A wide horizontal woodcut headpiece featuring a repeating decorative pattern of stylized floral blooms and scrolling foliage.

THE ECSTATIC JOURNEY II.

original: "Iter Exstaticum II." This refers to the second volume of Athanasius Kircher's work, where the narrator takes a visionary journey through the physical world.

Preface to the Reader, concerning the goal of the undertaken ecstatic Journey, and the cause and origin of this little Work. page 514

DIALOGUE I.

Chapter I. Concerning the necessity and utility of the Watery element in the nature of things. 528

DIALOGUE II.

The "Geocosm" is Kircher's term for the Earth viewed as a living, integrated system similar to a biological body.

Chapter I. Concerning the exterior face of the Geocosm. 554
Chapter II. Various doubts are resolved regarding the external constitution of the Geocosm. 558
Chapter III. How plants and animals live from the hidden, spermatic storehouses of Nature's interior; and from whence they draw their origin. 574
"Spermatic" here refers to the "seeds" or formative principles that Kircher believed governed the growth of all life.
Chapter IV. How the universal seed of the World concurs in the composition of mixed bodies. And first, indeed, concerning the rise, nature, and powers of vegetables. 584
Chapter V. Concerning the rise and powers of sensitive Nature. 593
"Sensitive Nature" refers to the animal kingdom, which possesses the power of sensation, as opposed to the "vegetative" nature of plants.

DIALOGUE III.

original: "Mundum Subterraneum." This likely serves as a precursor or companion to Kircher's famous massive encyclopedia of the same name regarding geology and the Earth's interior.