terrestrial Forces began to work on these supersensuous moulds, _which contained, besides their own, the elements of all the past vegetable and future animal forms of this Globe_. Therefore, man’s _outward_ shell passed through every vegetable and animal body, before it assumed the human shape. But as this will be fully described in Volume II, in the Commentaries, there is no need to say more of it here. According to the Hermetico‐Kabalistic philosophy of Paracelsus, it is Yliaster—the ancestor of the just‐born Protyle, introduced by Mr. Crookes into Chemistry—or primordial Protomateria, that evolved out of itself the Cosmos. When creation [evolution] took place, the Yliaster divided itself; it, so to say, melted and dissolved, developed out of [from within] itself the Ideos or Chaos (Mysterium Magnum, Iliados, Limbus Major, or Primordial Matter). This Primordial Essence is of a monistic nature, and manifests itself not only as vital activity, a spiritual force, an invisible, incomprehensible, and indescribable power, but also as vital matter of which the substance of living beings consists. In this Limbus or Ideos of primordial matter, ... the only matrix of all created things, the substance of all things is contained. It is described by the ancients as the Chaos ... out of which the Macrocosmos, and afterwards, by division and evolution in Mysteria Specialia,(419) each separate being came into existence. All things and all elementary substances were contained in it _in potentiâ_ but not _in actu_.(420) This makes the translator, Dr. F. Hartmann, justly observe that “it seems that Paracelsus anticipated the modern discovery of the ‘potency of matter’ three hundred years ago.” The Magnus Limbus, then, or Yliaster, of Paracelsus is simply our old friend “Father‐Mother,” _within_, before it appeared in Space. It is the Universal Matrix of Kosmos, personified in the dual character of Macrocosm and Microcosm, or the Universe and our Globe,(421) by Aditi‐Prakriti, spiritual and physical Nature. For we find it explained in Paracelsus that: