The Chemical Basilica or Alchemical Royal Jewel

of their skill, which is required in a Medico physician, with their own shame and the gnawing worm of conscience. And they should therefore rightly doubt whether Galeni Galen's Theoremata theorems were not meant less for us than for the bears and wild boars, and that his medicine is confirmed by no authority of the ancients, over which our present time triumphs, and thus they have no good foundation, since they see obviously that the end does not correspond with the beginning in the greatest cures of infirmities.

God alone is a Lord and Master of nature, and although the title has great status in the world, it does not make one any more learned.

In that they hold the writings of other learned people for nothing, and at the same time do not know the greatness and vastness of the art of medicine (which extends so far that we should let ourselves be content even then, when we have grasped the same as is proper at the beginning of our age), although from all work and other observationibus observations they finally become aware of their laziness and sloth, put aside the preconceived stubbornness through which they previously despised many people who were more learned than they ever were, and acknowledge that they are still far from being Doctores, or masters of nature, but are servants and students of the same, provided they wish to hold their position with honor and fame in the future, and avoid all greed, snobbery, and evil rumor.

The world is ruled by delusion.

God is the first book to eternal life.

The firmament of heaven; the other natural [book] to mortal life.

Oh how many have we lamented in secret, whose roofs are now covered with snow, and who spent the best time of their life in the schools of vanity and in those things that are not at all useful for cures, without any fruit and with great stubbornness, until they were finally stirred by the sweetness of truth, and after long detours—late, yet in earnest repentance of their errors, acknowledgment and confession of their false delusions—cast off all hindrances of science, namely delusion and pride. And the majority of them, indeed, in their old age (since it is beautiful and praiseworthy when the old apply themselves to wisdom, and, with Diogene Diogenes, do not cease in their course), like the sensible snakes, shed their old skin and put on a new one, and spent their remaining life in the mysteries, in God and in nature. And besides the great book of Gratiæ Grace (in which the salvation of our souls [is found]), also [read and considered] that of nature, in which the mysteries pertaining to the health of our body are contained, and found therein the most important treasures of nature, in which the Almighty has contained the most important medicine for the greatest and most dangerous infirmities. But so that they might not die and be buried in the dead shadows or external Galenic qualities and unhappy errors, they allowed an honest memory to be erected for their age and for nature, from which they—after the Creator's clearer and more proper acknowledgment, to which they come both through the diligent exploration and admiration of the creatures of God, as well as the laborious examination of creatures and natural things and philosophical distinction—also [found] these.

For from the stars is natural science drawn.