>a^ 
 

 7 
 
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SUGGESTIVE INQUIRY 
 
 INTO 
 
 THE HERMETIC MYSTERY 
 
 AND 
 
 ALCHEMY. 
 
Itermn ad hominem rationemque redeamns, ex quo divino dono 
 homo animal dictum est ratiojwle, minus enim miranda, etsi mii-anda 
 sunt, qvcB de liomine sunt dicta ; sed omnium mirahilivm vincit ad- 
 mirationetn, quod homo Divinam potuit invevii-e Naturam, eamque 
 efficere. — Mercurii Trismegisti, Asclepius, cap. xiii. 
 
A 
 
 SUGGESTIVE INQUIRY 
 
 INTO 
 
 THE HERMETIC MYSTERY 
 
 WITH 
 
 A DISSERl ATION 
 
 ON THE 
 
 Movt Celeljiatftr of tl)e 9llci)emiral ^ftilosopftersi 
 
 BEING 
 
 AN ATTEMPT TOWAEDS THE EECOVEEY 
 
 OP THE 
 
 / 
 
 ANCIENT EXPERIMENT OF NATURE. 
 
 Iterum ad honiiuem rationemque redeamus, ex quo divino dono homo animal 
 dictum est rationale, minus enira miranda, etsi miranda sunt, quso de homine sunt 
 dicta ; sed omnium mirabilium viucit admirationem, quod homo Dirinam potuit 
 invenire Naturam, earaque eilicere. — Mercurii Trismegisti, Asck'pius, cap. xiii. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 TEELAWNEY SAUNDEES 
 
 CHARING CROSS. 
 
 MDCCCTj. 
 
LONDON; 
 STEVENS AND CO., PRINTERS, BRLL VAKl), 
 TEMPLE BAR. 
 
THE PREFACE. 
 
 ~C1R0M remote Antiquity, and through suc- 
 -^ cessive intervals in the higher spheres of 
 mind, the tradition of an Art has circulated ; 
 but so dark and enigmatical as to evade vulgar 
 apprehension entirely and baffle the most acute. 
 
 There is doubtless some temerity in making 
 choice of an obsolete subject, and circumstances 
 have conspired to render Alchemy above every 
 other liable to mistrust ; the transmutation of 
 metallic species has seemed impossible, and the 
 pretensions of this science in general are at va- 
 riance with inductive probability and observed 
 fact. 
 
 But many things have in like manner been 
 considered impossible which increasing know- 
 ledge has proved true, and others which still to 
 common sense appear fictitious were believed 
 in former times, when faith was more enlightened 
 and the sphere of vision open to surpassing 
 effects. Daily observation even now warns us 
 against setting limits to nature ; as experiments 
 multipl}^ probabilities enlarge in practical life. 
 
VI THE PREFACE. 
 
 and, like a swelling flood, obliterate the old land- 
 marks, as they sweep along rapidly to fulfil their 
 destined course. 
 
 Thus truth progresses openly in spite of scep- 
 ticism, when her advocates bear witness to- 
 gether, and over the mists of error and false 
 interests establish her domain. Few, however, 
 have a spontaneous disposition to study, and 
 many have not acquired the aptitude ; so that 
 we frequently observe, where labour of thought 
 is a condition, the greatest benefits are slighted 
 and prejudicially deferred. The notion of a 
 mystery is above all things obnoxious to modern 
 taste ; as who will now believe either that there 
 has been any truth of importance known which 
 is not publicly declared, or worth knowing that 
 he cannot understand ? Everypretension of the 
 kind has been repudiated, therefore, with all such 
 investigations as are not immediately profitable 
 and appreciable by common sense. 
 
 In former times ; even when philosophy flou- 
 rished in Greece, Egypt, and in Europe, during 
 the earlier ages of Christianity, when no pains 
 were spared to improve the understanding and 
 educate the rational faculties to their utmost 
 limit of energy and refinement ; even then the 
 study of the Hermetic Science was confined to 
 a very few : and though their names still live 
 most famous in the history of philosophy, and 
 
THE PREFACE. VU 
 
 are held in traditionary honour to this day, yet 
 the source of their Wisdom, the Art which made 
 them great, and good, and memorable, has 
 passed into oblivion — the very style has become 
 obsolete ; and, but for those lasting theories and 
 solemn attestations which they have bequeathed, 
 the Experiment of the Causal Nature and its de- 
 veloping medium would have been left without 
 a clue of retracement, or relic even for surmise. 
 
 Modern Science has hitherto thrown no light 
 on the Wisdom of Antiquity ; our discoveries 
 have neither added to nor taken any part from 
 it — being of another order, and, as it were, of 
 another world. No consideration of period or 
 place is sufficient to account for the difference ; 
 the very ground of human knowledge would 
 seem to have changed. 
 
 The philosophy of modern times, more espe- 
 cially that of the present day, consists in ex- 
 periment and such scientific researches as may 
 tend to ameliorate our social condition, or be 
 otherwise useful in contributing to the ease and 
 indulgences of life ; whereas, in the original ac- 
 ceptation, philosophy had quite another sense : 
 it signified the Love of Wisdom. And the doc- 
 trine of Wisdom, as delivered to us by the 
 Hebrew and best Ethnic writers, is in no re- 
 spect extrinsical or dependant on externals, but 
 professes to be based on Causal Experience, 
 
Vlll THE PREFACE. 
 
 obtained by a systematic disciplining and effec- 
 tual conversion of the Rational Faculty, up to 
 an Intuition of Universal Truth in its own con- 
 scious Identity or Self-knowledge. 
 
 Many great and lasting theories have been 
 based on this ground, supported by much vene- 
 rable testimony and rational evidence ; and, al- 
 though variously taught by individuals of the 
 different schools, it preserves the same native 
 simplicity unchanged, from the remote antiquity 
 of Zoroaster and the Jewish Cabal, through 
 the enigmas and fables of the Egyptians, the 
 Orphic Mysteries and Symbols of Pythagoras, 
 up to the more scientific and full development 
 of Plato and liis brilliant disciples of the Alex- 
 andrian School. 
 
 These continued to regard the human mind as 
 an imperfect embryo, separated off" from its an- 
 tecedent Law ; and, by this common outbirth into 
 individual life, so made subject to the delusions 
 of sense and phantasy, as to be incapable of true 
 progress or wisdom until it had been rectified 
 and re-related, as they assure us, even in this 
 world it may be, by certain artificial aids and 
 media, and made conformable to the Divine vision 
 in truth, whence it sprang. And this was, in 
 fact, though Peripatetics have wandered, the true 
 initiatory object and comprehending whole of 
 ancient philosophy ; namely, to turn the eye of 
 
THE PREFACE. IX 
 
 mind away from sensibles and fix its purified re- 
 gard on the Supreme Intelligible Law within. 
 
 We are well aware that this kind of philo- 
 sophy is obsolete ; that the capacity of man is 
 considered unequal to the discovery of essential 
 Causes ; and that all pretensions to interior illu- 
 mination have appeared fanciful, and are lightly 
 esteemed in the comparison with modern ex- 
 perimental science. It may be a question how- 
 ever whether they, who have determined thus, 
 were competent judges ; whether they have at 
 all entered upon the ground of the ancient doc- 
 trine to prove it, or studied so far as even to sur- 
 mise the Method by which the ancients were 
 assisted to propound the mystery of the Causal 
 Principle in life. 
 
 It has been repeatedly shown, and may be 
 very evident to those who have considered the 
 subject, that our faculties for knowledge, in 
 common with the whole human characteristic, 
 are by nature imperfect ; and that sensible evi- 
 dence fluctuates so with its objects, that we are 
 unable to rise above a relative certainty, either 
 in respect of those things which are around us 
 or of the nature of our own Being. The more we 
 reflect, indeed, the less conviction do we meet ; 
 since every thing, whether abstract or actual, in 
 respect of human reason, is mere phenomenon, 
 which, being thus naturally placed alone with- 
 out a proper intimate assurance in this life, li- 
 
THE PREFACE. 
 
 mits, rather than confirms, the evidence of the 
 senses and other faculties. For the Law of 
 lieason is absolute, and demands a satisfaction 
 superior to that which sensibles or any thing 
 extraneous can offer ; hence the diversities of 
 opinion, and the sceptical result, which modern 
 metaphysics have ariived at, in the various sys- 
 tems of Locke, Hume, Condillac, Kant, and 
 others, by different roads ; and, as it were, with- 
 out the suspicion, following Reason into her own 
 ultimate defect ; as able to prove all things sub- 
 jectively inferior, yet wanting the proper objec- 
 tive — self-demonstrative ligiit. 
 
 Lord Bacon — perspicuously regarding the ex- 
 ternal and internal worlds as divulsed in this way, 
 without apparent means of intrinsical reunion, 
 and concluding also from the fruitlessness of the 
 Aristotelian philosophy (then long since fallen 
 off from its original intention, and degenerated 
 into a mere metaphysical playground), that the 
 inquisition of mind in its fallen state was and 
 must for ever remain barren and inconclusive — 
 condemned the method ; and, forsaking it en- 
 tirely himself, proposed a strictly scientific ex- 
 periment of external nature, vigorously hoping 
 by such means, and by aid of proceeding induc- 
 tion, to penetrate from without the circumfe- 
 rential compound of Nature into her Formal 
 Centres. 
 
 But how very distant his followers, even at 
 
THE PREFACE. XI 
 
 this late day, are from such a goal, or from any 
 rational idea of carrying experiment at all into 
 the central ground, is shown in the strong out- 
 working spirit of the age, which, notwithstand- 
 ing all its abundance of facts, — dead, living, and 
 traditional — has not advanced one step in Causal 
 Science. Effects indeed are found to indicate 
 their Causes, and so we infer many things, and 
 progress externally ; but no one particular of 
 nature is the more intrinsically understood ; or, 
 as respects ourselves, are we become better or 
 wiser from all that has been bequeathed, or ever 
 shall be, by such continual experimenting and 
 superficial facts accumulated on from henceforth 
 to the world's end. 
 
 For, as the author of the Novum Organum, 
 in the Preface, himself observes, the edifice of 
 this universe is, in its structure, as it were, a la- 
 byrinth to the human intellect that contemplates 
 it ; where there are many ambiguous ways, de- 
 ceptive similitudes of things and signs, oblique 
 and complicated windings, and knots of nature's 
 everywhere presenting themselves to view ; fur- 
 thermore, the senses, as he admits, are fallacious, 
 the mind unstable and full of idols ; and all 
 things are presented under a glass, and, as it 
 were, enchanted. 
 
 If, therefore, the journey is to be made per- 
 petually through a labyrinth so obscure and 
 
Xll THE PREFACE. 
 
 difficult, as that which the Chancellor describes, 
 under the uncertain light of sense, sometimes 
 shining and sometimes hiding itself through and 
 in the woods of experience and particulars ; a 
 dreary prospect truly is presented, and one 
 promising about as little success to the traveller 
 as he has actually arrived at now, after the lapse 
 of many centuries of persevering toil and expec- 
 tation — still, in the same maze of external na- 
 ture, dissatisfied and unhappy, amidst the pass- 
 ing images of his own outward creation ; without 
 a ray of the First Light to guide him into the 
 inner courts of a more certain and sublime ex- 
 perience. 
 
 Or how should any stable science arise out 
 of the aggregate of particulars ? The common 
 analysis of bodies does not discover their unity, 
 nor is the most scientific synthesis of heteroge- 
 neous atoms found to yield any vital effect. The 
 free Spirit of Nature flies before all our destroy- 
 ing tests and crucibles ; and, taking refuge in her 
 own Identity, subtly eludes the hopes and ac- 
 tive efforts of the inductive mind. May not the 
 same objection, therefore, equally apply to this 
 method of philosophizing as its great advocate 
 opposed to the syllogistic sclieme of Aristotle ; 
 namely, that it works confusedly, and suffers 
 Nature to escape out of our hands ? 
 
 Such being the defective result of natural ex- 
 
THE PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 periment, conducted as it ordinarily is through 
 the Macrocosm, without the discovery of Hfe ; 
 and since the evidence of modern metaphysics, 
 attempting to enter theoretically, falls short of 
 human faith, and is bounded in this ; may it not 
 be worth while to inquire, once more, parti- 
 cularly concerning the doctrine of the ancient 
 Sages, how their pretensions to superior Wisdom 
 were founded, and so practically set forth, from 
 the Ontological ground? For it has been ac- 
 knowledged by opponents, and must be very 
 evident to all, that the discovery of Causes 
 would be of all parts of Science the most 
 worthy to be sought out, if it were possible to 
 be found ; and, as regards the possibility, are 
 they not truly said to be ill discoverers that 
 conclude there is no land when they can discern 
 nothino; but sea ? 
 
 The numerous express declarations that are 
 to be met with in those early writers, the 
 Greeks especially, that they were not alone 
 able, but very generally had passed beyond the 
 world of appearances in which we range into 
 the full Intuition of Universal Truth, are, to say 
 the least, remarkable. The liberal allowance of 
 imagination and mere verbiage, which ignorance 
 once ascribed to these men, has no doubt de- 
 terred many, and may continue to delay ra- 
 tional inquiry ; but can never explain away their 
 
XIV THE PREFACE. 
 
 clear language of conviction, or nullify those 
 solemn assertions of experieace in the Divine 
 Wisdom, and surpassing knowledge, which oc- 
 cur, in one form or other, at almost every page 
 of their transmitted works. Neither are the 
 definitions we gather of this Wisdom so incom- 
 plete, or ambiguous, that they can be possibly 
 referred to any science or particular relation of 
 science, physical or metaphysical, preserved to 
 these times. But the Wisdom they celebrate is, 
 as we before observed, eminently inverse ; con- 
 sisting not in the observation of particulars, 
 neither in poljunathy, nor in acuteness of the 
 common intellect, nor in the natural order of 
 understanding at all ; but in a conscious deve- 
 lopment of the Causal Principle of the Uni- 
 versal Nature in Man, 
 
 For man, say they, is demonstrated to be an 
 epitome of the whole mundane creation, and 
 was p-enerated to become wise above all terres- 
 trial animals ; being endowed, besides those 
 powers which he commonly exerts, and by 
 means of which he is able to contemplate the 
 thino^s which exist around him, with the germ 
 of a higher faculty, which, when rightly de- 
 veloped and set apart, reveals the hidden Forms 
 of manifested Being, and secrets of the Causal 
 Fountain, identically within himself. Nor this 
 alone ; not only is man reputed able to (lis- 
 
THE PREFACE. XV 
 
 cover the Divine Nature, but, in the forcible 
 language of the Asclepian Dialogue, to effect 
 It ; and in this sense, namely, with respect to 
 the Cathohc Reason which is latent in his life, 
 man was once said to be the Image of God. 
 
 It appears, moreover, those ancients were not 
 enlightened on the a priori ground alone, but 
 the same power of Wisdom was confirmed in 
 external operation, in many surpassing effects of 
 spiritual chemistry, and in the asserted miracle 
 of the Philosopher's Stone. And here, though 
 it has seemed a stumbling-block to unbelievers, 
 and we anticipate for our advocacy the utmost 
 scorn ; yet, with this theosophic doctrine of 
 Wisdom, the tradition of Alchemy runs hand 
 in hand. It is this which, occultly permeating 
 throughout, gives substance to the transcen- 
 dental theme, and meaning to the subtle disqui- 
 sitions of the middle ages — this it was which 
 filled the acute intellect of that period with ar- 
 dour and admiration. It was this which inspired 
 Albertus Magnus, Aquinas, Roger Bacon, the 
 fiery Lully, and his preceptor Arnold di Villa- 
 Nova, Ficinus, Picus di Mirandola, Spinoza, 
 Reuchlin, the Abbot Trithemius, Cornelius 
 Agrippa, and all the subsequent Paracelsian 
 School. It is this which, under another title, 
 Plato celebrates as the most efficacious of all 
 arts, calling it Theurgy and the worship of the 
 
XVlll THE PREFACE. 
 
 Others, in hope that our suggestive advocacy 
 may either receive confutation, if erroneous ; or 
 become estabhshecl in the result. That the 
 subject is worthy of investigation from the 
 highest order of minds, we feel no hesitation in 
 affirming ; to them it has always proved at- 
 tractive ; for reason, perceiving effects, desires 
 to know causes, and is rarely incredulous in the 
 pursuit. 
 
 It is especially towards the analysis of this 
 Causal Experiment, therefore, that the present 
 Inquiry is directed, as being in due order to 
 begin with, the foundation of that luminous 
 fabric of Wisdom which we shall endeavour 
 practically, and for the discovery's sake, to 
 depict. For since Ontology is despaired of 
 by modern metaphysics, and reason is unable 
 in this life to substantiate its own inference — 
 although clearh^ perceiving the Antecedent ne- 
 cessity, it cannot pass into an absolute con- 
 sciousness of the same ; — if, therefore, the sub- 
 lime capability, above referred to, yet subsists in 
 man and is really educible, it must be under 
 the guidance of another Method and by the 
 revelation of another Law. What was the Ex- 
 periment which led our fathers into experience 
 and self-knowledge in the Divine Antecedent of 
 all life ? This we desire to learn ; and, for the 
 sake of the liberal and sincere lovers of truth, 
 
THE PREFACE. XIX 
 
 now offer the guidance by which we have our- 
 selves been led along, pleasurably and with 
 satisfaction, to explore the mystic laboratory of 
 creative Light ; opening a way also by which 
 they may be enabled fully to co-operate and 
 follow Art into the living sanctuary of Nature. 
 
 If some particulars should seem obscure in 
 the early introduction, as it is indeed difficult to 
 unfold things so far out of the way of ordinary 
 thought, we hope not to be judged rashly, but 
 after a fair consideration of the whole. In 
 tracing the Hermetic tradition through many 
 venerable sources, it has been our endeavour, as 
 plainly and practically as the nature of the 
 matter would permit, to explain the occult 
 ground, and, by the help of theory supporting 
 evidence, to persuade the studious that the Art 
 of Alchemy, as it was anciently practtised in the 
 East, in the Egyptian temples, amongst the He- 
 brews and Early Greek Nations, and by the 
 Mystics of the Middle Ages, was a true Art; 
 and that the Stone of Philosophers is not a 
 chimera, as it has been represented in the world 
 to be ; but the wonderful offspring of a Vital 
 Experiment into Nature, the true foundation of 
 Ancient Wisdom and her supernatural fruit. 
 
 What, if our subject be the world's ridicule ; 
 and its professors rank with the ignorant as in- 
 sane or impostors ? In choosing it popularity 
 
XX THE PREFACE. 
 
 was not the motive ; but we have written for the 
 Truth's sake and for the Hberal inquirer, from 
 whom alone we may anticipate either credit or 
 favour; and if we succeed only in drawing a very 
 few discerning intellects aside from the broad 
 stream of popular dereliction, by the light of 
 Ancient Wisdom into its faith, the undertaking 
 will not prove ungrateful, or have been con- 
 cluded in vain. 
 
 " I biiW not sfocare to maite gou g{fa£ crcticnce, 
 23ut a pf)2losopi)er maff f)crc finUc an £bil3£nce 
 Of i\)z tretotf) ; anlJ for men tl)at be lag 
 31 skill not grcatlji to^at tjbtg sag." 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 AN EXOTERIC VIEW OF THE PROGRESS 
 AND THEORY OF ALCHEMY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. — A Preliminary Account of the 
 Hermetic Philosophy, with the more salient 
 POINTS OF its Public History — gathered from 
 the best extant Authorities, with notices of the 
 works of various writers, ancient and modern, in 
 succession, on the subject of Alchemy — their 
 evidence in support of the art of gold-making 
 and transmutation. — Page 3. 
 
 CHAPTER II. — Of the Theory of Transmutation 
 
 IN GENERAL, AND OF THE FiRST MaTTER showiug 
 
 the true basis on which the rational possibility 
 of Transmutation rests ; with Definitions from 
 Albertus Magnus, Aquinas, Friar Bacon, Ray- 
 mond Lully, Arnold Di-Villa-Nova, Synesius and 
 others, descriptive of the Hermetic Material — 
 with some suggestions additional concerning the 
 Ethereal Nature and analogous phenomena of 
 Light. — Page 68. 
 
 CHAPTER III. — The Golden Treatise of Hermes 
 Trismegistus concerning the Physical Secret 
 of the Philosopher's Stone, in Seven Sec- 
 tions — esteemed one of the best and oldest 
 pieces of Alchemical Philosophy extant ; com- 
 
XXll CONTENTS. 
 
 prising, in epitome, the whole Art and secret 
 method of the confection — to which some eluci- 
 datory annotations are added from the Scholium 
 
 and elsewhere. — Page 99. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 A MORE ESOTERIC CONSIDERATION OF THE 
 HERMETIC ART AND ITS MYSTERIES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. — Of the True Subject of the Her- 
 metic Art and its Concealed Root — opening, 
 by way of evidence, the Alchemical Laboratory 
 and only vessel which the Adepts employed to 
 sublime the universal Spirit of Nature and con- 
 centrate her Light — how, when, and where the 
 Spirit may be arrested, introverted in the circula- 
 tion, and brought forth from immanifest being 
 into power and act, leading on from thence to- 
 wards an outline of the Hermetic Art. — Page 135. 
 
 CHAPTER II. — Of the Mysteries — beginning from 
 the early initiations, to show the imperfection of 
 the natural life and understanding — the artificial 
 means and media employed by the ancients to 
 rectify these — connecting together Alchemy and 
 Mesmerism, also, with those preliminary Rites. — 
 Page 171. 
 
 CHAPTER III. — The Mysteries continued — 
 which indicate the gi'eater ordeals and disciplines 
 which the vital Spirit is made to pass through in 
 the progress of a physical regeneration by art, 
 from out the sensual dominion of the Selfhood, 
 
CONTENTS. XXni 
 
 through a temporary death and annihilation to a 
 new life and consciousness. — Page 191. 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— The Mysteries concluded— with 
 a view of the ultimate object of these initiations 
 to prove the perfection, purity, and integral ef- 
 ficiency to which the human spirit may arrive by 
 divine assimilation coming in vital contact with 
 its Source. — Page 220. 
 
 PART III 
 
 CONCERNING THE LAWS AND VITAL CON- 
 DITIONS OF THE HERMETIC EXPERIMENT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. — Of the Experimental Method and 
 Fermentation of the Philosophic Subject ac- 
 cording to the Paracelsian Alchemists and 
 some others — whereby the Principles of the 
 Art are yet more intimately unfolded, and the 
 methodical order in which the experiment was 
 conducted to discover that hidden Light which is 
 the specific Form of Gold — how to educate this 
 and multiply it by the ethereal conception until it is 
 made concrete and substantially brought forth. — 
 Page 255. 
 
 CHAPTER II. — A further Analysis of the Initial 
 Principle and its Eduction into Light — com- 
 prising the Metaphysics of the Matter ; gathered 
 more particularly from the Greek Ontologists and 
 Cabalists, to show the progress of the conscious- 
 ness through the various stages of purification 
 and dissolution until the rectified ferment, over- 
 whelming, becomes established in life. — Page 305. 
 
XXIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. — Of the Manifestation of the 
 Philosophic Matter — exhibiting how, when, 
 and where the invisible Spirit of Nature is by Art 
 made visible and brought through a vital distil- 
 lation into substantive effect — with power and 
 will to transfuse its luminous aurific virtue and 
 draw the universal life of Nature to its homo- 
 geneal accord. — Page 349. 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— Of the Mental Requisites and 
 Impediments incidental to Individuals, either 
 AS Masters or Students, in the Hermetic Art 
 — to which are added various ])ractical instruc- 
 tions concerning the means and instruments that 
 have to be arranged and called together in fur- 
 therance of this undertaking, the quahfications of 
 external circumstances and accordances of fitting 
 seasons and places for operation. — Page 393. 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 THE HERMETIC PRACTICE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. — Of the Vital Purification, com- 
 monly called the Gross AVork — which de- 
 velopes the actual mode of operation practised by 
 the Ancients, and mechanic means employed to 
 dissolve the vital compound and eradicate the 
 inbred evil of life — the mode of rational investiga- 
 tion likewise by which the Spirit is induced to 
 vield up her light and hidden virtue to increase 
 it.— Page 429. 
 
 CHAPTER II. — Of the Philosophic or Subtle 
 Work — which affords, by a theoretic conduct, 
 
CONTENTS. XXV 
 
 suggestions amply leading to a practical under- 
 standing of the most abstruse secret of the Her- 
 metic philosophy, showing the Trinitarian method 
 of operation which Reason follows recreatively 
 for the verification of her light to discover, mag- 
 nify, and know the Causal Nature transitively in 
 being and in imaged manifestation. — Page 455. 
 
 CHAPTER HI.— The Six Keys of Eudoxus— 
 leading into the most secret Philosophy of the 
 Multiplication and Projection, Rewards and Po- 
 tencies, Nature, Properties, Analogies, and Ap- 
 pliances of the Philosopher's Stone. — Page 474. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. — The Conclusion — in summary of 
 the whole, comparing this Philosophy, its me- 
 thod, relations, and ultimate promise, with those 
 of more modern acceptation and repute. — Page 
 511. 
 
Tlie superintendence of the Press havinor been defective in several 
 classical quotations, the Author subjoins the following more promi- 
 nent errata : — 
 
 Page 7, line 8,/o?' omni, read omnes. 
 
 13, /oi' igni, o-ead igne. 
 
 1\,for operatione, read de operatione. 
 12, 4, for miracula read miraculi. 
 
 14, 11, read Secreta Ser^retorum. 
 29, 40, /or hunc rmd tunc. 
 34, Zl,f<jret,read50. 
 42, 33, read Lc Grand Eclaircissement. 
 45, i>for seem, read serve. 
 
 69, 20, for trausmutatur, read transmutantur. 
 
 70, IS, for carissima j'ead carissime. 
 26, for reducatur read reducantur. 
 41, read species sive formas. 
 
 45, for materiam read materia. 
 
 71 , 1, for vera, read veras, and aliam for alium. 
 74, 12, for inter, read intus. 
 
 76, 9, for igne, read ignea. 
 
 88, IS, for omnis, read omnes. 
 
 104, 28, for dieri, read diei. 
 
 137, 34, /or Marien read Monen. 
 
 138, 16, for re, read res. 
 155, 11, omit with. 
 
 30, /or support,re«(? rajjport. 
 172, 24, /or La Planche, read La Pluche. 
 179, 30, for become, 7'ead became. 
 184, iO, for regimine, read regiminis. 
 
 189, 7, for conjunctam, read conjunctum. 
 
 190, 14, for my, read by. 
 
 17, for rejoins, read regains. 
 
 30, for landaveris, read laudaverit. 
 192, 4, /or philosophica, read philosophic!. 
 
 195, 15, insert naturam after habens. 
 
 198, 4, for ipse, 7-ead ips£e. 
 
 13, for limine, read lumina. 
 
 19, for movere, read moveri. 
 
 21, for dea, read dei. 
 
 23, /or Cecropiam, read Cecropium. 
 
 199, note for Oracula, read Oraculis. 
 201, line 6, for vaala., read m&lse. 
 
 221, 24, for northern, -read southern. 
 
 223, 17, for Olympicus, read Olympicos. 
 
 229, 29, for diaphonous, read diaphanous. 
 
 231, 1, /or fo, ?-eatZ of. 
 
 232, 7, for epaptenomen, irad epopteuomen. 
 
 24S, 38, 7-ead Cunctarumque patrem rerum spectare licebit. 
 278, 37, for inanimje, read inamoenae. 
 
Page 297, line 16, insert alne a/Ztr ejiisque, and read salum for solum. 
 308, l,/(ir sequentur, read sc<\ueiiter. 
 
 315, note for Mundura, read Mundi. 
 31(3, VmelZjfdr divini, read divinx. 
 317, 18, for varie, read vari«. 
 
 21, for utque, 7-ead atque. 
 
 23, for omnis, read omnes. 
 352, 17, read raotum in te experieris internum. 
 361, 21, for seated, read sealed. 
 363, 27, for fiunt, read fiant. 
 367, 36, read one only night. 
 
 434, i,for dedeat, read tjedeat. 
 
 435, 8, for motionem, read amotioncni. 
 465, 18, for eum, 7-ead cum. 
 
 471, 37, I'ead eritque in te cum iumine ignis, cum igne ventus, &c. 
 493, 38, for which, read what. 
 509, IS, for ilium, read illara. 
 
A SUGGESTIVE INQUIEY 
 
 INTO THE HERMETIC MYSTERY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 AN EXOTERIC VIEW OF THE PROGRESS AND 
 THEORY OF ALCHEMY. 
 
A SUfiUESTIVE INQUIRY 
 
 INTO THE 
 
 HERMETIC MYSTERY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A P reliminary Account of the Hermetic Philosophy, 
 with the more salient Points of its Public History. 
 
 THE Hermetic tradition opens early with the morn- 
 ing dawn of philosophy in the eastern world. All 
 pertaining thereto is romantic and mystical. Its monu- 
 ments, emblems, and numerous written records, alike 
 dark and enigmatical, form one of the most remark- 
 able episodes in the history of the human mind. A 
 hard task were it indeed and almost infinite to discuss 
 every particular that has been presented by individuals 
 concerning the art of Alchemy ; and as difficult to fix 
 with certainty the origin of a science which has been suc- 
 cessively attributed to Adam, Noah and his son Cham, 
 to Solomon, Zoroaster, and the Egyptian Hermes. 
 Nor, fortunately, does this obscurity concern us much 
 in an inquiry which rather relates to the means and 
 principles of occult science than to the period and 
 place of their reputed discovery. Nothing, perhaps, is 
 less worthy or more calculated to distract the mind from 
 points of real importance than this very question of 
 temporal origin, which, when we have taken all pains 
 to satisfy and remember, leaves us no wiser in reality 
 than we were before. What signifies it, for instance, 
 that we attribute letters to Cadmus, or trace oracles 
 to Zoroaster, or the Cabbal to Moses, the Eleusinian 
 mysteries to Orpheus, or free-masonry to Noah ; whilst 
 
 /B 2 
 
4 Exoteric View. 
 
 we are profoundly ignorant of the nature and true be- 
 ginning of any one of these things, and observe not 
 how truth, being everywhere eternal, does there always 
 originate where it is understood? 
 
 We do not delay, therefore, to ascertain, even were 
 it possible, whether the Hermetic science was indeed 
 preserved to mankind on the Syriadic pillars after the 
 flood, or whether Egypt or Palestine may lay equal 
 claims to the same ; or, whether in truth that Sma- 
 ragdine table, whose singular inscription has been 
 transmitted to this day, is attributable to Hermes or to 
 any other name. It may suffice the present need to 
 accept the general assertion of its advocates, and con- 
 sider Alchemy as an antique artifice coeval, for aught 
 we know to the contrary, with the universe itself 
 For although attempts have been made, as by Herman 
 Conringius,^ to slight it as recent invention, and it 
 is also true that, by a singularly envious fate, nearly 
 all Egyptian record of the art has perished ; yet we 
 find the original evidence contained in the works of 
 A. Kircher,'^ the learned Dane Olaus Borrichius,^ and 
 Robert Vallensis in the first volume of the Theatrum 
 Chemicum,^ more than sufficient to balance every ob- 
 jection of this kind, besides ample collateral probabi- 
 lity bequeathed in the best Greek authors, historical 
 and philosophic. 
 
 In order to show that the propositions we may here- 
 after have occasion to offer are not gratuitous, as also 
 with better effect to introduce a stranger subject, it 
 will be requisite to run through a brief account of the 
 Alchemical philosophers, with the literature and public 
 evidence of their science ; the more so, as no one of 
 the many histories of philosophy compiled or trans- 
 lated into our language, advert to it in such a manner 
 
 ^ De Hermetica ^gyptior. vetere et Paracelsicor. Nova Me- 
 dicina. 
 
 ^ G^^dipus .^gyptiacus. Idem, do Lapide Philos. Dissert. 
 
 2 De Ortu et Progressu Chemise. Idem, yEgyptior. et Chemicor. 
 Sapientia, ab H. Conringii Animad. vindic. 
 
 ■* De Veritate et Antiquitate Artis Cliemiae. 
 
Preliminary Account. 5 
 
 as, considering the powerful and wide-spread influence 
 this branch formerly exercised on the human mind, it 
 certainly appears to deserve. 
 
 This once famous Art, then, has been represented 
 both as giving titles and receiving them from its mo- 
 ther land, Cham ; for so, during a long period, accord- 
 ing to Plutarch, was Egypt denominated, or Chemia, 
 on account of the extreme blackness of her soil: — or, 
 as others say, because it was there that the art of 
 Vulcan was first practised by Cham, one of the sons 
 of the Patriarch, from whom they thus derive the 
 name and art together. But by the word Chemia, says 
 Plutarch, the seeing pupil of the human eye was also 
 designated, and other black matters, whence in part 
 perhaps Alchemy, so obscurely descended, has been 
 likewise stigmatized as a Black Art.^ 
 
 Etymological research has doubtless proved useful 
 in leading on and corroborating truths once suggested, 
 but it is not a way of first discovery ; derivations may 
 be too easily conformed to any bias, and words do not 
 convey true ideas unless their proper leader be previ- 
 ously entertained. Without being able now, therefore, 
 to determine whether the art gave or received a title 
 from Cham, the Persian prince Alchimin, as others 
 have contended, or that dark Egyptian earth ; to take 
 a point of time, we may begin the Hermetic story from 
 Hermes, by the Greeks called Trismegistus, Egypt's 
 great and far-reputed adeptist king, who, according to 
 Suidas, lived before the time of the Pharoes, about 
 four hundred years previous to Moses, or, as others 
 compute, about 1900 before the Christian era.^ 
 
 This prince, like Solomon, is highly celebrated by 
 antiquity for his wisdom and skill in the secret opera- 
 tions of nature, and for his reputed discovery of the 
 quintessential perfectibility of the three kingdoms in 
 their homogeneal unity ; whence he is called the Thrice 
 
 ^ See Platarcli de Iside et Osiride, sub init., and Bryant's 
 Analysis of Ancient Mytliology, vol. ii. 
 
 ^ See Suidas de Yerbo Cbemeia, " Credo Mercurium Trisme- 
 gistum, sapientem ^gyptium, floruisse ante Pharaonem," &c. 
 
6 Exoteric View. 
 
 Great Hermes, having the spiritual inteUigence of all 
 things in their universal law.^ 
 
 It is to be lamented that no one of the many books 
 attributed to him, and which are named in detail by 
 Clemens Alexandrinus, escaped the destroying hand of 
 Dioclesian;^ more particularly if we judge them, as 
 Jamblicus assures us we may, by those Asclepian Dia- 
 logues and the Divine Pcemander, which yet pass cur- 
 rent under the name of Hermes.^ Both are preserved 
 in the Latin of Ficinus, and have been well translated 
 into our language by Dr. Everard. The latter, though 
 a small work, surpasses most that are extant for subli- 
 mity of doctrine and expression : its verses flow forth 
 eloquent, as it were, from the fountain of nature, 
 instinct with intelligence ; such as might be more 
 efficacious to move the rational sceptic off from his 
 negative ground into the happier regions of intelligible 
 reality, than many theological discourses which, of a 
 lower grade of comprehension, are unable to make 
 this highly affirmative yet intellectual stand. But the 
 subjects treated of in the books of the Pcemander and 
 Asclepias are theosophic and ultimate, and denote 
 rather our divine capabilities and promise of regenera- 
 tion than the physical ground of either ; this, with the 
 practical method of alchemy being further given in the 
 Tractatus Aureus, or Golden Treatise, an admirable 
 relic, consisting of seven chapters, attributed to the 
 same author.'* The Smaragdine Table, which, in its 
 few enigmatical but remarkable lines, is said to com- 
 
 ' See TertuUianus de Anima, cap. ii. adversua Valentinianus, 
 cap XV. Hermetem vocat Physicorum Magistrum. 
 
 - Chimia est auri et argenti confectio, cujus libros Diocle- 
 sianus perquisites exussit eo quod Egyptii res uovas contra Dio- 
 clesianum moliti fuerant, duriter atque hostiliter eos tractavit. Quo 
 tempore etiam libros de chimia, auri et argenti a veteribus cou- 
 scriptos, conquisivit et exussit, ne deiuceps Egyptiis divitiae ex- 
 fluentia contisi in posterum E.omanis rebellarent. (Suidas in Yerbo 
 Chemeia.) 
 
 ^ See Jamblicus de Mysteriis, sect. viii. cap. iv. &c. 
 
 ^ Hermetis Trismegisti Tractatus Aureus de Lapidis physici 
 secreto. 
 
Preliminary Account. 7 
 
 prehend the working principle and total subject of the 
 art, we here subjoin : from the original Arabic and 
 Greek copies, it has been rendered into Latin by 
 Kircher as follows : — 
 
 TABULA SMAEAGDINA HERMETIS. 
 
 Verum sine mendacio certum et verissimum ; quod est superius est 
 sicut quod est inferius ; et quod est mferius est sicut quod est supe- / ^ 
 
 rius, ad perpetranda miracula rei unius : et sicut omn\ res fuerunt /-^-^ 
 ah uno, mediatione unius, sic otnnes res notce fuerunt ab hdc und re / 
 adaptatione. Pater ejus Sol est, mater vera Luna ; portavit id 
 ventiis in ventre suo, nutrix ejus terra est ; pater omnis telesmi, sive 
 consummatio totius mundi est hie. Vis ejus integra est si versa I 
 fuerit in terram. Sepai'abis terrain ab igr^,^ subtile a spisso, suavi- /"^ 
 ter cum multo ingenio ; asceridit a terra in coelum, iterumque descen- 
 dit i7i terram, recipifque vim superiorum et inferiorum. Sic habebis 
 gloriam totius mundi, ideb fugit a te omnis obscuritas ; hie est totius 
 fortitudinis fortis, qui vincet omnem rem subtilem omnemque solidam 
 penetrabit. Sicut mundus creatus est. Hinc erunt adaptationes 
 mirabiles quarum modus est hie. Itaque vocatus sum Hermes Tris- 
 megistus, habens ires partes fhilosophice totius mundi. Completum 
 est quod dixi operatione Solis. 
 
 We shall have occasion to revert to this tablet and 
 its apphcability hereafter, when we come to a particular 
 examination of the philosophic subject in its active 
 and passive relations, and the intimate mystery of 
 those Hermetic luminaries in conjunction. The in- 
 scription may be thus rendered. 
 
 THE SMAEAGDINE TABLE OF HEEMES. 
 
 True, without error, certain and most true; that which is above 
 is as that which is below, and that which is below is as that which is 
 above, for performing the miracles of the One Thing ; and as all 
 things were from one, by the mediation of one, so all things arose 
 from this one thing by adaptation ; the father of it is the Sun, the 
 mother of it is the Moon ; the wind carried it in its belly ; the 
 nurse thereof is the earth. This is the father of all perfection, or 
 consummation of the whole world. The power of it is integral, if 
 it be turned into earth. Thou shall separate the earth from the Jire, 
 the subtle from the gross, gently with much sagacity ; it ascends 
 from earth to heaven, and again decends to earth : and receives the 
 strength of the superiors and of the inferiors— so thou hast the 
 glory of the whole world ; therefore let all obscurity fee before 
 thee. This is the strong fortitude of all fortitudes, overcoming 
 
 A 
 
 ^/^ 
 
8 Exoteric View. 
 
 every subtle and penetrating every solid thing. So the world wag 
 created. Hence were all wonderful adaptations of which this is 
 the manner. Therefore am I called Thrice Great Hermes, having 
 the Three Parts of the philosophy of the xohole world. That 
 which I have written is consummate^ concerning the operation of 
 the Sun. 
 
 This Emerald Table, unique and authentic as it may 
 be regarded, is all that remains to us from Egypt of 
 her Sacred Art. A few riddles and fables, all more or 
 less imperfect, that were preserved by the Greeks, and 
 some inscrutable hieroglyphics are still to be found 
 quoted in certain of the alchemical records : but the 
 originals are entirely swept away. And — duly con- 
 sidering all that is related by the chroniclers of that 
 ancient dynasty, her amazing reputation for power, 
 wealth, wisdom, and magic skill ; — and, even when all 
 these had faded, when Herodotus visited the city, after 
 the priestly government of the Pharoes had been over- 
 thrown by Cambyses, and that savage conqueror had 
 burned the temples and almost annihilated the sacer- 
 dotal order, — after the influx of strangers had been 
 permitted, and civil war had raged almost to the ful- 
 filment of the Asclepian prophecy, — the wonders then 
 recorded by the historian of her remaining splendour 
 and magnificence ; — what shall we now conclude, 
 when, after the lapse of so many more destroying ages, 
 we review the yet mightily surviving witnesses of so 
 much glory, surpassing and gigantic even in the last 
 stage of their decay? Shall we suppose the ancient 
 accounts fallacious because they are too wonderful to 
 be conceived ; or have we not now present before our 
 eyes the plain evidence of lost science and the vestiges 
 of an intelHgence superior to our own ? For what did 
 the nations flock to Memphis ? For what did Pytha- 
 goras, Thales, Democritus, and Plato become im- 
 mured there for several solitary years, but to be initi- 
 ated in the wisdom and learning of those Egyptians ? 
 For what else, but for the knowledge of that mighty 
 Art with which she arose, governed, and dazzled the 
 whole cotemporary world ; holding in strong abeyance 
 
Preliminary Account. 9 
 
 the ignorant, profane vulgar, until the evil day of 
 desolation came with self-abuse, when, neglecting to 
 obey the law by which she governed, all fell, as was 
 foretold, and sinking gradually deeper in crime and 
 presumption, was at last annihilated, and every sacred 
 institution violated by barbarians, and despoiled ? 
 "Oh, Egypt! Egypt! Fables alone shall remain of 
 thy religion, and these such as will be incredible to 
 posterity, and words alone shall be left engraved in 
 stones narrating thy pious deeds. The Scythian also, 
 or Indian, or some other similar nation, shall inhabit 
 Egypt. For divinity shall return to heaven, all its 
 inhabitants shall die, and thus Egypt bereft both of 
 God and man shall be deserted. Why do you weep, 
 O Asclepias ? Egypt shall experience yet more ample 
 evils ; she was once holy, and the greatest lover of the 
 gods on earth, by the desert of her religion. And she, 
 who was alone the reductor of sanctity and the mis- 
 tress of piety, will be an example of the greatest 
 cruelty. And darkness shall be preferred to light, 
 and death shall be judged to be more useful than life. 
 No one shall look up to heaven. The religious man 
 shall be counted insane ; the irreligious shall be 
 thought wise ; the furious, brave ; and the worst of 
 men shall be considered good. For the soul, and all 
 things about it, by which it is either naturally im- 
 mortal, or conceives it shall attain to immortality, con- 
 formably to what I have explained to you, shall not 
 only be the subjects of laughter, but shall be con- 
 sidered as vanity. Believe me, likewise, that a capital 
 punishment shall be appointed for him who applies 
 himself to the Religion of Intellect. New statutes and 
 new laws shall be established, and nothing religious, 
 or which is worthy of heaven or celestial concerns, 
 shall be heard or believed in by the mind. Every 
 divine voice shall, by a necessary silence, be dumb : 
 the fruits of the earth shall be corrupted ; and the air 
 itself shall languish with a sorrowful stupor. These 
 events, and such an old age of the world as this, shall 
 
10 Exoteric View. 
 
 take place — such irreligion, iiiordination, and unsea- 
 sonableness of all good."' 
 
 Such is the substance of a prediction which, as it 
 was supposed to have reference to the Christian era, 
 has been abused and reputed a forgery by the faithless 
 learned of modern times. It is, however, difficult to 
 conceive why it should have been considered so ob- 
 noxious, for the early history of Christianity certainly 
 does not fulfil it ; it was a falhng off from Divinity 
 that w^as predicted, and not such a revival as took 
 place upon the teaching of Jesus Christ and his apos- 
 tles. At that period philosophy too flourished, and 
 the Spirit of the Word w'as potent in faith to heal and 
 save. If the prediction had been a forgery of Apuleius, 
 or other cotemporary opponent of Christianity, the 
 early fathers must have known it, which they did not as 
 is plain from Lactantius, and St. Augustin mentioning, 
 without expressing any doubt about its authenticity ; 
 and though the latter (then adopting probably the 
 popular notion) esteemed it instinctu fallacis spiritus,^ 
 he might subsequently perhaps have thought other- 
 wise, had he lived so long. Christianity was yet in 
 his time glowing, bright, and efficacious, from the 
 Divine Fountain ; faith was then grounded in reality 
 and living operation, and the mystery of human re- 
 generation, so zealously proclaimed, was also rationally 
 understood. The fulfilment, with respect to Egypt, 
 appears to have taken place in part long previously, 
 and in part to have been reserved to later times, w4ien 
 sacred mysteries, too openly exposed to the multitude, 
 became perverted and vilified by their abuse. 
 
 But this prophecy carries us out of all order of 
 time : it will be necessary, in tracing the progress of 
 our science, to pass again to Egypt. The period of 
 her true greatness is, as is well known, shrouded in 
 
 1 From the Asclepian Dialogue of llermcs, by Ficmus, as ren- 
 dered by T. Taylor. 
 
 2 Sec Taylor's notes to the Prophecy, in Plotinus' Select Works, 
 at the end, p. 557, &c. 
 
Preliminary Account. 11 
 
 oblivion ; but, during the succession of the Ptolemies, 
 the influx of strangers, so long before successfally 
 prohibited, became excessive : her internal peace was 
 destroyed, but her Art and Wisdom spread abroad with 
 her renown : foreigners obtained initiation into the 
 Mysteries of Isis ; and India, Arabia, China, and 
 Persia vied with her and with each otlier in magian 
 skill and prowess. 
 
 Pliny informs us that it was Ostanes, the Persian 
 sage accompanying the army of Xerxes, who first 
 inoculated Greece with the portentous spirit of his 
 nation.^ Subsequently the Greek Philosophers, both 
 young and old, despising the minor religion of their 
 own country, became anxious to visit the eastern tem- 
 ples, and that of Memphis above all, in order to obtain 
 a verification of those hopes to which a previous spirit 
 of inquiry and this new excitement had abundantly 
 given rise. 
 
 Amongst the earliest mentioned of these, after Thales, 
 Pythagoras, and a few others, whose writings are lost, 
 is Democritus of Abdera, who has been frequently 
 styled the father of experimental philosophy, and who, 
 in his book of Sacred Physics, treats especially of 
 the Hermetic art, and that occult discovery on which 
 the systems of ancient philosophy appear to have been 
 very uniformly based. ^ Of this valuable piece there 
 are said to be several extant editions, and Synesius has 
 added to it the light of a commentary.^ Nicholas 
 Flammel also, of more recent notoriety, has given ex- 
 tracts from the same at the conclusion of a very 
 instructive work."* That its authenticity should have 
 been disputed by the ignorant is not wonderful ; but 
 the ancients are nowhere found to doubt about it. 
 Pliny bears witness to the experimental fame of De- 
 
 ^ De Ostane Magno, vide Plinium, Histor. Nat. lib. xxx. cap. i. 
 
 2 Democriti Abderitae de Arte Sacra, sive de rebus naturali- 
 bus et mysticis libellus, ex veneraudae Gr^ecae vetustatis de Arte 
 Chimica reliquiis erutus. 
 
 ^ Synesius in Democritum Abderitam de Arte Sacra. 
 
 "* Flammelli Summario Philosophico. 
 
12 Exoteric View. 
 
 mocritus, and his skill in the occult sciences and prac- 
 tice of them, both in his native city of Abdera and 
 ' / afterwards at Athens, when Socrates was teaching 
 <^ there. Plenum miracul$( et hoc pariter utrasque artes 
 
 / effloruisse, medicinam dico, magiciemque eadem setate, 
 
 ' illam Hippocrate banc Democrito illustrantibus, &cJ 
 
 Seneca also mentions his artificial confection of pre- 
 cious stones ;^ and it is said that he spent all his 
 leisure, after his return home, in these and such-like 
 physico-chemical researches.^ 
 
 During the sojourn of Democritus at Memphis, he 
 is said to have become associated in his studies with 
 a Hebrew woman named Maria, remarkable at that 
 period for the advances she had made in philosophy, 
 and particularly in the department of the Hermetic art. 
 A treatise entitled Sapientissima Maria de Lapide 
 Philosophica PrcEscripta is extant ; also j\Jaria Prac- 
 tica, a singularly excellent and esteemed fragment, 
 which is preserved in the alchemical collections.^ 
 
 But amongst the Greeks, next Democritus, Anax- 
 agoras is celebrated as an alchemist. The remains of 
 his writings are unfortunately scanty, and even those 
 to be found in manuscript only, with exception of 
 some fragments which have been accidentally trans- 
 lated. From these, however, we are led to infer 
 favourably of the general character of his expositions, 
 which Norton, our countryman, also, in the Proheme 
 to his quaint Ordinal of Alchemy, lauds, thus holding 
 
 ' Hist. Nat. lib. xxx. cap i. 
 
 ^ Epistola, xci. 
 
 ^ Petronius Arbitt'r in Satyrico. 
 
 ^ Democriti Abderitas physici philosophi praeclarum iiomeu ; 
 hie ab Ostane Medo, ab ejus fevi Persarum Eegibus sacroriini 
 praefecturse causa in Egypto misso, sacris litteris initiatur et 
 imbuitur, in Memphis fano inter sacerdotes et philosophos, quae- 
 dam Hebraea, omni disciplinam genere excultu, et Paminenes. De 
 auro et argento et lapidibus et purpura, sennone per ambages 
 composite scripsit, quo dicendi genere usa est etiam Maria. Ve- 
 rum lii quidem Democritus et Maria quod enigmatibus plurimis 
 et eruditus artem occultassent huidati sunt : Pammeues quod 
 abunde et aperte scripsisset vituperatus est. (Syncellus, Chrono- 
 graphia, p. 248). 
 
Preliminary Account, 13 
 
 him up in excellent comparison with the envious 
 writers of his age. 
 
 ^ All masters ttat write of this solemn werke, 
 Have made their bokes to manie men fuU derke, 
 In poysies, parables, and in metaphors alsoe, 
 Which to schollors eauseth peine and woe ; 
 For in their practise when they woidd assaye 
 They leefe their costs, as men see alle daye. 
 Hermes, Easis, Geber, and Aviceu, 
 Merlin, Hortolan, Democi'it and Morien, 
 Bacon and Eaymond with many moe 
 "Wrote under coverts and Aristotle alsoe. 
 For what hereof they wrote cleare with their pen, 
 Their clouded clauses dulled ; fro manie men 
 Fro laymen, fro clerks, and soe fro every man 
 They hid this art that noe man find it can. 
 By their bokes thei do shew reasons faire, 
 Whereby much people are brought to despaire : 
 Tet Anaxagoras wrote plainest of them all 
 In his boke of Conversions Naturall ; 
 Of the old Fatliers that ever I founde, 
 He most discloses of this science the grounde ; 
 Whereof Aristotle had great envy. 
 And him rebuked unrightfully, 
 In manie places, as I can well report, 
 Intending that men shoidd not to him resort, 
 For he was large of his cunnyng and love, 
 God have his soul in bliss above ; 
 And such as sowed envious seede 
 God forgive them for their mis-deede,^ 
 
 Aristotle is much blamed by Adepts in general for 
 the manner in which he has not only veiled the know- 
 ledge which he secretly possessed, but also for having 
 wilfully, as they complain, led mankind astray from 
 the path of true experiment. We hesitate to judge 
 this question, since, however much the barrenness of 
 his philosophy may be deplored, it appears improbable 
 that any philosopher, much less one who took so 
 much pains as Aristotle, should designedly labour to 
 deceive mankind. His idea was peculiar and appears in 
 itself just. He blames his predecessors for the various 
 and contradictory positions they had made in philoso- 
 
 1 See Norton's Ordinal in Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum 
 Britannicum, p. 8. 
 
14 Exoteric View. 
 
 phising ; i. t. apparently contradictory, as respects 
 their language taken in a literal sense ; for he never 
 quarrels with their true meaning, and carefully avoids 
 disputing their general ground. His metaphysips in- 
 deed, which are the natural touchstone of his whole 
 system, diifer in no one fundamental respect or par- 
 ticular that is essential from those of Anaxagoras, 
 Plato, and Heraclitus. Certain epistles to Alexander 
 /> the Great on the philosopher's stone, attributed to 
 fy ^fit^ Aristotle, are preserved in the fifth volume of the 
 J<^^ ^ Theatrum Chemicinti ; and the 'See^^^&ttm-^iSe^frfhmna 
 J^o^ is generally acknowledged to be authentic. In the 
 Jj<^'^ book of Meteors also a clearer intelligence of intrinsic 
 
 causes is evinced than may be apparent to the com- 
 mon eye.^ 
 
 But the whole philosophy of Plato is hyperphysical ; 
 the Pheedrus, Philebus, and seventh book of Laws, 
 the beautiful and subhme Parmenides, the Ph?edo, 
 Banquet, and Timeas have long been admired by the 
 studious without being understood ; a mystic sem- 
 blance pervades the whole, and recondite allusions 
 baffle the pursuit of sense and ordinary imagination. 
 Yet the philosopher speaks more familiarly in his Epis- 
 tles; — and if the correspondence with Dionysius of 
 Syracuse had concerned moral philosophy only and the 
 abstract relations of mind, why such dread as is there 
 expressed about setting the truth to paper ? But the 
 science which drew the tyrant to the philosopher was 
 more probably practical and profitably interesting than 
 abstracts would appear to be to such a mind. " Indeed, 
 
 ^ See lib. iii. cap. 15. Ubi, inter alia, dicit, inetalla fieri ex 
 aqueo halitu et sicca exbalatione, qua; sunt argentum et sulphur. 
 Metalla autem omnia, ut ad rem redeam, fiunt ex una eademque 
 materia propinqua, utpote ex argento vivo et sulphure, quod 
 omnes asserunt. Difierent tamen forma id est puritate et coc- 
 tione seu digestioue. Spoliatio vero accidentium, vel formanim ip- 
 sarum essentialiam corruptio et aliarum introductio, possibilis est, 
 et in liabentibus symbolum facilis est transitus, ut circularis est 
 generatio elementorum, ita et metallorum ex se invicem. Which 
 universal principle of transmutation, thus indicated by Aristotle, 
 Hermes, Albertus Magnus, and the rest of the alchemists assert. 
 See also Aristotelis de Lapide ad Alexandrum Magnum ; Theat. 
 Cliem. vol. V. 
 
Preliminary Account. 15 
 
 ,0 son of Dionysius and Doris, this your inquiry eon- 
 ^cerning the- courno of all beautiful things is endued with 
 a certain quality, or rather it is a parturition respect- 
 ing this ingenerated in the soul, from which he who 
 is not liberated will never in reality acquire truth. "^ 
 Wisdom must be sought for her own sake, neither 
 for gold or silver or any intermediate benefit, lest 
 these all should be denied together without the dis- 
 covery of their source. There is a treatise on the 
 philosopher's stone in the fifth volume of the Thea- 
 truni Chemicum attributed to Plato, but the au- 
 thenticity is doubtful ; and since the principal Greek 
 records of the art were afterwards destroyed with the 
 remnant of Egyptian literature at Alexandria, we are 
 not desirous to enrol either of these names without 
 more extant evidence to prove their claim to the title 
 of Hermetic philosophers. They are mentioned here 
 in their series, because we hope to make it probable, 
 as the nature of the subject comes to be developed, 
 that the most famous schools of theosophy have in 
 all ages been based on a similar experimental ground 
 and profound science of truth in their leaders. 
 
 It was about the year 284 of the Christian era 
 when, as Suidas relates, the facility with which the 
 Egyptians were able to make gold and silver, and in 
 consequence to levy troops against Rome, excited the 
 envy and displeasure of the emperor to such an 
 extent, that he issued an edict, by which every che- 
 mical book was to be seized and burned together in 
 the public market-place ; vainly hoping, as the his- 
 torian adds, by this shameful act, to deprive them of 
 the means of annoying him any more. Thus 
 Suidas also endeavours to account for the silence of 
 antiquity with respect to the Egyptian Art.^ Yet, 
 notwithstanding all this sacrilege, the art appears to 
 have been continually revived in Egypt throughout 
 the whole period of her decline ; and, though the re- 
 
 1 Epistle II. Plato's Works, by Taylor, vol. v. 
 
 2 Suidas in Yerbo Chemeia. See the foregoing note, p. 6. 
 
16 Exoteric View. 
 
 cords are scanty, we have the memorable story of 
 Cleopatra, the last monarch, dissolving her earring in 
 such a sharp vinegar as is only known to philosophers 
 on the ground of nature. Mystical tales too there 
 are related of her pursuits with Mark Antony, and 
 certain chemical treatises attributed to this princess 
 are yet extant.^ 
 
 It will be unnecessary to delay our enquiry long at 
 Rome ; a city so pre-eminently famous for luxury and 
 arms was not likely to arrive at much perfection in 
 the subtler sciences of nature. Some failing attempts 
 of Caligula there are recounted by Pliny ;^ and Virgil, 
 Ovid, Horace, Vitruvius, and other men noted of the 
 Augustan Age, have been gravely accused of sorcery 
 and dabbling in the black art. But the perpetual 
 lamps best prove, and without offence, that the Ro- 
 mans understood something of chemistry and the oc- 
 cult laws of light ; several of these are described by 
 Pancirollus; and St.Augustin mentions one consecrated 
 to Venus in his day, that was inextinguishable. But 
 the most remarkable were those found in Tullia's 
 (Cicero's daughter's) tomb ; — and that one near Alestes 
 in the year 1 500, by a rustic who, digging deeper than 
 usual, discovered an earthen vessel or urn containing 
 another urn, in which last was a lamp placed between 
 two cylindrical vessels, one of gold the other of silver, 
 and each of which was full of a very pure liquor, by 
 whose virtue it is probable these lamps had continued 
 to shine for upwards of fifteen hundred years ; and, 
 but for the recklessness of barbarian curiosity, might 
 have continued their wonderful illumination to this 
 time. By the inscription found upon these vessels, 
 it appears they were the work of one Maximus Olybius, 
 who certainly evinced thereby some superior skill in 
 
 ' Cleopatra Eegina Egypti Ars auri faciendi, &c., aud others 
 mentioned in the Catalogue of the Eoyal Library at Paris, 1742. 
 See Dufresuoy, Hist. Herm. vol. iii. 
 
 2 Invitaverat spes Caium Caligulam Principem avidissimum 
 auri ; quam ob rem jussit ex coqui magnum auri pigmenti pondus ; 
 et plane fecit aurum excellens, sed ita parvi ponderis ut detri- 
 mentum sentiret, &c. (Hist. Nat. lib. xxxiii. cap. iv.) 
 
Preliminary Account. 17 
 
 arljusting the gaseous elements, or other ethereal 
 adaptations than is known at this day. The verses 
 graven on the larger urn are as follows : — 
 
 Platoui sacrum munus ne attingite fares : 
 Ignotum est vobis hac quod in urna latet. 
 
 Namque elementa gravi clausit digesta labore 
 Vase sub hoc modico Maxim us Olybius. 
 
 Adsit fecuudo custos sibi copia cornu, 
 Ne pretium tanti depereat latieis. 
 
 Which have been translated thus : 
 
 Plunderers, forbear this gift to touch 
 
 'Tis awful Pluto's own ; 
 A secret rare the world conceak 
 
 To such as you unknown. 
 Olybius, in this slender vase, 
 
 The elements has chained, 
 Digested with laborious art. 
 
 From secret science gained. 
 With guardian care, two copious urns 
 
 The costly juice confine. 
 Lest through the ruins of decay, 
 
 The lamp should cease to shine. 
 
 On the lesser urn were these : 
 
 Abite hinc pessimi fures ! 
 
 Yos quid voltis vestris cum oculis emissititiis ? 
 
 Abite hinc vestro cum Mercurio petasato caduceatoque ! 
 
 Maximus maximo donum Plutoni hoc sacrum facit. 
 
 Plunderers, with prying eyes, away ! 
 What mean you by this curious stay ? 
 Hence with your cunning patron god. 
 With bonnet winged and magic rod ! 
 Sacred alone to Pluto's name 
 This mighty art of endless fame ! ^ 
 
 Hermolaus Barbarus, in his corollary to Dioscorus, 
 or some other, where he is treating of the element of 
 water in general, alludes to a particular kind that is 
 distinct from every other w^ater or liquor, saying, — 
 There is a ccelestial, or rather a divine water of the 
 chemists, with which both Democritus and Trisme- 
 gistus were acquainted, calling it di\dne water, Scy- 
 
 ' See Theat. Chem. vol. i. p. 24; Ex Petri Apiani Antq. 
 desumpta ; also, Taylor's notes to his Pausanias, vol. iii. 
 
 C 
 
w 
 
 18 Exoteric View. 
 
 thian latex, &c., which is a spirit of the nature of 
 the ether and quintessence of things, whence potable 
 gold, and the stone of philosophers, takes its begin- 
 ning. The ancient author of the Apocalypse of the 
 Secret Spirit of Nature, is also cited by H. Kuhnrath, 
 concerning this water ; and he devoutly affirms, that 
 the ether in this praeter-perfect aqueous body will 
 burn perpetually, without diminution or consumption 
 of itself, if the external air only be restrained.^ There 
 are also, besides those mentioned by P^^ncirollus, mo- 
 dern accounts of lamps found burning in monuments 
 and antique caves of Greece and Germany. But the 
 Bononian Enigma, long famous, without a solution, 
 should not be omitted here, since this relic has puz- 
 zled many learned antiquaries ; and the adepts claim 
 it as having exclusive reference to the occult material 
 of their art. 
 
 ^LIA LtELIA CEISPIS. 
 
 Nee vir, nee mulier, nee androgyna, 
 
 Nee puella, nee juvenis, nee anus, 
 
 Nee casta, nee meretrix, nee pudica, 
 Sed omnia ! 
 
 Sublata neque fame, neque ferro, neqne 
 
 Yeneno, sed omnibus ! 
 
 Nee coelo, nee terris, nee aquis, 
 Sed ubique jacet ! 
 
 LUCIUS AGATHO PRISCUS. 
 
 Nee maritus, nee amator, nee neeessarius, 
 Neque moerens, neque gaudens, neque flens, 
 
 Hane 
 Neque molem, neque pjramidem, neque sepulcrura, 
 
 Sed omnia. 
 Seit et neseit eui posuerit, 
 Hoc est sepulcrum certe, cadaver 
 Non habeus, sed cadaver idem, 
 
 Est et sepulcrum ! ^ 
 
 The following excellent translations appeared 
 amongst some original contributions in the early 
 number of a literary periodical, a few years since : ^ — 
 
 ^ Amphitbeatrum Sapientise Eternae, circa medium. 
 2 Tbeat. Chem. vol. v. p. 744. Kircheri (Edipus -^gyptiacus, 
 vol. i. 
 •'' The Critic, new series, No. 13, 1845, p. 352. 
 
Preliminary Account. 
 
 19 
 
 JiLIA L.ELIA CEISPIS. 
 
 Nor male, nor female, nor hermaphrodite, 
 Nor virgin, woman, young or old. 
 Nor chaste, nor harlot, modest hight, 
 
 But all of them you're told — 
 Not killed by poison, famine, sword. 
 But each one had its share. 
 Not in heaven, earth, or water broad 
 
 It lies, but everywhere ! 
 
 LUCIUS AGATHO PRISCUS. 
 
 No husband, lover, kinsman, friend. 
 
 Rejoicing, sorrowing at life's end, 
 
 Knows or knows not, for whom is placed 
 
 This — ^what ? This pyramid, so raised and graced, 
 
 This grave, this sepulchre ? 'Tis neither, 
 
 'Tis neither — but 'tis all and each together. 
 
 Without a body I aver. 
 
 This is in truth a sepulchre ; 
 
 But notwithstanding, I proclaim 
 
 Both corpse and sepulchre the same ! 
 
 All these contradictory claims are said by the alche- 
 mists to relate to the properties of their universal 
 subject, as we shall hereafter endeavour to explain. 
 Michael Ma/er has detailed the whole allusion in his 
 Symbola} And N. Barnaud, in the Theatrum Che- 
 miciim, has a commentary on the same.'^ 
 
 But to proceed ; transferring our regards from 
 Rome to Alexandria, we find many Christian Pla- 
 tonists and divines studying and discussing the Occult 
 Art in their writings. St. John, the Evangelist Apos- 
 tle, is cited as having practised it for the good of the 
 poor ; not only in healing the sick, but also confecting 
 gold, silver, and precious stones for their benefit. St. 
 Victor relates the particulars in a commentary, and 
 the Greek Catholics were accustomed to sing the fol- 
 lowing verses in a hymn appointed for the mass on St. 
 John's day. 
 
 Cum gemmarum partes fractas 
 Solidasset, has disti'actas 
 Tribuit pauperibus. 
 
 1 Symbola Auriae Mensse, p. 170, etc. 
 
 2 Commentariolum in Enigmaticum quoddam Epitaphium Bo- 
 noniae studiorum, ante multa seciila marmoreo lapidi insculptum. 
 Theat. Chem. vol. v. 
 
 / 
 
^ 
 
 20 Exoteric View. 
 
 Inexbaustxim fert tbesanruni 
 Qui de virgis fecit aurum 
 Gemmas de lapidibu3.^ 
 
 Looking to the general testimony of the Fathers, 
 we observe that the early Church Catholic did not 
 neglect to avail herself of the powers which sanctity of 
 life and a well-grounded faith had gotten her. There 
 is no doubt either that the Apostles, when they in- 
 stituted and left behind them certain ordinances and 
 elementary types, as of water, oil, salt, and light, sig- 
 nified some real and notable efficacies. But our Re- 
 formers, mistaking these things for superstitions, and 
 since they had ceased to have any meaning, turned 
 them all out of doors ; retaining indeed little more of 
 the mystery of regeneration than a traditional faith. 
 The Papists, on the other hand, equally obli\dous, 
 evinced only to what a length human credulity and 
 ignorance may be carried, by placing inherent holiness 
 in those material signs, apart from the spirit and only 
 thing signified ; adding, moreover, to the original ordi- 
 nations many follies of their own, they fell into a very 
 slavish and stupid kind of idolatry. And since one of 
 the most fertile sources. of dissension that have arisen 
 in the Christian Church has been about these very 
 shadows and types of doctrine, it is to be hoped that, if 
 ever again they sliould come to be generally reintro- 
 duced, it will not be on the ground of ecclesiastical 
 persuasion, or any mere written authority, which, how- 
 ever high and well supported, has never yet been 
 found sufficient to produce unanimity ; but from a true 
 understanding and co-operation of that original virtue, 
 apart from which they do but mimic an efficacy, and 
 gather unwholesome fruits. There is a curious story of 
 an early Christian mission to China, related by Thomas 
 
 ^ See Alexander Beauvais in Specido Nalurali)/. Hie Johannes 
 Evaiigelista numeratur etiam ab Avicenna, dictionc prima libri de 
 anima, inter possessores lapidis pbilosopbici, suasqncinstitutiones, 
 qui se Avicenna artem banc docuorint quod verigimile est, nam et 
 ecclesia prisca, auctore Adamo a Sancto Victore, die D. Jobauni 
 EvangeUsta> sacro mente decinit in bymno incipiente : " Gratu- 
 lemur ad iestivum," &c. Yide Lucerna Salis, p. 65, &c. 
 
Preliminary Account. 21 
 
 Vaughaii, in his JMag'ia Adamica, showing how the 
 faith became originally established there and else- 
 where by its open efficacy, and the power of works, 
 in healing and purifying the lives of men. 
 
 But we are at Alexandria, and during that grand re- 
 vival of philosophy which took place and continued 
 there some centuries subsequent to the Christian 
 epoch. Plotinus, Philo-Judeeus, Proclus, Porphyry, / / 
 Jamblicus, Juli/n, and Apuleius, each professing a / <^ '. 
 genuine knowledge of the Theurgic art, and experi- 
 mental physics on the Hermetic ground. We shall 
 have frequent occasion to quote their evidence here- 
 after ; Heliodorus, Olympiodorus, Synesius, Athena- 
 goras, Zozimus, and Archelaus, have each left trea- 
 tises which are extant on the philosopher's stone. ^ 
 The excellent Hypatia, also, should be mentioned 
 amongst these, so celebrated for her acquirements and 
 untimely end ; it was from this lady that Synesius 
 learned the occult truths of that philosophy, to 
 which he ever afterwards devoted his mind, and which 
 he never abandoned, pursuing it still more zealously 
 when, converted to Christianity, he became a bishop 
 of the Alexandrian Church. He was careful, how- 
 ever, to protect the mysteries of his religion from 
 vulgar abuse, and refused to expound in public 
 the philosophy of Plato ; he and his brethren having 
 unanimously bound themselves by oath to initiate 
 none but such as had been worthily prepared and duly 
 approved by the whole conclave.^ Of Synesius, we 
 have remaining the Alchemical commentary on De- 
 mocritus before mentioned, with an admirable piece 
 commonly found appended to other treatises, those of j 
 
 A r tcfiuc and Flammel's Hieroglyphics, for example, Oy^lLoX^. 
 
 ^ Heliodorus Phil. Clirist. de Arte Sacra Chimicor. ad Theod. 
 Imp. Idem, versus Gr^ec. circa Cliimiam. Olympiodori Phil. 
 Ales, de Divina et Sacra Arte Lapidis Philosophici Tractatus. 
 Athenagoras de Perfect. Amoris. Zozimus de Virtute et Com- 
 positione Aquarum. Idem, de Aqua Diviua. Idem, de Auri Con- 
 ficieiidi. Archelai, Carmen lambicum de Sacra Arte. See Du- 
 fresnoy, Histoire de I'Art Ilermetique, vol. iii. Cat. Gr. IVISS. 
 
 ^ Synesius, Epistola 36, 142. 
 
22 Exoteric View. 
 
 and translated into English, with Basil Valentine's 
 Chariot of Antimotiy, and the useful commentaries of 
 the adept Kirchringius.^ 
 
 HeUodorus was a familiar friend of Synesius, and 
 brother adept ; besides the writings already named, 
 the mystical romance of J'heage/ies and Charicka 
 being attributed to him as an offence, rather than 
 disavow it, as was required, he relinquished his 
 bishopric of Tricca, in Thessaly, and went to pursue 
 his studies in poverty and retirement. 
 
 Zozimus was an Egyptian, and reputed a great 
 practitioner. The name of Athenagoras is familiar 
 in Church history; his tract, which has been trans- 
 lated into French, and entitled Da Parfait Amour, 
 shows him to have been practically conversant with 
 the art he allegorizes. 
 
 The taking of Alexandria by the Arabs, in the year 
 640, dispersed the choice remnant of mind yet cen- 
 tred there ; and it was not long afterwards that the 
 Calif Omar, mad in his Mahomedan zeal, condemned 
 her noble and unique library to heat the public baths 
 of the city, which it is said to have done for the space 
 of six miserable months. A wild religious fanaticism 
 now prevailed ; Christians and Mahomedans struggling 
 for temporal supremacy : — and here we may observe 
 something similar to a fulfilment of the Asclepian 
 prophecy, but the evil was more profusely spread even 
 than was predicted ; for religion had everywhere fallen 
 off from her vital foundation ; tradition and sectarian 
 delirium had taken place of intellectual enthusiasm, 
 and idle dreams were set up as oracles in the place 
 of Divdne inspiration. The priests, above all blame- 
 worthy, having forsaken the law of conscience, at- 
 tempted to wield without it the rod of magic power. 
 Confusion and licentiousness followed ; and from gra- 
 dual sufferance grew, and came to prevail, in the 
 worst imaginable forms. Necessity, at length, com- 
 
 1 Troics, Traitez de la Philosophie, &e., Paris, 1612. The 
 Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, from Kirchringius's ed., and The 
 True Book of Synesius, on the Philosopher's Stone. 
 
Preliminary Account. 23 
 
 pelled an abandonment of the Mysteries ; Theurgic 
 rites, no longer holy, were proscribed ; and a punish- 
 ment, no less than death, was menaced against him who 
 dared to pursue the " Religion of Intellect." In the 
 interim, those few who had withstood the torrent of 
 ambitious temptation, indignant at the multiform 
 folly, and observing by aid of their remaining wisdom, 
 that the ingression of evil was not yet fulfilled, has- 
 tened rather than delayed the crisis ; and by burying 
 themselves with their saving science in profound ob- 
 scurity, have left the world to oblivion, and the deceit 
 of outer darkness, with rare indiv^idual exceptions, to 
 this day. 
 
 It is a peculiarity of the Hermetic science that men 
 of every religion, time and country and occupation, 
 have been found professing it ; and Arabia, though 
 she was guilty of so great a sacrilege at Alexandria, 
 has herself produced many wise kings and renowned 
 philosophers. It is not known exactly when Prince 
 Geber lived ; but since his name has become noto- 
 rious, and is cited by the oldest authors, whereas he 
 himself quotes none, he merits, at all events, an early 
 consideration. Besides, he is generally esteemed by 
 adepts as the greatest, after Hermes, of all who have 
 philosophized through this art. 
 
 Of the five hundred treatises, said to have been 
 composed by him, three only remain to posterity : 
 The Iiwestigatioii of Perfection, The Sum of the 
 perfect Jilagisteri/, and his Testament ;^ and the 
 light estimation in which these are held by more 
 modern chemists, forms a striking contrast to the un- 
 feigned reverence and admiration with which they 
 
 ' Gebri Arahum Summa Perfectionis Magisterii in sua Natura. 
 Idem, de Investigatioue Perfectionis Metalloruni. Idem, Testa - 
 mentum. These wei'e printed together at Dantzic from the 
 Vatican MSS., aiid have been translated into English, and en- 
 titled " The Works of Geber, comprising the Sum and Search of 
 Perfection ; Of the Investigation of Verity ; and Of Furnaces ; with 
 a Recapitulation of the Author's Experiments, by R. Eussel : 
 London, 1678." There are other translations, but all faulty in 
 one or other respect. 
 
24 Exoteric View. 
 
 were formerly reviewed and cited by the adepts, Al- 
 bertus Magnus, Lully, and many more of the brightest 
 luminaries of their age. 
 
 " If we look back to the seventh century (we quote 
 from the address delivered at the opening meeting of 
 the Faraday Society, 1846), the alchemist is presented 
 brooding over his crucibles and alembics that are to 
 place within his reach the philosopher's stone, the 
 transmutation of metals, the alkahest, and the elixir of 
 life. With these we associate the name of Geber, the 
 first authentic writer on the subject ; from whose pe- 
 culiar and mysterious style of writing, we derive 
 the word gebcr or gibberish .'' 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding this and much more that they 
 descant upon, if our modern illuminati were but half 
 as experienced in nature as they might be — had they 
 one ray even of the antique intellect they deride, how 
 different a scene would not that remote age present to 
 them ? Instead of imagining greedy dotards brooding 
 over their crucibles and uncouth alembics, in vain 
 hope of discovering the elixir and stone of philoso- 
 phers, they would observe the philosophers them- 
 selves, by a kindred light made visible, on their own 
 ground : experimenting indeed, but how and with 
 what? Not with our gross elements, our mercuries, 
 sulphurs, and our lifeless salts ; but in a far different 
 nature, with stranger arts, and with laboratories too, how 
 different from those now in use : — of common fittings, 
 yet not inferior either ; but most complete, with ves- 
 sels, fuel, furnaces, and every material requisite, well 
 adapted together and compact in one. Right skilfully 
 has old Geber veiled a fair discovery, by his own art 
 alone to be unmasked : his gibbeinsh is not of the 
 present day's commonplace, tame, and tolerable ; 
 but such ultra foolishness in literality are his receipts, 
 as folly is never found to venture or common sense 
 invent. For they are a part of wisdom's envelope, to 
 guard her universal magistery from an incapable and 
 dreaming world ; calculated they are, nevertheless, 
 though closely sealed, to awaken rational curiosity, 
 
Preliminary Account. 25 
 
 and lend a helping hand to those who have already 
 entered on the right road ; but to deceive in practice 
 only the most credulous and inept. They who have 
 really understood Geber, his adept compeers, declare 
 with one accord that he has spoken the truth, though 
 disguisedly, with great acuteness and precision : others, 
 therefore, who do not profess to understand, and to 
 whom those writings are a mere unintelligible jargon, 
 may take w^arning hence, lest they exhibit to posterity 
 a twofold ignorance and vanity of thought. 
 
 Rhasis, another Arabian alchemist, w^as even more 
 publicly famous than Geber, on account of the practi- 
 cal displays he made of his transmuting skill. Excel- 
 lent extracts fi'om his writings, which are said to 
 exist principally in manuscript, often occur in the 
 w orks of Roger Bacon. 
 
 The story of the hermit Morien, how in early life he 
 left his family and native city (for he was a Roman), 
 to seek the sage Adfar, a solitary adept, whose fame 
 had reached him from Alexandria ; the finding him, 
 gaining his confidence, and becoming at length his 
 devoted disciple ; — is related by his biographer in a 
 natural and very interesting manner : also, his subse- 
 quent sojournings, after the death of his patron, his 
 intercourse with King Calid, with the initiation and 
 final conversion of that prince to Christianity. But the 
 details are given at much too great length for extract 
 in this place. A very attractive and esteemed work, 
 purporting to be a dialogue between himself and Calid, 
 is extant under the name of Morien, and copied into 
 many of the collections.^ Calid also wrote some 
 treatises : his Liber Sccretonim, or Secret of Secrets, 
 as it has been styled, is translated into English, French, 
 and Latin. ^ 
 
 Prince Averroes, and the notorious Avicenna, next 
 demand notice. The latter became known to the 
 
 ^ Morienus Eremita Hierosol. de Transfiguratione MetaUorum, 
 seu Dialogus Morieui cum Calide rege, de Lapide Pliilos. 
 
 ^ See Theat. Chem. vol. v. ; Salmon's Practical Physic ; and 
 Le Bibliotheque des Philosoplies Chimiques. 
 
26 Exoteric View. 
 
 world somewhere between the ninth and tenth centu- 
 ries. His strong but ill-directed genius, so similar to 
 that of Paracelsus, was the occasion of much suifering 
 and self-desolation ; but his name was illustrious over 
 Asia, and his authority continued preeminent in the 
 European schools of medicine until after the Reforma- 
 tion. He is said to have carried on the practice of 
 transmutation, with the magical arts in general, to 
 a great extent ; but his Alchemical remains are neither 
 lucid nor numerous, not those at least which are well 
 A authenticated.^ 
 CbJt^j^JC^^^ Artofiuo was a Jew, who, by the use of the elixir, is 
 ■^ ^ reported to have lived throughout the period of a 
 
 thousand years, with what truth or credibihty opinions 
 may vary ; he himself affirms it, and Paracelsus, Pon- 
 tanus, and Roger Bacon appear to give credence to 
 the tale,"^ which forms j^art of his celebrated treatise 
 on the philosopher's stone, and runs as follows: — 
 Ego vero Artefius postquam adeptus sum veram 
 accomplctam sapientiam in libris veridici Hermetis, fui 
 aliquando invidius sicut cseteri omnes, sed cum per 
 mille annos aut circiter qua? jam transierunt super me 
 -; a nativitate mea gratia soli Dei omnipotentis et usu 
 Ci\^e.j6JUci^ hujus mirabilis quintee essentise. — /. e. I, Art c HuJ r 
 ^ having learnt all the art in the books of the true 
 
 Hermes, was once, as others, envious ; but having 
 now lived one thousand years, or thereabouts (which 
 thousand years have already passed over me since my 
 nativity, by the grace of God alone, and tlie use of 
 this admirable quintessence), as I have seen, through 
 this long space of time, that men have been unable to 
 perfect the same magistery on account of the obscurity 
 of the words of philosophers, moved by pity and 
 a good conscience, I have resolved, in these my last 
 
 ^ The following have been attributed to him : — Avicenna de 
 Tinctura Metalloi-mu. Idem, Porta Elementa. Idem, de Mine- 
 ralibus, — printed Avith the Dantzic edition of Geber and a few 
 others. 
 
 ' See Theophrastus Paracelsus in Libro de Vitalonga, Pontanus, 
 Epistola, &c. R. Bacon, in Libro de Mirab. Natur. Operib. 
 
Preliminary Account. 
 
 27 
 
 days, to publish it all sincerely and truly ; so that 
 men may have nothing more to desire concerning this 
 work. I except one thing only, which it is not lawful 
 that I should write, because it can be revealed truly 
 only by God, or by a master. Nevertheless, this like- 
 wise may be learned from this book, provided one be 
 not stiff-necked, and have a little experience.^ 
 
 This Ai'tefius forms a sort of link in the history of 
 Alchemy, carried as it was in the course of time from 
 Asia into Europe, about the period of the first cru- 
 sades, when a general communication of the mind of 
 different nations was effected by their being united 
 under a common cause. Sciences, arts, and civiliza- 
 tion, which had heretofore flourished in the East only, 
 were gradually transplanted into Europe ; and towards 
 the end of the twelfth century, or thereabouts, our 
 Phoenix too bestirred herself, and passed into the 
 West. 
 
 Roger Bacon was amongst the first to fill his lamp 
 from her revivescent spirit ; and with this ascending 
 and descending experimentally, he is said to have dis- 
 covered the secret ligature of natures, and their magi- 
 cal dissolution : he was moreover acquainted with 
 theology in its profoundest principles ; medicine, like- 
 wise physics and metaphysics on their intimate ground; 
 and, having proved the miraculous multiplicability of 
 light by the universal spirit of nature, he worked the 
 knowledge into such effect, that in the mineral king- 
 dom it produced gold.^ What marvel, persecuted as 
 he was for the natural discoveries which he gave to 
 the world, without patent or profit to himself, if he 
 should appropriate these final fruits of labour and long 
 interior study ? Yet it does not appear that he was 
 selfishly prompted even in this particular reservation ; 
 it was conscience, as he declares, that warned him 
 to withhold a gift somewhat over rashly and dan- 
 
 ^ Artefii Autiquissimi Philosoplii de Arte Occulta atque Lapide 
 Philosophoriim Liber secretus. 
 
 2 See, Speculum Alchimise Eogerii Bachouis, Theat. Chem. vol. 
 ii. De Mirabilibus Potestatibus Artis et Naturae, &c. 
 
28 Exoteric View. 
 
 gerously obtained. His acutely penetrative and expe- 
 rimental mind, not content even with enough, led 
 him by a fatal curiosity, as it is suggested, into for- 
 bidden realms of self-sufficiency and unlawful perscru- 
 tinations, which ended in disturbing his peace of mind, 
 and finally induced him to abandon altogether those 
 researches, in order to retrieve and expiate in solitude 
 the wrongs he had committed. We know that the 
 imputation of magic has seemed ridiculous, and every 
 report of the kind has been referred to the fi'iar's 
 extraordinary skill in the natural sciences. The rejec- 
 tion of his books at Oxford has often been cited as an 
 instance of the exceeding bigotry of those times, as 
 indeed it was ; and yet, are we not nearly as far off per- 
 haps from the truth in our liberality as were our fore- 
 fathers in their superstition ? An accusation of magic 
 has not occurred of late, nor would be likely to molest 
 
 /rccc^v seriously any philosopher of the present age ; but then 
 j^^i , it did^often during the dark ages, and who can tell 
 
 ^ / wliether it may not again at some future day, when 
 
 men are even more enlightened and intimate with 
 nature than they are now ? 
 
 There are still remaining two or three works of 
 Roger Bacon, in which the roots of the Hermetic 
 science are fairly stated ; but the practice most care- 
 fully concealed, agreeably to that maxim, which in 
 his latter years he penned, tliat truth ought not to ht 
 shown to every ribald, for then that would become most 
 vile, ichich, in the hand of a philosopher, is the most 
 precious of all things.^ 
 
 Many great lights shone through the darkness of 
 those middle ages ; Magians, who were drawn about 
 the fire of nature, as it were, into communion with her 
 central source. Albertus Magnus, his friend and dis- 
 ciple the acute Aquinas, Duns Scotus the subtle 
 doctor, Arnold di Villa Nova, and Raymond Lully, all 
 confessed adepts. John Reuchlin, Ficinus the Pla- 
 tonist, Picus di Mirandola, blending alchemy and 
 
 1 Speculum Ak'liimia>, iu flue. Fr. Baclioiiis Anj^lici libellua 
 cum iufluentiis Cceli, relates to the same mystical subject. 
 
Preliminary Account. 29 
 
 therapeutics with neoplatonism and the cabahstic 
 art. Spinoza also was a profound metaphysician and 
 speculator on the same experimental ground. Alain 
 de risle the celebrated French philosopher, Merlin 
 (St. Ambrose), the abbot John Trithemius, Corne- 
 lius Agrippa his enterprising pupil, and many more 
 subsequent to these, great, resolute, and philosophic 
 spirits, who were not alone content to rend asunder 
 the veil of ignorance from before their own minds, but 
 held it still partially open for others, disclosing the in- 
 terior lights of science to such as were able to aspire, 
 and willing to follow their great example, labouring in 
 the way. Medium minds set limits to nature, halting 
 continually, and returning, before barriers which those 
 others overleaped almost without perceiving them. 
 Faith was the beacon-light that led them on to con- 
 viction, by a free perspicuity of thought beyond things 
 seen, to believe and hope truthfully, which is the dis- 
 tinguishing prerogative of great minds. But it will be 
 necessary to regard this extraordinary epoch of Occult 
 Science more in detail, with the testimony of its he- 
 roes, whose reputation, together with that of alchemy, 
 has suffered from the faithlessness of biographers, 
 compilers, commentators, and such like interference. 
 
 Most of the alchemical works of Albert, for in- 
 stance, have been excluded from the great editions of 
 his works, and the authenticity of all has been dis- 
 puted, but without lasting effect; for in that long and 
 laborious treatise, De Mineraiibus, unquestionably 
 his own, even if the rest were proved spurious, there 
 is sufficient evidence of his behef and practice to 
 admit all. Therein he describes the Jirst matter 
 of the adepts with the characteristic minuteness of 
 personal observation, and recommends alchemy as 
 the best and most easy means of rational investi- 
 gation. De transmutationc horum corporum metalli- 
 corum et mutatione unius in aliud non est physici 
 determinare, sed artis quae est Alchimica. Est autem 
 optimum genus hujus inquisitionis et certissimum, quia 
 Munc per causam unius cuj usque rei propriam, res 
 
30 Exoteric View. 
 
 cognoscitur, et de accidentibus ejus minimi dubitatur, 
 nee est difficile cognoscere.^ 
 
 This passage is one amongst many that might be 
 adduced from his own pen to prove that Albert was 
 an alchemist ; but Aquinas' disclosures are ample, re- 
 moving all doubt, even if he himself had left room 
 for any. Besides the treatise of minerals already 
 mentioned, there is the Libellus de Alcheniia, pub- 
 lished with his other works ;^ also, the ConcordamUtia 
 Philosuphorum de Lapide, the Secrelinn Secretorum, 
 and Breve Compendium in the Theatrum Chemicum, 
 all treating of the same subject. Albert's authority 
 is the more to be respected in that he gave up every 
 temporal advantage, riches, fame, and ecclesiastical 
 power, to study philosophy in a cloister remote from 
 the world during the greater portion of a long life. 
 An opinion has commonly obtained that the philoso- 
 pher's stone was sought after from selfish motives and 
 a blind love of gain : and that such has been fre- 
 quently the case there is no doubt ; but then such 
 searchers never found it. The conditions of success 
 are peculiar, as will be shown. Avarice is of all 
 motives the least likely to be gratified by the dis- 
 covery of wisdom. It is philosophers only that she 
 teaches to make gold. 
 
 Qufprunt Alchimiam, falsi quoque recti ; 
 Falsi sine numero, sed hi sunt rejecti ; 
 Et cupiditatibus, beu, tot sunt infecti 
 Quod inter niille millia, vix sunt tres electi 
 Istam ad scieutiam.^ 
 
 The true adepts have been rare exceptions in the 
 world, despite of all calumny, famous, and favoured 
 above their kind. Let any one but with an unpreju- 
 diced eye regard the writings of those who may be 
 believed on their own high authority to have suc- 
 ceeded in this art, and he will perceive that the mo- 
 
 1 Lib. iii. de Miueralibus, cap. 1. 
 
 2 Tom. 21, in fol. Lugduni, 1653, and in Theat. Cbem. vol. ii. 
 
 ' Norton's, Ordinall of Alcbemv, Preface, in Ashmole's Theat. 
 Chem. Brit. 
 
Preliminary Account. 31 
 
 tives actuating- them were of the purest possible kind; 
 truthful, moral, always pious and intelligent, as those 
 of the pseudo-alchemists, on the other hand, were 
 reckless and despicable. But more of this hereafter. 
 Albertus died, magnus in magia, major in philoso- 
 phia, maximus in theologia ; ^ and his learning and 
 fame descended fully on him who had already shared 
 it, his disciple, the subtle and sainted Aquinas. 
 
 The truth was not likely to lie dormant in such 
 hands ; Aquinas wrote largely and expressly on the doc- 
 trine oftransmutation, and in his Thesaurus Alchimice, 
 addressed to his friend, the Abbot Reginald, he al- 
 ludes openly to the practical successes of Albert and 
 himself in the Secret Art.^ Vain, therefore, are attempts 
 of his false panegyrists, who, anxious it would seem 
 rather for the intellectual than the moral fame of their 
 hero, have ventured to slur over his assertions as du- 
 bious. Aquinas is much too far committed in his 
 writings for their quibbling exceptions to tell in proof 
 against his own direct and positive affirmation. Me- 
 talla transmutari possunt unum in aliud, says he, cum 
 naturalia sint et ipsorum materia eadem. Metals can 
 be transmuted one into another, since they are of one 
 and the same matter."^ Declarations more or less 
 plain to the same effect are frequent, and his treatise, 
 De Esse et Essentia, is eminently instructive. It is 
 true he slurs over points and sophisticates also occa- 
 sionally in order to screen the doctrine from superficial 
 detection ; for Aquinas was above all anxious to direct 
 inquirers to the higher purposes and application of 
 the divine Art, and universal theosophy, rather than 
 to rest its capabilities of quickening and perfection in 
 the mineral kingdom, as at that period many were 
 wont to do, sacrificing their whole life's hope to the 
 
 ^ See Chronicon Magnum Belgicixm. 
 
 ^ TractatusD. Ttomae Aquino datus fratri D. Keinaldo de Arte 
 Alchimiae. 
 
 ^ Meteorum Initio, lib. iv.; and again, Prsecipuus Alcliimistarum 
 scopus est transmutare metalla scilicet imperfecta secundum veri- 
 tatem et non sophistice. 
 
32 Exoteric View. 
 
 multiplication of gold. Fac sicut te ore tenens docui, 
 ut scis quod tibi non scribo, quoniam peccatum esset 
 hoc secretum viris secularibus revelare, qui magis 
 banc scientiam propter vanitatem quam propter debi- 
 tum finem et Dei honorem quserunt. And again, Ne 
 sis garrulus sed pone ori tuo custodiam ; et ut filiam 
 sapientum margaritam ante porcas non projicies. Noli 
 te, charissime, cum majori opere occupare, quia propter 
 salutis et Christi prEedieationis officium ; et lucrandi 
 tempus magni debes attendere divitiis spiritualibus, 
 quam lucris temporibus inhiare.^ 
 
 The pretensions of Arnold di Villa Nova have not 
 been contested, nor are his writings the only evidence 
 of his skill in the Great Art. Cotemporary scholars 
 bear him witness, and instances are related of the won- 
 derful projections which he made with the transmuting 
 powder. The Jurisconsult, John Andre, mentions 
 him, and testifies to' the genuine conversion of some 
 iron bars into pure gold at Rome. Oldradus also and 
 the Abbot Panorimitanus of about the same period, 
 praise the Hermetic Art as beneficial and rational, and 
 the wisdom of the alchemist Arnold di Villa Nova.^ 
 The works of this philosopher are very numerous. 
 The Rosariwn P/ii/osuphician, esteemed amongst the 
 best, is published in the Tlieatrum Clitmicum, and 
 at the end of the folio edition of his works. The 
 
 ^ Thesaurus Alchimise, cap. 1 aud 8. Tractatus datus Fratri 
 Eeinaldo. Tliis with the Secreta Alchimioe and another are given 
 in the Theatrum Cheniicuni, and other collections of the Art. 
 
 ^ Nostris diebus habuiinus magnum Arnoldimi di Villa Is'ova, 
 in Curia Romana summum medicinam et theologiam, qui etiam 
 magnus Alchymista virgvUas auri, quas faciebat consentiebat omni 
 probationi submitti, &c. (Joan Andreas in addit. ad Specidum 
 Eub. de crim. falsi.) Hsecille Andreas enim a doctis omnibus ad 
 coelum usque laudibus vectus est, quern Ludovicus Eomanus 
 omnium hominum pra?stantissimum appellavit. (E. ^'allensis de 
 Yeritate, &c., in Theat. Chem. vol. i. p. 4.) Alchimia est ars 
 perspicaci ingenio inveuta, ubi expenditur tantum pro tanto et 
 tale pro tali, sine aliquafalsificatione format vel materia^, secundum 
 Andream de Isernia et Oldradum. Hoc insuper firmavit Abbas 
 Siculus Panoramitanus, &c. (D. Fabianus de INIonte, S. Severin 
 in Tractatu do Emptione et Venditione, Quest 5. Oldradus, lib. 
 Concilio, Quest. 74.) 
 
Preliminary Account. 33 
 
 Speculum, a luminous treatise ; ttie Carm'nia, Qut.s- 
 tio/ies ad Bo/iifaciut/i, the Testamentuui, and somf 
 others are given entire in the Thmtrum Chtmicum, 
 but have not been translated. 
 
 About this time and towards the close of the four- 
 teenth century, an excitement began to be perceptible 
 in the public mind. So many men of acknowledged 
 science and piety, one after another, agreeing about 
 the reality of transmutation, and giving tangible 
 proofs of their own skill, could not fail to produce 
 an effect ; the art became in high request, and its 
 professors were invited from all quarters, and held in 
 high honour by the world. Lesser geniuses caught 
 the scattered doctrine and set to work, some with 
 sufficient understanding and with various success. 
 
 Alain de I'lsle is said to have obtained the Elixir, 
 but his chief testimony has been excluded by the edi- 
 tors of his other works ; so often and unscrupulously 
 has private prejudice interfered to defraud the public 
 judgment of its rights and true data. The rejected 
 treatise, however, was printed separately, and may be 
 found in the third volume of the Theatruni Chemi- 
 cuin.} This philosopher also wrote a commentary on 
 the Prophecies of Aleiim, which are reported to have 
 sole reference to the arcana of the Hermetic art.^ 
 
 Raymond Lully is supposed to have become ac- 
 quainted with Arnold, and the Universal Science, late 
 in life ; but when the fame of his Christian zeal and 
 talents had already become known and acknowledged 
 abroad, his declarations in favour of alchemy had the 
 greater weight. Unlike his cloistered predecessors, 
 secluded and known as they were by name only to 
 the world, Raymond had travelled over Europe, and 
 a great part of Africa and Asia ; and wdth his former 
 fame was at length mingled the discovery of alchemy 
 and the philosopher's stone. John Cremer, Abbot of 
 Westminster, had worked for thirty years, it is related, 
 
 ^ Alani Philosophi, Dicta de Lapide. 
 
 2 Prophetia Anglicana Merlini, una cum Septem Libris Explica- 
 tionnni in eandem Prophetiam, &e., Alani de Insulis, T'rancf. 1608. 
 
 D 
 
34 Exoteric View. 
 
 assiduously with the hope of obtaining the secret. 
 The enigmas of the old adepts had sadly perplexed and 
 led him astray ; but he had discovered enough to con- 
 vince him of the reality, and to encourage him to pro- 
 ceed with the investigation; when, Lully's fame having 
 reached him, he determined to seek that philosopher, 
 then resident in Italy ; was fortunate in meeting with 
 him and gaining his confidence ; became instructed in 
 the method of practice, and not a little edified by the 
 pious and charitable life which LuUy led there, and 
 recommended to others. Desirous of becoming still 
 more intimately enlightened than was convenient in 
 that place, Cremer invited and brought over with him 
 Raymond Lully to England ; where he was presented 
 to the king, then Edward II., who had also before 
 invited him from Vienna, being much interested in 
 the talents and reputed skill of the stranger, and now 
 more than ever by the promise of abundant riches 
 which the sight of Cremer's gold held out to him. 
 Lully, still as ever zealous for the promulgation of 
 the Christian religion, promised to produce for the 
 king all monies requisite, if he felt disposed to engage 
 in the crusades anew. , Edward did not hesitate, but 
 complied with every condition respecting the appli- 
 ance of the gold, provided only Lully would supply 
 it. The artist accordingly set to work, so the story 
 runs, in a chamber set apart for him in the Tower, and 
 produced fifty thousand pounds weight of pure gold. 
 His own words relative to the extraordinary fact in 
 his testament, are these ; — Converti una vice in aurum 
 fet millia pondo argenti vivi, plumbi et stanni. I 
 converted, says he, at one time fifty thousand pounds 
 weight of quicksilver, lead and tin, into gold.' 
 
 The king no sooner received this, than breaking- 
 faith wath Lully, in order to obtain more, the artist 
 w^as made a prisoner in his own laboratory, and with- 
 out regard at all to the stipulation, before engaged 
 in, ordered to commence his productive labours anew. 
 This base conduct on the part of his king was much 
 
 ' Ultimnm Testamentum TJ. Lnllii. 
 
Preliminary Account. 35 
 
 lamented by Cremer, who expresses indignation thereat 
 openly in his TeMament ; ^ and the whole story has 
 been repeatedly recorded in the detailed chronicles of 
 those times. But to be short, our hero fortunately 
 escaped from his imprisonment, and a coinage of the 
 gold was struck in pieces weighing about ten ducats 
 each, called Nobles of the Rose. Those who have ex- 
 amined these coins pronounce them to be of the finest 
 metal, and the inscription round the margin distin- 
 guishes them from all others in the Museums, and 
 denotes their miraculous origin. They are described 
 in Camden's Antiquities, and for the truth of the whole 
 story, we have, besides Cremer's evidence and the 
 declarations of Lully, a great deal of curious cotem- 
 porary allusion to be found in the books of Olaus 
 Borrichius, R. Constantius, I'Englet Dufresnoy, and 
 Dickenson. The last relates that some time after the 
 escape of Lully, there was found in the cell he occupied 
 at Westminster with Cremer, whilst it was undergoing 
 some repairs, a certain quantity of the powder of 
 transmutation, by means of which the workmen and 
 architects became enriched.^ 
 
 Lully's writings on Alchemy are, as the rest, ob- 
 scure ; and have only been understood with great 
 pains and application even by those who have been so 
 fortunate as to possess the key of his cabalistic 
 mind. Whether his equivocal and contradictory lan- 
 guage was so contrived to baffle the sordid chemists ; 
 or whether, as before said, he learned the art late in 
 life, being previously incredulous, and was convinced 
 at last only by Arnold exhibiting the transmutation 
 
 ^ Cremeri Testamentuin. 
 
 ^ Aureas illas nobiles Anglorum primftm profectas memorat 
 (ex E-aymundi) Camdenus. Idem liodieque asseverantissime con- 
 firmant Anglorum ciiriosi, additque Edmundus Dickensonus 
 Lulliuin in coenobio Westmonasteriensi vixisse nou ingratiim 
 liospitem : enimvero pluribus ab ejus discessu amnis, resarta 
 quam incoluerat cellula multum adhuc pulveris Chrysopoei in 
 Cistiila repertum, magno inventoris architecti emolumeuto. See 
 Olaus Borrichius de Ortu et Progressu Chemi?e, 4to. p. 242 ; and 
 E. Diol^enson, de Quintessentia. 
 
 D 2 
 
3G Exoteric View. 
 
 in his presence ; it would require scrupulous examina- 
 tion to judge at this day : certain it is there are pas- 
 sages in his writings which leave room for controversy, 
 though none, we think, virtually denying the art, 
 whilst his essays in favour of it are acknowledged 
 excellent and numerous ; as many as two hundred are 
 given in the catalogue of Dufresnoy treating exclu- 
 sively on this subject.^ 
 
 Those, were singular times when few any longer 
 doubted the possibility of gold-making, and individuals 
 of the highest repute devoted their lives to the subtle 
 investigation. We have adduced this notable instance 
 of Lully's prowess in England, as one only amongst 
 many others, quite as well authenticated, which are 
 told by the authors before cited and in the alchemical 
 collections. Public curiosity was stimulated to the 
 highest pitch ; experiments were made reckless of con- 
 sequences, and the spirit of avarice, bursting forth 
 expectant, absolutely raged. Whether the incaution 
 of adepts, in making their art too publicly profitable, 
 had given rise to the frenzy, or whether it was spon- 
 taneously kindled, or from whatever cause, the fact is 
 lamentably certain ; the Stone was no longer sought 
 after by philosophers alone ; not only have we Lully, 
 Cremer,Rupecissa,De Meun,Flammel,John Pontanus, 
 Basil Valentine, Norton, Ripley, and the host of co- 
 temporary worthies, successively entering the lists ; 
 but with these a spurious brood of idlers living on the 
 pubhc credulity, and which the practical evidence of 
 these others continued to ferment ; men of all ranks, 
 persuasions and degrees of intelligence, of every variety 
 of calling, motive and imagination, were, as mono- 
 maniacs, searching after the stone. 
 
 As Popes ^vitll Cardinals of dignity, 
 Arelibysliops with Byshops of high degree. 
 With Abbots and Priors of religion. 
 With Friars, Heremites, and Preests mania one, 
 
 * Histoire Hermetique, vol. iii. His Theoria et Practica, 
 given in the third volume of the Theat. Chem., appears to us one 
 of the very best pieces of Alchemical philosopliy extant. 
 
