(26) And thirdly, you find in all Things a glorious Power and Virtue, which is the Life, Growing and Springing of every Thing, and you find that therein lies its Beauty and pleasant Welfare, from whence it stirs. Now look upon an Herb or Plant, and consider it, what is its Life which makes it grow? And you shall find in the Original, Harshness, Bitterness, Fire, and Water, and if you should separate these four Things one from another, and put them together again, yet you shall neither see nor find any Growing; but if it were severed from its own Mother that generated it at the Beginning, then it remains dead; much less can you bring the pleasant Smell, or Colours into it.

(2) Therefore, O Man! consider thyself here in this World, in which thou standest in the Birth, thou art sown as a Seed or Grain, and a Tree grows out of thee; therefore now see in what Ground thou standest, that thou mayest be found to be Timber for the great Building of God in his Love, and not for a Threshold [or Footstool] to be trodden under-foot, or that is fit for nothing but for the Fire, whereof nothing will remain but Dust and Ashes.

(23) Now consider what thou lettest into thy Mind by thy Senses, for thou hast in each Kingdom a Maker, which there makes [an Image of] whatsoever thou layest into the Scales, by the Senses; for all lies in the Making [or Formation,] and thou art (in this Body) a Field [Ground or Soil;] thy Mind is the Sower, and the three Principles are the Seed; what thy Mind sows, the Body of that grows, and that thou shalt reap to thyself, and so when the earthly Field or Soil breaks, then the new-grown Body stands in [its] Perfection, whether it be grown in the Kingdom of Heaven, or in the Kingdom of Hell.

(11) For although many thousand several Herbs stand one by another in one and the same Meadow, and one of them is fairer and has more Virtue than another, yet one of them does not grudge at the Form of another, but there is a pleasant Refreshment in one Mother: So also there is a distinct Variety in Paradise, where every Creature has its greatest Joy in the Virtue and Beauty of another; and the eternal Virtue and Wisdom of God is without Number and End; as you found before in the third Chapter concerning the Opening of the Centers of the eternal Life. You shall find no Book wherein the divine Wisdom may be more searched into, and found, than when you walk in a flowery fresh springing Meadow, there you shall see, smell, and taste the wonderful Power and Virtue of God; though this be but material; and God has manifested himself in a Similitude. But [this Similitude] is a loving Schoolmaster to him that seeks, he shall there find many of them.

(5) Observe ⌈⌈ye⌉⌉ how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit: wherefore give ye heed ⌈and know⌉ with regard to all ⌈His works⌉, and recognize how He that liveth for ever hath made them so.

(3) It is said to thee, that the Wood [or Fuel] of thy Soul shall burn in the last Fire, and that thy Soul shall remain to be Ashes in the Fire, and thy Body shall appear like black Soot. Why wilt thou then stand in a Wilderness, yea in a Rock where there is no Water? How then will thy Tree grow again? O! Or Saints and holy People. what great Misery it is that we are ignorant in what P Soil we grow, and what Kind of Essences we draw to us, seeing our Fruit shall appear and be tasted, and that which is pleasant shall stand upon God's Table; and the other shall be cast to the Devil's Swine. Therefore let it move you; to look that you grow in the Ground or Soil of Christ, and bring forth Fruit that may be set upon God's Table, which Fruit never perishes, but continually springs, and the more it is eaten of, the pleasanter it is. How wilt thou rejoice in the Lord!

(13) And he saw. and behold, the land was very wide and good, and everything grew thereon — vines and figs and pomegranates, oaks and ilexes, and terebinths and oil trees, and cedars and cypresses and date trees, and all trees of the field, and there was water on the mountains.

(47) In Gloria Mundi, from which the above illustration is reproduced, there is contained an important thought concerning the plantlike growth of metals: "All trees, herbs, stones, metals, and minerals grow and attain to perfection without being necessarily touched by any human hand: for the seed is raised up from the ground, puts forth flowers, and bears fruit, simply through the agency of natural influences. As it is with plants, so it is with metals. While they lie in the heart of the earth, in their natural ore, they grow and are developed, day by day, through the influence of the four elements: their fire is the splendor of the Sun and Moon; the earth conceives in her womb the splendor of the Sun, and by it the seeds of the metals are well and equally warmed, just like the grain in the fields. * * * For as each tree of the field has its own peculiar shape, appearance, and fruit, so each mountain bears its own particular ore; those stones and that earth being the soil in which the metals grow." (See Translation of 1893.)

