When we attempt to form an accurate conception of the medical and philosophical opinions of this singular man, we find ourselves beset with almost insurmountable difficulties. His statements are so much at variance with each other, in his different pieces, and so much confusion reigns with respect to the order of publication, that we know not what to fix on as his last and maturest opinions. His style is execrable; filled with new words of his own coining, and of mysticisms either introduced to excite the admiration of the ignorant, or from the fanaticism and credulity of the writer, who was undoubtedly, to a considerable extent, the dupe of his own impostures. That he was in possession of the philosopher’s stone, or of a medicine capable of prolonging life to an indefinite length, as he all along asserted, he could not himself believe; but he had boasted so long and so loudly of his wonderful cures, and of the efficacy of his medicines, that there can be no doubt that he ultimately placed implicit faith in them. The blunders of the transcribers whom he employed to copy his works, may perhaps account for some of the contradictions which they contain. But how can we look for a regular system of opinions from a man who generally dictated his works when in a state of intoxication, and thus laboured under an almost constant deprivation of reason. His obscurity was partly the effect of design, and no doubt was intended to exalt the notions entertained of his profundity. He uses common words in new significations, without giving any indication of the change which he introduced. Thus _anatomy_, in the writings of Paracelsus, signifies not the dissection of dead animals to determine their structure, but it means the nature, force, and magical designation of a thing. And as, according to the Platonic and Cabalistic theory, every earthly body is formed after the model of a heavenly body, Paracelsus calls _anatomy_ the knowledge of that model, of that ideal, or of that paradigm after which all things are created. He terms the fundamental force of a thing _a star_, and defines alchymy the art of drawing out the stars of metals. The star is the source of all knowledge. When we eat, we introduce into our bodies _the star_, which is then modified, and favours nutrition.