1wisdom availeth nothing. God giveth it to him
whom he loveth, for nothing. It cannot be bought
for money nor favour, as king Solomon will tell you.
37. If we will be still so very earthly minded, as
to think that God made all the beasts of a lump of
earth, of what then is their spirit made ? seeing that
earth is not very flesh, and the blood is not mere
water. Besides, the earth and the water is not
2 Or breath, life; and though the 2air cometh in it, yet it still
remaineth such an essence as springeth only in the
Fiat, and the tincture which riseth up in the fire,
and from whence the noble life is stirred, is hidden.
38. Moses writeth, Let there come forth all
s animals, or manner of 3 beasts, every one according to its kind.
living crea- __ . , • • r\ «• i 1111
turea. JNow then the question is, (Jut ot what should they
come forth ? Answer, Out of the matrix. What is
the matrix out of which they should come forth ?
It is the four elements, which are together in the
earth. The Fiat brought forth the beasts [or living
4 without creatures] very 4 indigestedly, as they are in the
or(^er' <* i i /> •
essence, not from heaven, but out of the matrix of
the earth ; and the matrix of the earth is one [and
the same] thing with the matrix in the deep above
6 rule or the earth, and [hath] one [and the same] 5 dominion.
The constellation ruleth in all [things], and it is
26 Mars. the limbus, or the 6 masculine, wherein the tincture consists, and in the matrix of the earth is the
Ch. 8] OF THE CREATION OF THE CREATURES 123
aquastrish [or watery] spirit ; they come forth only
out of the matrix of the earth, that they might be
of the essence of the earth, that so they might eat
of the fruits that grow out of the earth. For every
spirit lusteth after its mother from whence it came.
39. Now then if the beasts [or animals' nature]
were merely out of a lump of earth, then they
would eat earth, but seeing 1 it is proceeded out of : thr bestial
Hd.tu.F6
the matrix of the earth by the Fiat, therefore it
desireth also such food as the matrix affordeth out
of its own essence ; and that is not earth, but flesh.
Yet this flesh now is a 2mass whence the 3 body 2 Or coucrecometh, and the spirit of the constellation maketh 3 corpua.
the 4 tincture therein ; which [spirit] ruleth over all 4 Or penetrai
,, , . ,.» ., .., ,, ing the life
as m one mother, and in every hie it maketh the and the bioo
understanding. For the spirit of the constellation
ruleth in all things, in the earth, stones, metals,
elements and creatures.
40. For in the beginning of the creation, at the
time when the earth became material, all was
generated out of one only substance, and there
was no more done but a separation made of one
38 from another : therefore in every separation there 5 part.
must needs be always a vehement hunger of one
6 after another. An example whereof you have in 6 part
propagation ; for the sake whereof the separation
was so made : For you see that there is a male and
a female ; and that the one continually desireth
copulation with the other, that they may 7 generate. 7 engender.
This is a great hidden secret. Observe, when the
124 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 8
Creator by the Fiat separated the matrix from
the aquaster [or watery mother] ; for the first
form is heavenly and incorruptible, as long as the
kingdom of this world standeth, and the root of
1 touch*th or the first form * holdeth paradise.
reacheth.
/ will set it down more intelligibly [or plainly]
for the simplest Reader's' sake.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.