(20) For the Spirit of Knowledge intimates this, that there are Fruits and Things that grow in Paradise, as well as in this World, in such a Form or Figure, but not in such a Source [or Property,] and Palpability. For the Matter or Body of it is Power, and it grows in the heavenly yLimbus; its Root stands in the Matrix, wherein there is neither Earth nor Stone; for it is in another Principle. The Fire in that [Principle] is God the Father; and the Light is God the Son; and the Air is God the Holy Ghost; and the Virtue [or Power] out of which all springs is Heaven and Paradise.

(33) But let every one enter into himself, and labour to be a righteous Man, and fear God, and do right, and consider that this his Work shall appear in Heaven before God, and that he stands every Moment before the Face of God, and that all his Works shall follow after him, and then the Lily of God springs and grows, and the World stands in its Seculum. AMEN.

(36) And when the Spirit of this World perceived that, then it said; Why wilt thou only eat of that which thou comprehendest not, and drink of that which thou feelest not; thou art not yet merely a Spirit, thou hast from me all the Kinds of Comprehensibility in thee; behold, the comprehensible Fruit is sweet and good, and the comprehensible Drink is mighty and strong, eat and drink from me, and so thou shalt come to have all my Virtue and Beauty; thou mayest in me be mighty [and powerful] over all the Creatures, for the Kingdom of this World shall be thy own, and thou shalt be Lord upon Earth.

(36) Thus I give you accurately to understand what Man is, and what Man sows, and what grows in the Seed, viz. three Kingdoms, as is above-mentioned; and seeing the three Kingdoms are thus sown, so are they in like Manner before the Tree of Temptation; and there begins the Struggling and great Strife; there stands the three Kingdoms in one another. The Element in Paradise will keep the pure Mind and Will, which stands in the Love in the Tincture of the Seed; and the outward Elements, viz. that which went forth from the Element, will have the Element, and mix itself therewith; and then comes the outward Fierceness of the Stars, and draws it together i with the outward Fiat, and sets itself [in the Rule or Dominion,] whereby the inward Will in the Love together with the Element and the Paradise becomes darkened; and the Love in the Paradise goes into its Ether, and is extinguished in the Tincture of the Seed; and the heavenly Center goes under, for it passes into its Principle.

(25) Therefore, O dear Soul, turn, and let not the Devil captivate thee, and regard not the Scorn of the World; all thy Sorrow must be turned into great Joy. And though in this World thou hast not great Honour, Power, and Riches, that is nothing; thou knowest not, whether Tomorrow will be the Day it will come to thy Turn [to die.] Does not a Bit of Bread taste better to the Needy, than the best Dainties to the great Ones? What Advantage has the rich Man then, but that he sees much, and must be tormented and vexed in many Things, and in the End must give an Account of all his Doings and Stewardship, and how he has been a Planter in this World? He must give an Account of all his Servants, and if he has been an evil Example to them, and has been a Scandal to them, so that they have walked in ungodly Ways, then their poor Souls cry eternally cfor Vengeance upon those their Superiors; there all stands in the Figure in the Tincture. Why dost thou contend and strive so much after worldly Honour that is transitory? Rather endeavour for the Tree of Pearl, which thou earnest along with thee, and shalt rejoice eternally in its Growing and Fruit.

(4) Whence, "Seek, and ye shall find," holding on by the truly royal road, and not deviating. As we might expect, then, the generative power of the seeds of the doctrines comprehended in this treatise is great in small space, as the "universal herbage of the field," as Scripture saith. Thus the Miscellanies of notes have their proper title, wonderfully like that ancient oblation culled from all sorts of things of which Sophocles writes: "For there was a sheep's fleece, and there was a vine, And a libation, and grapes well stored; And there was mixed with it fruit of all kinds, And the fat of the olive, and the most curious Wax-formed work of the yellow bee."

(25) And thus thou earthly Man mayest see, how thou livest here in three Principles, if thy Mind inclines itself to God; but if it gives up itself to the Source of this World, then thou standest before Heaven, and thou sowest two Principles, viz. the Spirit of this World, and the fierce Source of Eternity. The Weil-Spring [or Fountain] of the Antichristian Kingdom.