral unit of their principle, and so of the other numbers. Each anima1 is a unit composed of several parts issued from a seed point; and all these parts, however different they may be, do not fail to make an accomplished whole: just as several different voices make a harmony, which is an accomplished whole of music: it is their end as the end of animal nature is the animal individual, which is a perfect animal harmony. And this individuated whole has the power to produce several individuals out of itself, which will be just as many unities issued from one and composed of several: It is the same with all the things in the world, in relation to substance, their natural principle. From one there are many and from many one.

We can therefore conclude from all that I have just said of substance, that it is the nature-essence and the natural principle of all things: because the eternal and infinite spirit operates with it; it acts at the center of the substance, which is the subject of the spirit, which is a simple act with regard to the substance, which receives all the changes of forms which the spirit makes in it. But this working spirit is unalterable, and cannot be changed; it is always the same, containing everything, and not being contained by any subject, although it is in everything. Likewise unity, which is the principle of numbers, acts in number and contains all numbers; and numbers cannot contain them. The number can be increased or decreased; but the single unit cannot be changed or altered, because it is their principle; unity is the engine of numbers; without it they cannot have existence: it is their center, and numbers are its matter. It is the same with the center of the world, which is the spirit, eternal and infinite. He is the motor of all creatures; without him it would have neither life nor movement; nor be. He is their center, they are his circumference. He is their form; and creatures are matter: and though he has neither form nor matter, yet he is all things, since he is their principle, contains and produces them all. He is the motor of all creatures; without him it would have neither life nor movement; nor be. He is their center, they are his circumference. He is their form; and creatures are matter: and though he has neither form nor matter, yet he is all things, since he is their principle, contains and produces them all. He is the motor of all creatures; without him it would have neither life nor movement; nor be. He is their center, they are his circumference. He is their form; and creatures are matter: and though he has neither form nor matter, yet he is all things, since he is their principle, contains and produces them all.

If this eternal and infinite spirit had not acted in the substance, it would have produced nothing of itself; because it would have been without an engine. But the eternal unity having created him to be the natural subject, of which he wanted to make all things, animated him by his spirit; and then she had the power to produce all creatures. The ancient sages called this nature-essence androgine, partaking of all natures, as containing them all, and having the power to change into all visible and invisible forms. So that when the substance is light and subtle, it is called spirit; when it is heavy and solid, it is called body; when it is hot it is called fire, when it is humid it is called air; when it is cold and condensed, that of water; and when it is dry,

CHAPTER V.

Elements, and as they are nothing but substance, under different forms.

As very few people know what the elements are, the number of those who know nature is very small; for how could we know it if we are ignorant of its principles? And one cannot know the principles, if one does not possess the science of the elements, which is unknown to most modern philosophers because they take things at face value, and they do not know the nature-essence, which is the natural principle of all things, nor the gradations of the natural causes which result from it, nor the differences, nor the proportion which makes the union of the things which it produces; and who, finally, do not know what nature is, which, as I said in the treatise on substance, is divided into three different situations. The first is that from which the elements are produced; the second is the elementary; the third is the seminal, which holds the middle between the elements and the individuals. They are three different principles, but of the same root, a first, a successor and a neighbour. The first and the second do the generation indirectly, and the third does it directly. The first is indeterminate; it can be called corporeal spirit or spiritual body. The second is that which is called the elements, which by their mixtures make all the differences of natural bodies. And the third has the determined idea of ​​genres for their productions, and their strengths and virtues are there in potency. This proximate finished principle is enclosed in each individual: and at the center of this principle are found the engendering and elemental elements.

Having said that all natural things are made of substance, and that it is in all, because they are all substantial; it is proper to show that the elements are nothing but this substantial principle, and although they are different from their principle, they are still substantial, because they are the substance itself under another form. So that what they were at the center of the substance, they are at the circumference; that is to say, the elements being substantial at the center of their natural principle, they are substantial in the same way at the circumference, and as I have said that the principle terminated at the generation of individuals is the result of the elements, it is necessary to demonstrate in what way this seminal principle is this result.

All things being resolved into what they were, if the finished principle is resolved into elements by natural circulation, it must then be admitted that it was composed of elements, and that they were necessarily in it; for if they were not there, there would be no difference; and if there were no difference, there would be neither composition, nor union, nor harmony, since harmony comes only from union; union cannot exist without composition; composition without difference, and difference without the elements, which, although different, must unite in a single compound which is an accomplished whole, which is neither one nor the other of the components, but a compound, engendered and engendering unity.

This difference of concordance makes the material harmonic union in all things of nature. To find this seminal elementary principle, it is necessary to decompose what is composed and, to recompose what is decomposed, then we will have the elemental elements, and by their union we will form a unity; substance is the figure of unity and the principle of all quantities, as the physical point is the principle of all geometric quantities. She is the factor mother of the elements, she is equally in all; it is their natural mover, which changes them into all the different forms we see; and which are called accidents, on account of the different changes which are continually made from one to the other. But it is improperly to call them accidens, because God, who is infinite, operates in substance without change of subject.

All things must have relation to their principle: one is relative to unity, its principle, four is relative to two, and two to one, although they are all different; and because their fotmea are different; must we say that a form is an accident with regard to the unity, its principle, nor that two is an accident with regard to one, nor four with regard to two. Is not four as essential as two, and two as essential as one, since they both come from the same essence, and from a single principle, which is the unity number of intellectual unity; nor can we say that the elements are not as substantial and essential as each other. Whatever differences there may be between them, that does not prevent them from being of the same substance as their principle, so that one cannot say, that one is an accident with respect to the other, nor that they are accidents with respect to their principle; given that these different elementary forms are nothing other than the multiplicity of the point of nature, which is perfectly essential in relation to its principle, which is the essential cause of all essences. Substance being relative to its principle, is one; and being unique, it can only produce effects which are proportionate and relative to it; and if these effects are relative to it, they must be substantial and not accidental; whereas it is substantial in all its gradations. Accident is anything that is not part of substance; and that which is not part of substance cannot be substantial, nor relative to substance. The things which are within the substance, however different they may be, can only be essentially in it. And this difference having passed from the center to the circumference, should not be called accident, although it is different from its center, unless one means to say that the circumference is an accident with respect to the center; which cannot, any more than say, that creatures are accidents with regard to the creator.

What I have just said is quite contrary to the sentiments of those who claim that the soul of man is made of nothing, and who then say that man is made in the image of God. What a contradiction! and how can one dare to say that God who is the perfect and eternal being has for similarity a thing made of nothing? What proportion would there be between what is eternally and what has never been? If the soul of man, or rather, if the essential man had not been hidden in God, like the tree in its essential vegetable principle; it would never have been produced. So then what was invisible in eternity has been made visible by the manifestation of the eternal in time; because, as I have said elsewhere, time is nothing other than the manifestation of eternity.

CHAPTER VI

That the constituent parts of individuals cannot be accidents.

The number unit produces all numbers, and as it is essential, the numbers it produces are co-essential to it, as soon as it produces them from its own essence and substance. The principle point of all quantity makes the line: the line must therefore have been hidden in it, since it is produced from it. The line makes the surface, and the surface the body. These are three forms really different from each other, and although they are distinct, they are all produced successively by the point, which is their material principle. The line is not the point, nor the point the line; and so on others. And yet the line is not an accident, with respect to the point, since it is composed of points, and is their flux and flow; nor is the surface an accident with respect to the line, as soon as it is composed of lines, the body no longer has an accident with respect to the surface, since it is composed of surface. It is the same with the other geometric figures, which are all substantial, since they are all filled with their principle.

We can say in the same way that the semen of animals is one, and that it does not fail to produce all the different parts which constitute the animal; as are the eyes, the teeth, the hair, the skin, the flesh, the bones, the muscles, the veins, the blood, all the different fluids, the vital spirits, and other parts which are finally necessary to constitute animal harmony. If that were not known to us, who would be the one who could convince himself of it? And though we see every day that all these different things are produced from one seminal principle, we are not imbued with our own experience, and we do not even reflect on it, because these things appear to us too common. They are, however, truths that can lead us to greater knowledge, and which should undeceive those who say that the essential and constitutive parts of individuals are accidents. If it were true that they were, it must therefore be said that all the different forms which compose the animal are accidental to it.

