Preface 1, no date (1581), Gerhard Dorn to the Reader (BP185)
| Author: | Gerhard Dorn |
| Recipient: | Reader |
| Type: | Prefaces and Postfaces |
| Date: | no date |
| Place: | 1581 |
| Pages: | 2 |
| Language: | Latin |
| Quote as: | https://www.theatrum-paracelsicum.com/index.php?curid=2048 |
| Editor: | Edited by Julian Paulus |
| Source: | Gerhard Dorn, Fasciculus Paracelsicae medicinae, Frankfurt am Main: Johann Spieß 1581, sig. (*)4r–(*)4v [BP185]
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| CP: | Not in Kühlmann/Telle, Corpus Paracelsisticum |
| Translation: | Raw translation see below |
| Abstract: | Paracelsus teaches about the preservation of health through the generation of a Spagyric Pygmy, which transforms the unhealthy human into a strong, healthy being. He emphasizes the importance of nourishment from external nature for maintaining health and life. The entire course of human life is compared to the span of one year, with the momentum of a healthy life lying in the center, where one can taste the fruits of the tree of life. Paracelsus also teaches about the generation and restoration of life through the creation of artificial blood in a glass egg, which results in a basilisk rather than a homunculus. (generated by Chat-GPT) |
| Back to Paratexts Back to Texts by Gerhard Dorn |
[sig. (*)4r] Praefatio brevis ad lectorem.
Statim ab exordio visum est admonere Lectorem, ne quos tanquam in fasciculum colligo Paracelsi flosculos, varijs scriptorum suorum libris dispersos, existimet à me veluti per somnium excogitatos. Legat igitur quæ de natura rerum scripsit autor hic, ob ingenij fœcunditatem celebratißimus, ab ijs præsertim quibus intelligitur, rudibus verò duntaxat inuisus: istorum quis veritatem non persequitur? Legat (inquam) & reperiet quàm insigniter suos doceat ænigmate vario, quos habere discipulos voluit, & experiri quemadmodum suæ tractationis medullam vt è cortice nucleum assequerentur, ne quidem indignos admitteret in album suæ scholæ. Quanquam futurum certò præsciuit, vt eius aduersarij ex nudo literæ sensu captarent ansam calumniæ. Nihilominus quàm hac de causa remoratus, quinimò potiùs alacri non minus animo, quàm fœlici admodum successurem aggressus est, haudquaquam in dubium reuocans, quin veritas per seipsam efficacißima, vnà dierum in lucem esset emersura. Quamobrem de sanitatis conseruatione tractaturus, primùm omnium à generatione pygmei spagirici, qui malè sanum pygmeum hominum, regeneratione quadam artificiali simul & naturali, transmutaret in gigantem robustißimæ vitæ, cœpit initium, tanquam à præcipuo vitæ conseruationis arcano. Deinceps per minora particularia discurrens, in transmutationem abdidit omne quod priùs palam fecerat, arcæ tamen claue suis, & non alijs, tradita per mysterium. Inter alia docere nos intendit vitam rerum externarum, ad nostræ vitæ propagationem maximè conducere, ac ea imprimis opus esse. Quandoquidem externa virtus rerum internam hominis labantem vitam subleuat (libera tamen à suis compedibus) longè fœliciori successu, quàm per nutritionem ex ordine præscriptoq́ue naturæ consueto. Similia nanque similibus maximopere corroborantur, ad resistendum aduersarijs dißimilibus & contrarijs inimicis. Quis (quæso) reuocabit in dubium, saltem physicus, ob inæqualitatem ordinarij nutrimenti cum primo humanæ vitæ subiecto spiritum pariter vitæ consopiri, ac debilitari magis ac magis indies, vsque dum paulatim ac tandem prorsum deficiat, indeq́ue morbo dari locum, rimamq́ue fieri per quam in monarchiam æqualitatis irrepat? Verum enimuerò, quia necessariò corporis humani membra & elementa quæuis impura, sibi