THE PHILOSOPHER, OR THE PHYSICIAN

CONSULTED BY NATURE

Those who are hindered by a disdainful nausea for hidden things realize they have been left behind in this race for the certainty of all vital philosophy. They are surpassed by those whom a happier genius and a right mind have led in an unobstructed course across the widest fields of Nature to the finish line. Many today rejoice in that name the name of Philosopher or Physician of Nature, as soon as failed efforts and unsuccessful prayers begin to torment those others. These detractors persist in hating and criticizing in the Philosopher what they despair of being able to achieve themselves. Others from the same tribe, who lacked enough strength for even mediocre tasks, are deserted by their own wit. Driven by the sting of a silent conscience regarding their own weakness, they conceive an envy. They disparage those who have attained the more secret disciplines through the law of exact erudition, harassing them with the most serious stings of curses. Those who have eaten Nightshade original: "Qui Strychnum comederunt" are, in their own opinion, handsome and festive; they love themselves without any rival. We do not linger, therefore, on these most insolent enemies of truth. Nor are we ashamed in a matter so elegant, useful, and necessary, as we urge the Physician Philosopher on a persistent course, showing no childish apprenticeship in the province we have once undertaken. For what prevents us, once the rubbish is removed, from solicitously investigating the very nucleus of human nature itself? This allows us to draw a more certain and stronger foundation for properly moving nature from the very inner sanctums of nature. In Man, by Analogia analogy, the whole world rests and is represented. In Man, therefore, we do not speak wrongly when we say that heaven and the stars, and all things of the air, water, and earth, are housed. Of what disgrace are we accused? Of what unspeakable crime are we suspected if, from the similarity of the greater world, we place the Sun, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury within the sphere of man? If we place Solar, Lunar, Saturnine, Jovial, Martial, Venereal, and Mercurial stars in his own firmament? If, moreover, we describe the fixed laws of motions and the fixed successions of times springing from them? Or if we deduce from these the fruits that are messengers of health and disease? What forbids us to say original: "dicere", the catchword from the previous column that lightning, thunder, hail, rain, heat, cold, and dryness in the outer and visible world are,

in the inner and invisible world—or Man—Fevers, Epilepsies, Dropsies, Catarrhs, Paralyses, and Apoplexies? What prevents us from asserting that the generations and separations of metals and minerals lie hidden in man? In this way, we relate the Heart, Brain, Lungs, Liver, and Stomach to the family of Gold, Silver, Tin, Iron, and Lead. Thus we ascribe Leprosy, Elephantiasis, Hair loss, Scabies, Scurf, and Cancer to the dispensations of Vitriol, Alum, Niter, Rock Salt, Colchotar iron oxide powder, and Tartar. What stands in the way, finally, of bringing the lineage of vegetables to Man and distinguishing them in him in infinite ways? For thus, to name a few out of many, we match Nettle, Arum, and Flame-weed to pustules, itchings, and herpes. We match Melissa, Violets, and Wall Germander to the vital spirit dwelling chiefly in the Heart, Brain, and Liver. And do we still fear the breadth of all Nature, that almost all species and genera of creatures are found in one man by a certain festive, but all too true, application? How long shall we be afraid to look upon this most beautiful harmony, this most lovely frame of all things expressed in one Microcosmus Microcosm or Little World? Let us rather admire the unspeakable wisdom of our Architect, who, with clearly astounding power, forms the example of Himself and the entire creation in Man, digesting it, hiding it, and from there leading our mind into the knowledge of the most hidden things.

Almost infinite things, LISTENERS, can be said about these spectacles worthy of the nobility of Man. But my speech hastens toward those things which are by far the most ample of all, and pertain most closely to the Physician Consulted by Nature. I implore you—since it is fitting for us to be circumspect about Medicine while we are healthy, and everyone prefers to be entrusted to a skilled Physician rather than an unskilled one—do not grow weary of hearing those requirements necessary for producing a perfect Physician Consulted by Nature. For in this way, it will happen not only that you will act with a fair mind toward original: "erga", the catchword for the following page