MEDICINE 205 



invisible air, corals grow in the water, and seeds draw 

 their nutriment out of the soil ; the earth is a great 

 stomach, in which everything is dissolved, digested, and 

 transformed, and each being draws its nutriment from 

 the earth ; and each living being is a stomach that serves 

 as a tomb for other forms, and from which new forms 

 spring into existence " {Paramir., i.). 



Each organism requires that kind of food which is 

 adapted to its own nature. The body cannot be nourished 

 with theories, nor the mind with potatoes. The body 

 requires material food, the mind mental knowledge ; but 

 the soul needs the nutriment that comes from the holy 

 spirit of truth. 



** Every living being requires that particular kind of 

 food which is adapted to its species and to its individual 

 organism, and Life, the great alchemist, transforms the 

 food taken. In the alembic of the animal organism it 

 extracts from it those substances which the various organs 

 need. The lower class of animals are even better alche- 

 mists than man, because they can extract the essence 

 of life out of things which he is forced to reject. Man 

 extracts the more refined essences from food ; but a hog, 

 for instance, will extract nutriment out of substances 

 that would act as poisons in the organism of man, but 

 there is no animal known that will eat the excrements 

 of a hog. Animals refuse to eat or drink things which 

 are injurious to them, and they select by their natural 

 instincts those things which they require ; it is only 

 given to intellectual man to disobey his natural in- 

 stincts, and to eat or drink things which are injurious 

 to him, but which may gratify some artificially acquired 

 taste. Man is much more subject to diseases than 

 animals in a state of liberty, because animals live in 

 accordance with the laws of their nature, and man acts 

 continually against the laws of his nature, especially 

 in regard to his eating and drinking. As long as his 

 body is strong it can expel or overcome the injurious 



