Highest good of Nature

Use in the book

The book opens by placing the Stone under this title immediately after the assertion that every good and perfect gift comes from above. Human Art is necessary to bring the natural good about, while its attainment remains a divine gift. On pp. 6–72 the corresponding uses include recognition of God, Nature and oneself, as well as the highest medicine.

At p. 55 the title is repeated in the description of the physical Denarius, the more-than-perfected Catholic Stone. This usage concerns an achieved state, not a claim that every raw piece of the true matter already performs the finished work. The distinction returns in the rejection of raw-matter transmutation.

The conclusion directs philosophical hunger and thirst toward this good and calls Magnesia the first-material door through which it may be attained. First matter and highest good are therefore related as necessary beginning and wished-for end. The title joins the work's material aim to its valuation, while the repeated dependence on divine blessing prevents it from becoming a self-sufficient human achievement.

Places to read

1. 1599 p. 5The Stone is first named the highest good of Nature through Art.
2. 1599 p. 7The gift is valued for knowledge and medicine.
3. 1599 p. 55The achieved Denarius is equated with that highest natural good.
4. 1599 p. 179Philosophical desire is directed toward the highest good in Nature.
5. 1599 p. 183Magnesia is the door to attaining it, with the sentence continued on p. 184.
6. 1599 p. 185The final prayer asks that this good be attained through Art.

Translation in this edition

The wording per artem belongs inside the title’s claim. The primary text distinguishes the natural gift from its divine giver; it does not give the Stone the unrestricted theological identity of God.