similibus impuris nutriri oportet, non secus atque puris puriora vitalium facultatum subiecta, sagax natura cibum vtrisque non separatum ordinauit, alioqui solæ vitæ facultates vnà cum suis vehiculis, & non corporalia craßiora membra secunda vitæ subiecta nutrirentur. Proinde fieri non potest hac via naturalis [sig. (*)4v] nutritionis, quin puræ facultates vitæ vitientur, contracta suorum domiciliorum imduritate nutrimenti. Quò fit vt si vita conseruari debeat in stato esse, quod vocant, inprimis necessarium vt æqualitate seruata nutrimenti vel fomenti, cum nutriendo, calor natiuus in organo hoc suo vehiculo, nimirum humido radicali, & primo vitæ subiecto, retineatur. Idipsum autem aliter quàm per nutrimenta fieri nequit, ab extrinseca natura mutuata, ne defectu liquidi vitam conglutinantis, flamma, vel impediatur, vel prorsum extinguatur in subiecto secundo, corde videlicet, in quo centrum atque fons vitæ corporis delitescit. Calore ad hunc modum cedente locus datur inimico frigido rigidoq́ue mortis subiecto. Vt res verò sit dulcidior, statum esse vitæ cognoscamus oportet. Perfectam igitur cuiusque rei naturam esse maturitatem, nemo non confitebitur. Nam à primo vitæ curriculo, spiritus vitalis motum intendens ad finem suum vel terminum, per medium necessariò transire cogitur, quò priusquam perueniat, adhuc in immaturo consistit, qui quidem status imperfectus est ab infantia & pueritia iuuentutis vsque ad viri statum esse completum. Non est verò spagirorum opinio, vitam ad imperfectam reuocare naturam, sed ad virilem, viriditatis pariter atque virtutis plenam, vt inter duas adolescentiæ floridas ac frugales ætates, aliquantò quàm per naturam consuetum est diuitiùs iubilet, nec ad sinistram, neque ad dextram inclinans. Conseruare naturam & vitam ergo, nihil aliud est, quàm hanc à suo naturali cursu medium in statum virtute, si non actu, sistere, & hoc ipsum etiam est morbum retardare. Non secus enim atque videmus à naturæ stationibus, ver absoluto suo circulo pueritiæ, gradum sistere in æstatis adulescentulæ motus initio, quæ tandem cursum in autumni motum primum defigit, statum esse videlicet perfectionis annuæ virens, ac flores & fructus inter medium. Est etiam totus vitæ humanæ cursus vnius anni spatium, vitæ autem sanæ momentum, extra quod vtrinque reliquum est imperfectio crescens, vel imminuens. Quicunque igitur in hoc momenti centro permanere aliquandiu poterit aut nouerit, aliquatenus degustabit, primis saltem labijs, arboris vitæ fructus aliquos, quales autem Adamo primo nostro parenti gustare concessum est in vita, quò reuocaret in memoriam quantas in arbore vitæ delicias amisisset. Proinde Paracelsus initio de generatione, & instauratione vitæ, sub inuolucro docet sanguinem artificiatum in ouo gignere sparirico vitro (hunc nutrimenti sanguinem alibi vocat, non spermatis) ex quo posteriore basiliscum potiùs quàm homunculum enasci asserit: ne fortè quispiam temerarius interpres ad nefandum humani seminis abusum homines trahat. Tantùm abest vt eò velit quempiam allicere, quin potiùs hoc exempli deterrere basilisci conatur, vt abstineant omnes à tam enormi facinore. His igitur fruere tantisper optimè Lector, donec meliora dabit Altißimus donatur luminum. Vale fœliciter & statum viue centri medium quod audisti, atque deinceps æternum fidelibus ac pijs omnibus paratum. Iterum vale.
English Raw Translation
Generated by ChatGPT-4 on 4 April 2023. Attention: This translation is a machine translation by artificial intelligence. The translation has not been checked and should not be cited without additional human verification.
A Brief Preface to the Reader.
