CHAPTER I.

Concerning the Generation of Minerals.
When I had most carefully read through the writings of the ancients concerning the generation of minerals, I found that they had not under-
* Thb treat L»c in the rec«niiOQ here chckhcn for tramlation is not found in the Geneva fulio, and U trausUted from anulber collection of Hxc works of FamocUus. namely, the Frankfort 8vo. of is8|. A corresponding tr^atiie, enlitkxt />/ MmemlihHs, which U indiuied in the Geneva edition, goes over much the %a«ne ground, and is^ inde«d, in port^idetnicaJ with that siven in the text. Dul at the vune lime, it has diflTerences sulficiently marked to require that both vertion* fihould be pro%-iiied li will, aocordingly, be fmuid in an appendix at the end of thi^ wlume, under ihe title of A Book Iktxnit MtnemtK
go The Hermetu and Akkemical Writingi of Paracelsus,
stood the ultimate matter thereof » and, in consequence, much less did they understand the primal matter. If the beginning of any matter is to be described, its end should first of all be noted down, I therefore determined first of all to lay before you the ultimate matter of minerals, and from this you will easily understand the primal matter whence they derive their orig-tn. We may bring forward an example from Medicine, where a disease has to be studied from its issue and not from its origin. Of this latter there is no knowledge, because it was secretly introduced, and he who observes it is virtually blind. But the end is visible from the issue towards which w^e see that disease tending, as though towards a mark set up for it to aim at* Now a thing cannot be better judged than by getting to know for what end it was created by God ; otherwise it will often happen that the true use of this creation of God turns to its abuse. Whosoever, therefore, under- takes any work with anything ought thoroughly to understand that with which he works, so that he may accomplish his task in the order prescribed by God, lest on account of his imperfect knowledge or utter ignorance of the matter, things may turn out ill, and the devifs work rather than God's be done, through abuse of the matter and of appliances. For a rough example, take the case of an axe or club in the hand of a man who does not know how to use the ovk^ or the other. They become mere instruments of destruction. He alone should handle such tools who knows how to use them, and how, out of the material he has, to construct something that shall be to his neighbour's benefit, and preserve that material for the purpose for which God created it. On this account God wills that everything He has created ^ould be possessed by one who knows how to use it ; and every man ought to apply himself to that pursuit whereto he feels in his own conscience called, and not to learn some other fanciful thing suggested by the devil.
Know, then, that the ultimate and also the primal matter"*^ of everything is fire. This is, as it were, the key that locks the chest. It is this which makes manifest whatever is hidden in anything. In this place, then, we understand by the ultimate matter of ever^lhing that into which it is dissolved by fire ; so that among the three universal things which I have discussed elsew^here in different places, this should be regarded as the first and predominating ont* Vou have an illustration in the case of a metal dissolved in the fire. It at once makes it clear that its first beginning ^vas Mercurial Water, not Sulphur, since its resolution is not accompanied with flame, as would be the case with resins» It is also proved not to be Salt, because the first sign of its resolution is not a crumbling besides liquefaction and flame, as w^ould be the case with earth and stones. Every metal, it is true, contains within itself Sulphur and Salt,
* 1 call the ultimate ni»tter of jinything: thfli ttale in which the substance has rcAched tl5 highest grade oTcxnltAtijoci and |>crrcction^ a^, for exiunple, gold, when it has been separated frotii jill superfliutles foreign itiattefi etc., and remains in its pure virtue, v»'iihout any admixture, has been educed into iu ultimMe mattcT.— CA/rvr^/ii Sfttgnn^ Pt. 1 1.^ Tract II., c. II* For exajnpte, every body mode from the 6r*t tnntier \^ compelled to metamorphose into the ultnnaie m-ftt" ter» Thtti the great ultimate mutter bat iL* beginning in the end of the increase of the firet matter, -y^;V/,, Fart IIL, Ub. IIL
Tfu Economy of Minerals.
91
but Mercur>^ holds the principal place therein. Now, it has seemed good to God to create water an element, and that from it should be every day produced minerals for the use of men. Thus it becomes the mother of those things which are developed in her, as it were in her matrix j that is to say, Mineral Fire, Salt, and Mercury are formed into metals* stones, and all mineral substance, albeit the oifspring is quite unlike the mother. In this way the Most High has created all things with their own nature : the birds of the air for one purpose, which is different from that of the fishes in the sea. And so of the rest. Everything is to be committed to His divine will, Who makes ever)''thing as it is, and wills that what He makes shall be eternal. As, therefore, water is not like its metallic offspring, nor the son like the mother, in the same way the earth itself is, as it were, wood and not wood, because it comes from that same source. In the same way, stone and iron are produced from w^ater, which, however, becomes such w^ater as never before existed : and the earth, too, becomes something which in itself it is not. So also man must become that which he is not,*
In a \vord» w^hatever is to pass into its ultimate matter must become something different from what its origin was — varied and diverse, though from one mother. Thus God willed to be One in all, that is, to be the one primal and ultimate matter of all things. He is such, and so wonderful, an original artificer of all things as never has existed, nor will another ever exist. As, then, you have now heard so far concerning the mother of the minerals, we will in the sequel teach you more fully* The ancients have falsely written that this is the earth j but they have never been able to prove it.