Page 25 - Book of quintessence

him again to reasonable wit. And for as much as Saturn the planet
naturally is cold and dry, and is enemy to all mankind. For which reason,
every snow, every hail, every tempest, and also the humour of
melancholy comes of him, and he has his influence upon dark lead, and
on dark places under the earth, foul and stinking, and dark woods, and
upon foul, horrible, solitary places, as it is proved in the Vitas Patrum,
that is to say, in the lives and collations of the Fathers. And also the
moon, naturally cold and moist, has his influence upon the night, and
upon much moisture, and upon the places where four ways meet
together. Forsooth in all such places they will abide and show them to
their followers, but forsooth those things that be of the nature of Jupiter
and of Sol, good planets, are displeasing to them, and contrary, and
naturally devils fly away from them. For they have great abomination of
their virtuous influence. Therefore it shows well that those things that be
in this world, some there be that betoken the glorious joy of Heaven, and
some things that figure the darkness of everlasting pains of Hell.
Forsooth the Sun and Jupiter, good planets, and gold, pure metal, and all
pure things that gladden a man, figuring by reason the joy of Heaven,
and black Saturn, and the spotty moon, figure and betoken the condition
of Hell, and such that devils be damned and full of wretchedness of Hell.
Therefore they hate the cleaness and joy of our Lord God and of his
saints. Also they hate the sun and his clearness, and pure things that
make a man glad, and naturally it pleases them to dwell in dark, and in
black, horrible, stinking places, in heaviness, wretchedness, and
melancholy, and in those things that pretend the condition of Hell. And
such our quintessence aforesaid is so heavenly a thing, and by subtle
craft brought to so much sweetness, it is so sovereign a medicine that it
may well be likened to the joy of paradise. For this reason, it makes a
man, light, jocund, glad and merry, and puts away heaviness, anger,
melancholy and wrath, the which that devils love. Et ideo nostra quinta
essentia digne vocatur coelum humanum [and therefore our quintessence
is deservedly called Man’s heaven]. Also if a man be travailed with a
fiend, and may not be delivered from him, let him drink a little quantity
of our quintessence, with the essence of gold and pearl, and with a herb
called hypericon, and the devil will fly away, and the seed thereof ground
and afterwards distilled, and the water thereof a little quantity mixed with
the other quinta essentias, and anon the devil will fly away from him and
his house.

Also for the gout, hot or cold, the patient shall drink our quintessence

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