l6 PARACELSUS 



mine will be the honour. I do not praise myself, but 

 Nature praises me, for I am born of Nature and follow 

 her. She knows me and I know her."^ 



His language is not that of a boaster, but rather that 

 of a general who knows that he will be victorious, when 

 he writes : " After me, ye, Avicenna, Galenus, Rhases, 

 Montagnana, and others ! You after me, not I after you, 

 ye of Paris, Montpelier, Suevia, Meissen, and Cologne ; ye 

 of Vienna, and all that come from the countries along 

 the Danube and Rhine, and from the islands of the ocean ; 

 you Italy, you Dalmatia, you Sarmatia, Athens, Greece, 

 Arabia, and Israelita ! Follow me ! It is not for me 

 to follow you, because mine is the monarchy. Come 

 out of the night of ignorance ! The time will come 

 when none of you shall remain in his dark corner who 

 will not be an object of contempt to the world, because I 

 shall be the monarch, and the monarchy will be mine."^ 



This is not the language of vanity and self-conceit ; 

 it is rather the language either of wisdom or of folly, 

 because extremes resemble each other. Paracelsus was 

 proud of the spirit that spoke through him ; but per- 

 sonally he was modest and self-sacrificing, and he well 

 knew that a man would be a useless thing if he were not 

 overshadowed by the spirit of the Supreme. He says : 

 " Remember that God has put a mark upon us, consisting 

 in our shortcomings and diseases, to show to us that we 

 have nothing to pride ourselves about, and that nothing 

 comes within the reach of our full and perfect under- 

 standing ; that we are far from knowing absolute truth, 

 and that our own knowledge and power amount to very 

 little indeed." 



Personal vanity and ostentation were not the elements 

 to be found in the character of Paracelsus — they were 

 the customs of the physicians of that age ; but it is a 

 daily occurring fact, that he who exposes and denounces 

 the faults of others appears to the superficial observer as 

 I " J^jbr, Paramirum," Preface. ^ " Libr. Paragranum," Preface, 