Preliminary Account. 37 
 
 And Kings with Princes and Lords great of bloode, 
 
 For everie estate desireth after goode ; 
 
 And the Merchaunts alsoe, which dwell in fiere 
 
 Of brenning covetise, have thereto desire ; 
 
 And common workmen will not be out-lafte, 
 
 For as well as Lords they love this noble crafte. 
 
 As Grouldsmithes, whome we shall leaste repreuve 
 
 For sights in theii' craft mevetli them to beleeve ; 
 
 But wonder it is that Brewers deale with such werkes, 
 
 Free Masons, and Tanners, with poore parish clerkes ;- 
 
 Tailors and Glaziers woll not therefore cease, 
 
 And eke sely Tinkers will put them in preaae 
 
 With great presumption ; yet some collour there was 
 
 For all such men as give tmcture to glasse ; 
 
 But manie Artificers have byn over swifte. 
 
 With hastie credence to sume away their thrifte ; 
 
 And albeit their losses made them to smarte 
 
 Yet ever in hope continued their hearte ; 
 
 Trustinge some tyme to speede right well. 
 
 Of manie such truly I can tell ; 
 
 A¥hich in such hope continued all their lyfe, 
 
 Whereby they were made poore and made to unthrive : 
 
 It had byne good for them to have left oft' 
 
 In season, for noughte they founde except a scoffe, 
 
 For trewly he that is not a great clerke, 
 
 Is nice and lewde to medle with this werke ; 
 
 Ye may trust me it is no small inginn. 
 
 To know alle secrets pertaining to this myne. 
 
 For it is most profounde philosophye 
 
 This subtill science of holy Alkimy.^ 
 
 Many usurped the title of adepts, who had no know- 
 ledge even of the prehminaries of the Art ; sometimes 
 deceiving, at others, being themselves deceived ; and it 
 has been principally from the fraudulent pretensions of 
 those dabblers, that the world has learned to despise Al- 
 chemy, confounding the genuine doctrine with their 
 sophistical and vile productions ; and a difficulty yet re- 
 mains to distinguish them, and segregate, from so great 
 an interspersion of darkness, the true light. For a mul- 
 titude of books were put forth with the merest pur- 
 pose of deception, and to ensnare the unwary ; some 
 indeed affirming, that the truth was to be found in 
 salts, or nitres, or boraxes ; but others, in all vege- 
 table bodies indiscriminately, committing a multifa- 
 
 1 Norton's Ordinall in Ashmole's Theat. Chem. Brit. p. 7. 
 
38 Exoteric View. 
 
 rious imagination to posterity. Nor did these alone 
 content the evil spirit of that day, but it must intro- 
 duce mutilated editions of the old masters, filled with 
 inconsistencies, and the wicked inventions of designing 
 fraud ; and thus, as the adept observes, they have 
 blasphemed the Sacred Science, and by their errors 
 have brought contempt on men philosophising. 
 
 As of that Mounke wliicli a boke did write 
 
 Of a thousand receipts iu malice for despighte, 
 
 Which he copied in manie a place. 
 
 Whereby hath byn made manie a pale face 
 
 And manie gowndes have been made bare of hewe, 
 
 And men made fals which beforetimes were trewe.^ 
 
 Nor has the literature alone suffered from such 
 knavish interpolation ; but the social consequences 
 are described, at the time, as deplorable ; rich mer- 
 chants, and others, greedy of gain, were induced to 
 trust quantities of gold, silver, and even precious 
 stones, wdiich they lost, in the vain hope of getting them 
 multiplied ; and these rogueries became so frequent 
 and notorious, that at last acts of Parliament were 
 passed in England, and Pope's Bulls issued over 
 Christendom, forbidding transmutation, on pain of 
 death, and the pursuit of alchemy."^ But this, w^hilst 
 giving an external check, did not smother the 
 desire of riches, or that morbid desire of them, so 
 long fostered in the expectation ; experiments con- 
 tinued to be carried on in secret with no less ardour 
 than before, both by knaves and philosophers. Pope 
 John XXII., who interdicted it, is said to have 
 practised the art himself extensively, and to have 
 wonderfully enriched the public treasury through its 
 means. But to bring forward each extraordinary tra- 
 dition and character of the various artists who flou- 
 rished during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 
 would trespass too far on our pages ; and for the 
 present purpose, it may be needful only to detail the 
 more remarkable. 
 
 ^ Norion'is Ordinall, cap. 1. 
 
 ^ See Dufrec<uoy, Hist. Herm. vol. ii. p. 11, &c. 
 
Preliminary Account. 39 \ ^^^^^'^^ 
 
 Amongst them, the story of Nicholas Flammel, 
 and his wife Perne4:te, has been thought interest- 
 ing. Their humble origin, sudden accumulation of 
 wealth, their charitable distribution of it, and the 
 eminent piety and mystery of their lives, attracted 
 great attention in their own country, and a wide- 
 spread fame has descended and connects their 
 name honourably with the history of the Hermetic 
 art. The relation given simply by the author con- 
 cerning himself is as follows ; — 1, Nicholas Flam- 
 mel, Scrivener, living in Paris, in the year of our 
 Lord, 1399, in the Notary-street, near St. James, of 
 the Boucherie, though I learned not much Latin, be- 
 cause of the poverty of my parents, who, notwith- 
 standing were, even by those who envy me most, 
 accounted honest and good people ; yet, by the bless- 
 ing of God, I have not wanted an understanding of 
 the books of the philosophers, but learned them, and 
 attained to a certain kind of knowledge, even of their 
 hidden secrets. For which cause's sake, there shall 
 not any moment of my life pass wherein, remembering 
 this so vast good, I will not render thanks to this my 
 good and gracious God. After the death of my pa- 
 rents, I, Nicholas Flammel, got my living by the art 
 of writing, ingrossing, and the like ; and in the course 
 of time, there fell by chance into my hands a gilded 
 book, very old and large, which cost me only two 
 florins. It was not made of paper or parchment, as 
 other books are, but of admirable rinds, as it seemed 
 to me, of young trees ; the cover of it was brass, 
 well bound, and graven all over with a strange kind of 
 letters, which I took to be Greek characters, or some 
 such like. This I know, that I could not read them ; 
 but as to the matter which was written within, it was 
 engraven, as I suppose, with an iron pencil, or graver, 
 upon the said bark leaves ; done admirably well, and 
 in fair neat Latin letters, and curiously coloured. It 
 contained thrice seven leaves, for so they were num- 
 bered on the top of each folio, and every seventh leaf 
 
40 Exoteric View. 
 
 was without writini< ; but in place thereof were se- 
 veral images and figures painted. 
 
 Further, going on to describe the book and these 
 hieroglyphics minutely, Flammel relates how, at 
 length, after much study and fi'uitless toil, their mean- 
 ing was explained to him by a Jew stranger, whom lie 
 met with in his travels ; and how on his return home, 
 he set to work and succeeded in the discovery, is thus 
 familiarly declared : — He that would see the manner 
 /-eA^vfi l^t of my arrival home, and the joy of Pornotto, let him 
 look upon us two in the city of Paris, upon the door 
 of the chappel of James', in the Boucherie, close by one 
 side of my house, where we are both painted, kneel- 
 ing, and giving thanks to God : for through the 
 grace of God it was, that I attained the ])erfect know- 
 ledge of all that I desired. I had now the ■prima ina- 
 teria, the first principles, yet not their preparatiofi, 
 which is a thing most difficult above all things in the 
 world ; but in the end I had that also, after a long- 
 aberration and wandering in the labyrinth of errors, 
 for the space of three years. During which time, I 
 did nothing but study and search and labour, so as 
 you see me depicted without this arch, where I have 
 shown my process, praying also continually unto God, 
 and reading attentively in my book, pondering the 
 words of the philosophers, and then trying and proving 
 the various operations which I thought they might 
 mean by their words. At length, I found that which 
 I desired ; which I also soon knew, by the scent and 
 odor thereof. Having this, I easily accomplished the 
 magistery. For knowing the prcparatioi/s of the prime 
 agents, and then literally following the directions in 
 my book, I could not then miss the work if I would. 
 Having attained this, I came now to Projection ; and 
 the first time I made projection, was upon mercury; 
 a pound and a-half whereof, or thereabouts, I turned 
 into pure silver, better than that of the mine ; as I 
 proved by assaying it myself, and also causing others 
 to assay it for me, several times. This was done in 
 
Preliminary Account. 41 
 
 the year, a.d. 1382, January 17, about noon, in my 
 own house, Pcrncttc alone being present with me. J ^Ayn^e, CC^ 
 Again following the same directions in my book, word 
 by word, 1 made projection of the Red Stone, on a like 
 quantity of mercury, P crn otte-only being present, and / -OAyruzJiA. o^ 
 in the same house ; which was done in the same year, 
 April 25, at five in the afternoon. This mercury I 
 truly transmuted into almost as much gold, much 
 better indeed than common gold, more soft also, and 
 more pliable. I speak in all truthfully. I have made ^ 
 it three times with the help of Pdm i ett e, who under- /eAyn^J^iLy 
 stands it as well as myself; and, without doubt, if she 
 would have done it alone, she would have brought the 
 work to the same, or full as gi'eat perfection as I had 
 done. I had truly enough, when I had once done it ; 
 but I found exceeding great pleasure and delight in 
 seeing and contemplating the admirable works of na- 
 ture, icithin the vessels. And to show you that I had 
 then done it three times, I caused to be depicted under 
 the same arch, three furnaces, like to those which 
 serve for the operations of the work. I w^as much 
 concerned for a long time, lest Pernette, by reason of 
 extreme joy, should not hide her felicity, which I 
 measured by my ow^n ; and lest she should let fall 
 some words amongst her relations, concerning the 
 great treasure which we possessed. But the goodness 
 of the great God, had not only given and filled me 
 with this blessing, in giving me a sober chaste wife ; 
 but she was also a wise prudent woman, not only ca- 
 pable of reason, but also to do what was reasonable ; 
 and made it her business, as I did, to think of God, 
 and to give ourselves to the work of charity and 
 mercy. Before the time wherein I wrote this dis- 
 course, wdiich was at the latter end of the year 1413, 
 after the death of my beloved companion ; she and I 
 had already founded and endowed with revenues four- 
 teen hospitals, three chapels, and seven churches, in 
 the city of Paris ; all which we had new built from the 
 ground, and were able to enrich with gifts and reve- 
 
42 Exoteric View. 
 
 nues. We have also done at Bologne about the same 
 as at Paris, besides our private charities, which it would 
 be unbecomin*^ to particularise. Building, therefore, 
 these hospitals, churches, &c., in the aforesaid cities, I 
 caused to be depicted under the said fourth arch, the 
 most true and essential marks and signs of this art, 
 yet under veils and types and hieroglyphical charac- 
 ters ; demonstrating to the w'ise and men of under- 
 standing, the direct and perfect way of operation and 
 liiieary work of the philosopher's stone ; which being 
 perfected by any one, takes away from him the root of 
 all sin and evil ; changing his evil into good, and mak- 
 ing him liberal, courteous, religious, fearing God, how- 
 ever wicked he was before, provided only he carries 
 through the work to its legitimate end. For from 
 thenceforward he is continually ravished with the 
 goodness of God, and wdth his grace and mercy, which 
 he has obtained from the fountain of eternal goodness ; 
 with the profundity of his Divine and adorable power, 
 and wath the contemplation of his admirable works. 
 
 Part of this relation is given of himself by the au- 
 thor in his Hieroglyphics, and part is taken from his 
 Testament ; and chronicles recount as late as the year 
 1740, that the evidence of his charitable deeds re- 
 mained and the symbols of the art in the cemetery of 
 the Holy Innocents at the church of St. James, on 
 the Marivaux door, at the portal of St. Geneveve, 
 &c.,^ Amongst the writings of Flammel, besides 
 those already quoted from, we have Le Sommaire Phi- 
 losophicjae, in French verse, which is also translated 
 in the Theatruni Chemicuni, an esteemed w^ork, with 
 important annotations at the end ; Le Desir desire, and 
 Lk Grande Eclaircissement , wdiich are more rarely to 
 be met with. 
 
 The Isaacs, father and son, Dutch adepts, are said 
 to have worked successfully, and are much lauded by 
 
 ' See Histoire Hermetique, vol. i. p. 20G ; Lives of the Adepts, 
 p. 38. Les Hieroglyphiques de N. Flammel. 
 
Preliminary Account. 43 
 
 Boerhaave, who appears not either to have been a 
 stranger to their pursuit or to the principles of occult 
 science.^ 
 
 But Basil Valentine is the star of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury ; he is generally reported to have been a Benedic- 
 tine hermit ; but a mystery hangs about his indivi- 
 duality which has never been satisfactorily cleared up, 
 though careful researches have been made, and his 
 numerous w^orks written in all languages, called forth 
 nmch curiosity on their appearance and have been held 
 in high estimation by students in the Hermetic art. 
 He ranks high amongst his brethren for having, as 
 they say, discovered a new method of working the 
 Red Elixir, and facilitated the process materially, which 
 had been hitherto laborious and a rare effect, as ap- 
 pears from those lines of Norton. 
 
 How that manie men patient and wise, 
 Found our White Stone with exercise ; 
 After that they were trewly taught, 
 With great labor, that stone they caught ; 
 But few (saith he) or scarcely one ; 
 In fifteen kingdoms hath our Red Stone. 
 Whom to seeke it availeth right noughte, 
 Till the white medicine be fully wrought ; 
 Neither Albertus Magnus, the Blacke Freere, 
 Neither Freer Bacon his compeere. 
 Had not of our Eed Stone consideration 
 Him to increase in multiplication, &c.^ 
 
 The Hamburg edition of Basil Valentine's works 
 may be considered the most perfect.^ The English 
 translations are rambling and incomplete ; with the 
 single exception of that one which is taken from the 
 Latin of Kirchringius, with his admirable commentary 
 on the Triumphal Chariot of Antimony and Stone 
 of Fii^e. The Twelve Keys are rendered in the Biblio- 
 theque des Philosopher Chimiques, second edition. 
 
 A valuable collection of English Alchemy in verse 
 
 1 Joan Isaac HoUandus de Lapide Philosophico, Francf. 1G69. 
 Isaac Hollandus Opera Universalia, sive de Lapide Philm., &c. 
 
 2 Norton's Ordiuall, chap. 5. 
 
 ^ Chimische Schriiften, Fr. Basillii A^alentinii, in 12mo. 1717. 
 
44 Exoteric View. 
 
 was published by Elias Ashmole, himself a lover of 
 occult science, and the great patron, in his day, of 
 those who made it their study. Neither was he igno- 
 rant of the subject, if we may judge by the preface 
 and curious notes appended to his Tlicatrum, wherein 
 he exposes certain principles of magic, and alludes 
 to the manual artifice without much disguise. I 
 must profess, says he, I know enough to hold my 
 tongue, but not enough to speak ; and the no less real 
 than miraculous fruits I have found, in my diligent 
 inquiry in these arcana, lead me on to such degrees 
 of admiration, they command silence, and force me 
 to lose my tongue, lest, being not wholly experi- 
 enced, as he goes on to say, I should add to the 
 many injuries the world has already suffered, by de- 
 livering the bare medley of my apprehensions without 
 the confident attestation of practice ; and be justly es- 
 teemed as indiscrete as those whom Ripley mentions, 
 that prate, 
 
 Wyth wondreng. 
 Of Eobiu Hood, and of his Bow, 
 Whycli never sliot therin I trow.^ 
 
 Norton's Ordinal, dated 1477, with which this 
 Hermetic Theatre opens, is a praiseworthy perform- 
 ance, and with the exception of the Subject Matter 
 and certain preliminaries, which are constantly con- 
 cealed, the process is presented in a candid, orderly, 
 ^ and attractive manner. So much cannot be said for 
 
 0( the Cannon Ripley, of Bridlington, wdiose private mis- 
 
 fortunes would seem to have made him envious. His 
 composition is disorderly, and those Tivelve Gates 
 have, we conceive, little edified any without the 
 Lodge. Added also to his own wilful misguidance, the 
 verses are said to have suffered spoliation and dis- 
 placement from the order in which they were originally 
 written, according to the mischievous cabalistic method 
 in vogue at that time. Ripley, therefore, is univer- 
 sally complained of, though reputed a good adept. 
 
 ^ Aslnnole's Tlieatruin C'lieuiicum Britanicum, London, 1652. 
 
Preliminary Account. 45 
 
 The commentary published by the celebrated Anony- 
 mous adept Eireneus Philalethes, under the title of 
 Riplej/ Jxevived , though itexplains a great deal practically 
 and may soom to lead on the initiated, yet will appear in- oCevz^"^^ 
 famously sophistical and inevitably disgust a beginner.^ 
 
 All Ashmole's collection is valuable, even were it 
 only as a specimen of early mystic literature. The 
 Fragment from Pierce, the Black Monke, Bloomfield's 
 Blossoms, and Philosophy and Experience, are amongst 
 the most instructive. Ashmole's intention of collect- 
 ing the English prose writings on Alchemy was not 
 accomplished ; only a few scattered portions were edited 
 and these not of the best. 
 
 Ficinus, an Italian of highly cultivated genius, w^ell 
 known as the Latin translator of Plato, and saviour 
 of other valuable remnants of antique literature, was 
 also an amateur in the Hermetic art. He collected 
 and translated the works imputed to Hermes, before 
 mentioned, from Greek into Latin, and took pains 
 elsewhere theoretically to explain the art.^ Picus, 
 prince di Mirandola, was his contemporary, and wrote 
 a treatise, in which he connects Alchemy w^ith the 
 most profound metaphysical science.^ 
 
 Then w^e have the remarkable instance of Cornelius 
 Agrippa, a man of pow^erful and penetrating genius, 
 who, having possessed himself of the means and prin- 
 ciples of the Occult Science from his friend, the wary 
 and learned Abbot Trithemius, set to work something it 
 would seem after the example of Friar Bacon, proving 
 them in a self-sufficient order. His three books Of 
 Occult Philosophy, especially the first tw^o, illustrate 
 the practical bias and enterprising nature of his mind ; 
 but as he declares, he had not, when he wrote them, 
 arrived at a full experience, nor was he able to make 
 
 1 Ripley Eevived, being au Exposition of Sir George Ripley's 
 Gates, and his Epistle to King Edward, by Eireneus Philalethes. 
 
 2 Marsilii Ficini Elorent. Liber de Arte Chemica. 
 
 '^ J. E. Picus, de Auro in Theat. Cliem. vol. ii. ; also, J. F. P. 
 MirandolfB Domini, Concordieque, Opus Aureum de Auro. Idem, 
 Libri tres de Auro turn conficiendo, &e. 
 
46 Exoteric View. 
 
 the philosopher's stone. But it was this discovery, 
 made later in Ufe, which caused him to be discontent- 
 ed with his former revelation, and to publish that 
 book on the Vanity of the Sciences, which has been 
 considered as a recantation of his former philoso- 
 phy ; but which is in fact no recantation at all, but a 
 consummation rather and conclusion in general of his 
 works. Any one taking- the pains to read may per- 
 ceive that Agrippa WTote it neither in ignorance nor in 
 despair of human knowdedge. It was by searching 
 and proving the magnitude of the Mystery, that he 
 arrived at that final and convictive faith, which is as 
 much above ordinary science as the \ailgar credulity of 
 mankind is below it. It is not the part of a mind, 
 sane and philosophic, to fall back content in igno- 
 rance, or to retrograde passively in despair of its object. 
 The vanity of particular and temporal sciences is dis- 
 covered by comparison only in the broad day light of 
 universal truth ; and there stood the magician at last 
 wdien, as it were fi'om the top of Celsus' ladder, look- 
 ing down upon the steps by which he had climbed, and 
 wdiereon he had successively rested, he observed their 
 inferiority and the small, prospect they afforded in 
 comparison wath that which he now, at their clear 
 summit, enjoyed. Let any one read from the Vanity 
 of the Sciences the chapter on Alclicmii, and judge 
 wdiether the author contradicts, as report has said, or 
 contemns merely the experience of his early youth ; 
 and where, after showing the folly of pretenders, 
 speaking of the genuine Hermetic art, he says, — I 
 could tell many things of this art, if I had not sworn 
 to keep silence, and this silence is so constantly and 
 religiously observed of the ancient philosophers, that 
 there is found no faithful writer of approved authority, 
 that hath openly described this art : which thing has 
 induced many to believe that all books of this art 
 were but of late years invented, &c. Finally of the 
 one blessed stone alone, besides which there is no 
 other thing, the subject of the most holy stone of 
 philosophers, to speak rashly, w'ould be a sacrilege 
 
Preliminary Account. 47 
 
 and I should be foresworn.^ Looking to the final 
 chapters of the same work also, we observe the ground 
 of the whole Hermetic philosophy laid out, and the 
 relative vanity of worldly science to that, which is 
 universal, rational, and divine. The capabilities of the 
 subject are great; and had it been treated in the usual 
 full and masterly style of the scholar of Nettesheim, 
 it would have remained a work of lasting value ; but 
 he was fettered by oaths and had been somewhat con- 
 science stricken; and the monks, whom he had formerly 
 censured, eagerly promulgated the whole as a recanta- 
 tion of foraier errors, holding it up in this light and 
 as an acknowledgment of the sufficienc}'^ of their own 
 doctrine and of the common faith for salvation. 
 
 In the beginning of his extraordinary career, Theo- 
 phrastus Paracelsus proposed openly to discover the 
 hidden secret of philosophy ; but the world scoffed at 
 his pretensions, abused and persecuted him ; and all 
 the revenge he indulged in, was to leave it unenlight- 
 ened. The writings he put forth are, with few excep- 
 tions, filled with subtle malice, as it were, so many 
 sarcasms upon mankind, and leading them far away, 
 through alluring sophisms, from the straight way of 
 truth. Surely, as Ashmole remarks, incredulity appears 
 to have been given to the world as a punishment ; yet 
 neither in its belief did it speed better, but has still 
 plodded on in error for want of thought, and through 
 all ages men have suffered in ignorance, on account 
 mainly of the indifference and selfishness of their de- 
 sires. Of the numerous books attributed to Paracelsus, 
 and given together as his works, the three Addresses 
 to the Aiheuiaris, and the Aurora, are amongst the 
 best. Those to the Athenians have been translated 
 into English, and published with The Philosopliy of 
 J. Crollius, a disciple, and the Aurora also is to be 
 met with, though more rarely, in company with the 
 Water Stone uf the Wise Men, by J. Grasseus. Witli 
 respect to the private history and character of this ex- 
 traordinary man, accounts differ, and opinions accord- 
 
 1 See De Vanitate Scientiarum, Alcli. &e. 
 
48 Exoteric View. 
 
 ingly ; but his fame, and the authority of his doctrine, 
 lasted down through a long period of time. His early 
 death has been adduced as an argument against the 
 probability of his being possessed of the elixir he 
 boasts ; and by others as a proof of his having been 
 poisoned : but the poison of intemperance and irre- 
 gular living has also been considered as especially likely 
 to be fatal to one who was in the habit of taking a 
 potent spiritual medicine, which w^ould heighten the 
 physical consequences of depravity and habitual ex- 
 cess, and accelerate dissolution in the conflict of op- 
 posite principles.^ Paracelsus, notwithstanding the 
 world's neglect, had numerous disciples, increasing 
 also after his decease : some intelligent and worthy 
 the name of philosophers, as Van Helmont, Crollius, 
 Fludd, Helvetius, Faber, and many more anonymous ; 
 but there were others, mountebank pretenders, more 
 in number still, who, pursuing the baser line of their 
 master's example, whilst they enviously suppressed the 
 little truth they kneW', wrote and practised for lucre, 
 leading mankind into error and the commitment even 
 of egregious crimes by their receipts. And the world 
 which would not be drawn by the true light, gave 
 easy way to their false stimulants, and encouraged the 
 enemies' growth in literature, until the tares possessed 
 the field ; nor could it be well otherwise, as a modern 
 adept has observed on the occasion, for this bushel 
 being placed over the light, the darkness of it invited 
 ignorance abroad. 
 
 The burlesques of Erasmus, which, towards the 
 close of the sixteenth century, were turned upon the 
 follies then continually going on amongst the cre- 
 dulous chemists and their dupes, show that it was the 
 prevailing mania of the age ; when rich men and 
 potentates fell easily into the snares of the low^est 
 vagabonds, who had acquired the tact only to write 
 and talk mysteriously. Chaucer, in the tale of the 
 Chanons Yeoman, gives an example of this kind of 
 the boastings, bereavements, and surpassing beliefs 
 
 ^ Seo LiA'es of the Alcliemists, p. ^)2. 
 
Preliminary Account. 49 
 
 of ignorance ; as Ripley also, in his Et^rofteous Expe- 
 riments, tells how he 
 
 Made solucyoiis full many a one, 
 
 Of spyrytts, ferments, salts, yerne and Steele ; 
 
 AVenyng so to make the philosopliers stone ; 
 
 But finally I lost eche dele, 
 
 After my boks yet wrought I well ; 
 
 Wliich evermore untrew I provyd, 
 
 That made me oft full sore agrevyd. 
 
 Waters corrosyve and waters ardent. 
 
 With which I wrought in divers wyse, 
 
 Many one I made but all was shent ; 
 
 Egg shells I calcenyd twyse or thryse, 
 
 Oylys fro calcys I made up ryse ; 
 
 And every element fro other I did twyne 
 But profytt found I ryght none therein. 
 
 Also I wrought in sulphur and in vitriall, 
 Whych folys doe caU the Grene Lyon, 
 In arsenicke, in orpemint, fowle mot them fall ; 
 In delibi principio was myne inceptyon : 
 Therefore was frawde in fyne the conclusyon : 
 
 And I blew my thryft at the cole, 
 
 My clothys were bawdy, my stomache was never hole, 
 
 I provyd uryns, eggs, here, and blod. 
 The scalys of yern whych smethys do off smyte, 
 Qj]s, ust, and crokefer whych dyd me never good : 
 The sowle of Saturn and also marchisyte, 
 Lythage and antimony not worth a myte : 
 Of whych gey tinctures I made to shew, 
 Both red and white whych were untrew, 
 
 Oyle of Lune and water wyth labor greatt, 
 I made calcynyng yt with salt precipytate. 
 And by hytself with vyolent heatt 
 Grindyng with vynegar tyll I was fatygate : 
 And also with a quantitye of spyces acuate ; 
 Upon a marble whych stode me oft in cost 
 And oyles with corrosyves I made ; but all was lost. 
 Thus I rostyd and boy 1yd as one of Geber's cooks. 
 And oft tymes my wynnyng in the asches I sought ; 
 For I was dysceivyd wyth many falce books 
 Whereby untrue, thus truly I wrought : 
 But all such experyments avaylyd me nought ; 
 But brought me in danger and in cumbraunce. 
 By loss of goods and other grievaunce, &c.^ 
 
 ' An Admonition of Erroneous Experiments, Theat. Chem. 
 Brit. p. 189. 
 
 E 
 
50 Exoteric View. 
 
 The tide so long encroaching, however, began at 
 last to fluctuate ; and as mistrust, gathering fi'om dis- 
 appointment, ripened, a change somewhat suddenly 
 took place in the public mind, and turned finally into 
 an absolute odium of the deluding alchemists and their 
 art. Then it was that several were obliged to retire 
 into exile ; and even the true adepts — for the public 
 knew^ not to distinguish — suffered equal cruelty and 
 abundant inconvenience. They who before had been 
 courted and lauded in hopes of obtaining gold, or the 
 means of making it, were arrested and tortured, in 
 order to extort confession ; accordingly we find mixed 
 up with their philosophy, bitter complaints of injury, 
 thefts, murders, and unjust imprisonments. Alex- 
 ander Sethon was hunted through Europe in disguise, 
 not daring to remain in any town, for fear of de- 
 tection. — I am suffering, says this author, in his 
 Open Entrance^ a continual banishment : deprived 
 of the society of friends and family, and, as if driven 
 by the Furies, am compelled constantly to fly from 
 place to place and from kingdom to kingdom, with- 
 out delaying anywhere. And thus, though I possess 
 all things, I have no rest or enjoyment of any, except 
 in the truth, which is my whole satisfaction. They 
 who have not a knowledge of this art imagine, if they 
 had, they would do many things : I also thought 
 the same, but am grow^n circumspect b}^ experience of 
 many dangers and the peril of life. I have seen so 
 much corruption in the world, and those even who 
 pass for good people are so ruled by the love of 
 gain, that I am constrained even from the works of 
 mercy, for fear of suspicion and arrest. I have expe- 
 rienced this in foreign countries, Avhere, ha^dng ven- 
 tured to administer the medicine to sufferers given 
 over by physicians, the instant the cures became 
 known, a report was spread about of the Elixir, and I 
 have been obliged to disguise myself, shave my head, 
 and change my name, to avoid falling into the hands 
 of wicked persons, who would try to ^^Test the secret 
 from me, in hopes of making gold. I could relate 
 
Preliminary Account. 51 
 
 many incidents of this kind which have happened to 
 me. Would to God that gold and silver were as 
 common as the street mud ; we should not then be i/Lj^ 
 obliged to fly and hide ourselves, as if we were ac- 
 cursed like Cain.' Michael Sendivogius was im- //p 
 prisoned by his prince ; even the pious Kiiinrath is r/iiA^ 
 moved to bitterness, when speaking of the treatment / / 
 
 he had experienced : George Von Welling, Fichtuld, 
 Miiller, Harprecht, also ; for the good and innocent 
 now suffered more and more everywhere for the impo- 
 sitions of knaves, and were therefore compelled to 
 be silent and more than ever cautious to conceal their 
 names, with the evidence of Alchemy, from the world. 
 And as the mind of the day became gradually engaged 
 in puritanical discussions, and the interests of political 
 leaders, indifference to the art again succeeded, and a 
 scepticism, as blind, and nearly as pernicious as the 
 former credulity, settled upon the minds of men. 
 But philosophers were content to have it so ; observ- 
 ing the incapability of the common herd, and how 
 little they cared for truth, or the witness of nature's 
 greatest miracles, in comparison w^ith their own selfish 
 emolument. Some gathered themselves together for 
 better protection, and carrying on their work into the 
 Rosicrucian Fraternity, a widely celebrated, though 
 secret association, established, as the report is, by a 
 German adeptist, who had travelled into the East, 
 and in Arabia was initiated into many arcane mysteries 
 of nature. Their Fame and Confession, wdth the story 
 of their first institution, has been rendered into Eng- 
 lish, with an excellent Preface, by Thomas Vaughan, 
 and an Appendix, showing the true nature of their 
 philosophy, place of abode, and other particulars con- 
 nected with their magian prowess and renown. 
 
 But we must not omit to notice the names of Dee 
 and Kelly, two notorious magicians of Queen Eliza- 
 beth's time ; for though the latter was somewhat of 
 a knave, and a little over-presumptuous, yet there is 
 
 ^ See Introitus Apertus ad Occlusum Keg6M*i Palaties (?ap- xiii. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 Exoteric View, 
 
 reason to believe that he practised transmutation, 
 and became possessed of the Red Powder by some 
 secret kind of information, if not of the means of 
 perfecting it by his own art. Thus it was generally 
 reported of Dr. Dee and Kelly, that they were so 
 strangely fortunate as to discover a very large quan- 
 tity of the Powder of Projection in a niche amongst 
 the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, and which was so 
 rich in virtue (being 1 upon 272,330), that they lost a 
 great portion in trial, before they found out the true 
 height of the medicine. With this treasure they went 
 abroad, fixed their abode at Trebona, and transmuted 
 occasionally. In Dee's diary we have the account of 
 Kelly making projection with one small grain (in pro- 
 portion no larger than the least grain of sand) upon 
 an ounce and a quarter of common mercury, which 
 produced almost an ounce of pure gold.^ Then there 
 is the story of the warming-pan, related by Ashmole, 
 from no very distant testimony, of a piece of the metal 
 being cut out and, without Kelly's touching or hand- 
 ling it, or melting the copper even, only warming it 
 in the fire, the elixir being projected thereon, it was 
 transmuted into pure silver. The pan, he goes on to 
 relate, was sent to the Queen Elizabeth by her ambas- 
 sador, who then lay at Prague ; that, by fitting the 
 piece into the place whence it was cut out, it might 
 exactly prove to be once a part of that pan. Broom- 
 field had likewise seen in the hands of one Master 
 Trye and Scroope, rings of Sir Edward Kelly's gold, 
 the fashion of which was only gold wire twisted thrice 
 about the finger ; of wdiich fashioned rings he gave 
 away to the value of 4000/. at the marriage of one of 
 his servants. This was highly generous ; but, to say 
 the truth, he was openly profuse beyond the modest 
 limits, as Ashmole observes, of a sober philosopher.^ 
 This kind of profusion has been fi'equently exhibited 
 by such as are reported to have come by the treasure 
 
 1 Dee's Diary, Sept. 1586. 
 
 ^ See notes appendeil to the Tlieat. Chem. Brit. 
 
Preliminary Account. 53 
 
 casually, never by those who have themselves con- 
 fected it. 
 
 During the abode at Trebona, Dee and Kelly 
 appear to have tried many experiments, and their 
 conversations with their spiritual informants are lu- 
 dicrously mundane and abortive.^ Whether or not 
 they finally succeeded in the object of their research, 
 remains uncertain ; the story runs that they did not, 
 but that the secret of making the Powder was con- 
 fided to Kelly some years afterwards by a dying monk. 
 In Dee's Diary, towards the latter end, there cer- 
 tainly are expressions of joy and gratitude, as if he 
 had suddenly attained to some great and important 
 discovery ; — Hgec est dies quam fecit Dominus, omne 
 quod vivit laudet Dominum ; — and upon the thirtieth 
 day of the month following, he writes, — Master E. 
 Kelly did open the great secret to me, God be 
 thanked. 
 
 Things were not carried on so privately abroad, but 
 the Queen had notice of the proceedings of her sub- 
 jects ; and she sent letters and messages summoning 
 them to return home : Dee obeyed, but Kelly re- 
 maining behind, was taken prisoner by the Emperor 
 Rudolph, who had long set a watch over their move- 
 ments. It was during this detention, that he wrote 
 that little book, entitled De Lapide Philosophurum, 
 which is commonly to be met with, but is of little 
 more value than repute. The death of Kelly is in- 
 volved in mystery, and Dee is said to have expired in 
 poverty at Mortlake. 
 
 The writings of Jacob Bohme, the profound theo- 
 sophist of Prague, and those of the Pordage and 
 Lead school, may not be undervalued, since these en- 
 thusiasts were all on the same original track ; and the 
 first would seem to have attained something better 
 even than a view of the Promised Land. Moreover, 
 Bohme has discovered such a ground of experience 
 
 ^ See " A true and faithful Relation of what passed for many 
 Years between Dr. John Dee and some Spirits." The book is 
 comparatively rare : London, 1659. 
 
54 Exoteric View. 
 
 and principles of the Divine Art in his writings, as 
 may help the student to conceive profoundly, and 
 lead liim to the means of understanding the enigmas 
 of the old adepts. For this author is, of all who have 
 hitherto entered experimentally into the mystery, the 
 plainest, simplest, and most confidential exponent. The 
 Aurora, or Daj/ Spring ; The Discourse of the Three 
 Principles ; The Alj/sterium Magnum ; The Tree of 
 Life ; The Turned Eye, or Forty Questions concerning 
 the Life of Man, and his Epistles, are full of explicit 
 indications concerning the physical basis of magic and 
 occult material of the philosopher's stone. ^ So that 
 the following eulogy, copied from a manuscript found 
 in a volume of his works, may not be considered mis- 
 placed, or altogether extravagant : — 
 
 AVhate'er the Eastern Magi sought, 
 Or Orpheus sung, or Hermes taught, 
 Wliate'er Coufucius would inspire, 
 Or Zoroaster's mystic fire ; 
 The symbols that Pythagoras tlreAv, 
 The wisdom godlike Plato knew, 
 What Socrates debating proved, 
 Or Epictetus lived and loved ; 
 The sacred fire of saint and sage, 
 Thro' every clime in every age, 
 In Bohme's wondi'ous page we view, 
 Discover'd and revealed anew, &c. 
 
 Revealed anew, it will be observed, theosophically, 
 but not intellectually. Nothing, since the Greeks, has 
 been found to approach their doctrine of Wisdom in 
 perspicuity, grace of utterance, and scientific exphca- 
 tion of the divine source. Of all the successors on the 
 same road, none have exceeded their authority, and 
 very few have attained to the perfect veracity and 
 ideality of their ground ; but of this hereafter. Nu- 
 merous works on Alchemy have issued from the 
 German press, detailing the experience of excellent 
 and learned adepts ; amongst those of later years, 
 
 ' See Bohme's Works, edited by Law and others, 4 vols. Ito. 
 
Preliminary Account. 55 
 
 may be mentioned Ambrose and Phillip Miiller ; ^ Her- 
 man Fichtuld;^ and his friend George Von Welling;^ 
 J, Crollius ; '^ the Van Helmonts, father and son ; ^ 
 Grasseus, the reputed author of the Water Stone,^ a 
 personal friend of Bohme's ; Henry K«iinrath, a 
 pious and learned adeptist ; '' Andrew Libavius ; ^ 
 J. J. Beccher;^ and J. Tollius, a Dutchman, and 
 an elegant classical expositor on the same ground. ^^ 
 Faber, also ; ^^ but of all those who have connected 
 ancient fable with philosophy, and explained them by / • 
 the Hermetic key, Michael Ma/ er ranks first ; and his ^ ^ 
 works are more esteemed and sought after, even in the 
 present day, than is easily accountable, since he is pro- 
 foundly guarded in his revelations.^^ Highly curious 
 engravings and woodcuts adorn the w^orks of these 
 authors, and even the title-pages of many of them 
 convey more idea and food for reflection, than other 
 
 ^ Philippi MuUeri Miracula et Mysteria Medico- Cheinica, 
 Wirtemburg, 1656. Amb. Miiller's Paradeis-Spiegel, Launen- 
 burg, 1704. 
 
 2 Probier Steiu, Prancf. 1740. 
 
 ^ Opus Mago-Cabbalist. &c., Prancf. 1760. 
 
 ** Crollius, Philosopby Reformed, &c., trans, by Pinnel, Lon- 
 don, 1657. 
 
 ^ Van Helmont de Ortu Medicinse has been translated under 
 the title of Oreatrike, or Physic Eeformed. J. B. V. Hehnout, 
 Paradoxes. 
 
 " Das "Wasser-Stein des "Weissens, is translated into English 
 and into Latin in the Musaeum Hermeticum ; Area Arcano, 
 Lillium inter Spinas, &c., by the same Author, are in the collec- 
 tion of Manget. 
 
 ' Amphitheat. Sapientise Eternae, in fol. 1608. Magnesia Ca- 
 thoiica, &c. 
 
 ** And. Libavius, Opera Omnia Medica, in fol. 2 vols. A pon- 
 derous compilation. 
 
 ^ Physica Subterrauea, Lips. 8vo. Idem, ffidipus Chemicus 
 Aperius Mysteria, &c. Prancf. 1664. Idem, Laboratorium Chi- 
 micum, Prancf. 1680. 
 
 ^^ Tollii Portuita, Amst. 1687. Manuductio ad Caelum Chemi- 
 cum, 1688. Sapientia Insanies, sive Promissa Chemica. 
 
 ^1 Opera Medico-Chimica, 2 vols. 4to. Prancf. 1652. / 
 
 ^^ Symbola Aur/ae Menste. Idem, Ulysses. Idem, Septimana "^/ 
 Philosophica, I'are ; Arcana Arcanissima,h. e. Hieroglyphica ^gyp- 
 tiaca Grseca, rare ; Atalanta Pugiens, sive Scrutineum Chemicum 
 Emblemata, Themis Aurea, Yiatorium, &c. &c. 
 
 <\.LA^ 
 
56 Exoteric View. 
 
 modern tomes, oftentimes throughout the whole of 
 their development. 
 
 The Novum Lumtn Chemicum, which passes under 
 the name of Michael Sendivogius, the Pohsh adept, is 
 one of the best known and popular of modern works 
 on the subject. It has been translated into English, 
 by John French, also a practitioner;^ whose introduc- 
 tory preface is bold and striking, and was published 
 in London under the title of The New Light of Al- 
 cheiny, with the nine books of Paracelsus, Dc Natura 
 Renim, in 1650. This New Light, professedly drawn 
 from the fountain of nature, and grounded in manual 
 experience, is cleverly handled, and of an attractive 
 character ; though in consequence of the wilful dis- 
 order and perplexity of the composition, repeated pe- 
 rusal and a certain knowledge are requisite, in order to 
 gather its recondite drift; and so much the more, as 
 its theory and asserted facts are at variance with our 
 common conceptions and experience of the possibility 
 of nature. The French edition of this work, also, has 
 been translated by Digby, and contains, besides the 
 Treatise on Salt omitted in the above, other curious 
 additions, with a concluding Dialogue, which is instruc- 
 tive.^ 
 
 There is a multitude of little English books on 
 alchemy afloat on the book -stalls ; amongst them some 
 original, well -written and worthy of perusal; for al- 
 though Britain has not been so fertile in adepts as 
 France and Germany, yet her scarce ones have been 
 great ; the profundity and comparative candour of their 
 writings, being very generally acknowledged by their 
 foreign compeers ; to which Dafresnoy, though him- 
 self a sceptic, in his Histoire Hevmetique bears this 
 characteristic witness. — D'ailleurs on ne scauroit dis- 
 convenir que les Anglois n'ecrivent sur la science her- 
 metique avec beaucoup de lumiere et de profondeur. 
 lis y font paroitre leur jugement et leur esprit de re- 
 
 ^ See French's Art of Distillatiou. 
 
 - Seiidivogius's New Light of Alchemy, hv John Digby, Lon- 
 don, 1722. 
 
Preliminary Account. 57 
 
 flexion. II seroit a souhaiter qu'ils portassent la 
 meme attention et la meine maturite a tout ce qu'ils 
 entreprennent, on seroit beaucoup plus content d'eux 
 et ils ne s'exposerait pas a perdre I'estime des autres 
 nations comme ils s'y risquent tous les jours. ^ 
 
 This piece of flattering French testimony refers, we 
 suppose, to the writings of our early adepts ; other- 
 wise, of all that have flourished in latter times, the 
 most celebrated and facile pr biceps, is that Anony- / 
 mous who styles himself Eiren^us Philalethes : the ^26/ 
 many works that have appeared under this signa- 
 ture indicate so excellent and perfect an artist, that 
 his brethren, always speaking with admiration, unani- 
 mously award him the garland. Yet of himself, his 
 name, and habits of hfe nothing is known ; no cotem- 
 porary mentions him ; Starlvy, indeed, professes to 
 have been his servant once for a time in America, and 
 to have assisted him in the art ; and describes him as 
 an English gentleman of an ancient and honourable 
 family then living on his own estate and rarely 
 learned. — I saw, says he, in my master's possession the 
 White and Red elixir in very large quantity ; he gave 
 me upwards of two ounces of the White medicine of 
 sufficient virtue to convert 120,000 times its weight 
 into the purest silver : with this treasure I went to 
 work ignorantly and was caught in the trap of my 
 own covetousness, for I expended or wasted nearly 
 all this tincture, and did not know its value until it 
 was nearly gone. However, I made projection of a 
 part, and have tinged many hundreds of ounces by it 
 into the best silver: of a pound of mercury I have 
 made within less than a scruple of a pound of silver, / 
 &c.^ It is also reported, that Eiren^us was intimate ' /P^f 
 with the chemist Boyle ; but the rumours are all un- 
 certain, and, as if to increase the mystery, he has been 
 confounded with other English adepts, as Harprecht 
 and Thomas Vaughan, and his writings also with 
 those of Sendivogius, who has been identitied with 
 
 ^ Vol. i, page MS. 
 
 - See Starky's Pyroiecliny Asserted. 
 
58 Exoteric View. 
 
 him under the name of Alexander Sethon and others. 
 He himself informs us that he was born in England, 
 somewhere towards the beginning of the 1 7th century, 
 that he possessed the secret at a ver}-^ early age, and 
 was the victim of unremitting persecution. His prin- 
 cipal works are, An Open Entrance to the Shut 
 Palace of the King, Ripley Revived, The__Mar- 
 y/ row o f Alchemy , in verse ; Metal lor iini Metamor- 
 phoses, Brevis Manuductio ad Rubinum Ca'lestum, Fons 
 ChemiccE Veritatis, and a few others in the MuscEum 
 Her)neticntn and in Manget's collection. 
 
 Thomas Vaughan, whose pseudonym^ of Eugenius 
 Philalethes has, notwithstanding the 'very obvious 
 distinction of his mind and style, caused him to be 
 confounded with the foregoing Eireneus, was the au- 
 thor of several luminous little treatises, bearing on the 
 higher grounds of this mystic science, full of ideas 
 and the recondite spirit of antiquity. In these Vaughan 
 makes casual reference to the gold-making possibihty, 
 but is at little pains to attract in this direction, or 
 indicate, as is usual, any sophistic order of practical 
 operation ; and thus repelling impertinent inquiry, 
 he leads at once to the true and only valuable 
 speculation of the subject. Moreover, unless we be 
 mistaken, the one Art and medium of vital perfect- 
 ibility is more clearly shown in his writings than in 
 those of any other English author. They are as fol- 
 low: Magia Adamica, or The Antiquity of Magic ; 
 whereto is added, A Discovery of the Caelum Teme, 
 or Magician's Heavenly Chaos; Aiithrojwsopliia 
 Theomagica, a discourse on the nature of man 
 grounded on the protochemistry of Hermes, and veri- 
 fied by a practical examination of principles ; Anima 
 Magia Abscondita, a discourse of the universal spirit 
 of nature, with its strange, abstruse, and miraculous 
 ascent and descent ; Euphrates, or Waters of the 
 East, a practical discourse of that secret fountain 
 whose water flows from Are ; Lumen de Lumine, a 
 new nragical light discovered and consummated, with 
 an allegorical display of the tirst matter, and other va- 
 
 (flf(d^t7i-^ " ^-< ^.A''-^ ^.^^- -J^^^-y ^ U^^^y 
 
Preliminary Account. 59 
 
 luable magnetical introductions and guides. This au- 
 tlior's death is reported to have befallen extraordinarily, 
 something after the manner of the poet Virgils, and 
 from an overdose of the elixir; nor should it appear won- 
 derful, as the narrative runs, that the subtle light of life 
 should in these instances have been swallowed up in the 
 superior attraction of a greater flame. Agrippa gives 
 a similar account of the death of Alexander the Great, 
 we know not on what authority, saying that he died 
 suddenly by the hand of his preceptor, adimnister'mg 
 the venom of the ivattrs of Styx, to whom the youthful 
 monarch had previously intrusted his life, body and 
 soul, without reservation.^ 
 
 The Authors we have brought forward as distin- 
 guished and genuine, are but few in comparison with 
 the whole number ; some reckon as many as four 
 thousand ;^ but there are enough without forcing any 
 into the ranks. Borrichius, from standing testimony, 
 counts as many as two thousand five hundred.^ 
 L'Englet Dufresnoy has reduced the number still 
 more, but then he was ignorant of the subject and 
 excludes according to titles, rather than the matter, 
 of several books covertly treating of the Hermetic art.'^ 
 The Bodleian library contains many hundred volumes 
 by separate authors. The Royal Library of France 
 was reputed still richer in 1742, especially in manu- 
 scripts ; and the Vatican and Escurial have large and 
 valuable collections in the same branch. 
 
 And it is in these archives alone that the ancient Art 
 is now preserved, in which we hoard the memory of 
 long bygone hopes. To declare a man an Alchemist 
 in the present day would be to brand him as insane, 
 and the Hermetic ground is as far out of the road of 
 common thought as if it were tabooed ; not indeed that 
 any one regards it as sacred, but devilish rather, or 
 
 ^ Yauity of the Sciences, c. 54;. 
 2 Petri Borelli Bibliot. Chem. Paris, 1656. 
 •^ De Ortu et Progressu Cliimise. 
 
 '* Histoire Hermetique, torn. iii. accompagnee d'une Catalogue 
 Kaisonnee des Ecrivains de cette Science, Paris, 1762. 
 
60 Exoteric View. 
 
 delirious, or ridiculous, as the bias may be. Mean- 
 while, therefore, to reconcile this science or the teach- 
 ers of it to the world, we should feel to be a task 
 above our ability, were it very far greater than it is ; 
 the prejudice having grown so old and strong that 
 neither reason nor authority is longer able to balance 
 it. But in whatever light we be disposed to regard 
 Alchemy, whether as the acme of human folly, or, con- 
 trariwise, as the recondite perfection of wisdom and 
 causal science, it appears almost equally remarkable : 
 considered in the former way, we have before us a 
 huge monument of avarice, mad credulity, and fraud 
 accumulating on continually from immemorial time, 
 with the deplorable conclusion, that the greater part 
 of those to whom the world has been taught to look 
 up as philosophical authorities were in fact dupes and 
 worse deceivers ; on the other hand, if we hesitate in 
 thus denouncing all the many well-approved and reli- 
 gious professors of this art, and suppose them, even in 
 this particular, to have been sincere, what then ought 
 we to conclude? That they were deluded ? It is true 
 their assertions are startling, their promises huge and 
 improbable, but then the means of realization proposed 
 are actual ; the transmutation of metallic bodies was a 
 proof addressed to the senses and so uniformly stated 
 as to preclude subterfuge or any medium fulfilment. 
 — I have seen the Stone and handled it, says Van 
 Helmont, and have projected the fourth part of one 
 grain, wrapped in paper, upon eight ounces of quick- 
 silver boiling in a crucible, and the quicksilver, with a 
 small voice, presently stood still from its flux, and 
 was congealed like to yellow wax; and after a flux by 
 blast we found eight ounces all but eleven grains which 
 were w^anting of the purest gold ; therefore, one grain 
 of this powder would transmute 1918G parts of quick- 
 silver into the best gold. I am constrained to be- 
 lieve, for I have made projections divers times of one 
 grain of the philosopher's gold upon some thousands 
 of grains of boiling quicksilver, to the admiration and 
 tickling of a great multitude. He who gave me that 
 
Preliminary Account. 61 
 
 powder (the stranger Butler, whom he first found in 
 prison) had so much as would transmute two hundred 
 thousand pounds' worth of gold.^ Our tincture of 
 gold, says Paracelsus, has within it an astral fire 
 w^hich conquers ail things and changes them into a 
 nature like to itself ; it is a most fixed substance and 
 immutable in the multiplication ; it is a powder having 
 the reddest colour, almost like saflfron, yet the whole 
 corporeal substance is liquid like resin, transparent like 
 crystal, frangible like glass. It is of a ruby colour of 
 the greatest weight ; and this is a true sign of the 
 tincture of philosophers, that by its transmuting force 
 all imperfect metals are changed, and this gold is bet- 
 ter than the gold of the mines ; and out of it may be 
 prepared better medicines and arcana.^ So likewise 
 Friar Bacon says, and Lully, and Arnold in his Spe- 
 culum, that he had seen and touched, after much 
 labour and industry, the perfect thing transmuting.^ 
 And Geber in these words: — The things are manifest 
 in which the verity of the work is nigh, and we have 
 considered the things perfecting this work by a true 
 investigation, with certain experience, whereby we are 
 assured that all the words are true which are by us writ- 
 ten in our volumes, according as w^e found them by ex- 
 periment and reason.^ And again, — By the goodness 
 of God's instigation and by our own incessant labour, 
 we have searched out and found, and have seen with 
 our eyes and handled with our hands the complete- 
 ment of matters sought after in our magistery.^ 
 And Picus di Mirandola, in his book De Auro : — 
 I come now, says the prince, to relate what my eyes 
 have seen plainly without veil or obscurity ; one of 
 my friends, who is now living, has made gold and sil- 
 ver above sixty several times in my own presence, and 
 1 have seen it and done it myself.® 
 
 1 Book of Eternal Life, Ortixs. Med. fol. p. 590, &e. 
 
 2 Signatura Eerum, fol. page 358. 
 
 ^ Speculum Alchimige, sub initio, Theat. Chem. vol. iv. p. 515. 
 ^ Epilogue to the Investigation of Verity, Eussel's Geber, p. 20. 
 '"' Idem, book i. page 215. 
 ^ Picus Mirandolee de Auro, lib. iii. cap. 2. 
 
62 Exoteric View. 
 
 We do not adduce these testimonials in proof either 
 of the truth or plausibiHty of the Hermetic art ; but 
 to lead on inquiry, without which it would be equally 
 vain to believe as to deny ; and further, to show the 
 pretension was not ambiguous, but absolutely prove- 
 able, if at all, we have the story of the transmutation 
 before Gustavus Adolphus in the year 1620, the gold 
 of which was coined into medals, bearing the king's 
 effigy with the reverse. Mercury and Venus ; and that 
 other at Berlin, before the king of Prussia, widely cele- 
 brated in 1710.' The story related by Kircher in his 
 Mundus Suhttrraneus also is explicit, and that of Hel- 
 vetius ; but the foregoing, taken casually, may be suffi- 
 cient to indicate that the evidence of Alchemy was 
 neither abstract nor hidden, nor 
 
 vaguely opinable, 
 But clean, experimental and determinable : — 
 
 and that if there was deception at all, it must have 
 been wilful and not the offspring of self-delusion on 
 the part of the adepts. And then what should induce 
 men to invent, age after age, and to reiterate and con- 
 firm a shameful and unpopular falsehood ? — pious her- 
 mits and ecclesiastics, physicians and metaphysicians, 
 men of high rank and reputation, far above and out of 
 the way of sordid allurements, most of whom had in 
 fact relinquished station, power, wealth, and worldly 
 benefices for the science' sake and the cause of true 
 religion? What interest should have moved them, 
 even supposing minds so degraded as to deceive so far 
 and frequently their fellow-men ? Or shall we con- 
 clude that Ripley either was so mad and simple a 
 knave as to write the offer to his king to show him 
 the actual working of the Stone, if he had possessed 
 nothing ? but he even promises to unfold the whole 
 confection conditionedly. Would he so far have ven- 
 tured, or what motive had he to deceive? 
 
 ' See Eorricliius de Ortu et Progressu, the full account ; and 
 Dufresnoy, Hist. Herm. vol. ii. 
 
Preliminary Account. 63 
 
 Never trewly for merke nor for pounde 
 Make yt I common ; bnt to you conditioneclly 
 That to yourself ye shall keep yt secretly ; 
 And only yt use, as may be God's pleasure, 
 Els in tyme comynge of God I shoulde abye 
 For my discoveringe of hys secrett treasurye.^ 
 
 And if the notion of wilful deceit is improbable ; 
 then, their problem being one of tangible facts, it is 
 still less likely that they were themselves deceived. — 
 I write not fables, says H. K^nrath, in his Amphi- 
 theater ; with thine own hands thou shalt handle and 
 with thine own eyes thou shalt see Azoth, viz., the Uni- 
 versal Mercury, which alone with its internal and exter- 
 nal fire is sufficient for thee; wdiich transforms itself into 
 what it will by the fire. And again, — I have travelled 
 much and visited those esteemed to know somewhat 
 by experience and not in vain, amongst whom, I call 
 God to witness, I got of one the universal tincture, 
 and the blood of the Lion, which is the gold of philo- 
 sophers. I have seen it, touched it, tasted it, smelt it, 
 and used it efficaciously towards my poor neighbours 
 in most desperate cases. Oh, how wonderful is God in 
 his works ! ^ 
 
 The liberal mind natm'ally experiences a difficulty 
 in disbelieving where, a possibility being granted, the 
 testimony in support of a matter is fair and honour- 
 able. And though sensible evidence and more than 
 this sometimes is required to silence negative assertion ; 
 yet reason, supported by her witnesses, may enervate 
 it, and induce that strict investigation and thought 
 which should always precede experiment, but which 
 the multitude have never yet been found willing to 
 undertake ; and are consequently led astray in progress, 
 and learn as it were by chance. It is said that Lord 
 Bacon instituted certain experiments with a view to the 
 discovery of the philosopher's stone, and in iheAdvance- 
 ment of Learning he faithfully recognises the possibility, 
 as does also Sir Isaac Newton in his works ; while Leibnitz 
 
 ^ Sir George Eipley's Epistle to King Edward IV., v. 5. 
 2 Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Eternse, circa fineni. 
 
 X-^-co-/ 
 
64 Exoteric View. 
 
 devoted his early life to the pursuit : nor did either 
 of these great men, though they were practically un- 
 successful themselves, condemn the ancient tradition 
 or deny its validity. Yet it would seem to be more 
 ordinarily natural to the human mind to reject those 
 things, which it has neither been early imbued in the 
 belief of, nor instructed to understand ; besides indivi- 
 dual research into mere possibilities, and because facts 
 only are alleged, is too hopeless and arduous for this 
 short life, which requires a definite assurance of suc- 
 cess, and fruit even from the smallest labour. And 
 this is the world's palliation for despising Alchemy, and 
 many things which the ancients have asserted in like 
 manner, without the requisite means of realization. 
 For they would not, nor have they anywhere declared 
 openly even the common Subject of their Art ; but 
 left mankind to imagine, as they did, all that was 
 erroneous concerning it, as of their salts, sulphurs, mer- 
 curies, magic elements, and occult confections. What 
 a chaos of metaphor and monstrous allusion does not 
 the literature of Alchemy at first view present ! With 
 what fantastic images and inconclusive positions is it 
 not replete — signs, symbolisms, and subtle enigmas 
 innumerable, as if to try the ingenuity at every point? 
 Contrary to the usual endeavour of writers to enlighten, 
 by rendering their ideas intelligible, the adepts appear 
 to have had a directly contrary aim, at least so it would 
 occur to any one from a cursory survey ; now leading 
 along by some ingenious allegory, full of deep and 
 exciting suggestions, yet withal enveloped in a mys- 
 tery so obscure that without more light, it were im- 
 possible to penetrate it ; then, further to seduce, add- 
 ing, it may be, another gleam of argument, tantalizing 
 the hope and wearying the understanding with un- 
 equal assertions, until all passes away again, with all 
 possibility of discernment, behind some clouded me- 
 taphor or word of warning that the secret of ages 
 may not be profaned. A variety of artifices according 
 to the cabalistic method, moreover, have been em- 
 ployed, and the Hermetic discourses are not unfile- 
 
Preliminary Account. 65 
 
 quently found introverted in their order, and dis- 
 persed with repetitions, to prevent the truth from 
 becoming opeidy obvious, even to those who had' 
 ah'eady become possessed of the true key ; but only 
 of the vestibule and entrance rights ; 
 
 If you consider bow the partes of the werkes 
 Be out of order set by the old clerkes, 
 As I said before, the masters of this arte, 
 Every and eacli of them disclosed but a parte ; 
 Wherefore tho' ye perceived tliem as ye woulde, 
 Yet ye cannot order or joine them as ye shoulde.^ 
 
 For is not our art cabahstical, asks A±te&is, and LOite^ 
 full of mysteries? And you, fool, believe we teach the ""^ 
 secret of secrets openly, and understand our words 
 according to the letter ; be assured, we are not en- 
 vious, but he that takes the philosopher's sayings 
 according to the outward sense and signification has 
 already lost the clue of Ariadne, and wanders up and 
 down the labyrinth, and it would be of the same 
 benefit to him as if he had thrown his money into 
 the sea.^ And Sendivogius, to the same effect in the 
 Preface to the Twelve Treatises, — I would, says he, have 
 the candid reader be admonished that he understand 
 my writings, not so much from the outside of my 
 words as fi'om the possibility of nature ; let him con- 
 sider that this Art is for the wise, not for the ignorant ; 
 and that the sense of philosophers is of another na- 
 ture than to be understood by vaporing Thrasoes, or 
 letter learned scoffers, or vicious, against their own con- 
 sciences ; or ignorant mountebanks, who, most un- 
 worthily defaming the most commendable art of Al- 
 chemy, have with theirWhites and Reds deceived almost 
 the whole world. ^ And again, in the Epilogue, — All 
 things indeed, says the adept, might have been com- 
 prehended in a few lines ; but we are willing to guide 
 into the knowledge of nature indirectly, by reasons 
 
 ^ Norton's Ordinal, cap. ii. 
 
 - Phil. Antiquis. Tract. Secret. 
 
 •'' See New Light of Alchemy, Preface. 
 
66 Exoteric View. 
 
 and examples : that thou mayest know what the thing 
 truly is thou shouldest seek after, also that thou 
 mightest have nature, herhghtand shadow, discovered 
 to thee. Be not displeased if thou meetest sometimes 
 with contradictions in my treatises, it being the custom 
 of philosophers to use them ; thou hast need of them : 
 if thou understandest them, thou shalt not find a rose 
 without prickles.^ 
 
 Each artist striving yt how to conceal 
 
 Lest wretched caitifs shulde the treasure steal. 
 
 Nor vyllains shulde their vyllanyes maintain 
 
 By tliis rare art ; whych danger they to heal 
 
 In horrid metaphors veyled are an art most plain, 
 
 Lest each fool knoAving yt shulde yt when known disdayne.- 
 
 And Roger Bacon advises, therefore, to leave oft' 
 experiments until the ground of wisdom is properly 
 conceived. — And though I say, take this, and this, 
 believe me not (says he) but operate according to the 
 blood; i. e., according to the understanding, and so of 
 all ; leave off" experiments, apprehend my meaning, 
 and you will find, believe me, being a lighted candle.'* 
 And Basil Valentine and Eireneus, and most adepts in 
 short, warn their readers against running into the 
 practice upon vague premises, and before they have 
 attained to a full understanding of the matter to be 
 taken in hand ; yet, notwithstanding all their injunc*^ 
 ^ tions, many seekers, and faithful ones too, have been 
 
 c\j^ i/£x^ci<As\Q^ astray: Geber's receipts wsii Basil's^ though at 
 variance with all common-sense probability, have been 
 the means of surrounding many a literal soul with 
 stills, coals, and furnaces, in hope by such lifeless in- 
 struments to sublime the Spirit of nature; or by salt, 
 sulphur, and mercury, or the three combined with an- 
 timony, to extract the Form of gold. But they who 
 have thus fallen to practise, without the true Light or 
 heeding their injunctions, had no right to charge their 
 error on the adepts. The disappointment and misery of 
 
 ' Epilogue to the Twelve Treatises. 
 
 2 Eipley's Fiftli Gate. 
 
 ^ De Arte Alchemica. p. 315, &c. 
 
Preliminary Account. 67 
 
 those fanatical chemists having been attributable to their 
 own misunderstanding bias, and more frequently owing 
 to the deceit of sophists than to the genuine tradition 
 of Hermetic science. 
 
 Since difficulties however are apparent, and the pre- 
 tenders to the Art were in latter times far more nu- 
 merous than the true adepts, and the literature has 
 suffered in consequence grievous disgrace and spolia- 
 tion, it is not surprising that the public, having been so 
 long and grossly deluded, should at length have shut 
 out Alchemy from amongst its credenda. If there was 
 no desire to search deeper, it was wisely done, and 
 checked the raging of a sore distemper. But that 
 many have fallen into error and suffered, or others 
 proved deceivers, or that the world has chosen to dis- 
 believe, are no proofs in philosophy, even if it were 
 without so many witnesses, that the Hermetic mystery 
 is groundless. The world is fully as ignorant of the 
 genuine doctrine and Art of Wisdom as were the im- 
 postors whom it repudiated, and their judgment con- 
 cerning it is of as little value. The words of the 
 philosophers remain, though modern science is not 
 able to confirm them, or present anything analogous 
 to the powers they professed, not in the advancement 
 of the mineral kingdom only, but over all nature. 
 And since they unanimously recommend a studious 
 examination, in order to conceive rightly of the pro- 
 mises held out, before attempting to judge them or 
 the pretensions of their Art, we propose to investigate 
 preliminarily the theoretic ground and matter on 
 which the physical possibility of transmutation rests. 
 
G8 Exoteric View. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of the Theory of Transmutation in general, and of the 
 Universal Matter. 
 
 Est in Mercuric quicqiiid quaerunt Sapientes. — Turba Exercif. 1. 
 
 THE theory of Alchemy, though arcane, is very sim- 
 ple ; its basis indeed may be comprehended in 
 that only statement of Arnold di Villanova, in his 
 Specif Unit, — 77?^^ there abides in nature a cet^tain pure 
 matter, which, being discovered and brought by art to 
 perfection, cotwerts to itself proportionally all imperfect 
 bodies that it touches. 
 
 And this would seem to be the true ground of me- 
 talline transmutation, and of every other ; namely, 
 the homogeneity of the radical substance of things ; 
 and on the alleged fact that metals, minerals, and all 
 diversified natures, being of the same created first prin- 
 ciples, may be reduced into their common basis or 
 mercurial first matter, the whole Hermetic doctrine 
 appears to hinge and to proceed. 
 
 The multiform body of the world hes open, but the 
 source is everywhere occult ; nor does ordinary ana- 
 lysis at all discover this Universal Matter of the adepts. 
 It has been accordingly objected, that natural species 
 cannot be transmutable, because the transmutation of 
 different species one into another necessarily implies 
 mixtion and a spurious offspring : thus, that if it were 
 even admitted possible by any means to infuse gold 
 into lead or other inferior form, it would still remain 
 imperfect, and the better species be defiled by the vile 
 admixture ; that the result would not in fact be gold 
 at all, but a middle nature, according to the propor- 
 tionate virtue of the metals conjoining, golden or 
 leaden, or as the case might be. Since species are in- 
 
Theory of Transmutation. 69 
 
 destructible, therefore, the transmutation of metals 
 has been regarded as a sophistical proposition and not 
 a true art. 
 
 And this argument the alchemists also admitting, 
 have sometimes seemed to contradict themselves and 
 their science ; but such is not really the case, and only 
 from want of understanding them has it been supposed 
 so. It is not species that they profess to transmute ; 
 nor do they ever teach in theory that lead as lead, or 
 mercury as mercury specificate, can be changed into 
 gold, any more than a dog into a horse, a tulip into a 
 daisy, or vice versa, in this way, anything of unlike 
 kind ; but it is the subject-matter of these metals, the 
 radical moisture of which they are uniformly com- 
 posed, that they say may be withdrawn by art and 
 transported from inferior Forms, being set free by the 
 force of a superior ferment or attraction. 
 
 Species, says Friar Bacon, are not transmuted, 
 but their subject-matter rather, — Species non trans- 
 muta|;ur, sed subjecta specierum optime et propriis- 
 sime : — therefore the first work is to reduce the body 
 into water, that is, into mercury, and this is called So- 
 lution, which is the foundation of the whole art.^ 
 And the first preparation and foundation of the Her- 
 metic art, says the author of the Rosarium, is Solu- 
 tion and a reduction of the body into water, which is 
 argent vive : for it is well known to artists that 
 species cannot, as themselves, be transmuted, since 
 they are not liable to sensible action and corruption ; 
 but the Subjects of species rather, since they are cor- 
 ruptible and may be changed : yet neither can the 
 Subjects of species be transmuted, unless they are 
 reduced first into their original matter, and made free 
 to pass from one into another form. But this is not 
 contrary to reason, because one form being expelled, 
 another may be introduced, as is evident in rustic 
 operations — as in the making of glass from flints, 
 stones, and ashes : much more then should the ex- 
 
 1 See llogeri Bachonis Eadix Muudi et Speculum Alchemiiip. 
 
70 Exoteric View. 
 
 perienced philosopher be able to corrupt the Subject- 
 matter of natures and to introduce a new Form.' 
 Arnold, also admitting that species are indestructible, 
 advises therefore that the Subject be freed by an arti- 
 ficial reduction.^ Sj)ecies non transmutari sed indi- 
 vidua specierum.^ And Avicenna,* and Aristotle,^ 
 who is also quoted from by Ripley. 
 
 As the Pliilosoplier wlio iu the Book of INIeteors did wryte, 
 
 That the lykeness of bodyes inetallyue be uot trausniutable, 
 But aftorvvai'db he added theis words of more delyte, 
 
 IJ'ithout they he reduced to their beyinnyng muteriahle ; 
 Wlierefore such bodies as iu uature be liquable 
 
 IMiueral aud metalliue may be mercurizate, 
 Couceive ye may theis scieuce is not opiuable, 
 
 But very true by liaymoud and others determinate.*^ 
 
 When therefore Lully, speaking of the Art, declares 
 / that species are absolute and cannot be changed one 
 
 f-C^ ^ Adverte carissimj^ quod qua) sequuutur verissima sunt intelli- 
 
 gentibus. Prima prepanitio et fundameutum artis est solutio, id 
 
 est corporis in aquam, reductio hoc est in ai-gentum vivum. . . . 
 
 Sciant artifices alchemia? species metallorum vere pennutari non 
 
 posse, quod quidem verum est, quia species per se non sunt sub- 
 
 jecta actiouibus seusibilibus, cum omnino incorruptibiles ; sed 
 
 subjecta specierum optim^ pennutari possunt quoniam corrup- 
 
 / tabiiia sunt : attamen subjecta specierum permutari non possunt 
 
 /7W nisi ipsa prius ad primam reduca^ur materiam et sic in aliam 
 
 formam quam prius eraut permutantur. Contra hoc autem ratio 
 
 non stat, quia destructa una forma immediate introducitur alia, ut 
 
 patet iu operibus rusticorum, qui de kipidibus faciunt calcem et de 
 
 cineribus \dtrum. Sic multo fortius potest sapiens studiosus in- 
 
 r dividua speciei corrumpere et novam formam eis introdueere. 
 
 — Eosar. Abbrev. Tract, ii. Do Lapide in Theat. Cliem. vol. iii. 
 
 2 Species metallorum transmutari non possunt : et hoc verum 
 est ut ipsi asseruut, nisi ad primam materiam redigantur. Ee- 
 ductio aufem illorum ad primam materiam est facilis, &c. — Liber 
 Perfect. Magist., sub initio. 
 
 ^ Speculum Alchymia; Aruoldi, Octava Dispositio. See also, in 
 
 Eosario, lib. i. cap. ix Quid sit opus physicum ; also Clangor Bue- 
 
 cinse, Tractatus uiirabilis, de Luiia Philoso})hicaEnigmata Diversa. 
 
 ^6j2.C c^S ■* Sciaut Artifices zVlchimis^sive formas luetallorum vere trans- 
 
 / mutari non posse nisi in primam materiam et sic in aliud quam 
 
 prius pcrmutentur. — Lib.ii. Tractat.i.cap.iv. DeOperat.lNled.Sing. 
 
 ^ Metalla autem omnia, ut ad rem redeaui, hunt ex una 
 
 eademque materiam, A;c., before quoted, page 14. — Meteor, lib. iii. 
 
 cap. XV. 
 
 ^ Epistle to Kiug Edwai-d, stanza 10. 
 
Theory of Transmutation. 71 
 
 into another, — Elementiva habent vera conditiones et 
 una species se non transmutet in alivlm/ — we shall t Ct 
 not understand him as denying the art by any means, / 
 
 but a false position of it only ; the fundamental possi- 
 bility and principle of transmutation being not of spe- 
 cies, but of their Universal Subject or first matter. 
 
 And this Universal Subject is the alleged foundation 
 of the whole Hermetic experiment ; not only the thing 
 transmutable in natures, as is above shown, but the 
 thing transmuting also, when set free and segregated 
 in its proper essentiality, the fermented Spirit assimi- 
 lates the Light throughout. — Trust not, says the 
 adept, those impostors who tell you of a sulvhur 
 thigcus, and I know not what fables ; who pin also 
 the narrow name of Cliemia on a science ancient and 
 infinite. It is the Light only that can be truly multi- 
 plied, for this ascends and descends from the first 
 fountain of multiplication and generation. This Light 
 (discovered and perfected by art) applied to any body, 
 exalts and perfects it in its own kind: if to animals, 
 it exalts animals ; if to vegetables, vegetables ; if to 
 minerals, it refines minerals, and translates them from 
 the worst to the best condition ; where, note by the 
 way, that every body hath passive principles in itself 
 for this Light to work upon, and therefore needs not 
 to borrow any from gold or silver.^ 
 
 This last advice is given to correct a common 
 error, that the alchemists extracted the Form out 
 of these metals to transmute and increase with. 
 Gross misconception of their initial principle has 
 indeed caused their positions frequently to appear 
 ridiculous ; as of the common talk, for instance, of 
 weighing and proportioning the elements so exactly 
 as to constitute them into lasting accord ; of con- 
 solidating the metalline vapour by heat artificially 
 introduced, or by the rays of the sun and moon 
 drawn to simultaneous co-operation, and several 
 
 1 De Arte jNIagua, part ix. 
 
 - oee Vaughan'vS Anima Magia Abscondita, page 30. 
 
72 Exoteric View. 
 
 such-like literally imputed follies, far from their 
 uiiiids, who protested against such misunderstanding, 
 having assumed to themselves another principle and 
 another method of generating metals, by which they 
 were enabled to follow nature independently, and help 
 her to exceed the ordinary limits of her law : not by 
 the condensation of imaginary vapours in the mines, 
 or by the assistance of the great luminary or lunar 
 light, but by working, as it is said, the only universal 
 living and occult nature by and through itself, 
 scientifically, w hich contains within itself the true ori- 
 ginal of all these, even of the whole manifested exist- 
 ence. ^J'hus, w^e read, in the Lucenia Sails, 
 
 A certain tiling is found in tlic world 
 Which is also in every thing and in every place. 
 It is not earth, nor fire, nor air, nor water, 
 Albeit it wants neither of these things, 
 Nay it can become to be fire, air, water, and earth ; 
 For it contains all nature in itself purely and sincerely ; 
 It becomes white and red, is hot and cold, 
 It is moist and dry and is diversifiable every way. 
 The band of Sages only have known it, 
 And they call it tlieir salt. 
 It is extracted from their earth ; 
 And has been the ruin of many a fool ; 
 Eor tlie common earth is worth nothing here, 
 Nor the vulgar salt in any manner, 
 But rather the salt of the woi'ld, 
 "Which contains in itself all Lif(> : 
 
 Of it is made that medicine which will preserve you from 
 all maladies.' 
 
 The Stone is one, says the monk in his Rosary ; the 
 medicine is one, in which the whole mystery consists, 
 to which we add nothing nor take away anything, 
 only in the preparation, removing superfluities.^— All 
 is made of Mercury, says Geber ; for when Sol is re- 
 duced to his first original, i.e., the mercury, then 
 nature embraceth nature, and by open and manifest 
 [)roof we have concluded that our Stone is no other 
 
 ' Lucerna Salis, from tlie Latin verse, p. loO. 
 ^ Kosar, Abbrcv. Tract, iii. and v. 
 
Theory of Transmutation. 73 
 
 than a foetent spirit and living water, which we have 
 named dry water, by natural proportion cleansed and 
 united with such union, that they can never more be 
 absent each fi'om other.' And Aquinas says, — It is 
 Mercury alone which perfects in our work, and we find 
 in it all we have need of; nothing different must be 
 added. Some, mistaking, believe that the work can- 
 not be perfected with mercury alone without his sister 
 or companion ; but I do assure thee that working with 
 mercury and his sister (/. e., as agent and patient) that 
 thou addest nothing different from mercury ; and 
 know also that gold and silver arc not unlike in kind 
 to this our Mercury ; for it is their root : if thou work- 
 est therefore with Mercury alone, without foreign in- 
 tervention, thou obtainest thy desire.^ The White 
 and the Red proceed from one root, for it dissolves and 
 coagulates itself — whitens, rubifies, and makes itself to 
 be both yellow and black ; it unites with itself, con- 
 ceives itself, and brings itself forth, to the full per- 
 fecting of its intention.^ 
 
 It is only in her manifold changes that nature is 
 known and made apparent in ordinary life ; but, since 
 these alchemists profess to have enjoyed another expe- 
 rience, and through their Art to have discovered her 
 in her simple essentiality, to be that total which works 
 all conditionedly throughout existence, it will there- 
 fore be requisite to consider their w^iole doctrine with 
 reference to this presumed unity, and by no means be 
 led aside by their metaphoric language into a common 
 misconstruction of its meaning ; but since, according 
 to the old maxim, AU is in Altrcury which the ivise men 
 seek, let us seek therefore if we may be able at all to 
 identify this mercury, and whether the same ancient 
 material be yet on earth. 
 
 It is well known, that the Greeks and eastern sages 
 derived all things in common from a certain pure and , / 
 hidden fire ; Stoics, Pythagoreans, Platonie*, and Pe- />?^ 
 ripatetics vie with each other in celebrating the occult 
 
 ' Invest, of Perl. cap. xi. 
 
 2 Eosar. Abbrev. Tract, iii. and v. 
 
 / 
 
74 Exoteric View. 
 
 virtues of the Ether ; its all-pervading essence and 
 perfective power : in it they place the providential re- 
 gulation of nature ; it was the very life and substance 
 of their theosophy, in which from the highest to the 
 lowest confines of existence, from Jove to the last 
 link in the infernal monarchy, all were inhabiting the 
 etherial world ; for, as Virgil says, it lights and nou- 
 rishes the innermost earth as well as the air and starry 
 heavens. 
 
 Priucipio coelum, ac terras, composque liquentcs, 
 Lucentemque globum Luna?, Titauiaque astra, 
 ^y^ Spiritus inter alit ; totanique infusa per ai'tus 
 
 Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.^ 
 
 And the assertions of the Ethnics, about the Anima 
 Mundi, vary little or nothing in substance from the 
 Hebrew doctrine, but in words only ; neither are their 
 opinions so heinous or ridiculous as the zealous policy 
 of ignorance, under a Christian guise, has too often 
 caused them to appear. That there is a fluid or vi- 
 talizing principle invisibly permeating all things, and 
 resident in the air we breathe, common experience in- 
 dicates, for life cannot subsist without air, nor in all 
 kinds of air ; but there is some one quality or ingre- 
 dient in the atmosphere which is a secret food of life, 
 and on which it immediately depends ; what this ali- 
 ment is, though many names have been invented, the 
 moderns in default of knowledge are not agreed ; and 
 seeing it escapes the test of their closest vessels and 
 analyses, and that it can be neither seen, heard, felt, 
 nor naturally understood, the ancient theory of the One 
 Element has been very much derided. The chemist, 
 Homberg, indeed, with Boerhaave, Boyle, and others 
 eminent of that period, hold with the alchemists, that 
 there is a distinct substance universally diflused, though 
 sensible only in its mixed forms and })Owerful efl'ects ; 
 that it is the alone pure and active source of all things, 
 and most firm bond of the natural elements, giving life 
 to all bodies, penetrating and sustaining all things, and 
 
 1 .l^uL'id, lib. vi. 7'2L 
 
Theory of Transmutation. 75 
 
 enlivening all ; that this mighty Ether moreover is 
 always at hand, ready to break forth into action on 
 predisposed subjects ; fermenting, producing, destroy- 
 ing, and governing the total course of nature. Bishop 
 Berkeley, too, in his Sir is, contends learnedly in favour 
 of the same universal material, which he likewise calls 
 ether, ajid a pure invisible fire — the most subtle and 
 elastic of all bodies pervading all, and considers that 
 it is from thence, and not from any mingled pro- 
 perty, that the air has its power of sustenance and 
 vitalization. 
 
 These then, with a few others, in recent times, have 
 so far concurred with the ancients in distinguishing the 
 fontal Spirit of nature, apart from its manifestation, 
 and as distinct from that elementary ignition with 
 which we are sensibly familiar ; for they do not allow 
 that to be fire indeed, but an excitation only or effect 
 of the antecedent j)otency which they describe. But 
 then they could adduce no tangible proof of their doc- 
 trine. The world could not see their invisible fire. It 
 has therefore been regarded as a mere speculative chi- 
 mera (which in part it was perhaps, in their minds, 
 without experience), and, accordingly, disbelieved. 
 For philosophy, at length, laudibly anxious to prove 
 all things, yet too idle to theorise, will suppose no- 
 thing that is not openly shown ; how then should she 
 recognise that recondite fire ? 
 
 Neither are we desirous absolutely to assume it 
 here ; for though experiments of recent date seem to 
 supply concurrent evidence, and the phenomena of 
 Mesmerism have helped to force again on the minds 
 of the more observing portion of mankind the suppo- 
 sition of a " New Imponderable," or " 0^-ic Force," 
 yet, few believe ; and we pass it now to continue our 
 research concerning that elder Quintessence of the magi 
 which they introduce, not as a being of speculation 
 merely, but of experimental science ; not perceptible 
 only in mingled forms, in the common air or elementary 
 water, but as an essence compact and tangible without ^ 
 heterogeneity ; in which pure estate, the Gabalists, ^^y 
 
76 Exoteric View. 
 
 also describing, call it, Lumeii Vestimenti, the Vehi- 
 cle of Light; and the Greeks, eXevdepo^, the Free 
 Ether, that is to say, freed from the prison of gross 
 matter, and able to work of itself intimately by the 
 virtue of its own included light. Thus Zeno defines 
 it, — Ignem esse artificiosum, ad gignendum progre- 
 dientem via; — as a plastic fire, ever generating by 
 / rule. And Cicero, as that coelestis altissima ivthe- 
 
 Ou! reaque natura, id est igne^aquae per se omnia gignat, 
 / ' — that most heavenly high etherial igneous nature, 
 which spontaneously begets all things.^ 
 
 The light of life ; the \4tal draught 
 
 That forms the food of every living thing, 
 
 And e'en the high, enthroned, all-sparkling eye 
 
 Of ever-mounting fire ; th' immense expanse, 
 
 The viewless Ether in his genial arms 
 
 Clasping the earth ; Him call thou Lord and Jove.^ 
 
 It is requisite, however, to distinguish a'lrs here, 
 lest we speak profanely, calling that Jove which is 
 not Jove ; and, mistaking Olympus, embrace some 
 cloud whilst the life-giving Juno is far away above all 
 our idea and sight. For the goddess is subtilely min- 
 gled in nature commonly observable in her action only, 
 as adepts say, and to the world unknown, as we may 
 observe Lully, amongst others telling us, she is of 
 another birth, and cannot be brought to knowledge 
 without sagacious handling and human help. — Imo 
 argentum vivum nostrum est aqua alterius naturcC, 
 qute reperiri non potest supra terram, cum in actio- 
 nem venire non possit per naturam, absque adjutorio 
 / ingenii ct humanarum manuum operationibus.^ 
 
 I Ql H#c vere uullibi est quod qugerimus. 
 
 Nowhere ; for the etherial spirit does not subsist of 
 itself, separate or tangibly on earth ; but, giving sub- 
 sistence to other things, is occultated even in their 
 life, and defiled. It is, moreover, an especial doctrine 
 
 r* - / • / ^ De Nat. Deor. lib. ii. 
 
 .co'\^UO<a(!S 2 iccEtOtSHS. See Blackwell's Letters on Mythology, 12. 
 ' •■' Luliii Theorica et Practiea in Theat. Chem. vol. iv. 
 
Theory of Transmutation. 11 
 
 of adepts, that nature operates her ordinary manifes- 
 tation in direct contrariety to her perfect law ; that, as 
 darkness and imperfection are now apparent, the true 
 Light is made occult ; and that neither sanity nor beauty 
 can permanently supervene in bodies, unless the con- 
 trary be operated in them ; so that that which is fixed 
 becoming volatile and the volatile nature fixed, the ad- 
 ventitious or externally generated image may be con- 
 stricted utterly, and the central form contrariwise de- 
 veloped into life and act. 
 
 Si fixum solvas faciasque volare solutum 
 Et volucrem figas, facicnt te vivere tutum : 
 Solve, CoagLila, Tige. 
 
 Thus, it is said that by a real experimental inver- 
 sion, the Hermetic Art has proved imperfections to be 
 accidental to nature, and introduced to her from with- 
 out ; that as water, spread abroad upon a many-co- 
 loured surface of earth, salts, or spices, takes the hue 
 and flavour of the spot on which it rests, so it is with 
 the prolific source of things ; species subsist in it ad- 
 ventitiously, as it were, by sufferance, and may be ex- 
 pelled, and ought to be for the attainment of perfec- 
 tion. — Whoever desires to attain his end, says Arnold, 
 let him understand the conversion of the elements, 
 to make light things heavy, and to make spirits no 
 spirits, then he shall not work in a strange thing. 
 Converte elementa et quod quseris invenies.^ 
 
 And if any skilful minister of nature shall apply 
 force to matter ; and, by design, torture and vex it in 
 order to its annihilation, says the philosopher ; it, on 
 the contrary, being brought to this necessity, changes 
 and transforms itself into a strange variety of shapes 
 and appearances ; for nothing but the power of the 
 Creator can annihilate it or truly destroy ; so that, 
 at length, running through the whole circle of trans- 
 formations, and completing its period, it in some 
 degree restores itself, if the force be continued. And 
 that method of torturing or detaining will prove 
 
 * Arnold! Specuhiin, Octava Dispositio, &c. 
 
7S Exoteric View. 
 
 the most effectual and expeditious which makes use 
 of manacles and fetters ; /. e., lays hold and works upon 
 matter in the extremest degree.^ 
 
 So much does Lord Bacon assume upon the declara- 
 tion of Democritus ; our philosopher had in him the 
 bright light of genius, which enabled him indepen- 
 dently of experience to conceive well and grapple 
 with the possibility of nature. His mind glanced 
 intuitively through and beyond the darkness which 
 time had cast before the Wisdom of antiquity, and 
 he discerned her yet beaming afar off with vener- 
 able splendor in her old domain. Though chained 
 to the superficies, observing and collecting facts, he 
 honoured those sages who long before him had ex- 
 perimented into the centre, and proved there a firm 
 and immutable foundation of truth ; but thither he 
 was not able himself to pass, for he knew nothing of 
 their Great Art, or of its subject even, and naturally 
 mistook their hidden ground. Had the smallest 
 glimpse only of this been revealed to him, he would 
 have imagined all differently, nor ever proposed that 
 the dissolution of nature should be attempted me- 
 chanically, or by help of such " particular digesters 
 applied to the fire," as in the Sylva Si/lvarum he 
 seriously designs for this end.- 
 
 Such instruments do, in fact, expel the very nature 
 which the ancients prized ; leaving us without all re- 
 compense in the dead ashes of her consuming vesture; 
 whereas, the proposal of Democritus is not only to 
 reduce the matter, with her false forms, to the verge 
 of annihilation, but to entrap the bare spirit and help 
 her on from thence to operate her own intrinsical fi'eed 
 will, which according to this testimony she possesses, 
 and is able to make manifest, wrapping herself spon- 
 taneously about it, even to a recreation. But if she 
 is suffered to depart invisibly without pursuit or 
 amendment, which is the common catastrophe, then 
 
 1 See Bacon, De Sapientia Vetoruni, Fable of Proteus. 
 '^ See the Sylva Sylvarmn, iu two places ; and the History of 
 Rarity and Density. 
 
Theory of Transmutation. 79 
 
 she is caught up again by other external compellents, 
 and, becoming defiled, is imprisoned by them and no 
 better than she was before. The contrariation pro- 
 posed by the Alchemists, indeed, is not in the power 
 of ordinary art, any more than of nature herself; but 
 she passes through death from one form into another, 
 as in the chemic vessels, without self-discovery, being- 
 instigated by a most forcible excentric will, which she 
 has no power but to obey : yet, as the passage runs, 
 — If any skilful minister shall apply another force, and 
 by design torture and vex the spirit in order to its 
 annihilation, it, being brought under this necessity, 
 transforms and presently restores itself, the force being 
 continued. 
 
 And that magic, says Paracelsus, is the most sin- 
 gular secret that directed such an entrance into na- 
 ture ; which, if it were divinely done by God alone, it 
 would be to no purpose to study for it. But the 
 Deity doth not make himself especially operative 
 herein : if that magic then were natural, certainly it 
 was most wonderful, very excellent for quickness of 
 penetration and swiftness of separation, the like 
 whereof nature can neither give nor express. For 
 whilst that is at work, behold all things fall apart 
 into their elements, breaking forth into their act and 
 simple essence. The greatest miracle of all in phi- 
 losophy is stparalioii : separation was the principle and 
 beginning of all generation. And as it was in the 
 great mystery, so it is in the lesser. The truphat, or 
 matter of the metals, brings everything into its pro- 
 per kind, distinguishing and separating with wonderful 
 diligence every thing into its due form.^ — Convert the 
 elements, says Arnold, and you will find what you 
 seek ; for our operation is nothing else than a mutation 
 of natures, and the method of conversion in our Argent 
 vive is the reduction of natures to their first root.^ — 
 The elements of Mercury being separated, says Ripley 
 
 * To the Athenians, book i. text 9. 
 
 2 Speculum Alchimijc, Octava Dispositio. 
 
80 Exoteric View. 
 
 and again commixed by equal weight or proportion, 
 make the chxir complete.' 
 
 Now as we are taught from the beginning, that the 
 whole of the Hermetic theory and practice proceeds 
 upon the assumption of a certain Universal Being in 
 nature, which is occult, and since the whole Art there- 
 fore has respect to this, we may be careful to observe 
 that in speaking of elements, our authors do not al- 
 lude to the common elements — as of fire, air, and 
 water — with wliich we are familiarly conversant, or to 
 those subtler gases, so called simples of modern Che- 
 mistrv, all of which are impure and equally irrelevant 
 to this philosophy ; but the elements they speak of, 
 as being introverted and transformed are the ele- 
 ments of the Mercury, properties of the universal 
 spirit ; in which, and by which alone, they profess to 
 have operated the perfective miracle of their Stone. 
 We must not limit, says Paracelsus, an element to 
 a bodily substance or quality. That which we see 
 is only the receptacle ; the true element is a spirit of 
 life, and grows in all things, as the soul in the body of 
 man. This is the First Matter of tlie elements, which 
 can neither be seen nor felt, and yet is in all things ; 
 and the tirst matter of the elements is nothing else 
 but that life which the creatures have ; and it is these 
 magical elements which are of such an excellent and 
 quick activity that nothing besides can be found or 
 imagined like them.^ 
 
 Concerning the same, Hermes also advises men to 
 understand that the knowledge of the four elements of 
 the ancient philosophers was not corporally or with- 
 out wisdom sought after, but they are through patience 
 onlv to be obtained, according to their kind, which 
 through their owm operation are everywhere in nature 
 hidden and obscured.^ 
 
 We do not know whether we have set the position 
 
 1 Medulla Alchimiae, cap. i. 
 
 2 To the Athenians, book ii. text 2 and 5. 
 
 ^ Tractatus Aureus, cap. i. prop. 4. See also LuUii Tlieoria et 
 Practica, c. iii. 
 
Theory of Transmutation. 81 
 
 clearly, that the order of natural procedure ought to 
 be introverted for a true and perfect manifestation ; 
 the point is subtle, and as it may be more easily ap- 
 prehended hereafter on more intimate ground, we 
 leave it for the present to consider especially what that 
 nature w^as, which the Alchemists profess so to have 
 revolutionized, in order that gathering their definitions 
 of the whole, we may be better able afterwards to 
 conceive the particulars, — Qui| Proteum non novit, ^ 
 adeat Pana. 
 
 Fortis subtilis Pan, integer et generalis ; 
 
 Et totus ignis, aura, terra, sive aqua, 
 Qui resides solio cum tempore semper eodem 
 
 Medio, supremo et infimo regno tuo. 
 Concipiens, generaus, produeens, omnia servans, 
 
 Exordium rerumque finis omnium.^ 
 
 Yet not in his elementary immanifest diffusion let 
 us invoke the most Ancient Nature, but as he was 
 discovered by the Hermetic masters ; whole, and sin- 
 gularly, and before any alteration had been induced in 
 his uniform substance by their art. Thus Albertus 
 Magnus defines the Mercury of the wise to be a watery 
 element, cold and moist, a permanent water, an unc- 
 tuous vapour, and the spirit of body ; and again, — the 
 first material of the metals is an unctuous subtle hu- 
 midity, forcibly incorporated with a subtle terres- _/^P. 
 treity.^ ^rtp.fiii s describes it as a white fume, in sub- (Mite/^/u^u.S 
 stance like to pure silver, resolving bodies into their 
 original whiteness ; and as a vegetable life making all 
 things to grow, multiply, and resuscitate.^ Which 
 Lully, not dissimilarly viewing, calls Hyle, saying, 
 
 I Orpheus llymni — 1. 
 
 ^ Mercurixis SapientAm est elementum aqueum, frigidum ethu- 
 midum, aqua permanens, vapor unctuosus et spiritus corporis, &c. 
 Prima materia metallorum est humidum unctuosum 
 subtile, quod est incorporatum terrestri subtili fortiter commixto. 
 — De Mineralibus, cap. ii. et Breve Compendium in Theat. Chem. 
 vol. ii. 
 
 ^ See Liber Secretissimus Artefii. Ilia namque aqua fumua 
 albus est, &c. Est autem aqua ilia media qusedam siibstantise clara ut 
 argentum purum, qufe debet recipere tincturas solis et lunsB ut 
 
 G 
 
82 Exoteric View. 
 
 that it is a clear compounded water, most like in 
 substance to argent vive, that it is found flowing upon 
 earth, and is generated in every compound out of the 
 substance of the air, therefore the moisture is ex- 
 tremely heavy. ^ Seek our Argent Vive, says Ar- 
 nold, and you will have all you desire from it ; it is 
 a stone and no stone, in which the whole Art consists, 
 spirit, soul, and body ; which if thou dissolvest, it will 
 be dissolved ; and if thou coagulatest, it will be co- 
 agulated ; and if thou makest it fly, it will fly ; for it 
 is volatile, and clear as a tear. And afterwards, it is 
 made citrine, then saltish, but without crystals ; and 
 no man may touch it with his tongue, for it is a 
 deadly poison. Behold, I have described it to thee; 
 but I have not named it, lest it should become com- 
 mon in the hands of all ; nevertheless, I will in a 
 manner name it, and tell thee that if thou sayest it is 
 water, thou dost say truth ; and if thou sayest it is 
 not water, thou dost lie. Be not therefore deceived 
 with manifold descriptions and operations, for it is One 
 Thing to which nothing extraneous may be added. ^ 
 There is another found speaking after the same sense 
 
 congeletur ct couvertatur in terrain albam vivarn. . . . Est 
 quoiiiam aqua ista est aqua vita; vegetabilis, ideo ipsa dat vitain et 
 facit vegctare crescere et pullulare ipsuni corpus luortuuui et 
 ipsuni resuscitare de morte ad vitam solutione et sublimatioue et 
 in tali operatione vei'titur corpus in spirituin, spii'itus in corpus et 
 tunc factn est amicitia, &c. 
 
 ^ Ji. Lullii Tlieorica et Practica, cap iii. De Pornia M inori. Est 
 aqua clara composita ex dictis vaporibus per cond(Misationem suae 
 naturae, qufe venit iu dictos vapores quatuor eleiuentorum, et ilia 
 est res ai'gento vivo magis propinqua, quod quidein reperitur supra 
 terrani currens et fluens, &c. 
 
 ^ Lapis est et non lapis, spiritus anima et corpus : quern si dis- 
 solvis, dissolvitur ; et si coagules, coagulatur, et si volare facis, 
 volat. Est autem volatilis albus ut lacliryina ocidi ; postea efHci- 
 tur citrinus, salsus, pilis carens, quern nemo lingua sua tangere 
 potest. Ecee ipsuni jam sua demonstravi descriptione. Non tameii 
 nominavi, quo omiiis eget locuples et pauper et omiies habere pos- 
 sunt ; et in uianibus suis est ac pro eo causaiitur. JNIodo volo 
 ipsuin nomiuare ; et dico quod si dixeris cum aquam esse, veruiii 
 dicis ; et si dicis cum ai[uam non esse nientiris. Ne igitur deci- 
 piaris pluribus descriptionibus et operantibus. Unum enim quid 
 est. oui nihil alieni inlertur. — Speculum Alchimia^, Octava Disp. 
 
Theory of Transmutation. 83 
 
 — Belus, in the classic synod of Aristceus ; and this, he 
 says, among'st all great philosophers is magisterial, 
 that our stone is no stone ; though with the ignorant 
 this is ridiculous ; for who will believe that water can 
 be made a stone, or a stone Wtiter ; nothing being 
 more different than these two ? Yet, in very truth, it 
 is so : for this very permanent water is the stone, but 
 whilst it is water it is no stone. ^ Again ; — 
 
 It is a stone and no stone, 
 
 In which tlie whole art consists ; 
 
 Nature has made it such, 
 
 But has not yet brought it to perfection. 
 
 Tou will not find it on earth, since there it has no growth ; 
 
 It grows only in the caverns of the mountains. 
 
 The whole art depends on it ; 
 
 For he who has the vapour of this thing. 
 
 Has the gilded splendour of the Eed Lyon, 
 
 The pure and clear Mercury. 
 
 And he who knows the red Sulphur which it contains, 
 
 Has within his power the M'hole foundation." 
 
 Basil Valentine, more intimately defining the nature 
 of the First Matter, declares it to be comparable to no 
 manifested particular wdiatever, and that all descrip- 
 tion fails in respect of it, without the light of true 
 experience. And Rupecissa says the same ; and Rip- 
 ley, that it is not like any common water or earthy 
 material, but a middle substance, — Aquosa substantia 
 sicca reperta, — partaking of extremes celestial and ter- 
 
 ^ Ecce dicta in hoc despecto, fama divulgata quod apud philoso- 
 phos excelsum est, quod est lapis et non lapis, quod multis non^ 
 cupantur nominibus, ne quis ipsum agnoscat insipiens, &c. — 
 Turba Philosophorum Sermo Vigesima. 
 
 Est lapis attamen non lapis, 
 In ipso solum natura operatur, 
 Qui tons ex eo profluit, . 
 Fixum patrem suum submergit, 
 Absorbens illiiui cum corpore vitaque, 
 Donee reddatur illi anima 
 Et mater volatilis ipsi similis 
 Fiat in suo regno, &c. 
 
 B. Vahntinii De Prima Materid. 
 2 Lucerna Salis Phil. p. 33. From the Latin verse. Est qui- 
 dem lapis et non lapis, &<•. — See Digbv's Trans, p. 277. 
 
 G 2 ■ 
 
84 Exoteric View. 
 
 resti'ial ; and though it may seem contradictory so to 
 speak of a first matter, as of a middle, or third ; yet 
 this is done in respect of its generation by active and 
 passive relations of the Universal Spirit, whence it pro- 
 ceeds as a third, yet homogeneal from its radix ; Lully 
 also calls it tertium, and compounded in this sense ; 
 and Basil Valentine, — 
 
 Corpua anima spiritus in duobus existit, 
 Ex quibus tota res procedit : 
 Pi'ocedit ex uno et est res una, 
 Volatile et fixum simul coUi^a, 
 Sunt duo et tria et saltom unum 
 Si non intelliges, nibil obtines.' 
 
 And Vaughan, for example of a modern authority, 
 says, that the First Matter is indeed the union of 
 masculine and feminine spirits ; the quintessence of 
 four, the ternary of three, and the tetract of one ; and 
 that these are his generations, physical and metaphy- 
 sical. The thing itself, continues he, is a world 
 without fortu, a divine animated mass of complexion 
 like silver, neither mere power nor perfect action, but 
 a weak virgin substance, a certain soft prolific Venus, 
 the very love and seed of nature, the mixture and 
 moisture of heaven and earth. ^ As Sendivogius like- 
 wise declares, — Our water is heavenly, not wetting the 
 hands, not of the vulgar, but almost rain water ;^ 
 and by such familiar analogies as tears, rain, dew, 
 milk, wine, and oil, the fermentative principle of the 
 spirit and her distilled quintessence are very ordinarily 
 denoted. We conclude these verbal instructions with 
 the following sununary passage from the ancient book 
 of Synesius, and the New Light. — It is, says this 
 esteemed author, speaking of the same Matter, a 
 clear Light, which fills with true virtue every mind 
 that has once perceived it ; it is the nucleus and bond 
 
 ^ B. A'alentinii De Prima Materia, in Museo Hermotico. Lullii 
 Theor. ot Pract. cap. iii. 
 
 2 Lumeu de Luinine, p. 46, &c. 
 
 ■^ Now T;igbt of Alchemy, Ti'act. 10. Of the Supprnatur:il (J one- 
 ration. 
 
Theory of Transmutation. 85 
 
 of all the elements which are contained in it, and the 
 spirit which nourishes all things, and by means of 
 which nature operates universally ; it is the virtue, 
 true beginning, and end of the whole world ; in plain 
 terms, the quintessence is no other than our viscous 
 celestial and glorious soul drawn from its mincra by 
 our magistery. But nature alone engenders it ; it is not 
 possible to make it by art ; for to create is proper to 
 God alone ; but to make things that are not perceived, 
 but which lie in the shadow, to appear, and to take from 
 them their veil, is granted to an intelligent philoso- 
 pher by God, through nature. And this Latex is the 
 sharp vinegar which makes gold a pure spirit, seeing 
 she is even that blessed w^ater which engenders all 
 things. Our subject is presented to the eyes of the 
 whole world, and it is not known ! O our heaven, O 
 our water, O our mercury, O our salt nitre, abiding 
 in the sea of the world ! O our vegetable ; O our sul- 
 phur, fixed and volatile ; O our caput mortuum, or 
 dead head, or fceces of our sea ! Our water, that wets 
 not the hands ; w^ithout which nothing can live, and 
 without which nothing growls or is generated in the 
 whole world ! And these are the Epithetes of Hermes, 
 his Bird, which is never at rest. It is of small account, 
 yet no body can be without it, and so thou hast dis- 
 covered to thee a thing more precious than the whole 
 world ; which I plainly tell thee is nothing else than 
 our sea water, which is congealed in gold and silver, 
 and extracted by the help of our chalybs, or steel, by 
 the art of philosophers, in a wonderful manner by a 
 prudent son of science.^ 
 
 Thus obscure, after all, is the true Matter of the 
 Alchemists ; and if w^e presume to add here, that it 
 is the simple generated substance of life and light, im- 
 manifestly flowing throughout nature, and define it as 
 that without which nothing that exists is able to be, 
 we are not for this yet wiser how to obtain or work it 
 
 • See at the end of Kirchringius Valentine, in English, the Trea- 
 tise of Synesius, p. 166, and Sendivogius, New Light of Alchemy, 
 page 44. 
 
