Page 12 - Paracelsus Three Books of Philosophy

the Great Mystery hath in it this miracle, in whose separation all other superfluous
things are cut off, yet is there nothing so needless and useless but can bring forth out of
itself some other increase, or fit matter thereof.

Know therefore that several and various chips or fragments fell out in the cutting
or carving of the Great Mystery, whereof some became flesh, of which there are
infinite sorts and forms: others were of sea monsters, of wonderful variety also; some
became herbs; other fell into wood; abundance into stones and metals. A twofold way
or manner of art may at least be considered by them that ask how the Omnipotent God
did or could carve out those things. First, in that he always ordained life and increase.
Secondly, in that it was not one only matter that fell off every where alike. For if a
statue be cut out of a piece of timber, all the chips thereof are wood. But here it was
not so; but every thing received its own form and motion by itself.

Thus the distribution followed the operation of the Great Mystery, and the things
that were separated from those that were superfluous appeared more excellent; at the
same instant also divers other things proceeded out of those very superfluous things
that were chipped off. For the Great Mystery was not elementary, though the elements
themselves lay hid therein. Nor was it a carnal thing, though all sorts of men were
comprehended in it. Neither was it wood or stone; but such was the matter that it
contained every mortal thing in its essence without difference or distinction, and
afterward endowed every one of them with its own particular essence and form in the
separation. An example whereof we have in meat: if a man eat it, he gathers flesh, to
which the meat was nothing like before; when it is putrefied it breeds grass of which it
had not resemblance before at all: which holds much more true in the Great Mystery.
For in the mysteries it is most manifest that one thing became stones, another flesh,
another herbs, and so afterwards passed into various and infinite forms.

Now when the separation was made, and everything brought forth into its own
form and property, so as that it could subsist alone of itself, then might the substantial
matter be known. That which was fit to be put together, was so compacted; the rest, in
respect of substance remained void and thin. For when things were first set together,
all could not equally be joined, but the greatest part remained vacant. This is plainly to
be seen in water, which when it is frozen, the ice thereof is but a very small quantity.
So was it in the separation of the elements. Whatsoever could be compacted was made
stones, flesh, metals, wood, and such like. The rest remained more rare and empty, to
wit, everything according to its nature and property of the planets. For when things
were first compacted that Great Mystery was just like smoke, which spreads very

7