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BOOK ONE

Concerning

BREAD AND WHEAT IN GENERAL, AS WELL AS THEIR EXCELLENCE.

CHAPTER I.

Concerning the three composite kingdoms of Nature, in which she herself, like a sole queen and most radiant Empress, holds dominion.

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JUST AS universal nature—the absolute mother of the world’s structure and its creatures—is observed by the more skilled to be pure, simple, transparent, and invisible in and of herself, so too does she claim for herself three special and notable kingdoms in this lowest region of the world. These are composed from her simple elements The four classical elements: earth, air, fire, and water, both for her to govern and to inhabit; in these, as if under veils of obscurity or shadows, she delights to hide and conceal her secrets from the eyes of the unworthy. Each of these kingdoms is distinguished from the others by the admirable property of their Empress, who holds her royal court in their center or heart; from there, by a just equality and due proportion, she divinely rules and governs every member of their circumference. Just as we observe this universal governess of things inhabiting the splendid palace of the worldly sun—as if she had directed her fiery and flashing chariot through the vast ocean of the world—possessing its internal and central point, so that by this reason she may lead the equal horses of Phoebus The sun god Apollo in his daily motion around the sphere of equality, whereby she sends out her radiating virtue everywhere at the periphery, as much downward to the very depths of the earth as upward to the highest heaven, and thus adorns all things, both superior and inferior, with equal symmetry and harmony, and brings them to life by the influence of her rays: And just as, in a similar respect, this same queen governs the active and throbbing tabernacle of the microcosm The human body, viewed as a miniature version of the universe—namely, the heart—and liberally distributes the vital spirits everywhere in a circular motion, as if from a virtuous center to the circumference, by means of the flowing vessels and arterial channels: In a similar way (I say), this most powerful queen, ruling in her central palace in a hidden manner, is perceived to gradually nourish and increase the composition of these three kingdoms of hers daily, by ejecting and sowing the essence of her rays from the midpoint of each one to the margins or periphery of the subject. This, then, is that royal virgin and handmaid of the eternal Creator; this is the invisible fire of Zoroaster and Heraclitus Ancient philosophers associated with the sacred or transformative power of fire: this essential bond of the elements, and that virtue of true mixing, which is accustomed to produce so complete a union among the clashing natures of the four aforementioned kingdoms found in the sublunary world The realm below the moon, subject to change and decay: This is that princess of creatures, who desires to imprint a fitting character and a decent form upon every species of composite thing, by which property one thing is distinguished from another by an essential difference. Indeed, I say, this is that very Empress who has placed her palace in the heart of these three kingdoms of hers; in which she reigns triumphantly and holds the scepter. She is seen to express her majesty more abundantly in one of these things than in another, and yet she is not a manifold nature but one alone, not indivisible, and simple only in number, bearing the image of the general Creator in her governance, predominating over all and above all; for since she is the life of all things, she is said to be with the universal soul in every thing, and consequently in every particle of the microcosmic structure. One must seriously consider, therefore, that for her principal dwelling in the animal kingdom, she has chosen the human frame, which is indeed more excellent than all sensible creatures: In her vegetable empire, she seems to claim Wheat—the most worthy of all plants—for her richest tabernacle, as it is in this that she is seen to hold open court more copiously and sumptuously, and [to bestow] her vigorous gifts—