“Picture to yourself a man who, in certain moments, gives evidence of a remarkable penetration, and in others raves in the most pitiable way possible; a man who, at one time, devoted to the progress of science, proclaims the absolute authority of experience, and thunders the most violent anathemas against the theories of the ancients; yet another time, like a lunatic, seems to converse with the demons and believe in their powers. Fasting in the morning, drunk in the evening, presenting exactly every idea in order in which it came to his mind, such is Paracelsus.”
- Ferdinand Hoefer, ‘History of Chemistry’, 1843.
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