Si) Exoteric View. 
 
 apart ; nor are words sufficient to convey a just notion 
 where there is no ground of apprehension ; and whether 
 a thing be most hke water, earth, fire, quicksilver, 
 azote, or ether, is indift'erent to the mind, needing ac- 
 tual experience to fix its idea. This the art promises 
 to a patient and true philosopher, but as a reward of 
 individual labour and perseverance only. We may con- 
 tent ourselves thus early, therefore, with the exclusive 
 assurance that it is no one of the many things with 
 w^hich sense brings us acquainted ; that it is neither 
 water, nor earth, nor air, nor fire, though it contains 
 in principle the nature of all these ; neither gold, nor 
 silver, nor mercury, nor antimony, nor any alkali, or 
 gas, or vitriol of the vulgar ; though these titles are 
 found interspersed abundantly with others, equally 
 deceptive, in the pages of the adepts. Neither is it 
 animal absolutely, or vegetable, or mineral, or any 
 natural particular whatever : but the alone Lcelia 
 ^lia latent in and about all, which the Enigma cele- 
 brates as comprehending all ; but which the Alchemists 
 alone teach experimentally to expound. 
 
 The ordinary phenomena of light, however, may 
 occur, as not dissimilar from those which they de- 
 scribe ; only that they are shadowy and mingled, com- 
 pared with the alleged virtue and perfective properties 
 of the Philosophic Subject. Yet as colours — blue, red, 
 yellow, and purple — are blended in the one uniform 
 solar light, and are shown apart simply by a prismatic 
 parting of the rays, or particles of their essence ; and 
 again, when the disposition is exchanged, relapsing, 
 they exhibit the uniform whiteness whence they came ; 
 so is it said to be with the Alchemical Pan, who, 
 being but one himself, is in his offspring multitudi- 
 nous, and manifold in every diversity of form, hue, 
 and complexion. 
 
 The ever varying substance of the wliole 
 Etherial, watci-y, earthly geiiei'al soul, 
 Immortal Fire ! Even all the Morld is tliine 
 Aud parts ot'tliec, O Proteus, power divine; 
 Since all things nature first to thee consigned, 
 Aud in thv essence omuiform combined. 
 
Theory of Transmutation. 87 
 
 Then, again, as light and heat mingle with bodies 
 entering their composition, hardening some, softening 
 others, destroying or cherishing, changing their aspect 
 continually, and modifying their qualities ; so is the 
 Mercurial quintessence said to produce all various 
 effects, but within itself consummately without exter- 
 nal reference, or elementary confusion. Hitherto w^e 
 have had account of the Matter only as it first appears, 
 pure, as they say, and white, out of the philosophical 
 contrition ; and, so far, we find the testimony suffi- 
 ciently congruous : — but wdien the wise artist has 
 brought all into this annihilate condition, and pressed 
 out the waters of her extreme life ; nature re-acting, 
 as it is said, exhibits from out her unity three great 
 magnetic principles of being — the Salt, Sulphur, 
 and Mercury of adepts, in relation to each other 
 of agent, patient, m\d offspring universal, — perpe- 
 tually flowing forth to multitudinous manifestation. 
 For Pan contains Proteus, as we have before seen 
 from Democritus, and exhibits himself through this 
 god ; evolving every particular property and form of 
 beings, out of his central will, of necessity, as the Or- 
 phic oracle declares ; also of Mercury, with like allusion. 
 
 Hear me, Mercury, and Son of Maia ; the bright expositor of 
 things ! 
 
 This Proteus then, or Mercury, or quintessence of 
 philosophers, is warily concealed by them under an 
 infinity of names, all more or less applicable, yet de- 
 lusive ; for though every epithet is admissible, inas- 
 much as nothing can be said amiss of a Universal Sub- 
 ject, yet the right conception is hard to gather from 
 their books. In its artificial fermentation and pro- 
 gress towards perfection, the changes it undergoes are 
 manifold ; and as the common life of nature, it be- 
 comes any and every conceivable thing in turn that it 
 wills to be ; now it is mineral, now vegetable, now 
 animal ; by predominance of either principle, it is fire, 
 spirit, body, air, earth, and water ; a stone, a vapour, 
 or an aqua sicca ; an essential oil of hfe, and a most 
 
88 Exoteric View. 
 
 sharp vinegar, a phoenix, a salamander, a poisonous 
 devouring dragon, and a chameleon ; eveiy colour, 
 every thought is included in its circulations ; nourish- 
 ing, destroying, living, dying, corrupting, purifying, it 
 is all things ; and, anon, it is nothing, — but a potential 
 chaos and egg of philosophers ; a precedential, nameless 
 principle, always in mutation, becoming to be, — first, 
 last, greatest, least, the servant of art and queen of 
 nature. Proceeding homogeneal through each omni- 
 form variety, and returning into herself manifestly the 
 life and all phenomena which she as constantly sup- 
 plies, the great Identity is as herself unchanged ; 
 
 .J - -^' 
 
 Et, quaiito ilia magis tbriiias se vertet iu oinnis, /'^/ 
 Tanto, iiate, magis tenacia vincla.^ ' / / 
 
 Adepts have taken advantage of the mutable nature 
 of their subject, to baffle the blind searcher, as w ell to 
 confound false premises as to lead the intelligent to a 
 discovery of the simple truth ; and where we find them 
 speaking confusedly of elements, colours, and opera- 
 tions, it is very requisite to bear in mind the idiosyn- 
 cracy of their ground, and that it is to the qualities 
 and changes which take place during the preparation, 
 and multiplying the Mercury by its proper Light, they 
 allude, and not to any superficial phenomena or those 
 elements which the moderns have so triumphantly 
 decomposed. The three principles, the Salt, Sulphur, 
 and Mercury, are merely different as modes of being of 
 the same thing, and the many names arising out of the 
 action and passion of these, do but indicate the stages 
 of progress and development, as of a tree, which with 
 its leaves, trunk, flowers, buds, fruit and branches, all 
 differing, is nevertheless one individual, of one original, 
 and of one root. 
 
 In the common estate, as the Spirit is in nature, said 
 to be everywhere, it is called a thing vile and cheap ; 
 in its perfectly prepared form, a medicine the most 
 potent and precious in the whole world ; and the inter- 
 
 ' Georgics, lib. iv. 411. 
 
Theory of Transmutation. 89 
 
 mediate stages partake of the predoniinarice of either 
 extreme ; being subHmed at first, it is called a serpent, 
 dragon, or green lion, on account of its strength and 
 crude vitality, which putrefying, becomes a stronger 
 poison, and their venomous toad ; which afterwards 
 appearing calcined by its proper fire, is called magne- 
 sia and lead of the wise ; which again dissolving, be- 
 comes their vitriolic solvent and most sharp acetum ; 
 and this afterwards is changed into an oil, which, 
 whitening, is called milk, dew, quintessence, and by 
 many other names ; until raised to the final perfec- 
 tion, it is henceforth a phoenix, salamander, their 
 royal essence and Red Stone. 
 
 Our great Elixir most liigh of price. 
 
 Our Azot, oiu' Basiliske, and our Adrop, our Cocatrice. 
 Some call it also a substance exuberate. 
 Some call it Mercury of metalline essence, 
 Some limus deserti from his body evacuate, 
 Some the Eagle flying fro' the north with violence, 
 Some call it a Toade for his great vehemence. 
 
 But few or none at all doe name it in its kinde, 
 
 It is a privy quintessence ; keep it well in minde.^ 
 
 Some speaking of it thus in metaphor, others in 
 abstract terms, and all ambiguously; one regarding only 
 certain properties, which another as entirely passes by, 
 now describing in the natural state, then in its purified 
 condition, or otherwise in any one of the intermediate 
 stages through which it passes, without note of order 
 in the art ; altogether it is by no means wonderful that 
 so many erroneous conclusions have arisen respecting 
 it, ingenuity having been rather directed to obscure 
 than reveal the truth, which indeed can hardly be well 
 conceived, without an insight into the experimental 
 ground. And there are other difficulties which beset 
 an exoteric theory of occult science, and inconsisten- 
 cies will continually appear betwixt the sound of the 
 alchemical writings and their true sense, until the 
 initial ground is understood. Patience in the beginning 
 is required, therefore, to interrogate and discern, from 
 
 ^ Bloonifield's Camp of Philosophy, book i. in Ashmole. 
 
90 Exoteric View. 
 
 amongst so many shadowy representatives, the true 
 light. Constantly holding in mind the simplicity of 
 the Substance, whence these images are all derived, we 
 may nevertheless be enabled to thread in comparative 
 security this Hermetic labyrinth of birds and wild 
 beasts : and wdien Geber says, that the thing which 
 perfects in minerals, is the substance of argent vive 
 and sulphur, proportionally commixt in the bowels of 
 clean inspissate earth ;^ or Sendivogius, that the mat- 
 ter of the metals is twofold ;"^ or Lully, or Ripley, or 
 Basil, calls it a third thing ; we shall not understand 
 them, or any others so speaking, as of a variety of 
 things, of sulphur, mercury, or earth in a common- 
 sense interpretation, but of the magnetic relation, 
 action, and passion of the Ethereal being in itself. 
 
 And fi'om the foregoing we may also judge that 
 when Hermes says that the separation of the ancient 
 philosophers is made upon Water, dividing it into four 
 substances,-^ that it is not the common elementated 
 water to wdiich he alludes ; any more than did Thales 
 wdien he said that all things were generated from 
 thence, or Moses when he taught that the Spirit of 
 God moved creatively upon the face of the same. This 
 water they speak of is not the fluid with which in this 
 life we are conversant, either as dew, or of clouds, or air 
 condensed in caverns of the earth, or artificially dis- 
 tilled in a receiver out of sea fountains, either of pits, 
 or rivers, as the empirical chemists formerly imagined ; 
 but it is the ethereal body of life and light which 
 they profess to have discovered, — a certain tortured 
 water, having suffered alteration by art and become 
 corporified. O how w^onderful, exclaims the Arabian, 
 is that Thing which has in itself all things which we 
 seek, to which we add nothing different or extract, 
 only in the preparation removing superfluities!^ 
 
 The sense of all these philosophers is the same and 
 from their gathered evidence we may infer that their 
 
 ^ Invest, of Perf. cap. i. ^ ]>j^ew Light, Tract. 3. 
 
 ^ Tract. Aur. cap. i. prop. v. •• Eosarium, Aristotele Arabus. 
 
Theory of Transmutation. 91 
 
 Stone is nothing more or less than the pure Ethereahty 
 of nature, separated by artificial means, purified and 
 made concrete by constriction and scientific multiph- 
 cation of its proper Light — the preparation, generation, 
 birth, specification — all proceeding, arte mirabili, on 
 the hidden basis of its primal eduction. Earliest and 
 easiest it attains to the perfection of the mineral 
 kingdom ; and the seed of gold, says the adept, is a 
 fiery form of Light inspissate, and this is the Stone of 
 Fire; — Lapis noster, hie est ignis, ex igne creatus, 
 et in ignem vertitur, et anima ejus in igne moratur.^ 
 Thus nature, by the help of art, is said to transcend her- 
 self, and Light is the true fermenti^te principle which 
 perfects the Ether in its proper kind. 
 
 Nor can one be so stupid as to think 
 That water of its own accord should cause 
 Within itself so great a change, and link 
 SuljDhur and mercury with so firm laws, 
 
 Its own dimensions to penetrate 
 
 So many times a metal to create. 
 
 ' No, there must be an inward agent granted, 
 
 Else would a thing unchanged still remain ; 
 
 This agent is the form that matter wanted, 
 
 While it its proper nature did retain ; 
 
 This Eorm is Light, the source of central heat, 
 Which clothed with matter doth a seed beget. 
 
 The seed no sooner is produced, but soon 
 
 Essays to bring the matter to a change, 
 
 On it it stamps its character, Avhich done, 
 
 The Matter lives, and that which may seem strange, 
 Co-worketh with the Form t' attain the end 
 To which the seed implanted doth intend, &c.- 
 
 This of the mineral kingdom, where the Formal 
 Light, by multiplication in its Ether, is said to produce 
 gold ; through superior skill and coction in the vege- 
 table life, the elixir of the wise ; and more rarely yet 
 in the animal kingdom, and most of all in man ; 
 wherein all these are included, and a mj'^stery of Uni- 
 versal Being, profound and difficult to govern and no 
 
 ^ Rosarium, Democritus Phil. Artis Auriferse, vol. ii. 
 "^ Eireneus, Marrow of Alchemy, book i. 45. 
 
 'azj 
 
 al, 
 
92 Exoteric View. 
 
 less arduous than glorious to sustain. For though the 
 material is one throughout, forms are diverse, and in 
 him it assumes an Image that is Divine and more po- 
 tent than all the rest : which is in this life yet an 
 embryo, but when unfolded through a new birth in 
 universal intelligence, transcends the limits of this 
 nether sphere, and passes into communion with the 
 highest life, power, science, and most perfect felicity. 
 
 Of the phenomena of light, electricity, magnetism, 
 &c., great account is taken at the present day ; both to 
 exhibit them, and to apply their various potencies to the 
 affairs of life : but of the real source of these potencies, 
 or of the true efficient in any case, nothing is known. 
 The beam has been tried and tortured, through pris- 
 matic glasses and crystals, every chemical agent has 
 been exhausted upon it, and electrical machines have 
 been instituted to entrap the fluid, but in vain. 
 The learned are free to admit that, though they have 
 discovered much of the mysterious influences of light, 
 the more is discovered the more miraculous do they 
 appear. — It has passed through every test without 
 revealing its secrets, and even the effects which it pro- 
 duces in its path are unexplained problems still to tax 
 the intellects of men.^ These phenomena are effects 
 then of a Cause unknown, and that very unknown 
 Cause it was the alleged object of the Hermetic experi- 
 ment to prove. Shall we not therefore revert to the 
 inquiry, and search earnestly, if a glance of faith be 
 granted only, to ascertain whether, recovering the 
 ancient method of philosophizing, we may advance by 
 it to the same end ? 
 
 Truth is no where manifested upon the earth, because 
 her forms or sulphurs are perplexed, and the passive 
 spirit of nature is included and impure. She is more- 
 over specified everywhere, and does not consequently, 
 as a true passive, reflect without difference another 
 impressing image from without truly to itself. But by 
 the Hermetic dissolution the right recipient is said to 
 
 ' See Hunt's Poetrv ni' Science. 
 
Theory of Transmutation. 93 
 
 be obtained, the pure is separated from the impure, 
 the subtle ft'om the gross, and the agent and the 
 patient are one identity, as in the Emerald Table 
 it is graven, — that which is below is as that which is 
 above, and that which is above is as that which is below, 
 for the performing of the miracles of the One Thing 
 whence all the rest proceed by adaptation. — And on this 
 unitary basis of production the metamorphosis of spe- 
 cies is not so entirely ridiculous. Have we not example 
 in the common process of fermentation, the '^ild juice /"7?v 
 of grapes converted into wine, and milk into butter and / 
 cheese and whey ; and these each proceeding out of 
 one thing without requiring the addition of anything 
 different : but only by operation of their own ferment 
 they become changed into different specific natures? 
 Just so is the Vital Spirit said to be, by the art of Al- 
 chemy, promoted from one form of being into another 
 by its own prepared must or leaven; and as such, in turn, 
 it reacts convertively on the elements of its original ex- 
 traction ; having previously passed on, through many 
 stages, from imperfection to perfection. Analogy of this, 
 likewise, we have in the animal kingdom ; caterpillars 
 changing their neuter forms quiescently, and becoming 
 winged moths. There remains the great difference, how- 
 ever, that whereas, in these familiar examples, impri- 
 soned nature rests necessarily within the limiting law of 
 her species ; the will of the philosophic Proteus is free 
 to be drawn without hinderance to form itself about the 
 universal magnet of its own infinite self-multiplicative 
 Light ; which being transmuted, transmutes ; and mul- 
 tiplying, multiplies its proper substance freely, in pro- 
 portion to the virtue which it has acquired in the 
 fermentation. And hence it may be better conceived, 
 perhaps, how this fermented spirit or Stone, (as in the 
 crystalline perfectness of its essence it has been called,) 
 when brought into contact with the crude life of nature 
 whence it sprung, transmutes, /. e. attracts the same 
 away from other forms into intimate coalescence with its 
 own assimilative light. And notwithstanding metals and 
 all things in the world, as the adepts say, derive their 
 
94 Exoteric View. 
 
 origin from the same Spirit, yet notliing- is reputed so 
 nearly allied to it as gold; for in all other nietals there 
 is some impurity, and, therefore, a certain weight is 
 lost in transmuting from them ; but in gold there is 
 none, but the Formal Light is wholly swallowed up in 
 it without residue, dissolving intimately, gently, and 
 naturally, as they compare it to ice in warm water ; 
 an excellent simile, by the way, inasmuch as the com- 
 mingling natures differ in estate only and were origi- 
 nally one. And I say to you, adds Sendivogius, that 
 you must seek for that hidden thing, out of which is 
 made, after a wonderful manner, such a moisture or 
 humidity which doth dissolve gold without violence or 
 noise, but sweetly and naturally ; if you find out this 
 you have that thing out of which gold is produced by 
 nature. And although all metals have their origin from 
 thence, yet nothing is so friendly to it as gold ; it is 
 even like a mother to it ; and so finally I conclude.^ 
 
 And the method of working to this discovery, and to 
 supply the deficiency of Form to the purified body of 
 the Spirit, is described as the same in each of the three 
 kingdoms of nature : the preparation only being diver- 
 sified according to the variety of things indigent or in- 
 tended to be changed. And if the Art has been more 
 frequently proved in the mineral kingdom than in the 
 other two, we learn that this has happened, not be- 
 cause the power is limited here, or because adepts have 
 desired gold above every other good ; but because the 
 metalline radix first presents itself in the experimental 
 process, and is most easily apportioned ; and because the 
 responsibility involved is less vital and consequential, it 
 has been more freely exhibited and worked at large. 
 In metals, says Geber, is lesser perfection than in ani- 
 mals ; and the perfection of them consists more in pro- 
 portion and composition than in anything else. There- 
 fore, seeing in them is less perfection than the othei-, 
 we can more fi'cely perfect these. For the Most High 
 hath so distinguished perfections fi'om each other in 
 
 ^ New LiG^Vit of Alchemv, I'ref'ace to the Pliil. Eniirma. p. 49. 
 
Theory of Transmutation. 9C) 
 
 many forms ; and those things which in the natural 
 composition were weakest, (/' e. where hfe predominates 
 over corporeal consistency,) are by God endued W'ith 
 gi'eater and more noble perfection, viz., that which 
 subsists according to soul or mind. And other 
 things by Him made of a more firm and strong com- 
 position, as stones and metals, are endued with lesser 
 and more ignoble perfection, viz., that which is fi'om 
 the w'ay of proportionate mixtion of the matter.^ 
 But metals, notwithstanding their inferiority of pro- 
 portion, are said to be produced originally, as all 
 other things are produced, from metalline seeds out of 
 the Universal Spirit or Mercury, by wliich also they may 
 be exalted and multiplied, and by no other thing ; for 
 that without this Spirit growth is impossible, or trans- 
 mutation or increase, and by it all natures are generated 
 externally in their proper kinds. And the reason 
 that is given why metals wdiich thus include the proli- 
 fic principle do not naturally increase, is a deficiency 
 of heat, the Spirit being overcome in the gross, pre- 
 ponderating elements of their hard composition, so 
 that they cannot fructify, unless they be first purged 
 from their terrestreity and their tincture set free in 
 the subtle Original of all life. Vulgar gold Sendivogius 
 compares to a herb without seed, which wdien it is ripe 
 bears seed ; and as trees from southern climates cease 
 to blossom and bear fruit when transplanted into colder 
 soils, so it is with the metals hindered by the crude 
 earth of which they are composed. But, he adds, If 
 at any time nature be sweetly and wittily helped, then 
 art may perfect that which nature could not : gold 
 may yield fruit and seed in which it multiplies itself 
 by the industry of a skilful artificer, who knows how 
 to exalt nature, and this by no other medium than fire 
 or heat ; but seeing this cannot be done, since in 
 a congealed metallic body there appear no spirits, it is 
 necessary that the body be loosened and dissolved, 
 and the pores thereof opened, whereby nature may 
 
 1 Invest, of Perf., Eussell's Greber, p. 44. 
 
96 Exoteric View. 
 
 work.* And thus, continues another, when the mine- 
 ral spirit is pure, it will, by its especial forms, do more 
 than generate their forms to produce something like 
 themselves, for it will work such an alteration in 
 things of like nature with themselves, that they shall 
 equahze the Philosophical EHxir, whose divine virtues 
 wise men so much admire, and fools condemn because 
 their blinded eyes cannot penetrate within to the cen- 
 tre of the mystery.'^ 
 
 We do not presume to suppose that such a view of 
 nature will be immediately acceptable, or that the Her- 
 metic theory presents itself even in a plausible aspect 
 as yet ; the Laws on this ground are directly inverse to 
 our ordinary notions of natural procedure and to our 
 acquired conception of simplicity and specific variation. 
 But we are not investigating for those who make their 
 mere individual experience a negative measure of be- 
 lief, and who understand the possibilities of nature 
 and art so far as to limit them ; but for such rather 
 who, more observing, see reason for hope beyond their 
 present vision, and are able to imagine at least those 
 surpassing realities which the ancients assert convic- 
 tively as having apprehended in intellect and experi- 
 mentally known. We have hitherto brought their tes- 
 timony so far only as the existence of a Homogeneal 
 Subject in nature, showing tliat the same was the ma- 
 terial basis of their philosophy, and the only principle of 
 transmutation, life, increase, and perfection. We have 
 endeavoured also to explain, (as well as the fence with- 
 out which we placed ourselves for the preliminary dis- 
 cussion would admit,) that the reduction of bodies to 
 their original matter, by introversion of the generated 
 life, is requisite to a true manifestation and permanence 
 in any form, as by the ordinary process of fermentation 
 also was famiharly evinced ; furthermore, that this in- 
 version is not in the power of unassisted nature, as is 
 
 1 New Light of Alch. Tract. 10; also AuguroUiis C'lirysopaea, 
 lib. i. 
 
 ^ Nuysenient, Sal, Lumen et Spiritus Mundi, Phil. ed. Com- 
 bachius. 
 
Theory of Transmutation. 97 
 
 evident : indeed, she never withstands or alters for an 
 instant her mode of being or vital perpetuity. It is in 
 vain, therefore, to seek for that in nature which is an 
 effect beyond her strength ; she must be helped, that 
 she may exceed herself, or all will be useless. For the 
 Mercury of the philosophers is not found of itself on 
 earth, nor can be detained or perfected without this oc- 
 cult and needful Art assisting her. And these are the 
 grand desiderata, to know what the true matter is, 
 where and how it may be taken, and to find an artist 
 able and fitted to perfect it : — without the former we 
 are advised to attempt nothing ; and without the latter 
 the former can be practically of no avail. 
 
 Having premised thus much concerning the matter 
 with the ground of the Hermetic theory, so far only, 
 however, as may enable us to guard against gross mis- 
 apprehension ; we propose, previous to entering on a 
 more intimate discussion, to set the whole fairly before 
 the reader's judgment, in the following translation of the 
 Tractatiis Aureus, or Golden Treatise of Hermes, coh- 
 cerning the Physical Secret of the Philosopher's Stone, 
 which has been considered to be one of the most an- 
 cient and complete pieces of alchemical writing extant ; 
 and may be regarded as an exposition in epitome of 
 the whole Art. Mystical and disorderly as this relic is, 
 and must especially appear at first to any one unaccus- 
 tomed to the antique style, we trust that the short 
 pains may not be grudged that it will cost in passing 
 on with us to the discovery of its idea. The treatise 
 has been held in high esteem by the alchemists, and 
 the Scholia given in part may assist in the perusal. 
 Whoever the author may have been (for, though it 
 bears the name of Hermes, the true origin is doubtful ;) 
 it wears the impress of very great antiquity, and claims 
 better than to be frivolously judged of by those who 
 are uninitiated in science and ignorant of the kind of 
 wisdom it unfolds. Prudence, patience, and penetra- 
 tion, the author owns, are required to understand him, 
 and more than these for the discovery of his Great Art. 
 Books were not written in those davs for the informa- 
 
98 Exoteric View. 
 
 tion of the illiterate, as though any vulgar distiller or 
 mechanic might carry away the golden fleece ; or in 
 such a guise that the covetous, who made gold their 
 only idol, should readily, without research and the 
 due Herculean labour, gather the apples of the Hespe- 
 rides : nor yet that any, though learned, as the adept 
 adds, should by once or twice overly and slightly read- 
 ing, as the dogs lap the waters of Nilus, straightway be 
 made a philosopher. No, the magistery of this science 
 forbids so great a sacrilege : our books are made for 
 those who have been or intend to become conversant 
 about the search of nature.^ For this is the first step 
 towards the discovery of truth, to be diligent in the 
 investigation ; other requirements there are and rea- 
 sons for the extraordinary caution that has been used 
 to keep the Art concealed, which may in the sequel be 
 appreciated when it is intimately understood. 
 
 And ye may trust me 'tis no small ingiun, 
 To know all the secrets pertaining to this myne, 
 For it is most profouude philosophy, 
 This subtill science of holi Alkimy.- 
 
 Vc£^/ ^ See Eiren/us Ripley Eevived. 
 
 / 2 Norton's Ordinal. 
 
The Golden Treatise. 99 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Golden Treatise of Hennes Trismegistus, cun- 
 cermng the Physical Secret of the Philosopher's 
 Stone. In seven Sections. 
 
 SECTION FIRST. 
 
 EVEN thus saith Hermes : Through long years, I 
 have not ceased to experiment, neither have I 
 spared any labour of mind ; and this science and art 
 1 have obtained by the sole inspiration of the living 
 God, who judged fit to open them to me His servant ;^ 
 who has given to rational creatures the power of 
 thinking and judging aright, forsaking none, or giving 
 to any occasion to despair.^ 
 
 For myself, I had never discovered this matter to 
 any one, had it not been from fear of the day of judg- 
 ment, and the perdition of my soul, if I concealed it. 
 It is a debt which I am desirous to discharge to the 
 
 1 There are three things said to be necessary for the attainment 
 of the Hermetic science : viz., study, experience, and the divine 
 benediction ; and these depend upon each other : study is required 
 for the theory, and this for entering into the central experience 
 which, in the Universal Spirit, is not found without God. 
 
 ^ Without theoretic knowledge and a right principle to begin 
 ^^^th, many have wearied themselves in experimenting, even with 
 the right subject, in vain ; but the true intention once discovered, 
 the whole truth opens, as practice siicceeds to theory, alternating 
 in the philosophic work. You must know, says Geber, that he 
 who in himself knows not natural principles is very remote from 
 our art, because he has not a true root whereon to found his in- 
 tention ; but he who knows the principles and the way of genera- 
 tion, which consists according to the intention of nature, is bvit a 
 very short way from the completement. (Sum of Perf. booki.). 
 See also Norton's Ordinal Proheme, and chapters i. and iv. ; and 
 the Introitus Apertus ad Occlusum Eege*» Palatio, cap. viii. &c. C^ 
 
 H 2 
 
100 Exoteric View. 
 
 faithful, as the Father of the faithful did hberally be- 
 stow it upon me.^ 
 
 Understand ye then, O sons of Wisdom, that the 
 knowledge of the four elements of the ancient philo- 
 sophers was not corporally or imprudently sought 
 after, which are through patience to be discovered ac- 
 cording to their causes and their occult operation. 
 But their operation is occult, since nothing is done 
 except the matter be decompounded, and because it is 
 not perfected unless the colours be throughly passed 
 and accomplished.'^ 
 
 Know then, that the division that w^as made upon 
 the Water, by the ancient philosophers, separates it into 
 four substances ; one into two, and three into one ; 
 the third part of which is colour, as it were — a coagu- 
 lated moisture ; but the second and third waters are 
 the Weights of the Wise.^ 
 
 ^ Our author hereby declares that it was conscience which 
 
 moved him to disclose his dearly-acquired knowledge, but in such 
 
 terms only to the world that the studious might understand and 
 
 follow in his steps. He nowhere, therefore, addresses the igno- 
 
 Q rant, lest his instruction should be abused ; but the predestined 
 
 ^ sons of wisdom, to guide them, being already initiated, furtlier into 
 
 ^ the practice of his high art. 
 
 2 Here we have a premonitory opening of the philosophic work 
 which Hermes calls a knowledge of the elements ; which elements, 
 however, are not commonly to be understood ; noH corporaliter, as 
 the Scholiast explains, sed spiritualitei' etsajnenter, — not corporally 
 but spiritually and wisely ; for the properties of the Universal 
 Spirit are abstrusely included in all existence, and to be understood 
 only by its own intimate analysis and introverted light. But 
 nothing is done except the matter be decompounded ; for there 
 are many heterogeneous images and superfluities adhering to this 
 subject in its natural state, which render it u]itit for progress ; 
 these therefore must be entirely discharged ; which, say the adepts, 
 is impossible without the theory of their arcanum, in wliich they 
 show the medium by which the radical element is discovered and 
 set free to the accomplishment of its inclusive law. See The 
 Scholium — Paracelsus 1st book to the Athenians. K. Lullii 
 Theoria et Practica, cap. iii. Norton's Ordinal, cap. v. Eipley's . 
 Third Gate, &c. Introitus Apertus ad Occlusum Eegam Palatio, /-S/ 
 cap. viii. / 
 
 ^ Tlie philosophic water then, being divided iuto four parts or 
 hypostatic relations, they are called elements. First, the one part, 
 being divided, ])roduces two, which are as agent and patient in 
 
The Golden Treatise. 101 
 
 Take of the humidity or moisture an ounce and a 
 half, and of the Southern Redness, which is the soul of 
 gold, a fourth part, that is to say, half an ounce ; of 
 the citrine Seyre, in like manner, half an ounce ; of the 
 Auripigment, half an ounce, — which are eight ; that is 
 three ounces. And know ye that the vine of the wise 
 is drawn forth in three, but the wine thereof is not 
 perfected, until at length thirty be accomplished.^ 
 Understand the operation, therefore, decoction les- 
 , ^ sens the matter, but the tincture augments it : because 
 ^^^^>L/Luna kr fifteen days is diminished ; and in the third, 
 she is augmented. This is the beginning and the end.^ 
 
 the ethereal world ; further afterwards, from their conjunction, 
 three are said to be made manifest as body, soul, and spirit, which 
 co-operating together in tlie unity of the same Spirit, beget all 
 things, giving birtli to the whole substratal nature. The dif- 
 ferences of the colours, observes the Scholiast, Hermes divides 
 into two threes, i. e. into three red spirits and tliree white, which 
 have their growth all from the same identical water, and are re- 
 solved into the same again. By considering, therefore, that this 
 water or mercury of the adepts has, within itself, its own good 
 sulphur, or vital flame, thou mayest perfect all things out of 
 mercury ; but if thou shalt know to add thy weights to the weights 
 of nature, to double mercury and triiile sulphur, it will quickly be 
 terminated in good, then in better, until into best of all. See the 
 Scholium ; Sendivogius' New Light of Alchemy, p. 117 ; Arnoldi 
 Speculum, Disp. viii. 
 
 ^ The proportional working of the philosophic matter upon its 
 parts is indicated by adepts under variously perplexed forms and 
 measures. Those distinctions which Hermes makes of the hu- 
 midity, the southern redness, soul of gold, seyre, citrine, auripig- 
 ment, the vine of philosophers and their wine, have no other sig- 
 nification, says the Scholiast, but that the Spirit should be seven 
 times distilled, which after the eighth distillation is converted by 
 force of the fire into ashes, or a most subtle powder which, by 
 reason of its purity and perfection, resists the fire. IVeither 
 wonder, he adds, that eight pai'ts and three ounces are equivalent ; 
 for by the former section the one part is divided into two, to each 
 of wlaich there are added three parts, which are the true philo- 
 sophic proportions called also by Hermes the Weights of the Wise. 
 See the Scholium ; Ripley's Epistle ; Introit. Apert. cap. vii. ; 
 Norton's Ordinal, cap. v. 
 
 2 Understand here the diminution and increase of that ethereal 
 light, which is the passive luminary in the Philosophic Heaven, 
 whose changes and manifest operations are described as wonderfully 
 parallel with those of the familiar satellite, by which the philosopher 
 vt plea.si?d covex't.^ ':^ indicatesher. Some divide the operation of the 
 
102 Exoteric View. 
 
 Behold, I have declared that which was hidden, 
 since the work is both with thee and about thee ; that 
 which was within is taken out and fixed, and thou 
 canst have it either in earth or sea.^ 
 
 Keep, therefore, thy Argent vive, which is prepared 
 in the innermost chamber in which it is coagulated ; 
 for that is the Mercury which is celebrated from the 
 residual earth. ^ 
 
 philosopher's stone into two parts ; the former Hermes calls de- 
 coction, which dissolving the matter, discharges also its impuri- 
 ties by a proper ride ; until, being at length on the verge of 
 annihilation, i. e. freed from every exteriorly attracting form, it 
 prepares, as Democritus in the fable of Proteus alludes, to restore 
 itself through a powerfixl inbred revolutionary force. Then follows 
 what is called the Second Work, which is only, in continuation of 
 the First, to perfect the newly informed embryo and multiply its 
 vivific light. In such few words, therefore, Hermes professes to 
 comprehend the whole of the artificial process of working the 
 Spirit. 
 
 1 Herein is the work commended and suggested to true in- 
 quirers, that they may forsake the beaten road of experiment, and 
 seek to know intrinsically within themselves the substance of that 
 Universal Natm-e in which they, with all beings in common, as it 
 were, unconsciously live ; which, in the natural order of genera- 
 tion, is made occult, abiding throughout invisibly. And as was 
 explained in the theory concerning other gross elementary bodies, 
 that the true original cannot be made manifest except they be 
 reduced into it ; so with respect to man, that which is sown, (viz. 
 the catholic germ of his existence which comprehends all things, 
 according to the Hermetic tradition, and mystery of the whole 
 causal nature, with the faitli and assurance of a better life,) is not 
 quickened except it die. That which is within, viz. the causal 
 light, must be drawn forth by art and fixed ; and that which is 
 without, viz. the sensual spirit of life must be made fluxile and 
 occultated before reason can become into tliat Identity by which 
 the powers of the Universal Nature are made manifest and intrin- 
 sically imderstood. But intending to enlarge inquiry on this 
 head, we defer our comments. 
 
 2 Our mercury, says tlie wise Scholiast, is philosophic, fiery, 
 vital, running, which may be mixed with all other metals and 
 again separated from them. It is prepared in the innermost 
 chamber of life, and there it is coagulated, and where metals grow 
 there they may be found, even in the ultimate axle of each created 
 life. If you have found tliis argent vive, then, which is the resi- 
 duum of the philosophic earth after the separation, keep it safely, 
 for it is worthy. If you have brought your mercurial spirit to 
 ashes or burnt it by its own fire, you have, continues our inform- 
 ant, an incomparable treasure, a thing more precious tlian gold ; 
 
The Golden Treatise. 103 
 
 He, therefore, who now hears my words, let him 
 search into them ; which are to justify no evil-doer, 
 but to benefit the good ; therefore, I have discovered 
 all things that were before hidden concerning this 
 knowledge, and disclosed the greatest of all secrets, 
 even the Intellectual Science.^ 
 
 Know ye, therefore. Children of Wisdom, who in- 
 quire concerning the report thereof, that the vulture 
 standing upon the mountain crieth out with a loud 
 voice, I am the White of the Black, and the Red of the 
 White, and the Citrine of the Red ; and behold I speak 
 the very truth. ^ 
 
 And know that the chief principle of the art, is the 
 Crow which is the blackness of the night and clearness 
 of the day, and flies without wings. From the bitter- 
 ness existing in the throat, the tincture is taken ; the 
 red goes forth from his body, and from his back is 
 taken a thin water. ^ 
 
 for this is that which generates the Stone, and is born of it, and 
 it is the whole secret which converts all other metalline bodies in- 
 to silver and gold, making both hard and soft, agent and patient, 
 putting tincture and fixity upon them. See the Scholium, Maria 
 Practica, circa finem ; Introit. Apert. cap. iv. and v. ; Ku|(nrath, 
 Amph. Isag. in fig. 
 
 ^ Grive not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye 
 your pearls before swine, says the Divine Teacher ; and some men 
 the Scriptures have compared to dogs, yea greedy dogs, wolves 
 and foxes ; these are unfit to be admitted to the Causal Know- 
 ledge, lest, handling the powerful machine of nature recklessly 
 or unjustly for selfish ends, they subvert the order of fijial causes, 
 and, rifling her treasury, turn again and rend her. Hermes leaves 
 the Mystery thus, therefore, to unfold itself through study and 
 faithful experiment, that the mind by searching and patient in- 
 vestigation may be prepared and able to appreciate the truth when 
 found. We, also, intending to explore the Intellectual Ground 
 more fully hereafter, follow in its own wilfial order the Hermetic 
 mind. 
 
 2 The vulture, according to our Scholiast, is the new born quint- 
 essential spirit or Proteus ; the mountain upon which the vulture 
 stands is a fit vessel placed in a well-built philosophic furnace en- 
 compassed with a wall of fire. In him all the multifarious virtues 
 of nature are declared to be held in capacity, as in rapid evolu- 
 tion he passes about his axis, making the light manifest without 
 refraction in every variety of its colouring and creative imagina- 
 tion. 
 
 •'' The vulture and the crow are interpreted to be one and the 
 
 /KUy, 
 
104 Exoteric View. 
 
 Understand, therefore, and accept this gift of God 
 which is hidden from the thoughtless world. In the 
 caverns of tlie metals there is hidden the Stone that 
 is venerable, splendid in colour, a mind sublime, and 
 an open sea. Behold, I have declared it unto thee ; 
 give thanks to God, who teacheth thee this know- 
 ledge ; for He in return recompenses the grateful.' 
 
 Pat the matter into a moist fire, therefore, and 
 
 same thing, only differing somewhat iu estate. Whilst the Spirit 
 of life appears active and devouring in the process, it has been 
 called the vulture, and when it lies in a more obscured and passive 
 condition, the crow. The vultm'e is the first sublimed quint- 
 essence not 3et perfected by art ; the crow is also in the infancy 
 of that work wherein the revivified spirit is united with its solar 
 ferment. The blackness of the night is the putrefaction of the 
 same, and the clearness of the day signifies its resurrection to 
 a state of comparative purity. It flies without wings, being 
 borne and carried by the fixed spirit ; and the bitterness existing 
 in the tliroat occultly indicates the death of the first life, whence 
 the sold is educed ; which is also the red and living tinctiu'e taken 
 from the body ; and the thin water is the viscous humidity made 
 by the dissolution, which radically dissolves all metals, and re- 
 duces them into their first ens, or water. 
 
 Montis in excelso consistit vertice vultur 
 Assidue damans, Albus ego atque niger, 
 
 Citrinus, rubeusque feror nil mentior : idem est 
 Corvus, qui pennis absque volare solet 
 
 Xocte tenebrosa mediaque in luce dieri, 
 Namque ortis caput est ille vel iste tuae. 
 
 — See The Scholium — Atalanta Fugieus Emblema, xliii. 
 
 ^ Our author here, repeating his exception of the unintelligent, 
 at the same time eloquently identifies the philosophic matter, 
 calling it meyis subliinis et mare patens. It is hidden in the caverns 
 of the metals; that is to say, in the central motion of the mineral 
 life, where the spirit is first coagulated and conceives itself into a 
 concrete form. It is called a stone, say the adepts, because its 
 generation is seen to be like that of stones, and it is a true 
 mineral petrifaction: therefore Alphidius writes — Si lapis pro- 
 prium nomen haberet lapis esset nomen ejus ; and Arnold — Est 
 lapis et non lapis spiritus, anima, corpus, quem si dissolvis dissol- 
 vitur, et si coagules coagulatur, et si volare facis volat ; est enini 
 volatilis, albus ut lachryma oculi. It is a stone and no stone, 
 spirit, soul, and body, which if thou dissolvest, it will be dis- 
 solved ; and if thou coagulatest, it will be coagulated ; and if 
 thou dost make it fly, it will fly, for it is volatile and clear as a 
 tear, etc. Sec Arnoldi Speculum— Kii)|inrath Ampli. Isag. in fig. 
 cap. iii. 
 
The Golden Treatise, 105 
 
 cause it to boil, in order that its heat may be aug- 
 mented, which destroys the siccity of the incombus- 
 tible nature, until the radix shall appear ; then extract 
 the redness and the light parts, till only about a third 
 remains.^ 
 
 Sons of Science ! For this reason are philosophers 
 said to be envious, not that they grudged the truth to 
 religious or just men, or to the wise ; but to fools, ig- 
 norant, and vicious, who are without self-control and 
 benevolence, least they should be made powerful, and 
 able to perpetrate sinful things. For of such the 
 philosophers are made accountable to God, and evil 
 men are not admitted worthy of this wisdom.^ 
 
 ^ Many ways are mentioned by adepts of acting with their 
 matter as by sublimation, calcination, coagulation, inceration, 
 fixation, &c. ; which may all however be comprehended under the 
 first term rightly understood ; for the Hermetic sublimation, re- 
 peatedly operated over and over again, is the occasion of many 
 changes in the matter and efiects, which, though differently desig- 
 nated, are in their source the same. This sublimation is not, there- 
 fore, exactly to be conceived by analogy with the ordinary chemical 
 process, which is a mere elevation of the subject to the top 
 of the vessel ; but the Hermetic sviblimation is said to change the 
 matter, qualifying and meliorating each time that it succeeds ; 
 urging on life, as it were, to the utmost exercise of vivacity, to 
 save itself from death and a total disseveration. Concerning the 
 peculiar nature, origin, and artificial excitation of the philosophic 
 fire, we may more effectively inquire hereafter. — See Kipley 
 Eevived, p. 2G3 ; Lumen de Lumine, p. 58 ; Introit. Apert. cap. iii. 
 
 - The monitions to secresy are no less stringent than frequent 
 in the writings of adepts, modern as well as ancient. Thus, 
 Raymond LuUy, in his Thesaurus, gives the following charge : 
 — Juro tibi supra animam meam quod si ea reveles, dam- 
 natus es : nam a Deo omne procedit bonum et ei soli debetur. 
 Quare servabis et secretum tenebis illud quod ei debetiu' revelan- 
 dum, &c. And Norton -oi-ites — 
 
 So this science must ever secret be. 
 The cause whereof is this, as ye may see : 
 If one evil man had hereof all his will. 
 All Christian peace he might easily spill ; 
 And with his pride he might pull do\Aai 
 Eightful Kings and Princes of renown. 
 Wherefore the sentence of peril and jeopardy 
 Upon the teacher resteth dreadfully. 
 
 See LuUii Testam. ; Aquinas Thesau. Alchim. ; Norton's Ordinal, 
 cap. i. and viii. ; E. Bacon, Speculum. 
 
106 Exoteric View. 
 
 Know that this matter I call the Stone ; but it is 
 also named the feminine of magnesia, or the hen, or 
 the white spittle, or the volatile milk, the incombus- 
 tible oil, in order that it may be hidden from the inept 
 and ignorant, who are deficient in goodness and self- 
 control ; which I have nevertheless signified to the 
 wise by one only epithet, viz., the Philosopher's 
 Stone. Include, therefore, and conserve in this sea, 
 the fire, and the heavenly bird, to the latest moment 
 of his exit. But I deprecate ye all, sons of philo- 
 sophy, on whom the great gift of this knowledge 
 being bestowed, if any should undervalue or divulge 
 the power thereof to the ignorant, or such as are unfit 
 for the knowledge of this secret.^ 
 
 Behold, 1 have received nothing from any, to whom 
 I have not returned that which had been given me, 
 nor have I failed to honour him ; even in this I have 
 reposed the highest confidence. 
 
 2 
 
 ^ The philosophic matter has indeed received many perplexing 
 appellations, some more, some less significative of its real origin 
 and essence ; but in the concrete form, and for reasons before 
 given in part, it has been properly called the Stone. In this 
 same universal matter of the Stone also Hermes includes all its 
 multinominal ingredients. In its flowing, humid state it is called 
 the sea of the wise, passive to all impressions and influences of 
 the light. By the tire and heavenly bird are signified, says the 
 scholiast, the external and internal agents in the Hermetic 
 work, by either of which it is conserved and nourished to the end, 
 
 2 In friendship, gratitude, and reciprocity of benefaction, say 
 the adepts, consists the chief art of operating with their matter ; 
 and no man, for reasons hereafter explicable, can operate the 
 Hermetic artifice alone. 
 
 So saith Amolde of the New TowTie, 
 
 As his Rosary maketh mencione ; 
 
 He sayeth right thus withouteu any lye 
 
 There may noe man IMercury mortifye, 
 
 But it be with his brother's knowledging. 
 
 Lo, now he which first declared this thing 
 
 Of philosophers' father was, Hermes the King. 
 
 See Chaucer's Tale of the Chanuon's Yeoman, Theat. Chem. 
 Brit, page 251. Arnoldi Rosarium, circa fiiiem. 
 
The Golden Treatise. 107 
 
 This, O son, is the concealed Stone of many colours ; 
 which is born and brought forth in one colour ; know 
 this and conceal it. By this, the Almighty favouring, 
 the greatest diseases are escaped, and every sorrow, 
 distress, and evil and hurtful thing is made to depart ; 
 for it leads from darkness into light, from this desert 
 wilderness to a secure habitation, and from poverty 
 and straights to a free and ample fortune.^ 
 
 SECTION SECOND. 
 
 My son, before all things I admonish thee to fear 
 God, in whom is the strength of thy undertaking ; and 
 the bond of whatsoever thou meditatest to unloose : 
 whatsoever thou hearest, consider it rationally. For I 
 hold thee not to be a fool. Lay hold, therefore, of 
 my instructions and meditate upon them, and so let 
 thy heart be fitted also to conceive, as if thou wast 
 thyself the author of that which I now teach. If thou 
 appliest cold to any nature that is hot, it will not hurt 
 it : in like manner, he who is rational shuts himself 
 within from the threshold of ignorance ; lest supinely 
 he should be deceived.^ 
 
 ' The consummate union of tlie purified spirit with its source 
 is thus covertly indicated by Hermes as the true corner-stone 
 of his philosophy ; and that tincture of many dyes which, being 
 dissolved renews itself, and dying survives itself, until its Final 
 Cause is fully manifest and accomplished. This is the elixir of Light 
 from the central essence, so set free, that it is said to prolong 
 life, and cure disease and moral indigence and physical defects, 
 mingling with the common breath of nature the efficacy of an 
 exalted life and love. 
 
 2 Further suggestions are now given concerning the true sub- 
 ject and operation of the Hermetic work. Having previously 
 shown that the way to the attainment of the magistery is by com- 
 munion with the ruling Spirit of nature ; entering yet deeper as the 
 work progresses towards the Causal discovery, Hermes admonishes 
 the student earnestly to fear and obey its Law ; lest, being trans- 
 gressed in any part, man should work evil instead of good through 
 its means.— The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and the 
 knowledge of the Holy is understanding ; — and this, in the most 
 profound sense, is said to be proved in Alchemy, and that they 
 only who have become conversant by experience in the Fontal 
 
108 Exoteric View. 
 
 Take the flying bird and drown it flying, and di- 
 vide and separate it from its pollutions, which yet hold 
 it ill death ; draw it forth, and repel it from itself, that 
 it may live and answer thee, not by flying away into 
 the regions above, but by truly forbearing to fly. For 
 if thou shalt deliver it out of its prison, after this thou 
 shalt govern it according to Reason, and according to 
 the days that I shall teach thee ; then will it become 
 a companion unto thee, and by it thou wilt become to 
 be an honoured lord.^ 
 
 Extract from the ray its shadow, and from the light 
 its obscurity, by which the clouds hang over it and 
 keep away the light ; by means of its constriction, 
 also, and fiery redness, it is burned. Take, my son, 
 this redness, corrupted with the water, which is as a 
 live coal holding the fire, w^hich if thou shalt withdraw 
 so often until the redness is made pure, then it will 
 associate with thee, by whom it was cherished, and in 
 wdiom it rests.- 
 
 Nature have truly and properly understood wliat it is, and why 
 God is to be feared. Ingrafted i'n that root, writes our scholiast, 
 the true understanding will grow up in thee, and fill thee, even as 
 the body is filled, with life. Thou must enter with thy whole 
 spirit into the centre of natui'e, and there behold how all things 
 are begun, continvied, and perfected. But thou must fii'st enter 
 into that Spirit which is the Framer of all things, which pierces 
 through and dwells in that central root ; and by entering into 
 that, it will, as a vehicle, carry thee into the same root where all 
 tilings arc hidden, and reveal to thee the most recondite mysteries, 
 and show thee, as in a glass, the whole work and laboratory of the 
 most secret nature. Hermes, therefore, recommends him who is 
 rational, and desires the further instruction of his reason, to shut 
 liimself within, away from the distractions of sense and this life's 
 ignorance, and learn to open to himself the door of a higher con- 
 sciousness, lest in the outward acceptation of words or things lie 
 should be deceived. Having premised thus mucli, he proceeds to 
 detail the process by which the spirit is carried on from each 
 succeeding dissolution into a more perfect form of being. 
 
 ^ Tliese images, indicating the mode of rational operation with 
 the freed spii'it and its soul, wiU appear Liievitably obscure. Tlie 
 entire process is repeated many times before perfection is arrived 
 at ; and instructions for each, according to the arising phenomena, 
 are given by the scholiast at full length. 
 
 2 A shadow y darkness passes always along with the philosophic 
 
The Golden Treatise. 109 
 
 Return then, O ray son, the coal being extinct in 
 life, upon the water for thirty days, as I shall note to 
 thee ; and, henceforth, thou art a crowned king, rest- 
 ing over the fountain, and drawing from thence the 
 Auripigment dry, without moisture. And now, I have 
 made the heart of the hearers, hoping in thee, to re- 
 joice even in their eyes, beholding thee in anticipation 
 of that which thou possessest.^ 
 
 body, moving in its own light until it is thoroughly purified from 
 sensual defilements. Now that the clearness may be manifest 
 throughout without obscurity, says the scholiast, the body must 
 be repeatedly opened and made thin after its fixation and dis- 
 solved and putrefied, and as the grain of wheat sown in the earth 
 putrefies before it springs up into a new growth or vegetation, 
 so our Magnesia, contiaues he, being sown in the Philosophic 
 Earth, dies and corrupts, that it may conceive itself anew. It is 
 purified by separation, and is dissolved, digested, and coagulated, 
 sublimed, incerated, and fixed by the reciprocated action of its 
 own proper Identity, as agent and patient, alternating to improve. 
 The water spoken of by Hermes is the passive spirit, the redness 
 is its soul, and the earth begot betwixt them is the substance or 
 body of both — -the spirit thereafter penetrates the body, and the 
 body fixes the spirit — the soul being conjoined, tinges the whole 
 of its proper colour, whether white or red. This process is given 
 in the following enigma, by the excellent author of the Aquarium 
 Sapientiim, or Water Stone : — 
 
 Spiritus ipse datiir pro tempore corpori, at ille 
 
 Exhilarans Animam Spiritus arte cluet. 
 Spiritus ille Animam subito si contrahit ad se, 
 
 Nullum se abjungit segregat aque suo. 
 Tunc tria consistunt et in una sede morantur. 
 
 Donee solvatur, nobile corpus, opus. 
 Putrescat nee non moriatur, separat istis : 
 
 Tempore at elapso Spiritus atque Anima 
 ^stu conveniunt extreme sive calore, 
 
 Quisque suam sedem cum gravitate tenet. 
 Integritas prsesto est, nulla et perfectio desit 
 
 Amplis laetitiis glorificatur opus. 
 
 See the Scholium, and Aquarium Sapientflm, Musaeum Hei-- 
 meticum, p. 95. 
 
 1 Here again the allusions will appear wilfully obscure to the 
 uninitiated, for the master presupposes not only a knowledge of 
 the Matter, but of the Vessel also in which it is scientifically con- 
 cocted ; but we must pass on. The life of the coal is fire, which 
 
110 Exoteric VIEvv^ 
 
 Observe, then, that the water was first in the air, 
 then in the earth ; restore thoii it, also, to the supe- 
 riors by its proper windings, and not foolishly alter- 
 ing it ; then to the former spirit, gathered in its red- 
 ness, let it be carefully conjoined.^ 
 
 Know, my son, that the fatness of our earth is 
 sulphur, the auripigment, siretz, and colcothar, which 
 are also sulphur ; of which auripigments, sulphur, and 
 such like, some are more vile than others, in which 
 there is a diversity ; of which kind also is the fat of 
 glewy matters, such as are hair, nails, hoofs, and sul- 
 phur itself, and of the brain, which too is auripig- 
 ment ; of the like kind also are the lion's and cat's 
 
 being extinct, becomes a dead body ; nor of coal alone, but of all 
 other things light is the life, and it is heat that conserves it. But 
 the essence of life, says the scholiast, is nothing else tlian a pure, 
 naked, unmingled Fire ; not that indeed which is corrupting and 
 elementary, but that which is subtle, celestial, and generating all 
 things. The same is of metals their first matter containing the 
 three principals, the Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, of which so much 
 has been spoken and ignorantly misapplied. By the crowned 
 king, Hermes signifies the first manifested resplendence of the 
 vital tincture ; the well is, as- the catholic spirit of life, inex- 
 haustible ; at the bottom, or centre rather, of which subsists the 
 occ^llt Causality of all ; even from this, the true efficient wheel, is 
 drawn, according to tradition, that auripigment of philosophers 
 which is the multiplicative virtue of their stone. AVhen thou 
 shalt see thy exhalations to return, teaches the adept, and by 
 continuance of them on thy body, light shall begin to appear with 
 such admirable colours as never were seen by the eye of man in 
 so little a room before ; then rejoice, for now our king hath 
 triumphed over the miseries of death, and behold him returning 
 in the East, with clouds, in power and great glory. Here thou 
 mayest rest and bait, and enjoy the glory of thy white elixir; now 
 is the time at liand in Avhich that of the poet is fulfilled. 
 
 Ne te poeniteat faciem fuligine pingi 
 Adferet hsec Phoebi nigra fo,villa jubar. 
 
 jCX^I See Eiren^us, Eipley Re\"ived ; Yaughan, Lumen de Lumine, p. 
 
 ! I 58, &c. ; Antlirop. Theomag. p. 22 ; and the Scholium. 
 
 ' Convert the elements, says Arnold, and you shall have wliat 
 you desire ; that is to say, separate the matter into its essential 
 relationships, and join them again together in harmonious pro- 
 portion. — See Arnoldi Speculum sub initio, Basil Valentine's Stone 
 of Fire, Smaragdine Table, .^'c. 
 
The Golden Treatise. 1 1 1 
 
 claws, which is siretz : the fat of white bodies, and the 
 fat of the two oriental quicksilvers, which sulphurs are 
 hunted and retained by the bodies.^ 
 
 1 say, moreover, that this sulphur doth tinge and 
 fix, and is held by the conjunction of the tinctures ; 
 oils also tinge, but fly away, which in the body are 
 contained, which is a conjunction of fugitives only with 
 sulphurs and albuminous bodies, which hold also and 
 detain the fugitive Ens.^ 
 
 The disposition sought after by the philosophers, O 
 son, is but one in our egg ; but this in the hen's egg is 
 much less to be found. But lest so much of the 
 Divine Wisdom as is in a hen's egg should not be dis- 
 tinguished, our composition is, as that is, from the 
 four elements adapted and composed.^ 
 
 Know, therefore, that in the hen's egg is the greatest 
 help with respect to the proximity and relationship of 
 the matter in nature ; for in it there is a spirituality 
 and conjunction of elements, and an earth which is 
 golden in its tincture.* 
 
 • Hermes alludes here in part to tlie various manifestations of 
 tlie spirit in this natural life, and the vegetable growth of it 
 in animal bodies. The occult luminous principle of vitalization 
 he calls sulphur, auripigment, &c., hiding it also under a variety 
 of other covertures. 
 
 2 A distinction is here made by our author of the different 
 estates and uses of the philosophic sulphur, or Light, as it be- 
 comes developed in the Hermetic work. 
 
 ^ Hermes divides the matter into four parts, as was before seen, 
 comparing also its vital composition to that of a hen's egg, which 
 answers in all respects, excepting the catholicity, to the compound 
 simple of this art. 
 
 Est avis in mundo sublimior omnibus, ovum 
 
 Cujus ut inquiras, cura sit una tibi. 
 Albumen luteum circumdat molle vitellum, 
 
 Ignito (ceu mos) cautus id ense petas : 
 Vulcano Mars addat opem : puUaster et inde 
 
 Exortus, ferri victor et ignis erit. 
 
 See Atalanta Eugiens, p. 41, Epigramma viii. and the Scholium. 
 
 * The Alchemists uniformly recommend us to observe nature, 
 that from analogy we may be better able to imagine and judge of 
 
112 
 
 But the son, enquiring of Hermes, saith — The sul- 
 phurs which are tit for our work, wliether are they 
 coelestial or terrestrial ? To whom the Father answers, 
 certain of them are heavenly, and some are of the 
 earth. ^ 
 
 Then the son saith — Father, I imagine the heart in 
 the superiors to be heaven, and in the inferiors earth. 
 But saith Hermes — It is not so ; the masculine truly is 
 the heaven of the feminine, and the feminine is the 
 earth of the masculine.^ 
 
 The son then asks — Father, which of these is more 
 w^orthy than the other ; whether is it the heaven or the 
 earth ? Hermes replies — Both need the help one of the 
 other; for the precepts demand a medium. But, 
 saith the son, if thou shalt say that a wise man 
 governs all mankind? But ordinary men, replies 
 Hermes, are better for them, because every nature de- 
 lights in society of its own kind, and so we find it to 
 be in the Life of Wisdom where Equals are conjoined. 
 But what, rejoins the son, is the mean betwixt them? 
 To whom Hermes replies — In everything in nature 
 there are three from two, the beginning, the middle, 
 and the end. First the needful water, then the oily 
 tincture, and lastly the foeces or earth which remains 
 below. ^ 
 
 the proper method of experimenting, and learn to co-operate witli 
 her Spirit eficctnally to regenerate it. For particulars of the 
 Hermetic similitude, see the Scliolium. 
 
 ^ A short dialogue hereupon ensues between Hermes and his 
 son ; the father explaining that the distinctions of lights or sul- 
 phurs in the process ouglit not to be indiflerently understood, as 
 if they were all of one quality or idea. For the spirit, though one 
 in essence, is extremely diversified in its conception, as also 
 according to the degree and order of its rectification by art. 
 
 ^ The purified sulphur fixed and incombustible, is the generat- 
 ing seed of the universal nature, according to the adepts ; but the 
 mercury (which is tlie recreated body of the spirit, passive and 
 pure) is sometimes called the earth of the wise, conceiving into 
 itself the same seed by which it is also nourished, digested, per- 
 fected, and brought to birth — that is, to a visible manifestation of 
 its intrinsical virtue and light. But the son's allusion is intimate 
 to the art, and particular. See the Scholium. 
 
 -* When, by their strong attracting law, the active and passive 
 
The Golden Treatise. 113 
 
 But the Dragon inhabits in all these, and his 
 houses are the darkness and blackness that is in 
 them, and by them he ascends into the air, from his 
 rising which is their heaven. But, whilst the fume 
 remains in them, they are not immortal. Take away 
 therefore the vapour from the water, and the blackness 
 from the oilv tincture, and death from the faeces : and 
 by dissolution thou shalt possess a triumphant reward, 
 even that in and by which the possessors live.^ 
 
 relations are conjoined in the Spirit, they become equalised in 
 their progeny ; and as the mystical problem of the Trinity includes 
 three in one and one in three — agent, patient, and offspring uni- 
 versal and co-equal ; so these three are found to be in all created 
 things imitatively, the paternal, maternal, and proceeding ens of 
 life. And there are the Salt, Sulphur, and Mercmy of the adepts, 
 without ^Yhich, they say truly, nothing ever is or can be vitally 
 substantialised. And thou hast in these three principles, says 
 Sendivogius, a body, a spirit, and an ocevdt soul ; which three, 
 (being of one only substance in a triple relationship,) if thou shalt 
 join them together, having been previously separated and well puri- 
 fied, will without fail, by imitating nature, yield most pure fruits 
 &c. "When the adept speaks therefore of a natural triplicity, he 
 speaks, reiterates Vaughan, not of kitchen-stuff, those three pot- 
 principles of water, oil, and earth — or, as som.e call them, salt, sul- 
 phur, and mercury ; but he speaks of hidden intrinsical natures, 
 known only to absolute magicians, whose eyes are in the centre and 
 not on the circumference, and in this light, every element is 
 threefold. — See Anthrop. Theomag. p. 22 ; Sendivogius, New 
 Light of Alchemy, Digby's Ed. p. 3 ; and the Scholium. 
 
 ^ The dragon is the self-willed spirit, which is externally de- 
 rived into nature, by the fall into generation. And by it, says the 
 scholiast, Hermes especially signifies the blackness of the matter 
 on its first ascension, which is operated with difficulty on accomit 
 of its thick glutinous body, which has to be resolved, by force of 
 the philosophic art, into an aerial and vaprous substance ; and 
 during this process, we are informed, the powers of the Philoso- 
 phic Heaven are wonderfully shaken and defiled, insomuch, that 
 tike a poisonous dragon it destroys all that it touches, and hence 
 it is said to have its houses in darkness, and to possess blackness 
 and mortality, and death ; for the root of this science is a deadly 
 poison. Therefore, says Hermes, take away the vapour from the 
 water, and the blackness from the oily tincture, and deatli from 
 the faeces, that the component principles may be pure, and by 
 dissolution thou shalt possess a triumphant reward, even that in 
 and by which the possessors live. Thus, the evil of the original 
 sin is said to be discovered by a radical dissolution of the spiint, 
 and without this discovery and the arising evil, it cannot return 
 
 I 
 
114 Exoteric View. 
 
 Know then, my son, that the temperate unguent, 
 wliicli is fire, is the medium between the fueces and 
 the water, and is the Perscrutinator of the water. 
 For the unguents are called sulphurs, because between 
 fire and oil and this sulphur there is such a close 
 proximity, that even as fire burns so does the sulphur 
 also.^ 
 
 All the sciences of the world, O son, are compre- 
 hended in this my hidden Wisdom ; and this and the 
 learning of the Art consists in these wonderful hidden 
 elements which it doth discover and complete. It 
 behoves him, therefore, who would be introduced to 
 this hidden Wisdom, to free himself from the usurpa- 
 tions of vice ; and to be just, and good, and of a sound 
 reason, ready at hand to help mankind, of a serene 
 countenance, dih'gent to save, and be himself a patient 
 guardian of the arcane secrets of philosophy.^ 
 
 And this know, that except thou understandest how 
 to mortify and induce generation, to vivify the Spirit, 
 and introduce Light, until they fight wn'th each other 
 and grow white and freed from their defilements, rising 
 as it were from blackness and darkness, thou knowest 
 nothing, nor canst perform anything; but if thou 
 
 to its pristine purity and. the immortality of its first source. 
 Cause, therefore, adds a no less subtle than experienced adept, 
 such an operation in our earth, tliat the central heat may change 
 the water into air, that it may go forth into the plains of the 
 world and scatter the residue through tlie pores of the eartli ; and 
 then, contrariwise, the air will be turned into watei', far more 
 subtle than the first water was. And this is done thus : if thou 
 give our old man gold or silver to swallow, that he may consume 
 them, and then he also dying may be burned, and his ashes scat- 
 tered into the w^ater, and thou shalt boil that water until it be 
 enough, thou shalt have a medicine to cure the leprosy (of life). 
 See tlie Scholium ; Sendivogius, New Light, p. 35 ; Maria Practica. 
 
 ^ The knowledge of this secret sulphur, says the Scholiast, and 
 how to prepare it and use it in this work includes the whole 
 art of perfection. It is tlie stirrer-up of the whole power and 
 efficacy and purifier of the matter ; hence Hermes calls it the 
 Perscrutinator, eminently distinguishing the Eational ferment, con- 
 cerning which it will be our purpose to inquire hereafter. 
 
 - The whole paragraph will speak plainly for itself when it is 
 understood, which we leave for the present therefore unexplained. 
 
The Golden Treatise. 115 
 
 knowest this, thou wilt be of a great dignity, so that 
 even kings themselves shall reverence thee. These 
 secrets, son, it behoves thee to conceal from the 
 vulgar and profane world. ^ 
 
 Understand also, that, our Stone is from many 
 things and of various colours, and composed from 
 four elements, which we ought to divide and dissever 
 in pieces, and segregate, in the veins ; and partly mor- 
 tifying the same by its proper nature, which is also in 
 it, to preserve the water and fire dwelling therein, 
 which is from the four elements and their waters, 
 which contain its water : this however is not water in 
 its true form, but fire, containing in a pure vessel the 
 ascending waters, lest the spirits should fly away 
 from the bodies ; for, by this means, they are made 
 tinging and fixed. ^ 
 
 O, blessed watery form, that dissolvest the elements ! 
 Now it behoves us, with this watery Soul, to possess 
 ourselves of a sulphurous Form, and to mingle the 
 same with our Acetum. For when, by the power of 
 the water, the composition is dissolved, it is the key of 
 the restoration ; then darkness and death fly away 
 from them, and Wisdom proceeds onwards to the ful- 
 filment of her Law.^ 
 
 ^ The principles of the art of working the matter are here re- 
 peated. The two contrary natures of light and darkness must 
 contend together, as it were, in mortal strife, and the war must be 
 waged unceasingly for the destruction of the foreign life until it 
 succumbs, grows Avhite, as Hermes says, in order that the internal 
 agent may return to vivify the whole, and yield the abundant 
 tincture of its light. 
 
 2 The catholic nature is multifarious in its conception, and 
 passes in the art through a strange variety of forms and ap- 
 pearances ; but she operates her proper progress neeessitously 
 under the threefold law of life ; the ingress, egress, and alternat- 
 ing action of which, under dominance of either of its principles, 
 constitutes the whole phenomena of the Hermetic process. 
 
 ^ Grreat is the reputed virtue of this Aqua Philosophica, which 
 distils itself finally to manifestation by the Art of Life ; for, as com- 
 mon water washes and cleanses things outwardly, so this inwardly 
 effects the same, even itself pm-ifying itself from its inbred 
 defilements, so that no vestige of evil remains. And, being con- 
 joined in consciousness with the central Efficient, it becomes 
 
 I 2 
 
116 Exoteric View 
 
 SECTION THIRD. 
 
 Know, my son, that the philosophers bind up their 
 Matter with a strong chain, that it may contend with 
 the Fire ; because the spirits in the washed bodies 
 desire to dwell therein and to rejoice. In these habi- 
 tations they vivify themselves and inhabit there, and 
 the bodies hold them, nor can they be thereafter sepa- 
 rated any more.^ 
 
 The dead elements are revived, the composed .odies 
 tinge and are altered, and by a wonderful process they 
 are made permanent, as saith the philosopher.'^ 
 
 aU powerful, and the key of every magic art. The preparation of 
 it is not known to many, says the Scholiast, and a very few have 
 obtained it ; because the well is deep out of which it is drawn ; 
 nor do the vulgar chemists understand it. Nor can this secret be 
 truly learned either from a master at all, but practice reveals it 
 by the instinct of nature. See the Scholium and Lumen de 
 Lumine, p. 67. 
 
 ^ This may again remind the reader of the passage from De- 
 mocritus, where, describing the universal experiment, he says that 
 that method of working with .nature is the most effectual which 
 makes use of manacles and fetters, laying hold on her in the 
 extremest degree. And this constriction, according to the scho- 
 liast's teaching, is not made by chance, but by means of the 
 affinity wliich is between the body and its spirit, as Mayer also 
 alludes, in his Emblems — Naturam uatura docet debellet ut ignem ; 
 for they both proceed from one fountain, though, of the two, 
 the agent, because it vivifies and holds the particles of the matter 
 together, is representatively superior in operation, to compel 
 the Protean Hypostasis of Nature to enter into his true Form. 
 
 Nam sine vi non ulla dabit prsecepta, neque ilium 
 
 Orando flectes : vim duram et vincula capto 
 
 Tende. Doli circum hsec demum frangentur inanes. 
 
 See the Gcorgics, lib. iv. 397 ; Maieri Atalanta Fugiens Em- 
 blema, xx. ; Democritus, in the Fable of Proteus ; Aquarium 
 Sapientiim Enigma ; and the Scholiast on Hermes. 
 
 - The bodies ot the metals, explains our Scholiast, are the 
 domicils of their spirits, which when they are received by the 
 bodies, their terrestrial substance is by degrees made thin, ex- 
 tended, and purified, and by their vivifying power, the life and fire 
 hitherto lying dormant is excited and made to appear. For the 
 life which dioeUs in the metals is laid, as it were, asleep (in sense), 
 nor can it exert its powers, or show itself, unless the bodies (?. e. 
 
The Golden Treatise. 117 
 
 O permanent watery Form, creatrix of the royal 
 elements! who, having with thy brethren and a just 
 government obtained the tinctm'e, findest rest.^ 
 
 Our most precious stone is cast forth upon the 
 dunghill, and that which is most worthy is made vilest 
 of the vile. Therefore it behoves us to mortify two 
 Argent vives together, both to venerate and to be vene- 
 rated, viz., the Argent vive of Auripigment, and the 
 oriental Argent vive of Magnesia.^ 
 
 the sensible and vegetable media of life) be first dissolved 
 and turned into their radical source ; being brought to this 
 degree, at length, by the abundance of their internal light, they 
 communicate their tinging property to other imperfect bodies, 
 transmuting them into a fixed and permanent substance. And 
 this, he adds further, is the property of our medicine, into which 
 the previous bodies (of the spirit) are reduced ; that, at first, 
 one part thereof will tinge ten parts of an imperfect body, then 
 one hundred, tlien a thousand, and so infinitely on. By which the 
 efficacy of the creative word is wonderfully evidenced, Crescite et 
 multiplicamini. And by how much the oftener the medicine 
 is dissolved, by so much the more it increases in virtue, which 
 otherwise, without any more solution, would remain in its single 
 or simple state of perfection. Here there is a celestial and divine 
 fountain set open, which no man is able to draw dry, nor can it be 
 exhausted should the world endure through an eternity of genera- 
 tions. — See the Scholium ; Introit. Apert. cap. viii. ; Trevisanus 
 Opusculum circa finem. 
 
 ' The fixed watery Form of the philosophic matter, which 
 Hermes here apostrophises, is the same as was before celebrated, 
 only more mature ; this is the fountain which Bernhard Trevisan 
 mentions, of such marvellous vii'tue above all other fountains in 
 the whole world, shining like silver and of caerulean clearness. 
 It is the Framer of the I'oyal elements, says Hermes, i. e. it draws 
 to itself the rubified light of its internal agent permeating the 
 same tliroughout the whole essentiality. Separate, says Eiieneus, 
 the light from the darkness seven times, and the creation of the 
 philosophic Mercury will be complete, and this seventh day will be 
 for thee a sabbath of repose ; from which period, until the end of 
 the annual revolution, thou mayest expect the generation of the 
 svipernatural son of Sun, who comes about the last age into the 
 world to purify his brethren from their original sin. — See the 
 Scholium ; Trevisanus, end of his Opusculum ; Now Light of Sendi- 
 vogius, 10th Treatise ; and the Introit. Apert. cap. iii. &c. 
 
 2 The same catholic nature, which in its preternatural exaltation 
 appears so very precious in the eyes of the philosopher, is in the 
 common world defiled ; abiding everywhere in putrefactions and 
 the vilest forms of life. It is likewise despised by mankind, who 
 
1 18 Exoteric View. 
 
 O Nature, the most potent creatrix of nature, which 
 containest and separatest natures in a middle princi- 
 ple! The Stone comes with light, and with light it is 
 generated, and then it generates and brings forth the 
 black clouds or darkness, which is the mother of all 
 things.^ 
 
 are, for the luost part, uncouseious even of its subsistence, mucli 
 more are they not ignorant of the method of exculpating it and 
 handling their life to good effect ? Hermes, indeed, gives instruc- 
 tion, as did Moses also, but under a veil, which it may be hardly 
 expedient to look through at this stage of our investigation. 
 
 ^ AVe have signified from the testimony of the adepts already, 
 though without particularizing, that liglit or sulphur, as they call 
 it, is the true form or seed of gold, and the concentering vii-tue 
 of their philosophic stone. Thus far, then, the theory of the Her- 
 metic process may be supposed to run by the analogy of nature ; 
 grain, being cast into the common earth, grows and fructifies and 
 brings forth its increase, and this eduction is in its middle princi- 
 ple, that is to say, in the specificative form by which it is intrinsi- 
 cally generated and made to be that particular kind of grain and 
 no other. Tlius, the aurific seed, if truly such can be found to be 
 the specific seed of gold, needs only to be planted in its proper 
 etherial vehicle, well prepared and fallow to bring forth its vii'tiie 
 in manifold increase. 
 
 Ruricolae pingui mandant sua semina terra?, 
 
 Cum fuerit rostris ha'C foliata suis. 
 Pliilosophi niveos aurum docuere per agros 
 
 Spargere, qui folii se levis instar habeut : 
 Hoc ut agas, illud bene respice, namque quod aurum 
 
 Germinet, ex tritico videris, ut speculo. 
 
 But tlie Alchemical art has been continually compared to agi'icul- 
 ture ; and the analogy, indeed, appears to bear throughout so inti- 
 mately as to suggest and, almost without deviation, point out the 
 method of its application. The body is gold, says the author of 
 the jS^ew Light, which yields seed, our lune or silver, not common 
 silver, is that whicli receives the seed of the gold, afterwards it is 
 governed by our continual fire for seven months (philosophical), 
 and sometimes ten, until our water consume three and leave one ; 
 and that in duplo or a double. Then it is nourished with the 
 milk of the earth, or the fatness thereof, which is bred in the bowels 
 of the earth and is governed and preserved from putrefaction by 
 the salt of nature: and tlius the infant of the second generation 
 is produced ; and when the seed of tliat which is now brought 
 forth is put again into its own matrix, it purifies it, and makes it 
 a thousand times more fit and apt to bring forth the best and 
 most excellent fruits. But, before the metallic light is brought to 
 
The Golden Treatise. 119 
 
 But when we marry the crowned king to our red 
 daughter, and in a gentle fire, not hurtful, she doth 
 conceive an excellent and supernatural son, which per- 
 manent life she doth also feed with a subtle heat, so 
 that he lives at length in our fire.^ 
 
 But when thou shalt send forth thy fire upon the 
 foliated sulphur, the boundary of hearts doth enter in 
 above it, is washed in the same, and the purified mat- 
 ter thereof is extracted. Then is he transformed, and 
 his tincture by help of the fire remains red, as it were 
 flesh. But our son, the king begotten, takes his tinc- 
 ture from the fire, and death even and darkness, and 
 the waters flee away.^ 
 
 this ultimate perfection, it must many times, therefore, suffer itself 
 to be eclipsed, and die and corrupt, as the adepts teach, accord- 
 ing to the similitude of nature ; yet, Avitli this difference, that 
 whereas the produce of common husbandry exhausts and deterior- 
 ates rapidly the earth whence it springs, and is always terminated 
 in its kind witliout progression, the etherial seed, on the other 
 hand, tends always to improve its generation, fertilizing by the 
 return of each successive growth, and enriching its maternal soil ; 
 and this process, according to Hermes, is repeated seven times be- 
 fore the final resurrection of the Quintessence into a permanent 
 form of life. — See the Scholium ; Maieri Atalanta Fugiens ^Epi- 
 gramma vi. ; Sendivogius, New Light, Treatise 9 and 10. 
 
 1 The new-born Quintessences are here shown to be reunited for 
 fructification and to be further promoted, and, as the fable relates 
 of Isis, that she brought forth Horus, even feeding him with fire ; 
 so it happens in the Hermetic work. And this is wonderful, ob- 
 serves the Scholiast, that the parents, who were before the nurses 
 and feeders again by the law of the same spirit, are to be nursed 
 and fed. It is nourished with a gentle heat, not in the vulgar 
 way of decocting, but conformable to the heavenly fire. But 
 when we say, adds the adept, that our stone generated by fire, 
 men neither see nor do they believe there is any other fire but 
 the conmion fire, nor any other sulphur or mercury — thus they are 
 deceived by their own opinions, saying that we are the cause of 
 their errors ; but it is not so. The philosophers uniformly distin- 
 guish their own especial fire as magical, creative, vital ; whereas 
 the common element is without sagacity or discrimination. Our 
 fire is a most subtle fire, inhabiting in himself an infernal secret 
 fire, and in its kind extremely volatile. Some call it the miracle 
 of the world, the nucleus of the superior and inferior forces of na- 
 ture, &c. — See the Scholium, Lumen de Lumine, p. 58. 
 
 " O happy gate of blackness, cries the sage, which art the 
 passage to this so glorious a change ! Study, therefore, whoso- 
 
120 Exoteric View. 
 
 The Dragon shuns the sunbeams which dart through 
 the crevices, and our dead son lives ; the king comes 
 forth from the fire and rejoices with his spouse ; the 
 occult treasures are laid open and the virgin's milk is 
 whitened. The son, already vivified, is become a 
 w^arrior in the fire, and of tincture superexcellent. For 
 this son is himself the treasury, even himself bearing 
 the Philosophic Matter.^ 
 
 Approach, ye sons of Wisdom, and rejoice : let us 
 now rejoice together ; for the reign of death is finish- 
 ed and the son doth rule, and now he is invested with 
 the red garment, and the scarlet colour is put on.^ 
 
 ever appliest thyself to this Art, only to know this secret, for to 
 know this is to know all, but to be ignorant of this is to be igno- 
 rant of all. For putrefaction precedes the generation of every 
 new form into existence. It is the business of the philosophic 
 tire not onl}' to \dvify, but also to depurate and segregate the he- 
 terogeneity of its vehiculum, which being done there appears at 
 length in the fa'ces, a most pure and rubicund tincture of the 
 colour of flesh and blood. And as flesh is nothing but blood coa- 
 gulated, abounding with a fidl and vigorous spirit, so, adds the 
 adept, likewise our tincture is of blood coagulated, which blood 
 is the boundary or satisfaction of hearts, as Hermes alludes, the 
 object sought for, and which satisfies when attained. — See Scho- 
 lium, and Eipley Eevived, 5th Gate. 
 
 ' The nature and origin of this Dragon was before discussed, 
 which becomes occultated in the rising of the internal light to 
 manifestation. 
 
 Si fixum solvas faciasque volare solutum, 
 Et volucrem figas, facient te vivere tutum 
 Solve, Coagula, Fige. 
 
 O Nature, cries the experimental adeptist, how dost thou inter- 
 change thy being, casting down the high and mighty and again 
 exalting that which was base and lowly ! O death, how art thou 
 vanquished, when thy prisoners are taken from thee and carried 
 into an estate and place of immortality ! The son, says Hermes, 
 has gotten the Tincture, for is he not in truth the whole quintes- 
 sential nature concentrated, as it wex-e personified, bearing in hand 
 the golden light of life to perpetualise it universally. — See the 
 Philosophical Epitaph of W. C. title page, and Eipley Eevived. 
 
 '^ The internal light, once made manifest to sense, so far is 
 ready for the perscrutiuation of another life into which it must be 
 induced to enter, to sutler again, and die in order to transmute 
 the foul material into itself. Hermes proceeds, in the next chap- 
 ter, to describe the work, which, in principle, differs nothing from 
 
The Golden Treatise. 121 
 
 section fourth. 
 
 Understand then, O son of Wisdom, what the Stone 
 declares : Protect me, and I will protect thee ; increase 
 my strength, that I may help thee.^ 
 
 My Sol and my beams are most inward and secretly 
 in me. My own Luna, also, is my hght, exceeding every 
 light ; and my good things are better than all other 
 good things ; I give freely and reward the intelligent 
 with joy and gladness, glory, riches, and delights ; and 
 them that seek after me I make to know and under- 
 stand and to possess divine things.^ 
 
 Behold, that which the philosophers have concealed 
 is written with seven letters : for Alpha and Yda fol- 
 low two ; and Sol, in like manner, follows the book : 
 nevertheless, if thou art willing that he should have 
 dominion, observe the Art, and join the son to the 
 daughter of the water, which is Jupiter and a hidden 
 secret.^ 
 
 the foregoing but in the images and delineation of phenomena 
 only. 
 
 ^ The fermenting light by constant addition of the spirit, 
 leavens more and more, increasing as it tends to the perception of 
 its final cause in life. As Solomon, speaking of the Divine Wisdom, 
 says, Exalt her, and she shall promote thee, she shall bring thee 
 to honour when thou dost embrace her, &c. Proverbs iv. 8, 9. 
 
 2 The vital light, as we have before explained, is centrally 
 hidden in nature until it is drawn forth ; but re-entering from 
 without inwards, when freed agam, will it not then probably meet 
 itself in a yet more profoimd experience ? This is the problem 
 proposed for the truly intelligent, that they may inquire into the 
 Hermetic method of Self- Knowledge, which alone can enable man 
 to know and understand and possess divine things. — If thou 
 seekest for her as silver, and seai'chest for wisdom as for hidden 
 treasures ; then shalt tliou understand the fear of the Lord and 
 find the knowledge of God. Proverbs ii. 4, 5. But we post- 
 pone the examination of this mystical ground, suggesting so much 
 only as, in proceeding, we find requisite to elucidate the Hermetic 
 mind. 
 
 ^ The seven letters are taken to signify the necessary phases 
 through which the philosophic material passes in order of colour 
 and qualitative virtiie ; some call them planets, others metals, (for 
 the radical life of the spirit is indeed mineral) ; and the rest of 
 Hermes' allusion is to the conjunction of active and passive prin- 
 ciples for the reproduction of light out of the whole. 
 
122 Exoteric View. 
 
 Auditor, understand : let us use our Reason ; consider 
 all with the most accurate investigation, which in the 
 contemplative part I have demonstrated to thee ; the 
 whole matter I know to be one only thing. But who 
 is he that understands the true investigation and in- 
 quires rationally into this matter? It is not from man, 
 nor from anything like him or akin to him ; nor from 
 the ox or bullock : and if any creature conjoins with 
 one of another species, that w^hich is brought forth is 
 neutral from either.^ 
 
 Thus saith Venus : I beget light, nor is the dark- 
 ness of my nature ; and if my metal be not dried all 
 bodies desire me, for I liquify them and wipe away 
 their rust, even I extract their substance. Nothing, 
 therefore, is better or more venerable than I, my bro- 
 ther also being conjoined.'^ 
 
 But the king, the ruler, to his brethren, testifying 
 of him, saith : I am crowned, and I am adorned with 
 
 ^ The profound significance of the first monition to use our reason 
 may be better appreciated on inquiry ; for Hermes lias cliosen to 
 conceal the philosophic vessel, and here condescends, in part, even 
 to an equivocation ; but we pass on. I say to you, writes Maria, 
 laconically, that this science may be found in all bodies ; but 
 philosophers have thought fit to say little of it, because of the 
 shortness of life and the length of this art. They found it most 
 easily in that matter which most evidently contains the four 
 philosophic elements. It is prepared in the innermost chamber 
 of life, says the wise Scholiast, and tliere it is coagulated ; and 
 where metals grow, there they may be found. — See Maria Practica, 
 and the Scholium. 
 
 2 All here is to be understood etheriaUy, according to the prin- 
 ciples before laid down. Yenus personifies the central light of 
 nature, which is occultated in her generations, and in metalline 
 bodies is more especially bound on account of their terrestreity, 
 and therefore they gladly adhere to this moist spirit, that it may 
 vivify them. And when she appears, writes a no less experienced 
 adept, the artist is rejoiced, and thii\ks perhaps his work is 
 finislied, and that he has the treasure of the world in hand ; but 
 it is not so : for if he tries it, the light still will be found imper- 
 fect, alone, and transient, without the masculine tincture to fix it 
 in manifestation. Hence the fable of Mars and A'enus taken 
 together by Vulcan, as will be hereafter explained, in the last 
 extremity of life. — See the Scholium ; Freher's Analogy ; and 
 Democritus, in Mammelli Summula. 
 
The Golden Treatise. 123 
 
 a royal diadem ; I am clothed with the royal garment, 
 and I bring joy and gladness of heart ; for, being chain- 
 ed, I caused my substance to lay hold of, and to rest 
 within the arms and breast of my mother, and to fasten 
 upon her substance ; making that which was invisible 
 to become visible, and the occult matter to appear. 
 And everything which the philosopers have hidden is 
 generated by us.^ 
 
 Hear then these words, and understand them ; keep 
 them, and meditate thereon; and seek for nothing more: 
 Man, in the beginning, is generated of nature, whose in- 
 ward substance is fleshy, and not from anything else. 
 Meditate on these plain things, and reject what is su- 
 perfluous.^ 
 
 Thus saith the philosopher : Botri is made from the 
 Citrine, which is extracted out of the Red Root, and from 
 nothing else ; and if it be citrine and nothing else. Wis- 
 dom was with thee ; it was not gotten by thy care, nor, 
 if it be freed from redness, by thy study. Behold I 
 have circumscribed nothing ; if thou hast understand- 
 ing, there be but few things unopened.^ 
 
 ^ By the king, the Eational Efficient is signified ; by the brethren, 
 the inferior degrees of illumination in the spirit, which are finally 
 gathered up into accord with their first source. This same reason, 
 being artificially constrained, lest it should escape the fiery 
 ordeal, retui'ns, fastening, as Hermes says, i;pon the wheel of its 
 proper life, as it were, introverting the natural channel and order 
 of generation, whereby a door is marvellously opened into the 
 most intunate recess of life. — See the Scholium ; Introitus A- 
 pertus, cap. viii. 
 
 - "With what force and earnestness does the master here speak, 
 as if the whole ground of the mystery lay in these words. And 
 truly not in vain, observes the Scholiast, does he bid to understand 
 them, and meditate upon them, and to inquire after nothmg else. 
 Man, it is said, was created of the dust of the earth : that is, in- 
 terprets the adept, of the arising quintessence of the miiversal 
 nature ; but the understanding has never reached us, who, without 
 self-investigation, are nnable to perceive the reality of those 
 things which are spoken out of an experimental knowledge of Life. 
 
 3 By the term Botri is here signified the Philosopher's Stone. 
 The red root is the Terra Adamica, called sometimes Magnesia by 
 the wise, and Salt after the purification. It is not gotten by art, 
 but of nature spontaneously, when the conditions are supplied 
 and a pure receptacle to give it evidence. 
 
124 Exoteric View. 
 
 Ye sons of Wisdom ! burn then the Brazen Body with 
 an exceeding great tire ; and it will yield gratefully 
 what you desire. And see that you make that which 
 is volatile so that it cannot fly, and by means of that 
 which flies not. And that which yet rests upon the 
 Are, as it were itself a fiery flame, and that which in 
 the heat of a boiling fire is corrupted is Cambar.^ 
 
 And know ye that the Art of this permanent water 
 is our brass, and the colouring of its tincture and black- 
 ness is then changed into the true red.^ 
 
 I declare that, by the help of God, I have spoken 
 nothing but the truth. That which is destroyed is 
 renovated, and hence the corruption is made manifest 
 in the matter to be renewed ; and hence the meliora- 
 tion will appear, and on either side it is a signal of Art. -^ 
 
 • The self-willed hypostasis of nature must die, as we before 
 explaiued, in order to evolve her universal being ; and this also 
 must sufter and die necessarily in order to multiply the perfection 
 of its first form. Thus, in his own operative language, as it were 
 pyrographically, does Democritus exemplify the Hermetic pro- 
 cess at tliis juncture, when the innate evU being made manil'est, 
 the will proceeds to operate its proper solution in life. — Drawing 
 the Fixed Brass out bodily, writes our Abderite, thou shalt compose 
 a certain oblong tongue, and placing it again upon the coals, stir 
 A^ulcau into it : now irradiating with the Fossil Salt, now -nith 
 the incessant Attic Ochre, adorning now the shoulder and the 
 breast of Paphia, till she shall appear more manifestly beautiful, 
 and throwing the glaucus veil aside, she shall appear entirely 
 golden. Perchance, it was when Paris gazed on such a Venus, he 
 did prefer her both to Juno and Minerva. — But when the artist seeth, 
 adds a more modern experimentalist, the masculine tincture rise 
 from death, and come forth out of the black darkness together in 
 union with the white virginal spirit, he will then know that he 
 hath the great arcanum of the world, and such a treasure as is 
 inestimable. — See the Scholium ; Democritus in Flammelli Sum- 
 raula ; and Freher's Analogy. 
 
 2 By a conjunction with its o\vn permanent prepared spirit, 
 the albified water is made red. Adonis ab apro occiditur, cui 
 Yenus occurrens tinxit rosas sanguine. — See the Scholium ; Ata- 
 lanta Fugiens, Eiub. xli. 
 
 2 Thus, even as the Hermetic material is one the art is one ; 
 and the stone is also one mineral spirit, exalted by fermentation 
 intrinsically in its proper kind ; and as leaven makes leaven, and 
 every ferment begets its own exaltation ; as vinegar makes vinegar, 
 says the Scholiast, so this art beginning in our Mercury, likewise 
 finishes in the same. It is a kind of Proteus, indeed, which. 
 
The Golden Treatise. 125 
 
 SECTION FIFTH. 
 
 My son, that which is born of the crow is the begin- 
 ning of this Art. Behold, how I have obscured the 
 matter treated of, by circumlocution, depriving thee of 
 the hght. Yet this dissolved, this joined, this nearest 
 and furthest off, I have named to thee.^ 
 
 Roast those things, therefore, and boil them in that 
 which comes forth from the horse's belly for seven, 
 fourteen, or twenty-one days. Then will the Dragon 
 eat his own wings and destroy himself; this being- 
 done, let it be put in a fiery furnace, which lute dili- 
 gently, and observe that none of the spirit may escape. 
 And know that the periods of the earth are in the 
 water, which let be as long as until thou puttest the 
 same upon it.^ 
 
 The matter being thus melted and burned, take the 
 brain thereof and triturate it in most sharp vinegar 
 till it become obscured. This done, it lives in the pu- 
 trefaction ; let the dark clouds which w^ere in it before 
 it was killed be converted into its own body. Let this 
 
 creeping upon earth, assumes the natiffe ^f a serpent, but be- 
 ing emersed in water, it represents itself as a fish ; and presently 
 being in air, and taking to i^elf wings, it flies as a bird ; yet is, 
 notwithstanding, One throughout the multiformity of nature. 
 With this the artist works, and with it he transacts all the neces- 
 sary operations of our Stone. 
 
 ' The philosophic work is not considered to begin until after 
 the dissolution ; the preliminary preparation of the matter being 
 very generally termed the gross work. The manner of obscuring 
 the truth, by repetitions and circumlocutions, has been every- 
 where adopted by the Alchemists ; the nature of the process gives 
 room for this, and our author set an example, imitating the 
 devious instinct of the spirit in his illustrations. 
 
 2 The process of the dissolution is here gone over again, with 
 certain practical instructions, which the Scholiast explains under 
 another veil. The matter, he says, is to be decocted in the philo- 
 sophic furnace called Athanor, with a continual fire. And the 
 vessel which holds the matter must be exactly sealed, lest the 
 penetrative mineral vapour should expire and leave the dead body. 
 And this may be done with the lutum Sapientise, or Hermetic 
 seal, about which he gives particular instructions, and how the 
 orifices and junctures of the philosophic vessel must be encircled, 
 so that no breath may go forth. 
 
126 Exoteric View. 
 
 process be repeated, as I have described ; let it again die, 
 as I before said, and then it lives. ^ 
 
 In the life and death thereof we work with the 
 spirits ; for as it dies by the taking away of the spirit, 
 so it lives in the return and is revived and rejoices 
 therein. Being arrived then at this knowledge, that 
 which thou hast been searching for is made apparent 
 in the Affirmation. I have even related to thee the 
 joyful signs, even that which doth fix the body. 
 
 But these things, and how they attained to the 
 knowledge of this secret, are given by our ancestors in 
 figures and types : behold they are dead ; I have open- 
 ed the riddle, and the book of knowledge is revealed ; 
 the hidden things I have uncovered and have brought 
 together the scattered truths within their boundary, 
 and have conjoined many various forms, even I have 
 associated the Spirit. Take it as the gift of God.^ 
 
 SECTION SIXTH. 
 
 It behoves thee to give thanks to God, who has be- 
 stowed liberally of his bounty to the wise; who delivers 
 us from misery and poverty. I am tempted and 
 proven with the fulness of his substance and his proba- 
 ble wonders, and humbly pray God that whilst we live 
 we may come to him.^ 
 
 ^ The cerebral, or superior life of the Spirit, is obscured during 
 the purification, and for the revealment of its true mineral radix or 
 source. 
 
 2 In a scientific association of the Spirit the Hermetic Art has 
 been said summarily to consist — 
 
 Ut ventus qui flat est ille qui dat. — Qui capit ille sapit. 
 
 ^ He who shall have received so much grace from the Father 
 of Lights, as to obtain in this life the inestimable gift of the phi- 
 losopher's stone ; M"ho carries about with him, as the Scholiast ex- 
 presses it, even in his own breast, the treasury of universal na- 
 ture ; has need not only to be grateful but to be watchful of every 
 temptation, lest he should be drawn, even unwittingly, to abuse 
 it; for ho is then proven indeed, and taught how, in the midst of 
 so much abundance of power, wealth, and happiness, he should 
 humble himself and sink away from every appetite of self love in- 
 to the single adoration of the divine goodness ; for in this lium- 
 
The Golden Treatise. 127 
 
 Remove thence, O sons of science, the unguents 
 which we extract from fats, hair, vercligrease, traga- 
 canth, and bones, which are written in the books of 
 our fathers.' 
 
 But concerning the ointments which contain the tinc- 
 ture, coagulate the fugitive and adorn the sulphurs, it 
 behoves us to explain their disposition more at large ; 
 and to unveil the Form, which is buried and hidden, 
 from other unguents ; which is seen in disposition but 
 dwells in his own body, as fire in trees and stones, 
 which by the most subtle art and ingenuity it behoves 
 to extract without burning.^ 
 
 And know that the Heaven is to be joined mediately 
 with the Earth ; but the Form is in a middle nature 
 between the heaven and earth, wdiich is our water. But 
 the water holds of all the first place which goes forth 
 from this Stone ; but the second is gold ; but the third 
 is gold, only in a mean which is more noble than the 
 water and the fseces.^ 
 
 ble state, Grod only is to be met with, as the law of reason proves 
 in its ordinary development, mucli more so in the awakening of 
 its objective light. 
 
 1 The fixed sulphur of adepts, according to our Scholiast, is the 
 true balsam of nature, which the dead bodies of the metals imbibe, 
 and are as it were throughly moistened with, to preserve them per- 
 petually from distemper and rust. The more anything abounds 
 with this balsam, the longer it lives and is preserved from perish- 
 ing. From things, therefore, abounding with a balsam of this 
 kind, the universal medicine is concreted, which is most effectual 
 to preserve human bodies in a state of health, and to root out 
 diseases, whether accidental or hei'editary, by propagation, re- 
 storing the sick to health and integrity.- — See the Scholium and 
 Lucerna Salis towards the end. 
 
 2 Here again we are reminded of the simplicity of the matter 
 worked with, and its formal light. But if, in the natural world, the 
 spirit is invested with multitudinous and various forms externally 
 introduced, it behoves the artist to extract these, therefore, and 
 to dissolve without destroying the continental life. 
 
 2 The two invisible poles of the Spirit are here especially sig- 
 nalised by Hermes, and that consummate medium which brings 
 them forth into manifestation. The water alluded to is the 
 mercurial quintessence, as it is first born in a humid and vaprous 
 consistency ; which being successively informed by the central 
 light becomes golden and aurific, comuninicating its tincture ; 
 
128 ExoTERK View. 
 
 But in these are the smoke, the hlackness, and the 
 death. It behoves us, therefore, to dry away the vapour 
 from the water, to expel the blackness from the un- 
 guent, and death from the fyeces, and this by dissolu- 
 tion. By which means w^e attain to the highest philo- 
 sophy and secret of all hidden things.^ 
 
 SECTION SEVENTH. 
 
 Know ye then, O sons of Science, there are seven 
 bodies — of which gold is the first, the most perfect, 
 the king of them, and their head — which neither the 
 earth can corinipt nor fire devastate, nor the water 
 change ; for its complexion is equalised, and its nature 
 regulated with respect to heat, cold, and moisture; 
 nor is there anything in it which is superfluous, there- 
 fore the philosophers do buoy up and magnify them- 
 selves in it, saying that this gold, in relation of other 
 bodies, is as the sun amongst the stars, more splendid 
 in light ; and as, by the power of God, every vegetable 
 and all the fi'uits of the earth are perfected, so gold 
 by the same power sustaineth all.^ 
 
 and as fire by means of fuel increases continually, and a small 
 seed drawing strength and sustenance from the earth and air 
 grows to be a large and prolific tree ; so this wonderful being, es- 
 sentialised in its proper vehicle or understanding substance, is 
 said to increase, transmuting the catholic nature into itself. 
 Our gold is not common gold, says the adept, but a depurated 
 substance, in the highest degree perfected and brought to an 
 astral or heavenly complexion. This is the Elixir, Ixir, or true 
 Ferment tinging and fixing, and without which bodies cannot be 
 made pure.— See the Scholium, Lucerna Sabs, &c. 
 
 ' By an artificial dissolution of the vital bond, by means of Al- 
 chemy, the Causal principle of nature is said to be developed into 
 reminiscence and to arise in the experience of the recreated life. 
 Modern philosophy is far removed from such investigation, nor is 
 it easy, perhaps, without habitual study, to conceive the possibility 
 of an experiment that would lead ijito such a science of nature 
 as the ancients propose. 
 
 '^ The gold of the philosophers, or living gold, as they some- 
 times call their luminous concrete, is here alluded to throughout ; 
 for though the dead metal also is eminently endued above other 
 metals with the colour of its formative virtue, yet this does 
 not fructify, being imprisoned, or meliorate anything beyond 
 
The Golden Treatise. 129 
 
 For as dough, without a I'ernient, cannot be fer- 
 mented, so when thou subhmest the body and puri- 
 fiest it, separating the uncleanness from it, thou wilt 
 then conjoin and mix them together, and put in the 
 ferment confecting the earth and water. Then will 
 the Ixir ferment even as dough doth ferment. Think 
 of this, and see how the ferment in this case doth 
 change the former natures to another thing : observe, 
 also, that there is no ferment otherwise than from the 
 dough itself.^ 
 
 Observe, moreover, that the ferment w^hitens the 
 confection and hinders it from burning, and holds the 
 tincture lest it should fly, and rejoices the bodies, and 
 makes them intimately to join and to enter one into 
 another, and this is the Key of the philosophers and 
 the end of their w ork ; and by this science bodies are 
 meliorated and the operation of them, God assist- 
 ing, is consummate.^ 
 
 itself. But as the solar luminary is the luediuiu that perfects all 
 sublunary nature, subliming by his beams of light and heat, so 
 does our soul of gold, writes the Scholiast, which is the true au- 
 rific principle, even as a medium, perfect all the other seven bodies ; 
 i. e. to signify here, according to Hermes, the inferior spheres of 
 vitality in which it moves For though the virtues of the philoso- 
 pher's gold ai'e manifold, when applied to external nature, restor- 
 ing her energies, and converting her circumferential manifestations 
 into their central whole conditionedly, yet these things are not so 
 much denoted in the paragraph which refers to the spontaneous 
 operations of the divine Law in life. 
 
 ^ This is a very favourite analogy with the alchemists, and emi- 
 nently suggestive ; Hermes, therefore, advises us to meditate here, 
 that we may imbibe the principle of perfecting in our under- 
 standing and observe that except the paste of flour be leavened, 
 or any liquor receive the ferment of its own advanced virtue, it 
 will not be exalted ; but die and corrupt in the inferior elements of 
 its nature. See the Scholium and Basil A^alentine's Chariot of 
 Antimony throughout, and the Stone of Fire. 
 
 ^ In saying that the ferment whitens the confection, our 
 author may be thought to contradict what has been before stated ; 
 but he only confounds the order of his instruction, retrograding 
 at the latter end, for the fermentive light is indeed white before 
 the multiplication of its internal form has rubified it, and the 
 silvery spirit is made manifest before the solar ray. Take the 
 white, clear, and dignified herb, says Maria, which grows upon 
 the little mountain?, grind it fresh when it is arrived at its de- 
 
 K 
 
130 Exoteric View. 
 
 But, through negligence and a false opinion of the 
 matter, the operation may be perverted, as a mass of 
 leaven growing corrupt, or milk turned with rennet 
 for cheese, and musk among aromatics.' 
 
