Secrets of the Secrets of Ramon Llull and Hermes the Philosophers

that food is corrupted, and then wrinkling of the skin occurs, or grayness, as is evident in old men who are cold and dry. But here, how it truly occurs not from old age, but from infirmity, it is then called grayness, just as in morphea a skin disease causing discolored patches and scabies, and then the hairs turn gray along with the whiteness of the skin, and the cause is that the infirmity is in the skin. But grayness is instead because of the weakness of the natural heat that exits from the body. For old age makes the body cold and dry. And this old age occurs and weakens in two ways: namely, from the long course of time, not from weakness, and this is said to be with time, which can be much retarded through wisdom: The other is from wickedness and very bad cares, and this is before time, and this old age can be totally removed, and how it is removed and retarded I will say below. And because coldness and dryness dominate in the bodies of old men, therefore their blood is meager and their virtue is weak, and their natural heat is weak in digesting food, on account of which many humidities and raw humors are aggregated in their body, and therefore their spirits are weakened, and natural weakness dominates in them naturally, because their bodies become colder and drier than they were before, and when they are cold and dry they are in need of those things which warm and moisten.