The Agent and the First Matter

The kabbalist said: [New translation of the Latin:] “The house of the sanctuary here below is arranged according to the house of the sanctuary above.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “The building of the sanctuary here below is framed according to that of the sanctuary above.” Here we have two worlds, visible and invisible, and two universal natures, visible and invisible, from which those worlds proceeded. The passive universal nature was made in the image of the active universal nature. The correspondence between the two worlds, or sanctuaries, consists in the original correspondence of their principles. There are many Platonists—and the last century has supplied them with some apish disciples—who speak very boldly about the likenesses between lower and higher things. But if we examine their rubbish thoroughly, it amounts to a collection of petty sympathies: the heliotrope and the sun, iron and the lodestone, the wound and the weapon. It is excellent sport to hear them crow from their perch on these paltry particulars, as though they knew the universal magnet that binds this great frame together and moves all its members to mutual sympathy.

Their disposition much resembles that of Don Quixote, who knew Dulcinea but had never seen her. Students who wish for better instruction must first understand that there is a universal agent. When he determined to create, he had no pattern or model by which to frame and mould his creatures except himself. But having infinite inward ideas or conceptions within himself, he created as he conceived: that is, he created an outward form corresponding to the inward conception or figure of his mind. Second, they must know that there is a universal patient, and that this passive nature was created by the universal agent. This general patient is the immediate universal character of God himself in his unity and trinity. In plain terms, it is the substance we commonly call first matter. Yet knowing the concept “matter” serves no purpose unless we know the thing to which the concept refers. We must see it, handle it, and through experimental demonstrations before our eyes come to know its very central, invisible essences and properties. But hear the excellent Capnion on these matters. He tells his Jew and his Epicurean of two universal natures, material and spiritual. [New translation of the Latin:] “One can be seen with the eyes and touched with the hand, and can change at almost every moment.

For pardon should be granted, as the man of Madaura says, to new language serving the obscurity of its subject. Although this nature cannot remain one and the same, it is nevertheless received into the mind's lodging by such a power of the soul, more rightly in respect of what it is than what it is not: as the thing truly is, that is, changeable. But the other nature of substances is incorrupt, unchangeable, constant, one and the same, and always existing.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “One nature can be seen with the eyes and felt with the hands, and is subject to alteration at almost every moment. You must pardon, as Apuleius says, this unusual expression, because it serves the obscurity of the thing. Although this nature cannot continue one and the same, the mind nevertheless apprehends it under its actual condition: more rightly as it is than as it is not, namely, as the thing truly is—changeable. The other nature, or principle of substances, is incorruptible, unchangeable, constant, one and the same forever, and always existent.” So he says. Now this changeable nature is the first visible, tangible substance God ever made. It is white in appearance, and Paracelsus gives the reason: [New translation of the Latin:] “All things are white in God's hand; he colours them as he wills.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “All

things, when they first proceed from God, are white, but he colours them afterwards according to his pleasure.” We have an example in this very matter, which the philosophers sometimes call their red magnesia and sometimes their white. These descriptions have deceived many men. In the first preparation the chaos is blood-red, because its central sulphur is stirred up and disclosed by the philosophical fire. In the second it is exceedingly white and transparent, like the heavens. In truth it is somewhat like common quicksilver, but with a celestial, surpassing brightness, for there is nothing on earth like it. This fine substance is the child of the elements and a most pure, sweet virgin: nothing has yet been generated from her. If she ever bears offspring, it is by the fire of Nature, for that is her husband. She is no animal, vegetable or mineral, nor is she extracted from animals, vegetables or minerals. She exists before them all, for she is their mother. Yet I must say one thing: she falls little short of life, being almost animal. Her composition is miraculous, differing from every other compound whatsoever. Gold is not so compact that any sophist mistakes it for a simple substance; but she is so completely one that no one believes her to be more.

She yields to nothing but love, for her end is generation, and generation has never yet been accomplished by violence. Whoever knows how to court and play with her will receive all her treasures. First, from her nipples she sheds a thick, heavy water, white as snow; the philosophers call it virgin's milk. Second, she gives him blood from her very heart. It is a living heavenly fire, which some improperly call their sulphur. Third and last, she presents him with a secret crystal of greater worth and lustre than the white rock and all her rose-like jewels. This is she, and these are her favours. Catch her if you can.

To this portrait and disclosure of my own I shall add further descriptions, as I find her painted and dressed by her other lovers. A few, who knew her very well, have written that she is not only one and three, but also four and five; and this truth concerns her essence. They have bestowed various titles upon her. They call her their universal magnesia and the seed of the world, from which all natural things are generated. Her birth, they say, is singular and miraculous; her constitution is heavenly and differs from that of her parents. In a certain sense her body is incorruptible: the common elements cannot destroy it, nor

will she mix essentially with them. In outward shape or form she resembles a stone, yet is no stone. They call her their white gum and the water of their sea, the most pure water of life and most blessed water. Yet they do not mean water from the clouds, rainwater, well water or dew, but a certain thick, permanent, slightly salty water: a dry water that does not wet the hand, a viscous, slimy water generated from the salty fatness of the earth. They also call her their twofold mercury and azoth, begotten by the influences of the two globes, celestial and terrestrial. Moreover, they say that no fire can destroy her. Of all their descriptions this is most true, for she herself is fire, containing a portion of Nature's universal fire and a secret celestial spirit. This spirit is animated and quickened by God himself; hence they also call her their most blessed stone. Last, they say she is a middle nature between thick and thin, neither wholly earthy nor wholly fiery, but an intermediate aerial substance to be found everywhere and at every season of the year.