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II.PREFACE · The Corruption and Anatomy of Things

The Second Book, or Second Part: On the Corruption and Anatomy of Things. on the Destruction and Separation of Natural Things. Preface.

Chapter outline

The general account of corruption and its particular applications

Gratitude to God, love of the neighbour, and patience in practice

The tree of universal anatomy

Just as the first part treats the generation of things in general and universally, so the following second part describes the corruption of things in general and universally. From it, everyone can undertake particular investigations of their own. I give it here as I have practised it with my own hands. If anyone seeks and finds benefit in it, let them thank the giver of all gifts, rather than me. Along with what has already been said, let them strive always to practise the highest commandment, love of one's neighbour, without doing injury to friend or enemy. I have not worked this out by myself or from my own resources. I received it from the Most High and the holy watchers whom he continually sends forth. I therefore bring it to light again as my inherited talent, for the person whose hope is sincere and earnest. Let that person try their fortune in it.

But if they suffer harm, or fail to attain their aim at once, let them excuse me, since I cannot be there in person to carry out the work with them. Yet let them not lose heart: no fruit ripens before its time, and no child can play the part of a grown man. In the same way, a beginning chymist cannot yet practise as an accomplished philosopher. Hence the saying: we learn by making mistakes, and through time we are brought to perfection.

TREE OF UNIVERSAL ANATOMY. THE UNIVERSAL: the volatile with its phlegm and subtle oil; the acid with its phlegm and thick oil; alkali, coals, ashes, salt. THE ANIMAL: the volatile with its phlegm and subtle oil; the acid with its phlegm and thick oil; alkali, coals, ashes, and salt. THE VEGETABLE: the volatile with its phlegm and subtle oil; the acid with its phlegm and thick oil; alkali, coals, ashes, and salt. THE MINERAL: acid spirit with its phlegm; corrosive acid oil; alkali, residual earth, and its salt.

257.Corruption here means the dissolution or destruction of a natural body's existing form. Anatomy extends to the separation and examination of substances, as the tree that follows makes clear.

258.The inherited 'talent' gives knowledge the character of a gift to be put to use. It recalls the biblical parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14–30); the author's holy watchers likewise belong to a religious account of the transmission of knowledge.

259.The concluding Latin maxim is translated in the text. 'Philosopher' here designates a practitioner with accomplished knowledge of nature, with a stronger operative sense than the word commonly carries today.

260.The source arranges these entries as a tree: the universal at the top; animal and vegetable side by side below it; mineral at the bottom. This verbal key follows that arrangement. Phlegm is the watery fraction distinguished from more active or concentrated products; it is not the modern medical use of the word. The source page is numbered 115, an evident misnumbering in the sequence 213–216.