The logical
deduction from this fact surely involves the explanation of all the
phenomena of nature.
"'Ah, what can be more in harmony with our ideas of God than to
believe that he created all things by the simplest method? The
Pythagorean worship of ONE, from which come all other numbers, and
which represented Primal Matter; that of the number TWO, the first
aggregation and the type of all the rest; that of the number THREE,
which throughout all time has symbolized God,--that is to say, Matter,
Force, and Product,--are they not an echo, lingering along the ages,
of some confused knowledge of the Absolute? Stahl, Becker, Paracelsus,
Agrippa, all the great Searchers into occult causes took the Great
Triad for their watchword,--in other words, the Ternary. Ignorant men
who despise alchemy, that transcendent chemistry, are not aware that
our work is only carrying onward the passionate researches of those
great men. Had I found the Absolute, the Unconditioned, I meant to
have grappled with Motion. Ah! while I am swallowing gunpowder and
leading men uselessly to their death, my former master is piling
discovery upon discovery! he is soaring towards the Absolute, while I
--I shall die like a dog in the trenches!'
"When this poor grand man recovered his composure, he said, in a
touching tone of brotherhood, 'If I see cause for a great experiment I
will bequeath it to you before I die.
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