Library of the Sages — Valentine, Khunrath, Hollandus, Bernard

spiritual which, in the open air, without any hin-
drance of burning, nor that the burning life can-
not be smothered and held back; for otherwise if
the separation of the soul and the spirit is not
first made from the body, no necessary and
profitable operation and virtue can follow,
for everything that can be handled visibly and
which is corporal and not separated is natural and
corporal. But as soon as the separation is
made, the living separates from the mortal and acquires
its entire operation, and when the natural
Body is separated, then the spiritual substance
is delivered to penetrate and has become
a spiritual Supernatural medicine. And
in short, all things that one can handle
without distinction are natural, but they
must be made Supernatural when one
wants to prepare them for medicine, for the
Supernatural only has in itself the
living virtue to operate, and the natural has only a
dead and palpable form. For when Adam
was created, he was dead and had no
living virtue, but as soon as the vivifying,
operating spirit was joined to him, he showed his
living virtue and power through an establishment and
Supernatural as if bound together and joined

in their habitation so that each thing
might be perfect; for of all that is created
in the world, some are Supernatural, to
wit: that which comprises the things of the soul
and the spirit. The others are natural and
supernatural together, such as the Elements
and firmament, likewise minerals, veget-
ables, and animals, which is recognized and found
when the separation of them is made, that
the soul leaves the body and the spirit leaves
the soul, and the body, which is the habitation,
remains empty.

Furthermore: you must take care
that the great and small world was formed
and created from a first matter original: "premiere matière" or "prima materia" by an
almighty, incomprehensible substance
when the spirit of God moved over the waters,
which was from all eternity. But the great
world, such as the heaven and the earth, was the
first country; from the great world was taken the
small world, namely man. When the water
was separated from the earth, the water was the matter
over which the eternal spirit of God moved. From
the most noble part of the earth, as from the
quinteessence quintessence or fifth element, the small world was formed by
the wateriness that was still in it, and all was