I am going to give another sensible proof of this truth in plants. The leaves are not an accident with respect to the tree, neither are the flowers with respect to the leaves, nor the fruit with respect to the flowers; the tree being hidden as well as all its parts in the center of its seed, as well as all the geometric figures in the physical point. The seed of the tree being essential, essentially produces the tree with all its parts, without which the tree cannot be. Some unbelievers might perhaps object that in winter the trees which have lost their leaves, flowers and fruits do not cease to be trees, and that therefore all these things were not essential parts of these trees; but only accidents without which these trees can exist; I will reply that they are indeed trees, but that they are not perfect, since they do not have all their essential parts in action. For if these trees always remained in the state they are; in winter, they would produce nothing; and consequently would manifest death, and would no longer be trees, since they would be without action. We could not therefore place them among the plants since they would no longer have the power to vegetate. But as soon as these trees reproduce by vegetation all in parts, they must be necessary and essential to the perfection of their form, and it must be agreed that the tree is no longer a tree, if he does not have all his parts in act or in potency; for what is inside in winter is similar to what is outside in summer.

For it is immaterial whether the tree is within its seed or outside; the seed being substantial, the tree is substantial in all its parts; which cannot be denied, since before having passed from potency into act, it is contained with all its essential parts in its seminal point: just as the number is contained in the unity, two in one, and four in two: just as the creature is contained in the creator; the son in the father; the geometric figures in the point, the elements in the substance, the air in the fire, and the fire in the air. Everything is united in a potential nature-essence, and everything is produced by it substantially. And though in nature there are an infinity of different things, yet they are all substantial, because they are all made of substance. And what must be called accident in natural things is outside the substance, that is to say, it is a mixture which has no proportion with it. I will explain elsewhere what an accident is, in order to be able to make a perfect difference between what is really natural and what is against nature and which prevents the perfection of things. In the meantime, we can conclude from what I have just said, that the elements being the first effect of the substance, and the substance itself in the elementary forms, they should not be called accidents, any more than other natural things, since they are made from the mixture of the elements. which are substantial, and therefore of substance, which God has filled with an infinity of forms, since it is filled with himself, which is infinity: God being in all essence, presence and power. Thus, we can say with truth, that all that is natural in the world is essential and made of an essential principle, and all that is accidental is against nature.

CHAPTER VII

Of the proportion which unites the elements for natural productions.

The elements being substantial, beyond doubt, according to the proofs which I have given of this truth, they have proportion among themselves, and this proportion comes from their all issuing from the same principle. They are different numbers which are produced from the unit number, and unite by their composition in a unit. They are different lines which God has drawn from a single point, and which return to that point as to their substantial center. These numbers have proportion between them, as these lines have between them, the elements have proportion between them, because they are made of substance, their natural principle, and they return to it as to their center. Besides, one cannot doubt their proportion, because without it they would never unite for composition. But being recognized that the elements are the principles of all natural compositions, we must agree that they unite; and consequently that they have proportion, and difference, seeing that there is proportion only between different things: they must also be different to be natural principles, because things similar in nature can produce nothing, as I have demonstrated. The elements being the principles of things, their differences are absolutely necessary for the composition of natural bodies, so that by their more or less mixture they can make that great diversity of subjects which are found in nature: if this agreement of proportion no longer existed in the elements, they would never combine together; and instead of producing a perfect compound, all that would result would be a confused mixture, without distinction and without order. And there would be neither animals, nor vegetables, nor minerals, nor any of those things which are necessary for the perfect harmony of the universe.

To know the differences which exist between the elements, and the proportion which unites them, it is only necessary to observe in what manner the numbers are united. Two and four make six; which is neither of the numbers which are produced: where can this union come from? It comes from the interior relation of these numbers to the same principle. One is the material principle numbering two and four, and as one is the first numbering unit; all numbers are similarity, that is, they are units in relation to their principle.

Without leaving the numbers, here is another proof of this interior proportion. Four is hidden in two, since it is produced by the multiple of two, and two is hidden in four, since it is part of it. So four is the flux and flow of two, and two can be reproduced from four. These two numbers being therefore hidden from each other, two finds in the center of four, a thing which is similar to it, which is of the same principle, of the same vessel, and of the same form; so that what is at the center conforms to what is at the circumference. And this proportion makes their union at the center point. Thus, without other means, two and four unite; and from their union results six, which is a third number, which is neither two nor four, but a unity which contains them both in its center; six is ​​consequently their circumference: it is the same with the other numbers, as well as with the elements.

But to make a just application of what I have said of numbers, it must be remembered that the elements are made of substance, their natural principle, as numbers are made of one, which is their numeral principle. And that the elements are only the flow, the flow and the multiplication of suhtance; like numbers are just the flow, the flow and the multiplication of one. And because substance is one, the elements which are succeeding and derived units, unite and produce by their union a compound unity, relative to their principle, and this compound unity is nothing but a multiplication of substance, terminated in a form, which is neither element nor substance; but a substantial elemental result. As six is ​​just a unit multiplication terminated in a numeral form, made up of several unit-numbers: but as the elements of which I speak are the principles of mixture, and of natural composition, I must warn that they are not those which we see, since they are only simulacra, which do not form part of substance as do the interior and substantial elements, which are the true elemental natural principles, or rather the substance itself divided into several different forms, which we call elements; which differ from substance only because it has no potential quality as being their principle. But when it has passed to elementary forms, by the division which the eternal principle has made of them; for then it has in act the hot, the humid, the cold and the dry, which are the succeeding principles. and of natural composition, I must warn that it is not those which we see, since they are only simulacra, which do not form part of substance as do the interior and substantial elements, which are the true elemental natural principles, or rather the substance itself divided into several different forms, which we call elements; which differ from substance only because it has no potential quality as being their principle.

But when it has passed to elementary forms, by the division which the eternal principle has made of them; for then it has in act the hot, the humid, the cold and the dry, which are the succeeding principles. and of natural composition, I must warn that it is not those which we see, since they are only simulacra, which do not form part of substance as do the interior and substantial elements, which are the true elemental natural principles, or rather the substance itself divided into several different forms, which we call elements; which differ from substance only because it has no potential quality as being their principle. But when it has passed to elementary forms, by the division which the eternal principle has made of them; for then it has in act the hot, the humid, the cold and the dry, which are the succeeding principles. which do not form part of substance as do the interior and substantial elements, which are the true elemental natural principles, or rather the substance itself divided into several different forms, which we call elements; which differ from substance only because it has no potential quality as being their principle. But when it has passed to elementary forms, by the division which the eternal principle has made of them; for then it has in act the hot, the humid, the cold and the dry, which are the succeeding principles. which do not form part of substance as do the interior and substantial elements, which are the true elemental natural principles, or rather the substance itself divided into several different forms, which we call elements; which differ from substance only because it has no potential quality as being their principle. But when it has passed to elementary forms, by the division which the eternal principle has made of them; for then it has in act the hot, the humid, the cold and the dry, which are the succeeding principles.

But when it has passed to elementary forms, by the division which the eternal principle has made of them; for then it has in act the hot, the humid, the cold and the dry, which are the succeeding principles. But when it has passed to elementary forms, by the division which the eternal principle has made of them; for then it has in act the hot, the humid, the cold and the dry, which are the succeeding principles.

If the elements are substantial because they are made of substance, we cannot deny that the principles terminated in generation are similarly substantial, since they are the monocle and the result of the elements, and the individuals are nothing else than the individuated substance; because they came out of finished principles which are only finished substance. So that we improperly call accidens, the hot, the humid, the cold and the dry, the colors and some other integral parts of individuals: given that the elements, the terminated principles and the individuals, with all their parts, are nothing else than the elemental, terminated, or individuated substance. So that all these degrees of natural combinations and mixtures are only the multiplicity of substance, under different substantial forms. Just as numbers are the multiplicity of the number-unit, in different numeral forms. And as well as all the geometrical figures are only the multiplicity of the physical point, under different geometrical form.

The most striking difference which exists between the elemental elements and the elemental elements; which proves the superiority of the first over the last, is that art has no pasture on the elemental elements, and that it has a lot on the elemental elements: the new chemistry proves this truth to us, by the decomposition which we have succeeded in making of water, as well as of air. But it is not the same with the elemental elements, since they are what the unit-number is with respect to other numbers, which can be divided because they are composite: but the unit-number from which they derive is indivisible, being relative to the eternal unity, its principle.

CHAPTER VIII

Completed principles, and how they have in them all that is necessary for them for the multiplication of their kind.

Let us first examine what is their origin, we find that it is eternal, since they are essences emanating from the divine essence, for after God had produced the abyss, his eternal and infinite spirit, which is the fire of divine love, smoldered this first created substance, to bring forth natural forms; this first natural principle having been filled with all the ideas of the will of its creator for the generation of all natural things, God divided it into elementary substances, which are the succeeding natural principles, and after this division he combined these elementary substances, and made of them a finished seminal next principle, which he divided into three genera, that is to say, into seed, animal, vegetable and mineral: and determined each of these seeds, to remain in its own kind, for his generation and multiplication. So that the finished principles are nothing else than the seeds of genera or their next matter for the multiplication of their species; thus all the finished principles have what is necessary for them for the generation of their individuals, without one needing the other to multiply its own kind according to its determination. Experience proves it to us every day, in the animal and in the vegetable genus; but it is not the same with the mineral; the difference that exists between minerals, compared to plants and animals, is that of not being able, like the latter, to assimilate anything to their own substance. They only obey the law of attraction, and one notices in them at most only a symmetrical arrangement of their integrating molecules, far removed from plant and animal organization.

