The true prophecies or prognostications of Michael Nostradamus, physician to Henry II. Francis II. and Charles IX. Kings of France, and one of the best astronomers that ever were. / A work full of curiosity and learning. Translated and commented by Theophilus de Garencieres, Doctor in Physick Colleg. Lond.

by Nostradamus

English.

The Divine Word shall give to the substance,

Heaven and Earth, and Gold hid in the mystical milk,

Body, Soul, Spirit, having all power,

As well under his feet, as in the Heavenly Seat.

ANNOT.

I desire the judicious Reader, and chiefly if he be given to the Hermetick Philosophy, to take a special notice of this Stanza, for in it is contained the secret of the Elixir or Philosophers Stone, more clearly and plainly then in the Tabula Smaragdina of Hermes, which to make appearent, we shall expound it Verse by Verse.

The Divine Word shall give to the substance; by the Divine word you must not understand the second person of the Trinity, but a Doctor in Divinity or a Theologian, called in Greek θεόλογος or Divine word, who shall be an Adeptus, a Disciple of Hermes, and one that shall attain to the secret of the Philosophers stone.

That man shall give to the substance, that is, to Gold; Heaven and Earth, and gold hid in the mystical Milk. Heaven and Earth, that is all the Celestial and Terrestrial qualities, lurking in the Gold, which is hid in the mystical milk, that is in the Azoth, or Mercury of the Philosophers.

Body, Soul, Spirit, having all Power, that is, the three principles, of which the Philosophers say their stone is compounded, viz. Body, Soul, and Spirit.