On the Exact Anatomy of Bread or Wheat.

...of the powers and thoughts of men, and the differences of plants, and the faculties of roots, and also to know whatever is hidden and manifest:) So also is this our minor key, whose subject is not wisdom itself, but the effect of wisdom, since it is advised to demonstrate God not otherwise than from the latter Latin: à posteriore—reasoning from effects back to causes, that is, through his creatures, and to contemplate Him in them; inasmuch as He is known through His wonderful works; rather than from the prior moving wisdom Latin: à priori—reasoning from causes to effects, in the aforementioned most hidden mystery of all. It shall suffice us, therefore, in this our treatise, not to forge a new world and make all things new—that is, to strive from the prior to the latter (since this is the subject of the aforementioned greater philosophical key, of which the most enlightened Brothers of the Rosy Cross The Rosicrucians, a secret society of mystics and alchemists popular in the 17th century have sung so much, whose song is not to be rashly despised or held as frivolous by the wise)—but conversely to proceed from the latter to the prior. This means not in constructing, but in destroying the composite, and reducing it into its primary and simple elements. By this, we may behold the simple parts of the composition, observe the natures, positions, and dispositions of the elements according to the possibility of spurious alchemy The author uses "spurious" or "adulterated" alchemy to refer to common chemical laboratory work, as opposed to "true" divine alchemy, gather the reason for the composite's growth and quickening, contemplate the union and harmony for life of the clear spirit and the flashing light, conceive (albeit from afar) the intentions of corruption and generation, see with open eyes the reason for the body's darkness and opacity, and finally elicit and make manifest many other things hidden in the sanctuary of nature.

This, I say, is the key, as it were, of minor philosophy; for although the five elements, and even its own absurd and dark chaos, are drawn out by this craftsmanship so that each seems distinguished from the other, yet the pure element in its simple nature cannot be demonstrated by the industry of this spurious art, nor can nature in its golden and flashing purity, as it truly is, be unshelled and brought into the light. Rather, they can only be segregated from one another in their defiled nature, insofar as each, though still impure, participates more in this or that element. For despite the art of spurious chemistry—however it works through distillations, cohobations, digestions, circulations, putrefactions, filtrations, calcinations, separations, or conjunctions, as well as fixations or dissolutions—nature will still have her labyrinthine hiding places, in which she hides her Phobean face The "face of the Sun" or the radiant, essential light of nature from an artist foreign to her. For she does not recognize, nor will she greet with a naked and uncovered face, anyone except her own proper servant, walking in the simple path of nature, simple in his works, and having his eye always fixed on the act of nature's operation. To such a true Alchemist, Nature will be present favorably, her garments of darkness cast off; to him (I say) the first wisdom of all creatures will be present, and will greet him with a lucky and favorable omen. But let us pass to our purpose.

CHAPTER II.

Wheat Latin: Triticum, therefore, that most excellent vegetable temple and dwelling place of Queen Nature, is the subject upon which we have placed the foundation of this our ocular demonstration. This is called pyros Greek: πυρὸς among the Greeks, from its fiery (as I think) disposition, inasmuch as it is filled with the bright and lively ray of nature. By the Latins it is called triticum from triturando (threshing), as some will have it, because it must be ground and reduced to a scarcely palpable powder before it can be brought into use. In this vegetable creature, even the coarse country folk find no small difference through their experience, as they are accustomed to divide it into chaff, bran, flour, and fine flour; although in truth, flour is nothing other than a composition of bran and fine flour, just as fine flour is observed to appear by the separation of the bran. This seems to be the sole king and prince of vegetable grains, because in it bounteous Nature, the mother and nurse of the entire world, has her chief residence. Whence it is not inaptly called by some (as was said previously) the most perfect temple or palace of the vegetable kingdom. And for this reason, this grain is imbued with infinite power both in multiplication and nutrition, by means of which it is observed to be more fruitful and nourishing than any other grain of the entire vegetable kingdom. Furthermore, it approaches so closely in its essential parts to the well-tempered nature of man, that learned physicians observe it to conform itself to the vital and natural faculty of man by reason of its similarity in disposition; for it nourishes the parts or members of man more than any other vegetable, the effective reason for which I shall not fail to explain to you in its proper place and time.

But now, although it may seem an impossible thing to the ignorant to give a certain reason for the growth and multiplication in this beneficent creature, it will nevertheless be very easy for one with true speculation to unshell this doubt—one who first understands how to anatomize this body well, and then afterwards honestly weighs the qualities of the four elements, as well as the contiguity of each of them to the other. But especially he who rightly contemplates that precious balsam of nature, derived from the bright essence of the celestial sun, and hiding in an abstruse manner in the midst of the cavity, by means of which this vegetable body lives and abounds in multiplication. For this is that crystalline mirror, and the clear spirit of the quintessence The "fifth element," a pure, incorruptible essence beyond the four earthly elements, in which the presence of bright nature...

B