18 PARACELSUS 



Luther, and even surpassed him in enthusiasm for re- 

 ligious and intellectual freedom. Luther seemed to him 

 to be still too conservative. He believed that such a 

 gigantic revolution in the world of mind could not be 

 accomplished with meekness and condescension,^ but that 

 it required firmness, tenacity, and an unbending will. 

 He says of himself: " I know that I am a man who does 

 not speak to every one only that which might please him, 

 and I am not used to give submissive answers to arro- 

 gant questions. I know my ways, and I do not ""wish to 

 change them ; neither could I change my nature. I am a 

 rough man, born in a rough country ; I have been brought 

 up in pine- woods, and I may have inherited some knots. 

 That which seems to me polite and amiable may appear 

 unpolished to another, and what seems silk in my eyes 

 may be but homespun to you." 



Great abuse has been heaped upon Paracelsus by his 

 enemies on account of his restless and roaming way of 

 living. He acquired his knowledge, not in the comfort- 

 able manner in which the great majority of scientists 

 acquire theirs, but he travelled all over the country on 

 foot, and went wherever he expected to find something 

 that might be useful to know. He writes : " I went in 

 search of my art, often incurring danger of life. I have 

 not been ashamed to learn that which seemed useful to 

 me even from vagabonds, executioners, and barbers. We 

 know that a lover will go a long way to meet the woman 

 he adores : how much more will the lover of wisdom 

 be tempted to go in search of his divine mistress ! " 

 (Paragranum : Preface). 



He says : " The knowledge to which we are entitled is 

 not confined within the limits of our own country, and 

 does not run after us, but waits until we go in search of 

 it. No one becomes a master of practical experience in 

 his own house, neither will he find a teacher of the 

 secrets of Nature in the corners of his room. We must 

 seek for knowledge where we may expect to find it, and 



