Courteous Reader,
I will not conceal from thee the reason why I have taken upon me in this Third Part to explain a Book of Paracelsus, called The heaven of Philosophers, lest thou should’st believe I wanted matter to write, did I not encrease my Book by the Writings of other men. That Good which I have here decreed to write, I could have done even without the admixtion of Paracelsus’s Books, but this properly is the cause, because Paracelsus in our precedent Age, published very many most elegant Books for the Publick Good, but obscure enough, and for this reason are by the unskilful accounted false, and are contemned; but yet because they are stored with Arcana’s or Secrets, they are most highly to be esteemed. Now, after that I had perceived the said Books to be true, I did very impatiently bear such sinister reports of this man, as blazed him abroad for one Ignorant of all things, and a Vagabond; who in very deed had but a few Equals in true Genuine Philosophy, Medicine, and Alchymy.
He did many good turns to all, especially to the Poor, of which many Testimonies are extant; and amongst others, that Epitaph is to be seen, which is in the Hospital of St. Sebastian at Saltsburg, where he was buried, and to which he bequeathed his Goods, and is graven in Capital Letters in a Marble, and erected in the Wall, the Tenour whereof I my self have read, and is thus: Here lies buried Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus, a famous Doctor of Medicine, who by a wonderful Art cured those direful Diseases, the Leprosy, Gout, Dropsy, and other incurable Contagions of the Body, and to his honour gave and bequeathed his Goods unto the Poor. He died in the year of our Lord, 1541. the 24th. of September.
And what hast thou now to say? Had he not been such a one as is mentioned in the Epitaph, the Magistrate would not have honoured him with so eminent an Encomium. Moreover, all prudent Lovers of Truth do to this day believe, that he never had his equal: And although through the Envy of some unlearned men he is despised, yet it derogates nothing from him, for he will still remain Paracelsus.
And now, seeing that our Paracelsus hath hitherto undergone such bitter things, and that none have dared to open their mouths against those slanderers, I will attempt the explication and illustration of his chiefest Books, and prove that he was not either a Lyer or Impostor, but most experienced in the light of Nature; and to this end will I begin with his Heaven of Philosophers: I will not avow, that he could make heaps of Gold and Silver, (himself mentioning not any such thing, but he only discovers the possibility of the thing, which even I also will endeavour to declare, although I am ignorant of doing it in great quantities, which thing I am not greedy after) yet ’tis my contentation to be capable of discovering truth from falshood, and convince such as are incredulous, having some hopes, that by this my faithful writing, an occasion will be administred unto others of searching after and obtaining their desired end. Amen.