The Cabala constantly directs Paracelsus in his therapeutics and materia medica. As all terrestrial things have their image in the region of the stars, and as diseases depend also on the influence of the stars, we have nothing more to do, in order to obtain a certain cure for these diseases, than to discover, by means of the Cabala, the harmony of the constellations. _Gold_ is a specific against all diseases of the _heart_, because, in the mystic scale, it is in harmony with that viscus. The _liquor of the moon_ and crystal cure the diseases of the _brain_. The liquor _alkahest_ and _cheiri_ are efficacious against those of the _liver_. When we employ vegetable substances, we must consider their harmony with the constellations, and their magical harmony with the parts of the body and the diseases, each star drawing, by a sort of magical virtue, the plant for which it has an affinity, and imparting to it its activity. So that plants are a kind of sublunary stars. To discover the virtues of plants, we must study their anatomy and cheiromancy; for the leaves are their hands, and the lines observable on them enable us to appreciate the virtues which they possess. Thus the anatomy of the _chelidonium_ shows us that it is a remedy for jaundice. These are the celebrated _signatures_ by means of which we deduce the virtues of vegetables, and the medicines of analogy which they present in relation to their form. Medicines, like women, are known by the forms which they affect. He who calls in question this principle, accuses the Divinity of falsehood, the infinite wisdom of whom has contrived these external characters to bring the study of them more upon a level with the weakness of the human understanding. On the corolla of the euphrasia there is a black dot; from this we may conclude that it furnishes an excellent remedy against all diseases of the eye. The lizard has the colour of malignant ulcers, and of the carbuncle; this points out the efficacy which that animal possesses as a remedy. These signatures were exceedingly convenient for the fanatics, since they saved them the trouble of studying the medical virtues of plants, but enabled them to decide the subject _à priori_. Paracelsus acted very considerately, when he ascribed these virtues principally to the stars, and affirmed that the observation of favourable constellations is an indispensable condition in the employment of these medicines. “The remedies are subjected to the will of the stars, and directed by them; you ought therefore to wait till heaven is favourable, before ordering a medicine.”