God, therefore, has ordained certain means whereby, moreover, through the ministration of good spirits, research into such arcana and mysteries should be implanted in man, just as certain men have received angelic natures from that heaven which is familiarly acquainted with the angels. Such men have been able afterwards, as being endowed with a perfect intelligence of Nature, to search into Nature and her daily course more profoundly than other people, to compare the pure with the impure, to separate one from the other, and to adapt and modify what is pure in a manner that seems impossible to others. These, as being true and natural physicians, know how to supplement Nature, and by their arts to bring her to perfection. It must be, therefore, that all imperfect and diabolical operations give way before them, as a lie always gives way to what is true and perfect. We must, I assert, speak the plain truth if we would arrive at any happy result. And if it be lawful to grasp the truth by any means, no man ought to be ashamed to seek it in any quarter. Let none, then, take it in bad part of, that I myself have loved this truth and pursued it. I was forced to seek it, for it did not seek me. If a man wants to see a foreign city it is no good for him to stay at home with his head on his pillow. He must not roast pears at the fire, for in that way he will never become a doctor. No one will ever get to be a renowned cosmographer by sitting at a table. - The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus (1493 -1541)

Artwork: Allegory of Divine Wisdom by Luca Giordano (1634 - 1705)