the iĄaculty oÍ' Graduate Ątudies April, L96[ - MSpace at the ...

33"
gives form, wiLhstands fire and putrefacbion and gives
unity to the body, itrhil€ rlercu-r}r is the fleeting
-l aì
Intelligenz of nature" 'Lvo Later critics have thereby
suggested that Paracel-sus thus recails the corûmon
thristian doctrine that the Trinity is represented in
man by the former three principles of being, tto
Paracelsus ad¡rits Lhat it is necessary to specu-
late on the fundamental questions oÍ life, but just a.s
he insists that everything rnust staird the test of
experience and. stand or fall thereblr: so he demands
that the postulation rrrust be a result of pracl,ice"
Princi;oles and prac,ci-ce are by definition inseparable,
lrfch bekenn, dass die Sachen m-ässen gespekuliert
werden, aber so¡ dAss sicir díe Spekulaz aus der
Praktik erhebe.ii L-¿.
The nature and goal of Paracelsusr quest may be
summa-rizeci by referring to Goethels Fausb monologue
which represenbs a poetic transfiguration, and which
shall be díscussed in a later chapter:
tri)ass ich erkerine, was- die l¡ielt
Im lnnersten zusamroenhätt,
Schaul alle !"iirkenskraft und. Sarnen! rr
Und Luf nicht nrehr in tr{orten kramen"tr r')o
The goal of this quest is synrbolised by the Philosopherl s
Stone.
It v,ras implicit in the life of this lrluther of
t'Íedicineri r as Paracelsus has often been called, that