Pernety - A Treatise On The Great Art.pdf - cyjack.com

The Great Art page 49combined and caused by this same spirit, to give to matter the form which suits the individual whichit is to animate. It is some time in a state of inactivity, as we see in the germs; but it only needs to beexcited. As soon as it is, it places the matter in movement; and the more it acts, the more it acquiresnew forces until it has finished the perfecting of the Mixt.Let the materialists, the ridiculous partisans of chance in the formation and preservation ofcomposites, examine what we have said, and reflect upon it seriously and without prejudice; and letthem then say how an imaginary being, can be the efficient cause of something real and so wellcombined. Let them follow this Nature step by step, her processes, the means that she employs andher results. They will see, if they do not close their eyes to the light, that the generation of thecomposites has a determined time; that everything in the Universe is made by weight and measure,and that only an Infinite Wisdom could preside over it.The Elements begin their generation by putrefaction. They are resolved into a humid nature or FirstMatter; then chaos is made, and from this chaos generation. Thus rightly do Physicists say thatpreservation is a continual creation since the generation of each individual corresponds to thecreation and preservation of the Macrocosm. Nature is always consistent; she has only one right way,from which she departs only because of insurmountable obstacles, then she makes monsters.Life is the harmonious result of the union of Matter with Form, which constitutes the perfection ofthe individual. Death is the appointed limit where the disunion and separation of Form from Mattertakes place. One begins to die as soon as this separation begins, and the dissolution of the Mixt is theend.Everything which lives, whether vegetable or animal, has need of nourishment for its preservation,and there are two kinds of food. Vegetables are nourished not less on air than on water and earth. Thebosom of the earth would soon be exhausted if not continually replenished with the Ethereal Milk.Moses expresses this perfectly in the terms of the benediction which he gave to the sons of Joseph :De benedictione Domini terra ejus; de pomis cœli et rore atque abysso subjacente, de pomisfructuum Solis et Lunœ; de pomis collium œternorum, de vertice antiquorum montium: et de frugibusterrœ, et de plentitudine ejus, etc., (Deuter. 33).Would Nature have taken the care to place the lungs, those admirable and indefatigable bellows,near the heart simply to refresh it? No, they have a more important office: it is to inhale and totransmit to the heart this ethereal spirit which comes to the aid of the vital spirits; repairs their lossand multiplies them sometimes. This is why we breathe oftener when much agitated, because agreater waste of spirits them takes place, and Nature seeks to repair this loss.Philosophers give the name of spirits, or spiritual natures, not only to immaterial beings, who canbe known only by the intellect, such as angels and demons, but also to those which, althoughmaterial, cannot be perceived by the senses because of their great tenuity. Pure air, or Ether, is of thisnature, as are the influences of celestial bodies, Innate Fire, seminal, vital, vegetable spirits, etc. Theyare the ministers of Nature, who seems to act upon Matter only by means of them.The Fire of Nature is manifested in animals only by the heat which it excites. When it is withdrawndeath takes its place, the elementary body or corpse remains entire until putrefaction begins. This Fireis too weak in the vegetables to become apparent even to the sense of touch.We do not know what is the nature of common fire; its matter is so tenuous that it is manifestedonly by the other bodies to which it attaches itself. Coal is not fire, nor is the wood which burns, northe flame, which is only an inflamed smoke. It appears to be extinguished and to vanish when food islacking to it. It must be an effect of Light on combustible bodies.