If sometimes the mineral seems to enjoy a vegetative movement and to increase, it is never by an intussusception, but indeed by a juxtaposition of molecules similar to it, which are carried along by water, and which, by virtue of the laws of attraction, unite in a geometric relationship and form crystallization properly so called; action very different from that which plants and animals exert on the bodies which they appropriate and which they change into their own substance, by this vital force with which they are endowed and of which the minerals, participating in the raw and inorganic matter, like it, are absolutely deprived. From this derives the division of all the bodies of nature into two great classes. That of organic bodies including animals and plants, and those of inorganic bodies including all fossils; from the crystal, the most regular and the most symmetrical, to the crudest and most shapeless stony mass.

CHAPTER IX

That the finished principle is a silt, and that it is in the animal and in the vegetable, and that the animal and the vegetable are in this silt.

I say that the next matter terminated in generation is a silt, because this terminated principle or seminal substance appears to our eyes in the form of a moist, silt and glairy simulacrum, which, being coagulated in its natural vessel, is made animal, if it is that of the animal genus. If this silt after its coagulation is made animal, then the animal must be hidden in its center, as when the animal is at the circumference, the silt is in the center; so that the animal, for the production of its species, draws this silt from itself from the center to the circumference. Thus we can say that the silt determined by the animal genus is made animal, and that the animal in its turn produces this silt. So that everything gives what it has, that is the ebb and flow of animal nature.

It is the same with the vegetable genus. When the grain of bled has been sown, by the dissolution which is made of it in its natural vessel which is the earth. This grain first gives its silt, and after its vegetation it produces wheat, of which it is the seminal principle, that is to say, the wheat comes out of the center of this silt and comes to the circumference; as soon as he came out of it, he was therefore contained. So that the seed is in the bled, and the bled in the seed. Here, then, is the ebb and flow in the vegetable genus, similar to that which we have observed in the animal genus.

Now, as I said that art imitates nature, and nature its creator, let us remark that the eternal unity made all things successively; that first she made one, which is the substance; that of this one she made several, which are the elements, which she then unites in a finished seminal principle, which she divided into three genera, which are, the animal, the vegetable and the mineral. Let us also remark that nature, in imitation of its principle, goes by degrees and never passes from one extreme to another, without passing through middles. It has a regular order from which it does not deviate. It is therefore necessary that whoever wishes to imitate nature learn to know by sensible examples with what, and how, all things are made; because if one simply wants to make some productions of nature, one must follow it, in order to limit ; but if we want to do something more excellent than she does, we must notice in what, and by what, she improves.

It should be known that everything, like nature, is in the will of God, who created it, and placed in all imagination; in the same way nature has made herself a seed in the elements proceeding from her will, and although she is unique, she produces diverse things; she's a real chameleon that takes on the shape and colors of every germ she encounters. So that if one wants to do something good, one must have that seed or sperm, and nature will be ready to do its duty. It acts on the sperm like God on the free will of the man. And it is a great marvel to see that nature obeys the seed, without being forced to do so, just as God grants to the virtuous man all that he desires, not that he is forced to do so, but of his good and free will.

It is therefore not surprising that the three kingdoms of nature have a very strong connection and an intimate affinity between them, since none of them has separate principles or a particular motive. From man to the last individual, and the last link that completes the chain of beings; all the intermediate substances are the way of mediation by which the two extremities are corresponding: this operation is done by giving and receiving in turn; and it is by motion and heat that this exchange is perpetuated, and unceasingly gives birth to new combinations and new mixtures from the remains of the old ones, since since the moment of creation, the supreme being has neither added nor subtracted a single atom from matter; and although the variety of beings is infinite, the agent who produces them is only one; it is through it that everything is born, breathes, vegetates, feeds and repairs itself, either by intus-susception, or by juxta-position. The heat of the star suspended in the center of the world, the penetration of fluids, the time which nature has as sovereign, the elaboration which she employs to appropriate raw matter to organized bodies, the aptitude of these bodies to receive new matters; the force of the agent which, at the same time as it resolves and separates the parts of a mixture, in the form of others, are so many means by the aid of which unorganized matter passes from the state of death in which it appears to be, to the state of life in which we see it. This new metamorphosis renders it fit to produce in its turn other beings entirely similar to those of which it has become a living production. feeds and repairs itself, either by intus-susception, or by juxta-position.

The heat of the star suspended in the center of the world, the penetration of fluids, the time which nature has as sovereign, the elaboration which she employs to appropriate raw matter to organized bodies, the aptitude of these bodies to receive new matters; the force of the agent which, at the same time as it resolves and separates the parts of a mixture, in the form of others, are so many means by the aid of which unorganized matter passes from the state of death in which it appears to be, to the state of life in which we see it. This new metamorphosis renders it fit to produce in its turn other beings entirely similar to those of which it has become a living production. feeds and repairs itself, either by intus-susception, or by juxta-position. The heat of the star suspended in the center of the world, the penetration of fluids, the time which nature has as sovereign, the elaboration which she employs to appropriate raw matter to organized bodies, the aptitude of these bodies to receive new matters; the force of the agent which, at the same time as it resolves and separates the parts of a mixture, in the form of others, are so many means by the aid of which unorganized matter passes from the state of death in which it appears to be, to the state of life in which we see it. This new metamorphosis renders it fit to produce in its turn other beings entirely similar to those of which it has become a living production. The heat of the star suspended in the center of the world, the penetration of fluids, the time which nature has as sovereign, the elaboration which she employs to appropriate raw matter to organized bodies, the aptitude of these bodies to receive new matters; the force of the agent which, at the same time as it resolves and separates the parts of a mixture, in the form of others, are so many means by the aid of which unorganized matter passes from the state of death in which it appears to be, to the state of life in which we see it.

This new metamorphosis renders it fit to produce in its turn other beings entirely similar to those of which it has become a living production. The heat of the star suspended in the center of the world, the penetration of fluids, the time which nature has as sovereign, the elaboration which she employs to appropriate raw matter to organized bodies, the aptitude of these bodies to receive new matters; the force of the agent which, at the same time as it resolves and separates the parts of a mixture, in the form of others, are so many means by the aid of which unorganized matter passes from the state of death in which it appears to be, to the state of life in which we see it. This new metamorphosis renders it fit to produce in its turn other beings entirely similar to those of which it has become a living production. the ability of these bodies to receive new materials; the force of the agent which, at the same time as it resolves and separates the parts of a mixture, in the form of others, are so many means by the aid of which unorganized matter passes from the state of death in which it appears to be, to the state of life in which we see it. This new metamorphosis renders it fit to produce in its turn other beings entirely similar to those of which it has become a living production. the ability of these bodies to receive new materials; the force of the agent which, at the same time as it resolves and separates the parts of a mixture, in the form of others, are so many means by the aid of which unorganized matter passes from the state of death in which it appears to be, to the state of life in which we see it. This new metamorphosis renders it fit to produce in its turn other beings entirely similar to those of which it has become a living production.

These successive and constant metamorphoses, the new products which result from them, necessarily require a disposition on the part of the bodies which must undergo them and assimilate themselves with others. Every union requires an appropriation, this one depends on that one, and both require a preliminary disposition, ut in mutuos amplexus coeant.

By knowledge of the laws of this appropriation, we can explain all natural phenomena, and those which are called counter-nature: it shows us not only why an effect is produced at the present time, and not at another time; but it shows us why this effect comes slowly or rapidly, feebly or strongly; why the same remedy sometimes produces such different effects, according as the disease on one side is the medicine on the other, are more or less disposed to act one on the other: it is also by it alone that we can obtain exact notions of potency, and the difference of causes and effects in all the various cases.

CHAPTER X

Of the union of the creator with the creatures through the incarnate word.

It was absolutely impossible for sinful man to return to his principle; if the principle itself had not had the kindness to unite with its creature. There existed such a great disproportion, and such a considerable estrangement, between God and corrupted man, that he would have remained eternally in this unhappy state, if tenderness and infinite mercy had not by an almighty means destroyed this great opposition and disproportion, by uniting with man through the incarnation of the Word.

Having shown that man was the most accomplished of all creatures, I must here point out that by his sin he has fallen from this superiority. He was created in purity, in innocence, and in justice; by his disobedience he lost all these advantages. God had placed him in an abode of delight, where he would have lived free from pain and disease, until the time when the creator had wished to pass him into the glory for which he had been created; and from which he moved away by abusing the free will that God had given him as a particular advantage, which was to put him above all things. But instead of using this advantage for good, he only used it for evil, and sacrificed eternal happiness for a moment of erroneous enjoyment.