From the very beginning, it seemed necessary to warn the Reader not to think that the various flowers of Paracelsus, which I have gathered into a bundle, scattered throughout his various books, have been invented by me as if in a dream. Let the reader, therefore, read what this author, famous for the fertility of his genius, especially by those who understand him, but disliked only by the ignorant, has written about the nature of things: who among them does not pursue the truth? Let them read (I say) and they will find how remarkably he teaches his students through various enigmas, those he wished to have as disciples, and test how they would attain the core of his treatment as if obtaining the kernel from the bark so that he would admit only the worthy into the register of his school. Although he certainly foresaw that his adversaries would seize upon the bare literal sense for the sake of slander. Nonetheless, for this very reason, he was not deterred but rather, with no less a cheerful spirit than a very fortunate future, he undertook it, not at all doubting that the most effective truth would emerge into the light in due time. Therefore, intending to discuss the preservation of health, he began first and foremost with the generation of the Spagyric Pygmy, which, through a certain artificial and natural regeneration, would transform the unhealthy pygmy of humans into a giant of the strongest life, as if from the most important secret of life preservation. Subsequently, running through minor particulars, he hid in the transformation everything that he had previously revealed openly, but he handed over the key to the chest through mystery to his followers, and not to others. Among other things, he intends to teach us that the life of external things greatly contributes to the propagation of our life and that they are especially necessary. Since the external power of things lifts up the faltering inner life of man (however free from its shackles) with far greater success than through nourishment in the prescribed and customary order of nature. For like things are greatly strengthened by their similarity, in order to resist dissimilar and contrary enemies. Who (I ask) would doubt, at least a physician, that due to the inequality of ordinary nourishment with the primary subject of human life, the spirit of life is likewise weakened, and debilitated more and more daily, until it gradually and eventually fails altogether, and hence gives way to illness, and a gap is created through which the monarchy of equality may creep in? Indeed, because the impure limbs and elements of the human body necessarily need to be nourished by impure things similar to themselves, just as the purer subjects of vital faculties are nourished by purer things, wise nature has ordained food for both without separation; otherwise, only the vital faculties, along with their vehicles, and not the coarser bodily limbs, the secondary subjects of life, would be nourished. Therefore, it is not possible by this natural means of nutrition that the pure faculties of life are not corrupted, contracting the hardness of the nourishment of their domiciles. Thus it happens that if life is to be preserved in the so-called state of being, it is primarily necessary that, while preserving the equality of nourishment or sustenance, the native heat is retained in its organ, in this vehicle of its own, namely in the radical humidity and the primary subject of life. However, this cannot be achieved in any way other than through nourishment borrowed from external nature, lest the flame is either hindered or completely extinguished in the secondary subject due to the lack of life-binding liquid, namely the heart, in which the center and source of the body's life is hidden. When heat gives way in this manner, a place is given to the cold and rigid subject of death. To make the matter more pleasant, it is necessary for us to recognize the state of being alive. No one will deny that the perfect nature of anything is its maturity. For from the beginning of life's course, the vital spirit, extending its motion towards its end or limit, is necessarily forced to pass through the middle, where it still exists in an immature state before reaching it, which is an imperfect state from infancy and childhood through youth to the complete state of manhood. However, it is not the opinion of the Spagyrists to bring life back to an imperfect nature, but to a manly one, full of both verdancy and strength, so that it may rejoice more richly between two flourishing and fruitful ages of youth than is customary by nature, neither inclining to the left nor to the right. Therefore, to preserve nature and life is nothing else than to hold it in its natural course in a state of virtue, if not in action, and this very act is also to delay illness. Indeed, just as we see from the stations of nature, having completed its circle of spring in childhood, it pauses in the beginning of the movement of youthful summer, which eventually fixes its course in the first movement of autumn, that is to say, the annual state of perfection, green and bearing flowers and fruits in the middle. The entire course of human life is also the span of one year, and the momentum of a healthy life, beyond which the remaining imperfection is either growing or diminishing on both sides. Therefore, whoever can or knows how to remain in the center of this moment for some time will, to some extent, taste at least with the first lips, some fruits of the tree of life, such as were allowed for Adam, our first parent, to taste in life, so as to recall to memory the great delights he had lost in the tree of life. Accordingly, Paracelsus teaches in the beginning about the generation and restoration of life, under the cover of generating artificial blood in a glass egg by means of a spagyric process (he calls this the blood of nourishment elsewhere, not of sperm), from which he claims that a basilisk rather than a homunculus is born afterward: lest perhaps some rash interpreter may lead people to the unspeakable abuse of human seed. He is so far from wanting to entice anyone to this, that on the contrary, he tries to deter them with the example of the basilisk, so that all may abstain from such a monstrous crime. Therefore, dear Reader, enjoy these things for the time being, until the Most High will give better gifts to the giver of lights. Farewell happily, and live the middle state you have heard of, and from now on, eternal for all the faithful and pious. Farewell again.