 The sure colour of the golden matter for the red, 
 and the nature thereof, is not sweetness ; therefore we 
 make of them Sericum, i. e. Ixir ; and of them we 
 make the enamel of which we have already w^ritten, 
 and with the king's seal we have tinged the clay, and 
 in that have set the colour of heaven which augments 
 the sight of them that see.- 
 
 termined hour, for iii it is the genuine body which evaporates 
 not, neither does it at all flee from the fire. But, after this, it is 
 necessary to rectify Kibric and Zibeth (the soid and spirit) 
 upon this body ; i. e. the two fumes which comprise and embrace 
 each other in the two luminaries, and to put them upon that 
 which softens them, which is the accomplishment of the tinctures 
 and spirits, the true weights of the wise : then, having ground the 
 whole, put it to the fire : admirable things will then be seen. 
 There is nothing fiu'ther required but to maintain a moderate 
 fiLre ; after which it is wonderful to see how, in less than an horn*, 
 the composition will pass from one colour to another, till it comes 
 to the perfect red or white : -when it does, then abate the fire and 
 open the vessel, and when it is cold, there will appear in it a body 
 clear, shining like a pearl or the colour of Mild poppy mingled with 
 white. It is then incerating, melting, penetrative, and one weight 
 of this body cast upon twelve thousand of the imperfect metal, 
 will convert it into gold. Behold, the concealed secret and these 
 two fumes are the root of the Hermetic science ; which, being of 
 one root, are separated, dissolved, and re-united so often until 
 their fermentive virtue survives the utmost efforts of art or nature 
 any more to decompose. — See the Scholium and Maria Practica, 
 and Freher's Analogy, end. 
 
 1 An unskilful artist may doubtless make errors in this art as 
 in any other, either in chemistry or in housewifery, without 
 understanding the proper method and matter of fermentation. 
 The remark of the mastei', therefore, needs not further illustrating. 
 
 2 The apparition of the new light to the outward qualifications 
 of the spirit is not welcome or sweet at first, but causes a terrifi- 
 cation of the whole circumferential life. The wrathfidness is 
 mightily exasperated by this appearance of love, says the theoso- 
 phist, and presseth violently to swallow it up in death ; which 
 actually it doth : but perceiving that no death can be therein, the 
 love sinketh only down, yielding up itself unto those murderous 
 properties for awhile and displaying among them its own loving 
 essentiality. Thus is found, at last, a poison to death and a pesti- 
 
The Golden Treatise. 131 
 
 The Stone, therefore, is the most precious gold with- 
 out spots — evenly tempered, which neither fire, nor air, 
 nor water, nor earth is able to corrupt ; for it is the 
 Universal Ferment rectifying all things in a medium 
 composition, whose complexion is yellow^ and a true 
 citrine colour.' 
 
 The gold of the wise, boiled and well digested with 
 a fiery water, makes Ixir ; for the gold of the wise is 
 more heavy than lead, which in a temperate composi- 
 tion is the ferment Ixir, and contrariwise, in our in- 
 temperate composition, is the confusion of the whole. 
 
 leuce to liell ; for the wrathful properties are terrified at this 
 entering of love into them, which is coutran^ to their quality, and 
 renders them weak and impotent, so that they lose at length their 
 own will, strength, and predominance. See Freher's Analogy at 
 the end. By the King's seal, Hermes signifies the gnsat Law of 
 Light or universal reason, which is finally impressed upon the 
 regenerated vitality of nature. 
 
 ^ This most precious Stone, are we at length to conclude then, 
 is Light essentialised artificially in its proper substance, and exalted 
 by fermentation into an immutable magnet, able to draw and to 
 convert the radical homogeneity of natiu-e into its own assimilative 
 accord ? Yet this is an ultimate promise only, and the reward of 
 ardent and continual toil; the art offers many intermediate benefits 
 by the way, alluring health, science and riches, of her mineral 
 stores. Our stone, says the adept, drives away and cures all 
 sorts of maladies whatever, and preserves any one in good health 
 to the last term of his life : it tinges and can change all metals 
 into silver and gold, even better than those which nature is accus- 
 tomed to produce ; and, by its means, crystals maybe transformed 
 into precious gems. But, if the intention be to change metals 
 into gold, it is requisite they shovild be first fermented wdth the 
 most pui'e gold; for otherwise the imperfect metals would not be 
 able to support its too great and supreme subtility ; but there 
 wovild ensue loss and damage in the projection. The imperfect 
 metals, also, ought to be purified, if any one will draw profit there- 
 from. One drachm of gold is sufficient for the fermentation in 
 the Eed, and one of silver for the fermentation in the A\Tiite ; and 
 the artist need not be at the trouble of buying gold and silver for 
 this fermentation, because, with one single very small part, the 
 tincture may be afterwards augmented more and more ; for if 
 this medicine be multiplied and be again dissolved and coagulated 
 by the water of its mercury, white or red, of which it was pre- 
 pared, then the tinging virtue will be augmented each time by 
 ten degrees perfection which may be reiterated at will. — See Lu- 
 cerna Salis, Kiijjiurath Amphitheat. circa finem. 
 \ K 2 
 
 / 
 
132 Exoteric View. 
 
 For the work begins from the vegetable, next from 
 the animal, as in a hen's egg, in which is the greatest 
 help ; and our earth is gold, of all which we make 
 seriacum, which is the ferment Ixir.^ 
 
 ^ The seven chapters of the Golden Treatise are here concluded ; 
 which are a fair example of the Alchemical writings in general, 
 and less sophistical than many, which may be considei-ed perhaps 
 as a small recommendation of the rest. For, although the dis- 
 course is sententious, and analogies are dispersed throughout with 
 philosophic tact and plausibility, yet the whole is covered with an 
 obnoxious veil; for neither does Hermes discover the true Art,either 
 whence, when, or how the Matter is to be taken ; but the philo- 
 sophic vessel, with the whole apparatus for working the Spirit to 
 perfection, is wrapped up under an ambiguous disguise. It is im- 
 possible almost to convey an adequate idea of the extent to which 
 the mystification has been carried: the literature of Alchemy 
 has not its parallel in the entire range, but is the problem of 
 contradictions by excellence, as it were, framed after the pattern 
 of the cruel Sphinx herself ; so that the very abundant evidence 
 which, under other circumstances, would be advantageous, be- 
 comes burdensome in this inquiry, occasioning a difficulty of dis- 
 cretion where to believe and vindicate the true light. In these 
 easy reading days, too, when the fruits of science are laid open 
 and books are made suitable for the instruction of the " meanest 
 capacities," few are disposed to study for anything — even the most 
 lucrative gain — still fewer wiU there be found of a mind ready 
 to exert itself about the traditionary report of bygone wisdom. 
 "We had not ourselves, thus singly without modern precedent, 
 ventured within the confines of this magic wild, but for the theo- 
 retic promise of possibility held out ; having observed also much 
 of the doctrines and tangled enigmas to unfold and arrange them- 
 selves slowly, yet in peculiar order, by the leading of a certain 
 experimental clue. By this we hope to point out, as we discern 
 them, the disjecta membra long since mangled and concealed 
 there, and to discover the abode, at least, of that queenly Isis who 
 is alone able to gather them together into the beauty and perfec- 
 tion of their original form. 
 
PART II. 
 
 A MORE ESOTERIC CONSIDERATION OF THE 
 HERMETIC ART AND ITS MYSTERIES. 
 
The True Subject. 135 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Of the True Subject of the Hermetic Art, and its 
 concealed Root. 
 
 Opus vobiscum et apud vos est, quod intus arripiens et per- 
 manens in terra vel in mare habere potes. 
 
 Tractatus Aureus, cap. i. 
 
 HITHERTO we have regarded this mystic laby- 
 rinth of Alchemy from without, considering 
 the superficial scheme only ; before we enter, it may 
 be well to offer the consenting reader our clue, lest, 
 observing merely our indirect and sudden outset, he 
 suppose the way mistaken, and losing faith accord- 
 ingly, should decline to pass on with us further towards 
 the end. 
 
 For the paths through which we would conduct 
 him are dark, intricate, lonely, and in a measure fear- 
 ful ; far receding, and out of reach of this outer day- 
 light, with all its corporeal witnesses and scenes. Nor 
 has the way become smoother from being so long a 
 while untrodden. We shall have to thread many wind- 
 ings, to pass round and through thick tangles of doubt 
 and overgrown prejudice, which time has accumulated 
 and thrown up together at the gates ; before we can 
 hope to enter the sanctuary of our Minerva, much 
 less behold the sacred light which burns there before 
 her pure presence for ever, refulgent and still. 
 
 No modern art or chemistry, notwithstanding all 
 its surreptitious claims, has any thing in common 
 to do with Alchemy, beyond the borrowed terms, 
 which were made use of in continuance chiefly to 
 veil the latter; not from any real relation, either of 
 matter, method, or practical result. For though aqua 
 
136 More Ksoteric View. 
 
 fortis and aqua regia seem to dissolve metals, and 
 many salts be Ibund useful in analysis, and fire for the 
 tearing in pieces of bodies ; yet nothing vitally altera- 
 tive is achieved, unless the vital force be present and 
 in action. But modern art drives out, in fact, the 
 very nature which the ancients prized ; distilling and 
 dissecting superficies, harassing for ever, without the 
 more evolving any true cause : and then some con- 
 clude, summarily, there is no cause, just because their 
 notion of experience and method of experimenting are 
 superficial and essentially atheistic. 
 
 The pseudo Alchemists dreamed of gold, and impos- 
 sible transformations, and worked with sulphur, mer- 
 cury, and salt of the mines, torturing all species, dead 
 and living, in vain, without rightly divining the true 
 Identity of nature ; the means they employed were 
 from literal readings of receipts ; they had no theory 
 whereby to direct their research, and making trial of 
 nature, as if she were a thing of chance, by chance, 
 found nothing. Some fe\y, of superior imagination to 
 these, who had glimpses of the Universal Subject, en- 
 deavoured to draw light iiito the focus of their vessels, 
 to compress and entice the ether by magnetical dispo- 
 sition and attractions of various kinds ; but their 
 hopes too were vaguely based, there was no Wisdom in 
 their magistery, being ignorant of that internal fire and 
 vessel of the adepts, so essential to the accomplish- 
 ment of the Hermetic work. For how hardly should 
 tliey divine without instruction, or interpret the dark 
 hieroglyphic seal ? 
 
 It is declared, in the ancient book of Tobit, to be 
 honourable to reveal the woi-ks of the Lord ; but good 
 to keep close the secret of a king: and the old adepts, 
 as if emulous of the sacred ordinance, whilst they 
 display all the grandeur and abundant riches of his 
 monarchy, make little or no mention of the king at 
 all. And whilst the light has remained so .long under 
 the bushel of ignorance, with the Divine Wisdom under 
 the bark of the Law, it is deplorable to think how 
 manv worthy and truth-loving intellects have Ian- 
 
The True Subject. 137 
 
 guished and perished for lack of knowledge ; know- 
 ledge too that is attainable, since it has been attained. 
 For their few sakes, w^e now wTite therefore, and feel 
 emboldened to hazard evidence of the forbidden truth ; 
 and without, we trust, transgressing the spirit of the 
 prophet's advice, it may be allow^ed to lay open the 
 regalia so far as shall induce inquiry, and a more re- 
 spectful consideration than heretofore. 
 
 The inquiries hitherto made by us, concerning the 
 physical basis of the Hermetic Science, have helped to 
 identify it with a matter now, at best, hypothetical! y 
 conceived of only, since the means of proving it are 
 unknown, and the obscure instructions of the ancients 
 concerning the nature of their conceptive vehicle, has 
 caused incalculable error and confusion ; and though 
 the days of gross credulity have passed away, and a 
 more wide-spread education has helped to awaken the 
 common sense of mankind to a perception of the im- 
 probable and ridiculous in most things, yet other ob- 
 stacles supervene, as great, if not more obnoxious to 
 the pursuit of causal science. The human mind, in- 
 deed, has been so long unaccustomed truly to know 
 anything, or even think of, much less investigate, its 
 own intrinsical phenomena, that to speak of them at 
 the present time may subject us to every imputation 
 of error and presumption. And why ? A barren pe- 
 riod has supervened ; and man has no longer any ex- 
 perience in the life of Wisdom, nor yet surmises the 
 virtue that is in him, to prove and magnify the Uni- 
 versal Source. Yet that was the foundation of the 
 whole Hermetic magistery, w^hence it is said, that if 
 the wise had not found a proper vessel in which to con- 
 coct it, the etherial corner-stone would never have 
 been brought to light. This Hali declares, and M^- O 
 rien, and Albert, saying, that the place is the prin- 
 ciple also of the supernatural generation ; and Hermes, 
 vas philosophorum est aqua eorum ; but they do not 
 openly reveal either, as Maria concludes in her admo- 
 nition. — Philosophers have spoken sufficiently of all 
 that is necessary concerning the work, with excep- 
 
138 More Esoteric View. 
 
 tion of the vessel ; which is a divine secret, hidden from 
 idolators, and without this knowledge no one can at- 
 tain to the magistery.^ 
 
 Thus it appears to have been a rehgious principle 
 with the ancients, to w'ithhold the means of proving 
 their philosophy from an incapable and reckless world ; 
 and if any by hazard, less prudent or envious than the 
 rest, alluded oj)enly in his writings either to the con- 
 cealed vessel or art of vital ministration, his reveal- 
 ment was instantly annulled by false or weakening 
 commentaries, or as quickly as possible withdrawn by 
 means not the less sure, because hidden from the 
 w^orld. Of the former expedient w^e have a notable 
 example in Scndivogius, who, towards the conclusion 
 of his treatises, referring to the honest Hermit Mo- 
 rien's advice to KingCalid, — Hsec enim r^exteextra- 
 hitur — This matter, O king, is extracted from thee — 
 endeavours to draw attention off from it, by inveigling 
 the reader into a doubt artfully raised about some gold 
 found sticking between a dead man's teeth.- Such 
 instances are not rare, and it has been found easy by 
 such similar equivocations, without absolute denial, to 
 protect from foolish and profane intrusion that living 
 temple wherein alone the wise of all ages have been 
 securely able to raise their rejected Corner Stone and 
 Ens of Light. 
 
 When, however, the writings of Jacob Bbhme ap- 
 peared in Germany, some century and a half ago, the 
 Alchemists who lived at that period, write as if they 
 supposed their art could little longer remain a secret ; 
 a similar alarm had previously arisen amongst certain 
 Rosicrucians about the books of Agrippa and Para- 
 celsus' disciples, and in both instances because those 
 great theosophists spoke openly, applying the practice 
 of Alchemy to human life ; suggesting also, as did the 
 
 ' See JMaria Practica — iu fine — Ludus Puerorum de A'ase sive 
 ovo Philin. in quo lapis iioster ponendus est ut igne et arte per- 
 ficiatur. — Artis Aurifer;Ti>, vol. ii. p. 115. Morieni de Trans. Metal. 
 Interrog. et Eesp. p. 27. 
 
 '^ See New Light of Alchemy, concluding chapter. 
 
The True Subject. 139 
 
 latter, the method and medium of attraction. For, 
 notwithstanding these, in common with the rest, teach 
 that the Mercurial Spirit is everywhere, and to be 
 ^ound in all things according to the nature of each, 
 yet they do not so much profess to have sought for it 
 in many things, or that it may with equal advantage 
 be drawn forth from all ; since it is neither apt to be- 
 come universal of its own accord, or in every Form of 
 virtue sufficient for the Hermetic work. Therefore, 
 say they, the best and noblest ought to be chosen to 
 operate with, unless the searcher proposes to waste 
 labour and ingenuity without obtaining his desired 
 end. Besides, to search out the identity through all 
 creatures and minerals, by way of experiment, would 
 seem to be a matter of no small difficulty, if we must 
 needs investigate each ; but if one subject should be 
 presented which contains all, and the comprehension 
 of each subordinate form in a superior essence, then 
 this one needs only to be investigated for the discovery 
 of all. But the universal orb of the earth, adds the 
 Moorish philosopher, contains not so great mysteries 
 and excellences as Man reformed by God into his 
 image ; and he that desires the primacy amongst the 
 students of nature, will nowhere find a greater or 
 better reserve to obtain his desire than in himself, who 
 is able to draw^ to himself the Central Salt of nature 
 in abundance, and in his regenerate Wisdom possess- 
 eth all things, and with this light can unlock the 
 most hidden and recluse mysteries of nature.^ As 
 Agrippa, moreover, testifies, that the soul of man, being 
 estranged from the corporeal senses, adheres to a divine 
 nature, from which it receives those things which it 
 cannot search into by its own powder ; for when the 
 mind is free, the reins of the body being loosed and 
 going forth, as out of a close prison, it transcends the 
 bonds of the members, and, nothing hindering, being 
 stirred up in its proper essence, comprehends all 
 things. And therefore man was said to be the express 
 
 ^ CVntruni jVaturse Concpiitratuni, page 40, &c. 
 
140 More Esoteric View. 
 
 Image of God, seeing he contains the Universal Reason 
 within himself, and has a corporeal simihtude also with 
 all, operation wdth all, and conversation with all. But 
 he symbolises with matter in a proper subject ; with 
 the elements in a fourfold body ; with plants in a vege- 
 table virtue ; with animals in a sensitive faculty ; w4th 
 the heavens in an etherial spirit and influx of the su- 
 perior parts upon the inferior ; with the angelical sphere 
 in understanding and wdsdom, and with God in all. 
 He is preserved with God and the intelligences by 
 faith and wnsdom ; with celestial things by reason and 
 discourse ; with all inferior things by sense and do- 
 minion ; and acts with all, and has power on all, even 
 on God Himself, continues the magician, by knowing 
 and loving Him. And as God knoweth all things, so 
 man, knowing Him, also can know all things, seeing 
 he has for an adequate object Being in general, 
 or, as some say. Truth itself: neither is there any- 
 thing found in man, nor any disposition in which 
 something of divinity may not shine forth ; neither is 
 there anything in God which may not also be re- 
 presented in man. Whosoever, therefore, shall know 
 himself, shall know all things in himself: but especially 
 he shall know^ God, according to whose image he was 
 made; he shall know the world, the resemblance of 
 which he beareth ; he shall know all creatures with 
 which in essence he symboliseth, and what comfort he 
 can have and obtain from stones, plants, animals, 
 elements ; from spirits, angels, and everything ; and 
 how all things may be fitted for all things, in their 
 time, place, order, measure, proportion, and harmony; 
 even how he can draw and bring them to himself as a 
 loadstone, iron.^ 
 
 And this the adept, Sendivogius, moreover declares : 
 That Nature, having her proper light, is by the shadowy 
 body of sense, hidden from our eyes ; but if, says he, 
 the light of nature doth enlighten any one, presently 
 the cloud is taken away from before his eyes, and with- 
 
 ^ Occult Philosophy, book iii. chap, xxxvi. and xlvi. 
 
The True Subject. 141 
 
 out any let, he can behold the point of our loadstone, 
 answering to each centre of the beams, (viz. of the 
 sun and moon philosophical,) for so far doth the light 
 of nature penetrate and discover inward things ; the 
 body of man is a shadow of the seed of nature, and 
 as man's body is covered with a garment, so is man's 
 nature covered with the body. Man was created of 
 the earth, and lives by virtue of the air ; for there is 
 in the air a secret food of life, whose invisible con- 
 gealed spirit is better than the whole world. Oh, 
 holy and wonderful nature ! which knowest how to pro- 
 duce wonderful fruits by water, out of the earth and 
 from the air to give them life ! The eyes of the wise 
 look upon nature otherwise than the eyes of common 
 men. The most high Creator, having been wiUing to 
 manifest all natural things to man, hath even showed 
 us that celestial things themselves were naturally 
 made ; by which his absolute power and wisdom might 
 be so much the better known ; all which things the 
 philosophers in the light of nature, as in a looking- 
 glass, have a clear sight of; for which cause they es- 
 teemed this art of Alchemy, viz., not so much out of 
 covetousness for gold or silver, but for the knowledge 
 sake ; not only of all natural things, but also of the 
 power of the Creator. But they are willing to speak 
 of these things sparingly only, and figuratively, lest 
 those divine mysteries, by which nature is illustrated, 
 should be discovered to the unworthy ; which thou, if 
 thou knowest hoiv to know thyself, and art not of a stiff 
 neck, may est easily comprehend who art created after 
 the likeness of the great world, yea after the image of 
 God. Thou hast in thy body the anatomy of the 
 whole world, and all thy members answer to some 
 celestials; let, therefore, the searcher of this Sacred 
 Science know that the soul in man, the lesser world or 
 microcosm, substituting the place of its centre, is the 
 king, and is placed in the vital spirit in the purest 
 blood. That governs the mind, and the mind the 
 body ; but this same soul, by which man differs from 
 other animals and which operates in the body, govern- 
 
142 More Esoteric View. 
 
 ing all its motions, hath a far greater operation out of 
 the body, because out of the body it absolutely reigns 
 CUaA^ — in this respect, it differs from the life of other creatures 
 which have only spirit and not the soul of Deity.' 
 
 Such arc the distinctive assertions of one esteemed 
 an adept by his cotemporaries, and who professes to 
 ground them also on his own manual experience in 
 the proto-chemistry of Hermes. And, whether they be 
 entirely credited or not, these may help to elucidate 
 the words of Trismegistus, where, in the first chapter 
 of the Golden Treatise, he says, — that the work is both 
 in us and about us ; and that the whole magistery is 
 Q comprehended in the hidden elements of his Wisdom.'^ 
 ^ And Geber\ in the same sense, where he declares that 
 he who in /limse if knows not natural principles, is very 
 remote from this sacred science, because he has not 
 the true root in him whereon to base his labour and 
 intention.'^ Observe, therefore, and take heed, says 
 Basil, that all metals and minerals have one root from 
 whence their descent is ; he that knows t/iat rightly 
 needs not to destroy metals in order to extract the 
 spirit from one, the sulphur from another, or salt from 
 another ; for there is a nearer place yet in which these 
 three, viz., the mercury, salt, and sulphur — spirit, body 
 and soul — lie hid together in one thing, well known, 
 and whence they may with great praise be gotten. He 
 that knows exactly this golden seed or magnet, and 
 searcheth throughly into its properties, he hath the 
 true root of life, and may attain to that which his 
 heart longs for; wherefore I intreat, continues the 
 monk, all true lovers of mineral science, and sons of 
 art, diligently to inquire after this metallic seed, or 
 root, and be assured that it is not an idle chimera or 
 dream, but a real and certain truth. ^ 
 
 It was from such an internal intimacy, and central 
 searching of the mystery, that the Paracelsian Crollius 
 
 » New Light of Alchemy, pp. 32, 40, 102. 
 '^ Tract, Aur. cap. i. & ii. 
 •'' Sum of Perf. book i. 
 
 ■* See the Stoue of Fire, Kircliriiigius. Ed. Webster's Hist, of 
 Minerals, p. 9, the Extract. 
 
The True Subject. 143 
 
 tells us lie came to know that the same light and 
 mineral vapour, which produces gold within the bowels 
 of the earth is also in man, and that the same is the 
 generating spirit of all creatures.' And Albertus 
 Magnus, in his book of Minerals, after asserting that 
 gold may be found everywhere, in the final analysis of 
 every natural thing, concludes by showing that the 
 highest mineral virtue nevertheless resides in man ; for 
 fire, which is the true aurific principle in the life of all, 
 burns more than all glorious in him erect. — Our 
 Mercury is philosophic, fiery, vital — which may be 
 mixed with all metals and again be separated from 
 them ; it is prepared in the innermost chamber of life, 
 and there it is coagulated, as the Hermetic phrase runs, 
 and where metals grow there they may be found. ^ 
 
 Remember how man, ys most noble creature 
 In Erth's composycion that ever Grod wrought, 
 In whom are the fowre elements proportyonyd by nature, 
 A naturall mercuiyalyte w-hych cost ryglit nought, 
 Out of hys myner by arte yt most be brought ; 
 Tor our mettalls be noiight ells but myners too, 
 Of our Soon and Moone, wyse Reymond sevd so.^ 
 
 And though the philosophers have chosen to say 
 little about it, on account of the shortness of life, and 
 the length of this work, as Maria says, yet they 
 themselves found out these hidden elements, and 
 themselves increased them. And thou, oh, Man, cries 
 the Arabian Alipili, even thou art he who through the 
 breath and power of the watej- and earth in thyself, 
 conjoinest the elements and makest them one ; and 
 thyself not knowing what a treasure thou hast hidden 
 in thee, from the coagulation and consent of these 
 powers, producest an essence, called, by us, the expert, 
 the great and miraculous mystery of the world ; that is 
 the true fiery water. — Eschva may'im, Erascha maijim, 
 yea, it surmounts in its power, the fire, air, earth and 
 water ; for it dissolves radically, incrudates even the 
 
 ^ CroUius' Philosophy Reformed, p. 105. 
 
 2 Tract. Aureus. Text et Scholium, cap. i. 
 
 ^ Ripley's Admonition of Erroneous Experiments. 
 
144 More Esoteric View. 
 
 / mature, constant, and very fixed, tiery and abiding 
 ^S/ mass and matter of gold, and reduc^^ it into a fat 
 / black earth, like to thick spittle ; wherein we find a 
 water and the true salt destitute of all odor, vehemency, 
 and corrosive nature of the fire : there is nothing in 
 the whole world besides to be found which can do this ; 
 to which nothing is shut ; and though it is a precious 
 thing, more precious than everything, yet the poor as 
 well as the rich may have it in the same equal plenty. 
 The wise men have sought this thing, and the wise 
 men have found it.^ 
 
 And it behoves him, therefore, who would be intro- 
 duced to this hidden Wisdom, says Hermes, to quit 
 himself from the usurpations of vice, to be good and 
 just and of a profound reason, ready at hand to help 
 mankind ; for these subtle chemical secrets may never 
 be handled by the idle or vicious unbelievers of these 
 matters in which they are only ignorant, who, being 
 destitute of light, defile by an evil imagination the 
 very Spirit that ought to be refined. — Omne Aurum 
 est ses, sed non omne ees est aurum : — and the true 
 phj^sician, according toCroUius (whom Paracelsus calls 
 a natural divine) is true, sincere, intelligent, faithful ; 
 and being well exercised in the vital analysis of bodies, 
 knows that there is no constant quality of any body 
 ^vhich is not to be found in the salt, mercury, and 
 sulphur thereof.^ And these three principles of attrac- 
 tion, repulsion, and circulation, the universal accord of 
 life, are everywhere and in all. 
 
 Blood contaiueth the three tilings I have told, 
 
 And in his tincture hath nature of gold : 
 
 AVithout gold, no metal may sliine bright ; 
 
 Without blood no body hath light : 
 
 So doth the greater and less world still 
 
 Hold the cii'cle according to God's will. 
 
 Blood hath true proportion of th' elements foure, 
 
 And of the three parts spoke of before ; 
 
 For blood is the principle matter of each thing, 
 
 Which hath any luauuer of increasing. 
 
 ' Centrum Naturae Concentratum, pp. 80, 81. 
 ' Phil. Eeform. pp. 25, 95. Tract. Aureus, cap. ii. 
 
The True Subject. 145 
 
 The true blood to find without labour or cost, 
 
 Thou knowest where to have it, or thy wits be lost ; 
 
 Seek out the noblest, as I said before, 
 
 And now of the Matter, I dare say no more.^ 
 
 Or, what more shall I say? (asks Morien, empha- 
 tically, discoursing ^\Ai\\ the Arabian monarch about 
 the confection of the Stone, and after showing the dis- 
 tinctive supremacy of man in nature.) The thing, O 
 king, is extracted from thee, in the which mineral 
 thou dost even exist ; with thee it is found ; by thee 
 it is received ; and when thou shalt have proved 
 all by the love and delight in thee, it will increase ; 
 and thou wilt know that I have spoken an enduring 
 truth.2 
 
 Although few write so clearly to the purpose as 
 those we have selected, yet the more modern class of 
 adepts have in general left hints and suggestions to 
 the same effect ; they describe the life of man, as by 
 their Art revealed, to be a pure, naked, and unmingled 
 fire of infinite capability, differing from that of the 
 prone creatures in form, educability, and capacity for 
 melioration in itself. And though it might be sup- 
 posed, according to the alleged diffusion of the Matter, 
 that, if the Art of separating it were known, it might be 
 taken anywhere (which in part also is true) yet we 
 may consider the object was not simply to obtain the 
 Matter or prove it only, but to improve, perfect, and 
 bring the Causal light to manifestation. And in what 
 our human circulatory system differs and occultly ap- 
 proximates, so that it can be made to comprehend all 
 inferior existences, and supersede nature in her course, 
 may be gathered from this philosophy; and many rea- 
 sons are given why the most noble subject was chosen, 
 and this only vessel for its elaboration. The foregoing 
 evidence, however, without more defence at present, 
 may help to lead on the inquiry to a more explicit 
 ground. 
 
 1 Theat. Chem. Britt. p. 405. 
 - De Transm. ^fetal. Artis Auriferap, vol. i. end. 
 L 
 
146 More Esoteric View. 
 
 Attraction is the first principle of motion in nature ; 
 this is generally admitted, but the origin of this uni- 
 versal attraction is occult and incomprehensible to the 
 ordinary human understanding. Repulsion is the se- 
 cond principle, and a necessary consequence of the 
 first by reaction. Circulation is the third principle, 
 proceeding from the conflict of the former two. 
 
 All motion is derived from this threefold source in 
 its reciprocal relations, which are diversified according 
 to its qualifications with the matter. The attraction, 
 repulsion, and circulation in the sun and stars move 
 the planets in their orbits ; the same principle in each 
 globe performs the rotation on its axis, and the satel- 
 lites partake the same motion from their primaries. 
 Every quantity of matter, solid, fluid, or gaseous, when 
 separated from the rest by its quality or discontinuity, 
 is possessed individually by the same principles, how- 
 ever infinite the variety of substances, natural or arti- 
 ficial, great or small ; vegetable and animal forms and 
 motions are no less evidences of these three principles 
 than the heavenly and earthly bodies. Hence chemical 
 affinity, called Elective Attraction, is ruled by the same 
 laws ; and it is found that when two matters unite, one 
 is attractive and the other repulsive ; when either at- 
 traction or repulsion predominates in a matter, the 
 circulation is in ellipse ; but when they are in equili- 
 brium, a circle is produced. Repulsion, being pro- 
 duced in its origin by attraction, equals it, as reaction 
 equals action : but in nature one principle is everij- 
 where more latent or inert, or weaker than another ; 
 and there are degrees accordingly, in which either 
 predominates in external manifestation ; hence the 
 different degrees of natural affinity for union. There 
 are also degrees of strength, fi'om harshness to mild- 
 ness, and in the operation of the Three Principles, from 
 the compaction of a hard rock to the loose adherence 
 of the particles of a globule of mercury or dew, from 
 explosion to expansion, and from a violent whirling 
 motion to a gentle evolution. But the medium is al- 
 ways in the circulation produced from the action and 
 
The True Subject. 147 
 
 reaction of centrifugal and centripetal forces, and the 
 equality of these forms a circle, as was before observed, 
 and which labours to harmonize the conflict of these 
 two, and will succeed if the matter be duly quahfied 
 for it. 
 
 But, according to the Alchemists, there is but One 
 Matter truly qualifiable or capable of qualifying matter 
 to be harmonized in this way, since nature has fallen 
 off from her original balance, and the wheel of human 
 life runs forth, deviating from its axis, into a line which 
 terminates finally in dissolution ; which nothing but 
 their Antimonial Spirit rectified by Art, being in bright 
 lines of equal attraction and repulsion, as it were a 
 perfect magnet in a star-like circle of irradiated circu- 
 lation, can contrariate or withstand.^ 
 
 And the agent in the preparation of this spirit, con- 
 tinues Bohme, is the Invisible Mercury, and no 
 process can finally fail where the invisible, universal 
 Mercury, or spiritual air of Antimony, is present, con- 
 densed in its proper vehicle in any of the degrees of 
 permanency; and the Principle of its operation consists 
 in the power of harmonizing the three discordant prin- 
 ciples of Attraction, Rtpidsion, and Circulation^ I A»€t o-aj^ 
 this in the vital spirit of the arterial blood, where the 
 universal principles are in their natural generation un- 
 equally composed : the repulsive force so far predo- 
 minating over the interior attraction, that the total 
 circulatory life is expulsive, and drawn without to a 
 debilitated consciousness away from its First Cause. 
 Which inverse order of relationship and vital ignorance 
 it is the object of the Hermetic art to remedy, and, by 
 occultation of the opposive principle, to restore the 
 true rector to his original rule. Sanguinem urinamque 
 pariter dat nobis natura, et ab horum natura salem dat 
 Pyrotechnia, quem circulat ars in salem circulatum 
 Paracelsi. Hoc addam : sang-uinis salem per urinaceum 
 
 1 See Jacob Bohme on tlie Generation of the Three Prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 2 Idem, see Phillips's Lives of the Alchemists, p. 294, &c. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 More Esoteric View. 
 
 fermentum sic transmutari debere, ut ultimam vitam 
 amittat, mediamque servet, salsedinemque retineat.^ 
 
 Si fixum solvas faciasque volare solutum 
 Et volucrem figas, faciunt te vivere tutum 
 Solve, Coagula, Fige. 
 
 This know, therefore, says Hermes, that except 
 thou understandest how to mortify and induce genera- 
 tion, to vivify the Spirit, to cleanse and introduce 
 Light, until they fight and contend with each other, 
 and grow white and freed from their defilements, 
 rising, as it were, from blackness and darkness, thou 
 knowest nothing, nor canst perform anything ; but if 
 thou knowest this, thou shalt be of a great dignity.^ 
 All which our modern exponent, further illustrating 
 the Hermetic process, confirms. For, in three months' 
 circulation, says he, by digestion, the powder becomes 
 completely black, the opposition of attraction and re- 
 pulsion ceases (in the vital spirit), and the attraction 
 of the fixed which produced the repulsion of the 
 volatile, is slain by the circulation which also dies it- 
 self, and all three enter into rest. Then there is no 
 more compression or expansion, ascent or descent, but 
 the action and reaction have, by the equiUbriate radia- 
 tion of forces and the subtlety of the spirit, formed a 
 circulation which has consumed all discordant opposi- 
 tion, and sunk down black and motionless. And thus 
 the head of Hermes' crow is said to be in the beginning 
 of this work ; that which at first was fixed, viz. the 
 sentient medium, is dissolved, and by the same process 
 more profoundly operating, the original evil is made 
 manifest in the matter to be renewed, and hence the 
 principle of amendment and rectification also will ap- 
 pear, and on either side it is a signal of Art. 
 
 The same Three Principles gradually assume a new 
 life, continues Bohme, infinitely more powerful in 
 virtue, but without any violent contest, and in three 
 
 1 Arcanum Liquaris Alkahest Eesp. 76, 78. 
 '^ Tract. Aur. cap. ii. 
 
The True Subject. 149 
 
 months farther, the mild action of the principles in 
 harmony have produced a brilHant whiteness in the 
 matter, which in three months more become a bril- 
 liant yellow, red, or purpling tincture. — Approach, ye 
 sons of Wisdom, and rejoice ; let us now rejoice toge- 
 ther, for the reign of sin is finished, and the king doth 
 rule, and now he is invested with the red garment, and 
 now the scarlet colour is put on.^ 
 
 That was the process of working with the Vital Spirit, 
 so often reiterated by Hermes, Democritus, and the 
 rest before cited, which also is many times passed 
 through for the practical accomphshment. But every 
 other matter labours for this perfection in vain ; it can 
 only attain to combustion, heat, and temporary light, 
 and the consumption of the common elements in their 
 analysis is a separation into gas and ashes ; but this 
 mystical nature revives, fortified from every successive 
 dissolution, renewing its Whole resolutely from either 
 extreme by union. This Spirit is so full of life, says 
 the adept, that if the process fails in any stage, an ad- 
 dition of the same will renew it. The white or red 
 powder is increased tenfold in strength and quantity by 
 each digestion of it with fresh antimony in powder, wet 
 with gas water, or oil of this antimony, and each di- 
 gestion is made in tenfold shorter time than the pre- 
 ceding, from a week to a few hours. For this gold is / . 
 endued with a magnetical virtue, which, by the in- (yns<6<ss-a 
 spi/ate fulgor of its tincture, draws the divine increase 
 after it ; in which nature expends all her forces, but 
 leaves the victory to Art, which, by graduation to the 
 full height, adds to the natural effulgence a superna- 
 tural light ; for what else but light should multiply ? 
 Whence it has been called likewise the terrestrial or 
 Microcosmic Sun, the triumphal Chariot of Antimony 
 turned swiftly upon the current wheel of life ; and this 
 is the Stone of Fire seen in bright lines, of equal attrac- 
 tion and repulsion, when made manifest, as it were, an 
 armed magnet included and circulating in a perpetual 
 
 ' Tract. Aur. cap. iii. 
 
 zt 
 
150 More Esoteric View. 
 
 heaven.^ Know now, therefore, and consider, says 
 Basil Valentine, that this true tincture of Antimony, 
 which is the medicine of men and metals, is not made 
 of crude melted antimony, such as the apothe- 
 caries and merchants sell, but is extracted from the 
 t)ae mineral, as it is taken from the mountains ; and 
 how that extraction should be made, is a principal se- 
 cret in which the whole art of Alchemy consists. 
 Health, riches, and honour attend him who rightly 
 attains it. — Lapis noster inter duos monticulos nascitur; 
 in te et in me et in nostri similibus latet.^ And when 
 the mechanical part of the Three Principles passes into 
 the hands of its proper manufacturers equally and 
 generally in all countries, concludes Bohme, then 
 will the school of adepts come out from its captivity, 
 and will find their proper level as true physicians for 
 the body and soul, dispensing the leaves of life for the 
 healing of the nations. But now the Seal of God 
 lieth before it, to conceal the true ground, unless a 
 man knew for certain that it would not be misused ; 
 for there is no power to obtain it, no art or skill 
 availeth, unless one intrust another with somewhat (as 
 Hermes and Arnold bear witness) ; yet the Work is 
 easy and simple, but the Wisdom therein is great and 
 the greatest mystery.^ 
 
 ' Aurum ex se virtutein magiieticam habet, quae cor huraanum 
 fulgore splendente tincturiu suse traliit, in qua iiatura omnes A'ires 
 Biias impeiidit, reservata tamen artis iudustrisD victoria, ut per 
 graduationem supremain, quam splendori naturali adjungit, in- 
 iiuite earn superare possit, uudc et nomen solis terrestris acqui- 
 sivit. Artista igitur labore suo colorem aureum (in cujus pretioso 
 opere perficiendo natura vires suas omnes impendit) usque ad 
 summuni gradiim ruboris obscuri exaltat, qua augmentatione 
 metalla imperfecta in certa quantitate, ratione gradus naturalis 
 per projectionem tinctura^ hujus artiticialis altiCis asceudunt et 
 colorautur, eo ipso monstrans, quod color iste aureus per naturaui 
 in aurum introductus tautilm via aliqua sit ad rubidinem in qua 
 coniplectio perfectse virtutis ad conservandum et multiplicaudum 
 jacet — Tractatus de Yero Sale, Nuysement, p. 164. 
 
 2 Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, by Kirchringius, English 
 edition, p. 146. M. Dunstaui Tract. Secret, in init. 
 
 2 See Bcihme's Epistles, and early part of tlie Forty Questions, 
 
The True Subject. 151 
 
 The greatest mystery of all is in Existence, and the 
 only mystery ; and as fire and light are one and every- 
 where perceived after the same manner, so is life in 
 ever}'^ particular the same inscrutable Identity through 
 all. Or does a vast and filled creation hang before 
 our eyes, and we think it to be without a founda- 
 tion ? Do we ourselves exist and consciously breathe, 
 denying a mystery ; or rather, admitting this, does any-,^T7v£y 
 doubt that it is discoverable? Does not everything 
 imply a necessary cause, and is not each sustained 
 still living in the same ? and is it not absurd to sup- 
 pose that we are entirely depending on externals, or 
 that being in part self-dependent, we are so far de- 
 pending on nothing? If, therefore, we contain within 
 us a proper principle of being, why should not this, 
 thus proximate, be known ? Behold, says the apostle, 
 He is not far off from every one of us ; for in Him we 
 live, and move, and have ourbeing. — And again, to those 
 forgetful Athenians, — God made man to the end that he 
 should seek the Lord, if haply he might feel after him 
 and find him.^ And is not this a promise worth the 
 certifying, an end worthy to be sought out, to feel and 
 know God? Seek and ye shall find, knock and it 
 shall be opened unto you ; yet it remains hidden still : 
 and that Philalethean Welshman, Vaughan, indeed 
 advises that we give ourselves no trouble about these 
 mysteries, or attempt to dabble in the subtle philo- 
 sophy of Wisdom, until we have a knowledge of the 
 Protochemic Artifice ; for that by means of this, and 
 this only, the true foundation is discoverable, and 
 without it nothing can be intrinsically understood. It 
 were a foolish presumption, he observes, if a lapidary 
 should undertake to state the value or lustre of a 
 jewel that is shut up, before he opens the cabinet ; yet 
 men will presume to judge of invisible celestial things, 
 which are shut up within the closet of matter, and all 
 
 and his Discourse of the Three Principles before referred to, con- 
 taining passages to the same effect. 
 ' Acts xvii. 27, 28. 
 
152 More Esoteric View. 
 
 the while perusing the outside which is the crust of 
 nature. But I advise them to use their hands and not 
 their fancies, and to change their abstractions into ex- 
 tractions ; for verily as long as they lick the shell 
 after their fashion, and pierce not experimentally into 
 the centre of things, they can do no otherwise than 
 they have done ; they cannot know things intrin- 
 sically, but only describe them by their outward effects 
 and motions, which are subject and obvious to every 
 common eye. Let them consider, therefore, that there 
 is in nature a certain Spirit which applies himself to 
 the matter, and actuates in every generation ; that 
 there is also a passive intrinsical principle where he is 
 more immediately resident than in the rest, and by 
 mediation of which he communicates with the more 
 gi'oss material parts. For there is in nature a certain 
 chain or subordinate propinquity of complexions be- 
 tween visibles and invisibles, and this is it by which 
 the superior spiritual essences descend and converse 
 here below with the matter. But, he continues, have 
 a care lest you misconceive me. I speak not in this 
 place of the divine spirit, but 1 speak of a certain 
 . Art by which a Particular Spirit may he united to the 
 ^t^a/^eJ^" Universal; and nature by conse(juence be ^ trtmgiy - ex- 
 / (/ alted and luultiplied} And Agrippa speaks yet more 
 specifically to this point, where, in the third book of 
 his Occult Philosophy, he declares (calling x\puleius 
 also to witness) that by a certain mysterious recreation 
 and appeasing, the human mind, especially that which 
 is simple and pure, may be converted and laid asleep 
 from its present life so utterly as to be brought into 
 its divine nature, and become enlightened with the 
 divine light, and withal receive the virtue of some 
 wonderful effects.^ 
 
 Both these passages are in allusion to the art of 
 Alchemy ; and this, persists Agrippa, is that which I 
 would have you know ; because in us is the Operator 
 of all wonderful effects ; who know how to discern 
 
 ' Auima Magia Abscoudita, pp. 10, 11. 
 - Book iii. cap. slviii. 
 
The True Subject. 153 
 
 and to effect, and that without any sin or offence to 
 God, whatsoever the monstrous mathematicians, the 
 prodigious magicians, the envious alchemists, and be- 
 witching necromancers can do by spirits, in us, I say, 
 is the Operator of miracles. 
 
 Not the bright stars of the skie, nor flames of hell, 
 But the Spirit begetting all doth in us dwell. ^ 
 
 How many earnest and curious books there have 
 been written relative to the powers of magic and trans- 
 formations by spells, talismans, and circumstantial 
 conjurations of all sorts, which, taken according to the 
 letter, are ridiculous without the key. But the re- 
 cords of Alchemy are, above all, calculated to mislead 
 those who have gone abroad thoughtlessly seeking for 
 that perfection which was to be found only by experi- 
 mentally seeking at home within themselves. 
 
 Quid mirum noseere mundum 
 Si possunt homines, quibus est et mundus in ipsis / 
 
 Exemplumque Dei quisquis^est in imagine parva?^ -^y 
 
 Man then, shall we conclude at length, is the true la- 
 boratory of the Hermetic art; his life the subject, the 
 grand distillatory, the thing distilling and the thing dis- 
 tilled, and Self-Knowledge to be at the root of all Al- 
 chemical tradition ? Or, is any one disappointed at such 
 a conclusion, imagining ditficulties, or that the science 
 is impracticable because it is humanly based? — or some 
 may possibly think the pursuit dangerous, or inexpe- 
 dient, or unprofitable, scientific investigation having 
 been so long and successfully carried on in every ad- 
 verse direction ? Behold we invite not the unwilling, 
 nor will these studies be found to reward the sordid 
 seeker after riches or gold only ; such may find better 
 employ and easier emolument from the abundant offer- 
 ing of the precious metal upon earth, nor do we anti- 
 cipate that many will in the present day be attracted 
 to our goal. 
 
 ^ Epistle to Trithemius at the end. 
 ' Manilius Astronomicon, lib. x. 
 
154 More Esoteric View. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding so much scepticism and the 
 slm' which ignorance has cast now for centuries upon 
 every early creed and philosophy, modern discoveries 
 tend evermore to reprove the same ; identifying hght, 
 as the common vital sustenant, to be in motive accord 
 throughout the human circulatory system with the 
 planetary spheres and harmonious dispositions of the 
 occult medium in space ; and as human physiology 
 advances with the other sciences in unison, the notion 
 of our natural con-espondency enlarges, proving things 
 more and more minutely congruous, until at length, 
 the conscious relationship would seem to be almost 
 only wanting to confirm the ancient tradition and 
 lead into its full faith. Yet on no ground with 
 which we are now actually acquainted could it be 
 proved that man is a perfect microcosm, wherein, as 
 it was said, the great world and all its creatures 
 might be summarily discerned: we have no evidence 
 of any such thing ; our affinities with external nature 
 are bounded in sense, and our knowledge of her inte- 
 gral operations is proportionally defective. All that 
 we do know is learned by observation, and w^e should 
 be hardly induced, from anything we are commonly 
 conversant with, to conclude that Self-Knowledge 
 would be a way to the knowledge of the Universal Na- 
 ture, Yet this was taught and believed formerly, not 
 either as if it were an arbitrary conceit, but as a truth 
 understood and proved beyond speculation. 
 
 It may ^c well to observe, however, and lest mis- 
 understanding should at all arise in this respect, that 
 it is not so much with reference to physical particulars, 
 either to the perfection of his bodily constitution, or 
 because he is composed of the four elements, that 
 man was formerly distinguished; for these other animals 
 and vegetables even partake, and often in a superior 
 degree; but it was rather on account of a Divine Reason, 
 an occult principle of Causal Efficience, said to be ori- 
 ginally resident in his life, that man was made to rank 
 so high in the cabalistic scriptures and schools of 
 antique experience. And here we remark the outer 
 
The True Subject. 155 
 
 body, mentioned indeed, yet as amongst the last of 
 things accordant ; nevertheless it is nearly all we are 
 now able to observe ; as, of the rest, the Universal 
 Reason so magnified and its ethereal vehicle, very mea- 
 gre evidence is afforded to the senses or this life. Yet 
 man, say they, is demonstrated to be a compendium 
 of the whole created nature, and was generated to be- 
 come wise and have a dominion over the whole of 
 things ; having within him, besides those faculties 
 whicii he exerts ordinarily and by which he judges and 
 contemplates sensible phenomena, ^^^^fe the germ of a 
 higher faculty or Wisdom, which, when revealed and 
 set alone, all the forms of things and hidden springs 
 of nature become intuitively known and are implied 
 essentially. This Being, moreover, or Faculty of Wis- 
 dom, is reputed so to subsist with reference to nature 
 as her substratal source, that it works magically 
 withal, discovering latent properties as a principle, go- 
 verning and supplying all dependent existence ; and 
 of this they speak magisterially, as if in alliance they 
 had known the Omniscient Nature and, in their own 
 ilhiminated understanding, the structure of the uni- 
 verse. 
 
 Now if it be true that such an experience was ever 
 granted to man on earth, it is now either wholly de- 
 parted or the conditions are estranged. We can but 
 with difficulty imagine, much less are we able to be- 
 lieve, ourselves capable of enjoying that free perspica- 
 city of thought in universal consciousness which is 
 cognizant by «app€n; t with essential being. Man from ^^ux^/Cc^x^ 
 his birth employs sense prior to reflection, and all our 
 knowledge begins in this life with sensible observa- 
 tion ; most persons pass on well contented with such 
 evidence as externals supply, regarding them as the 
 only legitimate, or, indeed, possible objects of know- 
 ledge. But some few there have been in all ages, excep- 
 tions to the multitude, intellects in whom the standard 
 of reality has been too far unfolded to suffer them to 
 yield implicitly to the conclusions of sense. It is not 
 those who have studied the philosophy of the ancients 
 
156 More Esoteric View. 
 
 that have denounced it as chimerical ; our metaphysi- 
 cians, without exception amongst those deserving the 
 appellative, and who aspired after the same convictive 
 truth, have lamented the inadequacy of natural reason, 
 at the same time that they recognised the supremacy 
 of its Law as measuring and determining sensible par- 
 ticulars ; but they have not been able to redeem it 
 from dependency on these ; for every attempt of the 
 unassisted reason terminates negatively, as the Subject 
 Identity slides evermore behind the regardant mind ; 
 it is only able at best, therefore, to maintain a coun- 
 ter ground, whereby to prove the shilling evidence of 
 its own and other earthly phenomena. 
 
 But although satisfaction is thus denied to modern 
 inquiry, and philosophers have disputed about the 
 conditions and difficulty of the Absolute ground, yet 
 are there none found, even in latter times, so pre- 
 sumptuous as to deny the possibility, seeing it thus 
 doubly implied, no less in the testimony of the highest 
 reason than of tradition : and so they ha\ e honoured 
 the ancients afar off either in despair or admiration of 
 their Wisdom, unable themselves to break the enchant- 
 ment which isolates the reflective faculty, and disables 
 it in the inquiry after that Fontal Nature which, by 
 a necessary criterion, it craves. 
 
 For we may observe, that the evidence of reason, 
 even in common life, is irresistible, or, more exactly 
 to speak, intuition is the evidence and end of every 
 rational proof. We believe in the phenomenon of 
 existence spontaneously, but in a power of antecedents 
 to produce their eftects . necessarily ; in the idea of 
 time, eternity is implied; with bound, intinity ; as the 
 unit is included in each dependent of a numerical 
 series, and the mathematics have their evidence in 
 intellectual assent ; nor do we ever question the 
 validity of the Law, w'hich thus abstractedly concludes 
 within us, though our inferences from external facts 
 are for ever varying, and perpetually at fault. 
 
 Locke, discoursing upon the intrinsic superiority of 
 the Intellectual Law in his Es.sai/, observes that Intui- 
 
The True Subject. 157 
 
 tive faith is certain beyond all doubt, and needs no 
 proof beyond itself, nor can have any, this being 
 the highest of all human certainty. And it is this 
 very truth, that a no less eminent French philosopher, 
 Victor Cousin, has successfully employed within these 
 few years, to shake the sensual system of Locke and 
 Condillac to its foundation.^ And this subsistence of 
 Universals in the human mind deserves to be pro- 
 foundly considered by all who are interested in the 
 pursuit of truth ; for it includes a promise far beyond 
 itself and stable proof of another subsistence however 
 consciously unknown. Thus, if ordinary conviction is 
 not attained but by an assurance of reason to itself, and 
 if, in the discovery of and assent to universal proposi- 
 tions, there is no use of the discursive faculty or of exter- 
 nal facts to witness ; if, in short, we really know any- 
 thing of self-evident intellectual necessity, independent 
 of sensible persuasion, then does it not follow, there 
 is a higher evidence of truth than the senses afford, 
 and a superstantial nature of things implied which, 
 though now latent and succeeding in order of time, is 
 first in thought absolutely, and in the circular pro- 
 gression of nature may be so practically manifested at 
 last ? Aristotle compares the subsistence of Universals 
 in the natural understanding to colours, since these 
 require the splendour of the sun to discover their 
 beauty, as do those the inspiring afflux of their fontal 
 illumination : therefore, too, he denominates human 
 reason, intellect in capacity, both on account of its 
 subordination to essential intellect, and because it is 
 from a new awakening, a divine recreation, as it were, 
 that it conceives the full perfection of a life in ac- 
 cordance with its own intelligible beauty, goodness, 
 and truth. 
 
 Thus strictly regarding the Intellectual Law, as it 
 proves and orders inquiry in common life, we have an 
 image, as it were, an embryo conception of that Ar- 
 chetypal AVisdom which the ancients celebrated as 
 
 1 Elements rle Psycologie, &c. Paris, 1836. 
 
158 More Esoteric View. 
 
 the occult essence of that Law. And here we remark 
 the grand divergence between modern and ancient 
 metaphysics : that same Law wdiich the former recog- 
 nises but as an abstract boundary of thought only, 
 having its object in sensibles, the latter proclaims 
 absolutely to be the cathohc subject of the great 
 efficient force of nature, as known also, and proved in 
 the human conscience, when this is purified and passed 
 back into contacting experience with its source. And 
 this was Wisdom, Intellect, Divinization ; and the true 
 man, according to Plato and the Aristotelians, is this 
 Intellect ; for the essence of everything is the summit 
 of its nature. And as man is the summit of this 
 sublunary creation, and reason is the highest faculty 
 with wdiich he is here endow^ed, should not this pro- 
 bably be the next in progress to make manifest the 
 alleged divinity of his first source ? 
 
 Lest doubt should still lurk, however, about such a 
 Divinity, and whether the notion is rightly conceived 
 according to the teaching of the best philosophers, 
 it may be well to bring them forward here, speaking 
 for themselves. 
 
 Thus Aristotle, for first example, since he will not 
 be rated altogether as an enthusiast, in the beginning 
 of his A/etup/ii/sics, declares Wisdom to be the highest 
 science ; adding that a wise man possesses a science of 
 all things in intellect ; not indeed derived from sen- 
 sible particulars, but according to that which is univer- 
 sal and absolute in himself^ In the Nichomachcan 
 Ethics, too, after showing Intellect to be that power of 
 the soul by wdiich we know and prove things demon- 
 stratively, he further distinguishes Wisdom as the true 
 being of that Intellect; the science and intellection 
 of things most honourable by nature ; that though 
 this part is small in bulk, yet it abounds in energy, 
 and as much exceeds the composite nature of man in 
 power as in this energy, which is the most delectable 
 of all energies.'^ And throughout the Metaphysics, 
 
 ^ Metaphysics, book i. cap. ii. 
 ^ Ethics, book x. cap. vii. 
 
The True Subject. 159 
 
 but more especially in the Twelfth Book, he demon- 
 strates the necessary subsistence of incorporeal (/. e. 
 essential) being, and its efficacy in operation when, 
 by the help of certain mystical exercises and prepara- 
 tions, the human Understanding Medium is made 
 to pass into contact with its Antecedent Cause ; that 
 then it becomes to be a life in energy, and enjoys the 
 most exalted and excellent faculty of discernment, 
 which was before occult, and the knowledge of which 
 is inexpressibly blessed, and not to be conceived of by 
 such as are not duly initiated and capable of this deifi- 
 cation. — True Intellect, he says, is that which is 
 essentially the most essential of that which is most 
 essential ; and it becomes intelligible by contact and 
 intellection ; and that Intellect is the same with the 
 intelligible, the understanding recipient of the intel- 
 ligible essence.^ Which essence, too, is Wisdom, and 
 the faculty we are discussing. But Plato yet more 
 plainly declares that to know oneself is Wisdom and 
 the highest virtue of the soul : for the soul rightly 
 entering into herself will behold all other things, and 
 Deity itself; as verging to her own union and to 
 the centre of all life, lajdng aside multitude and the 
 variety of all manifold powers which she contains, she 
 ascends to the highest watch-tower of beings.^ Ac- 
 cording to Socrates, also, in the Republic, we read 
 that Wisdom is generative of truth and intellect ; and 
 in the Thecetetus Wisdom is defined to be that which 
 gives perfection to things imperfect, and calls forth 
 the latent Intellections of the soul — and again, by 
 Diotima, in the Banquet, that mind which is become 
 w^ise needs not to investigate any further (since it 
 possesses the true InteUigible) ; that is to say, the 
 proper object of intellectual inquiry in itself; and 
 hence the doctrine of Wisdom according to Plato may 
 be sufficiently obvious. 
 
 But Wisdom, says the Pythagorean Archytas, as 
 
 ^ Metaphysics, book xii. chap. vii. 
 
 - See the First Alcibiades, page 90; aud Prochis on the 
 Theology of Plato, lib. i. cap. iii. p. 7. Taylor. 
 
160 More Esoteric View. 
 
 much excels all the other faculties as sight does the 
 other corporeal senses, or the sun the stars : and man 
 was constituted to the end that he might contemplate 
 the Reason of the whole nature, in order that, being 
 himself the work of Wisdom, he might surv^ey the 
 Wisdom of the things, which exist Wisdom is not 
 conversant with a certain definite existing thing but 
 simply with all things ; and so subsists with reference 
 to all that it is the province of it to know and con- 
 template the universal accidents of things and discover 
 the Principles of all Being. Whoever therefore is able 
 to analyze all the genera which are contained under 
 one and the same principle and again to compose 
 and connumerate them, he appears to be wise and 
 to possess the most perfect veracity. Further still 
 he will have discovered a beautiful place of survey, 
 from which it will be possible to behold Divinity and 
 all things that are in co-ordination with and successive 
 to Him, subsisting separately and distinct from each 
 other. Having likewise entered this most ample road, 
 being impelled in a right direction by Intellect, and 
 having arrived at the end of his course, he iv'iU have 
 coujoined ends with beg'inu'uigs , and will know that 
 God who is the principle, middle, and end of all things 
 which are accomplished according to justice and right 
 reason.^ 
 
 Here again we have a faculty discussed which is far 
 above ordinary reason, since this verges to sensibles 
 and is dependent on them ; but Wisdom implies the 
 whole of life, being returned into its principle, and 
 coming into the consciousness of a vision at once 
 powerful and sublime. Thus Crito, of the same school : 
 God so fashioned man as to comprehend the Good 
 according to right reason, and gave him a sight called 
 Intellect, which is capable of beholding God. For it 
 is not possible without God to discern that' which is 
 best or most beautiful ; nor without Intellect to see 
 
 ^ See the Fragment given by Taylor in liis ^aniblicu.s' Life of 
 Pvlliagoras. 
 
The True Subject. 161 
 
 God. And every mortal nature is established {in this 
 life) with a kindred privation of Intellect ; this how- 
 ever is not deprived by God but by the essence of gene- 
 ration} 
 
 The term Intellect, as it is here taken in its highest 
 sense, is synonymous with Wisdom, and bears the same 
 relation to our Intellectual Law as does this to the 
 reasoning faculty, being the self-evident antecedent 
 and end of its inquiry, which, according to these phi- 
 losophers, is God. Pythagoras himself defined Wisdom 
 as the science of truth which is in all beings ;^ and 
 y/amblicus in his life of this Samian, speaking of Wis- 
 dom, says that it is truly a science which is convers- 
 ant with the first and most beautiful objects (i. e., the 
 Divine Exemplars), and these undecaying, possessing 
 invariable sameness of subsistence; by the participation 
 of which other things also may be called beautiful.'' 
 Proclus, Porphyry, the graceful Plotinus, and othei's 
 of the Neoplatonists, too numerous to mention, dilate 
 on the same asserted ground ; and there is, according 
 to all these philosophers, a Principle of Universal Science 
 latent in human life, real and efficacious^ though cog- 
 nizable only under certain conditions which they spe- 
 cify, and wherein reason becomes alone into the sub- 
 stantive experience of her Law. 
 
 This is that which the Egyptians, industrious search- 
 ers of Nature, proclaimed upon their temples' front, 
 that Man should know himself: and this advice was 
 meant experimentally and ontologically, though mo- 
 dern fancy has slighted it and taken every Ethnic fable 
 and m}i:hology in a profane sense. And here we are 
 reminded of a difficulty in endeavouring to make these 
 positions respecting the nature of true Being obvious 
 and of drawing them into a form related to sensible 
 intelligence. Every science is difficult to treat of to 
 the uninitiated mind, and this kind of speculation 
 
 1 See the Fragment in Jamblicus' Life of Pythagoras, by Taylor, _jU 
 page 248. 
 
 2 Idem, chap. xxix. 
 •'' Idem, chap. ii. 
 
 M 
 
162 More Esoteric View. 
 
 more particularly is irrelevant to many and naturally 
 abstruse. Those to whom nature has granted such a 
 ray of experience in the inner life as would otherwise 
 appear favourable to a more profound investigation, 
 are often indifferent to the rational ground, and remain 
 accordingly satisfied in the dreams and deluding visions 
 of an included imagination ; others more awakened to 
 reason on the other hand, but in whom the spirit of 
 inquiry is wholly drawn to externals, disregard as vain 
 every proposition that does not immediately address 
 the senses or pander to some apparent individual in- 
 terest ; even the most reflective and educated class 
 have rare inducements in these days, or permission of 
 leisure sufficient to prosecute studies of an abstract 
 nature. But we have adverted to the independent 
 evidence of Universals in the human intellect by way 
 of introduction chiefly, not on their own account ab- 
 stractly considered, or so much because the ancients 
 rested their proofs of internal science thereon ; ])ut 
 because, having once derived a rational ground of pos- 
 sibility, we may be better enabled to proceed with the 
 tradition of the Hermetic mystery and more tangible 
 effects. , 
 
 jy The doctrine of the Hebrew ^abalists is one of 
 
 absolute Idealism; the whole world was before their 
 eyes as an efflux of Mind, an emanation of the great 
 superstantial Law of Light ; and that sublime Com- 
 mentary the Liber Zohar, beams with the revelation of 
 the celestial prototype in humanity ; and kindling 
 into reminiscence the fire which burns covertly 
 throughout Holy Writ, addresses the Pentateuch to 
 the understanding of mankind. 
 
 These Rabbis explain that in pursuance of a certain 
 arcane (though not wholly inexplicable) necessity, crea- 
 tion falls away always for the sake of individual mani- 
 festation, from the consciousness of its primal source ; 
 that the principle of re-union nevertheless abides in the 
 generated life of individuals and will in process of time 
 operate to a restitution and higher perfection than 
 could have been accomplished if such a fall into this 
 
The True Subject. 163 
 
 existence had not taken place. Treating of and inter- 
 preting as divine symbols, the relations of the Old 
 Testament, they dignity vastly the view of the whole 
 scheme ; and placing reason over the head of authority, 
 and inciting man to self- inquiry as the foundation and 
 comprehending identity of every other, they unite in 
 one beautiful system the Religion of Intellect with the 
 Philosophy of Life. 
 
 But it is above all by the supreme position which 
 ^ they assign to man in the scale of creation that these 
 /v )^abalists arrest attention. The Form of man, says 
 the Rabbi Ben Jochai, contains all that is in heaven 
 and earth — no form, no world, could exist before the 
 human prototype ; for all things subsist by and in it : 
 without it there would be no world, and in this sense we 
 are to understand these words. The FAeruat has founded 
 the earth upon his wisdom. But we must distinguish 
 the true man from him who is here apparent, for the 
 one could not exist without the other ; on that form 
 in man, which is the Celestial Prototype, rests the 
 perfection of faith in all things, and it is in this re- 
 spect that man is said to be the image of God.^ For 
 there is a wide difference between the idols of the hu- 
 man imagination and the ideas of the divine mind, 
 between man as he is here known, the individualized 
 multiplication of a blind will, and that Motive Reason 
 which is his life. And all this would appear less ex- 
 travagant, perhaps, and impractical, if, instead of 
 measuring the surfaces of things, we were to consider 
 principles ; if, instead of separating our shrunken un- 
 derstanding to contemplate and compare with the 
 structure of this vast universe, we were to reflect con- 
 trariwise upon that wonderful existence which we share 
 in common with all and which is at the basis of every 
 specifical living thing. For there is no reason why 
 man, in that he exists and contains, therefore, within 
 himself the total Cause of existence, should not, if 
 the revelation only were allowed, perceive and under- 
 stand all, in that all-continental All which is in him- 
 
 ^ Zohar, part i. fol. 191, recto ; part iii. 114, recto. 
 M 2 
 
164 More Esoteric View. 
 
 self. There is a freedom, and explanatory breadth 
 too, in these writers that does not bear the impress of 
 mere fancy, with a solemn earnestness of style that 
 breathes only from conviction. That we cannot easily 
 apprehend the magnitude of their doctrine is no proof 
 that it is untrue ; common sense is no criterion in 
 such a case and its objections fail before the inference 
 of reason and supporting experience. 
 
 God dwells, says the Jew Philo, in the rational 
 part of man as in a palace ; the palace and temple of 
 the great self-existent Deity is the intellectual portion 
 of a man of Wisdom ; the Deity could never find 
 upon earth a more excellent temple than the rational 
 part of man.^ And again, — the Logos, by whom the 
 world was fi-amed, is the seal after the impression of 
 which everything is made and is rendered the simili- 
 tude and image of the perfect Word of God ; and the 
 soul of man is an impression of this seal of which the 
 prototype and original characteristic is the everlasting 
 Locros.^ And what is Wisdom according to the ancient 
 Hermes ? Even the good, the fair, and the blessed 
 Eternity ; look upon all things through it, and the 
 world is subject to thy sight. For this Mind in men 
 is God, and, therefore, are some men said to be divine, 
 for there humanity is annexed to divinity ;'^ when it is 
 moved into the catholic Intuition of its Source. 
 
 Such then was Wisdom, and that high Intelligible 
 which it behoves man to search after, the one theme 
 and bulwark of ancient science, which no historical 
 teaching or observance of the accidents of nature 
 could realise or improve — namely, the standard of 
 truth in a rectified intellect. And philosophy was a 
 desire of this kind, an appetition of reason for its an- 
 tecedent light ; and if we may believe these sublime 
 enthusiasts, Intellect does not extend herself towards 
 
 J De Pra>miis et Pcenis, vol. ii. p. 428, 1. 10, 12. De Nobilitato, 
 p. 437. 
 
 2 De Profugi.s, vol. i. p. 510, 1. 49. Dc Plantationc Noe, p. 
 332, 1. 31. 
 
 ^ See The Divine Pimamler. 
 
The True Subject. 165 
 
 the intelligible Cause in vain. Quotation were end- 
 less, and enough may recur to the memory of those 
 who do not yet despair of philosophy, or limit their 
 faith to the slow evidence of the senses and double 
 ignorance of these days. 
 
 Or, if any one should further doubt of this Wis- 
 dom, seeing she did not reveal herself in common 
 arts and sciences of more recent human invention, and 
 regard the whole as an abstract creature of the imagi- 
 nation, he will err from the ancient tradition, which 
 makes Wisdom, however far removed from sensibles, 
 to be no inessential thing; but an affirmative opera- 
 tive hypostasis, informing, invigorating, and sustain- 
 ing all things ; in the words of the Stagyrite before 
 cited, — It is essentially, the most essential of that which 
 is most essential. — But Solomon, better than all and 
 most beautifully in his panegyric, describes her : Wis- 
 dom, says the wise king, is more moving than any 
 motion, she passeth through all things by reason of 
 her pureness. For she is the breath of the power of 
 God, and a pure influence flowing from the glory of 
 the Almighty ; therefore, can no defiled thing fall into 
 her ; for she is the brightness of the everlasting hght, 
 the unspotted mirror of the powder of God, and the 
 image of his goodness. And, being but One, she can 
 do all things, and, remaining in herself, she maketh 
 all things new ; and in all ages entering into holy 
 souls, she maketh them friends of God and prophets, 
 for God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wis- 
 dom; for she is more beautiful than the sun and above 
 all the order of the stars ; being compared with the 
 light, she is found before it, for after this cometh 
 night ; but vice shall not prevail against Wisdom ; and 
 if riches be a possession to be desired in this life, what 
 is richer than Wisdom which worketh all things ? for 
 she is privy to the mysteries of the knowledge of God 
 and a lover of His works. ^ 
 
 Assuredly, then, is it not our duty and best interest 
 
 ^ Wisdom of Solomon, cliap. vii. 
 
166 More Esoteric View. 
 
 to learn the way, and seek to know every condition of 
 this proffered alliance, since we are not destitute either 
 of rational ground or precedent, nor is this the only 
 place in Scripture where we have a promise with Wis- 
 dom of more substantial fruits? But as w^e observe 
 the outer man to be unbelieving by nature and unpro- 
 mising for much discoveiy, with his senses and servile 
 intellect all dark within, we leave him here to work 
 with his own instruments on his own ground ; there 
 to calcine, weigh, and measure circumferences, from 
 the first to the last round of material possibility ; per- 
 chance then, when all has been tried and found want- 
 ing to his reason, extremes coalescing, we may meet 
 again. 
 
 Meanwhile we, who look directly onward to pene- 
 trate this mystery, seek not at random any longer in 
 the outer world where so many before have foundered, 
 albeit extracting their life's blood, and calling the 
 mumial vapour and every element to their aid ; but we 
 look within, or rather, that we may learn how to do so, 
 inquire of the wise ancients to direct us about the true 
 method and conditions of Self- Knowledge. For it is 
 this, no common trance or day-dream, or any fanati- 
 cal vision of celestials, that we propose to scruti- 
 nize ; but true psychical experience, cathohc, even as 
 the basis of that Law by which we reason, feel, and are 
 one, uniformly living and alike all. 
 
 It is into the substantiality of this and for its 
 practical evolution that we must inquire, if w^e 
 would discover the true Light of Alchemy ; and 
 the Alchemists, as we have seen, propose such a 
 reducation of nature as shall discover this Latex 
 without destroying her vehicle, but the modal life 
 only ; and profess that this has not alone been 
 proved possible, but that man, by rationally condi- 
 tionating, has succeeded in developing into action the 
 Recreative Force. But the w^ay they do not so clearly 
 shew, or where nature may be addressed in order to 
 the rejection of her superfluous forms ; what was their 
 immediate efficient ? whence and whereon did they 
 
The True Subject. 167 
 
 direct their fire ? These things, with the laboratory, 
 its vessels and various apparatus, they have disguised, 
 as we have already shown, and as a natural conse- 
 quence, by an incurious world have been misappre- 
 hended and despised. For as Geber, with his usual 
 point, observes, men have thought the confection of 
 gold impossible, because they have not known the ar- 
 tificial destruction according to the course of nature ; 
 they have proved it to be of a strong composition, but 
 of how strong a composition they have not proven. 
 
 And all this because they knew not the verity 
 Of altitude, latitude, and of profundity.^ 
 
 For how should they, who have never glanced even 
 in imagination towards the Causal Truth, believe in any 
 other than remote effects ? The well out of which she 
 is drawn is deep, and not therefore to be fathomed by 
 the plummet of a shallow reason ; he must ascend in 
 thought who would, descending, hope to penetrate so 
 far as to the superstantial experience of things. For 
 there it is yet hidden, the true light shut up as in a 
 prison, the fountain of Universal Nature separated off 
 from human understanding by the external attraction 
 of it through the gates of sense. 
 
 When the soul is situated in the body, says the 
 philosopher, she departs from self-contemplation, and 
 speaks of the concerns of an external life ; but, be- 
 coming purified from body, will recollect all those 
 things, the remembrance of which she loses in the 
 present hfe;^ and Plutarch, who was well initiated in 
 these mysteries, says, the souls of men are not able 
 to participate of the Divine nature whilst they are 
 thus encompassed about with senses and passions, any 
 further than by obscure gUmmerings, and as it were, 
 in comparison, a confused dream. But when they are 
 freed from these impediments and removed into purer 
 regions, which are neither discernible by the corporeal 
 
 ^ Invest, of Perf. cap. iii. Eussel's Geber. Bloomfield's Camp 
 of Philosophy, v. 27. 
 
 - Plotinus' Select "Works ; Taylor, page 387, &c. 
 
168 More Esoteric View. 
 
 senses nor liable to accidents of any kind, it is then 
 that God becomes their leader — upon Him they 
 wholly depend, beholding without satiety, and still ar- 
 dently longing after that beauty which it is impossible 
 for man sufficiently to express or think — that beauty 
 which, according to the old mythology, Isis has so 
 great an affection for, and which she is constantly in 
 pursuit of, and from whose enjoyment every variety of 
 good things with which the universe is filled, is re- 
 plenished, and propagated.^ And again, in the open- 
 ing of the same admirable Treatise, he observes, that 
 to desire and covet after the Truth is to aspire to be 
 a partaker of the Divine Nature itself; and to profess 
 that all our studies and inquiries are devoted to the 
 acquisition of holiness ; the end of which, as of all 
 ceremonial rites and disciplines, was that the aspirant 
 might be prepared and fitted for the attainment of the 
 knowledge of the Supreme Mind, whom the goddess 
 exhorts them to search after. For this Reason is her 
 temple wherein the Eternal Self-exislent dwells, and 
 may there hejinally approached, but with due solemnity, 
 and sanctity of life. 
 
 But Psellus, in his luminous commentary on the 
 Chaldaic Oracles, further declares that there is no 
 other means of strengthening the vehicle of the soul 
 but by Material Rites ; and Plato, in the first Alcibiades, 
 calls the magic of Zoroaster the service of the gods ; 
 and the use of this magic, in the words of the above 
 Psellus, is as follows : — To initiate or perfect the hu- 
 man soul by the power of materials here on earth ; for 
 the supreme faculty of the soul cannot by its oiun guid- 
 ance aspire to the sublimest institution, and to the com- 
 prehension of Divinity : but the work of Piety leads it 
 by the liand to God, by illumination from thence. 
 
 Synesius, likewise, in his 'J)'ealise on Providence, 
 bears witness to the efficacy of Divine Works ; and the 
 Emperor Julian, in those arguments of his preserved 
 by Cyril, shows that without such assistance the Di- 
 
 ' De Iside et Osiride. 
 
The True Subject. 169 
 
 vine union is neither effected nor rightly understood : 
 and all the accounts we read of the Eleusinian Mys- 
 teries, in addition to the witness of these philosophers, 
 confirms that Wisdom was the offspring of a vital ex- 
 periment into nature, by certain arts and media pro- 
 ducing the central efficient into conscious being and 
 effect. If you investigate rightly, says Archytas, dis- 
 covery will be easy to you ; but if you do not know 
 hoiv to investigate, discovery will be impossible. 
 
 It is the more to be regretted and wondered at, on 
 account of the importance attached to this discovery, 
 that the Initiated were so profoundly silent upon these 
 means ; since mankind in general would seem to have 
 been precisely in this predicament, they have not 
 knoan how to investigate ; and were it not for these 
 scattered innuendoes and acknowledgments of an Art, 
 we might well continue in ignorance to despair of their 
 hidden ground : at all events, seeing how far we fall 
 short of the perception in this life ; either believing, we 
 might regard the ancients as beings superiorly en- 
 dowed ; or otherwise disbelieving, deny, as many have 
 done, the validity of their assertions. Yet as the case 
 now stands involved in mystery, will it not be unjust 
 to do either ? For, being ignorant of the method, how 
 should we presume to test the truth of this philoso- 
 phy? Equally, also, will it not be incurious to yield 
 an implicit faith? Let us inquire now, therefore, if 
 fortunately a ray of light be left to guide us, whether 
 it be possible to approach to a recollection of this an- 
 cient experiment, that we may become better judges 
 of its merits ; and lest gaining nothing by a tacit as- 
 sent, and pro\dng nothing by mere scepticism, we 
 should deny something, and bolt ourselves continu- 
 ously out from the sanctuary of truth in nature. 
 
 And here we would engage the reader's attention 
 for a brief interval, (weighing well the substance of 
 philosophical assertion against modern pride and our 
 growing indifference,) to consider the ground of this 
 Hermetic mystery, and whether there be still an en- 
 trance open, as there was once said to be, to the shut 
 
170 More Esoteric View. 
 
 palaces of Mind. Let us descend into ourselves, and 
 believe in ourselves if we be able, that that which we 
 are is worthy our investigation ; and we may discover, 
 as we proceed, by their traditional light unfolding it, 
 that the Wisdom of the ancients was not the outward, 
 adventitious acquisition or vain display which it has 
 been supposed to be, but a very real, substantial, and 
 attainable good. 
 
 A spontaneous revelation of truth, if it was ever 
 indeed enjoyed at all without experimental research, 
 after the Hebrews ceased ; nor was it longer possible 
 for all, nor at every time, to partake the Divine com- 
 munion. This, therefore, as the Platonic Successor 
 remarks, our philanthropic lord and father, Jupiter, 
 understanding, that we might not be deprived of all 
 communication with the gods, has given us observa- 
 tion through Sacred Arts, by which we have at Hand 
 sufficient assistance.^ 
 
 Here, then, we take up our clue to w^eave onward 
 as we proceed, unraveUing the Mysteries by their 
 traditional light. The objects encountering this re- 
 search may, as we before said, be appaUing to some, 
 nugatory to others, and, at first view, too opposed 
 we fear to the opinions of all ; but if, by chance, a less 
 oblivious soul or intellect, more allied than ordinary 
 to antecedent realities, should find familiar scenes re- 
 cur, thriUing into reminiscence, as of some long past 
 life forgotten ; let such a one believe, and his faith will 
 not betray him, the road w^hereon we are journeying is 
 towards his Native Land. 
 
 ^ See /amblicus on the Mysteries ; Taylor's Notes at the end, 
 page 347 ; the Greek extract from Julian's Arguments. 
 
The Mysteries. 171 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Of the Mysteries. 
 
 The patli by wliich to Deity we climb 
 
 Is arduous, rough, ineffable, sublime ; 
 
 And the strong massy gates thro' which we pass, 
 
 In our first course, are bound with chains of brass ; 
 
 Those men, the first who of Egyptian birth, 
 
 Drank the fair water of Nilotic earth, 
 
 Disclosed by actions infinite this road, 
 
 And many paths to God Phoenicians showed ; 
 
 This road the Assyrians pointed out to view, 
 
 And this the Lydians and Chaldeans knew. 
 
 Oracle of Apollo, from Eusehius. 
 
 WE have shown in our history that the Greeks were 
 not ignorant of the Hermetic Art, which they 
 borrowed with their metaphysics (so far indeed as 
 such things may be borrowed which pertain to reason) 
 from the Egyptians and Persians, whose temples were 
 visited by nearly every philosopher of note. 
 
 Now the Egyptian, that is the Hermetic Art, or Art 
 of Divine works, was by the Greeks called Theurgy ; 
 and was extensively practised at Eleusis, and more or , / 
 
 less m allihg temples of their Gods. On no subject /^v' CrL^^^iA. 
 has more difference of opinion arisen amongst the 
 learned : the high veneration in which the Mysteries 
 were held, the intellectual enthusiasm with which the 
 Alexandrians speak of them, the philosophic explana- 
 tions given in detail by Jamblicus and others, concern- 
 ing the motive and divine nature of the initiatory rites 
 and the spectacles they procured, have puzzled many 
 inquirers who, unable in latter times to account ra- 
 tionally, have disposed of the greater part as a pan- 
 tomymic show, sanctified by priestly artifice and ex- 
 aggerated by a wild imagination, natural as it has been 
 supposed to those Ethnic souls. But then the Fathers 
 
I ytoL- 
 
 iJLj- 
 
 172 More Esoteric View. 
 
 of our Church, what frenzy should have possessed 
 them, that St. Augustin, Cyrillus, Synesius and the 
 rest, should imitate their follies, transferring the very 
 language, disciplines, and rites of those " odious mys- 
 teries," to their own ceremonial worship as Christians, 
 and that Clemens Alexandrinus should call them 
 "blessed?" This has seemed extraordinary, and the 
 authorities have been quoted and requoted and turned 
 in many various ways by modern writers, each to the 
 support of his own peculiar view or modification, often, 
 as may be imagined, at variance with the original sense 
 in context. 
 
 Warburton's bias is negative and singularly mislead- 
 ing ; he regarded the whole scheme of the Mysteries 
 as a political fraud, came to the conclusion that the 
 gods were dead men deified, and that the greater mys- 
 teries were instituted solely with a view to nullify the 
 lesser.^ But, as is natural, he who so shamelessly 
 charged others with a base expediency, quickly ceased 
 to be respected as an authority himself, and his notions 
 are accordingly quite obsolete. Sainte Croix, whose 
 researches are otherwise the most complete, sets all in 
 an astronomical and eminently superficial aspect.^ 
 e-^-vey Gebelin and La Planche see all with vacant agricul- 
 tural eyes;^ whilst the author of" Antiquity Unv^eiled," 
 notwithstanding so much learning to his aid, has found 
 out only the foolishness of the ancients, and thinks 
 that the mysteries should be regarded as a depository 
 of the religious melancholy of the first men.^ Every 
 trifling interpretation in short has been given, and 
 everything imputed to the Mysteries except a discovery 
 of the Wisdom which they professed. For although 
 some with superior mind^, as Thomas Taylor for ex- 
 ample, have examined philosophically ; yet from lack 
 of evidence, and being without a guide from anything 
 analogous in modern times, "^ too dispose^ of them as 
 
 ^ See the Divine Legation, vol. i. 
 
 2 Sainte Croix des Myst^-res, 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
 3 Gebelin, Monde Primitif. La rianchc des Cieux. 
 '* L'Antiquite devoilee par ses Usages, &c. 
 
 ^ 
 
The Mysteries. 173 
 
 immaterial ceremonies, representations at best of ab- 
 stract philosophic truths.^ a^ 
 
 Now this and all such, like- the foregoing opinions, <^4 
 
 are discordant to our apprehension, and injurious to 
 the spirit of Antiquity, which not alone upholds philo- 
 sophy, that is to say, Ontological Wisdom, as the true 
 object of initiation, but represents the rites themselves 
 as really efficacious to procure it. As the Platonists 
 and Psellus, before cited to the point, distinctly declare, 
 and Cicero, "fett they were truly called hdtia, for they ^ 
 were the beginning of a life of reason and virtue ; 
 whence men not only derived a better subsistence here, 
 as being drawn fi'om an irrational and brutal life, bat 
 were led on to hope and aspire for a more blessed im- 
 mortality hereafter.^ 
 
 Nor did the ancients promise this indiscriminately, 
 but to those who were initiated in the Greater Mys- 
 teries only, as the Pythagoreans and Plato in Pluedo 
 assert that by such means an assimilation was in- 
 duced, and final contact w^ith the object of rational 
 inquiry, which is that identity whence, as a principle, — 
 
 we make our first descent. But y^ambHcus more par- _/^ 
 ticularly explains that it was by arts divinely potent, 
 and not by theoretic contemplation only or by mere 
 doctrinal faith or representations either of reality ; but 
 by certain ineffable and sublime media that Theurgists 
 became cognizant partakers in the Wisdom of true q 
 Being. ^ Jmik Heraclitus calls these uKet, medicines, as ^ 
 being the help and remedy of imperfect souls ; they 
 possessed a power of healing the body likewise, which 
 was extensively practised in the temples of Esculapius 
 with various minor physico-magical arts. But phi- 
 losophy, according to Strabo, was the object of the 
 Eleusinian rites, and without the initiations of Bacchus 
 and Ceres, he considers the most important branch of 
 human knowledge would never have been attained. 
 Servius, commenting on Virgil, observes that the sacred 
 
 ^ Dissertation on the Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries. 
 -^ ^ De Legibus, lib. ii. cap. xiv. 
 
 / -^ /^amblicns on the Mysteries ; Taylor, p. 109. 
 
U/ 
 
 174 More Esoteric View. 
 
 rites of Bacchus pertained to the purification of souls. 
 Liberi patris sacra ad purgationem aniniarum per- 
 tinebant ; and again, Anim-ae acre ventilantur, quod erat 
 in sacris Liberi purgationis genus. — The Greeks con- 
 ceived that the welfare of the states was moreover 
 secured by these celebrations, and the records refer to 
 them as bestowing that of which human nature stands 
 principally in need, viz., moral enlightenment and pu- 
 riti cation of life ; without the revelation and support 
 afforded by them, indeed, existence was esteemed no 
 better than a hving death ; the tragedians echoing the 
 sense of the people made the chief felicity to consist 
 therein, as Euripides, by Hercules says, — I was blessed 
 when I got a sight of the mysteries ; — and in Bacchis, 
 O blessed and happy he who knowing the mysteries 
 of the gods, sanctifies his life, celebrating orgies in the 
 mountains with holy purifications. And Sophocles, to 
 the same purport, — Life only is to be had there, all other 
 places are full of misery and evil.^ 1^ ^le doctrine 
 of the Greater Mysteries, says Clemens Alexandrinus, 
 related to the whole universe ; here all instruction 
 ended ; nature and all things she contains were un- 
 veiled ; — O mysteries truly sacred, O pure light ! at 
 the light of torches the veil that covers deity and 
 heaven falls off. I am holy now that I am initiated ; 
 it is the Lord himself who is the hierophanta ; he sets 
 his seal upon the adept whom he illuminates with his 
 beams; and whom, as a recompense for his faith, he 
 will recommend to the eternal love of the Father. 
 These are the orgies of the Mysteries, concludes the 
 bishop, in pious transport, come ye and be initiated. 
 But the usage of the church was not to discover its 
 mysteries to the profane, especially those that relate to 
 the final apotheosis. It is even unwilling to speak of 
 them to the Catechumens, says St. Cyrillus, except in 
 obscure terms, in such a manner, however, as that the 
 faithful who are initiated may comprehend, and the 
 
 ^ See Praetextus, Hist. Nov. lib. iv. Divine Legation, vol. i. p. 
 198. De Septchenes, chap. ii. p. 174, &c. 
 
"7 
 
 The Mysteries. 175 
 
 rest be discouraged. For by these enigmas the Dagon 
 is overthrown.^ 
 
 There was undoubtedly a secret hanging about these 
 celebrations, both Ethnic and Christian, which no 
 record has divulged or common sense literally suc- 
 ceeded to explain away ; the belief in providence and 
 a future state were freely promulgated, and ordinary ^ - ^ . 
 ^o»^ worship apart, with whk A these mysteries^ ought not ttJt.^ccrK'.c/x 
 by any means to be confounded ; since that might ^ 
 
 indeed be perpetuated anywhere, and has been with- 
 out essentially changing the estate of life. 
 
 Previous, however, to more fully entering, we are 
 desirous to observe that a few writers on Animal 
 Magnetism, having within these few years become 
 enlightened by that singular discovery, suggest their 
 Trance and its phenomena as a revelation of the temple 
 mysteries and various rehgious rites. But no one, 
 that we are aware, has developed his suggestion or 
 carried the idea sufficiently above the therapeutic 
 sphere ; they appear to have taken a broad view, with- 
 out particular inquiry into the nature of their rites 
 from the ancients themselves. Had they done this, 
 (we speak of the more advanced minds,) we are per- 
 suaded that with that key in hand, their attention 
 would have been drawn in new directions, and their 
 satisfaction about the modern use of it become much 
 modified by observing the far superior results which, 
 through their Theurgic disciplines, the ancients aspired 
 after, different too, as they were superior to any that 
 we are accustomed to imagine even at the present 
 day. 
 
 The ordinary effects of Animal Magnetism, or Mes- 
 merism, or Vital Magnetism, or by whatever other term 
 the unknown agency is better expressed, are now so 
 familiarly known in practice that it will be unnecessary 
 to describe them ; they have attracted the attention of 
 the best and most advanced minds of the present age, 
 who have hailed with admiration a discovery which 
 
 ^ See the extracts rendered by De SeptcheBes, in his Religion 
 of the Greeks, chap. ii. from Meursius, Eleusinea et Cecropia. 
 
w 
 
 176 More Esoteric View. 
 
 enables man to alleviate pain and maladies insur- 
 mountable by other means, and by benevolent dispo- 
 sition of his proper vitahty, acting in accord, to restore 
 health and equilibriate repose to his suffering fellow 
 creatures. And thus it is true we can lull the senses, 
 cure the sick, sometimes too restore the blind and deaf 
 to hearing, sight, and utterance ; and it is a glorious 
 step in progress, cheering and hopeful, a blessing on 
 our mortal suffering state. But are we to halt here 
 always, or how long ? The ordinary phenomena of 
 lucidity, pre^nsion, community of sense, will, and 
 thought, have long been familiar and might have in- 
 stigated to more important discovery ; but years have 
 passed, and the science has not grown, but retro- 
 graded rather in interest and power, since De Main- 
 apduc Puysegur, Colhoun , Elliotson, Dupotet and the 
 "rest, faithful spirits, first set their fellow-men on the 
 road of inquiry. 
 
 But the best effects of Mesmerism, if we connect it 
 with the ancients' Sacred Art, appear as trifles in com- 
 parison ; the Supreme Wisdom they investigated, the 
 Self- Knowledge and perfection of life and immortality 
 promised and said to be bestowed on those initiated in 
 the higher Mysteries, ^hat has Mesmerism to do with 
 these things ? What wisdom does it unfold ? What 
 is its philosophy, or has it yet made an attempt luMully e^i^^/r\^ 
 to investigate the subject-being, the cause of its own 
 effects ? In common arts, the ingenuity is set to work 
 how it may advance and adapt them to the best ad- 
 vantage; new capabilities are discovered which, put in 
 action, often prove the fi'uitful source of more ; whereas 
 Mesmerism, dwelling altogether in the ]wact'ice (the same 
 which from the first unfolded nature as far as it was 
 able), continues to run on with her in the same com- 
 mon-place round. Our sleepwakers are little better 
 than dreamers, for the most part, or resemble children 
 born into a new world, without a guide, unable of 
 themselves to educate their latent faculties, or discri- 
 minate truth from falsehood in their revelations. And, 
 as respects the Universal Medium, they even, who be- 
 
The Mysteries. 177 
 
 Heve in such a thing, take it as it presents itself 
 naturally, having no knowledge of the capabihties or 
 means of improvement, whither it is able to ascend or 
 descend, or w^hat is its right determination. The few 
 experimental tests that have been instituted hitherto 
 prove nothing but to identify the same " Impon- 
 derable" through all; and if we make trial of the 
 Spirit's instincts, asking for revelations of prophecy 
 and distant scenes or journeyings through the air,-and 
 they follow^ us, those patients of our will, we then go 
 out fi'om them to philosophize, or wonder, or to think 
 no more about it, as the case may be ; repeating the 
 same mechanical operations, and witnessing similar 
 effects continually over again, until at length the en- 
 thusiasm which early characterized the novelty and 
 raised expectation about it, has very generally and 
 naturally died away. 
 
 Now this, according to our gatherings, was not the 
 sort of investigation that the ancients followed in their 
 Mysteries ; although working in the same material 
 and with similar instruments, on the same ground, 
 yet their practice w^as different ; for it was conducted 
 upon established principles and with a truly philo- 
 sophic as well as benevolent aim. Theurgists, indeed, 
 condemn the Spirit of the natural life as degraded and 
 incapable of true intelligence, nor did they therefore 
 value the revelations of its first included sphere ; but 
 proceeded at once, passing these, as it appears, in the 
 Lesser Mysteries, to dissolve the medium more entirely; 
 and, as they knew how, to segregate the Vital Spirit 
 away from those defilements and imaginative im- 
 pressures which, by the birth into sense, had become 
 implanted there, obscuring its intelligence and that 
 divine eye which, as Plato says, is better worth than 
 ten thousand corporeal eyes ; for by looking through 
 this alone, when it is purified and strengthened by 
 appropriate aids, the truth pertaining to all beings is 
 perceived . 
 
 The Neoplatonists wrote largely of the Theurgical 
 art ; many are quoted by St. Augustine and his cotem- 
 
 /^/os- 
 
178 More Esoteric View. 
 
 poraries which ai'c not transmitted, but were destroyed 
 / probably through the seetarian maHce and short- 
 sighted poHcy of the^Roman government, which toler- 
 ated nothing but luxury and arms. Yet sufficient 
 remains to e\dnce the nature of the Mysteries, since, 
 besides those before named — Plotinus, Proclus, Por- 
 7" phyry, Synesius, and Jambhcus especially — all refer to 
 " them, declaring also the objects and revelations. And 
 
 in what the disease of the Spirit consists, and from 
 what cause it falsities and is dulled, and how it becomes 
 clarified and defecated, and restored to its innate 
 simplicity, may be learned in part from their philo- 
 sophy ; for by the lustrations in the Mysteries, as they 
 describe, the soul becomes liberated and passes into a 
 divine condition of being. 
 
 Synesius writes appositely on the early disciplines, 
 showing the phantastical condition also of the natural 
 understanding essence, before it is purified by art and 
 exalted. This Etherial Spirit, he says, is situated on 
 the confines of the rational and brutal life, and is of a 
 corporeal and incorporeal degree ; and it is the medium 
 which conjoins divine natures with the lowest of all. 
 And nature extends the latitude of a phantastic essence 
 through every condition of things ; it descends to ani- 
 mals in whom intellect is not present ; in this case, 
 however, it is not the understanding of a divine part 
 (as in man it ought to be) but becomes the reason of 
 the animal with which it is connected, and is the occa- 
 sion of its acting with much wisdom and propriety. 
 And it is obvious, he continues, that many of the 
 energies of the human life consist from this nature, 
 or if from something else (/ e. to say, from reason), 
 yet this prevails most ; for we are not accustomed to 
 cogitate without imagination, unless, indeed, some one 
 should on a sudden be enabled to pass into contact 
 with an intelligible essence.^ 
 
 That is into the identical apperception of true being ; 
 which is not possible under the ordinary conditions of 
 
 ' See Taylor's Proclus on Euclid, tlie extract from Synesius, 
 vol. ii. 
 
The Mysteries. 179 
 
 thought in this Hfe ; but reason is always more or less 
 debilitated in its energies by the habitual dependence 
 on sense for data and objective proof, and by that 
 modal consciousness which prevents from transcending 
 it. Nor is this the only barrier, since when freed from 
 the encumbrance of the senses temporarily, when in a 
 state of trance they are quiescent, their impressure 
 yet remains, and, as Synesius says, a false imagination, 
 which it is requisite to destroy, as well as to banish all 
 influxions from without, before the understanding 
 spirit can superinduce Divinity. 
 
 It is well known that Pythagoras instituted long pre- 
 parations and ordeals to train the minds of his disci- 
 ples, previously to admitting them into the deeper 
 mysteries of his school ; and his biographer relates how, 
 by divine arts and media, he healed and purified the 
 souls of his followers, and that by constantly holding 
 them allied to a certain precedential good, their lives 
 were preserved in continual harmony and converse 
 with the highest causes. But dense thickets, which -7- 
 
 are full of briers, saySy/amblicus, surround the intel- _/ 
 lect and heart of those who have not been purely 
 initiated, and obscure the mild and tranquil reason- 
 ing power, and openly impede the intellective part 
 from becoming increased and elevated : and again, 
 — It may be well to consider the length of time 
 that we consumed in wiping away the stains which had 
 insinuated themselves into our breasts, till, after the / 
 lapse of some years, we became fit recipients for the /^. 
 doctrines of Pythagoras ; for as dyers previously purify / 
 
 garments, and then fix in the colours with which they 
 wish them to be imbued in order that the dye may 
 not be evanescent, after the same manner also that 
 divine man prepared the souls of those that are lovers 
 of Wisdom. For he did not impart specious doctrines 
 or a snare, but he possessed a scientific knowledge of 
 things human and divine.' 
 
 The Egyptian Olympiodorus also speaks of the 
 
 / 1 /aniblicua' Life of Pythagoras, chap, xvi., xvii. 
 
 ^ ' N 2 
 
180 More Esoteric View. 
 
 natural imperfection of the human understanding, and 
 how far its conceptions are adverse to divine illumina- 
 tion. The jDhantasy, says he, is an impediment to 
 our intellectual conception ; hence, when we are agi- 
 tated by the inspiring influence of divinity, and the 
 phantasy intervenes, the enthusiastic energy ceases ; 
 for enthusiasm and the phantasy are contrary to each 
 other. Should it be asked whether the soul is able to 
 energize without the phantasy, we reply, that the per- 
 ception of Univei sals proves that it is able} 
 
 As a rational promise to this life of a higher reality, 
 the subsistence of these Universals cannot be too 
 often or too distinctly brought to mind ; for not only 
 do they reveal in us a necessity of Being beyond pre- 
 sent experience, but, adumbrating, as it were, their an- 
 tecedent light, assist much, if perspicuously beheld, 
 ^J . to introduce the idea of that consummate Wisdom, 
 
 U\...t^ wherein tho ' oamc reason, becoming passive, receives 
 
 the substance of her whole. And the ancients glow- 
 ingly describe the truth so conceived as an unques- 
 tionable experience ; one and the same in all, where _ 
 difference is merged in objective union. And /amb- Z 
 licus moreover asserts, that Thcurgic rites conspiring 
 to this end were scientifically disposed and early de- 
 fined by intellectual canons ; neither is it lawful to 
 consider these canons as mutable, since they are the 
 natural faith of hfe, and alone of all creeds catholic 
 and independent. 
 
 But to transcend the sensible life in rational energy 
 permanently apart is described as not less difficult 
 than fortunate to attain ; hence Plato appropriates the 
 possession of Wisdom to old age, signifying by this in- 
 intellect divining intuitively without imaginative error ; 
 a Wisdom such as is not worldly, since it by no means 
 belongs to the common life of man, nor is to be 
 hoped for at all, either in the early awakening of the 
 life within ; but by a transition gradually effected by 
 Art away from the profound stains of a baser affection, 
 
 * See Porphyry's Aids to Intelligibles. Taylor, p. 207, note. 
 
The Mysteries. 181 
 
 it is carried up through the love of truth by faith into 
 vivid contact with its whole. 
 
 And the extremity of all evil in this life consists, 
 according to the ancients, in not perceiving the pre- 
 sent evil and how much human nature stands in need 
 of melioration ; and this is a part of that twofold ig- 
 norance which Plato execrates, which being ignorant 
 that it is ignorant has no desire to emerge, but may be 
 compared to a body all over indurated by disease, 
 which, being no longer tormented with pain, is nei- 
 ther anxious to be cured. But he who lives in the 
 consciousness of something better will meditate im- 
 provement, and desire is the first requisite ; indeed, 
 without desire on our part, art will labour for us in 
 vain, since Will is the greatest part of purgation. And 
 through the means of this, says Synesius, both our 
 deeds and discourses extend their hands to assist us in 
 our assent ; but this being taken away the soul is de- 
 prived of every purifying machine because destitute of 
 assent, which is the greatest pledge of reconcihation. 
 Hence disciplines willingly endured become of far 
 greater utility, whilst they oppose vexation to evil 
 and banish the love of stupid pleasure from the soul. 
 
 But the phantastic Spirit may be purified, even in 
 brutes, continues this author, so that something 
 better may be induced : how much will not the regres- 
 sion of the rational soul be therefore base, if she 
 neglects to restore that which is foreign to her nature, 
 and leaves lingering upon earth that which rightly be- 
 longs on high ? Since it is possible, bij labour and a 
 transition into other lives, for the imaginative soul to 
 be purijied and to emerge from this dark abode. And 
 this rcstoratio)i indeed one or two may obtain as a gift 
 of divinity and initiation. Then, indeed, the soul ac- 
 quires fortitude with divine assistance, but it is no tri- 
 fling contest to abrogate the confession and compact 
 which she has made with sense. And in this case 
 force will be employed, for the material inflictors will 
 then be roused to vengeance, by the decrees of fate, 
 against the rebels of her laws ; and this is what the 
 
182 More Esoteric View. 
 
 Sacred Discourse testifies by the labours of Her- 
 cules, and the dangers which he was required to en- 
 dure, and which every one must experience who 
 bravely contends for liberty, till the Understanding 
 Spirit rises superior to the dominion of nature and is 
 placed beyond the reach of her hands. ^ 
 
 Hence, and from the foregoing evidence, it may 
 have become probable that modern art has hitherto 
 unfolded but a small and inferior part only of 
 the Spirit's life ; nor has experience yet opened into 
 those temptations and trials which the conscious- 
 ness must necessarily pass through, all the while re- 
 gressive, before it reaches into the central illumination 
 of truth. Nor does anything occur to us more beau- 
 tifully suggestive than the whole of the passage, from 
 which we here gather, wherein Synesius describes not 
 only the life that is operated upon and, in graceful 
 terms, the artifice, but shows the conditions of desire 
 and will, so indispensable for advancement, the la- 
 bours and dangers likew^ise wdiich attend those wiio 
 aspire to the upper gi'ades of Intellectual Science. 
 And is it not true, as he remarks so far, we do lead 
 for the most part a phantastic Hfe? Nor least they 
 who least suspect it, for it is the shining of truth that 
 makes this visible, as a cloud before her face. Are 
 we not filled too with conceits and roving imaginations 
 and idols, which we are evermore mistaking for the 
 real good? Do we not abound in sects and dissen- 
 sions, heresies and doubts, so that scarcely two are to 
 be found agreeing on all points ? And the causes are 
 obvious ; without a standard and sure foundation to 
 build on, we judge, as we are only able, with the ru- 
 dimentary faculties and senses that are born in us, and 
 of all nature, as through a glass darkly. Tf, there- 
 
 ^ See Taylor's History of the Eestoration of the Platonic Phi- 
 losophy ill vol. ii. of his Proclus on Euclid. Tliis Synesius was 
 the Christian Platonist, Bisliop of Alexandria, before mentioned 
 in the history ; one well experienced, according to his own ac- 
 count, ill tlie Hermetic philosophy, and whose writings on the art 
 of transjimtation liave in part descended to this day 
 
The Mysteries. 183 
 
 fore, with this same iiiisunderstanding and infected 
 Spirit, we enter in for the discovery and contemplation 
 ot" ourselves, it will be useless ; we shall not there 
 discern the true hypostasis, but err amongst the tur- 
 bulent and shadowy impressures of this life's birth 
 and sphere of accidents. Thus mingling with the soul 
 of the universe, without purification or any distinc- 
 tion of its light, our vehicle disports herself oftentimes 
 in many mingling forms ; as it is with those who dream 
 or make to themselves a fool's paradise with the drug- 
 gist's gas ; since this, even impure as it is and full of 
 folly, being of like nature with our life, coalesces ; 
 and would, if allowed to persist, consume its ration- 
 ality. And on this account we observe the ancients 
 more particularly warn about the treatment of their 
 Spirit, which, though of a higher birth and instinct (as 
 we may observe in the comparison of mesmerized 
 patients and those under the influence of chloroform 
 or common tether,) and capable of so much higher, 
 even as they say of the highest intelligence, yet in 
 proportion may suffer also the most fearful degrada- 
 tion. Accordingly if the will incline downwards, per- 
 sisting to grovel, or evil agencies intervene, then, as 
 the Sacred Discourse has it, the Spirit grows heavy 
 and sinks into profound Hades. It is necessary that 
 the mind, once seated in this Spirit, should either 
 follow or draw or be drawn by it. Hence, if growing 
 predominant in folly, she should cease to aspire, the 
 whole identity, being submerged together, would be 
 converted to her life. 
 