He was made by the hand of God, in the image of the eternal word, and animated by the spirit of life. But he has profaned this image by sin: he has dragged into the precipice of eternal death this spirit of life, which had been given to him as a faithful guide, which was to bring him back to his principle, and, as a magnetic virtue of the word, was to attract him to God.

Man having operated alone in his sphere and of his own motion, according to the free will that God had given him at his creation, produced only evil, since he could only give what he had, which was nothingness; having of itself neither good nor being; God being the source of good and of all existence. Everything that belongs to man is therefore neither being nor good; what he did, without his creator, was opposed to being and to good. Since man is not the principle of life either, everything he has done without his principle, which is life itself, has been opposed to life and has produced only death.

Man having been as far from God as evil is far from good, and as death is far from life; it was impossible to reconcile them without a means which had the power to effect this reconciliation: God alone therefore had this power, seeing that an all-powerful and infinite means was needed to bring about the return of man to God, and to withdraw him from this eternal exile into which sin had thrown him. And this could only be done by the union of the word with the man, who is this infinite and all-powerful means, participating in the two natures, the divine and the human, that is to say, a God-man and a man-God.

If we look into all natural causes, we will find that the unifying means is always a partaker of the two extremes. The creator whom nature imitates in all things, wanting to be the means uniting between himself and man, submitted to the same law, which he prescribed to his creatures: he participated in these two extremes, by limiting himself to the dimensions of a human body for the return of man to God. The invisible had to become visible in order to reunite the visible with the invisible. And that God who is all spirit is embodied by his word, to unite the body to the spirit. This is how the creator united with the creature.

Nothing, therefore, could bring about this return, except the creator himself. And it was a determination of God, that the times ordained by him being fulfilled, he would unite everything by the word; both what is in heaven and what is on earth.

In order to complete the perfection of its creatures, the eternal unity wanted to make them immortal: for this effect it had to unite them to its essence for their renewal. And to make this perfect union, eternal unity unites with human nature, which was its perfect image and the epitome of all natures. She unites with man in time to reunite man with God in eternity. So that man being made eternal by this union, all creatures will be eternal in man. That is to say, they will all be in unity in him as the epitome of the universe, as all men who will be in glory will be in unity in God.

Man is the epitome of all creatures; because these three natures which make up the world, namely the intellectual, the celestial and the elementary, are the three essential parts of man as I have demonstrated. So that all creatures, both higher and lower, will be in unity in man. And all men in unity in God, but in a very different way; for men are not the essential parts of God; because God is a whole which has no parts, being the indivisible and immutable whole, and the simple unity. Nor is God the epitome of all creatures; for to be an abbreviation, it would have to be limited; and as the infinite has no limits, God being the infinity, one cannot say that he is an abridgment.

To better conceive this truth, let us examine in what manner are the numbers in the unit number their principle; they are all there in all their extent, and essentially because they all essentially come out of it. In the mathematical point, all the geometric figures essentially exist, they are there with all their extent. All numbers come out of potency in act of unity. And all the geometrical figures also issue from potentiality in action from the mathematical point their principle.
It is the same with men and all creatures, as I have explained elsewhere. All creatures issued from God their principle, because they were there essentially in power. And God manifested himself through his creatures, just as we see that the unit-number is manifested by numbers, and the mathematical point by geometrical figures, but there is this great difference, that numbers returning to unity their principle, and geometrical figures to the rational point, go back from act to power, and are only potentially in their principle.

But men, on the contrary, will be eternally active in their principle, and they will be there in a very different way. For those who are dead in sin will only be resurrected to die eternally in remorse and desolation. But the converted righteous and sinners will return to the principle, to be all in unity in glory.

CHAPTER XI

That the word is the proportionate means to unite man to God.

I said that eternal unity having produced the world in time, outside of itself, wanted to reunite it, in order to reestablish it by this reunion in eternity, so that the word did two things, the first is that it became man to be creator and creature all together, in order to reunite all creatures to God through man who is its epitome, so that the world may be deified in him, and he may be one with his principle. The second is that he made for us an easy path to be able to return to God, that is to say, that man being an extreme with regard to the principle, because he is the principled, it was necessary that God established a means uniting between him and his creature, so that the principle and the principled make a middle nature between the two, which was God-man, and man-God. So the verb is that uniting means, which is a sacred seal, with which God seals us to his mark, to find us at the resurrection such as he wants us to be in order to transmute us. For we will all be resurrected; but we will not all be transmuted. Those who have no proportion with this sacred seal, and who therefore will not be marked with it, will not be transmuted for eternal life, because this seal is the principle of life and immortality.

Having imitated the first man by sin, we must also imitate the word in its purity, in its justice, and separate ourselves from all that we have in us, which is of flesh and blood, since corruption cannot unite with the incorruptible. Only the flesh of the word can possess the kingdom of God; because it is incorruptible, life-giving and spiritual. But all other flesh must be corrupted, purified and transmuted, in order to dwell in the center of incorruption, eternity and glory.

CHAPTER XII

Of the incorruptibility of the flesh of the word.

A union as perfect as that of the divine nature, with human nature, in the person of the incarnate word, must make us conceive that his flesh is always vivifying, because it is inseparably united to the spirit of life. So that if we consider the flesh of the son of God in his conception and in his birth, we will find that it is always quickening, because it is filled with the spirit of God, and is the manifestation of the word. It is the same during his life, in his death and in his resurrection; our flesh is subject to sin but the flesh of the word was impecable. It was, however, a human flesh similar to that of sinners, but sin had never inhabited it. She could not even sin, because the word was conceived of the spirit of God, and that his flesh being perfectly united to his spirit, and his humanity subject to the divinity, there was no contest between spirit and flesh, as there is in us. For our flesh is opposed to the spirit and the spirit to the flesh. They are continually at war to combat our passions, and prevent us from doing all that we would like; it is not the same with the word: as his flesh was subject to his spirit, which was impecable, it could not sin. The spirit of the word acted in its flesh, which operated only through the spirit, so therefore the flesh of the word was vivifying, because during its life the spirit of life acted in it. She was the same in her death, not only because she did not experience corruption, but also because her death gave us eternal life. After the resurrection of the verb,

CHAPTER XIII

Of the resurrection of man.

The body of man is buried as an entirely animal body, and it will rise again as an entirely spiritual body. We will have the power to show ourselves, or to make ourselves invisible like the spirits because we will have a spiritual body, capable of all that the angels can do; for we will be their equals; moreover, we will be children of the resurrection. Like the word, we will have penetration, invisibility, and all the powers, since the infinite power will be at the center and at the circumference.

When we are in glory, we will see the word quite differently than we saw it on earth. It is not that he was not, though incarnate, always eternal, infinite and all-powerful like his father; both being only one and the same divine essence, but men could not see it as it was because of their disproportion. Mortal men could not see life in eternity, and the divine essence in its infinite extent: material men, finished and weak, could not understand the infinity and the omnipotence of the principle, although the divinity by an effect of its goodness had placed itself within the reach of our senses, by making itself visible to the eyes of mortals in the person of the incarnate word.

But when we are transmuted, we will see him as he is, because we will be in proportion with him. We will see immortality, because we will be immortal, infinity because we will be infinite, eternity, because we will be eternal; and divinity because we will be divine, being united with God, our principle.

We should not be surprised at the resources that remained with man after his fall; he was a father who watched over his son even when he left his father's house. And the place whence man came out is so wisely arranged, that in retracing his steps, by the same roads which led him astray, he is sure to regain the central point which he left, as I shall demonstrate in the next chapter. So that having strayed in going from four to nine, he can return to his principle only by going from nine to four, in which crossing he is obliged to submit to the law of the number eight which appears frightening. But if we reflect on what I said on this subject; we will resign ourselves to it without difficulty, and we will not complain of this subjection, given that it is the law imposed on all beings who inhabit the abode of fathers and mothers; and as soon as man has descended there voluntarily, he must submit to its full rigor.

Let us not seek to rise above humanity, and we will feel that all is for the good. To exist is a happiness, to die is an even greater one, which must be earned by bearing the pains of life. The celestial man could never be reunited with his principle, if there were not a separation of the corruptible from the incorruptible, which separation can only take place by the death or dissolution of the material substance, which serves as an envelope for the spiritual substance. This idea consoles me in my afflictions, makes me bear the vicissitudes of life, and gives me the certainty of a happier future.

CHAPTER XIV

Numerical demonstration of the return of all creatures to unity through the intermediary of man.

