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that he ought to, could, wanted to, and did [explain it], he congratulates himself; yet not even an iota of commentary or explanation—much less of the Hermetic science The "Hermetic science" refers to alchemy and esoteric philosophy, traditionally attributed to Hermes Trismegistus.—is found in his writing. It is a difficult thing to explain what is not understood; even more so to wish to provide a commentary; but it is truly foolish to promise the impossible. For as to what the Helbigian Tessa A specific, obscure alchemical term used by Helbig, likely referring to a fundamental salt or "earthy" principle. might be, or what its "Foreign Power" is, he has touched upon it with nothing but imaginary words. Thus, a man is considered worthless who does not stand by his promises, nor has it in his power to fulfill them. That "good" anonymous fellow could not imagine that there exists in the nature of things—or rather in Germany—anyone equal to his own knowledge who could defend Dr. Helbig or defeat him in argument. He himself is deluded original: hallucinatur by inverting Dr. Helbig’s opinion; for under the point of controversy in:

§. 2. Whether water is the only Element, while air and earth are merely its parts?

he reports Helbig to have said that, in general, Fire within elemental things is a supernatural motion; whereas Helbig actually described it as preternatural In 17th-century philosophy, "supernatural" referred to things directly from God, while "preternatural" referred to things that were unusual or outside the normal course of nature (like magic or rare phenomena) but still part of the created world.. It seems, therefore, that he does not know that supernaturality differs most widely from preternaturality.