196 PARACELSUS 



" The physical body of man is grown from a physical 

 germ, and requires physical nutriment for its support. 

 There is something like a fire (energy) within ourselves 

 which continually consumes our form, and if we were 

 to add nothing to our body to supply the waste caused 

 by that combustion, our form would soon die. We con- 

 tinually eat our own selves; we eat our fingers, our heart, 

 our brain, &c. ; but in each morsel of food which we eat, 

 there is contained the material required to replace that 

 which has been consumed by that internal fire. Each 

 part of our organism selects what it needs, and that 

 which is superfluous or useless is rejected. The Master 

 in man, who superintends the building up of the or- 

 ganism, supplies every organ with that which it needs. 

 We need not eat bones to cause our bones to grow, nor 

 veins, ligaments, and brain, to have those things formed 

 within us. Bread will produce blood, although there is 

 no blood in the bread " (Paramir., i. 7). 



" Besides the visible body, man has an invisible one. 

 The former comes from the Limbus, the latter is made 

 from the breath of God. As a breath is like nothing 

 in our estimation, likewise this spiritual body is like 

 nothing to our external senses. This invisible body is 

 the one which is spoken of as constituting our corporeal 

 form on the day of the resurrection" (Paramir., i. 8). 



"Heaven and Earth, air and water, are scientifically 

 considered a Man, and man is a world containing a 

 heaven and an earth, air and water, and all the various 

 principles which constitute the mineral, vegetable, and 

 animal kingdoms, and the higher acts upon the lower. 

 Thus the principle constituting Saturn in the Macrocosm 

 acts upon the Saturn in man ; the Melissa of the Macro- 

 cosm acts upon the Melissa in the Microcosm, &c. There 

 are innumerable principles in the Macrocosm and in the 

 Microcosm ; they are not differing from each other in 

 the number of things of which they are composed, but 

 in the way they are composed ; for they all consist only 



