Dritter Theil. Third Part

Duo contraria Two opposites always give birth to the third, and cause all growth and change of things. When one adds fire to fire, nothing new comes of it, just as with ∇ Water to ∇. But when one unites water and fire with one another, then new births arise. For the fire works into the ∇ and impregnates the same, according to the nature and property of the water and also of the fire, into pure or impure births, according to whether the ∇ and Δ Fire were pure or impure.

The matter must be well known and understood if something good is to come of it. The sun is in itself always good, yet it does good and bad at the same time. When it shines into a falling rain, the rain receives from the sun a lovely honey-dew, which, when it falls upon the blossom of the trees, makes them spoil. Not that the sun or the honey is to blame for the evil, but because, when the honey-dew is not quickly washed off again by rain and the warm sun dries it out, the blossoms shrivel up, worms grow therein, and they spoil.

I must set another parable here for the benefit of the seeker of truth. When a diligent gardener walks about in his orchard to amuse himself, and happens to find a large and beautiful apple lying on the ground, he is not too lazy to pick it up and not only to view it well but also to test it. If it tastes good to him, he looks around for the tree on which it grew, so that he may pick more of the same from it.