Page 37 - Paracelsus Three Books of Philosophy

that which comes from thence is mortal. Nevertheless in the mortal there abides that
which is eternal, to wit, the soul, as may elsewhere be learned. And though corruptible
things must return to their former state, it is because the durable things may be knit
together, and so there may a collection and union of things be made. The form and
substance of things both perishing and permanent is from the spirit of smoke, just as
hail or lightning is from the cloud, which things have a body; but that matter out of
which they came is invisible. We must conclude that all things proceed from the
invisible, but without any hurt or damage to it; and that matter hath power always to
renew the same thing again. Hence it is, that the whole world passes away like a ship,
and returns again to the same matter of the spirit of smoke, and engenders and
nourishes without any tangible essence. In this respect the first may be brought forth
the second time. Hereby also we know there was no creature begotten, but made and
procreated. For so the chiefest good ordained in the beginning, that every thing should
so proceed out of the invisible, and be made bodily; and then be separated again from
the body, and so become invisible again: then all things are coupled and united again,
and brought back to the first matter. And though they are so united, yet is there some
difference and diversity among them. One receives entertainment from another, one
gives entertainment to another. That (first matter) is the habitation of all things, both
sensible and insensible must all return to that place and condition; whether rational or
irrational, nothing can escape this change, but shall certainly repair and hasten to its
dwelling whence it came.

Every body or tangible substance is nothing but a curdled fume. Whence we may
conclude that there is a manifold coagulation. One of wood, another of stones, a third
of metals. But the body is nothing but a fume, smoking out of the matter or matrix in
which it is. So that which grows out of the earth is a fume rising out of the moisture of
Mercury, which is various, and sends forth several fumes for herbs, trees, and other
such like. Which fume when it breaks forth of its first (matter, essence or original) or
as soon as it doth first breath out of the matrix and touch or stop the outward air, is
presently curdled. This fume then doth constantly and continually evaporate. So long
as that appulse [impulse, or motion towards a goal] keeps warm, so long a thing will
grow; when the boiling ceases there is no more steam, and so the curdling and increase
comes to an end. Wood is the smoke of Derses26. Therein lies the specific (matter) of
which it is made. Nor is it made of that fume only, but it may be made of some other

26 Derses - A certain arcane smoke or terrene vapour, which is the principle of the generation and
growth of plants. The juice of the earth newly drawn into the root of the vegetables, by which they
grow.

32