194 PARACELSUS 



of the sun ; the quality of life found in the elements 

 constituting his blood corresponds to the quality of the 

 invisible influences radiating from Mars ; if the soul- 

 essences that characterise the influences of Venus did 

 not exist, the instincts which cause men and animals 

 to propagate their species would not exist, and thus 

 every planet and every star contains certain magnetic 

 elements that correspond with the identical magnetic 

 elements existing in the constitution of Man. A 

 physician who wishes to be rational must know the 

 constitution of the universe as well as the constitution 

 of man ; he must be an anatomist, a physiologist, and an 

 astronomist ; and it will avail him little to learn these 

 sciences from the books, but he should have an under- 

 standing of them by the power of interior perception, 

 which cannot be taught in books, but must be acquired 

 by practice. 



Anatomy 



Paracelsus regarded man as being not merely a com- 

 pound of muscles and bones, tissues and nerves, but as 

 representing on a smaller scale all that is contained in 

 the great world. Therefore his soul and mind are as 

 much parts of his true constitution as are the earthly 

 elements of which his elementary body is made up. 

 Thus the anatomy of Paracelsus takes in all the parts 

 of man's constitution, which has already been described 

 in a previous chapter. 



There are two kinds of Anatomy of the Microcosm, 

 one teaching the constitution of the external form of 

 man, the other one that of the internal living man. To 

 seek for the internal man by dissecting the external 

 form is useless, for in doing so we do not find life, but 

 we destroy the form in which it manifested itself. 



The Anatomy of the Microcosm is twofold: (i) The 

 local anatomy, which teaches the constitution of the 

 physical body, its bones, muscles, blood-vessels, &c. ; 



