WISDOM WITH FOLLY / ROBERT’S EXAMINATION.

From these things, one may see how secretly and cunningly that Monk Marin Mersenne (1588–1648), the French friar Fludd is accusing of plagiarism. acts toward me—namely, by taking those matters which pertain to me, and which he extracted totally and word-for-word from my own volume, and striving to assign them to various uncertain and unnamed persons. But I shall point out the particular places in my Physics from which he stole all these things. In Chapter 4, Book 1 of my Physics of the History of the Macrocosm, we described the prime matterLatin: materia prima. The fundamental, formless substance from which all physical things were created. or the subject of darkness (in whose lap that greatest Creator of the Macrocosm arranged the structure of the world). In Chapter 3 of the same, we discussed whether that matter was created or uncreated. In Chapter 5, it is noted that the Chemistsreferring to Alchemists call this mass the crow’s headLatin: caput corvi. An alchemical term for the 'nigredo' or initial state of chaotic, dark matter.. In Chapter 6, we indicated the manner in which the light-virtue, sent forth by the divine breath, arranged that potential matter into the actual world—and not the Sun, as he falsely conjectures. And where he says that it is "their opinion" that if the sun's heat ceased, all things would return to their original state, in this he is also mistaken and misleads his readers; for at the end of that chapter, you will read this heading: Demonstrations by which it results that by the cessation of the action of the formal light (that is, by the absence of divine light and not the sun), the entire matter of the world would return to the first abyss, the dark and formless void, etc.

Similarly, we treated the creation and nature of light, and its operation in the production of the Empyrean heavenThe highest part of the heavens, believed in ancient cosmology to be composed of pure fire or light., in Chapters 4 and 5 of the same second book. Then, in Chapters 11, 12, and 13, we discussed the nature or virtue of the Elements—especially of Fire—and the production of the Light-Spirit. Finally, in Chapter 15 of the same book, we established that fiery Spirit as the origin of the form of the Elements. By these references, it is declared clearly enough that although he secretly and falsely attributed the logic of constructing such a worldly fabric to others (which belongs to me alone), he did not deign to show me the kindness of ascribing those things to me by name—things which his own conscience discerns in my writings to be good and approved. Thus, he has clearly displayed his dog-like envy toward me to the world. He perhaps suspects that his own labors would not receive much favor throughout all Europe unless he stained mine with calumnies and infamy before the world, seeing as both our works deal with one and the same subject. Those even moderately instructed in Philosophy will very easily see the truth of this from the evidence. For without a doubt, if he had truly found so many and such great errors in my work, he would—in the manner of a Philosopher—refute them with an open pen, all envy set aside, and deal with me on a fundamental level, rather than with brawls, quarrels, and similar old wives' tales that have nothing to do with the matter. Thus, he proceeds in his recapitulation of my physical subject:

2. Marin’s text from Column 109.

Col. 109.

That fire penetrates dense things even to their center, and it opens, dilates, dissolves, thins, and makes them volatile so that they may be raised upward; it gathers homogeneous things, and digests, matures, fixes, and perfects them. It cuts into, scatters, drives away, and beats back heterogeneous things. They say this fire was produced by the Holy Spirit; whence they contend that the Chaldean OraclesA collection of mystical verses from the 2nd century AD, highly influential on Neoplatonists and Renaissance occultists. called the Holy Spirit a fiery love, the God of fire and the deity of the Spirit, an intellectual and fiery Spirit, having no form, but transforming itself into whatever form it wishes and making itself equal to all things. And Zoroaster and Heraclitus said that all things were birthed from a single fire. Thus he [Mersenne] says.