Page:Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus Vol I (IA cu31924092287121).djvu/169

 dispensation of God arranges. But this, too, happens from different diseases and accidents, and herefrom there is no resuscitation, nor is there any preservative which can be used against predestination and the cognate end of life. But what is mortified can be resuscitated and revivified, as may be proved by many arguments which we will set down at the end of this book. So, then, there is the greatest difference between dying and mortifying, nor should it be thought that these are only two names for one thing. In very deed these differ as widely as possible. Examine the case of a man who has died by a natural and predestined death. What further good or use is there in him? None. Let him be cast to the worms. But the case is not the same with a man who has been slain with a sword or has died some violent death. The whole of his body is useful and good, and can be fashioned into the most valuable mumia. For though the spirit of life has gone forth from such a body, still the balsam remains, in which life is latent, which also, indeed, as a balsam conserves other human bodies. So, too, in the instance of metals you see that when a metal has a tendency to die it begins to be affected with rust, and that which has been so affected is dead; and when the whole of the metal is consumed with rust the whole is dead, and such rust can never be brought back to be a metal, but is mere ashes and no metal. It is dead, and death is in itself: nor has it any longer the balsam of life, but has perished in itself.

The lime and the ashes of metals also are two-fold, and there is the greatest difference between these two. For the one can be revived and brought back to be a metal, but not so the other. One is volatile, the other is fixed. One is dead, the other is mortified. The ash is volatile and cannot be brought back to be a metal, but only to glass or scoriae. But the lime of metals is fixed and can be brought back again into its own metal. If you would understand the difference and its cause, know that in the ash there is less fatness and more dryness than in the lime, and it is this which gives the fluxion. The lime is fatter and more moist than the ash, and still retains its resin and its fluxion, and more especially does it retain the salt which of its own special nature is capable of flux, and also makes all metals pass into flux, thereby reducing them. Hence it follows with the ashes of metals that they cannot be brought back into metals. The salt must be extracted; then they are perfectly volatile. This is the chief point, and must be very carefully noted, since no little depends upon it. Among sham physicians a vast error is prevalent. In place of Sol Potabilis, the Quintessence of gold, the Tincture of gold, and so on, they have palmed off on men a leprous Calx of Sol, not considering the difference or the evils resulting therefrom. For two notable and necessary facts must here be observed, namely, that either calcined or pulverised Sol, when given to men, is congregated into one mass in the bowels, or passes out per anum with the dung, and so is vainly and uselessly taken; or else by the great internal heat of the body it is reduced, so that it incrusts and clogs the bowels, whence ensue many and various diseases, and at last even death. L2