Ateş ve Tuz Üzerine

PYTHAGORAS, undoubtedly the one among all the heathens who, by the common consent and admission of all, has most deeply and with the least uncertainty penetrated the secrets of both divinity and nature, having drunk of them in full draughts from the living source of Mosaical traditions; among his symbols, where literally he touches upon one thing, and mystically another is understood and comprised beneath it; (in which he imitates the Egyptians and Chaldeans, or rather the Hebrews from whom everything came to them;) he sets down these two: Not to speak of God without light, and to apply Salt in all his sacrifices and offerings. This he borrowed word for word from Moses, as we shall deduce hereafter: for our intention is to treat here of FIRE and SALT. And it was upon this passage from the ninth chapter of St. Mark, upon which we have built the present treatise: For everyone shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. In which four things come to be specified: man, and the victim: Fire, and Salt: which nevertheless are reduced to two, comprising under themselves the other two: man, and the victim: and fire, and salt: because of the great conformity they have together. IN THE BEGINNING God created the Heaven and the Earth, so says Moses at the very entrance of Genesis: for everything consists of light, which is the first creature of all.