ALCHEMY AND ASTROLOGY 247 



Alchemy is described by Paracelsus as an art in 

 which Vulcan (the fire of Nature) is the active artist. 

 By this art the pure is separated from the impure, and 

 things are made to grow out of primordial matter 

 (A*kasa). Alchemy renders perfect what Nature has 

 left imperfect, and purifies all things by the power of 

 the spirit that is contained in them. 



Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury 



" All things (man included) are composed out of three 

 substances, and all things have their number, their 

 weight, and their measure. Health exists when the 

 three substances constituting a thing preserve their 

 normal proportion of quantity and quality ; disease re- 

 sults if this proportion becomes abnormal. These three 

 substances are called Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt} These 

 three substances are not seen with the physical eye, but 

 a true physician should see them nevertheless, and be 

 able to separate them from each other. That which is 

 perceptible to the senses may be seen by everybody 

 who is not a physician; but a physician should be able 

 to see things that not everybody can see. There are 

 natural physicians, and there are artificially made physi- 

 cians. The former see things which the latter cannot 

 see, and the others dispute the existence of such things 

 because they cannot perceive them. They see the 

 exterior of things, but the true physicians see the in- 

 terior. The inner man is the substantial reality, while 

 the outer one is only an apparition, and therefore the 

 true physician sees the real man, and the quack sees only 

 an illusion." 



"The three substances are held together in forms 



^ This does not, of course, refer to the chemical substances known to us 

 by these names. " No one can express or sufficiently describe the virtues 

 contained in the three substances; therefore every alchemist and true 

 physician ought to seek in them all his life unto his death ; then would 

 his labour surely find its just reward " (2>c Morte Rerum). 



