principle, endowed with motion. The
number THREE is the formula of creation: Matter, Motion, Product."

"Stop!" cried the king, "what proof is there of this?"

"Do you not see the effects?" replied Lorenzo. "We have tried in our
crucibles the acorn which produces the oak, and the embryo from which
grows a man; from this tiny substance results a single principle,
to which some force, some movement must be given. Since there is no
overruling creator, this principle must give to itself the outward forms
which constitute our world--for this phenomenon of life is the same
everywhere. Yes, for metals as for human beings, for plants as for
men, life begins in an imperceptible embryo which develops itself. A
primitive principle exists; let us seize it at the point where it begins
to act upon itself, where it is a unit, where it is a principle before
taking definite form, a cause before being an effect; we must see
it single, without form, susceptible of clothing itself with all the
outward forms we shall see it take. When we are face to face with this
atomic particle, when we shall have caught its movement at the very
instant of motion, _then_ we shall know the law; thenceforth we are the
masters of life, masters who can impose upon that principle the form we
choose,--with gold to win the world, and the power to make for ourselves
centuries of life in which to enjoy it! That is what my people and I
are seeking. All our strength, all our thoughts are strained in that
direction; nothing distracts us from it. One hour wasted on any other
passion is a theft committed against our true grandeur. Just as you have
never found your hounds relinquishing the hunted animal or failing to
be in at the death, so I have never seen one of my patient disciples
diverted from this great quest by the love of woman or a selfish
thought. If an adept seeks power and wealth, the desire is instigated by
our needs; he grasps treasure as a thirsty dog laps water while he swims
a stream, because his crucibles are in need of a diamond to melt or an
ingot of gold to reduce to powder. To each his own work. One seeks the
secret of vegetable nature; he watches the slow life of plants; he notes
the parity of motion among all the species, and the parity of their
nutrition; he finds everywhere the need of sun and air and water, to
fecundate and nourish them. Another scrutinizes the blood of animals.
A third studies the laws of universal motion and its connection