The Signature of All Things — trans. John Ellistone (1651)
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The translator’s English as printed (John Ellistone). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
13. Thus likewise it is with the Herbs of the Earth; if an Herb be transplanted out of a bad Soil into a good, then it soon gets a stronger Body, and a more pleasant Smell and Power, and shews the inward Essence externally; and there’s nothing that is created or born in Nature, but it also manifests its internal Form externally, for the internal continually labours or Works itself forth to Manifestation: As we know it in the Power and Form of this World, how the one only Essence has manifested itself with the external Birth in the Desire of the Similitude, how it has manifested itself in so many Forms and shapes, which we see and know in the Stars and Elements, likewise in the living Creatures, and also in the Trees and Herbs.
14. Therefore the greatest Understanding lies in the Signature, wherein Man (viz., the Image of the greatest Virtue) may not only learn to know himself, but therein also he may learn to know the Essence of all Essences; for by the external Form of all Creatures, by their Instigation, Inclination and Desire, also by their Sound, Voice and Speech which they utter, the hidden Spirit is known; for Nature has given to every Thing its Language, according to its Essence and Form, for out of the Essence the Language or Sound arises, and the Fiat of that Essence Forms the Quality of the Essence in the Voice or Virtue which it sends forth, to the Animals in the Sound, and to the Essentials in Smell, Virtue, and Form.
15. Every Thing has its Mouth to Manifestation; and this is the Language of Nature, whence every Thing speaks out of its Property, and continually manifests, declares, and sets forth itself for what it is good or profitable; for each Thing manifests its Mother, which thus gives the Essence and the Will to the Form.
The Second Chapter.
Opposition and Combat in the Essence of all Essences, whereby the Ground of the Antipathy and Sympathy in Nature may be seen, and also the Corruption and Cure of each Thing.
1. SEEING then there are so many and divers Forms, that the one always produces and affords out of its Property a Will different in one from another, we herein understand the Contrariety and Combat in the Being of all Beings, how that one does oppose, Poison, and kill another, that is, overcome its Essence, and the Spirit of the Essence, and introduces it into another Form, whence Sickness and Pains arise, when one Essence destroys another.
2. And then we understand herein the Cure, how the one heals another, and brings it to Health, and if this were not, there were no Nature, but an eternal Stillness, and no Will; for the contrary Will makes the Motion, and the Original of the Seeking, that the opposite Sound seeks the Rest, and yet in the Seeking it only elevates and more enkindles itself.
3. And we are to understand how the Cure of each Thing consists in the Assimulate; for in the Assimulate arises the Satisfaction of the Will, viz. its highest Joy, for each Thing desires a Will of its Likeness, and by the contrary Will it is discomfited; but if it obtains a Will of its Likeness, it rejoices in the Assimulate, and therein falls into Rest, and the Enmity is turned into Joy.
4. For the Eternal Nature has produced nothing in its Desire, except a Likeness out of itself; and if there were not an everlasting Mixing, there would be an eternal Peace in Nature, but so Nature would not be revealed and made manifest, in the Combat it becomes manifest; so that each Thing elevates itself, and would get out of the Combat into the still Rest, and so it runs to and fro, and thereby only awakens and stirs up the Combat.
5. And we find clearly in the Light of Nature, that there is no better Help and Remedy for this Opposition, and that it has no higher Cure than the Liberty, that is, the Light of Nature, which is the Desire of the Spirit.
6. And then we find that the Essence cannot be better remedied than with the Assimulate; for the Essence is a Being, and its Desire is after Being: Now every Taste desires only its like, and if it obtains it, then its Hunger is satisfied, appeased and eased, and it ceases to Hunger, and rejoices in itself, whereby the Sickness falls into a Rest in itself; for the Hunger of the Contrariety ceases to Work.
7. Seeing now that Man's Life consists in three Principles, viz. in a three-fold Essence, and has also a three-fold Spirit out of the Property of each Essence, viz. first, according to the eternal Nature, according to the Fire's Property; and secondly, according to the Property of the eternal Light and divine Essentiality; and thirdly, according to the Property of the outward World: Thereupon we are to consider the Property of this three-fold Spirit, and also of this three-fold Essence and Will; how each Spirit with its Essence introduces itself into Strife and Sickness, and what its Cure and Remedy is.