PARACELSUS,
Reading edition
And the substance of his teachings concerning Cosmology, Anthropology, Pneumatology, Magic and Sorcery, Medicine, Alchemy and Astrology, Theosophy and Philosophy. Extracted and translated from his rare and extensive works and from some unpublished Manuscripts, by Franz Hartmann, M.D., author of “Magic,” &c.
“Paracelsus was a high priest among mystics and alchemists; he left behind him one hundred and six treatises upon medical and occult subjects, which are likely to be read by the curious as long as mysticism remains a necessary study for whoever would trace the developments of civilization.
“From some considerable acquaintance with the writings of Paracelsus, we can say that Dr. Hartmann has made his excerpts from them with a good deal of skill. Students, indeed, should be grateful for this book, despite its setting of Theosophical nonsense; since to read one of Bombast’s Latin or German treatises is a very stiff exercise indeed, unless you are well versed in his very recondite terminology.
“Dr. Hartmann has compiled a very full and accurate glossary of occult terms, which will be of great use to future readers of Paracelsus; and for so much he is to be thanked.
“Dr. Hartmann quotes some of his recipes for transmuting metals and producing the ‘electrum magicum.’ But Paracelsus is the most transcendental of European mystics, and it is not always easy to know when he is writing allegorically and when practically. Dr. Hartmann says he has tried these prescriptions and found them all right; but he warns the uninitiated against running the risk of blowing themselves up in the endeavour to follow the master’s instructions.
“Paracelsus held firmly to the belief of some of the hermetic writers of the Middle Ages, that it is perfectly possible to create human beings by alchemical means; and he even gives directions (in his treatise ‘De Natura Rerum’) for the production of homunculi.
“On the whole, however, Dr. Hartmann has produced a very amusing book and a book which will have some permanent value to the student of the occult.”—St. James’s Gazette.
64 pp., 8vo., wrapper, price 1s. 6d.