Two Treatises on the Nature of the Elements and the Fifth Essence

...to do? It is certainly fitting for us to be grateful, and to learn humility original: "humilitatem." Drebbel emphasizes that true knowledge begins with the lowering of the ego. from the Son of God, and that summary of the law: Above all, love God, and your neighbor as yourself. This is the teaching of the Apostles and Prophets: indeed, GOD has taught us these same things through nature, so that no one might perish in the second death original: "secunda morte." In the theological context of the time, this refers to the eternal death of the soul in the afterlife, as opposed to the first, physical death..

Furthermore, when I considered within my own mind how miserably sloth original: "desidia." More than just laziness, this refers to a spiritual or intellectual apathy that prevents one from seeking truth. seduces man toward all the worst things, and blocks the path so that he is less able to understand NATURE THE TEACHRESS; when likewise I saw how much great labor mortals often bestowed upon things of either little or no importance, then indeed I began to greatly value and love NATURE THE TEACHRESS; and to perfectly recognize God from His creatures, which I gazed upon with wonder and amazement of soul. Truly, I began to study the Elements, which pointed out to me, as if with a finger, the nature of the Earth, whose crystalline Spirit, in the manner of a certain mist, I contemplated; its Soul truly stained as if with blood; and finally its Body, stable and un-