The Sophic Nucleus: An Interpretation of the Tincture of the Physicists of Paracelsus

...[know it] (indeed, only those to whom God has opened their eyes in Nature). They know its virtue original: "Tugend"; in this context, it refers to an inherent power or medicinal property. and hidden power, and how it is to be used.

So it is that, as far as its philosophical virtue original: "Philosophische Tugend"; the hidden, spiritual, or transformative power of a substance as understood by alchemists and implanted properties are concerned, it is known to very few people. Yet, in its substance, creation, and matter, it is such a common, well-known, and everyday thing that Bernhardus Bernhard of Trevisan (1406–1490), a famous alchemist who spent his life and fortune seeking the Philosopher's Stone. says: "The whole world has it before its eyes."

Morienus Morienus Romanus, a legendary 7th-century hermit and alchemist who reportedly taught the secrets of the art to a prince in Damascus. says: "It is such a well-known thing that a person could hardly live well without it." I say with truth (he speaks), that no human being can survive without it. Indeed, I would challenge anyone to find a person—even if it were a child only seven or eight years old—who would not recognize this thing, or who, as soon as they saw it, would not feel a heartfelt affection, appetite, and desire for it.

This natural affection comes from nowhere else but the inner spirit of man, which—being full of all natural arts and knowledge—knows well that all power for a person's life in long-lasting...