height and broke his neck. In confirmation of this, he observes that Sömmering found a deep breach in the left temporal bone of Paracelsus, which had penetrated to the bottom of the skull. But who shall say at what time the skull received this damage? it might have been by some accident long after the flesh had mouldered from the bones.

Another report is, that he died in St. Stephen's Hospital at Salzburg, in the year 1541, which would make him forty-eight, instead of forty-seven, at the time of his death, as asserted by Sennert.

It is no easy matter to understand either the medical, or the philosophical theories of Paracelsus, partly from his tendency to mysticism, and partly because he chose to give new meanings to old words, so that his works in fact require a peculiar glossary of their own. Take for instance the following. According to his notions, every natural body has a superlunar type or model, after which it has been formed, and the knowledge of this ideal he called, by a strange perversion of terms, Anatomy. In like manner he explains astrum to be the innate or essential power residing in anything, and defines alchemy as the art of drawing out the astrum from the metals. And more there is of the same kind, for the repetition of which our readers would give us few thanks.

The first article of his medical and philosophical creed appears to be, so far as we can understand him, that books are of no use, but that physicians must be inspired by heaven, and perfected by practice.* His so-called Emanation System supposes an original man flowing from the Godhead, in whom, through whom, and by whom all things are; it seems to have been much the same as the Pleroma of the Gnostics and Arians. It was based upon the general harmony of all things in nature, more par* Von Französischen Blattern, S. 501.

ticularly upon the accordance of the stars with sublunary objects. The Platonic idea of all things below having been formed after the model of things above was no doubt the origin of his system, but the transition was easy enough, to an enthusiast, from such a notion to that of the models themselves actually existing in the sublunary creations. Hence, as Sprengel well observes, his constant comparison of all earthly bodies with the firmament and the universe, for in them all the parts of our form are continued, not actually, but virtually and spiritually. As a philosopher, the physician recognizes the lower spheres, or the existence of the heavenly intelligences in sublunary matter; as an astronomer he recognizes the upper spheres,—that is, he discovers the limbs of the human body in the firmament. Every thing that happens on earth, has previously happened above; and in sleep, heaven reveals to man the mysteries of the Cabbala, without a knowledge of which no one can pretend to be a physician. The first man, Adam, was intimately acquainted with it, and hence he knew the signs of all things, and gave to animals their most appropriate names. A principal dogma of this Cabbalistic system was Pantheism.

The whole physiological theory of Paracelsus consisted for the most part in the application of the Cabbala* to the explaining of the functions of the body, and here again we have the harmony of single parts with the heavenly intelligences. Yet he does not altogether mean us to understand an original connection between the stars and the human form; neither the creation of man,

* The HEBREW Cabbala signifies tradition; the ARTIFICIAL consists in searching for abstruse significations of any word, or words in Scripture; and the CHRISTIAN implies a species of magic. It is to the second of these that Paracelsus most frequently alludes, either as a means of knowledge, or for the purpose of controuling the spirits.

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nor his properties result from the stars, and therefore we must not say, man takes after Mars, but rather that Mars takes after man, for man is more than Mars and all the planets." He adds too in his usual contradictory manner, "although there were no stars man would still be what he is;" while at the same time he would have us believe that the vital power in human beings is an emanation from the stars, and originates in the air. Thus the sun is connected with the heart, the moon with the brain, Jupiter with the liver, Saturn with the spleen, Mercury with the lungs, Mars with the gall, and Venus with the loins. In another part he thus determines the places of the planets: the sun has influence over the navel and the centre of the belly; the moon, over the chine; Mercury, over the intestines; Mars, over the face; Jupiter, over the head; Saturn over the extremities. The pulse also is nothing else than the measure of the body's temperature after the manner of the six places held by the planets. Thus, two pulses under the feet belong to Saturn and Jupiter; two in the neck, to Mercury and Venus; two in the temples, to the Moon and Mercury; and the pulse connected with the Sun is below the heart. The macrocosm, or great world, has its seven pulses, described by the course of the planets, as their cessation is signified by the eclipses. In the macrocosm the influence of the Moon and Saturn is shown in the freezing of water, just as the microcosmic moon, the brain, coagulates the blood. Hence, people of a melancholy temperament, whom Paracelsus chooses to call lunatic, have thick blood. Above all, he will not allow us to talk of a man's having this or that complexion, but we must say, "that is Mars, or that is Venus." So too must the physician know the planets of the microcosm; the meri

And also with ra aidoia.

dian, the zodiac, his east and west, before he can explain the functions, or heal the diseases of the body; the meaning of which jargon is that he considers the different parts of the microcosm, i. e. the little world of man, as bearing a relation to the planetary world. He then goes on to tell us what is learnt by a constant comparison of the microcosm, and macrocosm, the great advantage of this study being that the scholar needs no preparation, but may dispense with the wicked Greek and Latingrammars.

The human body he held to consist of two parts—the material, and the astral, or spiritual,-a favourite creed with men like Paracelsus, since it enables them to explain the whole theory of apparitions. According to this creed, the spirit and the soul are two very different things, the spirit, he tells us, being "the soul of the soul, as the soul is the spirit of the body."* But it would weary the reader, were we to attempt analyzing the whole body of his medical and philosophical system, while a few of his doctrines will serve to show, not only his own character, but in a great measure the character of the age wherein he lived.

Of Crooked People. This is a subject, on which Paracelsus is very much in earnest. Deformed people, he argues, are monsters, and as they could not have been made after God's image, they must have been manufactured by the devil. " "Moreover," he says, "you must know that God abhors these kind of monsters, and that they are displeasing to him, and that none of them can be saved, seeing that they bear not the image of God; whence wee can conjecture nothing else, but that they are so formed by the devil, and are made for the devill's service, because no good work was ever done by a monster,

* De Pestil. Tractatus Primus.

but rather all manner of evill, wickednesse, and devilish deceits. For as an executioner marketh his sons in cutting off their ears, putting out their eyes, burning their cheeks, fingers, hands, and cutting off their heads, so doth the devil mark his sons through the imagination of their mothers. Also all men are to be shunned, which abound with, or want any member, or have a double member. For that is a presage of the devill's and a most certaine signe of some occult wickedness and deceit, which follows upon it. Wherefore they seldom die without the executioner, or at least from some marke made by him."*

Gnomes, spirits, &c. Under this head, our learned doctor informs us with becoming gravity, "under the earth do wander half-men, which possess all temporal things, which they want, or are delighted with. They are vulgarly called gnomes, or inhabitants of the mountains; but by their proper names they are called Sylphes or Pigmies. They are not spirits as others are, but are compared unto them for the similitude of their arts and industry, which are common to them with the spirits. They have flesh and blood as men, which no real spirit hath." He then goes on to tell how these gnomes sometimes plague the miners, and at others, being of a capricious nature, do them good service, or warn them thrice by knocking in the same place. This is a sure sign that the miner, who is working there will be destroyed by the falling in of the earth, or some such accident.

According to the general notion, the devil is a wealthy personage, and gives good wages. But this Paracelsus stoutly denies, maintaining that "the devil is the poorest of all creatures, so that there is no creature so miser

* Paracelsus on "The Nature of Things," p. 8. Eng. trans. † Paracelsus of" Occult Philosophy,” p. 52.