 For is she not that very Sphinx of the Labyrinth, 
 the devourer of strangers and all who have not the wit 
 to unriddle her and know themselves? At all ev^ents, 
 such is said to be the nature of the Phantastic Spirit 
 before it is mundified, that he who enters so far as to 
 be 'profoundly conscious in her essence, will be lost in 
 irrational confusion, if he assume not quickly his intel- 
 lectual energies and solve, that is comprehend, it on its 
 own ground. For, if reason remains passive, this 
 natm-e at length prevailing, will ravage and devastate 
 
184 More Esoteric View. 
 
 and take possession of the whole mind, destroying its 
 active energies and converting them to herself. Thus 
 Jamblicus, speaking of this mundane spirit, says — it 
 grows upon and fashions all the powers of the soul, 
 exciting in opinion the illuminations from the senses, 
 and fixes in that life which is extended fi'om body the 
 impressions which descend from intellect. And Pro- 
 clus, concerning the same nature, declares that — it folds 
 itself about the indivisibility of true intellect (which is 
 in its centre), conforms itself to all formless species, 
 and becomes perfectly everything from which dianoia 
 and our individual reason consist^. And, as it is com- 
 monly observed to be a vain labour to infuse doctrine 
 into a perplexed and turbid brain, or for a merely prac- 
 tical unspeculative soul to judge of abstract propo- 
 sitions ; just so, no doubt, the best constituted minds 
 would be inadequate to self-inspection on their first 
 entrance into life. For the Spirit understands the 
 affections of the mind, and reflects its image as it is, 
 whether good or evil. But the primary and proper 
 vehicle of the mind, when it is in a wise and purified 
 condition, is attenuated and clear seeing ; when how- 
 ever the mind is sensually affected, then this vehicle 
 is dulled and becomes terrene ; the instincts are said 
 to be imperfect just in proportion as the perceptive 
 medium is impure, and therefore it needs alteration 
 and solution, as the Oracles teach, for the discernment 
 of good and evil, and the proper choice of life. 
 
 It is therefore that the Alchemists so much declaim 
 against the vulgar Matter as it is at first made known, 
 full of heterogeneous qualities and notions, as a sub- 
 ject fallen from its sphere and defiled. Hence all 
 those preparations, solutions, calcinations, &c., before 
 it becomes to be the "Mercury of Philosophers" — 
 pure, agile, intelligent, living — as they say, in her 
 own sphere, as a queen upon her throne. — Aceipc - 
 ■ occultum --- arcanum quod — est — zes- nostrum ct lavQr > 
 qnnd si t } »uru«i- et mundum> — Dcindc pone in va se 
 ■ nofetr e — eum s igillo — philoaophic o , — r cgimi« e- initiu m 
 cot pcrfccta solutio . Take, says Albcrtus Magnus, 
 
The Mysteries. 185 
 
 the occult sateve, which is our brass, and wash it CjAXBa^i'^JA ^ 
 that it may be pure and clean, . . . The first rule 
 of the work is a perfect solution.^ 
 
 All which we understand with reference to the uni- 
 versal Mundane Spirit, as it is at first consciously 
 revealed in the recipient life of humanity ; which 
 Aristotle, in his Metaphysics, calls passive intellect, 
 because capable of receiving and being converted to 
 all — the best or worst inclination, the highest truth or 
 the most delusive imaginings — of manifesting motives 
 in vital effects, and within certain limits of organizing 
 even and transporting them. 
 
 And this we take to be the identical agent which is 
 spread abroad in the present day mesmerizing, the 
 photogenic medium, our " New^ Imponderable," for it 
 is the Common eoul ; also the subject-matter of the 
 Alchemists aforesaid, when they call it a thing indif- 
 ferent, abject, and exposed in all hands, moving here 
 below in shadowy manifestation, invisibly and uncon- 
 sciously converted to every will and various use. It 
 is what the world cares not for, as the adept says, but 
 disesteems it ; it hath it in its sight, carries it in its 
 hands, yet is ignorant thereof; for it passeth away with 
 a sudden pace without being known ; yet these trea- 
 sures are the chiefest, and he that knows the Art, and 
 the expressions, and hath the medium, will be richer 
 than any other. ^ But, in its natural state, the micro- 
 cosmic life is not dissimilar from the vitality of the 
 greater world, which is included by respiration in the 
 blood of all creatures, maintaining its perpetual pul- 
 sation, as of the wind and waves, their flux and re- 
 flux, supplying to all existence the food of life. And 
 how much such a life is in need of melioration, how 
 much it suffers and desires, and how far its benefi- . r / 
 
 c^nce falls short of human hope and i d eality , may be CciMyO-iJf^ 
 apparent, and, witltout more cv^ deee^, that in her ' 
 
 Door-keeper, Isis is not revealed. 
 
 1 Secret. Tract. Alberti, iu fine. Artis Aurifer??, p. 130, &c. 
 ^ Aquarium Sapient um, part ii. in fine. Vaughan's Coelum- 
 Terree^ p. 80, &c. 
 
186 More Esoteric View. 
 
 But so far we have yet advanced only to the gate of 
 the great Labyrinth, where the Sphinx is even now pre- 
 sent, rapidly propounding her dark riddles to the world, 
 images of the obscure and intricate nature of the hu- 
 man spirit ; which, by the devious windings, delusive 
 attractions and simiHtudes of its own included sphere, 
 leads imperceptibly, as it were, by an alluring grace, into 
 that Hermetic wilderness and wdld of Magic in which so 
 many adventurers have gone astray. This is the Mon- 
 ster and the Eternal Riddle explained to common sense 
 as suits it, but misunderstood to this day ; that Com- 
 pound Simple and ground of the magians' elements — a 
 thing so perplexedly treated of by them, and having 
 about it such a latitude for sophistication, that it is al- 
 most impossible to collect or unravel what has been 
 said of it. Or how should reason attempt to define 
 an essence all comprehending, yet separated in each 
 particular, by so great an interval from itself? But 
 this is that Augean Stable that was to be cleansed, 
 that most famous labour of the philosophic Hercules ; 
 nor the least of labours, to. turn the current of life 
 into another channel, and purify the natural source. 
 
 Close upon the revealment of the Medial Life then, 
 as we take it, in order of the Mysteries followed the 
 Purificative Rites, which were designed also to restore 
 the monarchy of reason in the soul, and this not 
 Q^^| either as an end so much, bu^preparatory to under- 
 going the final initiations. We arc induced, however, 
 to dwell longer on this first step, and on the necessity 
 of intellectual preparation and auxiliaries ; because it 
 may be objected, as we proceed to unfold the ultimate 
 tradition of this Wisdom, that we have no valid wit- 
 ness to our side ; that any individual may declare 
 according to the revelations of his mind, and introduce 
 a various imagination to the idea of truth ; that even 
 supposing the mind included for a while and entirely 
 free from outward impressions, still, retaining as it 
 must the original bias, not only of sense but of birtli 
 and education, its experience will be neither trust- 
 worthy nor imi)ortant to this life : and then nothing 
 
The Mysteries. 187 
 
 of a universal character, such as the ancients speak of, 
 has been observed; or if asserted, how should it be 
 ScoaczIjlj -fearfHy proved ? Reason in these days is not content 
 1/ with affirmation; it will have objective response to its 
 j faith ; all pretensions, therefore, to internal lights and 
 
 1 revelations have ceased to attract the attention of 
 
 mankind. And, again, it may be inquired why, if true 
 Being is everywhere totally present, it is not so per- 
 ceived ; and why all things partaking do not enjoy the 
 light of the so-called superstantial world ? 
 
 In reply to this last objection, we would ask if it be 
 not because that very Light is drawn outwardly, and 
 enchanted by sense ; that it is internally unconscious 
 and oblivious every where of the great Identity whence 
 it springs ? If that were applied inwardly which now 
 looks out, and every natural impediment removed, 
 experience might then reveal in us the antecedent life. 
 But the former objections recur here : there are impe- 
 diments ; and it behoves us to consider scrupulously, 
 but without prejudice, the possibility and tests of such 
 an experience ; for if by this traditionary fall and out- 
 birth, the understanding is so polluted as to be no 
 more able, as Lord Bacon supposes,^ to reflect the 
 total reason to itself, introspection will be useless, and 
 the central mystery remains, as respects humanity, 
 a hopeless problem after all. 
 
 None better than the ancients (who "profess to 
 have enjoyed the rational life in its most intimate 
 spheres, and to have reaped its most real and lasting- 
 advantages,) describe the folly and fatal allurements 
 to which they are subjected who trust themselves 
 to remain passively dreaming in the region of the 
 phantasy, with its notions and instincts, often more 
 false, fleeting, and evil than the corporeal images with 
 which sense is conversant. It is for this cause they 
 insist so much that, before any one betakes himself to 
 the inner Ufe of contemplation — before he hopes, wc 
 mean, to pass into its Reason — that all else be cfl'ec- 
 
 ^ See his Instauration of the Sciences, sub iiiit. 
 
188 More Esoteric View. 
 
 tually obliterated, and the mental atmosphere made 
 clear and passive before its objective light. Without 
 this, they promise nothing; with it, all. And on this 
 possibility, namely, of purifying the human Under- 
 standing Essence, and developing to consciousness its 
 occult Causality, the transcendental philosophy of the 
 mystics may be observed to hinge entirely and exceed 
 every other. 
 
 For that there is a foundation of truth in existence, 
 is as necessary for us to admit as that we are ignorant 
 of it ; and the doubt rather remains also about the 
 discovery of means, than the possibility of self-know- 
 ledge. 
 
 To continue then, partly on the authority of the 
 Greek philosophers and partly on some other grounds 
 hereafter to be disposed of, we are led to infer that the 
 Hermetic purifications and Mysteries, celebrated in the 
 Eastern temples and by the priests at Eleusis, were 
 real and efficacious for the highest ends that philoso- 
 phy can propose to itself, namely, the purification and 
 perfection of human life ; and that inasmuch as the 
 object was different and immeasurably superior to 
 those proposed by modern Mesmerism, or any other 
 art or science of the present day, so also were the 
 means employed (the })articulars of which are furtJicr 
 discussed under the Practice), and the administration 
 in proportion purer, holier, and entirely scientific. 
 For does not all our experimentalism and philosophy 
 end in fact where the ancients began, purifying the 
 Vital Spirit in its proper Light ? 
 
 Or if any one think we have been discussing all the 
 while a mere nothing, and developing a vain imagina- 
 tion, we admit it ; suggesting only that. That which is, 
 in his mind, so mere a nothing, becomes in that of a 
 philosopher to be the All in all. But who will now 
 conceive the full latitude and substantiality of this prin- 
 ciple, or the true metaphysical use thereof? Few, 
 very few, Philalethes said, there were in his day, and 
 who will even inquire now, or believe that it is the 
 very same which solved and resolved, and wisely 
 
The Mysteries. 189 
 
 manipulated, becomes to be the concrete Stone of phi- 
 losophers ; in its pure, passive expanse, a mirror of 
 the catholic reason of nature, and the medium of that 
 holy and sublime experience granted to man alone 
 in the divine alliance — Ex natura et divino factum 
 est, as Reuchlin, in 2'he M'mjic Word, expresses it — / 
 Divinum enim quia cum divinitate conjunct|lm di- /^■^/ 
 vinas substantias facit. / ^ 
 
 Take that which is least, and draw it by artifice into 
 the true ferment of philosophers ; although our metal 
 is exteriorly dead, yet it has life within, and wants 
 nothing more than that That which in the eyes of 
 a philosopher is most precious should be collected, 
 and that That which the many set more value on be 
 rejected ; and these words are manifest without envy, 
 says the Greek Aristhenes, O, how wonderful is that 
 thing to which we add nothing different and detract 
 nothing, only in the preparation removing superflui- 
 ties.^ 
 
 From that which is perfect nothing more can be 
 made ; for a perfect species is not changed in its na- 
 ture, neither from an utterly imperfect thing can art 
 produce perfection ; but this Universal Spirit is de- 
 scribed as a middle substance — passive, undetermined, 
 susceptible of conversion and all extremes. And such 
 accordingly we understand to be the ^ne ^hing 
 purifying and to be purified itself by itself, in turn 
 agent and patient, which are the Hermetic luminaries ; 
 in their full representative advancement, the Sun and 
 Moon philosophical, passing through many phases 
 from imperfection to perfection in the true magistery. 
 
 And the Hermetic art would seem to consist simply 
 in the right disposition and manipulation of this our 
 Undetermined Subject, taking her where nature leaves, 
 and by divers operations, to be hereafter noted, as of 
 amalgamation, distillation, filtration, digestion, and 
 lastly by sublimation to the Head of an appropriate 
 
 1 Aristoteles in Eosario, and in the Lucerna Salis. 
 
190 More Esoteric View. 
 
 Vessel, establishing her in a new and concentric Form 
 of Light. 
 
 Nor may this seem a fable to the wise, 
 Since all things live according to their kinds ; 
 Their life is light Avhich in them hidden lies, 
 Discerned by the eyes of soaring minds, 
 
 To them discovered is true nature's map, 
 By whom produced nothing is by hap : 
 
 For she her secret agent doth possess. 
 Which in the universe is only one, 
 But is distinct thro' species numberless, 
 According to their seeds, which God alone 
 
 In the beginning did produce, and then ^.^ 
 
 Set them their law, found out ^^y mental men.^ ^f 
 
 But a long- interval is between, and all the labours of 
 that Heroic Intellect to be passed through before the 
 /vLQ.Ci'iynS rejected Keystone i ^join s her Head place. None but a 
 / })hilosopher ever achieved the work, or, for reasons 
 
 that are imperative, ever will. The idle and vicious 
 are totally excluded, nor are the rewards of Wisdom to 
 be won by fools wanting the very principle of meliora- 
 tion in themselves. — Nemo enim dat id, quod non 
 habet. — He only that hath it can impart — and he only 
 has it who has laboured rationally in the pursuit. As 
 is exemplified in that saying of Esdras — The earth 
 giveth much mould, whereof earthen vessels are made, 
 but little dust that gold cometh of. ^ 
 
 Non levis adscensus, si quis petat ardua sudor 
 Plurimus hunc tollit, nocturna) insomnis oliva' 
 Tmmoritur, delet quod mox laudaveri^ in se, 
 Qui cupit teternae donari froudis honore. 
 
 /(^Sj ^ Eirenfeus' Marrow of Alchemy, book i. p. 12. 
 
 / - Esdras, cap. viii. book i. 
 
The Mysteries. 191 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The ]\Iysterks contirmed. 
 
 It is necessary that the soul, when purified, should associate 
 with its generator. — Porphyry, Anx. to InteUiyih. 
 
 WE have so far developed the nature of the inter- 
 nal life only, as it was at first revealed to the 
 aspirant in the Lesser Mysteries ; and this was the only 
 popular initiation open to all. It represented, accord- 
 ing to the accounts, a new and fertile field of natural 
 contemplation which every one was at liberty to ap- 
 propriate, and where each roamed at pleasure without 
 rule or subordination, and without that consent and 
 sympathy which a uniformity of life produces. 
 
 Previous to the purificative rites little change, 
 therefore, was effected. It gave a passing experience 
 to the multitude, and in a few^ awakened the desire 
 and hope of better things ; just as amongst us Mes- 
 rism, which of all modern arts is most pertinent to 
 this philosophy as working in the same matter, affords 
 entrance^ with the imagination of another life. And 
 more than this, in w^ell-conditioned cases, we have ^ 
 proof of the intrinsical inteUigence and power of the 
 Free Spirit which can expatiate into the whole circum- 
 ference of its sphere and reveal hidden things, exhi- 
 biting a variety of gifts ; it can philosophize also more 
 or less well according to the direction, natural purity, 
 and relaxation of the sensual bond. But not all that 
 men wonder at in the present day, the insensibility, 
 the cures, the mental exaltation, nor much more of 
 the same class which the trance spontaneously deve- 
 lops even in the best subjects, could satisfy the exact- 
 ing reason of our forefathers ; desirous rather to in- 
 vestigate the Thing itself, the subject of so many mar- 
 
 /(r^6/CAJiAy 
 
^ 
 
 192 More Esoteric View. 
 
 vels, they passed the first phenomena to look for 
 Causes, experimenting within. 
 
 Volo ovum philosophorum dissolvere et partes phi- 
 losophic^ hominis investigare, nam hoc est initium ad 
 alia — says the experimental Friar ;^ and to concen- 
 trate the whole vitality, to turn the spiritual eye, to 
 purify and analyze the total essence and draw forth 
 the true Efficient and to know it in coidentity, this 
 was their object and the Art of Theurgy. For it is 
 not, as they say, that the Spirit is free from material 
 bondage, or able to range the universe of her own 
 sphere, that guarantees the truth of her revealments, 
 or helps the consciousness on to subjective experience ; 
 for this a concentrative energy is needed, and an intel- 
 lect penetrating into other spheres, rather than discur- 
 sive in its own. 
 
 There are many ways known and practised of en- 
 trancing the senses, and the key of the Hermetic ves- 
 tibule may be said to be already in our hands, which 
 are able to dissolve the sensible medium and convert 
 it to the experience of another lifc.^ But the order 
 
 ^ Eog. Bacboni de Mirab. Potest. Artis ct Xatui\T, Ars Aiiri- 
 fera, vol. ii. p. 342. 
 
 2 AVe adopt tbe term dissolve bcre iu accordance witli tbe obi 
 doctrine ; vaiyiug tbeories bavc been proposed to explain tbe 
 cbange tliat takes place in tbe vital relationsbip of tbe patient iu 
 tlie mesmeric trance : some bave tliongbt tbe sensible medinm is 
 drawn away by a superior attraction of life in tbe agent ; otbers, 
 tbat it is overcome, or inclnded, or arrested, or destroyed ; but 
 tbe Alcbemists, witb one accord, say it ougbt to be dissolved ; 
 and, in default of better autbority, sball we not suppose it so to be 
 dissolved, or tbat it ougbt to be, tbe alkali by tbe acid, tbe dark 
 dominion of tbe selfbood by tbe magnetic friction of its proper 
 ligbt, tbe sensible or animal into tbe vegetable, tlie cerebral into 
 tbe ganglionic life ? Corpora ttfei qui^ vult pui-gare oportet fluxa 
 facere, says tbe autbor of tbe Eosarium, tbat tbe compact eartby 
 body of sense may be rarified and flow as a passi\ e watery spirit. 
 Tbe beginning of tbe work, says Albcrtus IMagnus, is a perfect 
 solution ; and all tbat we teacb is notbiug else but to dissolve and 
 recongeal tbe spirit, to make tbe fixed volatile and tbe volatile 
 fixed, until tbe total natn.re is perfected by tbe reiteration, botb 
 in its Solary and Lunar form. — Alberti Secret. Tract. Artis Auri- 
 ferae, p. 130. 
 
The Mysteries. 193 
 
 in which the next solution, or resolution rather, was 
 operated which was to translate the consciousness un- 
 derneath this medium by obscuration, towards the 
 Central Source, is known probably to very few in 
 the present day, for it is entirely concealed from 
 the world : they only, amongst the ancients who 
 had fulfilled the previous rites and undergone all 
 the required ordeals, were entrusted with the pass- 
 port. It discovers a fearful mystery in the opening 
 sensation of power, in a life which, at its entrance, is 
 described as dark, delusive, and dangerous, and more 
 corrupted far than the foregoing, but through which 
 it is quite necessary to pass before inquiry can hope 
 to meet its object in the Elysian light. 
 
 Tenent media omnia sylvse, 
 Cocytusque sinu labens circumfluit atro. 
 
 Betwixt these regions and that upper light, 
 Deep forests and impenetrable night 
 Possess the middle space ; the infernal bounds, 
 Cocytus, with his sable wave surrounds.^ 
 
 We are aware that the descent to the Infernal regions 
 and all those highly wrought descriptions of the poets, 
 concerning the riches and powerful allurements of 
 Pluto's kingdom and Hades, have been looked upon, 
 and very naturally, as purely imaginative, and the re- 
 presentations of the same in the mysteries as a pic- 
 torial or pantomimic show. But as we have hitherto 
 been enabled to regard the minor celebrations from an 
 esoteric point of view, shewing their relationship to 
 more modern experience and the Hermetic art, we 
 hope to continue on our adventure, being not without 
 precedent either or guiding authority over the same 
 ground. For is it not absurd to suppose that men 
 should liave philosophized and composed so many ex- 
 cellent and sublime discourses from the contemplation 
 of shadows only ? But setting aside such a notion, nei- 
 ther do we conceive that by Hades, or that profound 
 Lethe, the ancients understood a corporeal nature, or 
 
 1 Dryden's ^neid, lib. vi. 130. 
 o 
 
194 More Esoteric View. 
 
 this fleshly existence of ours, or anything in fact 
 with which ordinary observation makes us acquainted ; 
 but the whole allusion is to a state of vital submersion 
 in the Mysteries, when the consciousness is artificially 
 drawn about the penetralia of its first life. Nor, if 
 we may credit accounts, is the descent difficult, or so 
 far off, but the infernal gates lie open to mortal men 
 on earth ; but because of the arduous nature of the 
 re-ascent and for the sake of securing it, lest unpre- 
 pared souls, presuming to enter, should be taken cap- 
 tive by deluding and fatal desires, and work irremedi- 
 able evil there, every precaution has been instituted to 
 keep the way a secret fi*om the world, as well for its 
 own sake as for the cause of justice and divine wis- 
 dom about to be revealed ; wherefore the Sybil warns 
 JEneas of the danger of his undertaking in those me- 
 morable lines. 
 
 Facilis descensus Averni ; * 
 
 Noctes atque dies patet atri janiia Ditis : 
 Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras, 
 Hoc opus, hie labor est. Pauci quos sequus amavit 
 Jupiter, aut ardens evexit ad a^thera virtus, 
 Diis geniti potuere.* 
 
 The grand requirement of the Mysteries after the 
 first purificative rites, (the inclination being already 
 freed fi'om the dominion, and all the superficial progeny 
 of sense,) was that the will should conceive within itself 
 a motive purely rational to withstand the temptations 
 of its next including sphere ; that it might be enabled 
 to follow the true path upward, penetrating through 
 darkness, and defilements, and dissolution even, to the 
 discovery of Wisdom in her hglit abode. To this 
 ^neas accordingly is directed by the Sybil, w^iom we 
 follow, after her warning already given, to search for 
 that well-distinguished, most mysterious golden bough. 
 
 Aureus et foliis et lento vimine ramus, 
 Junoni infernae sacer.^ 
 
 Without which as a propitiation he may not venture 
 I .Eneid, lib. vi. 126. 2 jdem, 136, 
 
The Mysteries. 195 
 
 on the subterranean research. But it may be asked, 
 
 why this myrtle branch was represented to be of gold. 
 
 Not merely for the sake of the marvellous, Warburton 
 
 tells us, we may be assured. A golden bough was 
 
 literally part of the sacred equipage in the shows, a 
 
 burden which the Ass, who carried the mysteries, we 
 
 may believe, was proud of. But of what kind this 
 
 branch was, Apuleius partly indicates in his procession 
 
 of the Initiated into the Mysteries of Isis, where we 
 
 find it connected with the Mercurial caduceus and 
 
 treated as a most important symbol in initiatory 
 
 rites ;^ which we therefore understand ontologically, 
 
 as a ray of living light, golden and flexible, the 
 
 true Brancha Spiritualis of Raymond Lully. Intel- 
 
 lectusihabens subtilem ad intelligendum res intelligi- /I Tz^^tZ'ua^^KJ-i 
 
 biles •} — insinuating by rational penetration alone 
 
 through the murky circumference of the chloric ether 
 
 into its own congenial life, which is Proserpine, and 
 
 that lapsed soul of ours, seated in her dark M'postasis 
 
 .unknown ; whose vapour is so subtile and transient 
 
 that nothing but the glance of its proper intellect by 
 
 faith can arrest it. And those doves that lead the way 
 
 too, are they not known to our Alchemists and those 
 
 chosen seats? 
 
 But to be brief; it is only by exceeding zeal and 
 piety of intention, such as is ascribed to /Eneas in 
 search of his father, and a prevailing reason, that 
 the seeking mind becomes fitted for establishment 
 in her essence and percipient of her final duty to 
 separate the good and reject the evil therein by birth 
 allied ; that she may know to what she ought to 
 aspire, dismissing every other consideration, where 
 desires are images and will their act. Thus, Plato 
 says, *fea^ it is necessary that a man should have his 
 right opinion as firm as adamant in him when he de- 
 scends into Hades, that there likewise he may be un- 
 moved by riches or any such hke evils, and may not, 
 falling into tyrannies and such other practices, do in- 
 
 ^ Metam. lib. xi. 
 
 - Arbor, X, Scientije Hnmanalis, p. 99. 
 o 2 
 
196 More Esoteric View. 
 
 curable mischiefs and himself suffer still greater ; but 
 that he may know how to choose the middle life as 
 to those things, and to shun extremes on either hand, 
 both in this life as far as possible and in the whole 
 hereafter.^ And again, in the Seventh Book of the Re- 
 public — He who is not able by the exercise of his rea- 
 son to define the idea of the Good, separating it from 
 all other objects and piercing, as in a battle, through 
 every kind of argument, endeavouring to confute, not 
 according to opinion but according to essence, and pro- 
 ceeding through all the dialectic energies with an un- 
 shaken reason — he who cannot accomplish this, nei- 
 ther knows he the Good itself, nor anything that is 
 properly denominated the Good. And would you not 
 say that such a one, if he apprehended any certain 
 truth or image of reality, would apprehend it rather 
 through the medium of opinion than of science ; that 
 in the present life he is sunk in sleep and conversant 
 in the delusions of dreams ; and that descending into 
 Hades, before he is roused to a vigilant state, he will 
 be overwhelmed with a sleep perfectly profound?^ To 
 fall asleep in Hades was indeed to be absorbed, with- 
 out the incumbrance of body, in all its defilements ; 
 according to the philosopher, the direst evil that can 
 befal any one ; or, as Virgil has it, — to be a king 
 in hell. 
 
 But with all the warnings of difficulties, and dangers, 
 . . y and death, to be encountered, no hero or |j,inii iimii 
 oie/yrvC-a^M. occurs in the poets, but he sometime descended to 
 the Infernals, and had fi-ee egress thereafter to the 
 Elysian Fields ; but two are described as suffering for 
 the attempt — Theseus and Pirithous, who, as Proclus 
 admirably explains, were detained there — the one be- 
 cause he was too much a lover of corporeal beauty, the 
 other through his natural inability to sustain the 
 arduous altitude of divine contemplation. In the sixth 
 book of the vEneid, Virgil has gracefully set forth 
 the whole transaction of his successful hero, with the 
 
 ' Republic, book x. ^ Idem, book vii. 
 
The Mysteries. 197 
 
 labours and difficulties, and appalling visions that at- 
 tended on the outset of his pious research ; all which 
 has been shown by Warburton ^ and other learned 
 commentators, to bear close allusion to the Mysteries, 
 in which we have reason also to believe the poet him- 
 self was profoundly initiated, and whose allegoric 
 conduct, therefore, we pursue as an inquiry of In- 
 tellect after its Paternal Source. 
 
 To continue, then, in order of the tradition: after 
 the ordeal rites had been undergone, and the few who 
 were found fit, selected for further initiation, the con- 
 cession of more arcane mysteries succeeded. 
 
 Gressus removete prophani 
 Jam furor humanus nostro de pectore sensua 
 Expulit.=^ 
 
 As the consciousness passing the middle region, clear 
 and rational from out the Aquaster, enters the Fire 
 World, and the Sybil leads her hero to the dark 
 descent. 
 
 Spelunca alta fuit, vastoque immania hiatu, 
 
 Scrupea, tuta lacu nigro nemorumque tenebris ; 
 -1 Quam super baud ullae poterant impune volantes 
 
 tA^e^L Tend ere -it* pennis : talis sese halitus atris 
 
 Faucibus efFundens supera ad convexa ferebat, 
 
 TJnde locum Graii dixerunt nomine Aornum.^ 
 
 And what does all this imagery point at, but the 
 thickening darkness of the nether air verging to the 
 chaos of mattei' flowing out from the perpetual motion ^ ^:ju/jpC 
 of the first life; destitute of elasticity, Aormis, heavy 
 Hke that of an enclosed cave, and vast ; dangerous, as 
 it is said by some, giving forth a murky odour, like 
 that of graves. It is the Black Saturn of the adepts, 
 and that appearing corruption that precedes the mys- 
 tical death and regeneration into new life : as de- 
 scribing the same ens, they call it lapis niger vilis 
 fcetens et dicitur origo mundi et oritur sicut germi- 
 
 ^ Divine Legation, vol. i. p. 345, &c. 
 
 ^ Claudian de Raptu Proserpinfe, sub initio. 
 
 ^ .Eueid, lib. vi. 2,37. 
 
198 More Esoteric ViEvr. 
 
 nantia. Sendivogius calls it Urinus Saturni, with 
 
 which he waters his lunar and solar plants ; and ano- 
 
 / ther, — Ex mari meo oriuntur nebulse, quae ferunt aquas 
 
 (wJ benedictas et ips^ irrigant terras et educant herbas et 
 
 / flores. With this allusion, the Alchemists also call 
 
 the Ether their mineral tree ; for they were not so 
 
 careful to hide this in general, seeing the true species 
 
 was laid asleep in sense, and doubly locked up, as it 
 
 were, within both corporeal and spiritual confines, and 
 
 how far the world was off from the art of unfolding or 
 
 profiting by it. The reception of jEneas in Hades is 
 
 next described. 
 
 /jjyyyyjyy^^^ Ecce autem, prinii sub limiae soils et ortus, 
 
 Sub pedibus mugire solum, et juga coepta mover! 
 Sylvarum, vlsaeque canes ululare per umbram 
 Adventante Dea.^ 
 
 And Claudian, to the same effect, poetises the tremen- 
 dous advent. 
 
 Jam mllil cernuntur trepidis delubra mover^ t/ 
 Sedlbus, et claram dispergere fulmina lucem 
 
 l^ Adveutum testata de|. : jam magnus ab Imis 
 
 Audltur fremitus terrls, templumque remugit 
 
 ' (y^j Cecropi^m; sanctasque faces attolllt Eleuslii ; 
 
 / Angues Triptolemi stridunt, et squamea curvls 
 
 CoUa levant attrita jugis 
 Ecce procul temias Hecate variata figiu'as 
 Exorltur.^ 
 
 And all this, extravagant and fanciful though it should 
 appear, has been echoed by philosophers, and the 
 Greek descriptions agree in each remarkable particular. 
 Plato, amongst others, likens the descent of the soul 
 into these oblivious realms of generation to an earth- 
 quake and other strong convulsions of nature. Psellus, 
 in his valuable commentary, describes the apparitions 
 procured by the Chaldaic rites as of two kinds : the 
 first called superinspcctiou, when he who celebrates the 
 divine rites sees a mere apparition, as, for instance, of 
 
 /7. 1 .-Eneid, lib.^v. 255. 
 
 ■^ De Raptu Proserpinse, sub init. 
 
The Mysteries. 199 
 
 light in some form or figure, concerning which the 
 oracle advises, that if any one sees such a liglit, he ap 
 ply not his mind to it, nor esteem the voice proceeding 
 thence to be true ; sometimes, likewise, to many 
 initiated persons, there appear Hghts in various forms 
 and figures. These apparitions are created by the 
 passions of the soul, in performing divine rites, mere 
 appearances, having no substance, and therefore not 
 signifying anything true.^ Which vaporous estate of 
 universal being, the poets also fabulously concealed 
 under the satyric form of Pan, who exhibited himself 
 in every variety of atrocious disguises of wild beasts, 
 and monsters, and demoniacal appearances, that he 
 might affright those who would captivate him. 
 
 Corripit liic subita trepidus formidine ferrum 
 ^neas, strictamqiie aciem venientibus offert. 
 Et ui docta comes tenues sine corpore vitas 
 Admoneat volitare cava sub imagine formae, 
 Irruat, et frustra ferro diverberet umbras.^ 
 
 For it is the imaginative spirit which is the maker of 
 these images, as in dreams, only more intense. As 
 moisture condensed in the ah' constitutes clouds, which 
 the wind disposes in various forms, so our pneumatic 
 vehicle, becoming humid and condensed beneath her 
 heaven, presents many formidable apparitions to the 
 inner sense, and all the race of demons, so much cele- 
 brated by antiquity, appear to have their origin in a 
 life of this kind, viz., from an included vapour of the 
 imagination : nor these, individually belonging, were 
 seen only ; but, as it is recorded, each by rapport in 
 this state becomes conversant with the whole phantas- 
 magoric universe of his sphere : hence the platitude of 
 the descriptions and poetical crowding of images to 
 the individual sense. Proclus, commenting on the 
 
 1 Psellus de OracuU, 14, 19. See also Oracula Cbaldseorum 
 Demones Sacrificia. Neqiie naturse, voces per se visibile simnla- 
 crum. jSTon enim oportet illoa te spectare, antequam corpus sacris 
 piirgetur. Quando animas mulcentes, semper a sacris abducunt. 
 Ergo ex sinibus terrae exiliunt terrestres canes. Nvinquam verum 
 corpus mortali homini monstrantes. 
 
 2 .Eneid, lib. vi. 290. 
 
200 More Esoteric View. 
 
 First A/cibiacIes oi' Plato, asserts that material images, 
 assuming the appearance even of things divine, con- 
 stantly attended on the Mysteries, drawing towards 
 them souls not yet sufficiently purified, and separating 
 them from truth. And that such actually appeared to 
 the Muitai, during the evaporative process of purifi- 
 cation, and before the lucid vision of the light within, 
 is further shown in the following passage of the same 
 experienced theologist. In the most holy Mysteries, 
 says he, before the presence of the god, the impulsive 
 forms of certain terrestrial demons appear, which call 
 the attention oft' from undefiled advantages to matter. 
 And again, — as in the most holy Mysteries, the mystics 
 at first meet with the multiform and many-shaped 
 genera which are hurled forth before the gods ; but on 
 entering the interior part of the Temple, unmoved and 
 guarded by the sacred rites, they genuinely receive 
 into their bosom divine illumination, and divested of 
 their garments, as they would say, participate of the 
 Divine Nature, the same method takes place in the 
 speculation of Wholes.^ 
 
 For the reason of this life imitates, inasmuch as it 
 is able, and obeys instinctively its motive light ; and 
 as the natural intellect is liable to error, so the spi- 
 ritual also, not yet perfected, is liable to be caught in 
 the traps of these exterior spirits, which being, as 
 Basil Valentine, in his Alchemical Chariot, observes, 
 endowed with senses and understanding, know Arts, 
 and have in themselves an occult operative hfe ; giving 
 testimony also of their virtue in the art of healing 
 and other secrets, by w^hich they deceive and detain 
 the unwary from the search of better things.^ 
 
 The writings of the middle ages abound Hkewise 
 with descriptions of these demoniacal natures ; regular 
 classifications of them are given by Agrippa,-^ and Tri- 
 
 ' Proclus on the Theology of Plato, vol. i. p. 9. De Auima et 
 Demone, throughout. 
 
 2 Triumplial Chariot of Antimony, Kirchriugius, Engl. edit. p. 
 IG. 
 
 •* Occult Philosophy, bonk ii. 
 
/ 
 
 The Mysteries. 201 
 
 themius;^ and Psellus ;^Proclus,^/amblicus,* and Por- -^ 
 phyry,^ allude to their material efficacy and operation in 
 Divine Works, where desu'e, entering into those aerial 
 forms, is said to vivify them ; and the Chaldaic oracle 
 even persuades that there are pure demons. — Natura , 
 
 suadet esse demonas puros, et mali materiae germina Q^ 
 utilia et bona, — and that the germinations even of evil 
 matter are of use.^ Synesius mentions them also as 
 the progeny of matter, and as having an energetic 
 virtue, but at natural war with the truth-seeking / . / 
 
 soul;^ and Proclus, in his Hymn to the Sun, ^ cg o- aes^e^'Tx^iTej 
 ^ -cratcG them as 
 
 Demons wlio macliiiiate a thousand ills, 
 
 Pregnant with ruin to our wretched souls, 
 
 That merged beneath life's dreadful sounding sea 
 
 In body's chain they willingly may toil ; 
 
 Nor e'er remember in the dark abyss 
 
 The splendid palace of their sire sublime. 
 
 And it is the dread of such an oblivion there below 
 that the oracle announces to intellect in those solemn 
 tones — Ducat animse profunditas immortalis oculosque 
 affatim, — Omnes sursum extende. Let the immortal 
 depth of thy soul be predominant, and all thy eyes 
 extend upwards ; incline not to the dark world whose 
 depth is a faithless bottom and Hades dark all over, 
 squalid, delighting in images, unintelligible, precipi- 
 tous, and a depth always rolhng full of stupidity and 
 folly.^ 
 
 Umbrarum hie locus est, somni noctisque soporae.^ 
 
 If the soul on its depaVture, says Porphyry, still pos- 
 sesses a spirit turbid from humid exhalations, it then 
 attracts to itself a shadow and becomes heavy ; and a 
 
 1 De Septem Intelligentii &c. 
 
 2 Michaele Psello de Demonibus. 
 
 3 Excerpta M. Ficini ex Grraecis Procli Com. in Alcibiad. 
 ^ De Mysteriis ^gypt-Chaldeor. 
 * De Divinis atque Demonibus. 
 " Oracula Zoroastri. 
 "^ De Somni^. 
 
 ^ Zoroastri Oracula Aninia, Corpus, Homo. 
 '^ ^neid, lib. vi. 389, 
 
 S 
 
202 More Esoteric View. 
 
 spirit of this kind naturally strives to penetrate into 
 the recesses of the earth, unless a certain other cause 
 draws it in a contrary direction : as, therefore, the soul 
 when sun'ounded with this testaceous and terrene 
 vestment necessarily lives on the earth, so likewise 
 when it attracts a moist spirit, it is necessarily sur- 
 rounded with the image. But it attracts moisture 
 when it continually endeavours to associate with 
 nature, whose operations are effected in moisture, and 
 which are rather under than upon the earth : when, 
 however the soul earnestly desires to depart from 
 nature, {i.e. strives to penetrate centrally without ex- 
 ploring the intermediate spheres,) then she becomes a 
 dry splendour without shadow and without a cloud or 
 mist. For moisture gives subsistence to a mist in the 
 air ; but dryness constitutes a dry splendour from ex- 
 halation.^ Hence that renowned saying of Heraclitus, 
 that a dry soul is the wisest, for the soul looking at 
 things posterior to herself beholds the shadow and 
 images of her vaporous vehicle ; but when she is con- 
 verted to herself, she evolves her proper essences and 
 irradiates the whole circumference with her own abun- 
 dant oxygenating and dispersive light. ^ Thus Hermes : 
 Extract from the ray its shadow and its obscurity, by 
 which the clouds hang over it, and corrupt and keep 
 away the light ; by means of its constriction, also, and 
 tiery redness it is burned ; take, my son, this watery 
 and corrupted nature, which is as a coal holding the 
 fire, which if thou shalt withdraw so often until the 
 redness is made pure, then it will associate with thee, 
 by whom it was cherished and in whom it rests. -^ 
 
 Visitabis interiora terra? rectificaudo, invenies 
 Occultum lapidem, veram mediciuam. 
 
 Visit the interiors of the earth rectifying, says the 
 sage, and thou shalt find the hidden Stone, the true 
 
 ^ Au.vil. to Intelligib. sect. 1. 
 
 - Proclus on tlie Theology of Plato, book i. cap. iii. 
 
 ^ Tract. Aur. cap. ii. 
 
The Mysteries. 203 
 
 medicine : not the feculent dead soil, but our dark di- 
 vulsed chaotic life from sense, which opened and recti- 
 fied, dissolved and reunited, is changed from an earthly 
 to a spiritual body, by rapport divine. In such a pro- 
 cess it would seem the Alchemists discovered the hidden 
 principles of nature, as, experimentally passing through 
 the animal and vegetable into the mineral circulation of 
 her Law, they describe the life of all things here below 
 to be a thick fire imprisoned in a certain incombustible 
 aerial moisture ; — Ignis ruber super dorsum ignis can- 
 didi — which moisture in its native state, before it is pu- 
 rified by the inflowing light of reason, is that Hades 
 we are treating of, the Purgatory of the wise, wherein 
 the consciousness, becoming artificially wrapped by the 
 Mysteries, continues for a while in a state of solicitude 
 and painful amazement, unable of itself to discover, 
 through so great a cloud of darkness, that Hypostatic 
 Reality towards which it is instructed evermore to as- 
 pire. And until this attraction is found and finally 
 established in union, the opposive powers display their 
 mutual forces in discordant dissolute array, as the Al- 
 chemists, with all who have been profoundly experi- 
 enced in this ground, relate each in his own instruc- 
 tive way, warning about the conduct through it, and 
 the many real, though chimerical horrors and entic- 
 ing phantoms that haunt around, guarding the secret 
 chamber of their mineral soul. For, as the sage in 
 Enoch declares it, lead and tin are not produced from 
 earth as the primary fountain of their production ; but 
 there is an angel standing upon it, and that angel 
 struggles to prevail.^ 
 
 Vaughan notes the same in the Regio P hantastica 
 of his Hieroglyphic, and elsewhere, speaking of the 
 mineral nature or First Matter, he says, The eye of man 
 never saw her twice under one and the same shape ; 
 but as clouds driven by the wind are forced to this and 
 that figure, but cannot possibly retain one constant 
 form, so is she persecuted by the fire of nature;^ as, 
 
 ^ Book of Enoch, chap. Ixiv. 7, 8. 
 
 2 Lumen de Lumine, Introd. Coehim Terrse, page 90. 
 
204 More Esoteric View. 
 
 by the re-entering Light of Reason in the Mysteries, 
 which is that Sulphur of adepts, causing all this mani- 
 fold scenery in the disruption of life. O Nature ! the 
 most wonderful creatrix of natures, cries Hermes, which 
 containest and separatest all things in a middle prin- 
 ciple. Our Stone comes with light and with light it 
 is generated, and then it brings forth the clouds, and 
 darkness which is the mother of all things.^ Ray- 
 mond Lully, also, in his Compeiidiinn of Alchemy, calls 
 the first principles of the Art, Spiritus fugitivos in sere 6Ui/iz 
 condensatos, in forma monstrorum diversoruni et 
 animalium etiam hominum, qui vadunt sicut nubes, 
 modo hinc modo illuc ; that is to say, certain fugitive 
 spirits condensed in the air, in shape of divers mon- 
 sters, beasts, and men, which move like clouds hither 
 and thither. 
 
 In an outward acceptation such an announcement of 
 principles would be absurd, or what possible interpre- 
 tation could aftbrd them a place in common sense ? or 
 whence, if they be true, (and Lully's name stands well 
 for their defence,) were they so probably brought to the 
 cognizance of the philosopher, as from the self-inspec- 
 tion of them in life ? But Lully, indeed, calls these 
 chaotic forms first principles ; not because they are 
 permanent or their essence rational, in that unctuous 
 dark condition, but because within the material ex- 
 treme of this life, when it is purified, the Seed of the 
 Spirit is at last found : which the adept further de- 
 scribes asy^ a decompounded ens, extremely heavy, 
 shining through the darkness like a fiery star, being 
 full of eyes like pearls or aglets. For it is the whole 
 O/ Dem^gorgon, as yet not actually animated by contact 
 of his own returning light. The father of it, says 
 Vaughan, is a certain inviolable mass, for the parts of 
 it are so firmly united you can neither pound them to 
 dust, nor separate them by violence of fire.^ This is 
 the rock in the wilderness, because in great obscurity 
 and difficult to find the way of, compassed about with 
 
 ' Tract Aur. cap. iii. ^ Lumen dc Lumine, p. 
 
 68. 
 
The Mysteries. 205 
 
 darkness, clouds, and exhalations, as it were dwelling 
 in the bowels of the earth. — Our viscous soul, as 
 Synesius calls it, circulating in the midst of all her 
 Adamical defilements, and which Plato compares to 
 that marine Glaucus so deformed by the foreign 
 weeds and parasites that had grown about him, that in 
 every respect he resembled a beast rather than what 
 he really was.^ In such a deplorable condition is the 
 divine germ of humanity said to be beheld under the 
 thousand evils of its birth. 
 
 Monstrum, horrendum, informe, ingens cui lumen ademptum. 
 
 There is a curious figurative account given in a 
 letter circulcated under the name of the Brethren of the 
 Rosy Cross, which appears to have reference to this 
 passage of initiatory progress in the Mysteries. It 
 may be rendered thus : — 
 
 There is a mountain situated in the midst of the 
 earth or centre of the world, which is both amall and 
 great. It is soft also above measure, hard, and 
 strong. It is far off, and near at hand ; but, by the 
 providence of God, it is invisible. In it are hidden 
 most ample treasures, which the world is not able to 
 value. This mountain, by env)^ of the Devil, who 
 always opposes the glory of God and the felicity of 
 man, is compassed about with very cruel beasts and 
 ravenous birds, which make the way thither both diffi- 
 cult and dangerous ; and therefore, hitherto, because 
 the time is not yet come, the way thither could not be 
 sought after by all ; but only by the worthy man's 
 self-labour and investigation. 
 
 To this mountain you shall go in a certain night, 
 when it comes most long and dark ; and see that you 
 •pre'pare yourselves by prayer. Insist upon the way 
 that leads to the mountain, but ask not of any man 
 where it lies ; only follow your guide who will offer 
 himself to you and will meet you in the way.^ 
 
 ^ Republic, book vii. 
 
 ' Themistius relates how, when cnterino- the mystic dome, tlie 
 
206 More Esoteric View. 
 
 This guide will bring you to the mountain at mid- 
 night, when all things are silent and dark. It is neces- 
 sary that you arm yourself with a resolute heroic 
 courage, lest you fear those things that will happen 
 and fall back.^ You need no sword or other bodily 
 weapon, only call upon your God, sincerely and heartily 
 seeking Him. 
 
 When you have discovered the mountain, the first 
 miracle that will appear is this ; a most vehement and 
 very gi'eat wind that will shake the whole mountain and 
 shatter the rocks to pieces. You will be encountered 
 by lions, dragons, and other terrible wild beasts ; but 
 fear not any of these things.'^ Be resolute, and take 
 heed that you return not, for your guide who brought 
 you thither will not suffer any evil to befall you. As 
 for the treasure, it is not yet discovered ; but it is very 
 near. After this wind will come an earthquake, which 
 will overthrow those things which the wind had left. 
 Be sure you fall not off. The earthqitakehe'mg passed, 
 there shall follow a Jire that will consume the earthly 
 rubbish, and discover the treasure: but as yet you 
 
 initiated is seized at first with solicitude and perplexity, unable to 
 move a step forward, at a loss to find the entrance to that road 
 which is to lead him to the place which he desires ; till the 
 conductor, laying open for him the vestibule, he enters &c. — See 
 Warburton's Divine Legation, the Extract, vol. 1, p. 309. So the 
 Sybil for ^Eneas. 
 
 Ille duecm hand timidis vadentem passibus aequat. 
 
 Tlie adepts, many of them, are at some pains to denote the 
 peculiar disposition and appearance of this guide, and the Chal- 
 daic oracle promises that the mortal, approaching to fire, will 
 have a light from divinity. 
 
 ' Nunc auimis opus, -^nea, nunc peetore firmo. ^Eneid, lib. vi. 
 260. 
 
 ^ Multaque pr.Tterea variarum monstra ferarum 
 Centauri in foribus stabulant Scyll?eque bilbrmes, 
 Et centumgeminus Briareus, ac BeUua Lernje 
 Horrendum stridens, flammisque armata Chimera; 
 Gorgones, Harpyiaeque et forma tricorporis umbrae. 
 Corripit hie subita trepidus formidine ferrum 
 ^Eneas, strictamque aciem venientibus ofFert. 
 Et ni docta comes, &c. Idem, 285. 
 
The Mysteries. 207 
 
 cannot see it.^ After all these things, and near day- 
 break, there shall be a great calm, and you shall see 
 the day-star arise, and the darkness will disappear ; 
 you will conceive a great treasure ; the chiefest thing, 
 and the most perfect, is a certain exalted tincture with 
 which the world, if it served God and were worthy of 
 such gifts, might be tinged and turned into most pure 
 gold. 
 
 And thus much of the concordance of these famous 
 Christian philosophers who, if they had not promised 
 gold, and proclaimed prodigies after an entertaining 
 Arabian Nights' fashion, would never, probably, have 
 been thought of by the world, or inquired after, as 
 they were, over Europe during the last century, but 
 without success. For they who have this knowledge 
 know where and how likewise to bestow it, discerning 
 betwixt the lovers of mammon and of truth. Fearing 
 the dangerous curiosity of the vulgar herd also, we 
 observe, the Greeks pass by in silence the physical 
 revealments of these Tartarean realms, or, poetizing 
 the great experience, evaporate in fancy, as it were, 
 the teeming life therein opened with its overflowing 
 spirit and light of increase. 
 
 Let none admire 
 That riches grow in hell ; that soil may best 
 Deserve the precious bane ; and here let those 
 "Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell 
 Of Babel and the works of Memphian kings, 
 Learn how the greatest monuments of fame 
 And strength and art are easily outdone 
 By spirits reprobate.^ 
 
 And further, how these again may be surpassed and 
 vanish, as Aladdin's rapid castle into air, before the 
 
 1 Through fire the divine oracles more plainly teach, that those 
 stains are all finally obliterated that accede to the soul from gene- 
 ration and which conceal the immortal principle in unconscious 
 oblivion for the sake of vivifying the mortal sense. But the 
 inquisitive light once entering as a ferment combats and pene- 
 trates through the surrounding darkness until meeting its proper 
 pole, and conjointly kindling with it, absorbs, transmutes, and 
 
 2 Milton's Paradise Lost, book i. 676. 
 
h 
 
 208 More Esoteric View. 
 
 discriminative radiance of celestial light. And as in 
 the pursuit of other sciences and arts, thought, and 
 persevering labour and experience are required to 
 ensure success, so should those delusive visions and 
 errors which occur during the conscious transference 
 to a more excellent condition of being be considered, 
 in like manner, not as derogatory or casting a doubt 
 at all upon the ultimate truths of divine science, but 
 as obstacles rather contrary to it i»id^e»3se, as evil 
 is to good everywhere adverse. 
 
 We do not, therefore, linger here any more to con- 
 sider the different allotments, the longer or shorter 
 periods wdiich engage pure or impure souls in Hades, 
 their habits or the triple path arising from their es- 
 sences, all which is indicated in the Platonic discourses, 
 and most of which abound with sj^mbolical theories 
 and poetical descriptions concerning the descent, as- 
 cent, and intermediate wanderings, expiatory punish- 
 ment and sacrifices, and things of a similar import, 
 which the rites enjoined, before the aspirants, by the 
 Greeks called JMustai, were passed on by the Hiero- 
 phant of the inner temple to its immortal abode : for 
 such was Tartarus, the next beyond Hades, according 
 to the Ethnics, the alone eternal hypostasis to be 
 redeemed from thence, from the oblivious realms of 
 generation, into the Elysian recollection of Wisdom in 
 the highest consciousness. But the soul is said to be 
 in Hades all the while that her hypostasis continues 
 in darkness ; that is, we would say, whilst she regards 
 her image objectively, before attaining to the experi- 
 mental knowledge. And here the Lesser Mysteries 
 
 occultates the surrounding medium into its own abyssal life. 
 See Tract. Aureus, cap. iv. Burn the brasen body with an exceed- 
 ing strong fire, &c. ; and Eccles. cap. iv. vei'se 28. Go forth, and 
 stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord 
 passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and 
 brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord ; but the Lord was 
 not in the wind : and after the wind an earthquake ; but the Lord 
 was not in the earthquake ; and after the earthquake a fire, but 
 the Lord was not in the fire : and after the fire, a small still voice. 
 1 Kings xix. 11, 12. 
 
THE MYSTERIES. 209 
 
 ended ; the soul, as it were, on the borders of the 
 Stygian lake in view of Tartarus, wdiich Euripides has 
 elegantly styled also " a dream of death." 
 
 And the conformity between death and this next 
 initiation, is strikingly exhibited in a passage preserved 
 by Stoboeus from an ancient record ; it has been well 
 rendered by Dr. Warburton, and runs thus : — The 
 mind is affected and agitated in death, just as it is in 
 initiation into the Grand Mysteries. And word answers 
 to word, as well as thing to thing : for TEAETTAN is 
 to die, and TEAEI^OAI is to be initiated; the first 
 stage is nothing but errors and uncertainties ; labour- 
 ings, wanderings, and darkness. And now, arrived on 
 the verge of death and initiation, everything wears a 
 dreadful aspect ; it is all horror, trembling, sweating, 
 and affrightment. But this scene once over, a mi- 
 raculous and divine light displays itself, and shining 
 plains, and flowery meadows, open on all hands before 
 them. Here they are entertained with hymns and 
 dances, and with sublime and sacred knowledges, and 
 with reverend and holy visions. And now become 
 perfect and initiated, they are free, and no longer un- 
 der restraint ; but crowned and triumphant, they walk 
 up and down in the regions of the Blessed.^ 
 
 But all, during the transition, is described as wear- 
 ing a fearful aspect ; and dread fills the soul about to 
 relinquish her natal bond in life ; neither may it be 
 irrelevant to call in mind that repeated advice of 
 Solomon, that — the Fear of God is the beginning of 
 Wisdom ; — as the spiritual regard in the mysteries, al- 
 ready involuted, and drawing towards its end, with awe, 
 begins to perceive itself in that Identic Source, And 
 shall we not believe that it was out of the same inti- 
 mate experience that the son of Sirach, inciting men to 
 search after the Divine Wisdom, confesses, that — at 
 first she will walk with him by crooked ways, and bring 
 fear and dread upon him, and torment him with her dis- 
 ciplines, until she may trust his soul, and try him by 
 her law? Then she will return the straight way unto 
 
 1 Divine Legation, vol. i. p. 342. 
 P 
 
210 More Esoteric View. 
 
 him, says the Divine teacher, and comfort him, and 
 show him her Secret. The root of Wisdom, is to fear 
 the Lord, and the branches thereof are long life ; 
 strive for the truth, even unto death, and the Lord 
 shall fight for thee.^ So, likewise, we read, that 
 there is in Alchemy a certain noble body, which is 
 moved from one lord to another ; in the beginning of 
 which there is suffering with vinegar ; but, in the end, 
 joy with exultation O happy gate of Blackness ! 
 cries the adept, which art the passage to so glonous a 
 change ! Study, therefore, whoever appUest thyself to 
 this art, only to know this secret ; for to know this, 
 indeed, is to know all, but to be ignorant of this, is to 
 be ignorant of all. Take away, therefore, the vapour 
 from the water, and the blackness from the oily t'mc- 
 tiire, and death from the faces ; and by Dissolution 
 thou shalt possess a triumphant reward, even that in 
 and by which the possessors live/^ 
 
 In the beginning of Phcedo, Plato, by Socrates, as- 
 serts, that it is the business of philosophers to study 
 how to be dead. Plotinus, at the same time repro- 
 bating suicide, has the same doctrine ; but Porphyry, 
 in his Auxiliaries to the Perception of Intelligible Na- 
 tui^es, explains the meaning of these others ; for there 
 is, says he, a twofold death, the one indeed universally 
 known, in which the body is liberated from the soul ; 
 but the other peculiar to philosophers, in which the 
 soul is liberated from the body : nor does the one en- 
 tirely follow the other. That which nature binds, 
 nature also dissolves ; that which the soul binds, the 
 soul likewise can dissolve : nature, indeed, binds the 
 body to the soul, but the soul binds herself to the 
 body. Nature therefore liberates the body from the 
 soul, but the soul may also liberate herself from the 
 body.^ That is to say, if she know how, and have the 
 right disposition awarded, she may dissolve her own 
 
 ' Ecclesiasticus, chap. i. v. 20 ; chap. iv. v. 17, 18, 28. 
 
 2 Hermes, Tract. Aur. cap. ii. Eiplcy Eevived, 5th gate, p. 
 357. 
 
 3 Aux. to Intel!, sect. 1, S, 9. 
 
The Mysteries. 211 
 
 conceptive vehicle, even the parental bond, and return 
 consciously (the elementarj'- principles remaining, nor 
 yet suffered to depart) , under the dominion of another 
 law to life. That was the^" precious death," spoken of 
 by the Hebrews and Academics, this the " happy gate 
 of blackness" celebrated by the old adepts, the " head 
 of Hermes' crow," which is in the beginning of the 
 work ; that which was fixed, viz. the sensual compact, 
 is dissolved, and that which is dissolved is renovated, 
 and hence the corruption and evil of mortality is made 
 manifest in the ultimate circulation of the matter to be 
 renewed, and on either side it is a signal of Art. And 
 all without destruction to the mortal body (if perhaps 
 some one values this), the willing life was made to pass 
 out of its present oblivious fall, through regeneration, 
 into the reminiscent consciousness of her Causal Source, 
 As the truth-telling Oracle again declares that, 
 
 If tliou extend the fiery mind to the work of piety, 
 Thou shalt preserve the fluxible body likewise. 
 
 Even through death, re-entering into and fortifying 
 it with the elixir of an immortal life. Orandum est ut 
 sit mens sana in corpore sano. 
 
 Seek thou the way of the soul, 
 
 Whence and by what order, having served the body, 
 The same from which thou dost flow, thou must return 
 And rise up again, joining action to sacred speech.^ 
 
 Suppose any one beginning at the top of an artificial 
 edifice, should undertake to decompose it stone by 
 stone, setting all aside, with the dirt and rubbish, as 
 he proceeds, he would at last come to the earth which 
 is at the foundation, and have space to build up anew ; 
 and thus it would appear to be in the Hermetic pro- 
 cess. If any one should take the natural life as it 
 presents itself, opening and analyzing the parts thereof, 
 spiritually and wisely, one from another, graciously, 
 as the mandate runs,^ — Terra ab igni, subtile a spisso, 
 suaviter cum multaingenio, — he would arrive finally at ii 
 the basement, wherein is hidden the true alkaline ori- 
 
 ^ Oracula Chaldaica. 
 p 2 
 
212 More Esoteric View. 
 
 ginal of life in its threefold essence separately con- 
 tained. And this, the adept tells us, is the syllogism it 
 best behov^es us to look after ; for he that has once 
 passed the Aquaster, and entered the Fire World, sees 
 what is both invisible and incredible to common men. 
 He shall discover the miraculous conspiracy that is 
 between the Prester and the Sun, the external and in- 
 ternal fire of life, the thing desiring and the thing 
 desired. He shall know the secret love of heaven and 
 earth, and why all influx of fire descends against the 
 nature of fire, and comes from above downwards, until 
 having found a body, it reascends therewith in perpe- 
 tual interchange. He shall know, continues the adept, 
 and see how the Fire Spirit has its root in the spiritual 
 fire earth, and receives fi'om it a secret influx upon 
 which it feeds. A body immarcessible, than which 
 there is nothing more ancient, vigorous, and young. 
 / , The Salt of Saturn, that most abstruse principle of the 
 O / Stone — the most ancient Demj(gorgon — sethere dempto 
 / — deprived of light, whose perpetual motion emanates 
 
 the first material universe, and is the mineral soul. 
 This is the earth, distinguished by Anaxagoras, which 
 abiding durably in the centre, " hangs loftily," but its 
 Being is Tartarus ; 
 
 And the liglit hating world, and the winding currents 
 
 T3y wliich many tilings are swallowed up. 
 Stoop not down, for a precipice lies below in the earth; 
 Drawing thro' the ladder whicli hath seven steps, 
 Beneath which is the throne of Necessity. 
 Enlarge not thou thy destiny. 
 The soul will, after a manner, clasp God to herself.^ 
 
 As Porphyry, in our motto head, declares that — it is 
 necessary that the soul when purified should associate 
 with its Generator ; and the virtue of it after this con- 
 version is said to consist in a scientific knowledge of 
 true Being, which cannot be obtained either otherwise 
 or without such a conversion. 
 
 ^ Oracula Chaldaica. 
 
The Mysteries. 213 
 
 O beatam quisquis felix gnarus Dei 
 
 Sacrorum, vitam piat ; 
 
 Ac aiiimam initiat Orgygis 
 
 Bacclians in montibus, 
 
 Sacris purus lustrationibus.^ 
 
 But, perhaps, inquisitive reader, you will very anx- 
 iously ask, what was said and done? I would tell 
 you, replies the Epidaurian, if it could he lawfully 
 told. But hoth the ears and tongue are guilty of in- 
 discretion. Nevertheless, I will not keep you in sus- 
 pense with religious desire, nor torment you with a long 
 continued anxiety. Hear, therefore, but beheve what 
 is true : The priest, then, all the profane being re- 
 moved, taking me by the hand, brought me to the 
 penetralia of the temple. / approached the coujines 
 of death, and, having trod the threshold of Proserpine, 
 I returned from it, being carried through all the Ele- 
 ments. At mid/no'ht I saw the Sun shinino; with a 
 splendid light ; and I manifestly drew near to the gods 
 above and beneath, and proximately adored them. 
 Behold I have narrated to you things of which, though 
 heard, it is nevertheless necessary that you should be 
 ignorant.^ 
 
 By no explanation, nor any familiar analogy do 
 we here presume to aid the natural intellect to a con- 
 ception that transcends it, and which can only be at- 
 tained through the identical experience. Yet reason 
 may, does perceive it, but abstractly only as an infer- 
 ence ; yet it is her true Hypostasis, for which, as Isis 
 for Osiris, she is constantly seeking, her objective 
 reality in the Great Unknown. The rude uneducated 
 reason, however, which serves sensibles without reflec- 
 tion, will not understand ; but that only which, seeing 
 something more in causation than mere antecedence, 
 can ii mag itte into the intelligible substance of her Law. A^ifZtC* 
 For there the true Efficient is to be found, which is 
 not externally developed ; but^ becoming conjoined in 
 consciousness, the soul knows herself as a Whole 
 
 1 Euripides iu Baccliis. 
 
 ^ Apuleius Metam. book xi. 
 
214 More Esoteric View. 
 
 which before knew but a part only of her human 
 nature ; and proceeding thus, by theurgic assistance, 
 arrives at her desired end, and participating of Deity, 
 perceives then and knows, as Plotinus gracefully ex- 
 presses it, that the supplier of life is present ; and free 
 from all external perturbation and desire, percipiently 
 included in the circular necessity of her Law, believes 
 its revelation which is her very self. 
 
 This is the Iiitroapection which Psellus speaks of, as 
 distinguished from the Superinspectmi which takes 
 place in Hades. When the initiated person sees the 
 Divine Light itself without any form or figure; this the 
 oracle calls Sacro Sancto, for that is seen with a beauty 
 by sacred persons, and glides up and down pleasantly 
 through the depths of the world. This will not de- 
 ceive ; but as the Oracle in fine advises. 
 
 When tliou seest a Fire without Eonu, 
 Shining flashingly through the deptlis of the World, 
 Hear the voice of Fire.^ 
 
 The same solemn and articulate instruction is given 
 in an Indian record, translated by Sir William Jones, 
 as follows : — Except the First Cause, whatever may 
 appear or may not appear in the mind, know that to 
 be the mind's maya (or image or delusion) as of light 
 or darkness ; as the great elements are in various 
 beings entering, yet not entering, thus AM I, in them 
 and yet not in them ; even thus far may inquiry be 
 made by him who seeks to know the pyiuciple of mind 
 in union and separation, which must be every where and 
 always.'^ And in the book of Deuteronomy, fourth chap- 
 ter, the unfigured form of the Divine Essence, is noted 
 in several places ; and in the book of Zohar, it is ex- 
 
 ^ Quando videris forma sine sacram igneam 
 Colhicentum saltatim totius per profundum mundi, 
 Audi Ignis Vocem. 
 
 Oracula Chaldaica, in fine. 
 
 ■^ Asiatic Eesoarches, vol. i. p 211. 
 
The Mysteries. 215 
 
 plained, that before the descent into creation thuDivinu -Dotrxyy^^* 
 Nntm'p has no form, and therefore it was forbidden to 
 represent JKim under any image whatever, ev^en so 
 much as a letter or point, and in this sense we are to 
 understand the mandate, — Take good heed unto your- 
 selves, for ye saw no manner of simihtude on the day 
 that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the 
 midst of the fire.^ 
 
 But then the revelations we have here gathered 
 (and which are but a small part indeed of what has 
 been described of the visions, and awful accompani- 
 ments which took place in the celebration of the 
 Greater Mysteries) have been explained away as trifling 
 exhibitions ; orreries, as some say, contrived after the 
 fashion of Walker's or Lloyd's Eidouranion ; by those 
 unfigured lights, it has been argued, were meant aste- 
 roids, whilst the figured are supposed agreeably to re- 
 present constellations of stars, grouped together in a 
 more defined form. The whole, in fact, has been re- 
 garded as a moving panorama and illusory display of 
 lights. But what extreme of trifling or fantastic folly 
 has not modern imagination ascribed to the ancient 
 mind? and how commonly mistaken and useless do 
 not its best relics remain, for want of a corresponding 
 intelligence in latter times? Allegories of recondite 
 experience, truthful fables, symbols replete with in- 
 struction and refined emblems of art, have been either 
 trivially interpreted, or condemned as futile without 
 appeal ; even those life-bound mysteries, those dis- / . / 
 ciplines, purifications, sacred and primordial rites have / ^ / 
 gone for notliing, or as good for nothing, whilst As- 
 tronomy has been the imputed spirit of the whole. 
 
 On risk of some ridicule, therefore, and dilettanti 
 scorn, we continue by our clue, leaving the darker 
 scenes of life's drama, to look beyond even upon / / 
 that beautiful sun-lit horizon of the Majidaurentian, / ^^ / 
 rising to intellectual radiance, as of the real life. Thus 
 Proclus says, that to the wise indeed all things possess 
 
 ^ Deuteronomy, chap. iv. v. 15. Zohar, part ii. 
 
216 More Esoteric View. 
 
 a silent and arcane tendency ; and Intellect is excited 
 to the Beautiful with astonishment and motion : for 
 the illuuiination from it and its efficacy, acutely i)cr- 
 vade through every soul, and as being the most similar 
 of all things to the Good, it converts every soul that 
 surveys it. The soul also, beholding that which is 
 arcane, shining forth as it were to view, rejoices in and 
 admires that Vvhich sees, and is astonished about it. 
 And as in the most holy IMysteries, prior to the mystic 
 spectacles, those who are initiated are said to be seized 
 with astonishment and dread, so in Intelligibles, prior 
 to the participation of the Good, Beauty shining forth 
 astonishes those that behold it, converts the soul to 
 itself, and being established in the vestibules (of the 
 good) shows what that is which is in the adyta, and 
 what the transcendency is of occult being. Through 
 these things, therefore, concludes the philosopher, let 
 it be apparent whence Beauty originates, and how it 
 lirst shines forth, and also that Animal (life) itself is 
 the most beautiful of all intelligibles.^ But Apuleius 
 no less directly indicates the nature of his own mys- 
 terious revelation where, speaking of the Intellectual 
 contact which the wise have proved, when they were 
 separated from body, through the energies of mind, he 
 says, (calling his divine master also to witness), that 
 this knowledge sometimes shines forth with a most 
 rapid corruscation like a bright and clear light in the 
 most profound darkness.^ And Plato himself, speak- 
 ing in like manner of the Intellectual Intuition, in his 
 seventh Epistle, writes that from long converse with 
 the thing itself, accompanied by a life in conformity to 
 it, on a sudden a light, as it were a leaping fire, will 
 be enkindled in the soul, and will there itself nourish 
 itself.^ And heaven, he adds in another place is the 
 kindled intelhgence of the First Intelligible, and sight 
 looking to things above is heaven."* And the sense of 
 
 ^ Proclus on the Theology of Plato, vol. i. book iii. chap, xviii. 
 2 On the God of Socrates, in init. 
 •■' Epistle vii. ; Taylor, vol. v. 
 ■* The Cratylus, and in Timeas. 
 
The Mysteries. 217 
 
 sight is celebrated by all these, therefore, as not only 
 beautiful and useful for the purposes of this life ; but 
 as a leader in the acquisition of Wisdom. For is it not 
 that very light which in us looks out beaming in our 
 eyes that, directed within, and being purified also, and 
 scientifically inquiring, discovers at last that other 
 light which is the substance of its own, until light 
 meeting light apprehends itself alone ? 
 
 While thro' the middle of life's boisterous waves, 
 Thy soiil robust the deep's deaf tumult braves, 
 Oft beaming from the god's thy piercing sight. 
 Beholds in paths oblique a sacred light. 
 Whence rapt from sense with energy divine. 
 Before her eye immortal splendors shine, 
 Whose plenteous rays in darkness most profound, 
 Thy steps directed and illumined round. 
 Nor was the vision like the dreams of sleep. 
 But seen whUst vigUant you brave the deep ; 
 While from your eyes you shake the gloom of night, 
 The glorious prospect bursts upon your sight. ^ 
 
 Open the compound creature ; look upon the ele- 
 ments ; divide the elements, and you shall find the 
 quintessential nature : open this, continues the adept, 
 and you shall conceive the subtle altereity of the an- 
 gelical spirit in which is the divine act, and immediate 
 beam or Wisdom from God. In this work, therefore, 
 there concurreth in the separation of the first, a sen- 
 sible aspect, in the other we behold with intellectual 
 eyes, so that you may observe how all is in everything, 
 and everything in all. As Hermes alludes : Qui for- 
 nacem cum vase nostro construit, novum mundum 
 conflat. He that maketh a furnace with our glass to 
 it maketh a new world ;^ — a new hypostasis, and a new 
 stone, — even that Stone of the Apocalypse, the true 
 crystalline rock without spot or darkness, that re- 
 nowned Terra Maga in eethere clarificata, which carries 
 in its belly wind and fire. Having got this fundamen- 
 tal of a little new w^orld, says Vaughan, unite the 
 
 1 Porphyry's Hymn to Plotinus, Select Works, Preface. 
 - See Fludd's Mosaica, circa medio. 
 
218 More Esoteric View. 
 
 heaven in triple proportion to the earth, and then 
 apply a generative heat to both, and they will attract 
 from above the atar-Jire of nature. So hast thou the 
 p:lory of the whole world, therefore let all obscurity 
 tiee before thee.^ This is the true Astrum Solis gotten 
 and conceived, the mineral spiritual San which is the 
 Perpetual Motion of the wise, and that Saturnian Salt 
 which, develo})ed to intellect and made erect, subdues , 
 all nature to his will. For it is the whole Demjjfgorgon, C . 
 now actually animated, which before w^as made visible 
 without its subject light ; but at length becoming 
 ignited, reflects from out the dark abyss of being, as 
 a luciferous wheel, with its radiant sections, all com- 
 LriutJiCLUT^S i)rehending in their Law, as the Oracle again-bes ponkc > 
 
 Fire, the derivation and dispenser of Fire, 
 Whose hair pointed is seen in his native Light : 
 Hence comes Saturn. 
 The Sun Assessor beholding the Pure Pole. 
 
 And this we take to be that midnight Sun of Apu- 
 Icius, the ignited Stone of Anaxagoras, (for which that 
 philosopher has suffered such abundant disrepute, 
 under error that his allusion was to the luminary of 
 this world). This is the triumphal Chariot of Anti- 
 mony, the Armed Magnet of Hclvetius turned swiftly 
 about the current axle of life, which is the Wheel of 
 Fire signalized in Ezekiel, seen by the Hebrew pro- 
 y phets, Moses, David, and Zachariah ; the Fiery 
 Puiy^m/^i^ Chariot of the Cabul , called IMercaba, in which all 
 things are transfigured ; and this is the Stone with 
 the new name written in the Revelation and that Salt 
 which the Saviour orders that we should have it in 
 ourselves ; and is the same with the Prester of Zoro- 
 aster which in the Chaldean sense means the Fire 
 Spirit of Life, and is that Identity in all which sus- 
 tains all by the efflux of His power — the supernatural 
 centre of every living thing, the infinitely powerful 
 and all-efficient making power. 
 
 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
 
 ^ Anima Magia, p. 50 ; TabuLa Smaragdina Hermetis. 
 
A^e 
 
 The Mysteries. 219 
 
 with God, and the Word was God. The same was in 
 the beginning with God. All things were made by 
 Him ; and without Him was not any thing made that 
 was made. In Him was Life ; and the Life was the 
 Light of men. And the Light shineth in Darkness and 
 the Darkness comprehended it not.^ 
 
 And that Light shining in darkness, if men had ^ 
 never known, how should they have asserted, -#r do <^ 
 theologians invent such things in the present day ? 
 Neither did they formerly invent, but what they knew 
 and had seen declared. — To as many as received the 
 Spirit to them gave he power to become the sons of 
 God, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of 
 the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. — This 
 therefore is that Power which is hidden in man, the 
 true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into 
 the world, if haply one might feel after Him and find 
 Him. An enchanted treasury known only to the 
 w^isely simple who have subdued their will to the Law 
 of Wisdom, as Abraham did, as soon as he had gotten 
 the creature into his hands. ^ 
 
 We omit many things here relating to the mystical 
 death and regeneration, which may be better under- 
 stood when we come to treat of the manifestation of 
 the Philosophic Subject ; adding merely at present, in 
 conclusion from our doctors, that the grand perfection 
 of their Art was to multiply the Prester and place him 
 in the most supreme Ether, which is that Augean 
 palace already prepared for him in the beginning ; 
 where, as in a suitable habitation, he abides shining, not 
 burning as below, or wrathful ; but vital, calm, trans- 
 muting, recreating, and no longer a Consuming Fire. 
 Intellige in scientia et sapias intelligentia : 
 experire in tllis, et investiga illa, et nota, et 
 cogita, et imaginare, et statue rem in integri- 
 
 TATE SUA ET FAC SEDERE CrEATOREM IN THRONO 
 SUO.^ 
 
 1 St. John's Gospel, chap. i. 
 €A/ 2 Z^bii^ Jezirah, in fine. 
 
 ^ Idem, Liber de Creatione, Authore Abraham, cap. i. 
 
220 More Esoteric View 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Jlli/stcries concluded. 
 
 It behoves thee to hasten to the Light, and to the beams of the 
 Father from Avhence vras sent to thee a sonl clothed with much 
 mind. — Zoroastri Oracula, Anima, Corjms, Homo. 
 
 IT is known concerning Hercules, that he performed 
 his last labour in the Hesperidian region, and 
 Olympiodorus, in his Commentary on the Gorgias of 
 Plato, informs us what we are to understand by this. 
 It is necessary to know, says he, that islands stand out 
 of, as being higher than the sea ; a condition of be- 
 ing, therefore, which transcends this corporeal life and 
 generation is denominated the Islands of the Blessed ; 
 and these are the same with the Elysian Fields. 
 Hence Hercules is said to have accomplished his last 
 labour in the Hesperidian region ; signifying by this, 
 that having vanquished an obscure and terrestrial life, 
 he afterwards lived in open day.^ For he dragged up 
 Cerberus from hell, that is to say, he liberated the 
 whole individual entity through a threefold evolution 
 from the bond of its earthly geniture, and established 
 it finally in the most exalted life. And those golden 
 apples were a part also of the reward of his arcane and 
 telestic labours; which Theseus, before him, was un- 
 able to finish, being detained by his passions in the sea of 
 sense. So Proclus understands the allegory, where he 
 says that, being purified by sacred institutions and 
 enjoying undefiled fruits, Hercules at length obtained 
 an establishment among the gods. 
 
 Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere Causas, 
 Atque metus omnes et inexorabile Fatum 
 Subjecit Pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari ! 
 
 Nature indeed, as a beneficent mother, offers the 
 
 1 See Taylor's notes to hid rausanias, vol. iii. p. 215, the extract. 
 
The Mysteries. 221 
 
 rich treasury of life to all, and the universal Father, 
 it is said, keeps the gate of the fatal cavern open for 
 the convenience of mankind. The descent, therefore, 
 is allowed on all hands to be easy ; but the ascent 
 otherwise, the gate indeed being so narrow, close, and 
 difficult to discern, that there be few, and they im- 
 mortals only, that are able to pass through. The allu- 
 sion to these gates is frequent in antiquity, and that of 
 Homer in the thirteenth book of the Odyssey, describ- 
 ing the cave in Ithaca has been the subject of many 
 comments. 
 
 A lofty gate unfolds on either side, 
 
 That to the North is pervious to mankind. 
 
 The Sacred South t' immortals is consigned. 
 
 That the poet does not narrate these particulars 
 from historical information or misinformation either is 
 very evident. For neither if there had been any geo- 
 graphical ground for such a description, could he have 
 hoped to gain belief for the persistent allegory, thus 
 artificially opening up a path to gods and men in the 
 region of Ithaca. But the wise Porphyry, after com- 
 bating many erroneous opinions, explains that where- 
 as the northern gate pertains to souls descending into 
 the realms of generation, and the "ftortbe^n- to souls ■^i 
 ascending to divinity ; we ought to obsei-ve, on this 
 account, that Homer does not say indeed that this last 
 is a passage of the gods but of immortals : signifying 
 by this, souls wdiich are per se, that is to say, essen- 
 tially immortal.^ For nothing but the subtlety of an 
 immortal essence, and that by regeneration, can pass 
 into immortality. And here we may better conceive, per- 
 haps, the value of that Golden Branch, which, attracted 
 from the first to its native soil, indifferent to every 
 other lure, through death and darkness enters ; and 
 taking root at last, gathers strength to germinate and 
 blossom, as a radiant flower, overspreading and illu- 
 minating the surrounding wilderness of life. The 
 
 1 Porphyry on the Cave of the Nymphs, sub init. 
 
222 More Esoteric View. 
 
 sudden transition from the horrid reahns of Tartarus, 
 forms an admirable contrast in that part of the iEneid 
 where the hero, having passed the Stygian border, 
 goes forth to meet his father in the Elysian Fields, 
 
 Devenere locos laetos, et amoena vireta 
 Fortunatorum nemorum, sedesque beatas. 
 Largior liic campos ^■Ether et Liiniine vestit 
 Purpureo: solemqiie suum, sua siclera norunt.' 
 
 This divine ethereal purpled verdure, this meadow 
 of Divine Ideas, or Fratum, as the Oracle denotes it, 
 , is a place well known to philosophers ; the Alchemists 
 CL4^J^ in general call it their garden, tet Flammel, in his 
 Summary, includes the Mountain of the Seven Metals, 
 saying, — the philosophers have indeed a garden where 
 the sun as well morning as evening remains with a 
 most sweet dew ; whose earth brings forth trees and 
 fruits which are transplanted thither, which also re- 
 ceive nourishment from the pleasant meadows. And 
 if thou wouldest come hither and find good, betake 
 thyself to the mountain of the Seven, where there is 
 no plain, and look down from the highest downward 
 to the Sixth, which you will see afar off; in the top- 
 most height, you will find a royal herb triumphing, 
 which some call mineral, some vegetable, some satur- 
 nine.^ For it is either and all, which Vaughan de- 
 scribes as the rendezvous of all spirits, where Ideas 
 as they descend from above, are conceived and incor- 
 porated. But it is a delicate and pleasant region, he 
 says, as it were in the suburbs of heaven. Those 
 seven mystic mountains, whereupon grow the roses 
 and lilies, are the outgoings of Paradise mention- 
 ed in Esdras, and the Planetary Sphere of Sendivogius, 
 and that most flimous tincture of the Sapphiric Mine: 
 which is in truth the cleansed Augean, the already 
 prepared medial receptacle of the new-born light ; and 
 no sooner does this arise than all the vegetable colours, 
 before obliterated in darkness, return to neutralize 
 
 1 G38. 
 
 - Flammolli Suinimila, in fine, and INTaria Practica. 
 
The Mysteries. 223 
 
 their poison and restore the suspended circulation to a 
 conscious equiUbriate accord. This is Elysium, the 
 enclosed garden of Solomon, where God condescends 
 to walk and drink of the sealed fountain ; the true 
 Terrestrial Paradise, which some have called nox cor- 
 poris, the night of body or corporeal sleep, a term 
 made more intelligible by the apposite saying of 
 Heraclitus, concerning souls in that condition, that wc 
 live their death ami die their life. In these meadows 
 therefore the souls of the dead are said to inhabit, 
 souls dead indeed to this life, yet more alive in that. 
 For converted to externals, we desert our best life un- 
 consciously as Empedocles says, 
 
 Heaven's exiles straying from the orb of light. 
 
 But philosophers are said continually to have visited 
 this place, as we read for instance concerning the ha- / 
 bitation of R. C, Vidi aliquando Olympic^is domos, /o^ 
 non procul a Fluviolo et civitate nota quas Sanctus ^ 
 Spiritus vocari imaginamur. Helicon est de quo lo- 
 quar, aut biceps Parnassus, in quo Equus Pegasus 
 fontem aperuit perennis aquae adhuc stillantem, in 
 quo Diana se lavat, cui Venus ut Pedissequa et Sa- 
 turnus ut anteambulo, conjunguntur. Intelligenti 
 nimium inexperto minimum hoc erit dictum. To 
 clear the prospect a little, therefore, Vaughan adds this 
 description of the Indian Brachman's abode. I have 
 seen, says Apollonius, the Brachmans of India dwell- 
 ing on the earth and not on the earth ; they were 
 guarded without walls invisibly, and possessing no- 
 thing, they enjoyed all things.^ In such a place the 
 Oracle told AmeUus the soul of Great Plotinus was, 
 
 Ubi Amicitia est, ubi ciipido visu mollis, 
 Pnrae plenus laetitise, et sempiternis rivis 
 Ambrosiis irrigatus a Deo ; nnde sunt amorum 
 Eetinacula, dulcis spii-itus et tranquilliis ^ther 
 Aurei generis magni Jovis. 
 
 By such clear and rapid rivers of supernal light the 
 • Fama et Confessio, E. C. Preface by Yaughan. 
 
224 More Esoteric View. 
 
 adoring Sybil drew her inspiration, and by sucli, ac- 
 cording to the Orphic poet, the god Apollo even loved 
 to contemplate. 
 
 Omnia quae Phoebo quondam meditante beatus 
 Audiit Eurotas, &c. 
 
 There are three modes of human vision recorded by 
 St. Augustin ; the first external, and belongs to the 
 outward eye; the second that of imagination, by which 
 representations are visible to the internal sense ; the 
 third is anagogic,and an intellectual sight, drawn above, 
 by which intelligible species are beheld, as a pure 
 infusion of hght to the understanding. The first 
 mode is familiar, the second has been already discussed ; 
 but this third vision of the light is in Elysium : wdiere 
 the eye of mind, no longer as heretofore looking from 
 without inwardly, beholds its object through the at- 
 mosphere of the natural life ; but contrariwise, having 
 passed through this, purifying to the centre, is con- 
 verted and raised; and, as a Unit, now regards the 
 circumference transitively, including it as an under- 
 standing or reflector, as it were, to the focus of her 
 light. Porphyry beautifully resembles this mode of 
 being to a fountain, not fiow^ing outwardly, but cir- 
 cularly scattering its streams into itself. And thus 
 there is an assimilation established, as near as may be 
 in consciousness , of the self knowing and the self 
 known ; yet with this motion of the soul, time is con- 
 subsistent, as changing her conceptions, she passes 
 from one to another according to the self motion of 
 her essence, and through her eye being directed to the 
 survey of the different forms which she contains, and 
 which have the relation of parts to her whole essence ; 
 but eternity is consubsistent only with the permanence 
 of intellect in itself.^ And thus, though there is a 
 grade above ; yet this is the Intellection in Elysium 
 where the exemplary Image of the Universal Nature 
 also is revealed as in that Athanor of Hermes before 
 
 ' Sec Porphyry's Aid to Inte]lip;il>les. Taylor, p. 237. 
 
The Mysteries. 225 
 
 mentioned, or furnace having a glass to it, that sin- 
 gular fundamental of his small new world. 
 
 And the life in the intelligible world consists thence- 
 forth in intellectually energizing, and this energy, dis- 
 tinguishing, desiring, understanding within itself simul- 
 taneously, generates Light through a perpetual tranquil 
 and quiet contact with the Principle of things. And 
 the calm delight of Being there in universal harmony, 
 the truthful visions, scenery, occupations and integral 
 intelligence are pictured with all the vivid colouring of 
 that experienced poet's soul ; and will be rightly under- 
 stood as an unfolding of the embryo life, the nourish- 
 ment and education of the understanding vehicle now 
 standing in open presence before its Archetypal Light ; 
 according to which also it perfects all the new-born at- 
 tributes, as of justice, beauty, charity, hope, every fa- 
 culty, sentiment and desire in orderly relation under the 
 dominion of reason ; and evolves the total harmony of 
 nature, and all specific variety in her originating source. 
 — The sun shines but for us, exclaims the chorus of the 
 Initiated in Aristophanes ; we alone receive the glory 
 of his beams ; for us alone the meadows are enameled 
 with flowers ; even for us, who are initiated and who 
 have learned to perform all acts of piety and justice.' 
 Nor is it without reason that the river Eridanus is said 
 by Virgil to pass through those celestial abodes ; for 
 this indicates the prolific flow of spirit which accedes 
 spontaneously from the occult energy of such a life. 
 Taylor has admirably set forth these particulars of the 
 poet in his Dissertation ; and that the most abundant 
 spectacles and powers are belonging to those Elysian 
 fountains is shown by Proclus, in his fourth book On 
 the Theology, in which also he relates that Theurgists 
 placed their chief hopes of salvation : for the plain of 
 Truth, he says, is intellectually expanded to intelligible 
 Light and is splendid with the illuminations which pro- 
 ceed from thence ; and as the one (subjective identity) 
 emits by illumination intelligible light so the intelligible 
 (objective entity) imparts to secondary natures a parti- 
 1 In Eamis, act i. 
 Q 
 
226 More Esoteric View. 
 
 cipation productive of essence. But the Meadow is 
 the proUfic power of hfe, accordmg to Plato, and of 
 all various reasons, and is the comprehension of the 
 First Efficient causes of life and the generation of 
 Forms : for the meadows also which are here, con- 
 tinues the gi'eat exponent, are productive of all va- 
 rious forms and reasons and bear water which is the 
 symbol of vivitication.^ And here the metaphysician 
 accords with the ancient physiologists and alchemists, 
 who, experimentally searching, were said to prove the 
 Universal Identity of Nature on the ontological 
 ground ; reproducing the whole material principle to 
 sense and visibility fi'om the dissolution of the spirit in 
 its proper kind without alloy. But intending to speak 
 of these material rewards of initiation hereafter, and of 
 this Water especially, we pass onward for the present 
 to introduce the self-conspicuous and prolific goddess 
 herself, according to Apuleius' most eloquent an- 
 nouncement, appearing in the Eleusinian Fane. 
 
 Moved by thy prayers, O Lucius ! behold, I am 
 come ! I, who am Nature, the parent of all things, 
 the Queen of all the elements, the primordial pro- 
 geny of ages, the supreme of divinities, the sovereign 
 of the spirits of the dead, the first of coelestials, and 
 the uniform resemblance of gods and goddesses ; I, 
 who rule by my nod the luminous summit of the 
 heavens, the salubrious breezes of the sea, and the 
 deplorable silences of the realms beneath ; and whose 
 one divinity the whole orb of the earth venerates un- 
 der a manifold form, by different rites and a variety of 
 appellations. Hence the primordial Phrygians call 
 me Pessinuntica ; the Attic Aborigines, Cecropian 
 Minerva; the floating Cyprians, Paphian Venus ; the 
 arrow -bearing Cretans, Diana Dyctynna ; the three- 
 tongued Sicilians, Stygian Proserpine ; and the Eleu- 
 sinians, the ancient Goddess Ceres. Some also call me 
 Juno ; others, Bellona ; others, Hecate ; and others, 
 Rhamnusia. And those who are illuminated by the 
 
 1 Proclus, on the Theology of Plato, book iv. cap. \ ii. Tractatus 
 Aureus, cap. iii. 
 
The Mysteries. 227 
 
 incipient rays of that divinity, the Sun, when he 
 rises, viz., the Ethiopians and the Arii, and the Egyp- 
 tians skilled in ancient learning, worshipping me by 
 ceremonies perfectly appropriate, call me by my true 
 name, Queen Isis. Behold then, I, commiserating 
 thy calamities, am present, favouring and propitious ; 
 dismiss now tears and lamentations, and expel sor- 
 row ; for now the salutary day will shine upon thee. 
 Listen therefore attentively to these my mxandates. 
 The religion which is eternal has consecrated to me 
 the day which will be born of this night; on which 
 day my priests offer to me the jirst fruits of ??aviga- 
 tion, dedicating to me a ?/etv ship, when now the ivi?i- 
 ter tempests are mitigated and the stormy ivaves of the 
 deep are appeased, and the sea itself has now become 
 navigable. That sacred ceremony you ought to ex- 
 pect with a mind neither solicitous nor profane. For 
 the priest, being admonished by me, shall bear a rosy 
 crown in his right hand adhering to the rattle, in the 
 precinct of the pomp. Without delay therefore cheer- 
 fully follow, confiding in my benevolence. When you 
 approach the priest, gently pluck the roses as if you 
 intended to kiss his hand, and immediately divest 
 yourself of the hide of that worst of beasts, and which 
 for some time since has been to me detestable.^ Nor 
 should you fear anything pertaining to my concerns as 
 difficult — only remember and always retain it de- 
 posited in the penetralia of your mind, that the re- 
 maining course of your life must be dedicated to me, 
 even to the boundary of your latest breath. Nor is it 
 unjust that you should owe your whole life to that 
 goddess by whose assistance you will return to the Hu- 
 man Form. But you will live happy, and you will 
 live glorious under my protection : and when, having 
 passed through the allotted space of your life, you de- 
 scend (once more) to the realms beneath, there also in 
 
 1 It will be remembered that Lucius entered upon this initia- 
 tion under the guise of an ass, into which he had been previously 
 transformed, which guise the oracle also had announced shovild 
 not depart from him until he had eaten of some flowering roses. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 More Esoteric View. 
 
 the subterranean hemisphere, you dwelling in the 
 Elysian Fields, shall frequently adore me whom you 
 now see, and shall there behold me shining amidst the 
 darkness of Acheron, reigning in the Stygian Pene- 
 traha, and being propitious to you. Moreover, if you 
 shall be found to deserve the protection of my divinity, 
 by sedulous obedience, religious services, and inviola- 
 ble chastity, you shall know^ that it is possible for me 
 to extend your life beyond the limits appointed to it by 
 fate. 
 
 The venerable Oracle being thus finished, adds the 
 philosopher, the invincible goddess receded into herself; 
 and without delay, I, being liberated from sleep, im- 
 mediately arose, seized with fear and joy, and in an 
 excessive perspiration, and in the highest degree ad- 
 miring so manifest a presence of the powerful goddess ; 
 having sprinkled myself with marine dew, and intent 
 upon her great commands, I revolved in my mind the 
 order of her mandates ; shortly after too the sun 
 arose, and put to flight the darkness of black niglit.^ 
 The dragon shuns the sun's beams which look through 
 the crevices, and the dead son lives — and the now 
 vessel, purified and holy, is brought into the Eleu- 
 sinian temple, to be consecrated. in Light. Not, as 
 some have imagined, a crystal night-lamp or magic- 
 lanthorn, cleansed for the consumption of the best 
 olive oil, to dazzle the ignorant or instruct beholders 
 with artificial emblems of natural science ; but a far 
 more pelhicid gas-lamp, an infallible gasometer, able to 
 hold and sustain and measure simultaneously, even 
 within itself to kindle a perpetual flame, shining in 
 equilibriate constancy about the sufiicient fuel of all 
 life. As Apuleius further apostrophizing the same 
 divinity, continues — Thou rollest the heavens round 
 the steady poles, dost illuminate the sun, govern the 
 world, and tread on the dark realms of Tartarus. 
 The stars move responsive to thy command, the gods 
 rejoice in thy divinity, the hours and seasons return 
 
 Apiilphis. Metam. bonk x"!. Taylor, p. 263, Szc. 
 
 t 
 
The Mysteries. 229 
 
 by thy appointment, and the elements reverence thy 
 decree.^ 
 
 All which is readily admissible of the Universal Na- 
 ture ; and, if we may believe the experienced, we are not 
 cut off from this fountain, but attracted out from it ; 
 which supplies all things with life perpetually, so that 
 we are what we are by its influence ; but in turn re- 
 ceiving the impressure of foreign forms, passions, 
 accidents, and evil generations, the passive purity is 
 defiled and obscured, and unconscious of that inner 
 light which lives in reality; of which the present life is 
 a mere vestige and a comparative diminution of exist- 
 ence, an imitation, as it were, of that which is absolute 
 and real ; whose spontaneous revelation in a purifled 
 soul imparts virtue with understanding, and universal 
 knowledge, health of body, and long length of days ; 
 riches as from the Causal fountain of all things, and 
 felicity in communion with all. It also emits light 
 accompanied with harmony of intellection, and finally 
 exhibits a form of such rarified effulgence that the eye /; 
 
 of mind, all the while^ regarding, is drawn to contactj^ °>^^7^ 
 suddenly, unable longer to sustain itself alone. This 
 is the method and arcane principle of Self- Knowledge, 
 and the narrow way of regeneration into life ; and so 
 
 great is the tenuity and attractive subtilty of the Di- 
 
 vine Nature, says yfamblicus, that the initiated, when _/^ 
 surveying it, are affected in the same manner as fishes, 
 when they are drawn upwards from the dark and / 
 turbid waters into the diaphanous clear air ; becoming /^ 
 languid as soon as they perceive it, and deprived of the 
 use of their connascent spirit.^ For to this spirit the 
 vision in Hades is allied which is borne through with- 
 out much disturbance of the common life ; but, when 
 the central magnet moves to the ascent, this expi- 
 ration is described as taking place ; a liberation is 
 effected through agony, as it were of death, the cir- 
 culation oscillates, and the soul, coalescing with its ve- 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 Apuleius, Metam. book xi. 
 
 /amblicus on the Mysteries, Taylor, p. 100. 
 

 230 More Esoteric View. 
 
 hide, transcends free from corporeal hinderance into the 
 Elysian hght. That was the rosy crown of which the 
 Hierophant was to assist Apuleius' Lucius to partake, 
 when he was enabled to put off the hide of that worst of 
 beasts, and re-enter into the Divine Form of humanity. 
 Wherefore, O ye asses ! cries Agrippa, in condemnation, 
 which are now^ with your children under the command- 
 ment of Christ by his Apostles, the messengers and 
 readers of true Wisdom in his Gospel, be you loosed 
 from the darkness of the flesh and blood, ye that de- 
 sire to attain to true Wisdom ; not of the tree of the 
 knowledge of good and evil, but of the tree of life : 
 setting apart all traditions of men and discourse of the 
 flesh and blood whatsoever it be ; entering not either 
 into the schools of other philosophers, but into your- 
 selves, ye shall know" all things, for the knowledge of 
 all things is compact in you : even as God hath cre- 
 ated trees full of fruits, so hath he created the soul as 
 a reasonable tree full of forms and knowledges : but 
 through the sin of the first parent all things were 
 opened ; and oblivion, the mother of ignorance, step- 
 ped in. Set you then now aside who may, con- 
 tinues the magician, the veil of your understanding, 
 wiio are wrapped in the darkness of ignorance : Cast 
 o out the drink of Lethe, you which have made your- 
 selves drunken with forgetfulness, and wait for the 
 True Light, you wfeich have suffered yourselves to be 
 overtaken with unreasonable sleep ; and forthwith, 
 when your face is discovered, ye shall pass from the 
 light to light, ^ and from glory to glory, as the Apostle 
 says — from the light of the senses to the illumination 
 of reason, and from reason through its topmost faith 
 into the substantive glorification of all. 
 
 'Twas in a golden cup 
 That Helius passed, 
 Helius, Hyperion's son. 
 O'er floods and oceans wafted far away. 
 
 To Erebus he went, and tlie sad realms of night 
 His aged parent there he found, 
 
 ^ Vanity of the Sciences, in conclusion. 
 
The Mysteries. 231 
 
 And the kind consort fQ his better days, <^- 
 
 And all his blooming offspring. ^ 
 
 Then to the sacred grove he sped, 
 The sacred grove of laurel. 
 
 And this strain brings us to the final purpose of 
 iEneas who, going forth to meet his father^ in the 
 Elysian fields, has the whole Epopteia opened to him 
 — the Pantheistic revealment of the Universal Nature, 
 her secret foundation, the soul's essence, origin, hin- 
 derances, and proper end. 
 
 Principio coelum, ac terras, camposque liquentes 
 
 Lucentemque globum Lunse, Titaniaque astra 
 
 Spiritus intus alit, totamque iufusa per artus 
 
 Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet. 
 
 Inde homimmi pecudumque genus vitfeque volantum, 
 
 Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub jequore pontus. 
 
 Igneus est ollis vigor, et coelestis origo 
 
 Seminibus : quantum non noxia corpora tardant, 
 
 Terrenique hebetant artus, moribundaque membra. 
 
 Hinc metuuut cupiuntque dolent gaudentque neque auras 
 
 Eespiciunt, claus* tenebris et carcere caeco. 
 
 Quin et supremo cum lumine vita reliquit : 
 
 Non tamen omne malum miseris, nee funditus omnes 
 
 Corpoi'eae excedunt pestes ; penitusque necesse est 
 
 Multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris. 
 
 Ergo exercentur poenis, veterumque malorum 
 
 Supplicia expendunt. Aliie panduntur iuanes 
 
 Suspensa; ad ventos : aliis sub gurgite vasto 
 
 Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni. 
 
 Quisque suos patimur maues. Exinde per amplum 
 
 Mittimur Elysium, et pauci laeta arva tenemus : 
 
 Donee longa dies perfecto temporis orbe 
 
 Concretam exemit labem, pur^imque reliquit 
 
 jEthereum sensum, atque aurai simplicis ignem.' 
 
 This initiation to the Paternal abode which, accord- 
 ing to the Alexandrian Platonists, opens the whole of 
 the divine paths and media by which the soul becomes 
 finally fitted for establishment under the coelestial cir- 
 culation of her Law, exhibits in progress likewise the 
 self-splendid appearances of the true gods, which are 
 both entire and firm, and expand to the mystic inspec- 
 tion of all intelligibles ; as Socrates explains in Phse- 
 drus : For telete precedes muesis, and muesis, epopteia. 
 
 1 ^neid, lib. vi. 724. 
 
232 More Esoteric View. 
 
 Hence, says he, we are initiated {tckioametha) in 
 ascending by the perfective gods. But we view with 
 closed eyes, i. e. with the pure soul itself {muoumetlia) 
 entire and stable appearances, through the connective 
 gods, with whom there is the intellectual wholeness 
 ^ and the firm establishment of souls. And we become 
 
 Ca^/ fixed in, and spectators of {cp^ptclfomcn) the intel- 
 / ligible watch-tower, through the gods who are col- 
 
 lectors of wholes ; we speak, indeed, of all these things 
 as with reference to the intelligible, but we obtain a 
 different thing according to a diflPerent order. For the 
 perfective gods initiate us in the intelligible through 
 themselves ; as the collective monads are through 
 themselves the leaders of intelligibles. And there are 
 indeed many steps of ascent, but all of them extend 
 to the Paternal port and the Paternal initiation.^ 
 
 To find the Hero, for whose only sake 
 
 We sought the dark abodes and crossed the bitter lake. 
 
 For the Paternal is the first source of life, and the 
 last into wdiich the conscience is initiated ; and the 
 re-birth and re-creation of this principle in the Free 
 Ether, prepared for it, is the end and plenitude of ini- 
 tiatory rites. 
 
 In Taylor's notes to his Pausanias we find an extract 
 from an ancient writer, Asclepius Trallianus, wherein 
 the etymon of ao(^ia, Wisdom, is derived from roa^e^;, 
 the conspicuous and the clear. Thus — what is Wisdom? 
 We reply, that it is a certain clearness, as being that 
 which renders all things conspicuous. From w^ience 
 was this word clearness denominated ? We reply, from 
 light. Since, therefore, the clear is accustomed to lead 
 into light and knowledge things concealed in the 
 darkness of ignorance ; on this account, concludes the 
 writer, it is thus denominated. Thus, also, Minerva 
 is sometimes called Phosphor, as being the bearer and 
 measure of the Demiurgic Fire. And what arc all the 
 gods but manifestations of this same Fire germinating 
 through the projecting energy of Intellect distinct in 
 
 1 Proclus on the Theology of Plato, book iv. chap. xxvi. 
 
The Mysteries. 233 
 
 Light ? In its lucid understanding, stable expanse, Mi- 
 nerva ; in its golden radiance and ideality, Apollo ; 
 shining forth in beauty, warmth, and infinite attrac- 
 tion, Venus ; in its concentrated flashing force, Mars ; 
 in compact impenetrable purity, the chaste Diana ; 
 penetrating in all the variety of perspicuous thought 
 and imagination, the winged Mercury ; in its universal 
 fabricative virtue and beneficence, the Demiurgic Ju- 
 piter ; and thenceforth downward and upward from 
 the last to the first ineffable Phanes, before Saturn, or 
 that ancient Cybele, proceeded to manifestation by will 
 in time. 
 
