The forms belonging to each species were marked in the first individuals with the character of the ideal Archetype from the day of the ancient Creation. The Creator ordained that this divine and indelible seal should be conveyed to their descendants through generation, so that, through the successive replacement of individuals, he might bestow the gift of immortality upon species.

We should not suppose that forms generate other forms like themselves in matter, for generation belongs properly to bodies. The right and office of form is rather to move its organs harmoniously, and through them dispose the seminal matter for generation; to enclose in it a ray of light, or hidden spark of life, as though enclosing a treasure; and to impress its own specific character upon the life-giving spirit concealed in the seed. In the work of generation, through brooding heat and at the appointed time, this spirit unfolds into a soul, whether plant or animal. Thus what was a hidden, formative spirit in the seed becomes form in the mixed body. In this way what is hidden in Nature’s bosom becomes manifest and is brought from potentiality into actuality.

Form does not emerge from the potentiality and power of the seed or matter alone. Heavenly powers flow into the coming-to-be of things, increasing and multiplying matter’s strength and bringing aid to Nature as though she were in labour. They also enter and mingle with the formative and seminal spirit implanted in matter, whose origin is likewise heavenly, and lend it their assisting powers.

Not only the bodily elements but also all the powers and capacities of universal Nature come together in the generation of every mixed body, each bestowing something of its own. Thus the parts of the Universe are bound together, so that they breathe together with one purpose towards life and unite in mutual love.

Although the natural forms of things are present potentially in seeds, they neither consist of the substance of the lower elements nor are generated by them. They derive from a nobler source: their origin is heavenly, for the Sun is their father, and ethereal nature is the bond by which they are bound to matter.

The specific forms of mixed bodies conceal within themselves a dim knowledge of their origin. By their own power and a hidden movement, they rise like waters to the height of their source. Thus the human soul, because it derives from the divine source of uncreated light, turns back towards that source through the mind’s penetration and contemplation. The forms of other animals, because they came forth from the hidden treasures of Heaven and the Sun, return that far through natural instinct and a kind of imperfect recollection. Hence we may observe the frequent predictions made by living creatures concerning the Sun’s movement and changes in the heavens. The forms of plants, however, are mostly airy and breathed into them from the lowest region of our air. They therefore cannot carry or extend their powers and faculties beyond it. They raise their heads upwards into the air as far as they can, as though about to return to their homeland, but are prevented from passing beyond the narrow bounds of their bodies. They lack animal sensation and movement, because so little solar power is present in them that it suffices only for the movement of growth. In the order of Creation, plants preceded the Sun. They therefore do not owe their birth and the ancient beginnings of their life to it in the same measure as animals, but acknowledge luminous air as their more immediate agent. For Nature’s decree judged the disposition of their matter unequal to sustaining a higher form.

Rocks and stones are not so much generated by a true mixing of the elements as cooked, like an earthen object or piece of pottery, from the coming together of Earth and Water through the external force of heat and cold. They are therefore wholly insensible, having borrowed a feeble form from the dark, cold nature of earth and water.

We must think differently about precious stones and gems. They draw their forms from the clearest sources of Heaven and the Sun. Their bodies are the purest droplets of enriched dew, impregnated with heavenly influences, like congealed tears of Heaven. Hence they possess within themselves many exalted powers.

The matter of metals, being watery and earthly and the most closely compacted of all through the excellent and extremely subtle mixing of the heavy elements, is insensible, exceedingly weighty and incapable of any movement of its own. Yet within earthen or stony wombs, as though in alembics, Nature’s wonderful art sublimes and purifies it. Through repeated distillations its mixing is so perfected in an exceedingly fine vapour that, because of its immense subtlety and enrichment, the resources of the Sun and heavenly bodies enter and mingle with it, especially in the generation of perfect metals. For this reason, although metals have drawn their bodies from water and earth, Nature works so skilfully as a potter in shaping the bodies of metals, especially the perfect ones, that she presents them to the heavenly powers as worthy of the most excellent form, to be informed by them. This is a work of very long labour, yet finished and cultivated to the utmost of Nature’s powers. In it Heaven and Earth seem to unite rather than merely agree. The formative spirits of metals, however, are confined as though in a prison within an exceedingly hard rind and remain motionless until the philosophers’ fire frees them from their bonds. Then, through their heavenly seed in their own matter, they bring forth a worthy son of the Sun and at last a fifth essence of wonderful power, with Heaven dwelling among us as a stranger.

The supreme Creator’s decree provides that a nobler nature should not degenerate into a baser one, nor a more excellent into a worse, as though renouncing its birthright and lineage to pass into the servile condition of a slave. Higher things do indeed unite with lower, and more powerful things communicate themselves to weaker ones, so as to inform and perfect them through spirits sent out from themselves. These spirits thereby lose nothing of their kind or birth. Nor, when they enter the seeds of things or even mixed bodies, do they submit to a servile yoke. Instead they acquire a new dignity and right of rule. Every mixed body, of whatever kind, is an empire—indeed, an entire World—over which its spiritual form is set. The form’s office is to rule Nature’s organs and faculties and, in a word, its whole World. Thus what previously floated undifferentiated and without occupation in the vast sea of universal Nature is now called and dispatched to rule.

The formal actuality of first matter, and likewise of the elements, informs nothing beyond those very principles of Nature. A specific form therefore constitutes a perfect mixed body. We should not suppose that there are several forms within it, since the elements themselves, through their mixing, undertake only the task of shaping its body, not of informing it.

THE POWER OF MULTIPLICATION FLOWS FROM FORM.