214 PARACELSUS 



each other, each of them asks for help from their common 

 mother (Nature), and the physician should, therefore, 

 be well acquainted with the astronomy of the inner 

 heaven of man, so as to know how to assist Nature in 

 her work." 



True love and true knowledge are inseparable. 



" To understand the laws of Nature we must love 

 Nature. He who does not know Maria does not love 

 her ; he who does not know God does not love Him ; his 

 belly (his greed) is his god. He who does not under- 

 stand the poor does not love them. The more know- 

 ledge we obtain, the stronger will be our love and the 

 greater our power. He who knows God has faith in 

 God ; he who does not know Him can have no true 

 faith. He who knows Nature will love her, and obtain 

 the power to employ her forces. No one can be made 

 into an artist or inventor if he has not the natural love 

 and capacity for it ; no one can be a good physician unless 

 he is born to be one. The art to invent is a species 

 of Magic, which cannot be taught, but which must be 

 acquired. All Wisdom comes from the East ; from the 

 West we can expect nothing good ; therefore, you who 

 desire to be useful physicians, act according to the sun 

 of true Wisdom, and not for the aggrandisement of the 

 moonshine of self " {Ldbyrinthus Medicorum). 



" It must not be supposed that a certain material 

 element coming from the planets enters the organism 

 of man and adds something to it which it does not 

 already possess. The light of the sun does not contri- 

 bute any corporeal substance to the organisms existing 

 upon the earth, and a man does not become heavier if 

 he stands in the sun ; but the natural forces acting in 

 the various organs are intimately related to similar forces 

 acting in the organism of the world, and as the liver, the 

 spleen, the heart, &c., are the bodily representatives of 

 certain organic activities, likewise the sun and the moon, 

 Venus, Mars, &c., are the visible representatives of the 