We know that logarithms are numbers in arithmetic proportion, which correspond term for term to a similar sequence of numbers in geometric progression, and arithmetic progression. As I have used throughout the course of this work, the similarity of numbers, to demonstrate the truth; I had to take to prove the return of all creatures to unity their principle through the intermediary of man, the nine units with their logarithms, in order to establish a sound and non-ideal reasoning.

The univocal numbers which are contained with their logarithms in the square, represent the different created species. The total sum which is 455559763, resulting from the addition of all these numbers, demonstrates the union of all these species, to pass to the single animal genus, by a second addition: make the numbers of this total, by saying, 4 and 5 make 9, and 5 make 14, and 5 make 19, and 5 make 24, and 9 make 33, and 7 make 40, and 6 make 46, and 3 make 49. This forty-nine, of which the 4 belongs to matter, and the 9 to the triple triplicity of the divine essence, demonstrates the union of matter with the divine essence, and this union teaches us the marvels of this very perfect wisdom which knows how to unite things entirely distant, and raise them to the degree of perfection. The addition of the 4 with the 9 produces the number 13, which containing the number ten, which belongs to perfection, and the three which belongs to the divine essence, announces to us that the essence of all things is entirely united to the spiritual; then the 1 which is of the composition of 13 represents the substance issued from all created things; and the 3 designates the eternal spirit which has united with substance to regenerate man, which is the medium by which all natures must be brought back to eternity. So that by adding the 1 with the 3, the result is the 4, which being the number of the composition, belongs to the man who has in him all the united species as I have just demonstrated. announces to us that the essence of everything is entirely united to the spiritual; then the 1 which is of the composition of 13 represents the substance issued from all created things; and the 3 designates the eternal spirit which has united with substance to regenerate man, which is the medium by which all natures must be brought back to eternity.

So that by adding the 1 with the 3, the result is the 4, which being the number of the composition, belongs to the man who has in him all the united species as I have just demonstrated. announces to us that the essence of everything is entirely united to the spiritual; then the 1 which is of the composition of 13 represents the substance issued from all created things; and the 3 designates the eternal spirit which has united with substance to regenerate man, which is the medium by which all natures must be brought back to eternity. So that by adding the 1 with the 3, the result is the 4, which being the number of the composition, belongs to the man who has in him all the united species as I have just demonstrated.

Having said in the seventh chapter of the second part that the four is hidden in two, since it is produced by the multiple of two, and that two is hidden in four, since it is part of it. That four being the flux and flow of two, the two could be reproduced from four. For creatures to be able to return to eternal unity by the same progressions as they came out of it, the four must therefore be brought back into the two which produced it by its multiple; for this effect, it has only to be duplicated by saying half of 4 is 2. Which number is that of the composition, and consequently of the generation containing the two genera; but as there should be no generation in eternity, these two genera must therefore unite into one; that is to say, the feminine must enter into the masculine, from whence he came, that all kinds may be brought back to eternity by regenerated man; so that the two, having been produced by the unit drawn out, must return to the unit from which it came. Consequently I say, half of 2 is 1. Here then are all these numbers returned from the circumference to the center, by the same progressions as they came out of it. This is how all created things will return to unity, their principle, through man to enjoy glory forever. by the same progressions as they came out of it. This is how all created things will return to unity, their principle, through man to enjoy glory forever. by the same progressions as they came out of it. This is how all created things will return to unity, their principle, through man to enjoy glory forever.

COSMOLOGY CHART

CHAPTER XV

Reflection on the duration of the physical world.

In the mysteries wrought by God, we find figures of the greatest truths; and although the divine oracle said to his disciples who questioned him about the duration of the world, that only his celestial father knew the day and the hour of this universal assembly which must take place in this so famous valley; I will therefore say that the day indeed, nor the hour cannot come to our knowledge; but with regard to time, if we seek it figured in the most adorable mysteries of the creator, we will agree that it is probable that this universal judgment must arrive on the seventh millennium of creation, and making us strong on this number of seven; we will observe that the divine oracles have all considered it a sacred number, and filled with mysteries; the prince of philosophers, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Hypocrates,

So that as it was created in the space of six days, it will last six thousand years, during which man will be obliged to work, and on the seventh millennium will be the universal rest of creatures, as on the seventh day was the rest of the creator. For the seven days must represent to us the seven thousand years, since a century is only one day for the divinity: to calculate this reasoning, if we want seven thousand years accomplished, to remove all the seventh days which are intended for the 1st rest, which one calls day of the sabat, which means cessation of work, there will remain only six thousand years, and the seventh will be the general cessation of all created things; then the heavens will cease to move, the stars to pour out their influences, the sun will no longer gild the earth with its rays, and the earth will no longer send its vapors to it, the sea will no longer be in this violent agitation; the winds will no longer excite storms; the fields will no longer produce flowers, and all creatures will stop moving; a universal rest will follow the movement. Isn't it still to strengthen this thought that JC is called sun of justice? and indeed, were not the sun created on the fourth day, as JC came into the world in the fourth millennium, the year three thousand nine hundred and forty-four of creation, as Jean Cavion remarks, in the chronicle he has written since the beginning of the world, and what St. Paul says about it, that he came in the fullness of time; indeed, is not the fullness of seven four; thus we can therefore conjecture that the end of the centuries will arrive at the seventh millennium; David, the king of the prophets, in predicting the coming of the Incarnate Word, did he not put it in the middle of centuries in medio annorum vivifica illud.

And does not the sun hold the middle between the seven planets, and like this star of grace, of true light, and sun of justice, having allowed three thousand years to pass from the creation of the world before its coming, must we not think that it will not exist until three thousand years after it, the last of which can be compared to the moon, which is inconstant, variable and subject to eclipse; to give us to know that the seventh millennium will be in eclipses of persecution, which will give birth to inconstancy in the most assured minds, and to error in the most clairvoyant. And does not the sun hold the middle between the seven planets, and like this star of grace, of true light, and sun of justice, having allowed three thousand years to pass from the creation of the world before its coming, must we not think that it will not exist until three thousand years after it, the last of which can be compared to the moon, which is inconstant, variable and subject to eclipse; to give us to know that the seventh millennium will be in eclipses of persecution, which will give birth to inconstancy in the most assured minds, and to error in the most clairvoyant. And does not the sun hold the middle between the seven planets, and like this star of grace, of true light, and sun of justice, having allowed three thousand years to pass from the creation of the world before its coming, must we not think that it will not exist until three thousand years after it, the last of which can be compared to the moon, which is inconstant, variable and subject to eclipse; to give us to know that the seventh millennium will be in eclipses of persecution, which will give birth to inconstancy in the most assured minds, and to error in the most clairvoyant. which is inconstant, variable and subject to eclipse; to give us to know that the seventh millennium will be in eclipses of persecution, which will give birth to inconstancy in the most assured minds, and to error in the most clairvoyant.

which is inconstant, variable and subject to eclipse; to give us to know that the seventh millennium will be in eclipses of persecution, which will give birth to inconstancy in the most assured minds, and to error in the most clairvoyant.

The prophet Isaiah, in explaining the signs which must precede this formidable descent of the sovereign judge, did he not say that he would arrive after the sun had enlightened us with its rays seven times; lux solis erit septempleciter sicut lux septem dierum in die, qua alligaverit dominus vulnas populi sui; and to confirm ourselves in this belief, let us remember what God said to Moses. You will work six days and you will rest on the seventh, which will be called the day of the Lord.

Indeed, is not the day of judgment the day of the Lord? did not the prophet Elijah say: the world will last six thousand years, to know; two thousand years without laws, two thousand years until the coming of JC and two thousand years after his coming, of which there are already 1892 past; so we would only have 198 insured left, after which in the seventh millennium that dreadful day would come, and we would all be gathered in that great valley. But at whatever time this prediction may be made, I can say with certainty, beati omnes qui timum dominum, qui ambulant in viis ejus.

THIRD PART

Where the door of true natural philosophy is wide open.

FIRST CHAPTER.

Philosophy was born with the world, because men have always thought, reflected and meditated to find the means of living in society; but the preservation of his being was no less an interesting object; and could one think that he forgot himself to concern himself only with what was around him; subject to so many vicissitudes, exposed to so many ills, made moreover to enjoy everything that surrounds him, he has doubtless sought the means of preventing or curing his illnesses, in order to preserve for longer a life always ready to escape him. It was therefore necessary to reason about the beings of the universe and to meditate for a long time, to discover this fruit of life and this source of wealth; but God, not having given this knowledge to all men, it always remained enclosed in a very narrow circle of people,
.

