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familiarly, as if she had known me long before.
"Eugenius" - said she - "I have many names, but my best and dearest is Thalia, for I am always green and shall never
wither. Thou dost here behold the Mountains of the Moon, and I will shew thee the original of Nilus; for she springs
from these invisible rocks. Look up and peruse the very tops of these pillars and cliffs of salt, for they are the true,
philosophical, lunar mountains. Did'st thou ever see such a miraculous, incredible thing?
This speech made me quickly look up to those glittering turrets of salt, where I could see a stupendous cataract or
waterfall. The stream was more large than any river in her full channel; but notwithstanding the height and violence
of its fall it descended without any noise. The waters were dashed and their current distracted by those saltish rocks;
but for all this they came down with a dead silence - like the still, soft air. Some of this liquor - for it ran by me - I
took up, to see what strange woollen substance it was that did thus steal down like snow. When I had it in my hands
it was no common water but a certain kind of oil of a watery complexion. A viscous, fat, mineral nature it was,
bright like pearls and transparent like crystal. When I had viewed and searched it well, it appeared somewhat
spermatic, and in very truth it was obscene to the sight but much more to the touch. Hereupon Thalia told me it was
the First Matter and the very natural, true sperm of the great world. "It is" - said she -
"invisible and therefore few are they that find it; but many believe it is not to be found. They believe indeed that the
world is a dead figure, like a body which hath been sometime made and fashioned by that spirit which dwelt in it,
but retains that very shape and fashion for some short time after the spirit hath forsaken it. They should rather
consider that every frame, when the soul hath left it, doth decompose and can no longer retain its former figure; for
the agent that held and kept the parts together is gone. Most excellent then is that speech which I heard some time
from one of my own pupils. 'This world' - saith he - 'of such divers and contrary parts, would not have reached unity
of form had there not been One who did join together such contrary things. But, being brought together, the very
diversity of the natures joined, fighting one with another, had discomposed and separated them, unless there had
been One to hold and keep those parts together which He at first did join. Verily the order of Nature could not
proceed with such certainty, neither could she move so regularly in several places, times, effects and qualities,
unless there were Some One Who disposed and ordered these varieties of motions. This, whatsoever it is, by which
the world is preserved and governed, I call by that usual name God.'
"Thou must therefore, Eugenius" - said she - "understand that all compositions are made by an Active, Intelligent
Life; for what was done in the composure of the great world in general, the same is performed in the generation of
every creature, and its sperm in particular. I suppose thou dost know that water cannot be contained but in some
vessel. The natural vessel which God hath appointed for it is the earth. In earth water may be thickened and brought
to a figure; but of itself, and without earth, it hath an indefinite flux and is subject to no certain figure whatsoever.
Air also is a fleeting and indeterminate substance, but water is his vessel; for water being figured by means of earth
the air also is thickened and figured in the water. To ascend higher, the air coagulates the liquid fire, and fire
incorporated involves and confines the thin light. These are the means by which God unites and compounds the
elements into a sperm, for the earth alters the complexion of the water, and makes it viscous and slimy. Such a water
must they seek who would produce any magical, extraordinary effects; for this spermatic water coagulates with the
least heat, so that Nature concocts and hardens it into metals. Thou seest the whites of eggs will thicken as soon as
they feel the fire; for their moisture is tempered with a pure, subtle earth, and this subtle, animated earth is that
which binds their water. Take water then, my Eugenius, from the Mountains of the Moon, which is water and no
water. Boil it in the fire of Nature to a twofold earth, white and red; then feed those earths with air of fire and fire of
air; and thou hast the two magical luminaries. But because thou hast been a servant of mine for a long time, and that
thy patience hath manifested the truth of thy love, I will bring thee to my school, and there will I shew thee what the
world is not capable of."
This was no sooner spoken but she passed by those diamond-like, rocky salts and brought me to a rock of adamant,
figured to a just, entire cube. It was the basis to a fiery pyramid, a trigon of pure pyrope, whose imprisoned flames
did stretch and strive for heaven. To the four-square of the frontlet of this rock was annexed a little portal and in that
hung a tablet. It was a painted hedgehog, so rolled and wrapt up in his bag he could not easily be discomposed. Over
this stood a dog snarling and hard by him this instruction: Softly, or he pricks.
In we went, and having entered the rocks, the interior parts were of a heavenly, smaragdine colour. Somewhere they
shined like leaves of pure gold, and then appeared a third inexpressible, purple tincture. We had not gone very far
but we came to an ancient, majestic altar. On the offertory, or very top of it, was figured the trunk of an old rotten
tree, plucked up by the roots. Out of this crept a snake - of colour white and green - slow of motion like a snail and
very weak, having but newly felt the sun that overlooked her. Towards the foot or basis of this altar was an
inscription in old Egyptian hieroglyphics which Thalia expounded, and this is it:
TO THE BLESSED GODS IN THE UNDERWORLD
N.L.
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