126 PARACELSUS 



upon the earth. Some of them are short-lived, and 

 others will live unto the day of the dissolution of all 

 things. "We all know that a man may change his 

 character in the course of his life, so that he ultimately 

 becomes a very different person from what he was 

 before ; and thus every creature having a will can change 

 and become supernatural or unnatural ; i.e., different from 

 that which normally belongs to its nature. Many of the 

 head-lights of the Church, who now strut about with 

 jewels and diamonds, will be dragons and worms when 

 the human body in which they are now masquerading 

 will have disappeared at the time of their death " {Lib. 

 FMlos., iv.). 



"There are the Sirens,^ but they are merely a kind 

 of monstrous fishes ; but there are also two more kinds 

 of spirits, related to the Nymphs and Pigmies, namely, 

 the Gigantes (giants) and the Dwarfs. This may not 

 be believed; but it ought to be remembered that the 

 beginning of true knowledge is that the light of Nature 

 illumines man, and that in this light he knows all things 

 in Nature by means of the light of the inner man. The 

 Giants and Dwarfs are monsters, being related to the 

 Sylvestres and Gnomes in the same sense as the Sirens 

 are related to the Undines. They have no (spiritual) 

 souls, and are rather to be compared to monkeys than 

 to human beings. Such spirits are often the guardians 

 of hidden treasures." 



" Such things will be denied and ridiculed by the 

 worldly wise ; but at the end of the world, when all things 

 will be revealed, then will also come forward the so- 

 called * doctors ' and * professors,' who were great in their 

 ignorance ; then will it be seen who were those that 

 were learned in the foundation of Nature, and the others 

 learned in empty talk. Then we will know those who 

 have written according to truth and those who taught 

 according to their own fancy ; and each one will receive 



1 ItalicQre CaUicca (Mermaid). 