 Then nor the sun's swift members splendid shone 
 But in dense harmony established lay 
 Concealed ; eternity's revolving sphere 
 Eejoicing round its centre firm to roll. 
 
 Until, as the poet goes on to explicate, by the fan- 
 ning of the celestial ether set in motion, 
 
 Then all the members of the god appeared.^ 
 
 And the nourishing cause of these gods is said to 
 be a certain intelligible union, comprehending in itself 
 the whole intellectual progression, and filling the Ethe- 
 real Hypostasis with acme and power. All the gods, 
 says Plotinus, are beautiful, and their splendour is in- 
 tense. What else, however, is it but Intellect through 
 which they are such ? and because Intellect energizes in 
 them in so great a degree, as to render them visible by 
 its Light. For they are not at one time wise, and at 
 another destitute of wisdom, but they are always wise, 
 in an impassive, stable, and pure Intellect ; seeing 
 such things as Intellect itself sees, they occupy and 
 pervade without ceasing the whole of that blissful re- 
 gion. For the life there is unattended with labour, 
 and Truth is their generator and nutriment, their es- 
 sence and their nurse. '^ Plato also by Socrates nar- 
 rating the mode of ascent to the InteUigible Beauty, 
 
 ' Empedocles, Physics. 
 
 - Plotinus on the Beautiful and the Three Hypostases. 
 
234 More Esoteric View. 
 
 and how, following the divine leaders they became 
 partakers of the same, concludes — It was then lawful 
 to survey splendid Beauty, where we obtained together 
 with that happy choir, this blessed vision and contem- 
 plation ; and we indeed enjoyed this fehcity, following 
 the choir together with Jupiter, but others in conjunc- 
 tion with some other god ; at the same time beholding 
 and being initiated in those mysteries which it is law- 
 ful to call the most blessed of all mysteries. And 
 these divine orgies were celebrated by us while we 
 were perfect and free from those evils which awaited 
 us in a succeeding period of time ; ice liktivise ivere 
 initiated in and became spectators of entire, simple, 
 quietly stable, and blessed visions, resident in a Pure 
 Light ; being ourselves pure and liberated from this sur- 
 roundi)ig vestment, which ice denominate body, and to 
 which we are bound like an oyster to its shell. And 
 Beauty, continues the divine narrator, shone upon us 
 during our progressions with the gods : but on our ar- 
 rival hither, we possessed the power of perceiving it, 
 through the clearest of our senses.^ Not, let us be- 
 lieve with Dr. Warburton, " a mere illuminated image, 
 which the priest had purified," for indeed his whole 
 account of the institution is absurd ; but when we con- 
 sider to what Plato really alludes, by those simple and 
 blessed visions resident in a pure light, we can no 
 longer wonder why the initiated were called happy and 
 reported to have been blessed ; ^ since through initi- 
 ation, they were conjoined with the total deity and 
 intellectual perfection of their leaders, and were re- 
 plenished with the divine essentiality. And the being 
 entire is derived to souls from equilibriate circulation 
 in their Ether ; which contains, and is connective of all 
 the Divine genera. Everything, however, which in the 
 whole contains parts, comprehends also that which is 
 divided, and collects that which is various into union 
 and simplicity. But the quiet, stable, and simple 
 visions, are unfolded to souls supernally, as Proclus 
 
 1 Phfedrus, Taylor, vol. iii. p. 327 and following. 
 
 ^ See Taylor's observations in the note on this passage, p. 327. 
 
The Mysteries. 235 
 
 explains from the supercelestial place. And so those 
 gods and those powers that follow the gods reveal 
 themselves each in his particular form or essence of 
 light, but by no means extend themselves as figured 
 phantasms, such as the mind before beheld in Hades 
 from its own self-shadowing creative fancy. For 
 wherefore should they be supposed to exhibit these ? 
 Is it not evident that their characteristic would be far 
 better expressed by their simple idea living in the un- 
 derstanding, than by any other figured light or repre- 
 sentation? By no means, therefore, says Jamblicus, 
 does Divinity either transform himself into phantasms 
 nor extend these from himself to other things, but 
 emits illuminations, true representations of himself in 
 the true manner of souls. And truth, he adds, is co- 
 existent with the gods, in the same manner as light 
 with the sun. For as all other things, such as are 
 principal, primarily begin from themselves, and impart 
 to themselves that which they give to others ; as for 
 instance, in essence, in life, and in motion ; thus also 
 the natures which supply all beings with truth pri- 
 marily proclaim the truth themselves, and precedane- 
 ously unfold the essence of themselves to the specta- 
 tors. Hence likewise they exhibit to Theurgists a Fire 
 which is itself, to itself, visible.^ Let no one there- 
 fore wonder, says Proclus, the gods being essentially 
 in one simplicity according to transparency, if various 
 phantasms are hurled forth before the presence of 
 them ; nor if they, being uniform, should in their ap- 
 pearance be multiform, as we have learned in the most 
 perfect Mysteries. For nature and the demiurgic in- 
 tellect extend corporeal formed images of things cor- 
 poreal, sensible images of things intelligible, and those 
 without interval, since all things are an emanation from 
 these. ^ And thus the soul, when looking at things 
 posterior to herself, beholds the shadows only and 
 images of true being ; but, wdien she converts herself to 
 herself, she evolves her own Essence, and the vivific 
 
 1 /amblicus ou the Mysteries, cliap. x. Taylor, p. 106. 
 
 2 On the Theology, book i. chap xx. 
 
 7 
 
•236 More Esoteric View. 
 
 reasons which she contains. And at first, indeed, 
 she only as it were percei ves. herself ; but, when she 
 penetrates more profoundly for the examination of 
 herself, she finds in herself both understanding and 
 the Reason of created beings. When however she pro- 
 ceeds into her interior recesses and into the Adytum of 
 Life, as the great theologist declares, she perceives, with 
 the eye closed as it were, the genus of the gods, which 
 are the Unities of all being : for all things are in us 
 psychically, that is to say, in the efficient Reason of 
 our life, and through this, when it is developed, we are 
 capable of knowing all things, by exciting the images 
 and powers of the Whole which we contain. And 
 this has been said to be the best employment of our 
 energy, to be extended to a Divine nature, and having 
 our individual powers at rest, to revolve harmoniously 
 round it, to excite all the multitude of the soul to this 
 union ; and laying aside all such things as are pos- 
 terior to the One, to become seated and conjoined to 
 that which is ineffable and beyond all things.^ 
 
 It is satisfactory to observ^e how these ancients, w^ith 
 one accord, dismiss all visions which take place dur- 
 ing the imperfect self-activity of the human mind as 
 ai'bitrary and untrustworthy ; how well they had 
 learned to discriminate, and how very absolute and 
 clear a line they draw between enthusiasm and fanati- 
 cism, between the shadowy world of imaginative vi- 
 sion and the light of the true gods : nor will any one, 
 profoundly considering their assertions, doubt about 
 the origin or respect due to these divinities, which, 
 as an emanative splendour from the Causal Fountain, 
 make manifest in energy its intellectual Law. 
 
 "What though in solemn silence all 
 Move round this dark terrestrial ball 
 In Reason's ear they all rejoice, 
 And utter still their glorious voice. 
 For ever singing as they shine, 
 " The Hand that moves ns is divine.''^ 
 
 ' Idem, chap. iii. 
 
 ■^ Blackwell's Mythology, lett. 8. 
 
The Mysteries. 237 
 
 Or, as the Mathematician paints it, 
 
 En tibi Norma Poli — ! en divse Libramina Molis ! 
 Computus en Jovis ! et quas dum primordia rerum 
 Couderet, omnipotens sibi leges ipse Creator 
 Dixerit, et Operis qufe Fundamenta locarit. 
 
 And here again we take occasion to observe that it 
 is indeed by divine Media, and not a mere conception 
 of the mind or metaphysical abstraction, either that 
 Theurgists are conjoined to the Divine nature ; since, 
 if this were the case, what would hinder those who 
 philosophize theoretically from participating of this ^ 
 union ? which they do not ; hs^ the perfect efficacy of ^ 
 ineffable works, says ^amblicus, which are divinely 7~^ 
 performed, in a way surpassing all ordinary intelli- ' 
 gence and the power of inexplicable symbols which 
 are known only to the gods themselves, impart The- 
 urgic union. Hence we do not perform these things 
 through intellectual perception ; since, if this were the 
 case, the intellectual energy of them would be im- 
 parted by us, neither of which is true : for when we 
 do not energize intellectually (all preparative conditions 
 having been fulfilled,) the Synthemata, i. e. the Theur- 
 gic aids and media themselves, perform by themselves 
 their proper work ; and the ineffable power of the gods 
 itself, knows by itself its own images. It does not 
 however know them, as if excited by our intelhgence; 
 for neither is it natural that things which comprehend 
 should be excited by those that are comprehended, 
 nor perfect by imperfect natures, nor wholes by parts; 
 hence neither are divine causes prooodancously called pAe^jx^u-u^i 
 into energy by our intellections ; but it is requisite to 6 
 
 consider these and all the best dispositions of the soul, 
 and also the purity pertaining, as certain concauses ; 
 the things which properly excite the Divine will being 
 the Divine Synthemata themselves : and thus things 
 pertaining to the gods are moved by themselves, and 
 do not receive from an inferior nature {i.e. to say, 
 from the regardant subject) the principle of their 
 
238 More Esoteric View. 
 
 energy.' As the Chaldaic Oracle likewise in its own 
 operative language declares : 
 
 And tliese things I revolve in the recluse temples of my mind : 
 
 Extending tlie like fire sparklingly into the spacious air, 
 
 To put into the mind the symbol of variety, 
 
 And not to walk dispersedly on the empyreal channels, but stiffly : 
 
 For the king did set before the world an intellectual incorrupti- 
 ble pattern. 
 
 This print through the world, he promoting, accordingly ap- 
 peared. 
 
 Beautified with all kinds of Ideas of which there is one Fountain. 
 
 Intellectual notions from the Paternal Fountain cropping the 
 Flower of Fire — 
 
 And to these Intellectual Presters of Intellectual Fire all tilings 
 are subservient by the persuasive will of the Fatlier. 
 
 Having put on the completely armed vigour of resounding Light, 
 with triple strength, fortifying the soul and the mind. 
 
 O how the world hath Intellectual guides inflexible ! ^ 
 
 So did Theurgic rites, by the medium of the pas- 
 sive Ether, unfold the embryo vigour of her newly 
 conceived life ; awakening intellect into reminiscence 
 and filling it with the conscious reasons of things 
 manifest and occult ; and as it were by an obstetric 
 hand and action, bringing forth the total nature and 
 ornamenting it with Light. For Wisdom here enacts 
 the part of a discreet mother, who having educated 
 her son and furnished him with understanding, bids 
 him use it, exercising him in every virtue and theo- 
 retic discipline for the final conversion and accom- 
 plishment of his soul. And if the education has been 
 complete and the discipline perfect, says Porphyry, 
 the whole inferior powers will range in harmonious 
 concord about their proper rule, and will so venerate 
 this Reason, as to be indignant if they are at all self- 
 moved, in consequence of not being quiet when their 
 master is present; and will reprove themselves for 
 their imbecility, so that the motions themselves will 
 
 ' ^amblicus on the Myst. chap. xi. Taylor, p. 109. 
 - Oracula Chaldaica. 
 
The Mysteries. 239 
 
 be dissolved through their proximity to the reasoning 
 power. ^ 
 
 But the government of the natural hfe is oHgar- 
 chical, ahnost an anarchy, where there is no perma- 
 nently accepted leader of the whole ; but each motive 
 rising, as it were, becomes an usurper of a vacant 
 throne ; and external institutions imaged from thence 
 accordingly are selfish, conflicting, and unhappy. Yet 
 observing how the faculties of the common mind rally 
 about the standard of each tyrant motive, as it ac- 
 cedes, and how the highest are thus often made to 
 subserve the low^est ends, how covetousness, ambition, 
 and envy, and pride will erect and manifest themselves 
 in the circumstances of individual and social life, and 
 stamp their character on nations, and obscure the 
 perception of every other good ; we may gather from 
 thence a passable though faint conception of the Al- 
 mighty Force that moves about the Rational Magnet, 
 and how the Presters of Intellectual Fire follow in ra- 
 diant order the W'ill of their First Cause. Under such 
 a monarch indeed, when once he is established, no dis- 
 sensions w^ould be likely to arise, but the inferior 
 powers will so venerate his leading motive that they 
 will move only according to his movement, pursuing 
 constantly in observant order his infallible rule. 
 
 Fire, says the adept philosopher, is the purest and 
 most worthy of all the elements and its substance is 
 the finest of all ; for this w as first of all elevated in 
 the creation with the throne of Divine Majesty. This 
 nature is of all the most quiet and like unto a chariot, 
 wdien it is drawai, it runs ; when it is not drawn, it 
 stands still. It is also in all things indiscernibly. In 
 it are the reasons of life and understanding, which 
 are distributed in the first infusion of man's life, and 
 these are called the rational soul, by which alone man 
 differs from other creatures and is like to God. This 
 soul w^as of that most pure fire, infused by God into 
 the vital spirit, by reason of wdiich man, after the 
 
 1 Aids to ] ntellig^ sect. 2. 
 
240 More Esoteric View. 
 
 creation of all things, was created into a particular 
 world or microcosm. In this subject, God, the Crea- 
 tor of all things, put his seal and majesty, as m the 
 purest and quietest subject, wdiich is governed by 
 the will and infinite wisdom of God alone. Where- 
 fore God abhors all impurity ; nothing that is filthy 
 or compounded, or blemished may come near Him, 
 therefore, no mortal man can see God, or come to 
 Him naturally. For that Fire which is in the circum- 
 ference of the Divinity, in which is carried the seal 
 and majesty of the ]\Iost High, is so intense, that no 
 eye can penetrate it ; for Fire will not suffer anything 
 that is compounded to come near to it: but is the 
 death and separation of everything that is com- 
 pounded. We have said that it is the most quiet sub- 
 ject ; so it is, or else it w^ould follow that God could 
 not rest ; but it is of a most quiet silence in itself 
 more than any man's mind can imagine. Thou hast 
 an example of this in the flint, in which there is fire, 
 and yet is not perceived, neither doth appear until it is 
 stirred up by motion, and kindled in it that it may ap- 
 pear. So the Fire in wdiich is placed the sacred ma- 
 jesty of our Creator, is not moved unless it be stirred 
 up by the proper wall of the Most High, and so is 
 carried where His holy will is. There is made by the 
 W\\\ of the Supreme Maker of things a most vehe- 
 ment and terrible motion. Thou hast an example of 
 this, when any monarch of this world sits in state ; 
 what a quietness there is about him, what a silence, 
 and although some one of his court doth move, the 
 motion is only of some one or other particular man, 
 in an order which is not regarded. But when the 
 Lord himself moves, there is a universal stir and mo- 
 tion, then all that attend on him move with him. 
 What then, when that Supreme Monarch, the King of 
 kings, and Maker of all things (after whose example 
 the princes of this world are established) doth move 
 in his own majesty ? What a stir ! What a trem- 
 bling, when the whole guard of this heavenly army 
 move about him ! But some one may ask, how do we 
 
The Mysteries. 241 
 
 know these things, since heavenly things are hid from 
 man's understanding? To whom we answer, that 
 the}'^ are manifest to philosophers into whom the in- 
 comprehensible Deity has inspired his own Wisdom.^ 
 
 For the total Reason is in this life of ours hidden, as 
 the fire in fuel that is not kindled, or as gold in the 
 dark ore unseen — our Iron, our Red Earth, our Load- 
 stone, celeberrimus ille microcosmos et Adam, in which 
 we are all now as dead ; nor can be awakened to remi- 
 niscence without a resolution of the whole circulatory 
 confine, when it arises identically reverse, perfect, and 
 alone. This is the Sal Sapientum et Mercurius Phi- n 
 losophorum ; their Secretum Secretorum pt Pons A&U ^j 
 iiorum ) — Scire etiam tibi convenit, O bone rex, quod 
 hoc magisterium nihil aliud est, nisi arcanum et se- 
 cretum secretorum Dei altissimi et magni ; Ipse enim 
 hoc secretum prophetis commendavit : quorum scilicet 
 animas suo paradiso coUocavit.^ 
 
 We learn, finally, that the souls of the Initiated, 
 being made perfect in every telestic accomplishment 
 and virtue, and having passed orderly through the 
 whole progression of Intelligible Causes, by the Greeks 
 called gods, were next promoted to a contemplation 
 of their Highest Unity. For having vanquished every 
 irrational and gravitating inclination, the soul, holding 
 the circle of reason complete, as it were, and para- 
 mount over all, and possessing all, except her own 
 identic essence, desires this now alone and above 
 every other good, her final Cause and consummation 
 in the Absolute so long deprived. 
 
 I will open a secret to the Initiated, but let the 
 dno)\'< he shut. And thou, O Musseus, ojfspjing of the 
 b?'ight Silene, attend carefully to my song ; for I 
 deliver the truth without disguise : suffer not there- 
 fore former prejudice to debar thee from that lumpy 
 life which this k?ioivIedge will procure unto thee. But 
 studiously contemplate the divine oracle, and perse- 
 
 1 Sendivogius, New Light of Alchemy, Element of Fii-e, p. 99, 
 
 2 Morieni de Ti'ans. ]\Iotal. Ars Aiirifera, vol. ii. p, 27. 
 
 R 
 
242 More Esoteric View. 
 
 vere in purity of mind and heart. Go on in the right 
 way, and contemplate the sole Governor of the 
 World. He is One and of Himself alone, and to that 
 One all things owe their Being. He operates through 
 all, was never seen by mortal eyes, but does Himself 
 see every one.^ 
 
 This contemplation, then, of the indwelling Unity 
 cX-iA-t^ was the final preparative to translation ; fe«t" it has 
 been supposed, from the concluding passage, that He 
 was never seen by moi^tal eyes, and others of like im- 
 port, that the Initiated, therefore, did not behold Him. 
 But it should be remembered, that the initiated were 
 nowhere considered as mortal men, in respect of their 
 souls, which were regenerate, and so fortified by assi- 
 milation and proximity, that, whether in union or 
 separation, their regard was not extraneous but hy- 
 postatical, as of like to like. No mortal can see God 
 or come to him naturally ; for if that light which is in 
 the circumference be so intense that nothing corporeal 
 can sustain it, and previous unions, which were but 
 partial and instantaneous, as it were, tried the ethereal 
 vehicle to its utmost susceptibility, how much less, 
 therefore, can the compound creature, approaching to 
 the Fiery Centre, live? Neither is it said to be 
 lawful for the pure to be touched by the impure, and 
 the uninitiated are for this reason totally debarred, as 
 it were, by a threefold barrier of sense, ignorance, and 
 disincHnation, from the discovery of truth. But neither 
 let it be imagined, do the Initiated self-actively com- 
 prehend the life of Deity ; for that would be indeed 
 an inversion and a submerging of the Creator in the 
 creature ; but Plato beautifully unfolds the passive 
 method of the Divine Intuition, and the three ele- 
 vating causes of love, hope, and faith, to those who 
 do not negligently read what he has written. For 
 what else than love conjoins the soul to beauty ? and 
 where else is truth to be hoped^asks the philosopher, 
 except in this place ? And what else than faith is the 
 cause of this ineffable niuesis? For iiuiesis, in short, 
 
 ' See the Ori)hie Fragment in A\'arburton, vol. i. 
 
The Mysteries. 243 
 
 is neither through intelligence nor judgment, but 
 through the unical silence imparted by faith, which 
 is then better than every gnostic energy (when it sur- 
 passes this), and which establishes both whole and 
 individual souls in the ineffable Unknown.^ But, 
 lest we prolong the transcendental theme ; that which 
 is most externally remarkable in the theurgic man- 
 dates for this translation is, that the whole body 
 should be buried, except the head ; sublimely signify- 
 ing that the total life, with exception of that which is 
 intellectual, should be buried in profound oblivion ; 
 alone elevating, in Platonic phrase, the head of the 
 charioteer to the place beyond the heaven, where he 
 is filled with the Demiurgic Wisdom and an empy- 
 real life. 
 
 And it is necessary, says Proclus, that the soul 
 thus becoming an Intellectual World, and being as 
 much as possible assimilated to the whole inteUigible 
 universe, should introduce herself to the Maker of the 
 Universe, and, from this introduction, should, in a 
 certain respect, become familiar with him, through a 
 certain intellectual energy. For uninterrupted energy 
 about anything calls forth and resuscitates our dor- 
 mant Ideas. But through this familiarity, becoming- 
 stationed at the door of the Father, it is necessary 
 that we should become united to Him. For discovery 
 is this, — to meet with Him, to be united to Him, and 
 to see Him Himself — the Alone with the Alone ; the 
 soul hastily withdrawing herself from every other 
 energy to Him ; for then, being present with her 
 father, she considers scientific discussions to be but 
 words, banquets together with Him on the Truth 
 of Real Being, and in pure splendour is purely 
 initiated in entire and stable vision. Such, therefore, 
 is the Discovery of the Father ; not that which is dox- 
 astic, or pertaining to opinion ; for that is dubious 
 and not very remote from the irrational life ; neither 
 is it scientific; for this is syllogistic and composite, 
 and does not come into contact with the intellectual 
 
 ^ Proclus, on tlie Theology, book iv. chap. ix. 
 R 2* 
 
244 More Esoteric View. 
 
 essence of the Intellectual Demiurgus. But it is that 
 which subsists according to Intellectual Vision Itself: 
 a contact with the Intelligible, and a union with the 
 Demiurgic Intellect. And this may properly be de- 
 nominated difficult, as Plato alludes, either as how to 
 obtain, presenting itself to souls, after every evolution 
 of life, or as to the true labour of souls. For after 
 wandering about generation, after the purification and 
 the light of science ; intellectual energy alone, by the 
 intellect that is in us, shines forth ; locating the soul 
 in the Father, as in a port, purely establishing her in 
 fabricative intellections, and conjoining Light with 
 Light. — Not such as was with science, or that vision 
 that was in Elysium, but more beautiful, more intel- 
 lectual, and partaking more of the nature of the One 
 than this. This, then, is the Paternal Port and the 
 discovery of the Father, according to Proclus, viz., 
 an undefiled union with him.^ 
 
 And with what magnificence of thought and diction 
 does the Platonic Successor recal the Initiated Reason 
 to the contemplation of . her end, as ablating every- 
 o/ru^ (IaMlaa^ thing else in gradual approach/ . jj ? ai li ng together the 
 ^ whole voluntary accord, he exhorts us now, if 
 ever, to remove from ourselves multiform knowledge, 
 exterminate all the variety of life, and in perfect quiet 
 approach near to the Cause of all. Let not only 
 Ci'^yid opinion and phantasy be at rest, »©¥- the passions 
 alone, which imi)ede our anagogic impulse to the 
 First, be at peace ; but let the air and the universe 
 be still (within us), and let all things extend in us 
 with a tranquil power, to commune with the In- 
 effable. Let us also, standing there, having tran- 
 scended the Intelligible, and with nearly closed eyes, 
 adoring, as it were, the rising sun(^ since it is not 
 lawful for any being whatever iiiteiitly to behold Him) 
 let us survey that Sun whence the hitelUgible gods 
 proceed, emerging, as the Poets say, fi'om the bosom 
 of the ocean ; and again from this divine tran- 
 quillity descending into Intellect, and from Intel- 
 
 ^ On tliP Timajus of Plato, vol. i. Taylor, p. 254. 
 
The Mysteries. 245 
 
 lect, employing the reasonings of the soul, let us 
 relate to ourselves what the natures are fi-oni which, 
 in this progression, we shall consider the First God 
 exempt. Let us, as it were, celebrate Him, not as 
 establishing the earth and heavens, nor giving sub- 
 sistence to souls and the generations of mortals ; for 
 these things He produces indeed, but amongst the last 
 of things. Prior, rather, let us celebrate Him as un- 
 folding in Light the whole Intelligible Universe and 
 intellectual genus of gods, together with all the super- 
 mundane and mundane divinities ; as the God of all 
 gods, the Unity of all unities, and beyond the First 
 Adyta ; as more ineffable than all silence, and more 
 Unknown than all recondite essence, as Holy amongst ./f 
 
 the holies, and concealed FHfHWgsl the Intelligible gods. UriZAAyr^ 
 
 Such was the theology of the wise Ethnics, such 
 their piety, and with such an energetic expansion of 
 their whole unfettered will and understanding, did 
 they seek to prove Reality in the Great Unknown 
 — unknown, because concealed in this life — uncon- 
 scious, even whilst yet in Elysium, the soul looked 
 out through all her imaged light. But returning 
 from thence into herself with all her beams concen- 
 tered, addressing the Great Archetype, He becomes 
 known ; yet not as in the individuated consciousness, 
 things are said to be known apart ; nor as before, 
 either in separation of subject and object ; but abso- 
 lutely, in Identity ; as passing from herself the soul 
 no longer sees or distinguishes by intellection nor 
 imagines that there are two things, but, consubstan- 
 tial, becomes herself the ultimate object as she was cA 
 before the subject in simultaneous accord. And thus 
 the Divine Oracle ratifies the Platonic instruction 
 to inquire. 
 
 There is sometliing Intelligible which it behoves thee to under- 
 stand with the Flower of thy mind. 
 
 Tor if thou inclinest thy mind thou shalt understand this also, 
 
 Yet understanding, thou shalt not comprehend this wholly: 
 
 Tor it is a Power of circumlucid strength glittering with vehe- 
 mence of iutellection. 
 
246 More Esoteric View. 
 
 But with the ample flame of tlie ample mind which measiu-eth all 
 thingB, 
 
 Except this Intelligible: 
 
 But it behoves tliee to understand this also ; not fixedly, but hav- 
 ing a pure tui'uiug eye, 
 
 Extend tlie empty mind of thy soul towards the Intelligible, 
 
 That thou mayest learn the Intelligible, for it exists beyond the 
 mind. 
 
 Such is the condition and metaphysical ahenation 
 which ancient experience subHinely proved, as passing 
 to deification ; which the natural reason echoes, but by 
 a necessity of faith only, since it cannot pass into the 
 superstantial proof. Theoretic contemplation, sen- 
 sible abstraction, continuity of active thought, all are 
 alike inadequate ; Without the Pontic Medium, with- 
 out Theurgic assistance we are unable to transcend the 
 consciousness of this life, and so are prevented from 
 carrying metaphysics or of proving existence on the 
 ontological ground. But this desiring faith of reason 
 by which she has persisted and still persists, occa- 
 sionally to inquire and infer, respecting causes which 
 are both beyond and behind her natural grasp, has, we 
 think, been aptly compared to the perception which 
 the eye has of light and colours ; for as sight, observing 
 believes, yet can affirm nothing absolutely about the 
 reason or essences of colours ; in like manner reason, 
 reflecting abstractedly, perceives a necessity of subsist- 
 ence within itself, yet, unable to know, can affirm 
 nothing with respect to it. For affirmation implies a 
 doubled testimony in subject and object, or as a 
 logician might say, affirmation arises out of that which 
 is composite from a subject and a predicate. If there- 
 fore Intellect should by any means be enabled to come 
 into visivc contact with its vision, as if begetting an 
 experience, it would then assert ; and the assertion, as 
 respects itself, would be true ; and the disbelief of 
 others who had not proved the same, would be to it 
 as if some one having slept away his life dreaming in 
 this world, should on awakening to outward sense, 
 persist in those dreams with which he had been so 
 long conversant, denying the reality of the api)caring 
 
The Mysteries. 247 
 
 world ; and as his infatuation would be obvious, and 
 his denial disregarded by mankind, so is the blindness 
 of the sensible life described as obvious and lament- 
 able by those who have passed into a more profound 
 and convictive experience. 
 
 But not reason, nor enthusiasm, nor ardent desire, 
 nor an intellectual conception, nor abstraction, as we 
 are taught, conjoins theurgists with the One ; but 
 these are preparatory steps only to the self-oblivious 
 amplitude of conception which precedes Him moving 
 in the ultimate recessure of life. 
 
 He comes, says Plotinus, suddenly alone, bringing 
 with him his own empyreal universe and total deity, 
 in one. And all things in that ultimate circulation are 
 diaphanous, nothing dark or resisting, as of subject 
 and object remaining in the mind ; but everything is 
 apparent to every faculty intrinsically throughout. For 
 light everywhere meets light, as thought its under- 
 standing in the all, continental all, resident in each 
 particular, perfect with all ; and the splendor there is 
 infinite, for everything there is great, even that which 
 is small, for it has the great. The sun which is there 
 is all the stars, and again each star is the sun, and all 
 the stars, as ideas are in the mind everywhere, and the 
 same mind in all ; only in each a different quality is 
 dominant, yet all are comprehensible in each, and 
 transmutable one into another, as thoughts arise and 
 are displaced without disorder or opposive persistence. 
 Motion likewise there is jjerfectly harmonious, for the 
 motion is not confounded, as in the world it is, by a 
 mover different from itself ; but the seat of each thing 
 is that which the thing itself is, and concurs and proves 
 itself to be what it is by its own self-evidence, pro- 
 ceeding constantly towards that whence it originated. 
 Thus, that which thinks and understands, and the 
 thing understood are one, coeternal and coequal, and 
 their substance is intellect, and Intellect according to 
 these philosophers is the subsistence of all. 
 
 But in the sensible world the circulation of things is 
 altogether different ; for though this has been proved 
 also to be an outbirth from the same universal centre, 
 
248 Moke Esoteuic View. 
 
 yet the c(iuilibriuoi of being is broken everywhere at 
 t he eircunifercnec for manifestation ; one thing does not 
 subsist by another, but each part or individual remains 
 alone in contrariety of conscience ; nor does the devious 
 wheel of life obey her axle any more, until returning 
 into it, she perceives her error and the transgression 
 that was made in self-will, for the sake of this expe- 
 rience, from the great Law of Light, from plenitude of 
 Power, from immortal Harmony, and that high Exem- 
 plar which is before all things, and the Final Cause of 
 all ; which seeing only is seen, and understanding is 
 understood by him, who having a sight like that of 
 Lynccus, penetrating all centres, discovers himself in 
 That finally wiiich is the source of all ; and passing 
 from himself to That, transcending, attains the end of 
 his progression. 
 
 Ille dei'im vitam accipiet, divisque videbit 
 Permixtos heroas, et ipse videbitur illis. 
 
 And this was the consummation of the Mysteries, 
 the ground of the Hernietic philosophy, prolific in 
 supernatural increase, transmutations and magical 
 effects. And thus it is said to be lawful for the Vital 
 Spirit to descend and ascend in successive circulations 
 until she terminates her flight in the Principle of things. 
 And this w^as the life of the gods and of divine happy 
 men, who rising in voluntary abnegation above the 
 evil and sensual habitude of this life and many suffer- 
 ings to which body is allied, obtained, together wdth a 
 liberation fi*om these, a foretaste simple, beatific, and 
 secure, of the life which is eternal ; when, by exciting 
 the divine virtue within, they became simultaneously 
 elevated, and proceeding through Intellect to Wisdom, 
 they arrived at the First Principle ; and again de- 
 scending thence, increasing in divine virtue by each 
 ascent, until the total life was irradiated from the 
 ample recess of light. 
 
 Tunc ire ad mundum archetypum S53epe atque redirc 
 y^jZ-y^vL^ry-^ Patreiiijp*ffaj»ii«ia spectare licebit — 
 
 Cujus tunc Co-operator effectus potest Omnia. 
 
The Mysteries. 249 
 
 But there are many degrees of Divine illumination ; 
 nor were the rites of Eleusis found to be equally effi- 
 cacious for all ; since all souls are not of equal capacity 
 or bias towards intellectual education : but as philoso- 
 phers agree that preceding initiations are preparatory 
 to those in a subsequent order, so the possession of the 
 best habits of thought in this life, and natural incli- 
 nation, render the Spirit better adapted to sublime. 
 Plato, accordingly, cites the records of the Mysteries, 
 to witness that there are many more Thyrsus bearers 
 than Bacchic souls ; which is to say, that many had 
 the tire indeed, and were able even to perceive it, who 
 were without the power to discover and draw it forth to 
 manifestation. For, in the Thyrsus, Prometheus is fa- 
 bled to have concealed the fire he stole from heaven ; 
 but Bacchus, persisting through the whole course of 
 life allotted, returned, as the Orphic verse denotes 
 him, triumphant, and appearing in splendour to 
 mortals. 
 
 Bacclius, ipse totus igneus et fulgidus appareret, qui nudis oculis 
 tolerari non posset. 
 
 So Osiris appeared in shining garments, as Apollo, 
 all over radiant ; so Socrates^ his mighty genius once (^'^'^ 
 freed, in ecstacy shone forth, as it is related, to the 
 beholders, more dazzling than the luciferous wheel of 
 the meridian sun, diffusing itself from the freed centre 
 outwardly until it moved the dark circumference of 
 sense itself.^ 
 
 So great Alcides, mortal mould resigned. 
 His better part enlarged and all refined ; 
 August his visage shone ; Almighty Jove 
 In his swift car his honoured oflspring drove. 
 
 So Orpheus, and/^divine Achilles shone refulgent 
 in his armour ; and Jason, on his return from Colchis, 
 with the Golden Fleece. 
 
 1 Agrippa Occult Phil, book iii. where are given several notable 
 examples in this kind ; and Apuleius on the Demon of Socrates. 
 
250 More Esoteric View. 
 
 But, say the expounders, all this splendid delirium 
 and transfiguration in the Mysteries was the effect of 
 narcotic liquors, which were administered to the Mystce 
 before the shows commenced, causing a confusion 
 of their intellects, and the strange and miraculous a])- 
 pearance of the objects exhibited to them. But this 
 is all a mistake ; arising naturally enough out of the 
 tendency of common sense, Procrustes like, to accom- 
 modate all things to the limitation of its own sphere, 
 which comprehends but a small part, however, of the 
 things which are. The light exhibited in the Eleusinian 
 mysteries, i. e., in the true initiations, as is plainly to 
 be gathered from the sense of the ancients, was the 
 Light of Life which these could kindle and fortify, and 
 the total drama was Di\dne. Let ignorance disbelieve, 
 and impiety reprobate, as long as they are able ; those 
 Theurgic associations were neither futile nor unholy ; 
 nor were the visions or gods attending on those 
 Mysteries dead images, nor mere symbols, nor impo- 
 tent, nor idle, nor invisible, though unseen. For are 
 we not taught by the highest philosophic authorities 
 to believe that by Theurgic rites, an ascent was made 
 through appropriate media and a gradual assimilation, 
 which without these could not be effected, to the 
 l\nowlc(lge of the First Cause ; and that not theoretic 
 only, but actual in co-efficiency of being and universal 
 intellection. 
 
 And here, if any agree with us, he will readily 
 appreciate that mandate of the Mysteries which 
 forbids that divine things should be divulged to the 
 uninitiated. For beyond the early danger to unpuri- 
 fied souls, there remains this objection, that such 
 things cannot be understood by the multitude, nor 
 rightly by any but by those only who were fortunately 
 enabled to perceive them. But it is not possible, fol- 
 lowing their descriptions, the sublimely articulate rela- 
 tions of the Greek and Alexandrian Platonists, or those 
 no less profound and earnest Mystics of the middle 
 ages, concerning the divine hypostasis and last con- 
 junction of the contemplative soul and its immortal 
 
The Mysteries. 251 
 
 experience, to maintain an indifferent spirit, or with- 
 out being in a degree moved to a responsive sense of 
 their reaUty. And he who, being endowed with a 
 percipient mind and Hberal, will take pains to examine 
 those w^ritings, or even those of the reputed enemies 
 of their faith — the enlightened Fathers of the Christian 
 Church — may be persuaded by very much evidence, too 
 much to intrude in this place, that the Eleusinian 
 rites alluded to, and the objects attained, were of 
 a nature widely differing from those which have been 
 generally reported. And if, as must be indeed ad- 
 mitted, they became latterly disgraced in impure 
 hands, yet this ought not by any means to detract 
 from our esteem of the original institution, to which 
 those latter orgies were diametrically opposed. That 
 the Mysteries were instituted pure there is no doubt, 
 since it is universally allowed ; early Christians con- 
 curring with the wisest Ethnics in declaring that they 
 proposed the noblest ends, and by the worthiest means 
 attained them ; where not only every thing within was 
 conducted with decorum, but utmost care was taken 
 to secure the same for those passing without the Fane, 
 where misbehaviour, even of the eye, was accounted 
 criminal, and indiscretion was punished, and profana- 
 tion by death. That all was a mere machination and 
 priestly lure, or the visions of men of obscured intel- 
 lects, is an assumption arising out of the double igno- 
 rance of modern times ; all those immortal fables 
 and glowing descriptions of poets, philosophers, saints, 
 and historians belie the folly, and reflect it on those 
 who, from regarding the fluctuating objects of sense 
 only, with a trifling imagination, have obscured the 
 high reality and light of better days. 
 
 But it is then, as Epictetus says, that the idea 
 of the Mysteries becomes truly venerable, when, 
 believing the ancients, we begin to understand their 
 assertion, that all things therein were provided by 
 them for the improvement and perfection of human 
 life. 
 
 Thus far we have endeavoured to sketch through 
 
252 More Esoteric View. 
 
 the order of the Mysteries to their consummation ; 
 for the sake of affording a gi-ound to the pursuit 
 of our inquiry, to indicate the connection of the Sa- 
 cred Art and Alchemy, and inasmuch as modern 
 revelation would permit, the nature of that Aii; and 
 proper Subject of this philosophy. In the progress 
 of this Vital Experiment, it may not be difficult to 
 imagine that powers would be disclosed and particular 
 secrets of nature in the substance of her Whole. 
 These intermediate fi'uits and fragments, having 
 been exhibited at intervals to the world, without a dis- 
 covery of their source, have given rise to much asto- 
 nishment and misapprehension, and those futile re- 
 searches of common chemistry after the elixir and gold. 
 Both of which are vital products, as we shall i)rocecd 
 to elucidate with the method and metaphysical origin 
 of the Philosopher's Stone. 
 
PART III. 
 
 CONCERNING THE LAWS AND VITAL 
 
 CONDITIONS OF THE HERMETIC 
 
 EXPERIMENT. 
 
255 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Of the Experimental Method and Fermentation of the 
 Philosophic Subject, according to the Paracelsian 
 Alchemists and sovie others. 
 
 Naturam in primis imitabere in arte magister. 
 Ilanc massam exterior taiitum calor excitat ignis ; 
 JEthereo interior seel perficit omnia fotu. 
 
 Tractatus Aureus — Scholium, cap. i. 
 
 IT is not less a tendency of the Greek philosophy 
 to substantialize life, than to free the conscious 
 being from corporeal dependency ; in considering mind 
 apart from its material organs, they by no means make 
 it appear therefore as an abstract conception, or in- 
 ferential only, as with modern metaphysics is the case; 
 but as an absolute substratal matter also of existence. 
 
 On just such a foundation do the Alchemists esta- 
 blish their Free Masonry ; claiming like extreme attri- 
 butes and miraculous origin for their first matter, as 
 do the Greeks, for that ethereal hypostasis we were 
 before discussing. A few also profess, with the same 
 admirable earnestness, to have observed in the experi- 
 mental development of their whole internal being, the /Ttomy 
 whole procedure of the occult nature into evidence, 
 with her universal efficient by the Light of Wisdom 
 thenceforth revealed. 
 
 In ignorance of the means by which such a spec- 
 tacle was obtained, they may continue unaccredited, 
 for their assertion is at variance with the judgment of 
 common sense, neither does it belong to the natural 
 order of mental experience ; nevertheless, since the 
 whole of the Hermetic philosophy, and every tradition 
 of occult science, depend immediately therefrom, for 
 our undertaking's sake, it will be requisite to consider 
 
256 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 this, their Initial Principle, more particularly, and how 
 possibly it became known in its first arcane descent 
 and emanation. 
 
 We have already endeavom-ed to prepare a way 
 in part, showing the imperfection of the natural Spiiit 
 in this world, the occultation of its Light, and the 
 vital alteration that was deemed necessary and ope- 
 rated in the Mysteries upon those who were desirous 
 of wisdom and immortality in the awakening con- 
 science of a divine life within. Let us examine yet 
 further into the Method of this Vital Experiment, that, 
 before proceeding to unfold the Art in actual i)ractice, 
 we may understand the Principles ; and be enabled, 
 from out the many clouds of sophistry in which it is 
 enveloped, to distinguish that Light and virtue of true 
 Chemistry, by which the ancients were assisted : — that 
 deformed and limping CEdipus, for example ; so that 
 he was able to vanquish the Metaphysical Monster, 
 and enter in with her to the Temple of Truth. 
 
 And here, preliminarily, we may remark with how 
 much propriety the Egyptians placed the Sphinx in 
 the vestibule of Isis, who is the same with Minerva 
 and that Wisdom we are investigating ; for what the 
 natural intelligent Spirit is in man, that Ether is 
 in the universe ; and this intelligence, phantastic as it 
 is and drawn without, may be called the vestibule of 
 Reason, which is, as it were, the temple of that Intel- 
 lectual Illumination which proceeds, when the con- 
 ditions are duly offered, from the Divinity within. In 
 our vestibule, therefore, the Phantastic Spirit, which is 
 the natural vehicle of our hfe, is situated ; and in 
 a similar manner the commonly diffused Ether is as a 
 vestibule or vehicle in respect of the universal soul of 
 the world, which is occultly suspended in Nature, and 
 may be called her temple ; as an outward shadow, 
 guarding the Light within of both worlds, so is that 
 Ether then the Sphinx of the Universe. 
 
 And she is all things passively which the internal 
 light is impassively. By her animal form, combined 
 with the human face and summit, is indicated the two- 
 
Experimental Method. 257 
 
 fold capability and diffusion of such a life ; for she is 
 the summit of the irrational mind relying on instinct, 
 and the basis whereon to build the rational and trans- 
 cend opinion in indivisible science. Her wings are 
 images of the elevating power which the imagination 
 possesses, by which likewise she is rendered capable 
 of divine assimilation and of returning within and 
 upward to a region of vivid intellection everywhere 
 resplendent with light.' 
 
 Such was the Door-keeper of the Egyptain Mys- 
 teries ; agreeably also do we find the art of Alchemy 
 directed upon the same enigmatical source. 
 
 A nature to search out which is invisible, 
 Material of our Maistry a substance insensible. 
 
 This Material, whilst yet immanifest, they worked, 
 and worked with by itself alone ; joining self to self, as 
 the advice runs — vita vitam concipit, natura naturam 
 vincit ac superat, patefacit, gignit et renovat ; item 
 natura natura leetatur et emendetur ;^ as men also 
 now prove, mesmerising one another, but without the 
 important knowledge how to alter and amend the Thing. 
 This Mesmerism, in respect of our Mystery then, may 
 be regarded as a first key which, opening into the ves- 
 tibule, affords a view within the sense's prison, but of 
 the labyrinth of life only. Facts vary at the circum- 
 ference, and appear often so contradictory that reason 
 is at a loss, even if otherwise admitted capable, for stable 
 materials whereon to base judgment ; and each suc- 
 ceeding theory yields to some unforeseen diversity of 
 the Spirit's manifestation. If the ancients had known 
 the inner life only as it is now known, if they had mis- 
 taken dreams for revelations, instinct for intellectual 
 vision, and insensibility for the highest good, and so 
 left Nature to dream on and take her rest without 
 exerting a thought to probe or prosper her ability, 
 
 1 See Taylor's Notes to his Pausanias ; an admirable extract from 
 Lasus Hermonseus concerning the Sphinx, vol. iii. 
 
 2 Arnold! Rosarium, Democritus et alii in Turba Philosophorum ; 
 De Lapidis Physici Condit. cap. iii. 
 
 S 
 
258 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 then they would have been just such inconsiderable 
 heathens as the world has taken them for ; the Sphinx 
 had never owned her mastery or yielded to theirs her 
 w^ary wit ; then they would have been, as we, servants, 
 not masters ; plodding interpreters of effects, without 
 power or prescience. But it was all otherwise, as 
 will one day be perceived ; their philosophy as far 
 exceeded ours in substance and objective certainty, as 
 it does avowedly in scope, beauty and intellectual 
 promise. 
 
 It may be considered that the discovery of Vital 
 Magnetism is young, and has had no time to grow up 
 into a science ; that it is the business of a philosopher 
 to observe and gather facts from without patiently and 
 compare experiences ; and we do not object but admit 
 that it is a way ; but whether it is the best way, or 
 surest, to find the truth eventually we doubt : a long 
 way we all know it to be — laborious and not very 
 cheering, if we regard the point to which it has hither- 
 to attained in the most intelligent and experienced 
 hands. Or how should the)" attempt to theorise 
 about a revelation that is above their own ? as well 
 might we presume to estimate the worth of a treasure 
 that is unseen, as to judge of spiritual causes from re- 
 mote effects. Is not experience the basis of true 
 knowledge, and rational experiment the proper road to 
 attain it ? How then can we hope for an understand- 
 ing of spiritual causes without entering in upon the 
 proper ground of their experience ? Verily, says the 
 adept, as long as men continue to lick the shell after 
 their fashion, presuming to judge of hidden celestial 
 things which are shut up in the closet of the matter, 
 and all the while perusing the outside, they can do no 
 otherwise than they have done; they cannot know 
 things substantially, but only describe them by their 
 outward effects and motions, which are subject and ob- 
 vious to every common eye.* 
 
 But be the modern method of experimenting as it 
 
 ^ Yaughan's Auima Magia Abscondita, p. 8. 
 
Experimental Method. 259 
 
 may, right or wrong, according to opinion, the ancients 
 did not choose it ; but adopted a different one in their 
 philosophy ; which we, observing the imperfect fruits 
 of the inductive sciences generally, and that facts ac- 
 cumulated about them for ages, have failed in every in- 
 stance to yield the satisfaction which reason requires, 
 are more particularly desirous to examine at the pre- 
 sent time, if peradventure philosophy might hope 
 with advantage to return with her instruments to work 
 as formerly on the (I priori ground. It has lain a long 
 while uncultivated, and indigenous weeds and briers 
 have sprung up over, so that it is difficult, on first 
 view, to believe that it ever yielded foreign fruits ; but 
 patience, and the possibility granted, we will endea- 
 vour to clear a path, by the help of evidences that yet 
 remain, many and curious, about the riches of Wisdom 
 and those living waters that abound in Paradise, 
 compassing about too that land of Havilah where good 
 gold is ;^ the Tree of Life also, and Knowledge, and 
 other precious things wonderfully adumbrated about 
 the penetralia of True Being. — Surely there is a vein for 
 the silver, says Job, and a place for gold where they 
 
 Jine it. Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is 
 molten out of the stone. As for the earth, out of it 
 Cometh bread : and ander it is turned up as it were 
 
 Jire. And the stones of it are the place of sapphires : 
 and it hath dust of gold. There is a path which no 
 
 fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not 
 seen : the lions whelps have not trodden it, nor the 
 fierce lion passed by. He putteth forth his hand upon 
 the roek ; he overturneth the mountauis by the roots. 
 He cutteth out rivers among the rocks ; and his ei/e 
 seeth every precious thing. He bindeth the flood 
 from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth 
 he forth to light. But where shall wisdom be found? 
 and where is the place of understanding? Man knoweth 
 not the price thereof; neither is it to be found in the 
 latul of the living. Whence then cometh Wisdom ? and 
 
 ^ Genesis, chap. ii. ver. 10, and following. 
 
 s 2 
 
260 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 where is the place of understanding ? Seeing it is hid 
 from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the 
 fowls of the air. God understandeth the way thereof. 
 For he looketh to the ends of earth, and seeth under 
 the whole heaven ; to make the weight for the winds ; 
 and he weigheth the waters by measure. When he 
 made a decree for the rain and a way for the light- 
 ning and thunder: then did he see it, and declare it; 
 he prepared it, and searched it out. And unto man he 
 said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is Wisdom ; 
 and to depart from evil is Understanding} 
 
 Let us, then, investigate a means for the discovery of 
 Wisdom, as the ancients declare to be right and pro- 
 fitable, and believe that he spoke well and summarily 
 who said, that " the first step in philosophy is to set 
 the mind a-going."' 
 
 As we are informed that the conduct of the Mys- 
 teries was uniform and entirely scientific ; so likewise 
 philosophers insist that, in the Hermetic art, theory 
 ought to precede practice ; and that, before the Spirit 
 can be expected to yield any rational or pure effects, 
 she must be made to conceive them : the right way and 
 object of investigation being well understood. — Dwell 
 not altogether in the practice, says the adept, for that 
 is not the way to improve it : be sure to add reason to 
 thy experience, and to employ thy mind as well as thy 
 hands. "^ So wrote Vaughan in 1 650 ; and, to the same 
 effect, artists of every age : and, in the sequel of this 
 inquiry, we may understand Why ; and why we have 
 no such miracles as those which are related of the 
 saints and apostles in former times who received the 
 gift of healing from their Lord. Is it not obvious to 
 common sense, that he that would heal others, or hope 
 to impart any superior efficacy, should first of all heal 
 or be healed himself? Take first the beam from out 
 thine own eye, and then thou mayest see clearly to 
 take out the moat that is in thy brother's eye : and 
 again, is it not written, — Physician heal thyself; Prepare 
 
 ^ Job, cliap. xxviii. 
 
 ' Yaughan's Luinon de Luiiiino, p. 18. 
 
Experimental Method. 261 
 
 thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the 
 field ; and afterwards build thy house. ^ If, then, w^e go 
 out at once to throw our common life to common 
 lives, w^hat wonder we have only common results ? 
 That much depends upon the quality of the life im- 
 parted, general observation teaches ; and with what 
 sure corresponding consequences the moral leaven is 
 attended may be understood, in a degree, by the 
 recipient in the mesmeric trance. But the spon- 
 taneous fermentation which the Vital Spirit undergoes, 
 and the change which is thereby effected in the Passive 
 Subject, is not taken advantage of in modern practice, 
 or pushed to the uttermost ; much less is understood, 
 that exact art of grafting and transplanting which 
 the ancients practised, and by means of which a 
 growth and sublimation of the Spirit was effected, 
 even to a third, fourth, and fifth degree of concen- 
 trated essentiality in as many representative vessels or 
 forms. 
 
 The true medicine, according to the Paracelsians, is 
 bound in man, shut up as it may be milk, within the 
 hard and solid nut : and as fire which lies hidden in 
 fuel, unless it be ignited, is good for nothing, so our 
 fire of life (called Antimony by adepts) can effect no- 
 thing comparatively excellent whilst it is immured. 
 When however, by a due purgation, the pure life is 
 separated, as metal from the dark and sordid ore, it 
 will flow forth, as is declared, " a pure panacea from 
 the god of Light ;" 
 
 AJVhose fragrant locks distil ambrosial dews, 
 Drop gladness down and blooming health diffuse ; 
 Where'er the genial planacea fall^, ""■ ^^-.^ 
 
 Health crowns the state, and safe^y^uards'the walla.^ 
 
 As all things are proved by fire, so also, are we told, 
 the trial of the knowledge of physic is to be made by 
 fire ; physic and pyrotechny, says Crollius, cannot be 
 separated ; for the natural inbred chemist teaches to 
 
 ' Wisdom of Solomon, and in Proverbs, chap. xxiv. 
 2 Callimachus's Hymn to Apollo, by Dodd. 
 
262 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 segregate every mystery into its own reservacle, and 
 to free the medicine from those scurvy envelopes 
 wherein naturally it is wrapped, by a due separation 
 from the impurities and filthy mixtures of superficial 
 external elements ; that the pure crystaUine matter 
 may be administered to our bodies ; and therefore a 
 physician should be born of the light of grace and 
 spirit of the invisible divinity.' Wherewith a man 
 no longer asks, What is it? How can this be? or, 
 Whence come such salutary effects ? For it feels itself 
 move in conscious virtue from its own source, being 
 allied, as an efflux of that living light which can move 
 mountains to its faith. 
 
 To find this Light, and to free it from captivity, was 
 the practice of physicians in the middle periods, for 
 curing bodily ills, and administering to the defects 
 of age. But the Theurgic Art professed a power of pu- 
 rifying and informing the Mind much more beneficial 
 and lasting than this pertaining to the mortal body, 
 and far advanced beyond that object ; approaching 
 tpiXTtiAjL more nearly, as it would seem, 1^ a fulfilment of the 
 perfect doctrine of regeneration preached by Jesus 
 Christ and his apostles, than any other known ; for, by 
 an eflTectual baptismal purification, they also prepared 
 the way, and by a gradual subjugation of the passions 
 and adaptation of the subordinate powers to reason, 
 the wdiole hypostasis was converted finally through 
 faith into the identity of substant light within. 
 
 And it appears that, in order to discover this Reason, 
 men had in former times the faith to put the question 
 to Nature rationally : not rudely indeed, or, as is with 
 modern chemistry the fashion, to demohsh her edifices 
 and burn her out of life and home; but they knocked, 
 as was bid them, and the doors being opened from 
 within, they enjoyed and took advantage of their en- 
 trance as lawful guests : and, when all was ready, and 
 they were admitted to the inner chamber, we observe 
 
 ' See Crullhis' Pbilosopliy, The True PliVfic, chap. i. Also B. 
 Valeutiue's (."liariot dt" Aittimony. )). 42. <tc. 
 
 ^ J 
 
Experimental Method, 263 
 
 them still, not so much engaged in noting phenomena, 
 or looking about for facts to furnish private judgment ; 
 but more becomingly inquisitive, addressing them- 
 selves to Nature, and admiring there where they found 
 her happily exalted above them, sphered in the magian 
 circle of her own light : not stupidly gazing either, but 
 speculative, how they might approach nearer and be- 
 come worthy of the knowledge and famiHarity of that 
 light. For they w^ere not content with first phe- 
 nomena, nor did Theurgists disturb the divine intellect 
 about trifling concerns ; but they consulted it about 
 things which pertain to purification, liberation, as 
 Jamblicus tells us, and the salvation of life. Neither 
 did they studiously employ themselves in questions 
 which are indeed difficult, yet useless, to mankind ; but, 
 on the contrary, they directed their attention to things 
 which are beneficial to life, and such as tend towards 
 the discovery of truth. ^ 
 
 No man enters the magian' s school, it seems, but 
 he wanders awhile in the region of chimeras ; and the 
 inquiries which he makes before attaining to experi- 
 mental knowledge are many, and often erroneous. ^ 
 But investigation, once begun in a right rectifying 
 spirit, enters,- & the adepts^ who having set the chain 
 of vital causes in action, succeeded in tracing them to 
 their last efficient link in ^cleity ; whence surveying, 
 they were enabled, under the divine will, to work such 
 perfection in things below as are supernatural to this 
 life, and greater than the natural intellect is able to 
 conceive. For the Central Light and Wisdom was all 
 their aim, and the way to it was all the revelation they 
 valued or asked for, until the hidden Divinity was 
 moved into experience and made manifest in effect and 
 power. 
 
 But what say our GEdipus distillers of this Ether, 
 the instructive'^ Alchemists? Lay the line to thy 
 thoughts and examine all patiently, and infer from 
 
 _/ 1 See Jamblicus de Mysteriis, sect. vii. cap. viii. 
 
 2 See Vaughau's I.umen de Lumine, p. 40, &c. B. Valentine's 
 Chariot sub initio, Norton's Ordinal, c. iv. &c. 
 
 JD 
 
264 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 experience, and thou art in the way to become in- 
 fallible. Take hold of that Rule which God hatli 
 given thee for thy direction, by which thou mayest 
 discern the right from the wrong. Seek not for that 
 in nature which is an effect beyond her strength ; you 
 must help her, that she may exceed her common 
 course, or all is to no ])urpose ; for the Mercury of 
 the Wise comes not but by help of ingenuity and in- 
 dustry.^ But he that devoteth himself to philosophy, 
 says Crollius, and shall sincerely and as he ought 
 come to the inner rooms of nature by a holy assiduity 
 of preparations, joining thereto diligent contemplation 
 of natural causes, and withal shall refuse no pains or 
 difficulties to get experience by the industry of his 
 handy work, he shall, if the grace of the most High 
 be infused into him, bring forth far greater things out 
 of this open bosom of nature than they seem to pro- 
 mise at first sight.^ To the same effect Van Helmont 
 writes, that the attainment of the Tree of Life is la- 
 borious, and the fruit of intellectual research.^ Excel- 
 lent, also, is this advice of Basil Valentine, and 
 instructive to the point : Learn and look for the first 
 foundation, says the monk, which nature holds con- 
 cealed ; search for it even with thine own eyes and 
 hand, in order that thou mayest be able to philoso- 
 phise with judgment and build upon the impregnable 
 rock ; but, without this discovery, thou wilt continue a 
 vain and phantastic trifler, whose discoursings, without 
 e.iperieiue, are built upon sand. Let not any one 
 imagine either that we can be satisfied with mere 
 words, who rather exact documents proved by ex- 
 perience, in which we are bounden to have faith.'* 
 
 1 Lumen de Luminc, page 39. Liillii Theoria et Practica, cap. 
 Ixviii et Ixxxviii. 
 
 ' See the Admonitory Preface of Osw aid Crollius, page x. 
 
 3 Oreatrike, p. 631, 710, kc. 4to. 
 
 ^ Disce igitur, disputator mi, et inquire primum fundamentum 
 ipsis oculis et manu, quod natura secutn fert absconditum : sic 
 demi^m prudenter, et cum judicio inexpugnabilem Petram jedifi- 
 care poteris. Sine hoc autem vanus et phantasticus nugator 
 manebis, ciijus sermones absque ilia Expericntia supra arenam 
 
Experimental Method. 265 
 
 Such are a few of the preliminary lessons of adepts, 
 in which they all agree that the way to AVisdom is by 
 patience and rational inquiry. Some scattered spe- 
 cimens of the kind we have remarked in the writings / . 
 of LuUy, and Michael Mayer and others, to which in ' i-, 
 the Practice we shall have occasion to allude. That 
 they did not investigate trifling matters is indeed 
 obvious, but diligently, fi'om the first, concerning the 
 intimate causes of things ; and how they might 
 themselves enter into the fundamental experience, 
 their anxiety is manifest and the truly philosophic 
 inclination of their mind. 
 
 But the contemplation which absolves the Second 
 part of our admonition is cdestial, continues the 
 monk Basil, and to be understood with spiritual 
 reason ; for the circumstances of everything cannot 
 be perceived any other way than by the spiritual 
 cogitation of man, considering how nature may be 
 helped and perfected by resolution of itself, and how 
 the destruction and compaction are to be handled, 
 whereby under a just title, without sophistical deceits, 
 the pure may be separated from the impure.^ For it 
 is no graft from this life that enters into the divine 
 foundation, nor any arbitrary instinct; natural reason, 
 even the most acute, is dull here comparatively, and 
 inoperative, and stands in the Philosophic Work, 
 albeit necessary, as a mere circumstantial aid on the 
 threshold of the divine inquiiy, as it were an iron 
 key, intended to unlock the golden treasury of light 
 within. And no sooner, we are informed, has it done 
 this, and, further extricating itself, helped to introduce 
 the spiritual intellect into self-knowledge^ than this 
 latter, returning with power upon the life without, 
 proceeds to analyze and revolutionize, proving all, as 
 may be said, chemically by the fiery essence of its 
 
 polum fimdati sunt. Qui autem sermocinationibus suis et nugis 
 me aliquid docere vult, is me verbis tantum nudis non pascat, sed 
 ExperientisD factum documentum simul sit prsesto oportet, sine 
 quo nou teueor verbis locum dare, fidemque iis adbibere, &c. 
 1 B. Valentine's Chariot of Antimonv, sub initio. 
 
266 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 newly conceived Law. It is this vital perscrutinator, 
 the internal Jive of the sulphur of thy water, as 
 Eireneus calls it, that, investigating scientifically, 
 operates the whole change. And it is happily pro- 
 vided against intruders, lest the casket should be 
 rifled of its rich offering, that they only who have 
 obtained this passport can attain to the Magistery 
 of Life ; since they only, literally speaking, can enter 
 in through the narrow gate, as in the Mysteries we 
 have already described. And the discovery is difficult, 
 and reputed tedious by many who have spared no 
 / , labour either of body or mind in the research — reclusa 
 '-t- resed/t longius, as the poet says ; it is far off, gotten in 
 
 the penetralia, as it were, the flower of human intellect, 
 triply imprisoned in the dark body's hold. This it is 
 the business of the philosopher to open and set free ; 
 and this is the security, that he must be a lover of 
 Wisdom who can set her free. 
 
 Our fire is the true sulphur of Gold, says Eireneus, 
 which in the hard and dry body is imprisoned, but by 
 the mediation of our water it is let loose, by rotting 
 the moles of the body (/. e., of the ethereal body) 
 under which it is detained ; and after separation of the 
 elements (of the same body) it appears visibly in our 
 Third Menstrual. But the means to discover this 
 is not a light work, it requires a profound meditation : 
 for this is the seed of Gold, involved in many links, 
 and held prisoner, as it were, in a deep dungeon ; he 
 that knows not our two Jirst menstrua Is is altogether 
 shut out from attaining to the sigJU of this Third and 
 last : yet he who knows how to prepare the Jirst 
 water, and to join it to the body in a just pondus, to 
 shut it up in its vessel philosophicall//, until the infant 
 be formed, and, what is greater than all, to govern his 
 fire dexterously , so as to cherish internal heat with 
 external, and can wait with patience till he see signs ; 
 he shall perceive the Jirst water will work on the 
 body till it hath opened the pores and extracted partly 
 the tincture of Sol. Take counsel ; be not so careful 
 of the lire of the Athanor as of vour internal Fire. 
 
Experimental Method. 267 
 
 Seek it in the house of Aricfi, and draw it from the 
 depths of Satiii^n ; let Mercury be the interval, and 
 your signal the Doves of Diana} 
 
 On some such errand, we may remember, the Sybil 
 sends iEneas, that, from out many entanglements and 
 obscurity, he may discover and bring to her the Golden 
 Bough, well directing him how to look from beneath 
 upwards, and take it in hand. 
 
 Alte vestiga oculis ; et rite repertum, 
 Carpe manu ; namque Ipse volens facilisque sequetur, 
 Si te fata vocant ; aliter, nou viribus uUis 
 Vincere, nee dui'o poteris convellere ferro.'^ 
 
 So Orpheus, in his Argonautics, leading to the Cave 
 of Mercury, exhorts mankind how they ought to act 
 and study there. 
 
 At qujecimque virum ducit prudentia cordis 
 Merciirii ingredier spelimcam plurima ubi ille 
 Deponit bona, stat quorum praegrandis acervus 
 Ambabus valet liic mauibus sibi sumere, et ista 
 Ferre domuin, valet hie visitare incommoda cuncta. 
 
 He, therefore, who wishes to partake of many 
 goods, let him approach to the Cave of Mercury, 
 which, according to the Hermetic interpretation, is 
 Taenerus, the most hidden vapour of life : let him 
 enter with a prudent motive, well understanding and 
 allied to what he seeks ; and that which he shall bear 
 away from thence. Centaur-like, in both his Hands, 
 will be the mineral radix and true matter of the Her- 
 metic Art. But if he have not a right mind, and 
 unless the predestinated conditions and the order of 
 operation be observed, all will be vain ; for the power 
 will remain hidden, despite of every effort, in a pu- 
 sillanimous uncongenial soul. Nescit Sol comitis non 
 memor esse sui ; Ignire ignis amat, non aurificare sed 
 aurum. Fire loves fire, say they, not to make gold, 
 but to assimilate it. Take, therefore, that body which 
 
 ^ See Ripley Eevived, pages 2G3, 266, 69. 
 '^ ^neid, lib. vi. 145. " 
 
268 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 is gold, not a brazen ferment, and throw it into 
 Mercury — such a Mercury as is bottomless, or 
 whose centre it can never find, but by discovering its 
 own.' 
 
 This is the Art of CEdipus, which, well conducted, 
 with the Sphinx, ends in her subjugation ; in other 
 words, the Ethereal Spirit abandons her phantasy, and 
 yields the clear light of understanding to him who, 
 having been duly educated and singled out, knows 
 how and wherewith to investigate her peculiar es- 
 sence. Thus, Synesius says — Intellect above all things 
 separates whatever is contrary to the true purity of 
 the phantastic Spirit ; for it attenuates this spirit in 
 an occult and ineffable manner, and extends it to 
 Divinity.^ But the natural Intellect cannot do this, 
 neither comprehending properly, or being conceived of 
 the Spirit ; neither is its essence so acutely penetra- 
 tive as to operate the change required. Salt is good, 
 but if the Salt have lost its savour wherewith shall it 
 be seasoned? 
 
 And here the common difficulty ensues, as language 
 becomes less and less adequate to convey to the 
 natural understanding the truth alleged. To conceive 
 at once the free perspicacity which experience and 
 long study bestowed on those men, their assertion of 
 the magic action of mind in her own spheres, the effi- 
 cient force of an individual freed wdll upon the vehicle 
 of its motive cause, separating, refining, and transmut- 
 ing it from an impure, dull consistency to the clear 
 light of universal intelligence, is arduous to the unac- 
 customed mind ; and in this age, which is without 
 a witness, without experimental knowledge, we should 
 say, of true causahty, most especially adverse ; yet it 
 will be necessary, having so far ventured, to discuss 
 the point ; and, as well as we may be enabled, to sub- 
 stantialize without deforming this Intellectual Science. 
 
 ^ See Ripley Revived, page 206. Maieri Atalanta Fugiens, Ein- 
 blema xviii. Lumen de Lumine, p. 97. 
 
 ^ See the extract from Synesius de Somuiis, in Taylor's Proclus 
 on Euclid. 
 
Experimental Method. 269 
 
 It may be remembered, in a former citation from his 
 book to the Athenians, Paracelsus saying, that Sepa- 
 ration is the greatest miracle in philosophy, and that 
 magic the most singular by which it is effected ; very 
 excellent for quickness of penetration and swiftness of 
 operation, the like whereof Nature knows not. Now 
 this Separation, of which he speaks, and of which 
 all the Hermetic Masters speak, appears to be identical 
 with that which is described as taking place in the 
 Mysteries, when the great ordeals are passed through 
 during the decomposition and death of the natural 
 life. The analogy bears throughout from the begin- 
 ning in suffering, succedent dread, dissolution, and cor- 
 ruption, to the final resurrection of the pure Ether 
 into Light. This Separation is indeed the primary 
 object of the Art which, continues our doctor, if it 
 were divinely done by God alone, it would be to 
 no purpose to study after it ; but there is a free power 
 in the creature to its mutual affection and destruction ; 
 and, again — The free will flourisheth and is conversant 
 in virtue, and is either friend or foe in our works ; 
 but that is the sequestatrix, which gives to every 
 thing its form and essence.^ Which is the part espe- 
 cial of Intellect, that sariie perscrutinating Intellect 
 which Hermes speaks of,^ and where in the Smaragdine 
 Table it is written — Separahis, Thou shalt separate 
 the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, 
 gently, with much sagacity ; it will ascend from earth 
 to heaven, and again descend from heaven to earth, 
 and will receive the strength of the Inferiors and 
 of the Superiors : this is the strong fortitude of all 
 fortitudes, overcoming every strong and penetrating 
 every solid thing: therefore let all obscurity flee 
 before thee ; so the world was created, and hence are 
 all wonderful adaptations of which this is the manner.^ 
 So passing wonderful is it i^j^at^ by the same reputed ^^<jpC 
 
 ' First book to tlie Athenians, text 9 and 10. 
 
 ^ Tractatiis Aureus, cap. ii. 
 
 ^ Tabula Smaragdina Hermetis. 
 
270 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 author, in the Asclepius, that man should be able 
 not only to find the Causal Nature but to effect it.' 
 
 Nor ought we, therefore, taking into consideration 
 the human agency, to understand this decomponency 
 of life in a mechanical sense, or in any ordinary way 
 of dissolution ; but, according to the literal wording 
 of the Table, we observe Mind to be the true Separa- 
 tor, the efficient as well as the regimen of the work, 
 into which, as before shown, no foreign admixture is 
 allowed to enter. And thus we are given to under- 
 stand that the knowledge of the elements of the 
 ancient philosophers was not corporally nor impru- 
 dently sought after, but is through patience and 
 Wisdom to be discovered according to their causes 
 and their occult operation; for their operation truly 
 is occult, since nothing is discovered except the mat- 
 ter be decomposed, and because it is not perfected 
 unless the whole introversion is passed through. — 
 Auditor, understand, reiterates the great Master ; let 
 us use our Reason — consider all with the most accurate 
 O^ investigation, the whole rnatter^5=»»d know to be One 
 only Thing. ^ 
 
 And as folly, and phantasy, and passion are modes 
 of being of the One Thing, and Reason is another ; and 
 as the phantasy, if suffered to prevail, will convert all to 
 her own folly in the internal life ; so may we judge con- 
 trariwise, that this Reason gaining the ascendancy, 
 would gather all up, as a ferment, into the superior 
 essence and traction of her own Light. This Lully 
 intimates ; and Arnold, and Bacon, and Geber, with the 
 rest, abundantly celebrating the virtues of their Head 
 Stone.-' 
 
 But if any one should be further dis])osed to ([ues- 
 tion their doctrine or demur about the physical eificacv 
 of this Reason, let him for a plea only regard the image 
 
 ' Asclepius, cap. xiii., see motto on title page. 
 
 - Tract. Aur. cap. iv. 
 
 •' See Lullii Theovia et Practica, et Arbor Scientise, Brancha 
 Human. Arnoldi Speculum, Geber Invest, of Perf. ; and again in 
 Manget, Suniantur I.apis in capitulis notus, etc. 
 
Experimental Method. 271 
 
 of it in this life. What else is it hut reason, that 
 enables us to analyze and judge opinion, to govern our 
 passions, and separate facts from falsehood in the un- 
 derstanding? And with the logical faculty, is there 
 not a universal evidence which subsists by faith, an 
 independent standard by which all things are measured 
 and proven in life ? Considering this standard of our 
 common faith, abstractedly a prior necessity of being 
 also, will be understood, an infinite sufficience, magni- 
 tude and eternity of duration ; and thus obtaining a 
 glance only of the antecedent, we find less difficulty 
 in imagining the superior virtue of that which is 
 the Reason of our Rule ; well remembering that it is 
 of this the ancients speak, calling it Wisdom, Intellect, 
 Gold, Sol, Sulphur, Tincture. Intellectus naturam ha- 
 bens subtilem ad intelligendum res intelligibiles par- 
 ticipate cum entibus intensis et cum entibus extensis, 
 viz., cum intenso calore corporis, cum quo conjunctus 
 est et cum intensa bonitate sustentata in suis intensis 
 concretis.^ For it is Light indeed, and an occult 
 splendor of existence transcendently pure ; and as the 
 luminary of the sensible world purifies and subtilizes 
 the gross parts of matter, and by a natural chemistry 
 sublimes and converts the varied elements of earth, so 
 are we taught to conceive of the Intellectual sun ; for 
 those things which the natural reason as an image 
 enacts theoretically, this supernatural reason is said to 
 do as an archetype essentially ; separating and reject- 
 ing the false forms and elementary qualities which 
 supervene through generation, assimilating the whole in- 
 ferior life by continual trituration of its foreign tincture, 
 and imparting, according to its paradigmatic virtue, 
 perfection to such faculties as are indigent by pure in- 
 fusion of Itself to the passified Spirit throughout, even 
 as light through the open atmosphere is everywhere 
 seen diflfusing itself invigorating and manifesting all. 
 
 ' Lullii Arbor X. Scientiae, p. 99, de Intellectu qui est Branclia 
 Spiritualis Arboris Humanalis. See also iu Plotinus' Select Works, 
 a very beautiful treatise on the Gnostic Hypostasis. 
 
272 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 The following remarkable extract from the list works 
 of Anaxagoras, one of the earliest of the Greek Her- 
 metic School, further exemplifying the nature of such 
 an Intellect, confirms what has been said above of its 
 efficient operation. The passage, as preserved by Sim- 
 plicius, is given in a note to Aristotle's Metaphysics, 
 by Taylor, page 7, and runs thus : — 
 
 Intellect is infinite and possesses absolute power, 
 and is not mingled with any thing ; but is alone itself 
 by itself. For if it were not by itself, but were 
 mingled with something else, it would participate of 
 all things, for in every thing there is a portion of every 
 thing ; and things mingled together would prevent it 
 from having a similar dominion over things, as when 
 alone by itself. For it is the most attenuated and 
 pure of all things. It likewise possesses an universal 
 knowledge of eveiy thing, and is in the highest sense 
 pow^erful. Whatever soul possesses greater or lesser, 
 over all these Intellect has dominion. Every thing too 
 that comprehends or contains is subject to its power ; 
 so that it even comprehends the Principle itself. And 
 first of all indeed, it began from that which is small 
 to exercise its comprehending power, but afterwards 
 it comprehended more and more abundantly ; Intellect 
 also knew all that was mingled together, and separated 
 and divided, together with what they would in future 
 be, what they had been, and Avhat they now are. All 
 these Intellect adorned in an orderly manner, together 
 with this circular enclosure which is now comprehended 
 teg by the stars, the sun, and the moon, the air and 
 the ether, which are separat»g from each other. But 
 this comprehending Intellect made things to be sepa- 
 rated ; and separated the dense from the rare, the hot 
 from the cold, the lucid from the dark, and the dry 
 from the moist. There are many parts indeed of many 
 things ; but in short no one thing is singular by itself 
 except Intellect. Every Intellect too is similar, both 
 the greater and tlie lesser ; but no otiier thing is 
 similar to another.' 
 
 ' Aristotle's Metaphysics, note, page 7. 
 
 'o, 
 
Experimental Method. 273 
 
 That is to say, no other faculty is universal, or of 
 itself alone consciously distinguishable pJuat this root ej^aJ^M-'^ 
 of reason which is truly catholic ; and so by the micro- 
 cosmic experiment into It, the knowledge of the ma- 
 crocosmic Cause also was derived. For in the Hermetic 
 process they are seen to co-operate ; and all that 
 Anaxagoras here speaks of as relatively past, has been 
 described as present by philosophers on the internal 
 ground. Else, how should men have asserted^such 
 things (abQjut_jntejJect_ajid the rat ional facj ilty/as by 
 no means belong to the natural revelation of it, if they 
 had not known another and proved the work divine? (^ 
 No one could assert them now. fesr believe, indeed, ^o»xi2y 
 that mind is asgrthing really but an elaboration of the 
 brain, a resulting phenomenon of organization. Sen- 
 sible evidence favours such an opinion, for life is no- 
 where seen apart by itself, but follows constantly as a 
 result of material generation in order of effect to cause ; 
 and human reason, as a ray of light, reflected apart 
 from its originating focus, is halting and impotent in 
 respect of nature, and unconscious of its First Source. 
 
 There is a piece of Egyptian mythology, related by 
 Eudoxus in Plutarch, concerning Jupiter, that his feet 
 had grown together and that he was forced to live in 
 solitude, and ashamed of himself as it were ; until at 
 length Isis, pitying his forlorn condition, succeeded in 
 cutting them asunder, and so restored him to himself 
 and to society. And this, continues the scholar, is 
 designed to represent to us that the mind and reason 
 of the Supreme God, which in nature is invisible and 
 dwelling in obscurity, by being put in motion becomes 
 known, and proceeds to the production of other 
 beings.^ And this too is an allegory of the Art, in 
 which the purified spirit or inteUigence, that is Isis, by 
 dissolving the vital medium, opens the occult source, 
 and draws the Voluntary Efficient upward into intel- 
 lectual reminiscence. And this latAat one thing aeed-- ^ 
 6iLjidiicli-4ua^i t to be consummated, that man may 
 know himself; whence, what for, and whereto, he is 
 
 ^ See the Treatise De Iside et Osiride. 
 T 
 
Vc(^ 
 
 274 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 allied. — All is one soul, says the Magian, but reason, 
 unless it be illuminated, is not free from error, and 
 Light is not given to reason except God impart it ; for 
 the first Light is in God. far exceeding all understand- 
 ing.^ And Aristotle says, That Intellect must be as- 
 sumed which is most perfectly purified ; the know- 
 ledge of which must be sought for in spirit or spirits, 
 bv iiim who aspires to obtain it. For this indeed is 
 pure, and possesses an ineffable beaut}^ because it is 
 nothing but Intellect. For the beauty of Spirit is the 
 highest beauty when it energizes intellectually, with- 
 out error, and purely ; and it knows things not as 
 discovered by human labour, but as they are unfolded 
 by the Divine will.^ The Alexandrian Plotinus also 
 speaking of such an Intellect, describes the material 
 of it as beautiful, and as far surpassing ordinary intel- 
 ligence, as paradigms are wont to do the images which 
 represent them ; and the soul receives with it, he says, 
 a sudden Light, and this Light is from Intellect, and 
 is also It.^ 
 
 It would be mere perplexity, and evince a want of 
 rational perception, to regard this Reason therefore as 
 inessential ; or as arbitrary, either in operation, or 
 event ; since, in our mere individual consciousness it 
 is the foundation of all law — the only unerring neces- 
 sity of faith in this life ; the luminous revelation of 
 which in a purified human intcUigencc, is that perfect 
 beginning of Wisdom, which is half of the perfect whole. 
 
 Dimidium facti qui bene cocpit habet, says the phi- 
 losopher ; for a small grain of the metaphysical fer- 
 ment, leavens the whole lump. And as the grain of 
 wheat is putrefied in the earth, and afterwards by the 
 tc^cJi . nouriohmcnt of watoi? becomes growing wheat, termi- 
 nating and multiplying in the fermental form inbred, 
 so the metaphysical graft, already purified and passed 
 
 ^ Agrippa's Third Book of Occult Phil. chap, xliii. 
 
 2 This passage is taken from one of those singularly instructive 
 treatises attributed to Aristotle by his Arabian compilers, as 
 rendered by Taylor, from the Latin of Albertus Magnus in his 
 Dissertation, book iii. 
 
 •'' Plotinus, Select Works on the Gnostic Hypostasis, &c. 
 
Experimental Method. 275 
 
 the fire, re-enters to redeem its congenital life, and 
 finally by assimilation transmutes all into the sub- 
 stance of its own Aurific Light. 
 
 During the process of working this leaven, many 
 phenomena arise, and those wonders which, having 
 been variously observed, are described and poetized ; 
 for this acute discriminative sulphuric Spirit occasions 
 a putrefaction of the philosopher's Mercury, i. e. of the 
 impure vapour of life, into which it enters, so that all 
 the elements are in commotion, raging, swelling, and 
 rolling like a tempestuous sea ; darkness, made visible 
 by the appearing light, shrinks more and more con- 
 densing ; and falsehood, as it were, trembling for her 
 kingdom, puts on every sinister guise, to combat and 
 eclipse the living truth, as, increasing in power and 
 armed with bright eftulgence, it arises, threatening 
 to dissipate the total fabric, and dissolve its very 
 foundation. 
 
 So did the armour of Achilles, while yet far off he 
 only showed himself, dismay the assembled hosts of 
 Troy ; that shield so ominous in its device, breast- 
 plate, and helmet's crest of gold, forged by Vulcan, 
 at Thetis's prayer for her hero in Olympus ; where- 
 with he single-handed overcame them all — gods, men, 
 and rivers — triumphant in the divine fury which roused 
 him to the fight. ^ And here the poetic allegory like- 
 wise is apparent ; Achilles does not appear at all in 
 arms, nor has he these, until after Patroclus, his bosom / 
 friend, is slain; just as Misen^s' funeral rites must be I ^/ 
 celebrated before .y^neas is allowed to journey to the 
 infernal shades.^ Peculiar too the rites are, which the 
 Sybil enjoins, and the sacrifices to be made to those 
 remains, as at the pile of Patroclus, set on the sea- 
 shore. Let it not be believed that Virgil on this or 
 on any other occasion was so servile an imitator, jjfor 
 that either poet is relating events of human history, 
 
 ' See Iliad, book x. ApoUon. Ehodius Argonaut, lib. ii. 
 
 So the gloomy god 
 
 Stood mute with fear to see the golden rod, &c. 
 2 ^neid, lib. vi. 149. 
 
 T 2 
 
h\pu 
 
 276 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 or magnifying the heroes of a common fight; but 
 Virgil and Homer agree in this, that they adopted the 
 same theme, had witnessed the same heroic conflict, 
 the same summary action of Divine vengeance and 
 mysterious metamorphosis of Ufe ; their warriors, 
 therefore, are demigods divinely tutored and sus- 
 tained — free from the dilemma of earthly difficulties, 
 and in their strength and use of it sublime. If tra- 
 dition was useful to supply their imagery, the inci- 
 dents are nevertheless woven into a mystical ac- 
 cord, and natural probability and the relations of time 
 are unscnipulously sacrificed to the report of Truth. 
 And they who have partaken of the same mystic 
 knowledge from the Greeks — Plato, Proclus, Por- 
 C^\, phyiy, to Faber, ToUius, and Michael Ma^, the 
 golden chain of Hermetic philosophers — unanimously 
 tracing even through minutest incidents their allusion, 
 — have claimed those poets for their own. Skilfully, 
 doubt not, they have delineated the most poetical of 
 Arts ; and the admiring world has listened, but with- 
 out understanding ; and may long continue to do so : 
 — Yet we will proceed : — 
 
 For the friends of those heroes must die indeed, as 
 they arc said to do — those bosom friends — and be 
 lamented ; for the celestial medial life which, in the 
 order of divine rites, precedes the heroic work, is by 
 necessity cut off, even in its prime ; when perfected at 
 all points, is shut up and buried ; all but the hallowed 
 memory burning to retrieve. Thus the excellent 
 poet Manzoli, whose assumed name of Palingenius 
 denotes one regenerated, divulges the artificial method 
 in the few following hues : — 
 
 Ilunc juvenem Arcadium, infidiim, niuiiumque fugacera, 
 Prendite, et inimersum Stygiis occidite lymphis. 
 ]\Tt)x TTyales gremio impositum. Dens excipiat quein 
 Lemnia terra colit, siiblatumque in cruce figat. 
 Tunc sepelite utero in calido et dissolvite putreni, 
 Cujus stillantes artns de corpore nostro, 
 Spiritus egredius penetrabit, et ordine miro, 
 Paulatim extinctum nigris revooabit ab umbris 
 Aurata indutum chlaniyde, argentoque nitonteni ; 
 
X 
 
 Experimental Method. 277 
 
 Projicite hunc demum in prkaoe , renovabitiir alter hh^-iyrxjCi^ 
 
 Ut Phoenix, et qu93 tangit perfecta relinquet ' 
 
 Corpora, Naturae leges et foedera vincens : 
 Mutabit species paupertatemque fugabit. (Tj) 
 
 Which has been rendered thus : — 
 
 Take this Arcadian slippery lad that's apt to fly, 
 
 And in the glittering Stygian lake, drowned let him die, 
 
 Then set on Hyale's lap, let Lemnos' God 
 
 Take him to feed, and crucify the lad. 
 
 Then in a warm womb placed, his taint dissolve. 
 
 Whose dropping limbs a spirit shall devolve, 
 
 To him and penetrate ; and strangely so. 
 
 Dead by degrees, shaU bring to life anew 
 
 All clad in robes of gold and silver hue. 
 
 Cast him again on hot coals, Proteus like 
 
 He'll be renewed, and aU he touches make 
 
 Most perfect ; nature's laws and promises excel, 
 
 Species he'll change and poverty repel. 
 
 Nothing is done radically to meliorate the Vital 
 Spirit previous to this dissolution of the first medial 
 life : so Hyanthe died, so Hylas at the fountain, / 
 Adonis, Misen^s, Elpenor, Patroclus, too, before the /CaJ 
 heroic virtue was brought into act. It needs a motive / 
 
 and excitation ; and this is given by artifice of the 
 Divine Law depriving it when in full vigour of its 
 Understanding Light. So Eurydice was lost to Orpheus 
 and Proserpine by Pluto's stratagem, whom the god- 
 dess Ceres too bewails ; for the identical dilemma is 
 common to these all, who personate the wanderings 
 and anguish of Intellect so artificially isolated on the 
 plain of Truth. 
 
 'Tis not in fate th' alternate then to give, 
 Patroclus dead, Achilles hates to live. 
 Let me revenge it on proud Hector's heart, 
 Let his last spirit smoke upon my dart ; 
 On these conditions will I breathe, till then 
 I blush to walk among the race of men.^ 
 
 Nor all in vain was that vindictive will conceived, 
 or those heroic tears, though Pope has rendered them 
 
 2- Pope's Homer's Iliad, book xviii. xx. to c. also Fawke's Apol-- 
 lonius Ehodius Argonuatics, boolv i. He too Alcides, ^c. 
 
278 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 " unavailing." Not so the master. Nor is anything, 
 we believe, in that so lengthened Iliad of woes un- 
 purposed, or with all its inconsistencies, untrue : but 
 in those particulars above all suggestive, which are 
 to common sense least bent ; such weeping warriors, 
 so much brave reserve, such radiant armour, such a 
 magic strength of hand, and eye, and voice, to kill 
 and terrify whole armies and convulse the elements, 
 belongs but to one race, one cause, one conflict ; Di- 
 vinity mingles but in one, the war of life. And for 
 this cause the Heroic Will enters in, self-sacrificing, 
 and stirs up the bitter waters, to redeem and reinstate 
 the kingdom lost. But Achilles, too, must die and 
 sufl:'er, as was predestinated, before the fatal gates, as 
 iEneas leaves the dedicated bough in Tartarus. For 
 how otherwise should that which is sown be quick- 
 ened unless it die ? Does not the grain putrefy in the 
 moist earth before it springs ? So each succeeding life 
 must die, as transplanted in the next, it dissolves, cor- 
 rupts, and rises into a better form. For when thou 
 sowest, as the great Apostle says, thou sowest not 
 that body that shall be ;^ but it is the Law especial of 
 spiritual generation that the parent is bettered in the 
 offspring, even to the fourth generation, or fifth, if 
 this happily should be attained. — There is an earthly 
 body and there is a spiritual body — the terrestrial is 
 bettered in the celestial, and the celestial, descending 
 and overcoming, is conceived into the divine. No 
 man ascends up into heaven but he who came down 
 from heavot, even the sooi of man which is in heaven. 
 f/j-^j\^j This is the true Light which lighteth/,nian that conieth 
 
 ^' into the world, which in the Saviour was perfected; 
 
 one ray of which is able to cleanse this leprous life of 
 ours, and convert it to the purest spiritual extreme. 
 
 Cujus de lurnine lumen 
 Omuc niicat ; sine quo tenebrescunt lucida de quo 
 (yr\ClyrryU£^^\^ Lucescunt tenebrce atque i»aiiie*» noctis imago. 
 
 Speaking of the Intellectual Essence, Plotinus writes 
 ^ St. Paul to the Corinthiaais, 1st ep. xv. 37. 
 
Experimental Method. 279 
 
 to the effect, that we should not at first hope to ob- 
 tain the universal subject, but through the medium of 
 an image, and be satisfied — such is his expression — with 
 a certain portion of gold, as a representative of uni- 
 versal gold ;^ and therefore Anaxagoras says, it begins 
 from that which is small to exercise its comprehending 
 power. Ramus, non arbor — The bough, not the whole 
 tree, is to be taken. For, in however small a propor- 
 tion, if the reason be but pure, it will penetrate 
 according to its purity, and gather growth ; but if it 
 be not pure, in other words, if the motive be not uni- 
 versal, it must be returned, to work, and resolve, and 
 meditate, and prove, until it finds experience at length 
 in the supreme Unity of its Law. To find the true 
 Separator is described, in fact, as the greatest diffi- 
 culty ; ^ as we may remember also in Virgil, the tree 
 is hid. 
 
 Hunc tegit omnis 
 Liicus et obscuris claudaut convallibus umbrae. 
 
 The tree of life covered over, indeed, with the dark 
 oblivion of this natural outbirth, is latent and difficult 
 to find, even for him who has already passed the tur- 
 bulent waters of the senses' medium and sees within. 
 For it lies not in art merely, or in natural cunning, 
 but with the celestial instinct only to reveal ; that 
 subtle Maternal intelligence which originally conceived 
 it, and can alone lead into the yet more central, ante- 
 cedent, Paternal light of life. 
 
 Maternas agnoscit aves laetusque precatur 
 Este duces, 0, si qua via est cursumque per auras 
 Dirigite iu lucos, ubi piuguem dives opaeat 
 Eamus humuin.'^ 
 
 Thus has the premeditation of the Divine Art been 
 poetized ; and the discovery of that heroic, separable, 
 triply refined intellectual purpose, which has been so 
 
 1 Select Works; Ennead, v. lib. viii. 
 
 2 L. Comitibus MetaUar. Nat. Oper. lib. iv. cap. vii. ; Chrysopaea 
 lib. ii. 
 
 3 ^neid. lib. vi. 138, 193. 
 
280 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 often and under so many names personified — Hercules, 
 Jason, Lynceus, Perseus, Cadmus, GEdipus, Diony- 
 siis, Achilles, Bacchus, Amphiaraus, our Son, as 
 Hermes calls him, born a king^ who, taking his tinc- 
 ture from the fire^passes through darkness, and death, 
 and Stygian waters. This is that prolific Mustard-seed, 
 and Light of divine Faith, which being the proper sub- 
 stance of the thing hoped for, penetrates into the yet 
 unseen reality of life ; it is this, which, visiting the 
 interior rectifying, discovers the occult Stone — the 
 hidden Medicine. Such was the Caduceus of Hermes — 
 the Golden Bough, the ferrying Cup of Hercules, and 
 all the golden passports admitting to those realms, so 
 dangerous to folly, and dehghtftil to Wisdom recover- 
 ing her lost Efficient in the Light of life. 
 
 This vertical separated Light then we take henceforth 
 to be the true alterative principle in the Divine Art, — 
 The Alchemists are excessively wary in speaking of it, 
 as they are indeed concerning the human circumstances 
 of the mystery throughout. For as we may by this time 
 perceive, it is no common light that enters into Di- 
 vinity, but a congenial ray ; a Power which glancing 
 forth from the capable will of suchj^ as are divinised, 
 tta^, is essentially Divine. The persevering Trevisan 
 worked for upwards of half a century in vain, until he 
 found this ; and Pontanus in his Epistle confesses how 
 he erred tw^o hundred times, experimenting even after 
 he had attained a general knowledge of the matter 
 and method of its use, never correctly divining the 
 Identity of the singular thing itself. Seek therefore, 
 he says, writing to his friend, seek to know this Fire 
 with all thy soul, that so thou may est attain to thy 
 desire ; for it is the key of all the philosophers which 
 they have never openly revealed. But profound medi- 
 tation alone can give it to thee, so thou mayest dis- 
 cern, and not otherwise.^ Other examples w'e have in 
 Zachary, and in Flamn^el ; w ho, after he was conversant 
 in the matter^ and had both fire and furnace indicated 
 to him by Abraham the Jew, wandered in the wilder- 
 
 ^ See Pontanus Ejiistle in Theat. Chem. 
 
Experimental Method. 281 
 
 ness of uncertainty for three several years. Madathan, 
 another celebrated adept, is cited by Vaughan as 
 having practised for five years together unsuccessfully^, 
 until at last, he says^ after the sixth year, I was en- 
 trusted with the Key of Power, by a secret revelation 
 from Almighty God,^ Contemplate therefore and ob- 
 serve, says Basil Valentine, these things diligently, for 
 in the preparation of Antimony consists the Key of 
 Alchemy, and this principal key is of great concern. 
 Be it known, moreover, that our stone of Fire (which 
 is Antimony) ought to be boiled and maturated with 
 the corporeal fire of the microcosm, for at the farewell, 
 or ne plus ultra, of the operative fire of the macro- 
 cosm, the fire of the microcosm doth begin the pro- 
 duction of a new species or generation ; and, there- 
 fore, let no man wonder at thiscoction,^ And believe 
 not only Basil, says Kirchwigius, but me ; with the 
 same faith and sincerity, afiirming to you that this 
 first key is the principal part of the whole Art ; this 
 opens the first gate, this will also unlock the last, 
 which leads into the palace of the king. Believe not 
 only, but consider and observe. Here you stand in 
 the entrance ; if you miss the door, all your course will 
 be en'or ; all your haste ruin ; and all your wisdom 
 foolishness. He who obtains this Key and knows the 
 method, which is called Manual Operation, by which to 
 use it, and hath strength to turn the same, will acquire 
 riches, and an open passage into the mysteries of che- 
 mistry,^ 
 
 Sophistry, it will be observed therefore is no leader 
 in this Art, or avarice, or ignorance ; but he who pre- 
 sumes without the revelation of the Divine Light to 
 introduce his own blind purpose, instead of condition- 
 ating and inquiring patiently, will be in danger of 
 
 1 Post sextum annum clavis potentiae per arcauam revela- f\/} u^Qt^yrr^ 
 tionem ab omnipotente Deo mihi concredita est, &c. ; see Lumen -/'/•x*/?^ 
 de Lumine, p. 67. ^ H€Jy>^^^^ > 
 
 2 Chariot of Antimony, p. 24 ; Stone of Fire, pp. 160, 168; Idem, 
 p. 24; ako Dyou. Zachary Opusculvmi, part ii. ; Lucerna Salis, p. 
 64, &c. 
 
282 Laws and Conditions 
 
 falling into infinite snares. The Law of Nature, 
 being simple and harmoniously framed, will baffle him 
 and rise up in judgment against his generation, and 
 condemn him to wander in the labyrinth alone. Hence, 
 all the care that is taken to train the true Inquisitor, 
 that he may obtain the passport clear, as we have 
 h\^0JH^ shown it; that he^know what, and where, and how he 
 /J ought to obey, and inquire, and will, and hope. 
 
 And it is therefore declared to all lovers of Art, says 
 .Jacob Bohme, whose Separator is an artist of great 
 subtlety in them, that they first seek God's love and 
 grace, and resign up themselves to become wholly one 
 with that : else all their seeking is but a delusion, or 
 a courting of a shadow, and nothing is found in any 
 fundamental, worth, unless one doth entrust another 
 with soiueivhat. The which is forbidden to the children 
 of God in whom the grace is revealed, that they cast 
 not pearls before swine, upon the pain of eternal pu- 
 nishment ; only it is freely granted to them to declare 
 the light, and to show the way of attaining the pearl : 
 but to give the divine Separator into the bestial hand 
 is prohibited, unless a man knoweth the way and will 
 of him that desires it.^ 
 
 We do not see either that it is exactly possible to 
 give into such possession that which is divine ; except, 
 indeed, the Theosophist alludes to a mediate occupa- 
 tion. And this brings us to consider more i)articularly 
 the representative understanding, measure, and guar- 
 dian of the Light ; for, as we may remark in the fables, 
 the heroic adventurer with all his divine equipment, 
 though he loses his first companion, never goes 
 through the labours alone ; but is aided by stratagem 
 and wise council in the way. Without Ariadne's con- 
 duct, Theseus could not have tamed the Minotaur ; or 
 Jason, but for the ready counsel and assistance of 
 Medea, have obtained the fleece ; Eurystheus sets Her- 
 cules to the performance of each separate labour ; his 
 
 ^ See Bohme's Epistles ; and to the same effect on The Turned 
 Eye ; printed with the rest of his works, in 4to. 
 
Experimental Method. 283 
 
 mother aids Achilles ; JUpcnor , Ulysses ; and the Sybil 
 accompanies JEneas through the infernal shades. In 
 Alchemy, too, the Moon is singularly honoured ; for 
 it is the Passive Intelligence which, freed by art and 
 set in conjunction, responds to the Will of her seek- 
 ing Reason ; discovers the way of progress, unra- 
 velling the context of each involuted thought, and 
 setting aside obstacles with utmost discretion, passes 
 with him through the abyss, as it were the very king- 
 dom of confusion, triumphant over all and uncon- ^ . 
 founded. It is from within that the knowledge^ to- '^^^^^-^'^^^^ 
 gether with the true efficient, t-pi'ii^f^ (which are indeed 
 one in principle, but in their practical operation and 
 for the sake of offspring are distinguished and sepa- 
 rately represented in the Art), revealing at the same 
 time their origin, essence, and destination. The mode 
 of analysis however is directed, and the means for the 
 most part provided by the Passive Understanding 
 gotten in transcendental contemplation of herself. 
 
 ISTUD EST VAS HeRMETIS, QUOD StOICI OCCULTA- 
 
 verunt, et non est vas nigromanticum sed est 
 Mensura Ignis tui.^ 
 
 Both therefore have to be prepared — the spiritual 
 agent and the spiritual patient — according to those 
 words of the Smaragdine Table ; That which is above 
 is as that which is below, and that which is below is as 
 that which is above, for performing the miracles of the 
 One Thing whence all the rest proceed by adaptation. 
 It is not lawful therefore, in this work, to conjoin unlike 
 natures ; but, in order to bettering/ in the offspring, 
 equal Spirits are allied ; as Hermes says, both need the 
 help one of Miother, for the precepts demand a me- 
 dium -^ that as the crude natural life was in the first 
 place bettered in the natural, so the supernatural may 
 be so much further advanced within themselves, even 
 to the order of bodies permanent, being changed from 
 a corporeal to a spiritual extreme : 
 
 ^ Maria Practica, in fine 
 - Tract. Aureus, cap. ii. 
 
284 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 Ouvriei'.sur tout aye cure 
 Que I'art imite la nature, 
 L'externe feu de charbon 
 Rend la matiere alteree, 
 Mais I'iuterne et I'setheree 
 Faira ton ouvrage bon.' 
 
 The fire of the natural life stirs up and, being manu- 
 mitted, alters ; but the internal alone is able, being 
 purified, to perfect the work begun ; according to that 
 other saying of the sage — Si pariat ventum valet auri 
 pondera centum — if wind be made of gold it is worth 
 an hundredfold. Let us be careful therefore to dis- 
 tinguish, in our conception, the pure from the impure, 
 the rectified spirit of universal reason and its intelli- 
 gence from the gross ether and perplexed understand- 
 ing of this mundane sphere. For there cannot come 
 of any thing that virtue which it has not ; though 
 that which it has indeed may be improved and mag- 
 nified. And therefore it behoves us to mortify two 
 Argent vives together, says Hermes ; both to venerate 
 and to be venerated, viz., the Argent vive of Auripig- 
 ment and the Oriental Argent vive of Magnesia.^ 
 
 Sol meus et kadii sunt in me intime, Ltjna veeo pro- 
 pbia meum lumen est, omne lumen supebans ; et bona 
 
 MEA OMNIBUS BONIS MELIOKA SUNT. PeOTEGE ME ET PEOTE- 
 GAM TE, LAEGIEI VIS MIHI MEUM UT ADJUVEM TE.^ 
 
 These are they which sound the depths together ; the 
 Sun and Moon, philosophical. And as the influence 
 of the Moon, says Plutarch, seems to reflect the 
 ivorks of reason, and to proceed from Wisdom, so the 
 operations of the Sun are seen to resemble those 
 strokes which by mere dint of strength and force bear 
 down all before them. You also have been initiated 
 in those Mysteries in which there are two pair of eyes, 
 and it is requisite that the pair which are beneath 
 should be closed when the pair that are above them 
 perceive, and when the pair above are closed those 
 which are beneath should be opened. Think therefore, 
 
 ^ Tract. Aureus, Scbolium, cap. i. 
 ^ Tract. Aur. cap. iii. 
 •^ Idem, cap. iv. 
 
Experimental Method. 285 
 
 says Synesius, explaining the same Egyptian Mythology 
 of Isis and Osiris, that this is an enigma indicative of 
 contemplation and action ; the intermediate nature 
 alternately energising according to each of these. ^ Pro- 
 clus, also dividing the ApoUonical Intellect, remarks 
 that the pi^ophetic power unfolds the simplicity of truth 
 and takes away the variety of that which is false ; but 
 the arrow-darting power exterminates everything, 
 furious and wild, and prepares that which is orderly 
 and gentle to exercise dominion, vindicating to itself 
 Unity. ^ 
 
 Power alone, indeed, if destitute of the ruling aid of 
 Wisdom, would be borne along with violence, minghng 
 and destroying all things ; yet nature will not move by 
 mere theory either, and Intellect is therefore useless 
 for the purposes of action when deprived of the sub- 
 serviency of the hands. But these two concurring. Wis- 
 dom with Power in action, all things become possible ; 
 and in such a subtle and firm texture of divine 
 splendor and prophetic companionship, the Will may 
 descend in safety to the abodes of Power. A wise man 
 is strong, says the wise king, and knowledge increaseth 
 strength. Two are better than one, because they have 
 a good reward for their labour ; as in w^ater face an- 
 swers to face, so the heart of man to man.^ 
 
 By mutual confidence and mutual aid 
 Great deeds are done and great discoveries made. 
 The wise new prudence from the wise acquire, 
 And one brave hero fans another's lire.'* 
 
 And as the Rational Efficient, armed with a bright 
 intelligence, discovers the evil of its first conception, 
 now appearing manifold within the veil, it proceeds 
 even to a dissolution of the yital bond, continually 
 
 1 See Extracts from his treatise on Providence, at the end of 
 Plotinus' Select "Works, by Taylor, p. 531 ; and Plutarch, Isis and 
 Osiris, circa mediam. 
 
 - Proclus on the Theology of Plato — Scholia on the Cratylus. 
 
 ^ Proverbs, chap. xxiv. xxvii. Eccles. iv. 
 
