P R E F A C E

I did not wish you, kind Reader, to be unaware of the reason why I have undertaken to explain the book of Paracelsus titled the Heaven of the Philosophers in this third Part, lest you should believe me to be destitute of material for writing if I did not augment my book with the writings of others. I could have accomplished what I decided to write here well enough even without the admixture of Paracelsian books. Yet, I did this for this specific reason: in the previous century, Paracelsus published many most elegant books for the common good, but they are sufficiently obscure, and on account of this, they were considered false and held in contempt by the unskilled, despite being worthy of the highest esteem as they are filled with arcana hidden secrets. After I discovered the truth in them, I bore with great difficulty the sinister remarks about this man, as if he were ignorant of all things and a vagabond, though in genuine Philosophy, Medicine, and Alchemy few were his equals. Indeed, the situation reached such a point that a diligent student of Medicine, otherwise a strenuous seeker of truth, would not dare to indicate his delight in them when investigating truth from his writings, but rather, because of the malevolent, he abstains from them whether he wishes to or not, and is forced to remain in the shadows with the greater crowd. There is no doubt, however, that the light once kindled for us by Paracelsus, when renewed by his good writings, will be loved by many.