It is in no sense inexact to affirm that he founded a new school both in medicine and in alchemy. The commentaries on his medical system became a literature which, in extent, at least, is formidable; out of the mystic physics of his alchemical teachings the Rosicrucian doctrines developed in the first part of the following century. The works of Benedictus Figulus are evidence that he was idolized by his disciples. He was termed the noble and beloved monarch, the German Hermes, the Philosopher Trismegistus, our dear preceptor and King of Arts, Theophrastus of blessed memory and immortal fame. The collection of his genuine writings was made with devout care, and as a consequence of his celebrity many fictitious treatises were in due course ascribed to him.[1] Students attracted by his doctrines travelled far in search of like-minded persons to compare observations thereon, and to sift the mystery of his instruction. In the course of these inquiries it seems to have become evident, from the experience of his followers, that his prescriptions in many cases were not to be literally understood, even when they were apparently the ordinary formulae and concerned with the known materia of medicine. It will scarcely be necessary to add that in things alchemical the letter of his teachings was found still more in need of interpretation. The very curious influence exercised by Paracelsus for something like two hundred years over certain sections of restless experiment and speculation is still unwritten, and it would be interesting to trace here, were it possible within the limits of a preface. A task so ambitious is, however, outside those limits, and will perhaps be more wisely surrendered to other hands, for it is, in the main, part of the history of medicine, and demands an expert in the medical literature and medical knowledge of the past. The translations which follow are concerned only with the Hermetic writings of Paracelsus, to the exclusion of many formidable treatises on surgical science, and on the causes and cure of disease. They comprise what Paracelsus would himself have comprised in a collection of his alchemical writings, and this in itself is much more than is ordinarily understood to be within the significance of the term. With Paracelsus the province of alchemy was not limited to the transmutation of metals. It was, broadly speaking, the development of hidden possibilities or virtues in any substance, whether by God, or man, or
- ↑ More especially, dear friends, have we to complain of the devilish cunning way in which the works of Theophrastus have hitherto been suppressed, only a few of which (and those to be reckoned the very worst) having appeared in print. For although they have been collected together from all countries in which Theophrastus has lived and travelled—the books he has written in Astronomy, Philosophy, Chemistry, Cabala, and Theology, numbering some thousand volumes—yet the same has only been done from avarice to get riches. For, having been trafficked in and sold for great sums, they have become scattered among the courts of princes and nobles, while Christendom at large for whose use and benefit Theophrastus wrote, has no part in them. Particularly his theological works (because they annihilate the godless, and do not suit children of this world—belly-servers, deceived by the devil) have hitherto been totally suppressed. . . . But, at the Last Day, I, together with all true Sons of the Doctrine, shall demand a account of them for having . . . shut Truth away in boxes, walls, and vaults, and behind locks and bolts. Now these precious and revered writings were ordered by God in our latter times, through Theophrastus, for the use and weal of the whole of Christendom. As regards our dear, highly favoured Monarch and Preceptor, . . . we, for our part, will not suppress his Life, his well-merited praise, . . . given him by God, the Angels, and the whole Firmament, but will heartily defend his honour and teaching to the very end of our life.— Benedictus Figulus, A Golden and Blessed Casket of Nature's Marvels.