But how can we communicate these admirable secrets from age to age, and at the same time keep them hidden from the public? To do so by oral tradition would have been to risk abolishing even the memory of it; memory is too fragile a piece of furniture to be relied upon, and traditions of this kind become obscured as they move away from their source, to the point that it is impossible to disentangle the dark chaos which envelops them. There was therefore no other resource than that of hieroglyphs, symbols, allegories, fables and others, which being susceptible of several different explanations, could serve to deceive, and to instruct some while others remained in ignorance; this is the decision taken by Hermes; and after him, all hermetic philosophers did the same, and they amused the people with fables, called origin, which, with the names of the gods of the country, served to veil their philosophy. But it is time for the veil to be torn, and for the light to come out of the chaos, to show itself in all its brilliance, and for Harpocrates to break the silence; for it is a theft, I dare say, that man commits to society when he hides from it the discoveries he has been able to make, which tend to his happiness and general preservation. I know that it is a fate given to nature to be persecuted in her finest works, and to the art of being blamed in her richest undertakings. It seems that time, which puts an end to the most inveterate evils, instead of destroying it, always gives it new strength, and increases the rigors of its pernicious effects; but that doesn't stop me,

CHAPTER II

The great work of the wise holds the first rank among beautiful things, nature without art cannot complete it, and art without nature dares not undertake it; it is a masterpiece that limits the power of both; its effects are so miraculous that the health it procures and preserves to the living, the perfection it gives to all the compounds of nature, and the great riches it produces in a wholly divine fashion, are not its highest marvels. If God made him the most perfect agent of nature, we can safely say that he received the same power from heaven for morals. If it purifies the bodies, it enlightens them. spirits, if he brings the mixtures to the highest point of their perfection, it can elevate our understanding to the highest knowledge; which means that several philosophers have recognized in this work an accomplished symbol of the adorable mysteries of religion: it is the savior of the great world, since it purges all things of original stains, and repairs by its virtue the disorder of their temperament; in this he represents Christ. It subsists in a perfect ternary of three pure principles, really distinct, and which are but one and the same nature, in this it is a fine symbol of the sacred triad.

He is originally the universal spirit of the world embodied in a virgin earth, being the first production or the first mixture of the elements, at the first point of his birth, to represent to us a humanized word in the bosom of a virgin: and clothed with a corporeal nature, he is labored in his first preparation, he sheds his blood, he dies, he gives up his spirit, he is buried in his vessel, he rises glorious, he ascends to heaven quite quintessential, to examine the healthy and the sick, destroying the central impurity of some and exalting the principles of others: in which he represents to us the labors and torments of the savior, the shedding of his blood on the cross, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, and his second coming to judge the living and the dead; so that it is not without reason that he is called by the sages, the savior of the great world, and the figure of that of our souls; one can with reason say, that if it produces wonders in nature, introducing to the bodies a very great purity, it also works miracles in morals,

All these marvels which have charmed the hearts of the wise, have irritated the minds of the ignorant, who, unable to raise their thoughts above the reach of their senses, have always endeavored to make this elexir of life pass for a chimera. They cannot understand that an elementary substance can cure all kinds of ills; they do not conceive that by the use of this universal medicine one can preserve perfect health and prolong one's life. They find it difficult to persuade themselves that this medicine can act on all the bodies of nature in such an astonishing way. They cannot imagine that minerals, vegetables, and all sorts of animals find in its use deliverance from the evils which lower them and the possession of the goods which raise them; than coarse and impure metals, may become gold; a bitter fruit can be made sweet, a frangible crystal can acquire the hardness of a diamond; and their weakness causes them to accuse the sages of impostures, and the philosophers of errors, for having said publicly that this elexir of life, not only was possible, but that they themselves had done it, and had recognized by experience all the effects attributed to it.

This ignorance has taken root so firmly that to attempt to lead minds out of the error in which they are plunged could pass for a kind of temerity and presumption. But I would rather expose myself to the censorship of ignoramuses than keep silent, being persuaded of having the approval of scholars, who will consider me a friend of philosophy, and I would have the glory of having opened the door of such a precious work to lovers of hermetic science. So that those who have worked until now only by a blind desire, and without a reasonable foundation, on false and remote matters, will be able to know the true subject from which it is necessary to extract the true: at least I will have the pleasure of having fought the lie, and taken the side of the truth.

CHAPTER III

In order to proceed clearly and methodically, it is necessary to know that all sublunary things are simple or compound, the simples are those which compose the mixed, and which contain only a predominant quality of the four radicals: the compounds are those which proceed from the mixture of the simples, and which are mixed of these first four: these simple substances are called elements, because they are the primitive principles of which all the rest is composed; and indeed we know that all mixtures only are composed of hot, cold, dry, and humid; whence it comes that these elements find themselves opposed and acting by reason of their contrariety against each other, alter themselves doubly by remission and intention; this double alteration, changes the first and true temperament necessary for the duration of each thing and makes another one suitable for producing a new mixture. Also we recognize that beings which have no opposites, are not subject to corruption, and are immortal, provided that there is no other cause which can destroy them: as it would happen in the rational soul, if it were not capable of acting outside its body, I mean that in this, being being only for action, it cannot subsist in the state of not being able to act.

I do not say however that the qualities are contrary in all their extent, since in everything they agree to compose the different temperaments: I only want to say that they do not fight each other except in a certain latitude, the temperament not consisting in an indivisible one: but when they leave this latitude, they sufficiently destroy the temperament which preserves the mixture, and compose another; whence comes that general corruption which we see in all the compounds of this lower region.

CHAPTER IV

All the compounds of these elements are reduced to three principles, which are sulphur, salt and mercury, which, according to their various mixtures, compose all sublunary things, although infinite in numbers, properties and virtues; I do not hear of these three vulgar and secondary principles, but of the primitive and celestial ones.

It is a fine subject for meditation, and a worthy motive for admiring the author of nature; to see that this great variety of plants, flowers, fruits, gems and metals, this diversity of species among animals, only come from the diverse mixture of three principles. This truth is very evident, since in the resolution of all compounds, we find there these three things which are a terrestrial part, an aqueous and a sulphurous part: we also find there a body, a soul and a spirit: This is why we see that all the mixtures are preserved and maintained by these three principles; inasmuch as each thing is maintained and preserved only by the same principles of which they are composed. And though minerals, plants, and animals seem to feed themselves differently, they have however only one same food composed of these three celestial and primitive principles; and this common food is the beauty of nature, which preserves everything, and is found everywhere; it is attracted to our gardens, by flowers and herbs; in mountains and caves, by mines, and in animals, by their stomachs; and in our dwellings it is attracted and fixed by fire.

This is why all the philosophers agree in saying that the subject of the hermetic work is in everyone's house, and that whoever seeks it elsewhere is in error: plants and minerals suck it into the earth immediately, and animals suck it through plants and animals themselves; as the mineral and vegetable nature, is not as perfect as the animal, they suck it without preparation, and less determined; but because animals are more perfect, and exercise the operations of the senses, they suck it more prepared and more conformable to their temperament; but it is always the same balm prepared differently which nourishes and preserves them each in its own way, according to its kind and constitution; and although it is often enveloped in filth, impurity and filthiness, the virtue and natural heat of each thing, does not fail to attract it to itself when it is strong enough, and separates in a quite miraculous way these heterogeneous and foreign envelopes, how does it happen that we see that animals apparently throw as much excrement as they have taken in food? it is that they retain only that beauty which is in each thing, and which is in very small quantity: the surplus is only a disguise and a prison in which it is locked up. This universal food was represented to us by the manna which contained all sorts of flavors, and which suited the taste of all peoples in the desert; we also notice that the lands which are deprived of this beauty which is commonly called salt, are sterile, and bring nothing, and that everything dies as it lacks this spirit of life.

CHAPTER V

Since everything is composed of these three principles, there must necessarily be a general compound of these three things which proceeds immediately from them, because as soon as the elements act on each other, it is not to bring their mixture first to the highest degree of perfection which nature can attain; inasmuch as acting wisely in all that she does, she walks step by step, and she advances step by step; she never jumps in her works from one extreme to another, she always does not pass a medium, and this is observed and noticed in all her operations in the three kingdoms; her intention is indeed to go to the highest degree of perfection, but not without going through the circles which must lead her: when she works in the mines, how wise she is and always follows the movements of her author, she does not intend to make gold in her first step; in the vegetal kingdom, it is willing to make herbs and perfect trees, but not in a day; in the animal genus it claims to form, raise and organize a body with all the beauty it is capable of, but not without taking different steps.

