24^ PARACELSUS 



by the power of life.^ If you take the three invisible 

 substances and add to them the power of life, you will 

 have three invisible substances in a visible form. The 

 three constitute the form, and become separated only 

 after the power of life deserts them. They are hidden 

 by life, and joined together by life. Their combined 

 qualities constitute the qualities of the form, and only 

 when life departs their separate qualities become mani- 

 fest. If the three are united in due proportions, health 

 exists in the form ; but if they become separated, the 

 one will putrefy and the other will burn. Man does not 

 see the action of these three substances as long as they 

 are held together by life, but he may perceive their 

 qualities at the time of the destruction of their form. 

 The invisible fire is in the sulphur, the soluble element 

 in the salt, and the volatile element in the mercury. 

 The fire burns, the mercury produces smoke, and the salt 

 remains in the ashes; but as long as the form is alive 

 there is neither fire, nor ashes, nor smoke." ^ 



^ "The sophist says that nothing living can come out of dead sub 

 stances, but no substance is dead, and they know nothing about the 

 alchemical labour. The death of a man is surely nothing but the 

 separation of the three substances of which his body is composed, and 

 the death of a metal is the taking away of its corporeal form " {J)e Morte 

 Rervm). 



^ "The three Substances are three forms or aspects of the one uni- 

 versal will-substance out of which everything was created ; for the un- 

 manifested Absolute in manifesting itself reveals itself as a trinity of 

 cause, action, and effect ; father, son, and the holy ghost ; body, soul, 

 and spirit, 



" It is therefore, above all, necessary that we should realise the 

 nature of the three Substances as they exist in the Macrocosm and 

 recognise their qualities, and we shall then also know their nature and 

 attributes in the Microcosm of man. That which burns and appears 

 fiery to the eye is the SvZphur, it is of a volatile (spiritual) nature; 

 that which is of a material nature is the Salt; and the Mercury is that 

 which may be sublimated by the acticm of the fire. It is invisible in 

 its condition of Prima materia, but in its ultimate state it may be seen ; 

 and as the whole constitution of man consists of these three Substances, 

 consequently there are three modes in which diseases may originate, 

 namely, in the Sulphur, in the Mercury, or in the Salt. As long as 

 these three Substances are full of life they are in health, but when tiiey 



