t PARACELSUS 



authority. Spirits that had been bound to cold and 

 dead forms were set free, and began to expand and take 

 their natural shapes ; and truths that had been monopo- 

 lised and held captive for centuries by an exclusive caste 

 of priests, became the common property of all that were 

 able to grasp them. 



Such a great struggle for liberty on the battlefield of 

 religious thought could not take place without causing 

 a commotion in other departments where mind was at 

 work. In the department of science there could be seen 

 a general struggle of the new against the old, of reason 

 against sophistry, and of young truths against errors 

 that had become venerable through age. Logic battled 

 against belief in antiquated authorities; and new con- 

 stellations, composed of stars of the first magnitude, 

 began to rise, sending their rays into the deepest recesses 

 of thought. Luther overthrew the barrier of ecclesi- 

 astical hierarchy ; Melanchthon and Erasmus liberated 

 speech ; Cardanus lifted the veil off the goddess of 

 Nature; and Copernicus, like Joshua of old, bade the 

 sun to stand still, and, obedient to his command, the sun 

 stood still, and the planetery system was seen to move 

 in the grooves in which it was ordained by the wisdom 

 of the Supreme. 



One of the greatest and illuminated minds of that 

 age was Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast, of 

 Hohenheim. He was born November 26 in the year 

 140^, in the vicinity of a place called Maria-Einsiedeln,^ 

 being a village about two hours* walk from the city of 

 Zurich, in Switzerland. His father, William Bombast, of 

 Hohenheim, was one of the descendants of the old and 

 celebrated family Bombast, and they were called of 

 Hohenheim after their ancient residence known as 

 Hohenheim, a castle near the village of Plinningen, in 

 the vicinity of Stuttgart, in Wiirtemberg. He was a 

 relative of the Grand Master of the Order of the Knighta 

 * At present a place of pilgrimage. 



