274 PARACELSUS 



for it in dreamland or in the pages or history. This is 

 not theosophy, but merely dreaming ; for not that wisdom 

 which exists outside of man but that which has taken 

 root in him renders him wise. A child is not born from 

 outside of its mother's womb, but from within, and the 

 spiritual regeneration of the soul must be accomplished by 

 that power which is existing within the soul itself. 



The spiritual regeneration of man requires the opening 

 of his inner senses, and this, again, involves the develop- 

 ment of the internal organs of the spiritual body, while 

 the latter is intimately connected with the physical form. 

 Thus this regeneration is not an entirely spiritual pro- 

 cess, but productive also of great changes in the physical 

 body. He who rejects, neglects, or despises his physical 

 body, as long as he has not outgrown the necessity of 

 having such a corporeal form, may be compared to the 

 yolk in an q^^ wanting to be free from the white of the 

 Q^'g and the shell, without having grown into a bird. 



" Philosophy " means love of wisdom, but not those 

 who love wisdom for their own aggrandisement are its 

 true lovers. Such people love only themselves, and 

 desire wisdom as a means for parading with it ; they 

 desire to know the secrets of Nature and the mysteries 

 of God, for the gratification of their scientific curiosity. 

 " Theosophy " means the wisdom of God ; in other words, 

 the self-knowledge of God in man. It is not " man," 

 but the god in man who knows his own divine self, and 

 it therefore does not rest with the will and pleasure of 

 man to become a theosophist, but this depends on the 

 awakening of the divine spirit in him. Philosophy 

 argues and deducts, speculates, makes additions and 

 multiplications, and by logical reasonings seeks to prove 

 that for such or such reasons this or that cannot be 

 otherwise than so or so ; but divine wisdom requires no 

 arguments, no logic or reasoning, because it is already 

 the self-knowledge of the One from whom all other 

 things are deriving their origin. It is the highest and 