 4 Iliad, book x. 265. 
 
286 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 imaging its revelation in act.-Vfr*Belovcd brother, advises 
 the experienced and earnest Bohme, if you would 
 seek the Mystery, seek it not in the outivard spirit ; 
 you will there be deceived, and attain nothing hut a 
 glance of the mystery ; enter in even to the Cross, 
 then seek gold and you will not be deceived. You 
 must seek in another world for the pure child that is 
 without spot ; in this Vv'orld you find only the drossy 
 child, that is altogether imperfect ; but go about it in 
 a right manner ; enter in even to the cross in the 
 Fourth Form, there you have Sol and Luna together ; 
 bring them through an anguish into death, and bruise 
 that composed magical body so long until it become 
 asrain that which it was before in the centre of the 
 
 o 
 
 will ; and then it becometh magical and hungry after 
 nature. It is a longing in the eternal desire, and would 
 fain have a body; give it Sol, viz., the soul, that con- 
 joining they may conceive a body according to that 
 soul. So the Will springs up in Paradise with fair 
 golden fruits. We speak not here of a glass or image, 
 but of gold, whereof men vaunt themselves, their 
 idol god.^ 
 
 In such few words does the Theosophist comprehend 
 the end and beginning of the Sacred Art, the sum of 
 the divine Intention and its vital fruits ; for by death 
 and contrition of the agent in the patient, and vice 
 versa, the old life is finally crucified ; and out of that 
 crucifixion, by reunion of the principles under another 
 law, the new life is elicited ; which life is a very real 
 and pure Quintessence, the Mercury so much sought 
 after, even the Elixir of Life ; which needs only the 
 corroborative virtue of the Divine light v.diich it draws, 
 in order to become the living gold of the philosophers, 
 transmuting and multiplicative — the concrete for??i of 
 that which in the dead metal we esteem. — O Nature, 
 the most magnanimous creatrix of natures ! cries the 
 Master, which containest and separatest all things in 
 a middle principle ! Our Stone comes with Light, and 
 
 Quest. 17, &c. 
 
 ^O'Vtly'" 
 
Experimental Method. 287 
 
 with Light it is generated ; and then it brings forth 
 the clouds, or darkness, which is the mother of all 
 things.^ 
 
 Let us pause here, then, to consider what it was the 
 philosophers really searched for and discovered in this 
 Stone ; that we may be prepared to learn some more 
 definite particulars of their practice, and in what condi- 
 tion the vital elements are placed during their experi- 
 ment and recreation. We have seen that, next to the 
 first preliminaries, the object was to produce an altera- 
 tion in the Vital Spirit, and that this was operated by 
 a true Rational Analysis, which, repeatedly passed 
 through, leads on to a dissolution of the whole natural 
 born hypostasis, and is the condition proper to induce 
 a new life and growth into consciousness. That which 
 they sought after, and profess accordingly to have dis- 
 covered, therefore, is this miraculous principle of re- 
 generation ; by which the relationships of the vital 
 elements are exchanged ; the sensible medium, which 
 in this present birth is dominant, being made occult ; 
 and the occult supernatural reason of life, which is 
 catholic . ^fe^, becoming manifest in #B self-evidence 
 and power. 
 
 And this is the true way and means by which the 
 metaphysical body of gold will be made profitable, and 
 in no other way, as the adepts teach ; but by taking 
 that body, when it is found, and joining it with a spirit 
 which is consanguineous and proper to it, and circulat- 
 ing these two natures one upon the other, until one 
 have conceived by the other. — Pinge duos Angues, 
 cries Cornelius Agrippa ; or, to proceed in the more 
 suggestive language of his ingenious disciple — Take our 
 two serpents, which are to be found everywhere on the 
 face of the earth ; they are a li\dng male and a living 
 female (understand in relation to the spirit always 
 without all corporeal allusion) ; tie them in a love 
 knot and shut them up in the Arabian Caralia. This 
 is the Jirst labour ; but the next is more difficult. 
 Thou must incamp against them with the Jire of na- 
 
 ^ Tractatus Aureus, cap. iii. 
 
288 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 tare, and be sure thou dost bring thy line round 
 about. Circle them in, and stop all avenues, that they 
 find no relief. Continue this siege patientlij, and they 
 turn into an ugly venomous black toad ; which will be 
 transformed to a horrible devouring dragon, creeping 
 and weltering in the bottom of her cave, without 
 wings. Touch her not by any means, continues the 
 adept, not so much as with thy hands, for there is not 
 upon earth such a vehement transcendant poison. As 
 thou hast begun so proceed, and this dragon will turn 
 into a swan, but more white than the hovering virgin 
 snoiv when it is not yet sullied -with, the earth. Hence- 
 forth I will allow thee to fortify thy Jire, till the 
 Phcenix appears. It is a red bird of a most deep 
 colour with a sliining Jiery hue. Feed this bird with 
 i\\Qfire of his father and the ether of his mother ; for 
 the first is meat, the second is drink, and without this 
 last he attains not to his full glory. Be sure to un- 
 derstand this secret ; for Jire feeds not well unless it be 
 Jirst fed. It is of itself (hy and choleric, but a proper 
 ■moisture tempers it, gives it a heavenly complexion and 
 brings it to the desired exattatioj/. Feed thy bi/^d then 
 as I have told thee, and he will move in his ?2est, and 
 rise like a star of the Jifinamenf. Do this, and thou 
 J hast placed nature in the horizon of Eternity. Thou 
 
 /\ ; hast performed that command of the ^abalist. Unite 
 ■c^ ; the Old to the beginning as the flame is united to the 
 I coal; for the Lord is superlatively one and admits of no 
 
 second.^ Consider what it is you seek : you seek an 
 indissoluble, miraculous, transmuting, uniting union ; 
 but such a tie cannot be w^ithout the Jirst unity. For 
 to create and to transmute essentially and naturally 
 without violence is the proper office of i\\e Jirst power, 
 the Jirst wisdom and the Jirst love. Without this love 
 the elements will never be married ; they will never in- 
 ward and essentially unite ; which is the end and per- 
 fection of magic. '^ 
 
 1 Liber Jezirah, cap. i. Fige fiuem in priucipio sicut flammam 
 pruna) coujunctani, quia Dominua superlative unus, et non tenet 
 Becundum. 
 
 2 Vaughan, Lumen cle Lumine, p. 62, and following. 
 
Experimental Method. 289 
 
 ThusVaughan: the italics, copied from the original, 
 serve well to denote where a latent meaning- is implied 
 and those analogies which are aptly referrible throughout 
 the process. The following verses translated from the 
 Aquarium Sapieutian of about the same period, may help 
 to elucidate the subject further and lead on the dis- 
 cerning mind. 
 
 The spirit is given to the body for a time, 
 
 Aud that refreshing spirit washes the soul by art ; 
 
 If the spirit suddenly attracts the soul to itself; 
 
 Then nothing can separate it from itself. 
 
 Then they consist in Three and yet abide in one seat. 
 
 Until the noble body is dissolved, aud putrefy and sepai'ate from 
 
 them ; 
 Then after some time the spirit ajid soul come together 
 In the extreme or last heat, and each maintains its proper seat in 
 
 constancy. 
 Then, nothing wanting, an entire sound estate and perfection is 
 
 at hand. 
 And the work is glorified with great joy.^ 
 
 This is the constant doctrine and rule of the regene- 
 ration of light out of darkness, of life from death ; 
 the solution of the sense-born spirit and its subsequent 
 sublimation, by a preponderant affinity artificially en- 
 dowed, into the transparent glory of its prototypic 
 form. And thus we learn from adepts, though parti- 
 culars vary, that nature was not proved by them at 
 random ; for neither does she move by theory only or 
 mere mechanic art, but by rational experiment and 
 the light of faith, which, entering, stirs up the inward 
 oppressed fire of the chaotic natural-born life, and en- 
 deavours to convert, as it were, by a pure conscience, 
 mo\ang the matter to a contrite state; which at length 
 penetrating to meet the self-willed Identity within, is 
 arrested, and the contest of good and evil commences in 
 the soul, each striving for the ascendant, until the latter 
 prevailing for a period {mek such being the necessitous 
 decree) an eclipsation of the light takes place, and a 
 dissolution of its body, as was before shown. And, as 
 we read in the fable, Typhon killed Osiris, his uterine 
 
 ' Aquarium HapientAm, in Mus. Kerm. The Enigma. 
 u 
 
29U Laws and Conditions. 
 
 brother, and scattered his members to the four winds 
 and usm'ped his rightful throne ; but Isis, re- collecting, 
 hides them in a chest : just so the ethereal hypos- 
 tasis is divided against itself and brought to a separa- 
 tion even as these three ; the soul, the spirit, and the 
 body's principle; the paternal, maternal, and proceed- 
 ing substance of life ; sulphur, mercury, salt. The sul- 
 phur, which is the soul and golden ferment, being dislo- 
 cated in its purpose by the opposive will, is carried 
 aloft to float upon the ethereal waters, whilst these con- 
 tinue to tear, decoct, and soften the sensual dominant 
 and make it more fit for the returning reason and un- 
 derstanding to work upon ; for it is brought to an ex- 
 tremity indeed, and made to feel the want of the light . 
 it had rejected. The light moreover elocritot ascend//7i^ 
 bfliuiii carries with it a fermental odour of the body, ^ 
 which by the divine Art also is so contrived in order 
 that the soul may not depart altogether into the re- 
 gion of nonentity. Thus Hermes — Take, my son, the 
 flying bird and drown it flying, then divide and cleanse 
 it from its filth which keeps it in death ; expel this and 
 put away all pollution, that it may live and answer thee, 
 not by flying away indeed but truly by forbearing to 
 fly.' And all the while, during this period of the se- 
 veration, a wonderful coction is described as going on; 
 the earth is overflown with waters^ the two great 
 lights are eclipsed, the air is darkened, and all things 
 are in confusion and disorderly relation, by reason of 
 the successive passion and prevalence of the vital 
 principles one over another; for the balance is so 
 maintained that they can neither be said properly to 
 die or live according to that descriptive Prosopopoeia of 
 the Stone. 
 
 Non ego coutinue morior dum spiritus exit. 
 
 Jam redit assidue quanivis et ssepe recedit 
 
 Et mihi nunc magna est anima, nunc nulla faeultas. 
 
 Plus ego sustinui quam corpus debuit unum, 
 Tres animas habui, quas omnes intus habebani, 
 Discessere dua\ scd Tertia po'iie secuta est, &c. 
 
 ' Tract. Aur. cap. ii. 
 
Experimental Method. 291 
 
 I am not dead although my spirit's gone, 
 For it returns, and is botli off and on, 
 Now I have life, now I have none ; 
 
 I suffered more than one coidd justly do, 
 Three souls I had, and all my own ; but two 
 Are fled ; the third had almost left me too.^ 
 
 Unremitting care and attention are enjoined at this 
 critical juncture, lest either of the dissolute elements 
 should escape from its legitimate attraction, and the 
 property of the Spirit, which is as yet indifferent 
 to life or death, should by force of too strong afire, as 
 LuUy explains, be dissevered from the body, and the 
 soul thenceforth depart into the region of her own 
 sphere. And therefore he says, — Let the heavenly 
 power or agent be such in the place of generation, 
 or mutation, that it may alter the humidity from 
 its earthly complexion to a fine transparent form or 
 species.^ Uejir 
 
 But we are not !*§#©• proposing to exhibit the Prac- 
 tice, but only to understand it. Previous, therefore, 
 to the birth and fruits of spiritual increase, it may be 
 expedient briefly only to consider the intermediate 
 stages of the abyssal regeneration and contest of the 
 Metaphysical Embryo before it is born into the eaite ^P~<ui 
 ception ^ the eye of sense. Entering in for the 
 dissolution, adepts describe it indeed as the greatest 
 poison — a most potent, destroying, wilful ens of fire ; 
 for the contrary will of the whole dissolving life is 
 loosened by it, which acuates it exceedingly, the one 
 being natural and the other a fire against Nature ; 
 conjoining together, they make a conflagration more 
 fiercely consuming than any elemental flame ; and 
 being of equal origin, they prey upon each other 
 incombustibly, and by so much the more increasing as 
 
 1 Theat. Chem. Tom. iii. p. 764. Processus Chimica, Carmen 
 Elegans, v. x. and xi., Yaughan's Magia Adamica. 
 
 2 See his Theoria et Practica, and in the Testament, where lie 
 writes. Si cum igne magno operatus fueris proprietas nostri spi- 
 ritus, (S:c. ; and again, Ubi artista regidam singulavi diligentia ob- 
 servare debet, &c. Sal Lumen ; Nuysement, p. 133, &c. 
 
 u 2" 
 
292 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 they draw together in might. And as the fable fur- 
 ther relates of the Egyptian monarch, that his hair 
 was suffered to grow whilst yet he tarried in Ethio])ia ; 
 so this fire is suffered to grow profusely, shooting 
 forth all his Satanic radiance in personality and act, 
 until the time of his mortification is ripe and ready 
 at hand. Adepts call him the Green Lion, Ty- 
 phon. Fire-drake ; or, during the mortification, he 
 is their venomous Black Toad ; for the newly roused 
 Efficient is exceeding wrathful, as we before hinted, 
 reducing the foreign body of Light, which is 
 Osiris, to a mere vapour, called by philosophers, on 
 account of its origin, the Four Wi}/ds, which, con- 
 densing together at the top of the vessel in form 
 of drops, runs down continually, day and night, with- 
 out ceasing.^ So Sendivogius, in that witty dis- 
 course of his, relates that Sal and Sulphur, meeting 
 together at a certain fountain, began to fight, and Sal 
 gave Sulphur a mortal wound, out of which wound, 
 instead of blood, came forth, as it were, most white 
 milk, and it became to be a great river. ^ 
 
 For first the sun iu hys uprysing obscurate 
 Shall be, and passe the waters of Noa's flude, 
 On erth whych were a hundred days contiuuate 
 And fifty, away or all thys waters yode, 
 Rvght so on our waters, as wise men understode, 
 1 Shall pass : that thou, wyth David, may say 
 
 -//? ^yyy-Ci/)''^ / Abierunt in sicco flumin», &c.'^ 
 
 This is commonly called the Gate of Putrefaction, and 
 its entrance is described as dark, with Cimmerian 
 windings, and continual terrification of the Spirit ; 
 but the cause of the dissolution appears to proceed 
 from the action of the vital heat stirred up artificially 
 within the blood, and which being so continuously tri- 
 turated, ignites and opens for itself a passage, endea- 
 vouring forthwith to absorb the circulating light by the 
 
 1 See Eipley, Second Gate, Of Solution, and in liipley Revived. 
 
 - N"ew Light of Alch. ; Discourse of Sulphur. 
 
 '^ Kipley's Fifth Gate, Of the Piitrofaction, v. 12. 
 
Experimental Method. 293 
 
 efflux of its own abundant chloric spirit being trans- 
 fixed. And all this while it is that the powers of 
 the Philosophic Heaven are so wonderfully shaken and 
 defiled ; for, as the French adept phrases it, The two 
 dragons do bite one another very cruelly, and never 
 leave off from the time they have seized one another, 
 till by their slavering venom and mortal hurts they 
 are turned into a gory blood, and then, being decocted 
 totally in their own venom, are turned into a Fifth 
 Essence. 
 
 To Saturn, Mars w ith bond of love is tied, 
 Who is by him devoured of mighty force, 
 Whose spirit Saturn's body doth divide, 
 And both combining yield a Secret Source 
 From whence doth flow a Water wondrous bright, 
 In which the Sun doth set and lose his light. ^ 
 
 There is a profound mystery couched in these light 
 words ; for as there was darkness upon the Abyss 
 when the Divine Spirit moved upon the Waters' face, 
 so in the hyperphysical work is it seen to be, when 
 the swifter current of the Infernal motive wheel sur- 
 mounts and eclipses the Divine Light in the circula- 
 tion. And, moreover, there is the tempter Evil of / . /_ 
 the Son of Man made manifest, and^all^ reality the t>>^ / ds 
 original Sin with a more appalling possibility, to / 
 be met only by voluntary sacrifice and humiliation of 
 the Selfhood under the exemplary cross of Christ. 
 For is it not written, He shall overflow the channels, 
 and go over all the bmiks : and he shall pass through 
 Jiidali ; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach 
 even to the neck ; and the stretching out of his wings 
 shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Emanuel ?^ 
 
 There is, say the Alchemists, nothing of an unclean 
 nature that enters into the composition of the Stone, 
 except One thing, which is the Instrument moving 
 the gold to putrefy , and in this respect (for it is 
 
 ^ Eireu^us, Marrow of Alchemy, book iii. v. 35. 
 ^ Isaiah, chap. viii. ver. 8. See also the book of Jehior of the 
 Fire and its Mystery, chap. xi. 
 
294 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 the very grave of the rational light) it is called by 
 them Typhon, Satan, Aquafoetida, Ignis Gehennae, 
 Mortis Immundities, &c. And because the philoso- 
 phers are obscure concerning this principle, lest 
 the rational inquirer should be led into troublesome 
 error by their sophistication, we are induced to dwell 
 rather and explain at length that, though impure in the 
 beginning, and manifestly evil, it is nevertheless a neces- 
 saiy ingredient, and when finally brought through the 
 natural Alembic, and returned, it constitutes the force 
 and integral perfection of the Divine Superstructure. 
 And although Sulphur and Mercury, says the Adept, 
 should be already described and known, yet without 
 Salt no man can attain to this Sacred Science.^ Hermes, 
 alluding to the same, says — The Dragon dwells in all 
 the threefold nature, and his houses are the darkness 
 and blackness that is in them ; and while this fume 
 remains they are not immortal. But take away the 
 cloud fi'om the water, the blackness from the sulphur, 
 and deatb from the feeces, and by dissolution thou 
 shalt obtain a triumphant gift, even that in and by 
 which the possessors live.^ And although Hermes 
 does not speak of it openly, because the root of this 
 Science is a deadly poison, yet I protest to you, says 
 Maria laconically, that when this poison is resolved 
 into a subtle water, it coagulates our Mercury into 
 most pure silver to all tests. ^ But whilst it remains 
 in the natural state, in the evil of its original concep- 
 tion, no good can come until it is overtaken and 
 resolved. 
 
 Then lyke as sowles after paynes of purgatory 
 Be brought into Paradyce, where ys joyful lyfe, 
 So sliall our stone after hys darknes in purgatory 
 Be purged, and joyned in elements without strj4e, 
 Eejoicing in the beauty and whytenes of his wyfe, 
 Arid pass fro' the darknes of purgatory to lyght 
 Of Paradyce, in whytenes Elixir of great niyght. 
 
 ' Sendivogius, New Light ; Discourse of the Three Principles. 
 2 Tractatus Aureus, cap. ii. 
 ' Maria, Practica, circa finem. 
 
Experimental Method. 295 
 
 And like as yse to water dotli releut, 
 Whereof congealed it was by violence of greate cold, 
 When Phoebus yt smyteth wytli hys beams influent, 
 Eyght so to water minerall reduced ys our gold, 
 As wrytetb plainly Albert, Raymond and Arnolde, 
 
 Wyth heat and moisture by Crafte occasionate 
 
 Wyth congelation of the Spyrite.^ 
 
 ♦ 5j/ crafte occasionate , he says, because it is by the 
 attractive grace of the connate spirit that the self- 
 willed agent is finally seen to be subdued and betrayed 
 to self-mortification, as it were, by a conscience mov- 
 ing contrite in the Law of her Light : here, therefore, 
 Sol being eclipsed, the Lunar Vulcan acts a principal 
 part, as Isis in the Mysteries, where she is also called 
 Athena, to express that self-motion and intelligence 
 with which this Spirit is endowed. In like manner 
 they give to Typhon, in this predicament, the name of 
 Seth, Bebo, and like words, as Plutarch explains, im- 
 porting a certain violent, forcible restraint, contra- 
 riety, and subversion, all which Osiris, /. e. the Divine 
 Light, suffers in passing through the voluntary axle 
 in the regeneration ; but tempered by the benign 
 offices of Isis, hcy^is likewise gradually enthralled, and /v 
 the opposive principles are, througli her artful interces- 
 sion, finally reconciled, and remain together, circulating 
 with her in equilibriate accord. 
 
 Canst thou draw out Leviathan with an hook 1 or 
 his tongue with a cord which thou lettest downl 
 Canst thou put an hook into his nose ? or bore his jaw 
 through with a thorn 1 Will he make many supplica- 
 tions unto thee? Will he speak soft words unto 
 thee ? Will he make a covenant with thee ? Wilt 
 thou take him for a servant for ever? Wilt thou play 
 with him as with a bird 1 Wilt thou bind him for thy 
 maidens? Shall the companions make a banquet of 
 him ? Shall they part him among the merchants ? 
 Canst thou fill his skiji with barbed hooks, and his 
 head with fish spears? Lay 'thy Hand upon him, 
 
 REMEMBER THE BATTLE AND DO NO MORE. Bcliold, 
 
 1 Ripley's Fifth Gate, Of the Putrefaction. 
 
296 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 the hope of him is in vain. Yet shall not one be cast 
 down even at the sight of him? None is so fierce 
 that dare stir him up : who then is able to stand 
 before me ? Who hath prevented me, that I should 
 I'tpay him? Whatsoever is made uudei^ the ivhole 
 heaven is mine. I will not conceal his parts nor his 
 comely proportion. Who can discover the face of his 
 garment^ or w^ho can come to him with his double 
 bridle ? Who can open the doors of his face, his 
 teeth are terrible round about. His scales are his 
 pride, shut up together as with a close seal. One is so 
 near to another, that no air can come between them. 
 They are joined one to another, they stick together, 
 that they cannot be sundered. By his neesings a light 
 doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the 
 morning. Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and 
 sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils goeth 
 smoke, as out of a seething pot or cauldron. His breath 
 kindleth coals, and ^ flame goeth out of his mouth. In 
 his 7ieck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into 
 joy before him. The fakes of his flesh are frm in 
 themselves ; they cannot be moved. His heart is as 
 firm as a stone ; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether 
 millstone. When he r onset h up himself, the mighty 
 are afraid: by reason of the breakings they purify 
 themselves.^ The sword of him that layeth at hi/n 
 cannot hold : the spear, the da7^t, nor the habergeon. 
 He esteemeth iro?i as straw, and brass as rotten wood. 
 The arroiv cannot make him flee, sling stones are 
 turned with him into stubble. Darts are counted as 
 stubble : he laugheth at the shaking of a spear. Sharp 
 stones are under him : he spreadeth sharp pointed 
 things upon the ??ii?r. He maketh the deep to boil 
 like a pot : he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment. 
 He maketh a path to shuie after him ; one would 
 think the deep to be hoary. Upon earth there is not 
 his like, who is made without fear. He beholdeth all 
 
 1 See ]Maieri Atalauta Fugieiis, Emblema xi. Dealbate Lato- 
 natn et rumpitp libros, A p. 
 
fA 
 
 0^ 
 
 Experimental Method. 297 
 
 high things: he is a king over all the children of 
 Pride} 
 
 Much might be added, and innumerable similitudes y_ 
 belongin^to this rebellious Principle and^that identical ^y ^ 
 representative of him which the Divine Art requires, 
 in order that his stolen forces may be drawn forth 
 and spent in the sanguinary conflict which he provokes 
 in life. Just as in the Egyptian rehcs he is so fre- 
 quently seen depicted with all the emblems of grace 
 and power in human semblance, fiercely seated between 
 his circumventing foes. For the Orient Animal must 
 be stripped of his skin, not with arrows or clubs, but 
 with the Hand, as Adepts say ; the whole garment of 
 Light must be dissected, shorn, and the signal of victory 
 be heroically transferred. Animal de oriente pelle sua ^ 
 
 leonina spoliari debet ejusque^evanescere atque turn a oiJ^(^ 
 simul ingredi magnum oceani sc^mnjcumque pulchr^ — 7^/ 
 tudine iterum egredi, &c.^ But we must proceed; ' ' 
 giving only, by way of recreation, this Philalethean Lion 
 Hunt from Maiden in part, and the Cosmopolite Eire- 
 n^us. 
 ^ HUNTING THE GEEENE LYON. 
 
 All hail to the noble compaBie 
 
 Of students in lioli Alkimie ; 
 
 AVliose noble practise doth them teach 
 
 To veil their art wyth mysty speech : 
 
 Moiight yt please your -svorshipfulnes, 
 
 To hear my idle soothfastnes, 
 
 Of that stronge practise I have seene 
 
 In hunting of the Lyon Greene, 
 
 "Whose color doubtless ys not soe 
 
 As that your wisdom well doe know ; 
 
 For no man lives that ere hath seene 
 
 Upon foure feet a lyon greene. 
 
 But our lyon wanting maturitie, 
 
 Is called greene for his unripenes trust me ; 
 
 And yet fuU quickly he can run 
 
 And soon can overtake the Sun ; 
 
 And suddenly can hym devoure 
 
 If they be both shut in one towere 
 
 And hym eclipse that was so brighte 
 
 And make thys red to turn to white 
 
 1 Job, chap. xli. 
 
 ' Maieri Hierog. Egypt. Grsec. p. 222. 
 
298 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 By virtue of his crudytie. 
 
 And unripe humors whych in hym be ; 
 
 And yet within hym he hath such heate 
 
 That wlien lie hath tlie Sun upeate, 
 
 He bringetli liyni to more pei't'ection 
 
 Than ere he had by Nature's only sanction. 
 
 Who then so'ere would win eternal fame 
 Must learn this Lyon Greene to tame. 
 But this before by Art he can attain 
 To study hym to know, he must be fain. 
 Nor ys it, trust me, for a stupid fule, 
 Nor yet for one brought up in vulgar schule : 
 I shall hym therefore lively out pourtray, 
 Least from thys banquet you go leane awav. 
 AYith mind attentive, to my words give heed, 
 Least you instead of meat on fancies feed : 
 This horrid beast, which we our Lyon call, 
 Hath many names, that uoe man shall 
 The truth perceive, unless that God direct 
 And on his darkened minde a Light reflect. 
 'Tis not because this subject doth consist 
 Of animal components (he that list 
 May well conceive) that we do therefore use 
 The name of beasts ; nor is it to abuse 
 The readers ; he whocA^er soe doth think, 
 "With stupid sots himself doth thereby link. 
 But it's because of the transcendant force 
 It hath ; and for the rawness of its source, 
 Of whych the lyke is nowhere to be seene, 
 That yt of us is named the Lyon Greene. 
 
 Now listen, and I shall to you disclose 
 The secret, whych tymes past hath, like a rose. 
 Been hedged so in on every side with briars. 
 That few could pluck yt at their heart's desires. 
 There is a substance of metalline race, 
 If you the matter view, whose louring face 
 A sophister would at first sight so scare, 
 That he yt to approach would never dare ; 
 The form that's visible is very vi\e, 
 And doth metallyne bodies so defile. 
 That none to see yt, could be brought to think 
 That thence shoidd spring bright Pha'bus' pearly druik ; 
 And yet, O strange ! a wonder to relate. 
 At this same spring naked Diana sat, 
 Who horned Acta'on for hys venturous peeping. 
 This spring two dreadful beasts have in their keeping 
 Whych drive away rash searchers to their woe, 
 Them to enchant, the Art who do not know. 
 Yet further, for to answer your desire, 
 1 say, this subject never felt the fire 
 
Experimental Method. 299 
 
 Of sulphur metalline, but ys more crude 
 
 Than any minerall, which doth elude 
 
 The unwary, and in fire fugitive 
 
 'Tis found; th' impure away the pure doth drive, 
 
 And its components are a Mercury 
 
 Most pure, tho' tender, Avith a Sulphur dry 
 
 Incarcerate, which doth the flux retaine. 
 
 And as in shackles doth the same detaine. 
 
 This Sulphur with malignant qualities 
 
 Doth so the Mercury infect whych with yt lies,' 
 
 That tho' they have no fundamtsntal union, 
 
 Yet hereby is debarred the sweete communion, 
 
 Wliych otherwise would surely intercede 
 
 Between thys virgin nymph, which we call Leade, 
 
 And her dear sister, whych in silver streams 
 
 Euns down abundantly ; then should the beams 
 
 Of bright Apollo course the dews whych fall 
 
 From these commixed waters, from the tall 
 
 Aspiring mountain, gliding thro' the vales, 
 
 Fire to conceive of Nature, whych avails 
 
 To warm the bath for Sol, in whych he may 
 
 Descend and wash, and wj^th fair Phoebe play. 
 
 Till flesh and youth renewing, they be able 
 
 To shine wyth glory, aye multiplicable. 
 
 Know then this Subject, whych the base 
 
 Of all our secret ys, and it uncase ; 
 
 And choose what thou shalt finde of meanest price : 
 
 Leave sophisters, and following my advice. 
 
 Be not deluded ; for the truth is one, 
 
 'Tis not in many things, this is Our Stone : 
 
 At fii"st appearing in a garb defiled, 
 
 And, to deal plainly, it is Saturn's childe. 
 
 His price is meane, his venom very great 
 
 His constitution cold, devoid of heat. 
 
 Altho' 'tis mixed with a sulphur, yet 
 
 This sulphur is combustible ; to get 
 
 Another Sulphur metalline and pure. 
 
 And mix with the Mercurial parts be sure ; 
 
 This Sulphur in the house of Aries seek, 
 
 There shall you find it ; this will be the G-reek 
 
 Alcides, who with Jason journey took 
 
 To Colchos ; this it is whych never book 
 
 As yet revealed ; and yet I will proceede, 
 
 And greater mysteries unfold with speede. 
 
 Our Subject, it is no ways malleable. 
 
 It is metalline and its color sable, 
 
 "With intermixed argent, whych in veins 
 
 The sable field with glittering branches stains ; 
 
 The pure parts from the impure thou shalt never 
 
 With fire or common water here di.ssever, 
 
300 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 Nor with the hardest iron dig it thence, 
 
 For steel, 'gainst this aftbrdeth no defence ; 
 
 So easily as any little boy 
 
 A giant can suppress, this can destroy 
 
 Alcides' breastplate, with his target stout, 
 
 And put opposing armies to the rout 
 
 Of swords and spears, O wondrous force ! and yet 
 
 The sages this have seen, when they did sit 
 
 In council, how this fiu'y they might tame, 
 
 Which (as unparalled) they then did name 
 
 Their Lyon Greene ; they suffered him to prey 
 
 On Cadmus Sociates ; and when the fray 
 
 Was over, they with Dian's charms hym tyed, 
 
 And made hym under waters to abide. 
 
 And washed hym cleane, and after gave hym icings, 
 
 To fly, much like a dragon, whose sharp springs 
 
 Of Fiery Water, th' only way iv as found 
 
 To cause Apollo his harp strings to sound. 
 
 This is the true npnphs' bath which we did search and try, 
 
 And proved to be the wise men's Mercury. 
 
 The evil of the Original Sin being overcome by so 
 many subtle stratagems, the New Life thence arises, 
 whose quintessential vu'tue, imperishable and perpe- 
 tually victorious, is the Corner Stone or first Material 
 foundation of the Hermetic Art : known, as the 
 adept says, only to the AVise, because they alone can 
 know it who have it in themselves. The irrational 
 and frivolous-minded cannot receive this truth, because 
 it depends exactly upon the knowledge of 7'^iat which 
 is most abstruse in them. The example given of 
 Cadmus, from the Greek fable, identifies him with 
 Jason, Orpheus, ^neas, and the rest, who represent 
 the Rational Ferment ; the associates are taken to sig- 
 nif}^ the other faculties of the mind originally at- 
 tendant on this, but which are drawn away afterwards 
 into the vortex of the Opposive Principle, rapidly 
 attracting them when it is freed, and, revelling with 
 which, it becomes satiated and more easily ensnared. 
 As it is told of Saturn, hkewise, that he was inebri- 
 ated when he was bound in fetters by his son ; and by 
 the advice of the goddess, too, according to Orpheus, 
 the subtle stratagem was contrived. 
 
Experimental Method. 301 
 
 When stretched beneath the lofty oaks yon view 
 Satnm, with honey of the bees produced, 
 Sunk in ebriety ; fast bind the god. 
 
 For the Saturnian Will, being allowed to revel, 
 without limitation or rational restraint, throughout 
 the subordinate faculties, becomes intoxicated ; his 
 desires are more than satisfied, and, as the image runs, 
 from the effect he sleeps. It is then the watchful eye 
 of Intellect, well advised and able, prepares to cut him 
 off, and drawing forth all his brazen strength, plants it 
 in the newly-furrowed soil, whence springs another 
 armament, which, still rebellious, contending with 
 each other for the self-same Stone, are by it once more 
 annihilated and again raised up. So the Bath of 
 Diana is prepared out of the blood of many battles, 
 where the innocents suffer for the guilty, and many 
 barbarous images befall, until the Identical Spirit arises, 
 pure, bright, and contrite, from its primaeval element, 
 and free in legal subordination only to its own 
 perfect Law. 
 
 The matter first of metals Mercury 
 A moisture is which wetteth not the hand 
 Tet flows, and therefore is named water dry, 
 The vulgar is at every one's command. 
 
 But this is not the water we desire, 
 
 For in our water is our secret fire. 
 
 This Matter while its life it did retain, 
 
 Was apt all metals e'en to procreate, 
 
 The life when gone, then dead it doth remain 
 
 Till a new soul shall it reanimate. 
 
 This Matter is to metals all of kin 
 All which do hide a Mercury within. 
 
 He then who knows the parts of Mercury 
 
 And can its superfluities decrease, 
 
 And with true Sulphur it can vivify ; 
 
 For dead it is, though fluent, he with ease 
 May gold unlock and after recongeal 
 Both to an Essence which all griefs can heal. 
 
 Lo ! here a spring of wealth, a Tree of Life, 
 No wealth so great, no sickness here is rife, 
 Here in a map, thou seest the creatures all 
 Abridged, and reduced to their perfection. 
 Here thou beholdest in a Subject Small, 
 From this world's misery a fiill protection. 
 
302 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 O Mercury, tliou wonder of the world ! 
 
 How strange thy nature; is and how compact ! 
 
 A body dost possess which doth enfold 
 
 A Spirit inexpressible to act, 
 
 Our mysteries ; this only we desire, 
 This is our water, this our secret fire. 
 
 For Argent Vive is gold essential 
 Only unripe, which, if thou canst prepare 
 By art, it gives the secret menstrual: 
 The mother of our Stone which is so rare. 
 
 Our oil, our unguent, and our marchasile; 
 
 Which we do name also our fountain bright. 
 
 O crystal fountain ! which with fourfold spring 
 Euns down the valleys with its pearly drops 
 DistiDing, with the which our noble king 
 Is washed and carried to the mountain tops. 
 
 Where he the virtue of the Heavens receives, 
 WTiich never after him, when fixed, leaves. 
 
 This is our May-dew which our earth doth move 
 To bring forth fruit, wdiich fruit is perfect gold : 
 This is our Eve, whom Adam doth so love. 
 That in her arms his soul, strange to be told, 
 He doth receive, who erst as dead was seen, 
 And quickened first appears in colours green. 
 
 How this ? Even thu-s, in Saturn there is hid 
 
 A soul immortal which in prison lies, 
 
 Untie its fetters, which do it forbid 
 
 To sight for to appeal", then shall arise 
 A Vapour shining, like pearl oi'ient, 
 Which is our Moon and sparkling Firmament.^ 
 
 By such a vital and mysterious process is the 
 First Matter of the adepts said to be generated and 
 produced by an emancipation of the Fontal Source ; 
 and this is Diana, and that refulgent Light which 
 eclipses every other hght but that of its proper 
 Reason, and strikes the irrational intruder blind. 
 For she is the wholeness of the Fundamental Na- 
 ture at once personified, the knot and link of all 
 the elements of being, inferior as well as superior, 
 which she contains within herself — A Light more 
 splendid than the Sun and gold, and more beautiful 
 than the Moon or silver, and more diaphanous than 
 
 ' Eiren^us, Marrow of Alchemv. 
 ' / 
 
Experimental Method. 303 
 
 the purest chrystal ; inasmuch transcendant, says the 
 acute Helv-etius/ that that most recreant Beauty can 
 never be blotted out from my mind, though it should 
 be rejected by all, and disbelieved by fools and the 
 illiterate. For though our Art is unknown, we do 
 assert, according to experience, that this mystery is to 
 be found ; but only with the great Jehovah saturninely 
 placed in the centre of the world. There, within most 
 intimately, the Abyss of the Spagiric artifice is dis- / 
 closed ; there, as in a crystalline diaphan|ty, the / ^-'*-^, 
 Miracle of the whole world. There, in that region, ' 
 no longer fabulous but by art made natural, is seen 
 the Salamander casting out the etherial waters, and 
 washing himself in the flames ; there the river Numi- 
 tius, in which iEneas, bathing, was absolved from his 
 mortality, and by command of Venus was transformed 
 into an immortal god. There, also, is Eridanus and 
 that Lydian river Pactolus transmuted into gold as 
 soon as Mygdonian Midas had washed himself in the 
 same. Also, as in a beautifully pictured series, there 
 is displayed every mythological antique device ; Apollo 
 and the Muses, and Parnassus and the Fountain struck 
 from Pegasus, and the fountain of Narcissus, even 
 Scylla washing in the flood, beneath the fervent rays 
 of the meridian sunbeams ; there, too, the blood of 
 Pyramis and Thisbe, which turned the white mulber- 
 ries to a deeper die. The blood of Adonis transformed 
 by Venus into an anemone rose ; that blood, too, of 
 mighty Ajax, out of which sprang the fairest hya- 
 cynthine flower. There also are the drops of water 
 decocted by Medea, out of which such a verdure 
 sprang up suddenly to cover the bleached earth ; and 
 that potion which the enchantress boiled out of so 
 many herbs gathered three days before the full moon, 
 for the heahng of Jason, when that hero had grown 
 infirm. The gardens of the Hesperides, also, are in 
 Elysium ; and here Hippomanes runs the race with 
 Atalanta, and vanquishes by stratagem of the golden 
 fruit. Here, too, magnanimous Hercules, having 
 ^ Yituliis Aureus. 
 
304 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 burnt all his maternal body upon a pile of wood, 
 revives entire and incombustible, as the Phoenix on 
 her pyre, and is changed into the Hkeness of an im- 
 mortal god. 
 
 Such are a very few of the games and choice spec- 
 tacles which tradition commemorates as instituted by 
 Wisdom, for the benefit of souls emerging from Lethe 
 and Egyptian darkness to the glorious liberty of the 
 ^ Freed Will in life. And it is that kindling of Divine 
 
 Cltl^ Its Ecstacy , in connection wi fliitft Source, that attracts the 
 whole phenomenon of nature to its desire, and works 
 the total miracle of the Hermetic Art in life, exalts 
 Mind by the understanding of Causes, and confirms it. 
 But in the summary language of the Greek saint (since 
 here it becomes us not to assert) : Know, says Sy- 
 nesius, that the Quintessence and hidden thing of our 
 Stone is nothing else than our viscous celestial and 
 glorious soul, drawn by our magistery out of its mine, 
 which engenders itself and brings itself forth, and that 
 Water is the most sharp vinegar, which makes gold to 
 be a pure spirit — nay, it is that Blessed Nature which 
 engenders all things ; but, by usurpation, in each par- 
 ticular universally and without return. 
 
 These plain words, supporting the evidence which 
 has gone before, will leave less doubt, if we yield them 
 credence, with respect to the method and true basis of 
 the Hermetic experiment ; reason, aided by a perspi- 
 cuous imagination, will attain readily to the idea, and 
 research may further assist the faithful to confirm it. 
 We cannot, however, quit a subject, the preliminaries 
 of which are so important to establish, without advert- 
 K, ing to certain (Jlabalistic and other Greek concordances, 
 ~ in^hope that their separate witness may tell favourably 
 
 / in OQticlusiorrTte this Material of Mind. 
 / A 
 
305 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A further Analysis of the Initial Principle, and its 
 Eduction into Light. 
 
 Dens, cum solus fuisset iu pi-incipio, creavit uiiam substantiam ; 
 lianc primam materiam. nominamus. — Mylius Phil. Reform, pars 
 vi. lib. 1. V / / / 
 
 THE philosophy of the J C aba l, as dehvered in the 
 only genuine Hebrew remains and their commen- 
 taries, is eminently comprehensive and sublime ; and 
 these characteristics are mainly dependent on its very 
 great simplicity. All things therein are psychically 
 derived : and, according to the doctrine of an essen- 
 tial emanation, the whole physical universe is ex- 
 tended and corporified, as it were, by a multiplication 
 of the indeficient unit into its parts, under the intel- 
 ligible Law of its own proceeding Light. Into the 
 method of this philosophy, or the many beautiful par- 
 ticulars arising out of its material, space does not allow 
 us to enter ; they who are desirous may conveniently 
 examine for themselves, either in the Latin editions of 
 Rosenroth ;' or to begin with Franck's very excellent / n ^ 
 
 history of the Cabal , which contains, besides numer- ku;vO~G{X£iJ(^ 
 ous translated passages from the Hebrew, commen- 
 taries and notes, that we have read with no less in- 
 struction than dehght.^ 
 
 The Initial Principle, however, which we have been 
 discussing, and to which it will be necessary to confine 
 inquiry for the present, is in the Zohar designated by 
 the name of Wisdom, or the Supreme Crown ; that is 
 to say, after it has become into manifest Being ; but 
 
 ^ Kabbala Deuudata, seu Doctrina Hebraeorum Transcenden- 
 talis et Liber Zohar Eestitutus. Francf. 1684. 
 
 2 ];a Kabbale, ou Philosopliie Eeligieuse des Hebreux, par Ad. 
 -Franck. Paris, 1843. 
 
306 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 in the Beginning, for reasons metaphysically expUeable, 
 the divine hypostasis is distinguished by the epithet of 
 Unknown, and described according to its negative ab- 
 soluteness, in the sum of two or three paragraphs, as 
 follows : — 
 
 All things before they became manifested were con- 
 cealed in the unknown and incomprehensible Infinite, 
 and this subsistence, whence all proceeded, was but as 
 an interrogation, an imperceptible sufficience, having 
 neither mind, nor figure, nor self-comprehension, or 
 Being, properly so called ; but when the Unknown 
 would manifest himself, he begins by producing a 
 point ; but, whilst the point of Light remains within 
 subjective and inseparate, he is unknown, and as the 
 Unity of things to be developed only by the Separation 
 of them in Himself: in this sense he is called the 
 Ancient of Days, the White Head, the Old Man^by 
 excellence, the Mystery of Mysteries, Which is before 
 all things — whose emanation is All.^ And thus the 
 hypostatic vision is more prominently delineated. He 
 is, says the Rabbi Ben Jochai, speaking of the same, 
 the Mystery of Mysteries, and most unknown of the 
 unknown ; yet he has a form or idiom which belongs 
 to him ; but, under this form by which he is seen, he 
 remains still unknoicn. His clothing is white, and his 
 aspect that of a countenance unveiled. . . . From his 
 head he shakes a dew which awakens the dead, and 
 brings them to new life ; wherefore, it is written. Thy 
 dew is the dew of light. It is this which nourishes the 
 most exalted saints, the manna which descends into 
 the field of sacred fruits ; the aspect of this dew is 
 white, as the diamond is white, the colour which con- 
 tains all.^ 
 
 This white appearance of the primaeval splendour in 
 the abyss, is very constantly notified ; thus we read in 
 the Apocalypse, of the White Stone with the new 
 name written upon it ; and in the vision of the Son of 
 
 ^ Zohar, part i. Franck's Translatiou, pp. 175, 185, 
 ^ Zohar, part iii. fol. 12, 8 recto in Franck. p. 170. 
 
 &c. 
 
Further Analysis. 307 
 
 Man, of the snowy whiteness of his glory, whose hair 
 was hke wool, and white as snow.^ And I beheld, 
 says the prophet in Enoch, the Ancient of Days, 
 whose head was like wool, &c.^ But these, and all 
 such like revelations will be esteemed fanciful or figu- 
 rative, perhaps, or arbitrary, since they are not com- 
 monly conceivable, and the worldly mind is shut out 
 from the imagination even of occult truth. They 
 only who have entered experimentally within to know 
 themselves, have been satisfactorily able to recognise 
 the ground ; and they only who are gifted with an ap- 
 proximating faith, to discriminate their universal testi- 
 mony from amongst so many fanatical delusions, will 
 be inclined, or able either, to advance to the contem- 
 plation of their proofs. 
 
 But to continue. As all colours in their prismatic 
 unison are white, just so is the Universal Nature, de- 
 scribed as appearing in the evolution of her Fontal 
 Light ; and Paracelsus gives it as a reason, that there 
 should be a simple ground of all diversity without 
 confusion whereon to recreate : — Omnia in Dei manu 
 alba sunt is ea tingit ut vult : — all things in the hand 
 of God are white, says the Magian, ^at He mes^ co- 
 loursthem according to His pleasure. Agreeably, the 
 author of the Liicerna Sails writes : — The matter will 
 become white like a hoary man, whose aged com- 
 plexion resembles ice ; it will also whiten more after- 
 wards, like silver. Govern your fire with a great deal 
 of care, and afterwards you shall see that hi your 
 vessel your matter will become white as snow. Then 
 is your elixir perfect as to the w^hite work. — This 
 agrees with the descriptions of Arnold, Lully, kxto^^uu^s 
 ^M&, and the rest cited in the Theory, which, in the 
 original verse, runs thus : — 
 
 Acquiret canitiem viri senis, 
 Albicabitque fere ut argentum, 
 Sumin^ diligentia ignem rege 
 
 ^ Eevelation of St. John, chap. i. v 14 ; ehap. ii. v. 17. 
 2 Book of Enooh, chap. xlvi. v. 1, &c. 
 
 X 2 
 
308 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 /-€y Videbisque sequentj/fr materiain in vitro 
 
 ' Albere omnino candore nivali 
 
 Et turn confectum est elixir ad album.' 
 
 The same Sendivogius, in his Ntw Light, calls the 
 Water of our Sea, the Water of Life, not wetting the 
 hands ; and believe me, he says, for T saw it with my 
 eyes, and felt it — that water was as white as snow.'^ 
 And Eireneus, but we will not enlarge ; for is not 
 this the Matter already defined so often by the old 
 Alchemists, saying, it is no common water, but an 
 unctuous mineral vapour, universally subsisting ? Bo- 
 dies therefore, say they, are to be turned into such a 
 vapour, and this vapour is the Stone known and proven 
 in the Book of Life — Sumatur lapis in capitulis notus; — 
 Such is the subtle phrase of the Arabian ; and this 
 is the Matter every where alluded to, and so often 
 denoted in the Mysteries ; which in demoniacal 
 forms is at first in vision made apparent, nor 
 known until the eye of mind, regardant and pu- 
 rifying, meets its First source. For are we not all 
 verily, " such stufl' as dreams are made of? " Yet 
 the discovery of it is no dream, if we may believe the 
 experienced ; but, on the contrary, every phantastic 
 desire and imagination is alienated and merged in in- 
 telle 'tual contact of the Thing itself, which is our 
 Identity. This is the true Hermetic material, which is 
 celebrated by all his disciples ; that recommended by 
 Orpheus to be taken in the cave of Mercury, and car- 
 ried in both hands away ; and this is the power borne 
 by the Centaur Cheiron, the monster tutor of heroes, 
 cloud-begotten, sprung from out of the nebulous 
 impure ether, with a duplicate force, as it were, of a 
 Magnet armed to magnify and energize and prepare 
 the way, being the substance real, and promise of a 
 more perfect life to come. The same in Silenus is sa- 
 tirically personified the most venerable preceptor of 
 the God of Wine ; and this is Pan, and the foundation 
 of the great Saturnian Monarchy of the Freed Will, 
 
 ' Lucenia Salis, p. 158. 12mo. 
 2 Philosophical Parable. 
 
Further Analysis. 309 
 
 which was once circumscribed in Intellect, for the 
 manifestation of its Light. 
 
 This same, the Arabians call Flos Sails Alhi — the 
 Flower of White Salt, and thus the substant hypos- 
 tasis is said very truly to be designated ; and this is 
 the white sand, Qutilem, which Van Helmont speaks 
 of as manifesting itself forth in a vivid vital soil, which 
 spade or mattock never pierced.^ This is the true 
 magic earth wherein is the recreative fire, even that 
 " Land of Havilah, where good gold is ; " and this fire 
 binds the parts thereof spontaneously to himself, co- 
 agulates them, and stops their flux ; and this Salt is the 
 Water that wets not the hands ; and that identical Mag- 
 nesia that was exhibited in the Mysteries ; the White 
 Island of Vishnu ; the Lord of Radha ; the White 
 Paradise, which the author of the Round Toioers, with 
 an exclusiveness, pardonable for its enthusiasm, mis- 
 took for his Emerald Home.^ 
 
 The Platonists have declared true Being to be white, 
 and all that Plato says, in FhcedOy about Tartarus is, 
 according to Olympiodorus, to be understood ethically 
 and physically : ethically, in that Tartarus is the place 
 of the soul's trial, where the balance of existence 
 is struck, and imperfections are made manifest ; phy- 
 sically, in that it is the luhoieness of txisteuce. And 
 what is written about rivers and seas by Plato, which 
 is ridiculous in an external sense, is to be psychically 
 understood, as when he says that the taste and colour 
 of these waters is according to the quality of the earth 
 through which it flows : this also indicates, adds our 
 exponent, that souls, in which reason does not preside 
 as a charioteer, are changed according to the subject 
 temperament of the body ; but when reason has the 
 dominion, the soul does not yield, but, contrariwise, 
 assimilates herself to the Supreme virtue.^ And her 
 first motion towards this from her ultimate artificial 
 
 ' Oreatrike, cliap. ix. 
 
 2 See the Eound Towers of Ii-eland ; au estimable work, by li. 
 O'Brien, chap. xxii. p. 327. 
 ^ See Taylor's Dissertation on Aristotle, book ii. p, 319. 
 
XKcCt, 
 
 ^ 
 
 310 Laws and Conditions, 
 
 recessure is the true origin of matter, according to 
 these philosophers, and the primary cause of all, when 
 the generative virtue is drawn up into intellectual 
 alliance with the medial life and light. 
 
 In the third book of Reuchlin, De Arte Cabalistica, 
 we read, Nihil est in j)rincipio nisi Sapientia. — No- 
 thing is in the beginning but Wisdom, or Sapience. — It 
 is this which we are accustomed to call the Three 
 Persons in Divinity, the which is an Absolute Essetice, 
 wliieh , whilst it is retracted in the Abyss of darkness, 
 and rests still and quiet, or, as they say, having re- 
 spect to nothing, is for this cause termed by the 
 Hebrews, Ain, i. e to say. Nihil quoad }ius; nothing or 
 no entity as respects us. Because we, being affected 
 with inability in the conception, do judge and 
 imagine of those things which do not appear imme- 
 diately as if they were not at all. But when it has 
 showed itself forth to be somewhat indeed, and that it 
 does really in the human apprehension exist, then, 
 continues the (Jfabalist, is dark Aleph converted into 
 light Alcpli ; as it is written, The night shineth as the 
 day, the darkness and the light are all alike to Him ; 
 — Tenebrae sunt ei sicut ipsa lux. 
 
 Si tu, Deus meus, illuiniuaveris nie 
 Lux liuut teuebra^ mese. 
 
 So Paradise was opened in the Seer, and by that 
 kindling of Divine enthusiasm in conjunction with its 
 source, the soft lenient Light was created, which he 
 celebrates, and whence all things are said to emerge, 
 and whither they return ; but without our cognizance, 
 who arc chained to these exterior surfaces, content 
 with the bare tradition of a life to come. But in 
 that Place, whither he was snatched up, the prophet 
 describes them, and what he beheld of the Radical 
 Essence, and the manifold glories of that mystical 
 Adamic Soil. And this I beheld, says he, the secret 
 of Heaven and of Paradise according to its divisions, 
 and there my eyes beheld the secrets of the thunder 
 
Further Analysis. 311 
 
 and lightning, and the secrets of the winds, how they 
 are distributed as they blow over the earth. The 
 secret of the winds and of the clouds ; there I per- 
 ceived the place whence they issue forth, and I became 
 saturated with the dust of the earth. There I saw the 
 woodtn receptacles (the vegetable or medial life), out of 
 which the winds became separated, and the receptacles 
 of the snow, and the cloud itself which continued over 
 the earth before the creation of the world} 
 
 This nebulous apparition of the Catholic Embryo , 
 
 before its birth, some modern dJabalists have ex- /C 
 plained to be an absolute concentration of Divinity ^^"^ 
 within its proper substance, i. e. of subject and object, 
 in their original identity ; which, as a cloud before the 
 falling shower, gives birth to the primitive Ether, 
 which is the pure attracting vacuum, or understanding 
 whereby the central efficient is drawn forth to will and 
 operation. Dionysius styles it caligo divina, because, 
 as he says, it is obscure and humanly incomprehen- 
 sible, though visible indeed. The author of the Lumen yy 
 de Lumine calls it, from the (pabalists, Tenebra: [y 
 activce, and describes it as beneath all degrees of 
 sense and imagination — a certain horrible, inexpressible 
 chasm. ^ 
 
 Non-being which nor mind can see 
 Nor speech reveal ; since, as of Being void, 
 'Tis not the object of the mental eye ; 
 But there thy intellectual notions check 
 When in this path exploring.^ 
 
 For its End is infinite ; as the Oracle forewarns, — 
 Stoop not down, for a precipice lies below in the earth ; 
 — it is nothing as respects the consciousness before it is 
 conceived ; nothing, as Dionysius adds, of those things 
 that are, or of those that are not, in an empty destruc- 
 tive sense ; but it i^ that only True Thing of which we 
 
 (^^r}^^e^ 
 
 1 Book of Enoch, chap. xlvi. and xli. 
 
 2 Lumen de Lumine, the chapter on Matter, in init. 
 
 2 From the Fragments of Parmenides, given at the end of Tay- 
 lor's Dissertation on Aristotle. 
 
/v 
 
 312 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 ^ can affirm nothing, whose tlieology is negative ; but <<rfU(y^ 
 
 CzT>^oUCocLejS ifmhtu iu the perfect possession of m the most happy- 
 life. Thus Bohme also declares — God, incomparably 
 good and great, out of nothing created 6omethi?ig, and 
 that something was made one thing in which all 
 things were contained, both celestial and terrestrial. 
 And this first something was a certain cloud or dark- 
 ness, which was condensed into water ; and this water 
 is that One Thing in which all things are contained.^ 
 
 Now here we do not read either that all things 
 came of nothing absolutely, but that God of nothing 
 created something which was made that one thing in 
 which are all. And this One Thing appears to be no- 
 thing less or more than that Identity which is made in 
 
 ^ the regeneration by the reprocedure into experience out 
 
 OJ\jiy}^ of the dissolute void of lif^artificially induced. As re- 
 spects the creature, therefore, it may be considered as 
 the first divine manifestation out of the abyss, when 
 the Spirit is brought forth into a new circulatory con- 
 fine, displaying its universal properties internally ac- 
 cording to the magnetic, virtue, action, and passion 
 of the Microcosmic Heaven. And there is in the Ce- 
 lestial Light, continues the same author, a Substance 
 like water which yet is no water, but such a spirit or 
 property . but it burns more like a kindred oil, and is 
 called by many the Tincture. And this Tincture is 
 the source of the material world, and gives to all 
 essences virtue to grow : it is also in all metals and 
 stones ; it causes silver and gold to grow, and without 
 it nothing could grow, but with it, all things: amongst 
 all the children of nature it only is a virgin, and has 
 never generated anything out of itself; neither can it 
 generate, yet it makes all things that are to be impreg- 
 nated : it is the most hidden thing, and also the most 
 manifest ; it is the friend of God and playfellow of vir- 
 tue ; it suffers itself to be detained of nothing and yet 
 it is in all things ; but if anything be done against the 
 right of nature, then it readily flies away : it con- 
 
 ' Generation of tlic Three Principles. 
 
Further Analysis. 313 
 
 tinues in no kind of decaying of anything, but abides 
 constantly with life. The way to it is very near, yet 
 no language can express it : nevertheless it ?neet6- them 
 that seek it a rig /it in its own way. It is powerful, yet 
 of itself does nothing ; when it goes out of a thing it 
 comes not into it again naturally, but it stays in its 
 ether. It is not God, but it is God's friend; for it 
 works not of itself It is in all things imperceptibly, 
 and yet it may u-ell be overpowered and used, especially 
 in metals : there it can of itself, being pure, make gold 
 of iron and copper, and make a little grow to be a 
 great deal. For it is the source of universal increase ; 
 its way is as subtle as the thoughts of man, and his 
 thoughts do even arise from thence. All things are 
 thence arisen throughthe Divine bnagi nation, and doj^et 
 stand in such a birth, station, and government. The 
 four elements have likewise such a ground or original ; 
 but the understanding and capacity is not in nature's 
 own ability without the Light of God ; but it is very 
 easy to be understood by those who are in the Light, to 
 them it is easy and plain } — I have myself seen this 
 knowledge, continues our author in another place, 
 with those eyes wherein life generates in me, for the 
 new man speculates into the midst of the astral birth 
 or geniture, and thus, he adds, in explication the me- 
 thod of his experience. — At last when, after much 
 Christian seeking and desire, and suffering of much re- 
 pulse, I resolved, he saj^s, rather to put my life to 
 utmost hazard than to give over and leave off; the 
 gate was opened to me, so that in one quarter of 
 an hour I saw and knew more than if I had been 
 many years at the University ; at which I did exceed- 
 ingly admire, and knew not how it happened to me ; 
 and, therefore, I turned my mind to praise God for it. 
 For I saw and knew the Being of beings, the Bysse, or 
 ground or original foundation ; and the Abysse, that is 
 without ground, or fathomless or void ; also the birth 
 or eternal generation of the Holy Trinity, the descent 
 
 1 See Bohme's A\rorks, vol. i. p. 97, 41 fol. 
 
■^.^KClAyO-^aJc 
 
 314 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 and original of this world and of all creatures through 
 the Divine Wisdom, and I knew and saw in myself all 
 the Three Worlds : viz., tirst, the divine angelical, or 
 paradisaical ; and then the dark world, being the ori- 
 ginal of nature by the Fire ; and then thirdly, the 
 etci - mi l and visible world, being a procreation or extern 
 birth or, as it were, a substance expressed or spoken 
 forth from the internal and spiritual worlds. And I 
 saw and knew the whole Being, and luorking essence in 
 the evil and in the good, and the mutual original and 
 existence of each of them ; and likewise how the 
 pregnant genetrix or fruitful bearing womb of eternity 
 brought forth, so that I did not only greatly wonder at it, 
 but did also exceedingly rejoice. Albeit, I could very 
 hardly apprehend the same in my external man, and 
 express it with my pen. I saw as in a great deep in 
 the Internal ; for I had a thorough view of the uni- 
 verse as in a chaos wherein all things are couched and 
 wrapped up, but it was impossible then for me to ex- 
 plain the same. Yet it opened itself in me from time 
 to time, as a young plant, and came forth into the 
 external principle of my mind. . . . And thus I have 
 written not from instruction or knowledge received from 
 men, nor from the study of books, but I have written 
 out of my own book which was opened in me, being 
 the noble similitude, the book of the most noble and 
 precious Image of God : and therein I have studied as 
 a child in the house of its mother, which beholdeth 
 what the father doth. I have no need of other books, 
 my book hath only three leaves, the same are the 
 Principles of Eternity. Therein I can find all whatso- 
 ever Moses and the Prophets, Christ and his Apostles 
 have taught and spoken. I can find therein the 
 foundation of the world and mysteries ; and yet not I 
 but the Spirit of God doeth it according to the mea- 
 sure as he pleaseth.^ 
 y . // Here we have modern testimony agreeing in all par- 
 fCcxlrtJCo^^ ticulars with the most ancient Gdbal and profound ex- 
 perimental divinity ; nor this alone, but other favoured 
 
 ' See Bbhme's Works, Turned Eye, in vol. ii. 
 
Further Analysis. 315 
 
 individuals, amongst whom Van Helmont relates, 
 how by a mysterious hand he was led along into 
 a perception of the simple element of nature. — And 
 while I variously wandered that I might view the 
 Tree of Life, says the physician, at length with- 
 out the day and beyond the beginning of the night, I 
 saw, as in a dream, the whole face of the earth even 
 as it stood forsaken, and empty or void at the begin- 
 ning of the creation ; then afterwards, how it was, 
 while, as being fresh, it waxed on every side green with 
 its plants ; again, also, as it lay hidden under the Jiood. 
 For I saw all the species of plants to be kept under 
 the waters: yet presently after the flood, that they 
 did all enter into the way of interchanges enjoined to 
 them, which was to be continued by their species and 
 seeds, &c. For in the sky of our Archeeus, aspectual 
 Ideas are deciphered as well from the depth of the 
 starry heaven of the soul itself, as those formed by 
 the erring or implanted spirit of the seven bowels.^ 
 
 Here in this sphere those mighty wonders are. 
 Which, as the sporting of the Deity, 
 Themselves display ; wonders indeed they are 
 Which do exceed man's comprehending far 
 Here 'tis that God himself t' himself displays, 
 From whence the sense arises up in joys, 
 A thousand things for aye arise, 
 Eternal waters and eternal skies. ^ 
 
 Basil Valentine also, before proceeding to a descrip- 
 tion of the Philosophic Matter, opens his discourse fe c-j^^ 
 ^BS effect as follows : — When at a certain time an 
 abundance of thoughts, which my internal fervent 
 prayer to God suggested, had set me loose and wholly 
 free from terrene business, I purposed in myself to 
 attend to those spiritual inspirations of which we have 
 need for the more accu) ate scrutiny of nature. There- 
 fore I resolved to make myself wings, that I might 
 ascend on high and inspect the stars themselves, as 
 
 ^ Oreatrike, chap. Ix. and xcvi. 
 
 2 Pordage, Mimdiim ' Explicatio, p. 320. 
 
316 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 Icaras and his father Diiedalus did in times past. But 
 when I soared too near the sun, my /cat// efs with its 
 vehement heat were consumed, and I fell headlong into 
 the depths of the sea. Yet to me, in this my extreme 
 tiecessity, invoking God, help was sent from heaven 
 which freed me from all peril and present destruction. 
 For one hastened to my assistance who commanded 
 the waters should be still ; and instantly in that deep 
 abyss appeared a most high mountain upon which at 
 length I ascended ; that I might examine whether, as 
 men affirmed, there was indeed any friendship and 
 familiarity between inferiors and 6«/;er/'or^^__ai4d-^^ie- 
 ther the superior stars ^. e. Ideee Divin^'^ Mentis] have 
 acquired strength and power from God, their Creator, 
 to produce any one thing lihe to themselves on earth. 
 And having searched into things, I found |}dz. in the 
 metaphysico-chemical analysi^ that whatsoever the 
 ancient masters had so many ages committed to writ- 
 ing and delivered to their disciples, ivas true as truth 
 itself. In very deed, that I may expound the matter 
 in a few words, I found all things which are generated 
 in the bowels of the mountains to be infused from the 
 superior stars as light, and to take their beginning 
 from them in the form of an aqueous cloud, fume, or 
 vapour : \y\\\c\v, for a long time fed and nourished, is at 
 length educted into a tangible form by the elements. 
 Moreover this vapour is dried, that the icateriness may 
 lose its dominion, and t\\Q Jire next by help of the air 
 retain the ruling power — of water, fire ; and of fire, air 
 and earth are produced ; which notwithstanding are 
 found in all things consisting of body before the sepa- 
 ration of them : but this water therefore containing all, 
 which by the dryness of its fire and air is formed into 
 earth, is thejirst matter of all things.' 
 
 In this allegory the wdiole metaphysico-chemical an- 
 alysis of the Universal Subject is displayed — the sepa- 
 ration, introspection and reunion of the vital elements 
 in their ethereal accord. And for this reason adepts 
 
 ' J^. Valentine, 8toue of Fire, in init. 
 
Further Analysis. 317 
 
 have concluded this Identic Salt to be the true grain, 
 since it cannot be annihilated, but survives the wreck of 
 the whole dissolute Being throughout — the seed not 
 only of this w^orld but of the next. For all things, 
 whether organized or otherwise, decay and pass away 
 into other elements ; but this mystical substance, this 
 root of the world, returning immediately upon the 
 dissolution of its parts, renews them ; nor will then be 
 quiet, but Proteus-like runs from one complexion of 
 light into another, from this colour to that, transmu- 
 ting himself before the regardant eye into a strange 
 variety of forms and appearances, exhibiting the uni- 
 versal phenomenon of nature in recreant display as he 
 runs forth from green to red and from red to black, 
 receding thenceforth into a million of colours and 
 transmigrating species. 
 
 / Verum, ubi correptum manibus, vinclisque tenebis ; 
 
 'CSJ Turn vari^ illudent species, atque ora ferarimi -^ 
 Fiet enim subito sus horridus, atraque tigris, 
 
 Squamosusque draco, et fulva cerrice leana : .._ 
 
 Aut acrem flammse sonitiim dabit, )(ftque ita vinclia 
 Excidet, aut iu aquas teuues dilapsus abibit. / 
 
 Sed quanto ille magis forinas se vertet in ournife, /^' 
 Tanto, gnate, magis contende tenacia vincla.^ ' 
 
 And when he has departed from the fi'agile laby- 
 rinth through which he was dispersed, says the adept, 
 and is moreover purified from every impurity, he 
 raises himself likewise into an infinity of forms : one 
 while into a vegetable, and then into a stone or into 
 some strange animal ; now he transmutes himself into 
 the sea, becoming to be a pearl, or a gem or a metal, 
 beautifully shining with red flames, and irridescent with 
 myriads of colours ; and thus he lives perpetually the 
 worker of miracles, an indefatigable magian, by no 
 means wearying in his labour but growing young ever- 
 more and increasing daily in vigorous display and 
 strength.^ And these miraculous alterations will not 
 
 ^ Georgicor. lib. iv. 405. 
 
 2 Fama et Confessionis, K.C. Preface. Ubi vero spiritus ex- 
 cessit, &c. 
 
 rv 
 
318 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 cease, as Democritus jtiktdtts, until the Matter has 
 worked out its own restitution and is brought by Art 
 into the supernatural fixity of its Final Cause ; and that 
 mode of binding is said to be best which makes use of 
 manacles and fetters ; as Hermes also says — The philo- 
 sophers chain up their matter with a strong chain or 
 band when they make it to contend with fire.^ 
 
 Nam sine vi non uUa dabit prsecepta, neque ilium 
 
 Orando flectes : vim duram, et vincula capto 
 
 Tende. Doli circum h.-^^ demum frangentur inaiies.''^ 
 
 To arrest this imaginative flux of freed vitality, we 
 may well conceive that it needs the whole volun- 
 tary force of the central magnet ; and that this alone, 
 which is its proper reason, can compel it to repose. 
 ^b Reuchlin, concerning the two cathohc natures con- 
 V . /^ . tainedinthe mirific Word, alludesy^saying: — One nature 
 '^ ^ is such that it may be seen with the eyes, felt with 
 
 the hands, and is subject to alteration almost at every 
 moment : you must pardon, as Apuleius says, the 
 strange expression, because it makes for the obscurity 
 of the thing. This very nature, since she may not 
 continue one and the same, is accordingly apprehended 
 of the mind under such her qualification more rightly 
 A TxM^ ^s she is^than as she is oat ; namely, as the thing is in 
 
 truth, that is, changeable : the othei^ nature or prin- 
 cipiating substance is incorruptible, immutable, and 
 always subsistent.^ 
 
 And this, adds an ancient and much esteemed 
 Adeptiit,^is the work which I have sometimes seen 
 with a singular and most dear friend ; who showed 
 me certain large furnaces, and those crotvned with 
 cornues of glass. The vessels were several ; having, 
 besides their tripods, their sediments or caskets ; and 
 within was a holy oblation or present, dedicated to 
 the Ternary. But why should I any longer conceal 
 
 • Tract. Aur. cap. iv. 
 2 Georgio. lib. iv. 397. 
 
 ^ Eoucblin de Ycrbo Mirifico. And in the Crelnm Terriip of 
 Vaughan. / 
 
 C^ 
 
Further Analysis. 319 
 
 so divine a thing? Within this fabric, {i. e., the con- 
 secrated vessel), was a certain mass moving circularly, 
 or driven round about, and representing the very 
 figure of the great world. For here the earth was to 
 be seen standing of itself in the middest of all, com- 
 passed about ivith most clear waters, rising up to 
 several hillocks and craggy rocks, and bearing many 
 sorts of fruit, as if it had been watered with showers 
 from the moist air. It seemed also to be very fruitful 
 oiwine, oil, and milk, with all kinds of precious stoties 
 and metals. The waters themselves, like those of the 
 sea, were full of a certain transparent salt — now white, 
 now red, then yellow and purpled, and, as it were, 
 chamletted with various colours, which swelled up to 
 the face of the waters. All things were actuated 
 with their own appropriate fire ; but in very truth 
 imperceptible as yet, and ethereal. But one thing 
 above the rest forced me to an incredible admiration, 
 namely, that so many things, and diverse in kind, and 
 of such perfect particulars, should proceed from one 
 only thing ; and that, with very small assistance : 
 which being strengthened and furthered by degrees, 
 the artist faithfully affirmed to me that all those di- 
 versities would settle at last into one body. Here I 
 observed that fusil kind of salt to be not different 
 from pumice stone, and that quicksilver, which au- 
 thors call mercury, to be the same with Lully's 
 Lunaria, whose water gets up against the fire of 
 nature, and shines by night, but by day has a glu- 
 tinous, viscous faculty.^ 
 
 Here we have the whole Hermetic laboratory — 
 furnace, fire, matter, and vessels, with their mys- 
 terious germinations, subtly depicted and set apart. 
 For this clarified hypostatis, (shall we not believe in 
 
 ^ See, in Lumen de Lumine, the Extract, p. 69. Also, the 
 Parable of Sendivogius, and Paracelsus' s account of the magical 
 separation of the Elements, and vision, in their native place. Hel- 
 mont's Imago Mentis, in the beginning; and his Tree of Life. 
 Genesis ii., Deut. viii., xi., &c. ; and, in Exodus, Moses's Descrip- 
 tion of the Promised Land. Job xxviii., &c. 
 
320 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 it?) is the stage of all Forms, and here they are spon- 
 taneously produced, not in mere imagination, or as 
 we miglit conceive imaginatively, oi', as in a dream, 
 shadowly ; but as the true Genesis of Light. 
 
 Haec dedit Argenti Kivos, Aerisque metalla 
 Ostendit venis, atque auro plurima fluxit 
 Hsec genus aere virum ; Marsos Pubeuique Sabella 
 Assuetumque ; Malo Ligurem volcosque verutos 
 Extvdit ; Hsec Decios Marios, maguosque Camillos ; 
 Salve Magna Parens frugum 8aturnia Tellus 
 Magna viiaim ! 
 
 And though these images, with the rest, may ap- 
 pear extravagant, and Virgil refers all the compliment 
 to his native soil ; yet the truth, gathering strength by 
 detail, may plead through the whole accord. Such 
 are a few only of the remarkable declarations of in- 
 dividuals who, by an experimental ingress, as they 
 acknowledge, to the Vital Radix, have discovered the 
 catholic original of nature, intellectual and material, 
 with the ground of every phenomenon, through the 
 arising spectacle of the Creative Majesty within them- 
 selves. Alany might be added of good repute and 
 accordant ; but numbers would not ensure more cre- 
 dence for them, who ought, on their own authority, 
 to be believed ; and have been and will be always by 
 those who are able to glance freely, without ima- 
 ginative hinderance, into the capability of mind ; and, 
 by analogy of their own clear reason, can judge of 
 that fontal revelation which, when entertained in con- 
 sciousness, becomes efficient, and, in its simultaneous / 
 energy, divine. Hence, they will perceive, -rmrl from i^-^ 
 no idle dreaming, the conviction of those sublimated 
 souls arose, who were not alone superior to the dicta- 
 tion of folly, but were freed moreover from the liabi- 
 lity to error which besets ordinary minds : for they 
 had passed the turbulent delusions, not of sense only 
 but of the selfhood, and having combated every 
 sinister disguise in opposition, were proved and re- 
 proved, previous to being admitted to the apperceptive 
 vision of the Causal Truth which they describe, when 
 
Further Analysis. 321 
 
 Light meeting Light, apprehends itself alone; and de- 
 velops the triple mystery of its creative Law through- 
 out, from the infernal motive wheel which is the origin 
 of the mineral kingdom, through the whole inter- 
 mediate paradisiacal vegetable growth, up to the final 
 concord of the Divine Image in man. For as Life 
 passes through the philosophic fermentation, its sub- 
 stance is entirely transmuted, and the threefold pro- 
 perty is developed, with a dividing of the heterogeneous 
 parts, by an extinguishing of the forms and properties 
 of the Medial Spirit. And not only is it resolved into 
 these three principles, which Van tielmont also calls 
 Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, but there is a procedure 
 towards a radical destruction, almost annihilating the 
 components of the former life, which at length, in its 
 extreme exigence, draws a new seed to begin a New 
 Generation. — And this is the way of the recedure to the 
 Night of Hippocrates, leading thenceforth into the Day 
 of Orpheus. 
 
 It is not a little remarkable that the same ideas, 
 even to their expression, are to be found in the meta- , 
 physics of modern Germany as in the (|^abalistic com- rC' 
 mentators and mystics of the middle ages. Yet the ^^ 
 surprise which this might otherwise awake is dimi- 
 nished, when we consider the universat characteristic of 
 Reason ; whence it happens accountably that, that 
 truth which common logic arrives at by abstraction 3i__^^L 
 an inferential necessity, is the same which the Rabbifs^ ^-^ 
 ontologically experimenting, and guided by the same 
 Law, affirm out of their own more proving observation 
 and experience. And thus we may illustrate the point. 
 
 All things, says the German philosopher (Hegel), 
 have their commencement in pare Being, which is 
 merely an indeterminate tlwught, simple and imme- 
 diate ; for the true commencement can be nothing 
 else : but this pure Being is no other than a pure ab- 
 straction, it is a term absolutely negative, which may 
 also in its immediate conception be called non Being} 
 
 1 Das reiue Seyn macHt den Anfang, weil es so wohl reiuer 
 
K 
 
 322 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 Such is the conclusion rationally arrived at by sen- 
 sible abstraction ; Kant, Fichte, but more especially 
 Schclling whose intellectual penetration appears to 
 have passed beyond these two, carried metaphysics 
 into the same void non-entity at last. Hence the scep- 
 tical result of their transcendental labours, which, too 
 far surpassing sense and its phenomena to accept their 
 proof, stopped short nevertheless of objective realization 
 on their own ground ; there being arrested, faithful and 
 as it were in view, without a means of passage to the 
 promised shore. Yet so it is, that very hypostasis which 
 bounds reason in transcendental abstraction, when 
 met by contact of the inquiring light within, is that 
 Absolute Identity which it seeks after, which, before 
 all duality of consciousness, is the fortitude and life of 
 all. But let us revert to the learned Rabbi's advice 
 concerning the true nature of Divine Inversion ; for 
 Ben Jochai and his disciples also affirm that God 
 created all things out of nothing, and this not du- 
 biously, sed quasi auctoritatem habens ; but in what 
 sense this nothing is to be understood, we are thus, dif- 
 ferently than by the German, informed. 
 
 When the f abalists affirm that all things are 
 drawn forth from nothing, they do not intend, says 
 the Rabbi, from nothing in the common-sense ac- 
 ceptation of that word ; for Being could never be pro- 
 duced from non Being (deficiently understood), but by 
 non Being they mean that which is neither conceiv- 
 able as cause nor as essence, but yet is in fact the 
 Cause of causes : it is that which we call the primitive 
 non Being ; because it is anterior to the universe : and 
 by it we do not signify corporeity either, but that 
 Principle or Wisdom on which it is founded. Now if 
 any one should ask what is the essence of Wisdom, 
 
 gedanke, als das unbestimmte einfache unmittelbare ist, der 
 erste Anfang. Aber niclits vermitteltes und weiter bestimmtes 
 seyn kann. Dieses reine seyu ist nun die reine abstraction, 
 damit das absolut negative welcbes gleicliftills unmittelbar genom- 
 men das niclits ist. — Encyclopedic des Sciences Phil. 86 et 87. 
 See M. Franck's observations on this point, and La Kabbale, p. 
 187, &c. 
 
Further Analysis. 323 
 
 and in what manner she is contained in non Being, no 
 one can reply to this question : becaast in non Be- 
 ing, there is no distinction (as of subject and object in 
 the consciousness by which it can be truly said to be 
 known) , no mode of true existence ; neither can we, 
 therefore, comprehend, so to say, how Wisdom be- 
 comes united to life.^ 
 
 Now this doctrine is precisely in accordance with 
 the Hermetic philosophy, and these definitions of the 
 primitive non-being, perfectly correspond with the 
 Platonic theology, and Aristotle's discourses concern- 
 ing the origin of things and incomprehensible nature 
 of the objective contact in Identity. And as to the 
 dogmas of the rest, as of Thales, Pythagoras, Anaxa- 
 goras, Parmenides, Empedocles, and others, which 
 men have been accustomed neglectfully to run over ; 
 it may not be amiss, as Lord Bacon advises, to cast 
 our eyes with more reverence upon them.^ For, al- 
 though Aristotle, after the manner of the Ottomans, 
 thought he could not well reign unless he made away 
 with all his brethren ; yet, to those who seriously pro- 
 pose to themselves the inquiry after truth, it may not 
 be displeasing to regard the positions of those various 
 sages, touching the nature of things and their founda- 
 tion. Nor ought we, in this our state of inconceptive 
 ignorance, to conclude, as many have done, that these 
 men spoke ill, or arbitrarily, imagining causes whereof 
 to make a world, for it was not so : their elements, 
 atoms, numbers, mathematics, physics, and metaphy- 
 sics, or by whatever names their principiating ideas 
 were distinguished — all their philosophy, in short, was 
 confessedly established, and belonged to an experience 
 and method of observation, to the profane multitude 
 unknown. For they discovered, and have asserted, 
 without arrogance or sophistication, that there are 
 methods by which an ascent may be effected from the 
 oblivious bondage of this existence, and, through a 
 
 1 See La Kabbale, p. 214. Comment. Abram ben Dior on the 
 Zephir Jezirah, p. 67, &c. 
 
 ^ Adv, of Learning, lib. iii. sec. 5. 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 gradual assimilation, to a survey more or less imme- 
 diate of the Causal Source. 
 
 And thus, neglectful though it has seemed in ge- 
 neral of facts, and common-sense observation, these 
 Greeks too derived nature mediately from a certain 
 Intellect in energy, but without distinction, fixing her 
 true Being in the Law of Universals. Those even who 
 appear to differ, as for example, Thales, and the phy- 
 siologist Empedocles — substituting elements as prin- 
 ^ ciples, do so in the choice of expression chiefly, and in 
 the manner of regarding ; for the substance alluded to 
 by them all is the same ; as we may judge by their 
 definitions, which agree not with any material of ele- 
 ments, or intellect, or atoms, that we discern or un- 
 derstand at all ; but they speak, as before said, out 
 C (I of another perception of things, exhibiting the phe- 
 ^^(Jit^^oi^'^ nomena of the . THiprr^tnntinl world. It may not be 
 improper here to delay a short time, in order to point 
 out to the more studious, how it happens, that so many 
 mistakes have arisen about their doctrine, and that 
 language apparently divergent, may, nevertheless, har- 
 monize at its source. 
 
 For that these philosophers have discoursed vari- 
 ^OLA^(y>\a ^' ously, is very certain; some^indecd of the Initial 
 ^ (J Principle, mtrHg. that it is one and finite, others infi- 
 
 nite ; some, as Heraclitus, according to essence, have 
 denominated it to ho, fire ; another, as Thales, looking 
 to the first material manifestation, teaches that all y- 
 beings have their beginning from luater ; whilst T^ mGac, ^^^ 
 with no less reason or authority, mentions a certain ^ 
 
 earth as antecedent, and the most ancient element ; 
 but Anaxagoras, rather regarding the perfection and 
 origin of the One Thing in consciousness, calls it In- 
 tellect ; as Plato, likewise, in the Parmeiude.s, derives 
 all things transcendentally, proving the perpetuity of 
 Being in itself. But whilst these celebrate Mind as 
 precedential, and those desire to indicate the subsist- 
 ence of Matter, in either case it is the same ; for the 
 mind is not without the matter (the universal element 
 we mean), nor that matter without the mind ; but all 
 
Further Analysis. 325 
 
 things, however various in manifestation, are consub- 
 stantial in their Cause. 
 
 And with respect to the number of principles and 
 elementary transmutations, we may plainly perceive 
 that it is not the common elements, or abstracts either, 
 they contend about ; but their investigation concerned 
 the prior Elements of Life ; which some, openly distin- 
 guishing, call the Celestial Elements ; as Plato, in 
 PhcEclo, speaking of earth, for instance, calls it the 
 most and tut element ivithin the heaven; and Proclus 
 informs us what we are to understand by the heaven ; 
 — Heaven, he says, is the intellectual contact with the 
 intelligible, for there is an intelligible which may be 
 conjoined to intellect, and is its true end. ^ But this is 
 in allusion to the highest sphere of ethereality, which 
 Aristotle triply distinguishes, first, as the essence of the 
 ultimate circulation of the universe ; second, as that 
 which is in continuity with it ; and third, as that body 
 which is comprehended by the last circulation. For, 
 says he, we are accustomed likewise to call that 
 heaven, which is composed from every natural 
 and sensible body.^ That is the arising Spirit of 
 the Universal Nature which, persisting separately, 
 bounds as it were, by an invisible summit, every cor- 
 poreal subsistence, and in the conscious alliance only 
 becomes known. The same is called by Hermes, a 
 Quintessence ; and the Hermetic philosophers, speak- 
 ing of their earth, locate it even as Plato does, within 
 their heaven ; and in order to distinguish from the fe- 
 culent dead soil, call it magical, the Earth of the Wise, 
 Olympus, Our Earth, &c., and of the other elements 
 the same, as we have shown already in our Exoteric 
 Theory, and elsewhere. Which the initiated poet, in his 
 Aletamnrphoses, neither unaptly signalizes in the arising 
 circulation of Nature from the four concentering winds. 
 
 Hsec super imposuit liquidam et gravitate carentem, 
 TEthera, Bon quicquam terrense fa^cis habentem.^ 
 
 But Plato yet more plainly alluding to the Ethereal 
 
 1 On tlie Theology of Plato, pp. 236, 240, &c. 
 
 2 See his Treatise on the Heavens, book i. 
 ^ Ovidii Metam. lib. i. 67. 
 
326 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 Quintessence, in Timceus, says, that of four elements 
 the Demiurgus assumed One Whole from each, and that, 
 by a reasoning process, he constituted the world 0)ie 
 Whole from wholes, in all things perfect and free from 
 old age and disease} As Aristotle again, where he 
 says, that the world, being composed from all sensible 
 matter, is one alone and perfect; cannot mean this 
 world, which is neither uniform nor free from age or 
 disease, or perfect in any way ; what other, therefore, 
 should they either mean but the ethereal ; which art 
 once taught them to segregate, and estabhsh upon the 
 ruins of this mortal and dislocated existence ? 
 
 That Euipedocles likewise taught a twofold order of 
 natural procedure — the one intelligible, and the other 
 sensible ; — deriving the latter as an image from the for- 
 mer as an exemplar, is evident, from the whole tenor 
 of his Physics For he identifies all things in respect of 
 their source ; making elements there to subsist as quali- 
 tative virtues, which, multiplying into being, become 
 distributive powers, of which the sensible elements 
 and this world are the remote subjects and emanation ; 
 contrariwise, also, receding from eftect to cause, he 
 shows how the universal frame is borne along in per- 
 petual interchange. 
 
 How many things to one their being owe, 
 Pire, water, earth and air immensely high, 
 And each with equal power is found endued, 
 And friendship equalized in length and breadth. 
 All things in union now thro' love conspire, 
 And now thro' strife divulscd are borne along, 
 Hence, when again emerging into light. 
 The One is seen, 't is from the many formed. 
 All mortals too, so far as they are born, 
 OY 2)ermanent duration are deprived ; 
 But, as diversified with endless change. 
 Thro' this unmoved for ever they remain, 
 Like a sphere rolling round its centre finn.^ 
 
 Anaxagoras, and certain others of the early Greek 
 
 ^ Proclus on the Theology- of Plato, book v. p. 365. 
 2 Empedocles, Physics, cap. i. 
 
Further Analysis. 327 
 
 school, alluding to this absolute subsistence of things, 
 assert, that matter likewise is the progeiiy of mind ; 
 and the Alexandrians go so far as to explain the man- 
 ner of its descent and efflux ; as if they too in aUiance 
 had known these things, and by analogy, through 
 their own, the structure of the universe ; observing so 
 many fine distinctions and such a subtlety of onto- 
 logical operation as was extremely difficult to deline- 
 ate by words, or consistently in writing to unfold. 
 Many, therefore, adopted fables, symbols, similitudes, 
 enigmas, and the licence of poetry they also called in 
 aid, as well on this account, as to veil their meaning 
 from vulgar misprision and debate. But Aristotle 
 preferred an abstruse style of diction to every other 
 disguise, that he might be comprehensible to the pro- 
 found only ; as, when writing to Alexander about the 
 publication of his Acraomatic Ethics, he avows that 
 none but his own pupils would be able to understand 
 them.^ 
 
 And with respect to those strictures on the writ- 
 ings of his predecessors, we are disposed to take 
 them in a particular application only ; his most erudite 
 translator, Thomas Taylor, having also shown that 
 their reference has been alienated and widely misunder- 
 stood. The Aristotelian philosophy is built on simi- 
 lar grounds, and arrives at the same conclusions as 
 those whom it rebukes ; but the method is different, 
 and herein the Stagyrite lays claim to superiority, 
 rather than by professing any new basis of argument 
 or superior knowledge. The differences that arose in 
 philosophy owing to men regarding the same nature 
 from diverse points of view, and the contradictions 
 that occur in language, offended his accurate genius ; 
 and he was desirous that they should harmonize in the 
 expression of that truth in which they, by co-know- 
 ledge, were agreed. That whereas, for instance, Pytha- 
 goras would explain essence in number and define it 
 by mathematical reasons, as Plato by Ideas, mingling 
 
 ^ See the Commentary of Simplicius in Plutarcli'a Life of Aris- 
 totle, and the note, p. 4, to Taylor's Dissertation. 
 
328 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 these with geometric symbols ; Parmenides and 
 others, by atoms, elements, and by so many various 
 ways ; he complains that they deliver nothing clearly, 
 nor carry their principles duly and comprehensively 
 through their whole system ; but shift from one asser- 
 tion to another, that is apparently, varying their speech. 
 Thus, in the beginning of his JMetaphijsics, — There are 
 some, he says, who have discoursed about the universe 
 as if it were indeed one nature ; yet all of them have 
 not discoursed after the same manner, neither of that 
 which subsists beautifully {i. e. intelligibly), nor of 
 that which subsists according to nature. By no means 
 therefore does their discourse harmonize in the sjdccu- 
 lation of causes. For they do not speak like certain 
 physiologists who, supposing Being to be one, at the 
 same time generate the One fi'om matter : but their 
 assertions are of a different nature ; for the physiolo- 
 gists who contend that Being is one, when they generate 
 the universe, at the same time add motion ; but these 
 men assert that the universe is immovable. Thus, 
 Parmenides appears to have touched upon the One 
 according to Reason; butMelissus, according to Matter; 
 heiice the former asserts that the universe is finite ; 
 but the latter that it is infinite. But Xenophanes, 
 who was the first that introduced this doctrine, did 
 not assert anything clearly, nor does he appear to have 
 apprehended the nature of either of these ; but look- 
 ing to the whole heaven, he says, the One is God. 
 These men therefore are to be dismissed, two of them 
 indeed as being a little too rustic, — viz., Xenophanes 
 and Melissus, but Parmenides appears to have seen 
 more than these where to speak. ^ 
 
 Such like defect of method and incorrectness of 
 diction does the Stagyrite complain of, sparing none 
 of his predecessors ; but his opposition is uniformly 
 directed to the letter rather than to the spirit of their 
 doctrine ; for he was strenuous in asserting the caus- 
 ality of mind, and praises those as in the highest degree 
 gifted who perceived this; in his ]\Ietaphiisicfii\\YO\\^\\- 
 
 ' ]Metaphysics, sub init. 
 
Further Analysis. 329 
 
 out, evincing a magnificent appreciation of the Intellec- 
 tual ground. But he was desirous, as we have said, 
 to methodize philosophy ; and accordingly undertook, 
 by establishing a system of universal logic, to correct 
 the imperfection of common thought and speech. The 
 design was noble, and carried out to the original inten- 
 tion and on its own intimate basis, was no doubt 
 valuable to fix experiment and assist in defining and 
 unfolding, by means of the categories, as by a conge- 
 nial channel, the birtli of the Divine Intellect into life 
 and manifestation. 
 
 That was the syllogism so important to be sought 
 after, which also is according to Aristotle the true 
 object of philosophy ; in the universal terms of which 
 every other science is implicated, and without which 
 nothing permanent is said to be endued. When, losing 
 this substantial ground and aim therefore, the Orgauon 
 began to work upon itself, it grew weak and wore out 
 gradually, as Bacon observed it in his day becoming 
 worse than useless, since it occupied an intellect that 
 might have been better employed, and substituted for 
 truth the least salutary kind of satisfaction in the dis- 
 play of scholastic subtlety and aimless dispute. 
 
 The same has happened with the Pythagoric num- 
 bers, and those mathematics which had all their original 
 keystone in the Arch of Heaven ; or how else should 
 numbers have been established as the causes of things 
 if they had not been allied in idea to something better 
 than themselves ? All things naturally produce their 
 similars, numbers beget numbers, letters and words 
 constitute phrases, and lines superficial forms only. 
 They may, by composition, be made, in their way, to 
 represent the degrees and kinds of things ; but this is 
 the utmost of their abstract capability. They cannot 
 produce themselves, or anything else, into substantive 
 appearance. We may exhaust all their combinations, 
 divide, add up, and multiply figures to infinity, we 
 shall have figures and nothing more ; nothing solid, 
 long, short, or square, not the smallest grain of sand 
 without the Efficient which is in all. 
 
 This being obvious therefore, we judge that when 
 
330 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 the ancients established numbers as the causes of 
 things and derived from them the gods themselves, 
 with all their hosts of power and material depen- 
 dencies, they had some very different idea at- 
 tached from that which modern theorems or their 
 probations supply. Or shall it be believed that 
 Pythagoras was so wanton and vain-glorious as to 
 sacrifice a hecatomb, when he discovered that the 
 subtendent of a right-angled triangle is equivalent to 
 those parts which contain it ; or that Thales, when, 
 as is related, he did something of the same kind about 
 the inscription of the circle, gained nothing more than 
 a fiat demonstration for his pains ? Or are not rather 
 the hecatomb, and the theorem separately symbolical, 
 and alike relating to the discovery of that miraculous 
 Psychical Quintessence, known to the wise as the 
 Tincture of the Sapphiric Mine which, being in its own 
 threefold segregated essentiality equal to the whole 
 dissolute compound whence it arises, casts off" the 
 superfluity, sacrificing the old nature to begin anew? 
 Charon does not ply the Stygian Lake without a re- 
 compense, neither are the secrets of the highest causes 
 approached without a mean of expiation ; but the 
 vicarious dedication of huge beasts, will not avail 
 whilst their Prototypes remain feeding and fattening 
 in the Philosophic Field. 
 
 The habit of exhibiting points of abstruse philoso- 
 phy by mathematical reasons, has been general in 
 every age ; but in order to derive from them or fi'om 
 numbers anything substantive, it is necessary that 
 the point or unit should be established as something 
 absolute ; that every dependent partaking, whether 
 multiplied, added, or dixaded amongst each other, may 
 be essentialized in the same. Hence Zeno said (of 
 Elea, not the Stoic) that if any one should undertake 
 to demonstrate the philosopher's Unit, he would unfold 
 Being. For the One of these philosophers is the Foun- 
 tain of all Being; and just as there is a descent from 
 unity into multitude, and all that multitude is implied 
 in the One ; and this furthermore fills all and each of 
 its dependent multitude — as one is in two, and two in 
 
Further Analysts. 331 
 
 three, and three in four, and four in five — and still 
 that unit, which is in the beginning, is implied in all 
 and is in all ideally ; so is each Being said to be implied 
 in all and all in each, and every part of each in all, 
 from the equilibriate eternal centre to its infinite 
 extremes. And as the smallest fragment of the load- 
 stone remains perfect in two poles, and each particular 
 spark of fire contains the principle and developing 
 force of the entire kindred element, so may we not 
 conceive every portion of existence to be continent 
 and comprehended proportionally of the Great Whole ? 
 
 All those amongst the Greeks who have written 
 concerning this Whole, and who appear to have arrived 
 at an experimental conception of its reality in the self- 
 knowledge, unanimously assert that it is simple, and 
 not so much therefore an object of reason as of contact 
 and intuition. They contend moreover, with the Al- 
 chemist, that there is a certain pure matter subsisting 
 about InteUigibles which is universal, and the proved 
 origin of every vital and corporeal existence ; that 
 though occult in nature, it can be made manifest to 
 sense even, and exhibited in divine and practical 
 effects. But it was forbidden by the mandate of the 
 Mysteries that their revelation should be communicated 
 to the profane ; and the modern Alchemists are, with 
 few exceptions, silent respecting the metaphysics of 
 their Art ; the Neoplatonists were, however, more 
 communicative, since, forbearing direct allusion to 
 the Practice, they feared less to speak of Principles 
 and the procedure of mind. Their writings appear 
 indeed as so many auxiliaries to the perception of 
 ontological causes, and their reasonings and images 
 are admirably adapted to stimulate that faith which, 
 dormant as we now are in the corporeal darkness, 
 glows notwithstanding responsive to the truth within. 
 
 If we desire to investigate principles and the highest 
 causes, let us inquire now therefore of them briefly, 
 how we may begin to learn ; and concerning this -le- At-cA.c/ 
 teHtgible Matter whether it is, what it is, and after ' 
 what manner it ought to be conceived of, what the 
 
332 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 perception of it resembles, and what relation it bears 
 in general to the reasoning power, and finally how it 
 comes forth out of the Causal fountain to be in effect ? 
 The following summary gathered from the scientific 
 conduct of Plotinus and Porphyry may not be unac- 
 ceptable to the philosophically inquisitive reader. 
 
 That it is necessary there should be a certain Sub- 
 ject of bodies which is different from them, is suffi- 
 ciently evinced by the continual mutation of corporeal 
 quantities ; for nothing that is transmuted is entirely 
 destroyed ; since if such were the case there would be 
 a certain essence dissolved into nonentity; and this 
 persisting, there would be no remaining ground of 
 generation. But change arises, indeed, from the depar- 
 ture of one quahty and the accession of another ; the 
 subject-matter however — that which receives the forms 
 and reflects them — always remaining the same and 
 proceeding and receding continually into itself. 
 
 This therefore Corruption manifests (especially the 
 artificial), for corruption is of that which is composite, 
 and so each sensible thing is made to consist of matter 
 and form and their union in corporeity. This too In- 
 duction testifies, demonstrating that the thing which 
 is corruptible is composite. Analysis likewise evinces 
 Ci/r\^ CA^crr^ ^^^ same thing, as if for example ^^^ pot should be 
 resolved into gold, but gold into water; and the water, 
 being incorruptible, will require no analogous process.^ 
 
 * Here Plotinus doubtless makes an allusion to the mystical 
 analysis ; drawing his comparison also fi-om tlience. For by no 
 other analysis either is a pot resolved into gold, or gold into a 
 water which is indissoluble. But what he says is perfectly con- 
 formable to the Hermetic doctrine, both in an internal and in an 
 external sense ; for, by a reducation of the iron spirit in the blood, 
 it becomes cleansed from its foreign oxide and aurified — that is, 
 illuminated by contrariation of its I'orm. Tlie radical moisture of 
 tlic metal likewise, obeying the fcrmentive virtue of such a test when 
 applied, may be made to pass away, as the tradition runs, from 
 its own Foi'm into that which is more integral and perfect. All 
 tilings may be reduced to gold according to this doctrine, as Al- 
 bcrtus ]Magnus in his book T)e Mineralihus asserts, and where also 
 he is cited by Be<^cher in his Plujsica Svbterranea, p. 319 : — Non 
 dari rem elementatum in cujus ultima substantione non reperiatur 
 
Further Analysis. 333 
 
 But the elements, continues Plotinus, are neither 
 form, nor matter, but composite and therefore corrup- 
 tible ; and since everything manifest is corruptible, and 
 yet a certain subsistence remains, it is necessary there 
 should be a Nature primarily vital which is also form- 
 less, indestructible and immortal, as being the principle 
 of other things. Form indeed subsists according to 
 quality and body in manifestation ; but matter accord- 
 ing to the subject which is indefinite, because it is not 
 form. This Indefinite is not therefore everywhere to 
 be despised, nor that w^hich in the conception of it is 
 formless, if it applies itself to things prior, i. e., to 
 the divine exemplaries, and the most excellent life. 
 Neither should it be considered by any one as incredi- 
 ble that the?'e is a certain pure and divine Matter me- 
 diately subsisting between primary and secondary causes 
 and their gross effects ; but it is rather requisite to be 
 persuaded by philosophical assertion that such is the 
 case, and that by means of the Theurgic Art it is made 
 manifest and imparted through arcane and blessed 
 visions. So far do the ancients likewise extend matter 
 even to the gods themselves ; and no otherwise ac- 
 cording to them can a participation of superior Being 
 be effected by men who dwell on earth, unless a foun- 
 dation of this kind be first established. For this 
 Matter, as Jamblicus relates, being connascent with 
 the gods by whom it is imparted, will doubtless be an 
 entire and fit receptacle for the manifestation of Di- 
 vinity. He moreover adds, that an exuberance of 
 power is always present w^ith the highest causes ; and 
 at the same time that this power transcends all things, 
 it is nevertheless present with all in unimpeded energy. 
 Hence, the first illuminate the last of things, and im- 
 
 aurum. That is (if we may interpret), Light, wliich is the formal 
 essence of all things, and most abundant in gold, is found in 
 the ultimate alchemical analysis of every existing thing. — That 
 all metals, likewise, may be reduced into water, that is, into 
 their first pure matter, is the doctrine of Plato and }iiQ_diaci^ e» 
 Aristotle. See Taylor's Translation of the Timseus of the former, 
 and the Meteors of the latter, and the Select Works of Plotinus, 
 p. 38, note. 
 
334 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 material are present with material natures immani- 
 festly.i 
 
 Since, then, it becomes necessary simply to refer 
 Being to all things, and all things sympathize thereby 
 internally with each other ; but consciousness in this 
 natural life of ours is separated off from the antecedent 
 essentiality, so that we perceive in reality nothing of 
 our true selves : hence the ancients have declared this 
 life to be little better than a diminution of existence ; 
 for by no ordinary process of rational contemplation 
 is the mind able to conceive this nature or the infini- 
 tude of true Being. But if any one wish to discover 
 the One Principle he must become first assimilated to 
 it, as Proclus in the sixth book, on the Parmerndes of 
 Plato directs — he must raise himself to that which is 
 most united in nature, and to its flower and that 
 through which it is Deity ; by which it is suspended 
 from its proper fountain and connects and unites and 
 causes the universe to have a sympathetic consent with 
 itself — I have also, says Plotinus, investigated myself, 
 as one among the order of beings, and the reality is 
 testified by reminiscence ; for no one of real beings 
 subsists out of intellect nor as sensibles in place ; but 
 they always abide in themselves, neither receiving 
 mutation nor corruption.^ And again in his treatise 
 concerning the Descent of the Soul, the same author 
 relates, — Often when by an intellectual energy, I am 
 roused from body and converted to myself, and being 
 separated from externals, retire into the depths of my 
 essence, I then perceive an admirable beauty, and am 
 then vehemently confident that I am of a more ex- 
 cellent condition than of a life merely animal and 
 terrene. For then especially, 1 energize according to 
 the best life and become the same with a nature truly 
 Divine ; being established in this nature I arrive at 
 that transcendent energy by which I am elevated be- 
 
 / ^ <lamblicus on the Mysteries, chap, xxiii. sect, v., and Plotinus' 
 
 Select Works — of Matter, and of the Impassivity of Incorporeal 
 Natures. 
 
 2 Select Works, p. 294. 
 
Further Analysis. 335 
 
 yond eveiy other intelligible, and fix myself in this 
 sublime eminence as in an ineffable harbom' of repose. 
 Bat after this blessed abiding in a Divine Nature, fall- 
 ing off from Intellect into the discursive energy of 
 reason, I am led to doubt how formerly and at present 
 my soul became intimately connected with a corporeal 
 nature ; since in this deific state she appears such as 
 she is herself, although invested with the dark and 
 everflow^ing vestiment of body. And since there is a 
 twofold nature, one intelligible and the other sensible, 
 it is bettei^ indeed for the soul to abide in the inteUi- 
 gible world ; but necessary from its condition that it 
 should participate of a sensible nature ; nor ought it to 
 suffer any molestation because it obtains only a middle 
 order in the universality of things ; since it possesses 
 indeed a divine condition, though it is placed even as 
 in the last gradation of an intelligible essence, border- 
 ing, as it were on the regions of sense. For our souls 
 are able alternately to rise fi'om hence, carrying back 
 with them an experience of what they have known 
 and suffered in their fallen state ; from w^ience they 
 will learn how blessed it is to abide in the Intelligible 
 World ; and by a comparison, as it were of contraries, 
 will more plainly perceive the excellence of a superior 
 state. For the experience of evil produces a clearer 
 knowledge of good, especially where the power of 
 judgment is so imbecile, that it cannot without such 
 experience obtain the science of that which is best.^ 
 
 These things supposed then, we proceed to a more 
 intimate consideration of the Material Principle which, 
 according to these philosophers, the Divine experience 
 imparts ; that we may judge how far they agree or 
 whether they differ at all in their definitions from those 
 of the foregoing Hermetic philosophers and adepts. 
 
