276 PARACELSUS 



the power to recognise and to follow the truth cannot 

 be conferred by academical degrees ; it comes only from 

 God. He who desires to know the truth must be able 

 to see it, and not be satisfied with descriptions of it 

 received from others, but be true himself. The highest 

 power of the intellect, if it is not illumined by love, 

 is only a high grade of animal intellect, and will perish 

 in time ; but the intellect animated by the love of the 

 Supreme is the intellect of the angels, and will live in 

 eternity " {De Fundamento Sapientice). 



" All things are vehicles of virtues, everything in 

 Nature is a house wherein dwell certain powers and 

 virtues such as God has infused throughout Nature and 

 which inhabit all things in the same sense as the soul 

 is in man ; but the soul is a creature originating of God 

 and returns again to God. Natural (terrestrial) man is 

 a son of Nature, and ought to know Nature, his mother ; 

 but the soul, being a son of God, ought to know the 

 Father, the Creator of all " ( Vera Inflitentia Rerum). 



Faith 



In regard to the true and the false faith Paracelsus 

 says : — " It is not a faith in the existence of a historical 

 Jesus Christ that has the power to save mankind from 

 evil, but a faith in the Supreme Power (God), through 

 which the man Jesus was enabled to act, and through 

 which we also may act when it becomes manifested in 

 us. The former ' faith ' is merely a belief and a result 

 of education ; the latter is a power belonging to the 

 higher constitution of man. Christ does not say that 

 if we believe in His personal power to accomplish 

 wonderful things we will be enabled to throw moun- 

 tains into the ocean; but He spoke of our own faith, 

 meaning the divine power of God in man, that will act 

 through ourselves as much as it acted through Christ, 

 if we become like Him. This power comes from God 



