Introductory: III. Eliphas Lévi's Preface to the Prognostications

IN La Clef des Grands Mystères, mentioned in the Prefatory Remarks, Eliphas Lévi gives: The Preface to the Prognostication of Doctor Theophrastus Paracelsus, of which the following is a translation:

'Socrates, discoursing one day upon the too curious research of celestial things, during which one forgets the realities of human life, and of the earth that lies at our feet, exclaims: "That which is above our comprehension does not exist for us"; wishing thereby to say that a timorous and superstitious consideration of the heavens is vain, useless and dangerous.

'It may be indeed that a wise man warned by his reason of peril may be deterred from such study. Elsewhere Socrates, in the Dialogues of Plato, everywhere praises moderation and balance in all things. It is thus that the words of this great philosopher should be understood; for there is no reason to suppose that he would calumniate astrology, he being himself, according to the testimony of Plato, an excellent Astrologer.