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Secrets of the Art
Revealed
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12. most natural
Twelve: This
Art is most natural
There are
two natures, namely created nature and uncreated nature:
and since the world, or created nature, is a mirror for
the human intellect in which the Supreme Good, or
uncreated nature can be demonstrated, (Doctor Illum.
Liber. Mirand. Dem. cap.34. n.1.) and the Supreme Good is
so lofty, excellent and noble that it can be demonstrated
by whatever exists, (ibid. l.2. cap.23. n.1.) it is
manifest, my Son, that there is no individual in all
created nature through which uncreated nature cannot be
demonstrated: whence it follows that all of created
nature is included in the third mode of my Compendious
Art for Finding the Truth: and uncreated nature's mode of
being has ordered created nature's entire mode of being
to be a mode and a medium for communicating meaning
between the created intellect and its uncreated object,
so that there is a proportional and comparative relation
between created and uncreated nature's modes of being and
created nature's modes of signifying and being, and
so that created nature's mode of signifying is
necessarily related to the human intellect's mode of
understanding to make it perfectly natural (see Dist. 3.
Ars Inv. Verit. Reg.9. & Reg.2. see also Lib. Cont.
4. Dist.35 cap.234. & Lib.5. Dist.40. cap.353.)
From what I
said, my Son, you can understand how necessary it was to
indicate and demonstrate to you the entire System of
created nature in all its parts, beginning with the first
principles of the Chaos all the way to the ultimate
entities derived from these principles, as without a
perfect knowledge of this system of natural and real
being I could never have formed a perfect artificial and
intentional system of understanding, which I expounded to
you in all its sections by combining them together, to
show you very clearly the secret concordance between
both: and whereas I demonstrated this dual system in
several chapters of the Theoretical part of my Old
Testament by physical reasons legitimately derived
according to the rules of my General Art, beginning with
the Chaos made by the supreme Artificer, as taught to you
in Chapter 75 of the said Book, and then by elaborating
on the man made artificial chaos produced by following
the parameters of the prime Chaos, as you can read in
chapters 77 and 78, without omitting anything useful for
acquiring perfect knowledge of the entire mode of being,
operating and understanding, and so that you will not be
terrified by the fantasies of those who are ignorant of
this Science and refuse to accept that I wrote this Book,
I also taught the very same thing in the Books in the
first Tome, namely in the Compendious Art, the Universal
Art, the Four Books on the Principles of the four
Sciences, and in the Books in the third Tome, especially
the Demonstrative Art, where you will find all this very
clearly explained; and I will refer to these Books in the
following chapters, to teach you the said Systems with
their Arcana, and by the same token I will demonstrate
the necessary connection between the books of my General
Art and the books on chemistry and other specific
sciences.
"My
Son, if you understand this well, then you know how all
things in this world are produced by nature, and how you
can produce them by imitating nature (except the rational
soul created by GOD), and so we have certain arts that
apply to many other Sciences, of which this is one, and
it is a form or template for learning all the others.
(Pract. Test. cap. 17.)
This
Science, my Son, is the one we call the royal flower, and
it can serve to build and rectify human understanding
through experience bearing eyewitness to admirable
knowledge, since man is aware of the fact that no
fantastic proofs can stand up to his experience, and to
make a lively entrance into all Sciences, it demonstrates
to the intellect the way to penetrate into the divine
virtues which must be deeply concealed: now this kind of
Science expels from the intellect all the superfluous
things that keep it from knowing the whole truth. And in
another way, this Science is called the philosophical
standard, banner or instrument with which the good
Philosophers and Poets of old directed their senses in
every Science where they entered with all the experience
that must be acquired through the Art by imitating the
course of nature in true knowledge; (as you will see
below in Chapter 3 on the Trivium and Quadrivium of the
Sages of antiquity.) (ibid. cap. 1.)
"So let
this Science be a mirror for your intellect if you want
to see your way clearly through all the other Sciences,
as it will show you how reason gets to the truth through
clear experience which cannot be refuted by any argumnent
or logical proof that is deficient in clear
understanding." (Theor. Test. MS cap. 77 & impr.
cap. 73)
How can you
expect my Art to be more natural than this?
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