(_d._) _The divine state_, the kingdom of God, or the celestial world. As we perceive the existence of a mineral, vegetable and animal kingdom upon the sensual plane,[12] so they, by the faculty of the developed inner sight perceived and described within this world four kingdoms, or four spiritual, and to us invisible, states of existence, which in their outward manifestation are called: _Earth_, _Water_, _Fire_, _Air_. “We will show you that we are not the only intelligent beings possessing the world, but that our possessions extend over only one-fourth of it. Not that this world were three times greater than we know it to be; but there are in it still three-fourth parts which we do not occupy, and their inhabitants are not inferior to us in intelligence; the only thing of which we may be proud, is that Christ (the light of divine wisdom) has taken his habitation in us and clothed himself in our form, as he might have chosen another nation (another class of Elementals) for that purpose.” (_Paracelsus_, “Of the generation of conscious beings in the universal mind,” I. Preface) All this, however, does not strictly belong to the present purpose of this work, and is merely mentioned so as to make room for the conception that nature is far greater than the limits assigned to it by material science, and that, as a certain philosopher said: “that which is known is only like a grain of sand on the shore of the ocean of the unknown.” II. ASTRONOMIA. “Astronomy” means the knowledge of the stars, and to the conception of the modern mind it is the science of “celestial bodies,” such as are seen at night on the sky; but to the ancient philosophers all visible things were the symbols and representations of invisible powers, thoughts and ideas, and the expression “Astronomy,” as used by Paracelsus, is, therefore, something quite different from the science of the star-gazers, and refers to the various states of the mind existing in the macrocosm of nature as well as in the microcosm of man. “The very word “celestial” or “heavenly,” refers to something superior to our grossly material nature, and an idea of what are the “stars” with which ancient astronomy and astrology deal, may be formed by studying the signification of the planets referred to in the previous chapter on the Constitution of Man.