82 PARACELSUS 



In the study of anthropology the consideration of 

 the divine part of man is of supreme importance ; for the 

 animal part of man is not the true man ; neither is 

 the elementary body the man ; for that body without 

 the true man within is merely a corpse. " Man has two 

 spirits, a divine and a terrestrial spirit. The former is 

 from the breath of God ; the latter from the elements of 

 the air and the fire. He ought to live according to the 

 life of the divine spirit and not according to that of the 

 animal " (Be Lunaticos). 



But the divine, immortal, and invisible man cannot be 

 a subject for the investigation of any science, such as 

 deals merely with external and visible things. He can 

 be known to no one except to his own self; for the low 

 cannot comprehend the high, and the finite mind cannot 

 contain the infinite. The study of the divine man is the 

 object of self-knowledge. " Physical science deals with 

 the physical, and metaphysical science with the astral 

 man ; but these sciences are misleading and incomplete, 

 if we lose out of our sight the existence of the divine 

 and eternal man" {De Fundamento Sapientice). 



" Neither the external nor the astral man is the real 

 man, but the real man is the spiritual soul in connection 

 with the Divine Spirit The astral soul is the shadow 

 (ethereal counterpart) of the body, illumined by the 

 spirit, and it therefore resembles man. It is neither 

 material nor immaterial, but partakes of the nature of 

 each. The inner (sidereal) man is formed out of the 

 same Limbus as the Macrocosm, and he is therefore able 

 to participate in all the wisdom and knowledge existing 

 in the latter. He may obtain knowledge of all creatures, 

 angels, and spirits, and learn to understand their attri- 

 butes. He may learn from the Macrocosm the meaning 

 of the symbols (the forms) by which he is surrounded, in 

 the same manner as he acquires the language of his 

 parents; because his own soul is the quintessence of 

 everything in creation^ and is connected sympathetically 



