CHAPTER VI.

Concerning the Death of the Tree of Minerals.
After Nature has planted the mineral root of a tree in the centre of its matrix, whether to produce a metal, a stone, a gem, salt, alum, vitriol, a saline or sweet, cold or hot spring, a coral, or a marcasite, and after it has thrust forth the trunk to the earth, this trunk spreads abroad in different branches, t
! * The flesh and blood which man received from Adam can in no wise enter into the kingdom of God. For nothing
I • can ascend into heaven which did not come forth out of heaven. Now the Adamic flesh is earth. Thus it cannot enter
I ; heaven, but is again converted into earth. It is mortal, subject to death, and nothing mortal can enter heaven. There
; is no Are which can purge it from its stains in such wise as to make it fit for heaven. It admits not of purging or glori-
' fying. At the same time, man cannot enter heaven unless he be true man, clothed upon with flesh and blood. For it b
\ only by flesh and blood that man is distinguished from the angels, for, otherwise, both are of the same essence. Herein
/ man hath more than the angels, in that he is endowed with flesh and blood, and for man was the Son of God bom into
> I the world ; for him He died upon the cross, that so man might be redeemed and made eligible for the kingdom of heaven.
' But when God had thus shewn His love for man, hb flesh still excluded him from heaven, whence He gave him another
flesh and blood which was built up of the Son, and then thb creature, not of the Father, but the Son, enters heaven. For the Adamic flesh b of the Father, and returns whence it came, though had Adam not sinned his body would have remained immortal in Paradise. But Christ, compassionating our calamity, gave us a new body. Of the spirit who
The Economy of Minerals.
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the liquid of whose substance -both of branches and stalk — is formalJy neither a water, nor an oil, nor alute^ nor a mucilage ; in fact, it can only be conceived as wood growing out of the earth, which is, nevertheless, not earth, though sprung therefrom. They are spread in such a manner that one branch is separated from another by an interval of two or three climates and as many regions : sometimes from Germany to Hungary, and even beyond. The branches of the different trees of the same kind are extended over the whole sphere of the earth, just as the veins in the human body are extended into various limbs far apart from each other. But the fruits put forth by the extremities of the twigs, by the nature ot the ultimate matter, soon fall to the earth. There is a momentary coagulation of them, and then at length, when all its fruit is shed, this tree dies and is utterly consumed by dr}^ness, its offspring being left in the earth, Afterw^ards, according to its state of nature, a new tree appears. So, then, the first matter of minerals consists of water ; and it comprises only Sulphur, Salt, and Mercurj-. These minerals are that element*s spirit and soul, containing in themselves all minerals, metals, gems, salts, and other things of that kind, like different seeds in a bag. These being poured into water, Nature then directs everj' seed to its peculiar and final fruit, incessantly disposing them according to their species and genera. These and like things proceed from that true physical science, and those fountains of sound philosophy from which, through meditative contemplation of the works of God, arises the most intimate knowledge of the Supreme Creator and of His virtues. To the minds and mental sight of true philoso- phers, no less than to their carnal eyes, the clear light appears. To them the occult becomes manifest. But that Greek Satan has sown in the philosophic field of true wisdom, tares and his own false seed, to wit, Aristoteles, Albertus, Avicenna, Rhasis, and that kind of men, enemies of the light of God and of Nature, who have perverted the whole of physical science, since the time when they transmuted the name of Sophia into Philosophy,*