And as working in a particular and determined kingdom, it goes step by step, as before passing into the particular, it begins with the general, and by the first action of its elements, it makes a universal and general mixture which is found throughout the earth, this element being the matrix and the universal vessel of nature; and of this general mixture all the others are composed; it is from him that they take their birth, that they rise, are maintained, preserve and feed; it forms and enriches minerals and metals; it nourishes the animals, and causes the plants to grow: it is this first work of the elements, more esteemed by the sages than the gold of Perrou; it is the vile and precious subject, it is this matter which is not the first, but almost the first; it is this gold of the philosophers and its seed, it is this Mineral, vegetable and animal stone, and which however is neither mineral, nor vegetable, nor animal, it is this mercury which contains all that the sages seek; it is this water which does not wet the hands; it is this Protheus who dresses in all colors; it is this poison, this antidote; it is this fire of nature; it is this bath of the king and the queen, this son of the sun and the moon; it is the androgine of the sages; it is this hermaphroditic Venus which contains the two sexes, male and female; it is the cold, the dry, the humid and the hot; in a word, it is the matter, the subject and the fire of the sages.

CHAPTER VI

But as nature has its limits in all its operations, as much by reason of the impurities and refuse which it cannot separate in its composition, and first mixture of the elements into its principles, as by the indisposition of the matter and of the bond where it works to make its mixture, as well as the lack of heat necessary to reiterate and push further its same operations: from there comes that its first general compound is impure and less elevated, and consequently its general principles; it is a stain or an original sin which they draw from their source, it is a defilement which comes from the father and the mother, which is communicated to all the particular mixtures by way of generation; the dross, faeces, earthiness, phlegm and other similar impurities that we see in imperfect metals, are effects of that sin; harshness, sourness, rawness, indigestion, immaturity and other similar defects which are noticed in vegetables, are streams which flow from this source; the diseases and infirmities that animals experience are marks of this venom; and there is nothing in the sublunary nature which has not been conceived and engendered with this sin and this original stain: even gold, which is the most perfect of all the compounds here below, is not exempt from it; it is true that its salt, its sulfur and its mercury are the most purified, but they are not exempt from certain central stains, less coarse in truth than those which are met with in the other metals, as appears from their solutions.

Also, it's not as high as it could be, having in the mixture and constitution of its three principles only the weight, the tint and the fixation which are necessary for it, and not being able to communicate any to the others: what we notice in all the mixtures which are made of the different metals with gold; because after all these painful works, one always finds the gold in the same state as it was before, and the metals which one had amalgamated are by no means exalted; we also see that nature remains for hundreds of years making the finest and richest of its mixtures or elementary compounds; it is because of its original impurities which deaden the force and the vigor of the actions of nature, which lacking the heat necessary to carry and push its digestions to the point that it would like, is forced to continue the same,

CHAPTER VII

Now if this general mixture, impure in its birth, which infects all the particular mixtures with its first venom, being their foundation and their nourishment, were free from its original impurities and stains, and if the mixture of the principles which make up its composition were exalted in themselves, and rendered more perfect; it is certain that he would have the power to exalt, elevate, and perfect all things: for if in his weakness and in his imperfect mixture, he makes, he nourishes, elevates and preserves so many beautiful species in the three kingdoms; what would he not do if his mixture were pure and perfect, he would no doubt produce much more beautiful mixtures; he would nourish them more abundantly, carry them to a higher point, and preserve them longer: but it is true, and no one can doubt it, that art, joining nature, can give this perfection and this purity, by supplying all the defects of nature; what it can do by separating the garbage and heterogeneous parts of the three general principles; furnishing them with a pure matter, a place or a vessel more suitable than is that where nature performs her operations, which is filled with filth and a thousand kinds of filthiness: secondly by administering a fire more proportioned, stronger, and which she governs more at her pleasure, to reiterate with advantage, and with success, the same operations which nature practices in her works, and her mixture, which are digestion and distillation; to purify these three principles by rejecting the dirt and the coarse parts of the salt, the superfluous aquosities of the mercury, and the adustible parts of the sulphur, by perfecting salt, sulfur and mercury; by digesting, evaporating and distilling more strongly and more often than nature can do, which without the aid and help of art is defective and does not have enough heat to push and reiterate its operations.

CHAPTER VIII

If nature, aided by art, can render the general mixture perfect, it is beyond doubt that, being applied to particular mixtures, impure and imperfect, it will perfect them, and bring their principles to the utmost purity. Being joined with the imperfect metals, it will make gold, which is nature's term for the mineral genus: likewise it will make vegetables capable of promptly producing the best fruits of their kind, and will cure animals of all the diseases to which they are subject, and will be the panacea and universal medicine for all the mixtures and compounds of nature; because the good by essential inclination towards what is similar and proportionate to it, joins it and attaches itself to it; so that the very great goods which exist in this perfect mixture, finding in the particular mixtures something good, it embraces it and unites with it so closely that it increases and augments it; and for the contrary reason, having an essential aversion against evil, he rejects all the impurities which he encounters in the mixtures; and consequently it purifies, it perfects, it exalts, it preserves, it heals the subjects to which it is applied sufficiently and properly.

It is on these foundations that all the philosophers have rested, when they have attributed so many marvels to their elixir, when they have said that when applied to gold, it exalts its tincture and its fixation with exuberance; so that he could communicate it abundantly to the imperfect metals, that by throwing a heavy grain into the water and watering all kinds of plants, he caused them to produce the best fruits in a short time, and even in the depths of winter; that being drunk in the liquors suitable for the diseases of the human body, it healed them very quickly, broke the calculus, cleansed the leprosy, purified the blood, comforted the natural heat, repaired the radical humidity, chased away bad weather; in a word, gave the health, the strength and all the vigor that the animal was capable of having; that being joined in glass,

It is also not without reason that they said that this elixir could be multiplied in quantity and in virtue up to infinity, since the more there is of digestion of a subject, of distillation and evaporation, the more it is purified and exalted; Can't art repeat these three operations as much as it pleases, it can also administer several times the principles that compose it, which will multiply it as much as one can desire.

CHAPTER IX

ENIGMA

On the matter of the philosophers, which serves to form universal medicine.

Matter forms its abode of itself in a well by the aid of Vulcan; the vulgar cannot know its true source, the elements are contained therein confusedly; it is a dark chaos, all the water drawn from it is bitter, sour and sweet as honey; it is an old black Saturn which contains in itself all that it needs, without needing any foreign thing; its mine is so narrow that one can hardly enter it; the mountains and the plains possess it, it is also found in castles and cottages, on land, on sea and in all places of the world, making itself seen and known to all creatures; the poor possess it like the rich; one spits on it and tramples it underfoot in one season of the year; the wind carries it in its belly, and like an eagle it cleaves the air and escapes our eyes, hovering above our heads, it always moves away from the earth; it is stone by resemblance and is not stone at all, it is hot, cold, moist and dry; it alone makes without adding anything to it, the elixir of the wise: it is more abundant in the North than in Spain; it pushes out stinking vapours, from which one is obliged to deviate, its nourishment being partly the earth; it ascends to Heaven and from Heaven descends again to earth, containing very preciously within itself the celestial influences; it cannot be consumed by the most violent fire, it is a phoenix rising from its ashes: it contains salt, sulfur and mercury, body, spirit and soul; the three kingdoms animal, vegetable and mineral draw their life from it; she is, apparently exhausted like a mummy by her color, however, she is very much alive; although she is despised, she is richer than all of Peru, and scholars have nothing more precious; she is a Virgin who has not been touched, she is a gray girl with a black veil, who carries in her bosom this inestimable virginal milk which serves our needs; in it is enclosed the water in which the king and queen bathe and purify themselves of their leprosy; Brumblin says: Take the matter that everyone knows, deprive it of its darkness, then strengthen its fire in its time, because it can suffer it, various colors will follow; the first will be saffron, the second like rust, the third like poppies, and the fourth like rubies; when it is like this, the body is spiritual, coloring and purifying all imperfect bodies, and you have the whole secret.

and scholars have nothing more precious; she is a Virgin who has not been touched, she is a gray girl with a black veil, who carries in her bosom this inestimable virginal milk which serves our needs; in it is enclosed the water in which the king and queen bathe and purify themselves of their leprosy; Brumblin says: Take the matter that everyone knows, deprive it of its darkness, then strengthen its fire in its time, because it can suffer it, various colors will follow; the first will be saffron, the second like rust, the third like poppies, and the fourth like rubies; when it is like this, the body is spiritual, coloring and purifying all imperfect bodies, and you have the whole secret. and scholars have nothing more precious; she is a Virgin who has not been touched, she is a gray girl with a black veil, who carries in her bosom this inestimable virginal milk which serves our needs; in it is enclosed the water in which the king and queen bathe and purify themselves of their leprosy; Brumblin says: Take the matter that everyone knows, deprive it of its darkness, then strengthen its fire in its time, because it can suffer it, various colors will follow; the first will be saffron, the second like rust, the third like poppies, and the fourth like rubies; when it is like this, the body is spiritual, coloring and purifying all imperfect bodies, and you have the whole secret. who carries in her womb that inestimable virginal milk which serves our needs; in it is enclosed the water in which the king and queen bathe and purify themselves of their leprosy; Brumblin says: Take the matter that everyone knows, deprive it of its darkness, then strengthen its fire in its time, because it can suffer it, various colors will follow; the first will be saffron, the second like rust, the third like poppies, and the fourth like rubies; when it is like this, the body is spiritual, coloring and purifying all imperfect bodies, and you have the whole secret.

who carries in her womb that inestimable virginal milk which serves our needs; in it is enclosed the water in which the king and queen bathe and purify themselves of their leprosy; Brumblin says: Take the matter that everyone knows, deprive it of its darkness, then strengthen its fire in its time, because it can suffer it, various colors will follow; the first will be saffron, the second like rust, the third like poppies, and the fourth like rubies; when it is like this, the body is spiritual, coloring and purifying all imperfect bodies, and you have the whole secret. then strengthen her fire in due time, for she can suffer it, various colors will follow; the first will be saffron, the second like rust, the third like poppies, and the fourth like rubies; when it is like this, the body is spiritual, coloring and purifying all imperfect bodies, and you have the whole secret. then strengthen her fire in due time, for she can suffer it, various colors will follow; the first will be saffron, the second like rust, the third like poppies, and the fourth like rubies; when it is like this, the body is spiritual, coloring and purifying all imperfect bodies, and you have the whole secret.

