Paracelsus

Redgrove describes Paracelsus travelling and working around mines so that he could study metals at first hand. The passage contrasts direct acquaintance with nature and reliance on book learning.

Redgrove attributes to Paracelsus the view that chemistry should prepare medicines rather than make gold. On the same page he discusses the difficulty of identifying genuine writings and the microcosm–macrocosm analogy.

Redgrove's portrait joins direct study of materials with a symbolic correspondence between person and cosmos. This helps explain the mixed character of the account without equating its historical theories with modern clinical evidence.