Handbook of Restored Physics and the Secret Work of Hermetic Philosophy

...it snatches [the mind] upward; by this movement, one is inflamed with a desire to acquire knowledge of a thing which it is a shame to ignore. The mind, warming up through such exercise, by bringing back the many decrees of ancient and primary Philosophy original: "Principísque Philosophiæ"; likely referring to the Peripatetic or Aristotelian school which was the "primary" authority of the time. to the anvil original: "sub incudem reuocando"; a Latin idiom meaning to critically re-examine, polish, or rework a piece of thought., refused to assent to them. For Nature from afar, as if at the remote boundary of truth, seemed at first glance to offer another dim and uncertain light through the clouds, until, as the brightness grew stronger, the thickness of the clouds was overcome and revealed a more certain light. Bathed in this light, the mind became clearer and more confident in unearthing the secrets of nature.

The first errors of the ancients—which are both the worst and the roots of all others—presented themselves to me concerning the principles of Nature. As I thought more deeply about prime matter materia prima: in Aristotelian and alchemical thought, the fundamental, formless substance that has the potential to become any physical thing and universal form forma vniuersalis: the essence or organizing principle that joins with matter to create a specific being or object, from which all other things flowed; and about the number of Elements, their qualities, their opposing positions, and their reciprocal actions, other things [seemed] to me from the real... The sentence continues onto the next page.