loo PARACELSUS 



they are composed. A fly, for instance, has the same 

 life as a stone, because there is only One Life, but in a 

 fly it manifests itself otherwise than in a stone, and while 

 the shape of the stone may exist for thousands of years, 

 the fly lives only a few days. 



The elements, which are used by the power of life for 

 the purpose of manifesting itself, are as indestructible 

 as life itself, but they continually change their states, 

 they are continually undergoing transformations, they are 

 continually calcinated, sublimated, dissolved, decomposed, 

 distilled, coagulated, and tinctured in the alchemistical 

 laboratory of Nature. 



Each form has a certain period during which it may 

 exist as a form, and the length of this period is predeter- 

 mined by the number which is a constituent factor in 

 the organisation of form, and which springs from life 

 itself, because life is a conscious power, and does nothing 

 at random, but everything according to its own inherent 

 law; and if the form should be prematurely destroyed, 

 life will nevertheless be active in the astral soul of the 

 form, which cannot be destroyed until the time for its 

 natural dissolution has arrived.^ The outer form is only 

 caused by the action of life upon the astral form, and if 

 the exterior form is broken, the inner form still continues 

 to exist, and can under certain conditions be brought 

 again into contact with the remnants of the broken form, 

 and thereby that form may be revived. If a thing dies 

 a natural death, such a revival is impossible ; but if the 

 death has been premature, such a revival may take place, 

 if the vital organs of the person or animal have not been 

 irrevocably destroyed.^ 



But even in that case there still exists a very close 

 sympathetic relationship between the remnants of the 



1 Premature deaths from crime, suicide, and accidents cause their 

 victims to become earth-bound spirits, until the time of their natural 

 dissolution arrives. 



* Bee F. Hartmann, " Prematuire Burial," London, 1896, 