The material resembles the egg of poultry; to which nothing is added but heat; the hull is, the vessel of glass, let it brood to its mother by a gentle bath, for seven of our philosophical months which are composed of forty days, there will be formed a chicken which will have a red crest, plumage and black feet, when you have it, do not forget the poor.

Adepts say, our matter is through everything; her conception is in hell, her birth is on earth, finding her life in heaven, and after her death she obtains bliss and will subsist without interruption until the consummation of the ages; whoever knows this divine matter can easily develop the most obscure riddles which the authors have employed to veil it; it must be called divine matter, especially since God only gave knowledge of it to those whom he believed to be worthy of it.

CHAPTER X

I judged it appropriate to report here the ninth chapter of Calide, such as I found it in the Golden Fleece, since it is very much in conformity with the preceding enigma, as well as with the philosophical operation hereafter; here is how it is explained:

O brother, you must take the honored and precious stone, which the sages have called magified, hidden and sealed, and put it in its curcurbite with its alembic, and there separate its natures, and the four elements, namely: earth, water, air, and fire which are the body, the soul, the spirit and the tincture. And when you have separated the water from the earth, and the air from the fire, keep each of them apart, and take what has sunk to the bottom of the vessel, which are the faeces, washing them with hot fire until its blackness is taken away from it, and its thickness is gone and whitens it with good whiteness, bringing out the accidents of humidity: then you will have a white lime, in which there will be no darkness t darkness, nor filth, nor anything to the contrary. Then afterwards returns to the first natures which came out of her and sublimated, and purify them alike from their filthiness, darkness and vexation, repeating over them many times, until they are refined, purified and attenuated, and when you have done this, you will know that God will have already had pity on you. And know, brother, that in this stone does not enter garib, that is to say, something else. The sages work with it, and from it comes medicine, from which all perfection is given. Nothing mingles with it, neither in any part of it nor around it, and it is found at all times, in all places, and in the house of all people. The invention of which does not bore, does not work the one who looks for it in any place that it is. It is a vile stone, black and smelly, which costs almost nothing: It is a little heavy; it is called the origin of the world, because it comes out like germinated things.

This is the revelation and opening of the one who seeks it. But we must not believe that all those who know it can do the work of the wise; if God does not favor them with his graces, a multitude of events will prevent them from being able to undertake it or lead it to the desired end. For he gives it to whomever he wills, and takes it away in the same way.

CHAPTER XI

PHILOSOPHICAL PROCESS,

On the matter which is very clearly indicated by the preceding enigma, and the chapter of Calis.

Matter being a black and confused chaos, you have to separate the pure from the impure, starting by separating the coarse and pounding the good, which you will pass through a fine sieve. Put two pounds or three at the most in a large glass retort, well fitted with a big balloon. Place it in the furnace, the retort must be half empty; distill over a wood flame; then the elements will separate and the smoke will rise and pass in a cloud in the receptacle, with the stench like that of a corpse from which it is necessary to deviate being pernicious, and in which is the spirit and the soul, red as blood; around the container will be attached the crystalline spirit, and in the dead head remaining at the bottom, will be the fixed body or leafy earth, that you will keep; it is necessary to reiterate this work with other new materials until you are sufficiently provided with this spiritual, mercurial and sulphurous liquor; at the end of each dissolution take the dead head, reverberate it as strongly as possible, and keep it: take the crystalline or mercurial spirit, where it is attached, and the air has coagulated, keep it also in a well-stoppered vessel, for it would easily evaporate in the air of the atmosphere, which is why you must first empty the liquor, which smells like sulfur and keep it well-stoppered.

Take enough of the first, very clean material, add to it the sulphurous dead head, also add to it the crystalline or mercurial spirit, and that which will not be clear, pure and transparent, put the whole in well-luted glass retorts with their container of the same nature; if you have a retort big enough to hold everything, you won't need any more. Distill over a charcoal fire, then the whole will pass more subtly, losing some of its stench, especially if the whole has been purified and corrupted together, for a few days, then calcine and reverberate the dead head, as you have done before, after which put it in a retort, pour over what has been distilled; this calcination and dissolution must be repeated several times until it appears to you that the terrestrial and combustible matter is removed from it; this is what philosophers call giving eagles; although the matter diminishes by these repeated operations, it will be more subtle and more effective, being also cleaner for the work of the work; take the liquor which will have passed through the retort, and where the red soul of nature is, put it in a retort, and gently distill it, cohobe and continue until everything turns red in the container; during this operation, take the dead head, reverberate it again, and do the fixed salt extraction with distilled rainwater, then evaporate the whole extraction in a water bath, and proceed as it is customary to do when drawing the salts, in this way the three principles or elements will be separated and purified; it is the first work, composition and union of mercury, sulfur and salt of the philosophers, in which gold dissolves like wax.

Take from this mercurial and aerial crystalline spirit which has been subtilized by the igneous and aqueous sulphurous soul, and by the salt drawn from the terrestrial dead head and fixed as much as it has given, add thereto the tenth part of which is of the same nature as the solvent, and which has been previously opened by mercury and flower of sulfur, put the whole in the philosophical egg, which must remain three-quarters empty, so that it may be free to ascend and descend, that is to say, from circulate, and that it is hermetically sealed, then put it in the philosophical furnace so that it receives heat from all sides equally, and that the thing in which it will be enclosed is also of glass, so that one can see how matter governs itself.

CHAPTER XII

fire regime.

Take great care that the volatile spirits do not completely separate themselves from the fixed matter which remains at the bottom, but rather that they always join at the right time, otherwise all care and trouble would be wasted. By this fire thus conducted, universal matter rots, regenerates and perfects itself alone in a single vessel, a single furnace, a single fire, and nature alone does all the other works with her inner fire which is excited by the philosophical outer fire; the artist therefore has nothing more to do than to take care of the fire and to employ the mercy of God in it, which has led the adepts to say that a woman by spinning her distaff can do the work of the philosophers; but they did not hear of the preparation of the material, since it is very laborious, and requires much care and precision.

CHAPTER XIII

Of fermentation and multiplication.

When the divine blessing has given you the son of and of , having obtained his regeneration from nature, he will have put on his purple mantle; which will happen in eight or nine months, according to the care taken of it, and according to the graces that God has bestowed upon it; if you want to ferment and increase the elixir, you must have a good supply of the three principles prepared as it has been said, and ferment them with the elixir, perfect, for this purpose you take one part of the elixir and ten parts of the three or first principles, which you will have preserved, put them in the philosophical egg, and govern it as before; if we repeat this multiplication several times, we will have in a very short time what was done in several months; in this way one can increase in quality and quantity up to infinity.

CHAPTER VII

From screening.

Melt four parts of well purified metal, when it is in cast iron, throw on it a part of your elixir, wrapped in a little yellow wax, in the shape of a small ball, cover the crucible and continue the fire for half an hour, then pour the whole into another very clean crucible, it will form a mass which you will pulverize and which you will keep to project as below:

Take a thousand parts of well-purged metal or vulgar, and melt if it is metal, and if it is smelt, it must only boil; remove the dirt that may be on it then throw in some of your powder, cover the crucible, continue the fire for half an hour, and you will have much finer than that of the mines; you must take care to always wrap your elixir in a little wax to throw it into the crucible.

There are adepts who make the projection on metal, when it is molten, throw in a piece of candle, which ignites immediately, purifies the dirt which comes on the metal without touching it, then they throw the powder of projections as it is said, in the 1st crucible.

END