Page 16 - Paracelsus Three Books of Philosophy

made at the same instant when the other elements are separated, in one days work,
and by the motion of sequestration. So that every thing thus living in the water was at
once in a minute and moment of time created and made manifest by the separation.

In like manner when the element of the earth was disjoined from the rest, the
earthy separation was made, to wit, the separation of all things that do or did spring in
or out of the earth. For at the first creation the four elements lay hid in all things alike
in the Great Mystery, which things also were separated after the same manner and in
one instant, and were divided among themselves one after another by a second
separation, which is elementary. And by this kind of elementary separation out of the
element of the Earth things sensible and insensible, those that are eternal and those that
are not eternal were parted from one another, every one obtaining its peculiar essence
and free power. All that was of a woody nature was made wood. The next was mines
of metals. A third became marcasite, talc, bismuth, pomegranate [garnet], metallic
cobalt, milsto [pyrites], and many other things. A fourth precious stones of many sorts
and shapes, as also stones, sands and lime. A fifth was made into fruit, flowers, herbs
and seeds. A sixth into sensible living creatures, whereof some partake of eternity, as
men, others do not, as calves, sheep, etc. Whereof many kinds and differences might
be reckoned up; for many more kinds were separated in the earthy element than in any
other. For by the seed of two are all things propagated, that is, by the coming together
of father and mother; which was not predestinated and ordained in the other elements.
Here also are the Gnomes12, Sylvesters13 and Lemures14; of which some are allotted to
the mountains, some to the woods, some only to the night. But the Giants were parted
into a third separation. There are great distributed essences too, as also strange
miracles amongst men, cattle and all things that grow, which is a hard matter for any
philosopher to find out, and therefore it is thought they were made besides the order
and measure of nature.

After the four elements were from the beginning separated from each other out of
the only matter (as hath been said) in which matter notwithstanding their complexion
and essence was not; the complexions and natures issued out by that separation. The
hot and dry went into the heavens and firmament, each cleaving apart into its own
property. The hot and moist went into the air, by which the hot and moist are invisibly
separated. The cold and moist turned into the sea and the parts adjoining. The cold and
dry degenerated into the earth and all earthy things. And even contraries arose from the

12 Gnomes - Spiirts of the mountains and subterranean spaces, caves and mines.
13 Sylvesters - Spirits of the woods. The classical fauns.
14 Lemures - The spirits of the dead which wandered about at night-time to terrify the living.

11