 These Greeks wishing indeed to exhibit, as well as 
 words might enable, the peculiarities of this Matter 
 when they assert that it is one, immediately add that 
 it is all things, by which they signify that it is not 
 
 1 See Plotinus on the Descent of the Soul, last of the five 
 Treatises rendered by T. Taylor. 
 
336 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 some one of the things with which sense brings us ac- 
 quainted ; and in order that we may understand that 
 the Identity in every Being is something uncompounded, 
 and that the mind should not fall into the error of 
 coacervation, they say it is one so far as one ; depriving 
 the idea of multitude and dual, i. e. rejflective, con- 
 templation. When likewise they assert that it is 
 everyw^here, they add incontinently that it is nowhere ; 
 so on endeavouring by means of contrary peculiarities 
 to gather the mind up into a neutrality about itself; at 
 one and the same time exhibiting these in order to ex- 
 terminate from the apprehension those notions which 
 are externally derived, and such ordinary reasoning as 
 tends to obscure rather than elucidate the essential 
 characteristics of real Being. Neither is there any 
 absurdity in their conduct of the understanding so far, 
 or even in an external sense considering one thing to 
 be many, since every centre bears a circumference of 
 radii, and each dependent number differs from the One. 
 But since the ethereal element is described by so 
 many ablative characteristics, since they assert it is 
 neither form, nor quality, nor corporeal, nor reason, 
 nor bound ; but a certain Infinity ; how therefore ought 
 we to conceive, asks Plotinus, of that which is infi- 
 nite? What is its idiom in the intellection, or how is 
 such an image to be entertained by the reasoning 
 power ? Shall we say it is indefiniteness ? For if the 
 similar is perceived by the similar, the Indefinite also 
 will be apprehended by the Indefinite : Reason how- 
 ever in such an apprehension, will become bounded 
 about the Indefinite, that is to say, will pass out from 
 itself into an undefined void of thought. But if every- 
 thing is known by reason and intelligence, and no 
 otherwise, and here reason is bounded so that it cannot 
 be said to have intelligence ; but, as it were, a depriva- 
 tion of intellect is implied, how shall we conceive such 
 a state of being to be genuine, or believe it even to be 
 at all ? Yet Plato, in Timceus, informs us that Matter 
 is indeed to be apprehended, and that by a sort of 
 defective or ablative reasoning ; and Aristotle has been 
 
Further Analysis. 337 
 
 at some pains in his Aletaphysics to explain the con- 
 ceptive idiom of Materiahty. I mean, he says, by 
 Matter, that which of itself is neither essence nor 
 quantity, nor any one of those things, by which Being 
 is defined. For there is something of which each of 
 these is predicated, and from which Being and each of 
 its predications are different ; but Matter, being the 
 last of things (extant without identity), has neither 
 essence nor quantity nor anything else in the percep- 
 tion, at least of those things which subsist according 
 to accident. Or if any one from this suppose Matter 
 to be essence, he will err ; for a separate subsistence 
 as this or that particular thing especially belongs to 
 what we call essence, (that is to say, composition of 
 subject and object is necessarily implied in the idea 
 of true intelligence,) which is both posterior and an- 
 terior to the subject sought ; which therefore is in a 
 certain respect manifest only, being one and void in 
 respect of other things ; Matter, therefore, concludes 
 the logician, is made veritably manifest only by 
 negation and in defect of true Being; so that, to 
 pass into contact with it, is to be in a certain respect 
 ignorant.^ 
 
 Since, then, they assert this subject-matter to be 
 somewhat ; and real, notwithstanding all its inverse 
 and irrational characteristics ; ought we not to analyze 
 yet more profoundly therefore, not shghting reason 
 indeed, but passing through it, beyond every bound 
 and finite probability in order to conceive that kind of 
 ultimate ignorance, which is the Infinity of Life ? Whe- 
 ther shall we conceive it to be an all-perfect oblivion, 
 or such an ignorance as in the absence of every know- 
 ledge is present ? or does the Indefinite consist in ne- 
 gation simply, or in conjunction wdth a certain inter- 
 rogative affirmation? Or shall we suppose it to be 
 like darkness to the eye, obscurity being the ground 
 of every visible colour? For to this, also, the wise 
 ancients have compared the estate of Being verging to 
 
 1 Aristotle's Metapli. book ix. p. 221 ; book x. p. 237, 154, Ac. 
 
 z 
 
338 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 anniliilatioii : and as the sensual eye without hght sees 
 nothing but darkness, becoming in a certain respect 
 and for the period one with it ; so the mental eye, ob- 
 servant of no attracting object, thought, reflection, 
 and all that in sensibles resembles light being sub- 
 merged, and not being able or having the motive to 
 bound that which remains, is said to become wholly 
 into that obscure oblivion which is the Original of Life : 
 a crass, obscure vacuity — as in the Descent Virgil de- 
 scribes it — vast, endless, horrible — and Parmenides 
 and the rest cited to prove the same initial non- 
 entity of all ; having the same relation to true Being, 
 indeed, as silence to sound, as night to day, or as body 
 rude and misshapen bears to any artificial form with 
 which it may afterwards become endued. And as that 
 which is above all degrees of intelligence is a certain 
 infinite and pure light, so is this darkness, therefore, 
 to be conceived at the opposite extreme of the mag- 
 netic chain, which is extended a non gradu ad uon 
 uradum : and this is that ladder of Celsus and of Zo- 
 roaster which reaches from Tartarus to the highest 
 Heaven. Just as in the ascending series of causes, it 
 is necessary to arrive at something which is the Final 
 Cause of all ; so in descending analytically it is equally 
 necessary to stop at the contrary conclusion, which is 
 thus proved, in the experience, to be the last and lowest 
 eflfect, in which all the attributes of the First Cause are 
 not only deficient but reversed. 
 
 When therefore the mind is in the Night of Matter, 
 shall we sup])ose that she is affected in such a manner 
 as if she understood nothing? By no means, says 
 the philosopher — but when she beholds Matter she 
 suffers such a passion as ivlien she receives the Being of 
 that which is formless ; and her perception of the Form- 
 less Subject is obscure, and vast, and infinite, as we 
 have shown, where descending into the bosom of the 
 Mysteries, Intellect, having already analyzed and sepa- 
 rated the component parts of Being, becomes dis- 
 mayed about the sensation of her extreme life. Then 
 indeed she understands obscurely, and sinking into the 
 
Further Analysis. 339 
 
 Abyssal Subject, feels, but understands not her intellec- 
 tion any more ; until, pained with the void of the re- 
 treating infinitude, (such being the divine decree,) and 
 as if afraid of being placed out of the order of things, 
 the soul retracts, rallying about her last deserted Unit, 
 and not enduring any longer to stop at nonentity, be- 
 comes into true Being. So true is it, that Death is the 
 way of Life, and that the fear of God is the beginning 
 of Wisdom. 
 
 For Self-knowledge is impossible unless every other 
 knowledge is deprived ; as this selfhood hkewise 
 is obliterated in the overwhelming attraction, which 
 raises it into the First Cause. And thus extremes 
 are said to be present at the new birth, when Light 
 springs forth to manifestation out of the abyssal Dark- 
 ness, which is then alone before its Creator ; and is 
 brought forth by Him for a First Matter to give con- 
 trasting substance to His revelation, and understanding 
 to His Act. — As the motto simply expresses it — Deus, 
 
 CUM SOLUS FUISSET IN PRINCIPIO, CREAVIT UNAM SUB- 
 STANTIAM, HANC PRIMAM MATERIAM NOMINAMUS. 
 
 And since it is given us in theory to understand 
 that such an hypostasis is in the beginning without 
 all affirmation, being neither life, nor intellect, nor 
 reason, nor bound, for it is infinite ; nor power from 
 itself, but falls off from the consciousness of all these ; 
 so ought we therefore to conceive of the First Matter, 
 which cannot either receive the appellation of Being, 
 since it is not known in energy, but flies from him, 
 indeed, who wishes intently to behold; for the thought, 
 as circumscribing boundary, eludes the Infinite, and 
 thus the desire is, in this instance, diametrically opposed 
 to the presence of the thing desired. When therefore, / /y j a 
 as the Platonist and -Gdt^ teach, it is unknown, or ^.c. ytu:?u>txZ(.i 
 known as nothing ; it is rather probably present, but 
 is not perceived by him who strives self-actively to com- 
 prehend it. And this the poets signify in the story of 
 Actseon, who for his presumptuous intrusion was dis- 
 graced by the goddess and hunted thereafter by his own 
 distracted thoughts ; but to the sleeping Endymion she 
 
 z 2 
 
 (6 1 
 
340 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 vouchsafed her wilUng presence, and the vast benefits 
 of her love. 
 
 Quaeres multuin et non iuvenies 
 Fortasse inveuies cum non quaeres. 
 
 When you have assumed to yourself an Eternal 
 Essence, says Porphyry, infinite in itself according to 
 power ; and begin to perceive intellectually an hypos- 
 tasis unwearied, untamed, and never faiUng, but trans- 
 cending in the most pure and genuine life, and full 
 from itself; and which, likewise, is established in itself, 
 satisfied with and seeking nothing but itself; to this 
 essence, if you add a subsistence in place, or a relation 
 to a certain thing, at the same time you diminish this 
 essence, or rather appear to diminish it, by ascribing 
 to it an indigence of place or a relative condition of 
 being ; you do not, however, in reality diminish this 
 essence, but you separate yourself from the percep- 
 tion of it, by receiving as a veil the phantasy which 
 runs under your conjectural apprehension of it. For 
 you cannot pass beyond, or stop, or render more per- 
 fect, or effect the least change in a thing of this kind, 
 because it is impossible for it to be in the smallest 
 degree deficient. For it is much more sufficient than 
 any perpetually flowing fountain can be conceived to 
 be.^ If, however, you are unable to keep pace with it, 
 
 1 The Mind of the Divinity, says Trismegistus, which becomes 
 known by the Divine Intention in tlie understanding, is most like 
 unto a torrent running with a violent and swift stream from a 
 high rock, whereby it glides away also from the understanding of 
 such as are either hearers or dealers in it. — Asclepius, cap. i. end. 
 See also Vaughan, Lumen de Lumine, where, discoursing with 
 Nature in her mineral region, the artist describes the same Matter 
 as if he had been an eye-witness of the whole supernal procedure 
 from its source. — A fat mineral nature it was, he says, bright like 
 pearls, and transparent like crystal ; when I had viewed it and 
 searched it well, then it appeared somewhat spermatic ; and here- 
 vpon I became informed that it was tlie First Matter and very 
 natural true sperm of the greater world. It is invisible in nature 
 and therefore there are few that find it ; many believe that it is 
 not to be found ; (for the world is made up of many divers dark 
 and particular ajid contrary qualities, and the first unity is occul- 
 
Further Analysis. 341 
 
 and to become assimilated to the whole Intelligible 
 Nature, you should not investigate anything pertain- 
 ing to real Being ; or if you do, you will deviate from 
 the path that leads to it, and will look at something 
 else ; but if you investigate nothing else, being esta- 
 blished in yourself and in your own Essence, you will 
 be assimilated to the Intelligible Univei-se, and will not 
 adhere to anything posterior to it. Neither therefore 
 should you say, I am of a great magnitude; for omit- 
 ting this idea of greatness, you will become univei*sal, 
 as you were universal prior to this. But when, together 
 with the universe, something was present with you, 
 you became less by the addition ; because the addition 
 was not from truly subsisting Being, for to that you 
 cannot add anything. When, therefore, anything is 
 added from non-being (i. e. from the subjective self- 
 hood) a place is afforded to poverty as an associate, 
 accompanied by an indigence of all things. Hence, 
 dismissing non-beiug, you will then become sufficient ; 
 for when any one is present with that which is present 
 in himself, then he is present with true Being, which 
 is everywhere ; but when you withdraw from yourself, 
 then likewise you recede from real Being : of such 
 great consequence is it for a man to be present with 
 that which is present with himself, that is to say, with 
 his rational part, and to be absent from that which is 
 external to him.^ 
 
 Add to this, that contraries are always consubsistent 
 in the Divine Original — the small, the great, the defi- 
 
 tated in its generation and does not appear). But that stream was 
 more large than any river in her full channel ; and notwithstanding 
 the height mid violence of the fall, it descended without any noise, 
 the waters were dashed and their current distracted by the saltish 
 rocks, but for all this they came down with a dead silence like the 
 still soft air. Some of the liquor, for it ran by me, I took up to 
 judge what strange ivoollen stibstonce it was that did steal down like 
 snow. When I had it in my hand, it was no common water but a 
 certain kind of oil of a watery complexion. — Lumen de Lumine, 
 pp. 7, 8, &c. This same, Sendivogius in his New Light, calls the 
 water of our sea, the water of life, not wetting the hands ; and be- 
 lieve me, he says, for I saw it with my eyes and felt it, that water 
 was as white as snow, &c. 
 
 1 Porphyry's Auxil. to the Perception of Intelligibles, sect. iii. 
 
342 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 cient, and the exceeding ; for as a mirror is, to external 
 images, passive, neither able of itself to withhold, nor 
 yet to pass away, so is this ethereal glass to intellect, 
 subsisting according to processure and in defect of all 
 imagination. Hence, every imagination concerning it 
 will be false, either that it should appear in the con- 
 ception as any particular thing, or contrariwise as 
 nothing ; for it is both ; and the subsistence, which is 
 the reahty of it, may be felt indeed, not known — but 
 as an escape of consciousness into its primal source 
 without ideal hmitation. Thus is it said to be formless, 
 variable, incorporeal, infinite ; neither mere power, nor 
 perfect action, but a weak superstantial prolific nature, 
 as it w^ere nothing in the Idea yet in Being all things 
 — whence every form of life, increase, and materiality 
 also are derived. And Ideas, as they enter into and depart 
 from it, are seen as images which pervade without 
 dividing, like shadows in water, or more exactly as in 
 a dream ; or as if we should conceive imaginations sent 
 into a repercussive mirror or reflective vacuum of the 
 understanding. 
 
 And the Passive Nature ought indeed to be a thing 
 of this kind, pure and indeterminate ; that it may 
 reflect, without self-hinderance or refi'action, the Divine 
 Light throughout ; that there may be no falsehood or 
 commixture of images, but the Truth only, and alone, 
 and by itself should be made manifest in life. Such was 
 the Alatter so often celebrated by the Alchemists, the 
 Quintessence of Plato, the Water of Thales, the Non 
 Being of Parmenides, and that Abyss of the Caba- 
 Hsts, styled also by them Unknown, Void, Nothing, 
 Infinite, until, returning by its Rational Boundary in 
 the Freed Will to consciousness, it makes manifest 
 the Life, Wisdom, Plenitude, and Supreme Cause of 
 all. And concerning this Matter ecclesiastics of dif- 
 ferent orders are happily agreed : Pierce the Black 
 Monk, with the Benedict Valentine ; the experimental- 
 ist Friar Bacon, with the Greek Divine ; Synesius, 
 with the Canon Ripley, Morien, Lully, and Albertus 
 Magnus ; the Mahomed an princes Calid, Geber, and 
 Avicenna, with Paracelsus and the Christian brother- 
 
Further Analysis. 343 
 
 hood of the Rosy Cross, who, having searched into 
 Nature by their proper Reason experimentally, found 
 Her's ; and used it ; giving thanks, and adoring the 
 perfection of the Almighty Creator in his discovered 
 Light. 
 
 For in the natural world there is no such Matter to 
 be found ; but the purest is defiled with the imagination 
 of Forms externally introduced. Nothing therefore is 
 generated truly, i. e. we mean, simply so as to represent 
 the Formal Agent alone ; or can be ; for Nature is bound 
 magically, nor is she able of herself to loosen the bond 
 of coagulation, by which her Inner Light and principle 
 of perfection is everywhere shut up. She cannot enter 
 into the True Light ; for, as the adept says, she has no 
 hands, ^ nor intellect sufficient, nor a will free to vin- 
 dicate her final purpose in life. It is therefore she 
 proceeds to generate in monotonous retrogression, 
 always circulating into herself. If indeed things be- 
 held in Nature were such as the Archetypes, whence 
 they are derived, it might be said that matter is 
 passive to their reception ; but that which is seen as 
 that wdiich sees is falsified, and nothing possesses a 
 true similitude ; all is mixture and an adulterous 
 manifestation, so far as the phenomenon of the ex- 
 ternal Nature is concerned. Without the magical 
 solution and human aid to fortify, the Spirit is not 
 able to forsake her extraneous forms even, much less 
 can she conceive herself singly in the Universal anew. 
 Wherefore she reads this important lesson to Ma- 
 dathan, who thinking, in his ignorance, to make 
 the Philosopher's Stone without dissolution, receives 
 this check: — An tu nunc cochleas vel cancros cum 
 testis devorare niteris ? An non prius a vetustissimo 
 planetarum coquo maturari et preparari illos oportet? 
 Dost thou think, says she, to eat the oysters, crabs, 
 shells and all ? Ought they not first to be opened and 
 prepared by the most ancient cook of the planets ? 
 
 If any one now, therefore, by hazard should lightly 
 
 ^ Klum Ariadue, page 61. 
 
344 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 propose to himself to probe this Matter ; yet without 
 risking anything, or devoting his hfe, as philosophers 
 did formerly, to the pursuit ; but thinks the times are 
 altered, and that his mind, being on the alert, will dis- 
 cover it, or that some entranced sleepwaker will reveal 
 the truth to him, if there be any, without delay ; let him 
 be advised by these monitions ; since Life and nothing 
 but Life, and no other Fire but that of Intellect, 
 sublimed and fortified in its efficient source, discovers 
 the True Matter of the adepts ; and this, as we are 
 abundantly instructed, by a dissolution of the Vital 
 Spirit and alienation of its natural bond. — Flesh and 
 blood cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven, 
 neither doth corruption inherit incorruption ; the 
 sting of death is sin, but the strength of sin is in 
 the Law of dual generation. 
 
 Debito modo ergo Lapidem solvas, 
 
 Et nequaquam sophistico, 
 Sed potius secundilm mentem sapient6ni, 
 
 Nullo corrosivo adliibito ; 
 N^usquam enim aqua aliqua est, 
 
 Qua* solvere possit lapidem nostrum, 
 Pra^ter unicum fonticulum purissimum et limpidissiuium, 
 
 Sponte scatxu'ientem, qui latex ille est. 
 Ad solutionem idoneus, 
 
 Sed omuibus fere absconsus, 
 Incalescens quoque per se, 
 
 In causa est, ut lapis svdet lachnjmas ; 
 Lentus calor externus ei expedit, 
 
 Id quod memorife probe niandabis. 
 Adhue iinum tibi aperire libet, 
 
 Quod nisi Yiderisy?/»n/;« Hiyrinn 
 Inferius, superiusque albedinem existere. 
 
 Opus tuum sinistra pei'actum est, 
 Et lapidem errone solvisti, 
 
 Ex hoc signo potes statim cernere. 
 Si vero recte procedis, 
 
 Apparet tibi atra nebula, 
 Quae fundum sine mora petet, 
 
 Spiritu albedinem assumente} 
 
 All that is performed in the Proto-chcmic artifice 
 
 ^ Luccrna, Salis Phil. p. 30, cap. iii. 
 
Further Analysis. 345 
 
 may be comprehended in three terms — solution, sub- 
 Hmation, and fixation. Solution dissolves and liquifies 
 the included Spirit ; sublimation volatilizes and washes 
 it ; and after calcination there is a reunion into a more 
 permanent form of Being. And these processes are 
 reiterated many times, and many labours of body and 
 mind have to be undergone, as in the Practice will be 
 demonstrated ; and as Hermes himself assures, that to 
 obtain the blessed Lunary of Diana, he had suffered 
 much, and toiled incessantly. For the spirit is in the 
 beginning, even in the best disposed subjects, terres- 
 trial, heavy, fantastic, and proves rebellious every- 
 where at its Source. And, as in the Sphinx's fa- 
 bles, we read that when vanquished, she w^as carried 
 within the temple upon the back of an ass, this is 
 to signify the simple estate of Being to which such 
 a nature is to be reduced by deprivation of all passion, 
 will, imagination, purpose, or reflective thought. Nei- 
 ther, perhaps, is the patient suffering that has after- 
 wards to be endured, in bearing and bringing forth 
 the burden of the divine mystery, unaptly repre- 
 sented under this same guise of an ass ; for it is 
 not until the conquered elements return under the 
 humiliating cross of dissolution that the catholic 
 Wisdom is made manifest, and brought to hand. 
 Agrippa, in his Vanity of the Sciences, has written 
 many things in favour of this asinine condition, w^hich 
 is very necessary, he says, for a disciple of Wisdom to 
 undergo ; for this beast is an example of fortitude, 
 patience, and clemency, and his influence occultly de- 
 pends on Sephiroth, i. e. Hochma. He liveth on tittle 
 forage, is contented with whatsovei^ it be ; is ready to 
 endure penury, hunger, labour, stripes, and persecution; 
 is of a very simple, indifferent understanding, yet withal 
 has an innocent, clean heart ; without choler, and peace- 
 ful, bearing all things without offoice ; as a reward for 
 which virtues, he wanteth lice, is seldom sick, and 
 liveth longer than any other beast. — So runs the paral- 
 lel according to the magician's mind; and the ass, he 
 goes on further to observe, does also many labours 
 
346 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 above his part ; for ht brcakttli the earth with the 
 plough, (Iraiceth many heavy carts and water in mills, 
 grif/ds cor?!, &c. ; and these things wiUingly, for 
 against his will he does not go. All which qualifica- 
 tions are, in their similitude, very applicable and ne- 
 cessary to be found in the Philosophic Subject ; and 
 without which it does not serve or carry out into 
 operation the Divine behests. But many wonderful 
 stories are related of this allegorical ass in former 
 times, and of his qualifications, which the familiar 
 quadruped is no more known to exhibit ; nor is he 
 even treated with that kind of consideration which 
 tradition has secured in certain instances for things 
 less celebrated and as unworthy. For did not the 
 Saviour signalize this beast above every other, making 
 choice of it on the occasion of his greatest earthly tri- 
 umph ? Of Abraham, too , the Father of the Faithful, we 
 read that he constantly travelled with his asses ; and 
 that one, ridden by the prophet Balaam, was notoriously 
 clear-sighted and, more discerning than his master, 
 intelligibly spoke. A story, little less astonishing, is 
 related of Ammonius, tbe philosopher, that he ad- 
 mitted an ass daily to be the auditor of his lectures, 
 and join in fellow scholarship with Origen and the 
 Greek Porphyry. Who would believe it? Yet this 
 same ass has been accounted a worthy companion 
 of the wise in all ages, and has borne the burden 
 of the Mysteries from time immemorial, Jews, Eth- 
 nics, Christians, have in turn, identifying, honoured 
 him ; neither, perchance, had Apuleius of Megara 
 been admitted to the mysteries of Isis, if he had not 
 first of an inquisitive philosopher been turned into an 
 ass. There is no creature, concludes the panegyrist, 
 that is so able to receive divinity as an ass, into whom 
 if ye be not at length turned, ye shall in no wise be 
 able to carry the divine mysteries.^ For nothing that 
 is defiled by information, or inconstant, or impassive, 
 
 ' Vanity of the Sciences, chapter next in conclusion. Apuleius, 
 Metamorphoses, or Golden Ass. 
 
Further Analysis. 347 
 
 or selfish, or impure can attract Divinity, All mixed 
 unguents are hateful to Minerva. 
 
 The goddess scorns 
 All mixture of her pui'e and simple oil.^ 
 
 And, as in the Mysteries, the Aspirant entering- into 
 the interior to behold the Adytum, leaves behind him 
 all the statues in the temple ; so must the mind be 
 prepared to depart from all images and intellections, 
 whether self-originating or impressed, before it can 
 entertain the simple Unity of Light within. The wise 
 hierophants indeed appear to have signified by these 
 illustrations the order in which Divinity is perceived. 
 For, as when returning after the association within, 
 which was not with a statue or mere mental image 
 (but with the reality which these images represent), 
 the statues again present themselves as secondary 
 objects to view ; so likewise, subsequent to the Divine 
 Union, there recurs That also which was in the mind 
 prior to the union, exalted and multiplied. Af/d That 
 ichick thus remains to him who passes beyond all 
 things, is That ivhich is prior to all things, and the 
 First Jilatter. For the soul does not willingly accede 
 to that which is entirely non-being, but running back 
 from thence in a contrary direction, it arrives not 
 at another thing but at itself. And as in the Di- 
 vine conjunction, whilst it lasts, there are not two 
 things as of subject and object in the consciousness, 
 but the life understanding and the light understood are 
 one ; whoever thus becomes One by mingling with 
 the Efficient, will have a remnant of it with himself; 
 according to the eloquent tradition of Plotinus, where, 
 discussing this union, he treats it as no mere spectacle 
 or theoretical figment, but as a true experimental 
 ingress of the understanding essence to its source. 
 And the light and energy which are there, he says, are 
 of the First Light shining primarily in itself, which at 
 
 ' Callimachus's Hj^mn to Minerva. 
 
348 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 one and the same time illuminates and is illuminated. 
 But if any one should inquire what the nature is 
 of this First Light, which is the foundation of every 
 intellect and primarily knows itself, such a one should 
 first become established in Intellect, when he will be 
 able through it, as an image, to behold the Arche- 
 type. And this, continues the philosopher, may be 
 effected if you first separate body from the man and its 
 defilements ; and That which becomes generated of in- 
 tel/igence, after everything foreign is removed, is the 
 original of all. For this primary motion of the ebbing 
 life from its ultimate recessure recreates, and so the 
 Generative virtue, which was alienated, becomes re- 
 united to Mind. 
 
 And here we observe the rule of thought to be in- 
 variable, whether theoretic or in actual operation ; 
 whether, according to strict analysis, reason becomes 
 bounded about its own inversion, as with common 
 logic is the case ; or, experimentally proving, it effects 
 that inversion, strictly followed either way, it arrives 
 at the same Truth, though in different relations, the 
 one in hght, the other in life, the one by inference, 
 the other in Absolute Identity, proving the First 
 Source. The differences and inconsistencies that occur 
 in the ancient writers, and those faults which now to 
 verbal critics are most apparent, vanish for the most 
 part in their right understanding, and might cease to 
 be regarded as such, could we but for an interval only 
 enter into their original light. The proud spirit of 
 modern science might then be taught to venerate the 
 Wisdom it has so long in ignorance despised ; even to 
 honour the very contradictions, which not from levity 
 or indistinctness of thought arose, but from such an 
 excessive subtlety and refinement of reason rather, as, 
 seeking to find utterance, was blurred by inadequate 
 reception, and the duplicity of common speech. 
 
349 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Of the Manifestation of the. First ATatter, and lis 
 Information by Light. 
 
 "Wisdom is poured forth like water, and glory failetli not before 
 Him for ever. — Book of Enoch, c. xl. v. 1. 
 
 LET US now conceive the Vital Spirit tbeurgically 
 purified and freed through sacrifice of all foreign 
 attractions, revolving about its centre and having 
 power active and passive in hypostatic union always 
 about to generate the infinite fulness which it contains 
 and draws ; as even now we approach, carrying along 
 with us the body of our Sphinx, subdued and contrite, 
 to the gate of the first Adytum ; where we would con- 
 template awhile, in the vestibule, admiring at the Tears 
 of Isis, even that blessed Water which Nature sheds 
 divinely for thersmszioef the world. For not all was 
 vaporous vision, as we have shown, or mere ideality 
 on the internal ground ; but experience there was pre- 
 sent with power and effect in substance to bear it wit- 
 ness. 
 
 It was scarce day wlien, all alone, 
 I saw Hyanthe and her throne ; 
 In fresh green damasks she was drest, 
 And o'er a saphir globe did rest. 
 This slippery sphere when I did see. 
 Fortune, I thought it had been thee ; 
 But when I saw she did present 
 A majesty more permanent, 
 I thought my cares not lost, if I, 
 Should finish my discoverie. 
 
 Sleepy she looked to m.j first sight, 
 As if she had watched all the night, 
 And underneath her ha^id was spread 
 The white supporter of her head : 
 But at my second studied view, 
 I could perceive a silent dew 
 
350 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 Steal down her cheeks ; least it should staijne 
 Tliose cheeks, where only smiles should reign, 
 The tears streamed down for haste, and all 
 In chains of liquid jJearl did fall. 
 Fai}- sorrows ; and more dear than joys, 
 AVhich are but emptie ayres and noise ; 
 Tour drops present a richer prize. 
 For they are something like her eyes. 
 
 Pretty white Fool ! why hast thou been 
 Sullied with tears and not with sin ? 
 'Tis true ; thy tears like polished skies, 
 Are the bright rosials of thy eyes ; 
 But such strange /a^e« do them attend. 
 As if thy woes would never end, 
 From dro2)s to sighs they turn, and then 
 Tliose sighs retm-n to drops again : 
 But whilst the silver torrent seeks 
 T\\o^e flowers tliat watch it in thy cheeks, 
 The white and red Hyanthe wears, 
 Turn to rose water all her tears. 
 
 Have you beheld ^Jlame that springs 
 From iticense, when sweet curled rings 
 Of smoke attend her last xoeak fires. 
 And she all in perfumes expires ? 
 So died Hyanthe ; here, said she. 
 Let not this vial part from thee, 
 It holds my heart, tho' now 'tis spilled, 
 And into waters all distilled, 
 'Tis constant still: trust not false smiles, 
 Who SMILES and weeps not, she beguiles. 
 IS'ay trust not tears ; false are the few. 
 Those tears are many that are true. 
 Trust me, and take the better choyce, 
 AVho hath my tears can want no joyes} 
 
 When divine Causes and human Conditions which 
 are assimilated to them are co-ordinate to one and the 
 same end, the perfection of such works overflowing 
 returns a pure and most bright reward. 
 
 Ite profani ! Fanum est fanum 
 Nihil ingreditur profanum. 
 
 For thought does not move, passing its owm essence 
 into feehng in vain ; but mercy imparts the benefits, 
 and gifts of the most exquisite sacrifice. 
 
 ^ Vaughan's Ccelum Terrae, p. 93, &c. 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 351 
 
 Nor less instructive than elegant is the following- 
 Prosopopoeia of the Stone. 
 
 In nomine Dei viventis et vivijicantis. 
 
 Terra mihi corpus, vires mihi praestitit ignis : 
 Alta domus qufero, sedes est semper in inio : 
 Et me perfundit qui me cito deserit liumor. 
 
 Sunt milii sunt lacrymae, sed non est caiisa doloris ; 
 Est iter ad coelum, sed me gravis impedit aer : 
 Et qui me genuit, sine me non nascitur ipse. 
 
 Pulvis aquae tenuis, modico cum pondere lapsus, 
 Sole madens, sestate fluens, in frigore siccus, 
 Elumina facturus, totas prius occupo terras ; 
 
 Mira tibi referam nostrse primordia vitae : 
 Nondum natus eram, nee eram tum matris in alvo, 
 Jam posito partu, natum me nemo videbat. 
 
 Non possum nasci, si non occidero matrem : 
 Occidi matrem, sed me manet exitus idem. 
 Id mea mors patitur, quod jam mea fecit origo. 
 
 Vita mihi mors est, morior si caepei'o nasci ; 
 Sed prius est fatura letlii quam lucis origo ; 
 Sic solas manes ipsos mihi duco parentes. 
 
 ]\Iagna quidem non sum, sed inest mihi maxima virtus, 
 Spiritus est magnus, quamvis in corpore parvo. 
 Nee mihi germen habet noxam, nee culpa ruborem. 
 
 Ambo sumus lapides, una sumus, ambo jacemus ; 
 Quam piger est mius, tantum non segnis it alter ; 
 Hie manet immotus non deserit ille moveri. 
 
 Findere me nnlli possunt, praecidere multi : 
 Sed sum versicolor, albus quandoque futurus 
 Male manere niger, minus ultima fata verebor. 
 
 NuUa mihi certa est, nuHa est peregrina figura. 
 Fulgor inest intus, radianti luce coruscus, 
 Qui nihil ostendit, nisi si quid viderit ante. 
 
 Non ego continuo morior dum spiritus exit. 
 Nam redit assidufe, quamvis et saepe recedat : 
 Et mihi nunc magna est animse, nunc nulla facultas. 
 Phis ego sustinui quam corpus debuit unum. 
 Tres animas habui, quas omnes intus habebam. 
 Dicessere duse, sed tertia poene secuta est.^ 
 
 This marvellous subsistence of the Vital Principles 
 in their extreme separation by Art has been already- 
 noticed, and will be in the Practice more particularly 
 
 1 Theatrum Chemicum, vol. iii. p. 763. 
 
.^1 
 
 352 Laws and Conditions, 
 
 hereafter. It may be sufficient for the present to ob- 
 serve, that great care and dihgence is needed at this 
 juncture to apply the threefold secret of the Art ; 
 so that the hypostatic principles of attraction and re- 
 pulsion and circulation may be brought into a perfect 
 equilibriate accord, the one no more acting than the 
 other is resisting in the ethereal bond. — Seek Three in 
 One, and again seek One in Three, dissolve, congeal : 
 and remember, saysKuhnrath, most carefully to observe 
 the threefold law of the composition, otherwise the 
 animated spirit cannot be conjoined to the body, nor, on 
 the other hand, will the body be reunited to the spirit. 
 Which process, however, being rightly gone through 
 from the beginning — the new Chaos of the Universal 
 Nature of the new world will then appear to be un- 
 folded and separated. Apply no manual labour, but 
 when you shall have enacted the separation, — (cum pcf - 
 '-^ < 'o j^c3a ^ motum in ire, -^j ^ e ris internum et pro gaudio, 
 lachrymabis !) — thou wilt surely understand that the 
 original sin has been removed, separated by the Fire 
 of Divine love in the regeneration of the three princi- 
 ples — body, soul, and spirit. I write not fables : With 
 thy hands thou shalt touch, and with thy eyes thou 
 shalt see Azoth ! The Universal ! which alone, with 
 the internal and external fire in harmonious sympathy 
 with the Olympic Fire, is sufficient for thee : by inevit- 
 able necessity, physico-chemically united for the con- 
 summation of the Philosopher's Stone. ^ 
 
 When, in the last extreme of tribulation and depart- 
 ing life, the returning faith and desire of the Passive 
 Spirit attracts the Soul again into herself, the first link 
 in the chain of the magnetic series moves : then the 
 Divine Fiat comes mercifully to bless the union, and 
 a new hypostasis is created out of the darkness to 
 abide : the fiery soul suffi3rs itself again to be impri- 
 soned, as by a lawful magic, in the hquid crystal of 
 the understanding ether ; and the light which is in her 
 then streams forth brightly rejoicing in her Paradise 
 
 • fethnrath, Ampli. Sap. Etern., Isag. in fig. cap. viii. 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 353 
 
 Regained. Then it is Lu.v mnmfeste et visibUis ad ocu- 
 lum, as the adept says, in which state it is first made 
 subject to the artist. 
 
 Mars et Venus, ou plutot Mars par Venus, en fait unC^ 
 fort noble medicine et precieu^, qui a le grain fixe so- u'eA 
 laire ; et ces deux font ensemble le mariage si celebre / 
 
 aupres des amateurs de la sagesse : pendant leur Con- 
 jonction, il s'eleve une vapeur tres spiritueuse et ne- 
 cessaire a un grand ouvrage : il faut prendre cette va- 
 peur avec des filets bien subtils : dans le reste on 
 trouve un vitriol bien beau, dont on tire par des opera- 
 tions fort subtiles et de difficulte decouverte, un soii- 
 phre solaire ou or philosophique vivant.^ — Which 
 subtle device of Vulcan most profoundly hidden unless 
 the artist shall have rightly conceived either by 
 spiritual aid or himself experimenting in a triune fur- 
 nace spherically round, his labours are declared to be 
 vain, even though working in the right material, if 
 he cannot cause it to appear. If the horse's strength 
 be yet denied, in vain he will strike upon the moun- 
 tain, the flinty conscience yields no chalybeate, feels 
 no contrition, but by the fiery well-tempered steel. 
 
 Haud licet altaris latices haurire salubres 
 
 Cui scelerum viru mens moribunda tumet : 
 Divino calice abstiueat, ne cordis ad arcem 
 
 Pervehat arcanam potio iniqua luem. 
 Diffluat in lacrymas vehemens qiias fervor amoris 
 
 Elicit, et fletu diluat ante scelus. 
 Culpa ciens lacrjanas non tota est couscia, ^•i^u 
 
 Gemma oritur, foedi filia pulchra patris. 
 Gutta fluena oculis velut Indicus uuio fiet 
 
 Ut medicina reo, sic pretiosa Deo. 
 Post lacrymas e fonte potest haurire salutem : 
 
 Qui non flet moritur, ne moriare, fleas ^ 
 
 All is sown under the cross and completed in its 
 number — Darkness will draw over the face of the 
 Abyss, Might, Saturn and the Antimony of the Wise 
 will be present, Obscurity and the Head of the Crow 
 in the various hour of conjunction ; and all the co- 
 
 ^ Mystere de la Croix, chap. xiii. 
 
 2 Orpheus Eucharisticus Emblema LVI. — Apodosis. 
 
 A A 
 
 / 
 
354 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 lours of the world will be apparent ; also Iris, God's 
 messenger, and the tail of the peacock ; as the rain- 
 bow through the falling drops, reflects the sunbeam 
 in the apparent ether after the storms are overpast 
 and the dark clouds are dispersed, the same beautiful 
 token of reconcihation is made apparent in the Micro- 
 cosmic Heaven; the fire and water are commingled, and, 
 falling together under the cross, germinate, and the 
 beautiful Ideal of Harmony is born of the SjDirit. 
 
 In cruce sub sphera venit Sapientia vera. 
 
 This is the union supersentient, the nuptials sub- 
 lime. Mentis et Universi ; the Thought solitary unites 
 itself to the non-being, or simple Understanding of its 
 ether, and proceeds into simultaneous subsistence with 
 exuberance of power. This is the marriage, by the 
 ancients so many times prefigured, of Peleus and 
 Thetis, of Earth and Heaven, when the gods, attended 
 with all their attributes, come together in divine hila- 
 rity ; of Bacchus and Ariadne ; of Jason with Medea, 
 when, after many trials and risk of life, he gained with 
 her the golden fleece from Colchos. Lo ! behold I 
 will open to thee a mystery, cries the Adept, the 
 bridegroom crowneth the bride in the North ! — In the 
 darkness of the North, out of the crucifixion of the 
 cerebral life, when the sensual dominant is occultated 
 in the Divine Fiat and subdued, there arises a Light 
 wonderfully about the summit, which, wisely returned 
 and multiplied according to the Divine blessing, is 
 made substantive in life. 
 
 In Arsenic sublimed there is a way streiglit, 
 Wytli Mercury calcined, nyne tymes liys weight, 
 And grownd together with the Water of Myglit, 
 Whicli beareth ingression of Lyfe and Light. 
 And anon, as they together byne, 
 Alio rnnnytli to Water bryght and schene ; 
 i^pon this Fii'e they grow together 
 'I'ill they be fast and flee no whyther : 
 Then feed them fortli with tliine own Hand, 
 Wilh meat and broad, tyll they be strong, 
 And thou shalt have a good Stouc.^ 
 
 • Pierce, tlie Black Monk, on the Elixir. 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 355 
 
 Our golden water, says the adept, is not found in 
 wells, nor in profundities, but in higher places, and as 
 the inhabitants of the Canary Islands draw sweet 
 water fi'om the tree tops, so is ours taken from the 
 higher parts of the world ; for Mercury, being ripe, 
 arises to her superior habitation.^ Exalt her, and she 
 shall promote thee ; she shall bring thee to honour 
 when thou dost embrace her ; she shall give to thy 
 head an Ornament of Grace ; a Crown of Glory shall 
 she deliver unto thee.^ Return then, O my son, 
 reiterates the Hermetic Master, the coal being extinct 
 in life, as I shall note to thee ; and henceforth thou 
 art a Crowned King, resting over the Fountain and 
 drawing from thence the Auripigment, dry without 
 moisture : now I have made the heart of the hearers 
 hoping in thee to rejoice, even in their eyes beholding 
 thee in anticipation of that which thou possessest. 
 Rejoice now, therefore, O son of Art ! who hast the 
 Sun for thy Diadem and the Moon Crescent for thy 
 Garland.^ 
 
 Ce qui a ete attii^e doit etre cuit si long temps 
 d'une certaine maniere de repetition, jusqu'a ce qu'il 
 montre les couleurs de Tare en ciel ; signe de grace 
 et de reconciliation ; et que les goutes pesantes tomhent 
 dans le fond du vase recipient ; quasi comme un mer- 
 cure commun distille : ce qui vous donnera un 
 Ophthalmique et Antiepileptique merveilleux ; et meme 
 quelque chose de plus si le Seigneur vous ouvre les . 
 
 yeux. Get ouvrage s'appelle Aimantique} i/^ / 
 
 Lastly, says I^»nrath, after the ashy colour, and the n-AjAy/ 
 white, and the yellow, thou shalt behold the Stone of / 
 
 Philosophers ; our King and Lord of hosts go forth from 
 the chamber of his glassy sepulchre, into this mundane 
 sphe?'e, in his glorified body, regenerate and in perfec- 
 
 1 Mercury's Caducean Rod, sub iuit. 
 
 2 Proverbs of Solomon, iv. 8, 9. 
 
 •^ Tract. Aur., cap. ii., and Ripley Revived. 
 ^ Mystere de la Croix, chap. xiii. 
 a A 2 
 
356 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 tiofi perfected ; as a shining carbuncle, most temperate 
 in splendour, and whose parts, most subtle and most 
 pure, are inseparably blent together in the harmonious 
 rest of union into one.^ 
 
 It is an adopted maxim with the Adepts that they 
 who sow in tears shall reap in joy. For he that re- 
 enters liberated and with the prepared Light of intel- 
 lectual faith, mourning, and, like another Achilles, 
 conscious of self-sacrihce, to besiege the fortress of 
 Self-Will in life, prevailing at length through death 
 jj/_ and every obstacle, the Divine Will favouring, is not 
 I^IjI/i^>XlLl/ only promoted through the whole teppestafe, and con- 
 / verted to the proper virtue and perfection of its root ; 
 but there, likewise, to increase, triumph, and multiply, 
 according to the hermaphroditic virtue of its conceived 
 Law. So Life is perfected in Wisdom, and the Will 
 springs up in Paradise with fair golden fruits. 
 
 Corpus solutum est aqua perennis congelans Mercurium perpc- 
 tua congelatione. 
 
 Never grudge, then, that thou hast destroyed thy 
 gold, says Eireneus, for he that thus destroys loseth 
 it not, but soweth good seed in good earth, from 
 whence he shall receive it again with one hundred-fold 
 increase.^ Whereas he that saves his gold, that is to 
 say, remains satisfied in the first-fruits of his reason, 
 loses his labour, and is deceived, like Midas, and dis- 
 mayed for want of understanding and faith in the 
 destination of Causes. 
 
 But if any one here demand, how that which is 
 destroyed shoukl be capable of increase, and how^ the 
 newly implanted motive takes root in life? The 
 Apostle has best answered it ; as concerning the 
 mystery of the resurrection, he shows, by the common 
 analogy of nature, the Law to be such. Behold, says 
 he, that which is sown is not quickened except it die ; 
 
 ^ j^tAnratli, Auiph. Sap. Etern., cbap. viii., Isag. in fig. 
 2 Eipley Revived, pp. 108, 198. 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 357 
 
 and that which is sown is not the body that shall be, 
 but mere grain, as it may be of wheat or any other 
 grain. — The germ of all Being is indeed corrupted 
 before it is brought forth, and seeds spring up not as 
 seeds merely, but into a perfect resemblance of their de- 
 veloped stock ; yet is not anything the more bettered 
 in its kind, but the process of vital melioration is 
 further exemplified in the fermentive art, where, by a 
 contrition and fretting of their elementary particles, 
 natures are transformed, and their bodies spiritualized 
 and preserved by the assimilating must or leaven. So, 
 in man, — there is a natural body and there is a spiritual 
 body. Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but 
 that which is natural, and afterwards that which is 
 spiritual. — The Rational Light, once discovered and set 
 in motion, acuates the Spirit, and the Spirit, in its 
 turn penetrating, overcomes the corporeal, wdiich is 
 the sensual dominant, in the regeneration ; and so 
 swallows up the same, that it is glorified and trans- 
 figured, occultating the body in more luminous mani- 
 festation. — Know ye not how a little leaven leaveneth 
 the whole lump ? Purge out therefore the old leaven, 
 that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.^ 
 
 Solve et Coagula, reiterates the Benedictine Monk, 
 Dissolve and Coagulate ; after putrefaction succeeds 
 generation, and that because of the incombustible sul- 
 phur that heats or thickens the coldness and crudities 
 of the quicksilver, which suffers so much thereby, that 
 at last it is united to the sulphur and made one body 
 therewith. And these, viz., the fire, air, and water, are 
 contained in one vessel in their earthly vessel, i. e. in 
 their gross body or composition ; and I take them and 
 then I leave them in one alembic, where 1 decoct and 
 sublime them, without the help of hammer, tongs, or 
 file; without coals, smoke, or fire, or bath ; or the alem- 
 bics of the sophisters. For I have my heavenly Jire, 
 which excites and stirs up the elemental one, according 
 as the matter desires a more becoming agreeable Form.^ 
 
 ^ 1 Coriiithians,x.v. 6, 7. 
 
 - Mehuiig ill A^aughau's Coelum Terrae, p. 122. 
 
358 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 And the Light is made manifest in great Darkness, 
 viz., in the contrition or distress of the sensible nature 
 in the conscience, where a pecuHar motion is present ; 
 even then, as Jacob Bohme says, cometh the Power of 
 Christ in the midst of such a motion. And, further, 
 of the noble tincture arising in the Hght, he says — It 
 cometh forth from anguish into the meekness of the 
 hght and springeth forth afresh through the mortifying 
 anguish,^ as a life having a)wther property, where the 
 property of the fire is a desiring, and thereby it at- 
 tracteth the virtue of the Light into itself, and maketh 
 it an essence, ^^z., Water. — Common chemistry is not 
 without an analogy of this kind, by the condensa- 
 tion of light producing it into a fluid form. But herein 
 are the two forms : one according to the source of the 
 fire, which is red, and therein the virtue, viz., sulphur 
 is ; and the other is like a thin meekness, yet having 
 co-essentiality, is water, which is the desiring tincture ; 
 and both of which contracting together into one, are 
 converted into Blood. Now the original in the blood, 
 viz. fire, which is its warmth, is life ; and in the vir- 
 tue of the warmth, the thin Water of Life proceedeth ; 
 one virtue proceedeth forth from another, and the vir- 
 tue doth always re-assume that which goeth forth. 
 And this is the true Spirit which is born of the Soul, 
 wherein is the Image of God, and the Divine Virgin of 
 God's wisdom consisteth. For all understanding and 
 knowledge lieth in this Spirit ; it hath the senses and 
 the noble life, which uniteth it with God : for this 
 Spirit is so subtle that it can enter into God, if it 
 resigneth itself up to Him ; and, casting away the cun- 
 ning Jire of its own soul, putteth its ivill into God; 
 then it dwelleth with Him in power, and is clothed With. 
 the Divine Essentiality.'^ 
 
 And this Essentiality it is which qualifies the true 
 Adept ; which sanctifies even as it qualifies, infusing 
 true goodness into every life that it has once adorned. 
 
 ^ And, therefore, Herines says, tliat the sure quality of the 
 golden matter and the nature thereof is not sweetness, &c., cap. 7. 
 ^ Bohme's Turned Eye, Quest. 37. 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 359 
 
 It is this Material of the Corner- Stone which links 
 reason to Divinity, Theology to the subtle philosophy 
 of the middle ages, and made the vulgarly contemned 
 Art of Alchemy to be honoured and holy. — It is sown 
 in corruption, It is raised in incorruption ; It is sown 
 in dishonour. It is raised in glory ; It is sown in weak- 
 ness. It is raised in power ; It is sown a natural body, 
 It is raised a spiritual body. The first man is of the 
 earth, earthy ; the second man is the Lord from hea- 
 ven.^ 
 
 And this is that great and miraculous mystery of 
 our Image, which it behoves us to reflect into, rather 
 than profanely to discuss ; that we may know our 
 true selves, and what Adam, even our Father, is ; and 
 what the Son ; and, without error or presumption, 
 that Holy Spirit which fabricates all things, and sus- 
 tains all by the Word of his Power. — 
 
 Non poterit ilia dare qui uon habet : habet autem nemo, nisi 
 qui jam eohibitis elementis, victa natura superatis coelis, proge 
 suos Angelos, ad ipsum Archetypum isqvie transcendit ; Cujus 
 tunc Cooperator effectus potest Omnia. 
 
 For the Soul, being in such a condition, associates with 
 her Efficient, and he who perceives himself so to asso- 
 ciate will have a similitude of It with himself. And if he - jf^^^A^'^-^ 
 ■rpasses from himself as an image to the Archetype, 
 he will then attain the end of his progression. And 
 when falling off from the vision of God, if he again ex- 
 cites the virtue which is in himself and perceives him- 
 self to be perfectly adorned, he will again, says the 
 Platonic Successor, be elevated, through virtue pro- 
 ceeding to Intellect and Wisdom, and afterwards to the 
 Principle of things. 
 
 Vaughan, in his Anima Magia, has well described 
 the Hypostatic Metamorphoses ; and how the Light, 
 striking in a rapid coruscation from the centre to the 
 circumference, depends from the solitary unit through 
 the surrounding vapour, in a vital magnetical series ; 
 where the celestial nature, he says, differs not in sub- 
 
 1 I Corinthians, xv. 42, &c. 
 
360 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 stance from the aerial spirit but only in degree and 
 complexion ; and the aerial differs from the aura or 
 material efflux of the soul in constitution only and not 
 in nature : so that These three, being but One substan- 
 tially, admit of a perfect hypostatic union, and may be 
 carried by a certain intellectual Light into the supreme 
 horizon, and so swallowed up of immortality. — Behold 
 I show you a mystery, says the Apostle, we shall not 
 all sleep, but we shall be changed , in a moment, in 
 the ticinkling of an eije, at the last trump (for the 
 trumpet shall sound) and the dead shall be raised in- 
 corruptible, and w^e shall be changed. For this cor- 
 ruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal 
 must put on immortality} 
 
 And know, says Roger Bacon, that it is impossible 
 for you to attain this immortal essentiahty, unless you 
 become sanctified in mind and purified in soul, so as to 
 be united to God, and to become one spirit with Him. 
 But if you revolve these my instructions in your mind, 
 you may obtain the knowledge of the beginning, the 
 middle, and the end of the whole icork. And you 
 will perceive such a subtlety of Wisdom, and such a pu- 
 rity of matter, as shall amply replete your soul, and 
 fill you with satisfaction . And when you shall ap- 
 pear thus before the Lord, He will open to you the 
 gates of His treasure, the like of which is not to be 
 found on earth. Behold, I show you the fear of the 
 Lord, and the love of Him, with unfeigned obedieiwe ; 
 nothing shall be wanting to them that fear the Lord, 
 who are clothed with the excellency of His holiness : 
 To whom be all praise.^ % 
 
 For as in the Beginning there was said to be one 
 only matter of all things, so in this imitative process 
 all diversities of things are seen to proceed from and 
 return to this only One ; which is called a conversion 
 of the elements, and a conversion of the elements in 
 this respect is just to make actives passive and passives 
 active ; the occult becoming manifest and the manifest 
 
 ^ 1 Corinthians, xv. 51, Sic. 
 
 2 Eogeri Bachouis Eadix Mundi, lib. iii. 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 361 
 
 occult in inverse order of conception. And he, says 
 Sendivogius enigmatically, who knows how to congeal 
 water with heat, and to join a spirit thereto, shall cer- 
 tainly find out a thing more precious than gold, and 
 every thing else. Let him therefore cause that the 
 spirit be separated fr^om the water, that it may putrefy 
 and be like a grain. Afterwards, the faces being cast 
 awayy let him reduce and bring back the spirit again 
 from the deep into water and make them be joined again, 
 for that Conjunction will generate a branch of unlike 
 shape to its parents} 
 
 In such a process it was that the Quadrature of the 
 Circle was supernaturally demonstrated ; which natu- 
 rally it cannot be ; and in no other way but by a trans- 
 mutation of the hypostatic relations, as in a circulat- 
 ing medium making passives active and actives passive. 
 In the first conjunction the Spirit predominates ; in 
 the second the Soul, i. e., its Light; which two are, by 
 adepts, called Mercury and Gold, and the activity of 
 mercury over gold in the first place is because the 
 formal virtue of Sol is acatod ; his sulphur is imprisoned, 
 so that he is not aware of it, does not feel or know 
 himself, as we may say, until penetrated by the Mer- 
 curial Spirit, then he sends forth his Light ; to which 
 the Mercury, in turn becoming passive, conceives and 
 bears an offspring more perfect than either parent. 
 And when that light is again taken and given to a 
 proper recipient, it is made a thousand times more fit 
 and apt to bring forth excellent and abundant fruits. 
 
 Fac ex mare et foemina circulum ; inde quadrangulum ; hinc 
 triangulum, fac circulum, et habebis lapidem philosophorum.^ 
 
 For beyond all the four precedent degrees of per- 
 fection there is made a Fifth Essence, which neuter 
 from all, yet partaking of all in perpetuity of union, 
 the Ethereal Quadrangle becomes a Circle of golden 
 light in eternity ; being advanced into the order of 
 
 ^ Sendivogius, New Light, Treatise v. ; Kubnrath, Amph. Sap., 
 cap. viii. 
 
 - Maieri Atalanta Fugiens, Emblema xxi. 
 
 3JIjClAJ2jZ 
 
362 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 spirits permanent, which, though they have bodies, yet 
 are not subject to those laws of gross corporeity 
 which fetter bodies unregenerate. And therefore the 
 philosopher's Mercury is a system of wonders ponde- 
 rous, fixed, and, as a petrifaction from water is, ex- 
 (j[uisitely compact; yet penetrative wdthal and com- 
 municative of tincture ; for it can pass, as it were, in the 
 twinkling of an eye to the very centre, and, projected 
 on the imperfect metal of any life, dissolves it, draw- 
 ing away the very foundation into itself. Thus the 
 author of Luctrna Halls describes the gold of the 
 Wise to be by no means vulgar gold ; but it is a certain 
 water clear and pure, on which is borne the lightning 
 of the Lord ; and it is from thence that all things receive 
 their life. And this is the reason, continues he, why 
 our gold is become spiritual ; by means of the spirit 
 it passeth through the Alembic, its earth remaining 
 black, w^liich however did not appear before, but now 
 dissolves itself and becomes a thick luater. The which 
 desires a more noble life, to the end it may be able to 
 7'ejoin itself. By reason of the thirst it has, it dis- 
 solves and is dissevered, which benefits it very much ; 
 because if it did not become water and oil, its spirit 
 and soul could not unite nor mingle with it, as it then 
 does ; and in such a manner that of them One Thing is 
 made which rises to a consummate perfection ; the 
 parts thereof being so firmly joined together that they 
 can never after be separated.^ 
 
 This then is the Conjunction in which all the mys- 
 teries of the Microcosm have their consummation — 
 the true circulated Form of Gold ; the Conjunction, by 
 Kipley called tctraptive, that so highly commended 
 fountain of Pythagoras, and Divine Tetractys. 
 
 "VVhouco all our Wisdom springs, and which contains 
 Perennial Nature's fountain, cause, and root.^ 
 
 Tetractys, fourfold, drawn from three heads by the 
 
 ' Lucerua Salis, p. 39 ; from tlie Latin verse, Aurum Sapienttim, 
 &c. 
 
 - Jamblicus's Life of Pythagoras, chap, xxviii. 
 
 I 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 363 
 
 obstetric hand of the physico-chemical Art and with- 
 out possibiUty of dissolution any more ; for those prin- 
 ciples so joined together of God, man cannot any more 
 put asunder. 
 
 There is no liglit but what lives in the Sun, 
 
 There is no sun but which is twice begott ; 
 
 Nature and Arte the parents first begonne : 
 
 By Nature t'was but Nature perfects not. 
 
 Arte then, what Nature left, in hand doth take. 
 And out of one a twofold worke doth make. 
 
 A twofold work doth make, but such a work 
 
 As dotli admitt Division none at all, 
 
 (See here wherein the secret, most doth lurke,) 
 
 IJnless it be a mathematical. 
 
 It must be two yet make it one and one, 
 And you do take the way to make it none. 
 
 Lo here, the primar secret of this Arte, 
 
 Contemne it not, but understand it right. 
 
 Who faileth to attaine the foremost part. 
 
 Shall never know Arte' s force or Nature's might. 
 Nor yet have power of one and one, so mixt, 
 To make by one fixt, one unfixed fixt.^ 
 
 Here again the geometric method of procedure 
 with the Metaphysical Embryo, through its complex 
 parts, is epigrammatically symbolized by the Adept 
 Michael Majer. 
 
 Poemina masque unus ^ost tibi circulus, ex quo 
 
 Surgat^ habens »quum forma quadrata latus. / 
 
 Hinc Trigonum ducas, omni qui parte r^tundam / 0> 
 
 In sphferam redeat : tum Lapis oetus ehit. ' j 
 
 Si res tanta tuae non mox venit obvia menti, 
 Dogma Geometree si capis, Omne scies.^ 
 
 He therefore who discovers the Quadrature, and on 
 this ground is able to demonstrate it, will have a 
 reward sufficient without the University patronage or 
 a more laborious proof. For having resolved all sorts 
 and ideas of things, all thoughts, passions, and actions 
 to one and the same Principle, he will not alone have 
 
 1 Enigma Philosophicum, Ashmole's Theatrum, p. 423. 
 - Maieri Atalanta Fugiens, Epigramma xxi. 
 
364 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 that Principle, and be able to compose and renumerate 
 every former particular out of the same ; but, accord- 
 ing to the philosophic report, he will be percipient of 
 the most beautiful and Universal Mystery of Nature ; 
 having before himself, as in a glass, the great Arche- 
 typal Law of Light, in which are all things causally 
 ranged in the order in which they were originally dis- 
 tributed and set apart. As, in the Pimander and Book 
 of Wisdom, we read, — The whole world is before thee, 
 O God ! as a little grain of the balance, as a moment 
 of the little tongue in the weights and scales, and as 
 a drop of the dew that falleth in the morning upon 
 the earth. ^ — Perfect in the Microcosmic Unit as in the 
 total Deity of the Great World. For no sooner, it is 
 said, does the Divine Light pierce to the ho.som of the 
 matter, but the pattern of the whole Universe appears 
 in those Subject Waters, as an image in a glass, con- 
 ceived and divided forth in all the vastness of ideal 
 distinction and effulgence upon that glorious meta- 
 physical height where the Archetype shadows the 
 intellectual spheres. 
 
 Tu cuncta superno 
 Ducis ab exemplo pulchrum pulcherrimus ipse 
 Mundum mente gerens, siuiilique iu imagine formas,^ 
 
 Tell me, ye celestial powers ! How first the gods 
 and world were made ? The rivers and boundless sea 
 
 1 Chap. xi. ver. 22. 
 
 •^ And this appearance of tlie Universal Idea iu the mind is 
 singularly corroborated iu tliat spiritual analysis of ordinary bodies 
 whicli Paracelsus and Van llelmout allude to, saying, that by se- 
 l)aration of their parts the specific impress is to be perceived iu 
 the vessel containing the decomposed spirit, and that the whole 
 creature may be als(} resuscitated from thence — these are the words 
 of ISIarci, in his Defensio Idearum Operatricium. Quid qua?so di- 
 cerunt hi tanti philosophi, si plantam quasi memento nasci iu vi- 
 treo vase viderent, cum suis ad vivum coloribus, et rursum inte- 
 rire, et renasci, idque quoties, et quaudo luberet ? Credo dae- 
 monum arte magica inclusum dicerent illudere seusibus humanis. 
 Such an impress liowever,wliether real or fictitiously represented, 
 would be but as a secondary vestimeut or witness of that which is 
 iu the Archetypal mind creatively efficient. 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 365 
 
 with its raging surge ? How the bright shining stars 
 and the wide stretched heaven above, and all the 
 gods that spring from them, givers of good things ? 
 First of all existed Chaos ; next in order the broad 
 bosomed Matter ; and then Love appeared, the most 
 beautiful of the Immortals. Of Chaos sprung Erebus 
 and dusky Night, and of Night came Ether and smihng 
 Day.^ 
 
 The theogony of Hesiod, though long esteemed a 
 mere poetical fiction, was accepted by the ancient phi- 
 losophers, who quote his language ; and the Epic Cycle 
 is said, by the Platonists, to include the true philosophic 
 secret of the creation. And when set in comparison 
 with the Alchemical descriptions, the above passage ap- 
 pears indeed to be very regular and correct ; as also the 
 continued imagery of the poet, indicative of the several 
 estates of the Ethereal Quintessences arising one above 
 another, called forth by the light and heat of the 
 superincumbent mind, as posterity from a common 
 parent. Indeed, the more closely we compare the cos- 
 mogonies of the ancients, the more consistent do they 
 appear one with another, and less so with the common- 
 place imagination of things : insomuch that the learned 
 have judged them to be copied from some one original, 
 or that the Mosaic was the only revealed truth of all. 
 We are not disposed to rest anything on our own 
 assertion, but neither should we be less inclined to 
 reverence the received Scripture, if it should prove, at 
 any time, that those agreeing with it, were not bor- 
 rowed ; but all originated from the same divine source. 
 
 In the Beginning — in that inane Identity — fi*om that 
 silent dead obscurity — when as yet nothing is fashioned 
 in the dissolute chasm of life — the Divine Will, then 
 alone operating, says the (Cabalistic Interpreter, pro- r\ 
 duces itself into a material form and recreation. — Be- - 
 hold, I deliver thee of an awful birth and progeny of 
 the ever living God, revealed only to the favourites of 
 Heaven and ministers of His Mysterious Will.^ 
 
 1 Hesiod, Epic Cycle, The Weeks and the Days. 
 
 2 Blackwell's Mythology, letter vii. 
 
366 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 And these were a part of the lesson taught by the 
 Memphian prophet to the young Asph'ant to the priest- 
 hood, even the most hidden mysteries of God's creation. 
 And how did he teach? By words merely, or signs, or 
 traditional authority ? Or, if none of these can truly 
 teach the understanding ; shall we say, more probably, 
 by passing it inwards to the evolution of its proper 
 mystery, thence to emanate and recreate ? When the 
 initiated poet Ovid sat down to write his Fasti, he was 
 inspired, as he declares, by that same universal deity of 
 the two-faced Janus. 
 
 Me Chaos antiqui, nam res sum prisca, vocabaut. 
 
 Adspice, quam longi temporis acta canam. 
 Lucidus bic Aer, et, qua? ti'ia corpora restant. 
 
 Ignis, aquae, tellus, unus acervus erant. 
 Ut semel baec rerum secessit lite suarum, 
 
 Inque novas abiit massa soluta domos ; 
 riamma petit altum ; propior locus aei-a cepit : 
 
 Sederunt medio terra fretumque solo. 
 Tunc Ego, qui fueram globus, et sine imagine moles, 
 
 In faciem redii dignaque membra Deo. 
 Nunc quoque, coufusae quondam nota parva figura;, 
 
 Ant^ quod est in me, postque, videtur idem. 
 Accipe, qufesitae quae caussa sit altera formae ; 
 
 Hanc simul ut noris, ofBciumque meum; 
 Quidquid ubique vides, ccelum, mare, nubila, terras. 
 
 Omnia sunt nostra clausa patentque Manu.^ 
 
 When the primaeval parent Chaos, hoary, as the 
 Egyptian figure runs, with unnumbered ages, was first 
 moved by the breath of Erebus, she brought forth her 
 enormous first-born Hyle, and, at the same portentous 
 birth, the amiable Eros, chief of the Immortals. 
 They were no sooner come to Light than they pro- 
 duced an infinite offspring, various and undefined at 
 first, but afterwards fountains of Being. And know, 
 consecrated Youth, adds the metropolitan of Mem- 
 phis, that ere this fair universe which thou beholdest 
 appeared ; ere the sun mounted on high, or the moon 
 gave her paler light ; ere the vales were stretched 
 out below, or the mountains reared their towering 
 
 ^ Ovidii Fastorum, lib. i. 104. 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 3G7 
 
 heads; ere the winds began to blow, or plants had 
 sprung forth out of the earth ; while the heavens yet 
 lay hid in the mighty mass, or ere a star had dart- 
 ed to its orb ; the various parts of which this won- /7 
 drous frame consists lay^^^d and inform, brood- ?rviynOAJi^ 
 ing overwhelmed in the Abyss of Being. There it <y 
 had lain for ever, if the breath of the tremendous 
 spirit that dwells in the Darkness had not gone forth 
 and put the lifeless mass in agitation. 
 
 Si/e hunc divino semine fecit 
 Ille opifex reriim, mundi melioris origo : 
 Sive recens tellus seductaqiie nuper ab alto 
 ^there, cognati retinebat semina coeli ; 
 Quam satus lapeto mistam fluvialibus undis 
 Finxit in effigiem moderantum cuncta deorum.^ 
 
 It was then the congenial -^o^s- began to dissever 
 from their heterogeneous associates, and to seek a 
 mutual embrace : Matter appeared : and inseparable 
 from it attraction instantly began to operate, O ! who 
 can unfold or sufficiently declare the strife ineffable, 
 the unutterable war, that attended their operation.'^ 
 — To whom hath the root of Wisdom been revealed, or 
 who hath known her wise counsels ? unto whom hath 
 the knowledge of Wisdom been made manifest ? and 
 who hath understood her great Experience ? There is 
 One Wise and greatly to be feared, the Lord sitting 
 upon his throne. He created her and numbered her, 
 and poured her out upon all his works. She is with 
 all flesh according to his gift, and he hath given her 
 to them that love him.^ 
 
 And Solomon, with matchless eloquence and beauty 
 that remains unrivalled, celebrates the revelation of 
 that Living Light which became known to him, with 
 the mysteries of universal creation, not by outward 
 teaching or rational inference from effects, but by the 
 Conscious Intuition, as he relates it, of only night. . oi^t/ 
 
 A 
 
 1 Ovid. Motam., lib i. 
 
 2 Blackwell's Mytliology, letter vii. 
 ^ Ecclesiasticus, i. G, 7, 8, &c. 
 
368 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 God hath given to me, says the Wise King, a certain 
 knowledge of the things that are, namely, to know 
 how the world was made, and the operations of the 
 elements. The beginning, ending, and midst of the 
 times ; the alterations and turning of the sun ; and the 
 changes of the seasons. The circuits of years and 
 position of the stars. The natures of living creatures 
 and the furies of wild beasts, the violence of winds and 
 the reasonings of men ; the diversities of plants and 
 the virtues of roots. And all such things as are either 
 secret or manifest, them I know. For Wisdom, which 
 is the Worker of all things, taught me. In her is an 
 U72derstanding spirit — holy, only begotten, manifold, 
 subtle, lively, clear, undefiled, plain, not subject to 
 hurt, loving the thing that is good : quiet, which 
 cannot be letted, ready to do good, kind to man, stead- 
 fast, free from care, having all power, overseeing all 
 things, and going through all understanding, pure and 
 most subtle spirits.^ 
 
 And such a Wisdom (shall we not believe it?) 
 was the worthy object of all Hermetic Philosophy, 
 and the miraculous substance of its transmutativc 
 Stone. Or what, do we ask, is the Philosopher's 
 Stone ? The philosopher's stone, says the mys- 
 terious adeptist, is Ruach Elohim, which moved 
 upon the face of the waters, the firmament being in 
 the midst, conceived and made body, truly and sensibly, 
 in the virgin womb of the greater world, viz., that 
 Earth which is without fnin and water. The Son, 
 born into the light of the macrocosm, mean and of no 
 account in the eyes of the vulgar, consubstantial 
 nevertheless, and like his father the lesser world, 
 setting aside all idea of anything individually human : 
 universal, triune, hermaphrodite ; visible, sensible to 
 hearing, to smell, local and finite; made manifest luj 
 itself regeneratively by the obstetric hand of the Phy- 
 sico-Chemical AjH : glorified in his once assumed body, 
 for benefits and uses almost infinite ; wonderfully salu- 
 tary to the microcosm and to the macrocosm in uni- 
 
 1 Wiadom of Solomon, vii. 9. 
 
 i 
 
I 
 
 Manifestation of the Matter. 369 
 
 versal triunity. The Salt of Saturn, the Universal 
 son of Nature, has reigned, does reign, and will reign 
 naturally and universally in all things ; always and 
 everywhere universal through its own fusibility, self- 
 existent in nature. Hear and attend ! Salt, that 
 most ancient principle of the Stone ; whose nucleus in 
 the Decad guard in holy silence. Let him who hath 
 understanding understand ; I have spoken it — not 
 without weighty cause has Salt been dignified with 
 the name of Wisdom : than which, together with the 
 Sun, nothing is found more useful.^ 
 
 But what explanation is this ? it will be objected ; 
 a baffling about of terms, ignotum jyer ignotiws. Truly, 
 and thus it has been the custom of philosophers 
 to ring the changes from Wisdom to their Stone, 
 and from the Stone to Wisdom, through every ima- 
 ginable note and echoing cadence in variation, round to 
 the same again : but the world has become no wiser 
 for their song. For how hardly should words avail, 
 even the most significant, to convey a tangible idea of 
 that which is beyond and inverse to all sensible expe- 
 rience ; which is neither hard nor soft, nor tangible 
 nor visible, nor comprehensible by common sense, 
 until thought, by understanding (as light by the focus 
 of the familiar lens, producing combustion), has 
 brought it forth into effect and flame ? 
 
 Thus considering the inverse problem, analogically 
 however, we arrive at a more familiar conception, as 
 reason assists the imagination to a solution of its own 
 intimate mystery in life. 
 
 The centre of every Being is a spirit from the ori- 
 ginal of the world ; and the separation of this is con- 
 stantly enacted in generation, whence every creature 
 is brought through experience into life and operation. 
 And so far we stand even now in the great mystery, 
 in the Mother of all Beings ; but by the corporeal, i.e. 
 the sensual principle which is predominant in the 
 mundane conception, the divine original is obscured 
 
 ^.j&d?nrath, Amphitlieat. Sap. Etern., Isag. in fig. 
 B B 
 
 /<A. 
 
370 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 and separated off from the consciousness ; and the indi- 
 vidual subsists, as a distinct self-spiration, sevcration, 
 or outbirth, as it were, from that Fontal Reason 
 whence it springs. But in the regeneration this Rea- 
 son is said to be discovered, as, upon the dissolution 
 of the natural Ufe, it arises, through the self-perceiv- 
 ance, with creative attributes and powers. Let us 
 hear the testimony of Hermes concerning his own in- 
 timate experience in the divine Poemander, figura tt^dy 
 set forth as follows : — 
 
 My thoughts, being once seriously busied about the 
 things that be, and my understanding lifted up, — all 
 my bodily senses being entirely holden back ; me- 
 thought I saw one of an exceeding great stature, and 
 infinite greatness, call me by name, and say to me, 
 What wouldst thou hear and see ? And what wouldst 
 thou understand to learn and know? Then said I, 
 Who art thou? I am, quoth he, Poemander, the 
 Mind of the Great Lord, the most mighty and abso- 
 lute Emperor. I know what thou wouldest have, and 
 I am always present with thee. Then, said I, I would 
 learn the things that are, and understand the nature of 
 them, and know God. How? said he. I answered, 
 that I would gladly hear. Then, said he : Have me 
 again in thy mind, and whatsoever thou wouldest 
 learn, I will teach thee. 
 
 When he had thus said, he was changed i?i his 
 Idea or Form, and straightway, in the twinkling 
 of an eye, all things were opened to me ; and I saw 
 an infinite Light, all things were become Light, both 
 siveet and exceeding pleasant. And I was wonder- 
 fully dehghted in the beholding it. But after a Httle 
 while, there was a darkness made in part, coming 
 down obliquely, fearful, and hideous, which seemed 
 unto me to be changed into a certain moist nature 
 unspeakably troubled, which yielded a smoke, as from 
 fire; and there proceeded a voice unutterable, and 
 very mournful, but articulate; insomuch, that it 
 seemed to have come from the IJglit. Then from 
 that Light a certain holy Word joined itself unto 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 371 
 
 Nature, and out flew the pure and unmixed fire from 
 the moist nature upward on high. It was exceeding 
 light, sharp, and operative withal, and the air, which 
 was also light, followed the spirit, and mounted up 
 with the Fire (from the earth and water created below) 
 insomuch, that it seemed to hang and depend upon it ; 
 and the earth and ivater stayed by themselves, so 
 mingled together, that the earth could not be seen for 
 the water ; but they were moved because of the Spi- 
 ritual Word that was carried upon them. 
 
 Then said Poemander unto me, Dost thou under- 
 stand this, and what it meaneth ? I shall know, said I, 
 Then said he, / am that Light, the ]\Iind, thy God, 
 who am before that moist nature, that appeared out 
 of the darkness, and that bright and hghtfal Word 
 from the Mind is the Son of God. How is that? quoth 
 I. Thus, replied he, understand it. That which, 
 in thee, seeth and heareth the Word of the Lord, and 
 the Mind, the Father, God, differ not one from ano- 
 ther, and the union of these is life. I thank thee : 
 But first, said Poemander, Conceive well the Light in 
 thy Mind, and Know It. 
 
 And when he had thus said, for a long time lue 
 looked stedfastly one upon the other, insomuch, that 
 I trembled at his Idea or Form : But when he nodded 
 to me, I beheld in my mind, the Light that is innu- 
 merable, and the truly indefinite ornament or world, 
 and that the fire is comprehended or contained in 
 and by a most great Power, and constrained to keep its 
 station. 
 
 These things I understood, seeing the Word of 
 Pcemander, and when I was mightily amazed, he said 
 again unto me; Hast thou seen that Archetypal Form, 
 which was before the interminated and infinite be- 
 ginning ? But whence, quoth 1, or whereof are the 
 elements of nature made ? Of the Will and Counsel of 
 God, he answered, ivhich taking the Word and behold- 
 ing the beautiful world in the Archetype thereof, imi- 
 tated it, and so made this world by the same princi- 
 ples and vital seeds, or soul-like production of itself. 
 
 B B 2 
 
372 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 And straightway, God said to the Holy Word, in- 
 crease increasingly, and multiply in multitude, all ye 
 my creatures, and workmanships. And let him that 
 is endued ivith Alind know himself to be immortal ; 
 and that the cause of death is the /o?;e of body, and let 
 him learn all things that are of which he is made. 
 If therefore thou learn in this way, and believe thy- 
 self to be of the Life and Light, thou shalt pass back 
 into Life. 
 
 But tell me more, O my Mind ! how I shall go into 
 Life J* God saith, let the man endued ivith Mind, mark, 
 consider, and knoiv himself well. Have not all men a 
 mind? Have a heed what thou sayest, for I, the 
 Mind, come into men that are holy and good, and 
 pure and merciful, and that live piously and religi- 
 ously, and mij presence is a help unto them ; and forth- 
 with they know all things, and lovingly, they suppli- 
 cate and propitiate the Father, and blessing Him, they 
 give Him thanks and sing hymns unto Him ; being 
 ordered and directed by tilial affection and natural 
 love ; and before they give up their bodies to the death 
 of them, they hate their senses, knowing their works 
 and operations ; or, rather, I that am the Mind itself, 
 will not suffer the works or operations which belong 
 to the body to be finished in them ; but being the 
 Porter and Door-keeper, 1 shut up the entrance of evil, 
 and cut off the thoughtful desires of filthy works. 
 But to the foolish, and evil, and wicked, and envious, 
 and covetous, and murderers, and profane, / am far 
 off, giving place to the revenging Demon, which, apply- 
 ing unto him the sharpness of Jire, tormenteth such a 
 man sensibly, and armeth him the more to all wicked- 
 ness, that he may obtain the gi*eater punishment ; 
 and such a one never ceaseth unfulfiUable desires, and 
 insatiable concupiscences, and always fighting in dark- 
 ness ; for the Demon afflicts and torments him, con- 
 tinually increasing the Fire upon him more and more. 
 
 Thou hast, O Mind, said I, most excellently taught 
 me all things, as I desired ; but tell me moreover, after 
 the return is made, what then? First of all, in the 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 373 
 
 resolution of the material body of sense, this body it- 
 self is given up to alteration, and the form which it 
 hath becometh invisible ; and the idle manners are per- 
 mitted and left to the Demon, and the senses of the 
 body return into their fountains (in the circulation) ; 
 being parts, and are again made up into operations ; 
 and anger and concupiscence remain lowest in the ir- 
 rational life, and the rest strive upward by harmony ; 
 until, being naked of all operations, it cometh to the 
 eighth sphere, which is Intellect, having its proper 
 power and singing praises to the Father, with the 
 things that are. And all they that are present rejoice 
 and congratulate the coming of It, being made like 
 to Him with whom It converseth ; It heareth also the 
 powers that are above the eighth nature, singing 
 praises to God in a certain voice that is peculiar to 
 them, and then in order they return to the Father 
 and to themselves. 
 
 When Poemander had thus said to me, he was 
 mingled among the Powers, but I, giving thanks, 
 and blessing the Father of all, rose up and being 
 enabled by Him, and taught the nature of the Whole, 
 and having seen the greatest Spectacle, I began 
 to preach unto men the beauty and fairness of piety 
 and knowledge ; and, becoming a guide unto many, I 
 sowed in them the words of Wisdom. And in my- 
 self I wrote the bounty and beneficence of Poemander, 
 and being filled with what I most desired, I was ex- 
 ceeding glad : — For the sleep of the body was the sober 
 watchfulness of the Mind; and the shutting of my eyes 
 the true Sight ; and my silence great with child and full 
 of good ; and the pronouncing of my words the blos- 
 soms and fruits of good things. — And thus it came 
 to pass, and happened unto me by Poemander, the Lord 
 of the Word, whereby I became inspired by God with 
 the Truth. For which cause with my soul and whole 
 strength, I give praise and blessing unto God the Fa- 
 ther. — Holy is God the Father of all things ! Holy is 
 God whose will is performed and accomphshed by His 
 own Powers ; Holy is God that determineth to be 
 
374 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 known; and is known of his own, and those that are 
 His ! Holy art thou, that by thy Word hast esta- 
 bhshed all things ! Holy art thou, of whom all nature 
 is the Image! Holy art thou, whom nature hath not 
 formed ! Holy art thou, that art stronger than all 
 strength ! Holy art thou, that art greater than all 
 excellency ! Holy art thou, that art better than all 
 praise ! O thou unspeakable ! unutterable ! to be 
 praised in silence. I beseech thee that I may never 
 err from the knowledge of thee ; look mercifuUj'' upon 
 me and enable me, and enlighten with thy grace all 
 that are in ignorance, the brothers of my kind, but thy 
 Sons. Therefore I beseech thee, and bear witness, and 
 go into the Light and Life. Blessed art thou, O Fa- 
 ther ! Thy man would be sanctified with thee, as thou 
 hast given him all Power. ^ 
 
 To such testimony we are unable to add anything 
 that would render the operative revelation of Intellect 
 more obvious, or its experimental knowledge more 
 credible to the uninitiated. They who cannot imagine 
 will disbelieve without experience ; but others there 
 may be, at this day even, in whom the flame of thought 
 burns broad and clear, who having within them a sub- 
 stantial evidence of the thing hoped for, will believe and 
 know too, long before sensible observation shall have 
 forced the many to a faith which, in the Intuition 
 alone, is blessed. But if any one wish to discover the 
 First Principle, according to the doctrine of the an- 
 cients, he must be theurgically prepared, and pass 
 through many preliminary ordeals, corrosive tests, and 
 fiery solutions and dissolutions refining, in order to 
 raise himself to That which is the most united in 
 nature, and to its Flower, and That through which 
 it is Deity ; by which it is suspended from its 
 proper fountain, and connects and causes the Uni- 
 verse to have a sym})athetic consent with Itself. 
 — And if k called them gods unto whom the Word of 
 
 ^ The Diviue Poemander of Hermes Trismegistus, book ii. 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 375 
 
 God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken, say 
 ye of Him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent 
 into the world, thou blasphemest, because I said I am 
 the Son of God?^ Does not all our unbelief, as the 
 common faith, arise in ignorance ? For at present there 
 is no profound understanding of the Scriptures ; nor 
 does any look, as Agrippa says, under the Bark of the 
 Law. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, 
 the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it 
 shall turn to the Lord, says the Apostle, the veil shall 
 be taken away. For the Lord is that Spirit, and 
 where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. We 
 all, with open face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of 
 the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory 
 to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.^ — 
 Unhappy, truly tlierefore he is said to be, who regards 
 the Law as a mere simple recital, or in the light of 
 an ordinary discourse, for if in truth it were no- 
 thing more than this ; one could even be composed 
 at this day more worthy of admiration. In order .. 
 to find such mere words, observes the l^abalist, we /\ 
 have only to turn to the legislators of this world, ^=^ 
 who have frequently expressed themselves with more 
 grandeur and grace. It would suffice to imitate them, 
 and make expedient laws after their fashion. But 
 it is not thus ; each word of the Law has a mean- 
 ing and cloaks a mystery entirely sublime. The story 
 of the Law is the vestment of the Law ; unhappy he, 
 who mistakes the vestment for the Law itself. The 
 wise attend not to the outer clothing of things, but to 
 the body which it covers ; the sages and servants of 
 the Supreme King, those who dwell on the heights of 
 Sinai, are occupied only about the Soul, which is the 
 basis of all the rest ; which is the Law itself; so that 
 they may be prepared at length to contemplate and 
 know that Soul which breathes in the Law.^ Without 
 which nothing is truly known, whose Experience is All. 
 
 1 St. Jolm's Gospel, x. 
 
 2 1 Corinth, iii. 15, &c. 
 
 ^ Zohar, part iii. fol. 152, verso ; Frank, p. 165 ; Origeu Homil. 
 
 7. iu Levit. 
 
376 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 Moreover, says St. Paul, I would not that ye should 
 be ignorant, how that all our Fathers were under the 
 cloud, and all passed through the sea ; and were all 
 baptized unto iMoses in the cloud and in the sea ; and 
 did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink 
 the same spiritual drink : for they drank of that spi- 
 ritual rock that followed them : and that rock was 
 Christ.^ 
 
 And I advise thee, my son, says the Saint Synesius, 
 to make no account of other things ; labour only for 
 that Water which burns to blackness, dissolves and 
 congeals. It is that which putrefies and causes ger- 
 mination, and therefore I advise thee that thou wholly 
 employ thyself in the coction of this water, and demur 
 not at the expense of time ; otherwise thou shalt gain 
 no advantage. Decoct it geiitli/ by little and little, 
 until it have changed its false tincture into a perfect 
 form of light ; and have great care at the beginning, 
 that thou burn not its flowers and its vivacity, and 
 make not too much haste to come to an end of thy 
 work.*^ Shut thy vessel v;e\\. that it may not breathe out, 
 so that thou mayest bring it to some effect ;^ and note 
 that to dissolve, to calcine, to tinge, to whiten, to 
 renew, to bathe, to wash, to coagulate, to imbibe, to 
 decoct, to fix, to grind, to dry and to distil are all one, 
 and signify no more, than to decoct nature until such 
 time as she be perfected. Note further, that to extract 
 the soul, or the spirit, or the body, is nothing else than 
 the aforesaid calcinations in regard they signify the 
 operation of Venus. It is through the fire of the ex- 
 traction of the soul that the spirit comes forth gently ; 
 understand me, the same also may be said of the ex- 
 traction of the soul out of the body, and the reduction 
 of it afterwards upon the same body ; until the whole 
 be drawn to a commixion of the four elements, and 
 so that which is below, being like that which is above, 
 there arc made nuuiifest ttco luviitiaries, the one fixed, 
 
 1 1 Cor. X. \, 2, 3, 4. 
 
 2 See Lumen de Lumine, p. U6. Norton's Ordinal, cap. iii. 
 OS-f ^ Eiren^ua's Experiments, at the end of his Eipley Eevived, p. 
 
 f 6, &c, Norton, &c. 
 
Manifestation of the Matter, 377 
 
 the other not ; whereof the fixed which is the male 
 remains below, and the volatile remains above, moving 
 itself perpetually, until that which is below rises upon 
 that which is above, and all being substantiated, there 
 then issues forth an incomparable Luminary.^ 
 
 That was the Experiment that led our Fathers into 
 Experience, and illumination in the Divine Antecedent 
 of all life. And if experience be truly, as it is said 
 to be, the proper test of philosophy, then was not 
 tlieirs the right and true philosophy with Christian 
 regeneration for its most worthy end ? That was the 
 Art of Democritus commemorated by Lord Bacon in 
 a passage before quoted, but which, for its value's sake 
 ac well aa on account of the notoriety ^, w^e take leave 
 to recite — That if any skilful minister of nature shall 
 apply force to matter, and by design torture and vex 
 it in order to its annihilation, it, on the contrary, being 
 brought under this necessity, changes and transforms 
 itself into a strange variety of shapes and appearances ; 
 so that at length, running through the whole circle of 
 transformations and completing its period, it restores 
 itself, if the force be continued. And that method of 
 binding, torturing, and detaining will prove most effec- 
 tual and expeditious which makes use of manacles and 
 fetters ; that is to say, lays hold of and works upon 
 matter in the extremest degrees,^ That is, in the last 
 exigence of life ; when it is about to be born again from 
 out the oblivion of this w^orld and its defilements, by 
 attraction of the recreative Light within. 
 
 Then she is Isis, the Divine I am, by the Greeks 
 called Myrionymous, or the goddess with a thousand 
 names ; hereby to denote the capacity with which such 
 a Matter is endowed of understanding, and of being 
 converted to all or any of the Forms or degrees of 
 specific Law, which it may please the Supreme Reason 
 to impress upon her. As respects herself, she is 
 Nothing; — no one apostate particular, — neither animal 
 
 1 From Synesius' True Book concerning the Philosopher's 
 Stone, in fine. 
 
 '^ Bacon's Wisdom of the Ancients, Fable of Proteus. 
 
378 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 nor vegetable nor mineral apart ; but, — pre-existent to 
 them all, — she is the mother of all; and her birth, ac- 
 cording to the Adepts, is singular and not without a 
 miracle. Her very complexion is miraculous and dif- 
 ferent from every other whatsoever, and that which 
 she brings forth by the Fire of nature lawfully conceived, 
 is Orus, the Philosophic Sun. And hence, and from 
 the whole above, we may have gathered some approxi- 
 mating idea of the multinominal goddess appearing as 
 she was described by the initiated, who celebrated her 
 Mysteries in the Eleusinian fane, and further, as fol- 
 lows, by one of the no less intimately experienced 
 fraternity of the Rosy Cross. 
 
 I am a Goddess for beauty and extraction, famous, 
 born out of our oivn proper sea, which compasseth the 
 whole earth, and is ever restless. Out of my breasts 
 I pour forth milk and blood ; boil these two till they 
 are turned into silver and gold. O, most excellent sub- 
 ject ! out of which all things in the world are generated, 
 though at the first sight, thou art poison adorned with 
 the name of the flying eagle ; thou art the First 
 JMatter ; the Seed of Divine benediction, in whose bod if 
 there is heat and ra'ui ; which notwithstanding are 
 hidden from the icicked, because of thy habit and 
 virgin vestures, which are scattered over the whole 
 world. Thy parents are the Sun and Moon (philoso- 
 phical) ; in thee there is irate r and ivifie, and go/d also, 
 and silver upon the earth, that mortal man may re- 
 joice. After this manner God sends us his blessing 
 and wisdom with rain, and the beams of the sun, to 
 the eternal glory of his name. But consider, O man, 
 what things God bestows upon thee by these means. 
 Torture the Eagle till she iveeps ; and the Lion being 
 weakened, bleeds to death. The blood of this Lion in- 
 corporated with the tears of the Eagle is the treasure 
 of the whole earth. These creatures used (in their 
 circulatory course) to devour and kill one another ; but 
 notwithstanding this their love is mutual, and they 
 put on the property and nature of a Salamander ; 
 which, if it remains in the fire without any detriment, 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 379 
 
 cures all the diseases of men and metals. After that 
 the ancient philosophers had perfectly understood this 
 subject, tliey diligently sought in this mystery, for the 
 centre of the middlemost tree in the Terrestrial Para- 
 dise, entering in by fee litigious gates. The first gate 
 was the knoivledge of the true matter, and here arose 
 the first, and that a most bitter conflict. The second 
 was the preparation by which the matter was to be 
 qualified, that they might obtain the embers of the 
 eagle and the blood of the lion. At this gate there is 
 a most sharp fight, for it produceth water and blood, 
 and a spiritual bright body. The third gate is the 
 Jire which conduceth to the maturity of the medicine. 
 The fourth gate is that of multiplication and augmen- 
 tation in which proportions and weights are necessary. 
 The fifth and last gate is projection. But most glo- 
 rious, full, rich, and highly elevated is he who at- 
 tains but to the fourth gate ; for he has got an uni- 
 versal medicine for all diseases. This is the great 
 character of the book of Nature, out of which 
 her whole alphabet doth arise. The fifth gate serves 
 only for metals. This mystery, existing from the 
 foundation of the world and the creation of Adam, is 
 of all others the most ancient ; a knowledge which 
 God Almighty, by his Word, breathed into nature; a 
 miraculous power, the blessed Fire of Life ; the trans- 
 parent carbuncle and red gold of the Wise men, and 
 the divine benediction of this life. But this mystery, 
 because of the malice and wickedness of men, is given 
 only to few ; notwithstanding it lives and moves every 
 day in the sight of the whole world, as it appears also 
 by the following parable : — 
 
 I am a poisonous dragon, present everywhere, and 
 to be had for nothing. My water and my fire dissolve 
 and compound ; out of my body thou shalt draw the 
 green and red lion : but if thou dost not exactly know 
 me, thou wilt with my fire destroy thy Jive senses. A 
 most pernicious quick poison comes out of my nostrils, 
 which hath been the destruction of many. Separate, 
 therefore, the thick from the thin art'Jicially, unless 
 
380 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 thou dost delight in extreme poverty. I give thee 
 faculties both male and female, and the powers both of 
 heaven and earth. The mysteries of my art are to be 
 performed magnan'imoudy and with great courage, if 
 thou wouldest have me overcome the violence of the 
 Jire, in which attempt many have lost their labour and 
 their substance. / am the Egg of Nature, known 
 onlij to the Wise, such as are pious and modest, who 
 make of me a little world. Ordained was I, by the 
 Almighty God, for men ; but though many desire me, 
 I am given only to a few^, that they may relieve the 
 poor with my treasures, and not set their mind on 
 gold i\\(it perisheth. I am called of the philosophers 
 Mercury : my husband is Gold philosojjhical. I am 
 the Old Dragon that is present everywhere on the face 
 of the earth. I am father and mother, youthful and 
 antique, weak yet powerful, life and death, visible and 
 invisible, hard and soft, descending to the earth and 
 ascending to the heavens, most high and most low, 
 light and heavy. In me the order of nature is often- 
 times inverted in colour, number, weight, and mea- 
 sure. I am, within, the Light of nature; I am dark and 
 bright ; I spring from the earth and I come out of 
 heaven ; I am well known and yet a mere nothing ; all 
 colours shine in me and all metals, by the beams of 
 the Sun ; I am the carbuncle of the Sun, a most noble 
 clarified Earth, by which thou mayest turn copper, 
 iron, tin, and lead into most pure gold.^ 
 
 Involve we then our thoughts, if we would intrin- 
 sically conceive the wonderful Nature that is set before 
 us ; and in however small a proportion the grain of 
 faith be naturally allotted, if it be but real, let us be- 
 lieve in it, and nourish and educate, that it may 
 increase with knowledge, and finally prove its own 
 reward in practical experience : without faith, without 
 the ideal conception, nothing is or can be proven ; for 
 is not this, in fact, the leader of all experimental in- 
 quiry? The faith we invite is no blind credulity, but 
 
 ^ As g;iven in tlie Coelum Terrse of Vaughan, from the Latin 
 original of the Fraternity. 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 381 
 
 such a liberty of thought, as, bearing its own evidence 
 independently of common observation, can glance be- 
 yond this boundary into the integral probability of 
 Life. Such a faith, however small or insufficient of 
 itself, will lead on, by a proper pursuit, unto the thing 
 hoped for, and bring to evidence the occult Causality 
 of Nature : and be it for gold, then, or science, or health, / / 
 
 or higher purity and wisdom ,^ie is inquiring on this a ^^ 
 basis — w^e repeat it — the percipient right-believer will 
 not be deceived. 
 
 The Matter of all things is One and proved simple 
 in the experience ; throughout all her various manifes- 
 tations — as agent, patient, hot, cold, dry, moist ; by 
 whatever colour, quality , or species designated — whether 
 singular or plural in manifestation, Nature remains 
 one and the same Unknown Identity through all ; • /? ^ 
 
 neither water, air, earth nor gold is a &-€oaapi feeti8^ czyt/^CTLUt 
 bat every tyro in chemistry concludes they are no ele- 
 ments ; but Her, the true element, they have never 
 found ; for she eludes their tests and closest vessels ; 
 all except those of her own ethereally wise construction, 
 in which she bears her Universal Offspring, hermeti- 
 cally sealed through the flood and wreck of this dis- 
 solute existence to a resurrection always glorious, and 
 immortal at last. 
 
 .ELIA L.IILIA CEISPIS. 
 
 Nec vir, nee mulier, nee androgyna, 
 Nee puella, nee juvenis, nee anus, 
 Nee easta, nee meretrix, nee pudiea, 
 
 Sed omnia ! 
 Sublata neque fame, neque ferro, neque 
 Veneno, sed omnibus ! 
 Nee coelo, nee terris, nee aquis, 
 
 Sed ubique jacet ! 
 
 LUCIUS AGATHO PBTSCUS. 
 
 ,Nec maritus, nee amator, nee neeessarius, 
 Neque moerens, neque gaudens, neque flens, 
 
 Hane 
 Neque molem, neque pyramidem, neque sepulerum, 
 
 Sed omnia/ 
 Seit et neseit eui posuerit^ 
 Hoe est sepulerum certe, cadaver 
 Non habens, sed cadaver idem, 
 
 Est et sepulerum ! 
 
382 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 iELiA l.i;lia crispis. 
 Nor male, nor female, nor hermaplirodite, 
 Nor virgin, woman, young or old. 
 Nor chaste, nor liarlot, modest liiglit. 
 
 But all of tlicm you're told — 
 Not killed by poison, famine, sword, 
 But eacli one had its share, 
 Not in heaven, earth, or water broad 
 
 It lies, but everywhere ! 
 
 LUCIUS AGATHO PRISCUS. 
 
 No husband, lover, kinsman, friend, 
 
 Eejoicing, sorrowing at life's end. 
 
 Knows or knows not, for whom is placed 
 
 This — what ? This pyramid, so raised and graced, 
 
 This grave, this sepulchre ? 'Tis neither, 
 
 'Tis neither — but 'tis all and each together. 
 
 Without a body I aver, 
 
 This is in truth a sepulchre ; 
 
 But notwithstanding, I proclaim 
 
 Both corpse and sepulchre the same ! 
 
 All is identical — need we repeat it ? — ^in the Uni- 
 versal Identity, and every possible assertion of it will 
 be true, and the reverse in annihilation. All life, 
 body, soul, and spirit — the three hypostatic relations — 
 are born in it, one out of another ; conjoin, die, and are 
 mortified, one within the other ; are fortified and in- 
 creased, the one by the other ; differing only, in respect 
 «tib^fr oneetf tlie other, as agent, patient, and that 
 universal offspring which is the All in all, without 
 foreign admixture: as it is written, — Thou hast dis- 
 posed all things, in number, and weight, and measure. — 
 For these are the length, and breadth, and profundity 
 of Nature, which the Spirit in her emanative Law dis- 
 plays ; from the point proceeding into the line, from 
 the root into the square superficies, and from the 
 square by multiplication into that cubic form which is 
 the supernatural foundation of the New physical Whole. 
 
 The battle's fought, the conquest won, 
 
 The Lyon dead revived ; 
 The Eagle's dead which did him slay. 
 
 And both of sense deprived. 
 The showers cease, the dews, which fell 
 
 For six weeks, do not rise ; 
 Tlie ugly toad, that did so swell, 
 
 With swelling, bursts and dies. 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 383 
 
 The Argent field with. Or is stained, 
 
 With violet intermixed ; 
 The sable blacJce is not disdained 
 
 Which shows the spirit's fixed ; 
 The compound into atoms turned, 
 
 The seeds together blended, 
 Tlie flying soul to th' earth returned, 
 
 The soaring bird descended. 
 Tlie king and queen contumulate, 
 
 And joined as one together. 
 That which before was two by fate 
 
 Is tyed, which none can sever. 
 Tlie king is brother to his wife, 
 
 And she to him is mother ; 
 One father is to both, whose life 
 
 Depends upon each other. 
 The one when dead, the other dies, 
 
 And both are laid in grave ; 
 The coffins one in which both lies, 
 
 Each doth the other save : 
 Tet each the other doth destroy, 
 
 And yet both are amended ; 
 One without th' other hath no joy. 
 
 Both one, of one descended. 
 Twice forty days do come and go, 
 
 To which twice five are added ; 
 These do produce a perfect crow, 
 
 Whose blackness cheers hearts sadded ; 
 Twice fifteen more produce a dove, 
 
 Whose wings are bright and tender ; 
 Twice ten more make the so^d above 
 
 To need no fire defender ; 
 For soul and body so combine. 
 
 The spirit interceding, 
 Tincture to give of silver fine, 
 
 The sold, the body, inleading. 
 Also such fixity to add 
 
 Against the flames prevailing, 
 Which may the chymist make full glad, 
 
 The sophist er still failing, 
 Who seeks infancies for to find 
 
 Our Art so much concealed, 
 Not duly weighing in his mind 
 
 That 't is a fountain sealed, 
 Which one thing only can unlocke ; 
 
 This one thing learn to know. 
 Lest you the same event should mock, 
 
 That these same lines do show.^ 
 
 ^ Eirenrfus's Eipley Revived, p. 188, &c. 
 
 ^0^1 
 
384 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 The same tradition of the manifold powers and 
 preservation of the One Thing runs in symhol 
 throughout the Gentile Mythology, and the Arkite 
 Mysteries have reference to the physical secret of the 
 regeneration throughout. The god, dead and revived, 
 is a principal character in all their ceremonial rites — 
 Cadmillus amongst the Cabiri, Atys in Phrygia, 
 Adonis in Lydia, Osiris amongst the Egyptians. 
 
 Once too by Thee, as sacred poets sing, 
 
 The heart of Bacchus, swiftly slaughtered king. 
 
 Was saved in iEther when, by fury fired, 
 
 The Titans fell against his life conspired ; 
 
 And with relentless rage and thirst for gore 
 
 Their hands his members into fragments tore. 
 
 But ever watchful on thy Father's will, 
 
 Thy power preserved him from succeeding ill, 
 
 Till from the secret counsels of his Sii'e, 
 
 And born from Semele thro' heavenly fire. 
 
 Great Dionysius to the world at length 
 
 Again appeared with renovated strength. 
 
 Once too thy warlike axe with matchless sway 
 
 Lopped from their savage necks the heads away 
 
 Of furious beasts, and thus the pests destroyed 
 
 Which long all-seeing Hecate annoyed. 
 
 By thee benevolent, great Juno's might 
 
 AVas roused to furnish mortals with delight ; 
 
 And thro' life's wide and various range 'tis thine. 
 
 Each part to beautify with arts di\dne. 
 
 Invigorated hence, by thee we find 
 
 A demiurgic impulse in the mind ; 
 
 Towers proudly raised and for protection strong, 
 
 To thee dread guardian Deity belong. 
 
 As proper symbols of th' exalted height, 
 
 Thy series claims amidst the courts of Light. ^ 
 
 All the heroes are reported to have passed through 
 an ordeal of the same kind ; — Cadmus, Deucalion, 
 Osiris, Bacchus, Hercules, Orpheus, &c. — and to have 
 gained wonderful powers and advantages thereby. 
 All their adventures, indeed, are so many records of 
 the difficulties and dangers that the soul must endure 
 overcoming her household enemies within the strong- 
 
 ' Proclus'a Hymn to Minerva, by Taylor, in his Sallnst. 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 385 
 
 hold of life. Nor are they few, but many and fearful 
 ones that have to be encountered ; for those passions, 
 desires, vices, which to our deadened conscience are 
 trifling and palliable, when viewed within the senses' 
 prison, by the revealed light of equilibriate justice, are 
 monstrous ; and, without )( metaphor, in their imaged 
 atmosphere appear terrific : and in the divine lan- 
 guage of Poemander, do force the inwardly placed man 
 to suffer sensibly. For they do not suddenly depart, 
 or easily, even from him in whom the exemplary 
 virtue is revealed ; but, as we may remember in the 
 early tradition of the Mysteries, the material inflictors 
 are roused to vengeance by the decrees of fate against 
 the rebels of her laws ; nor is it any trifling exertion 
 which the will has to make to overcome the compact 
 which it has made with sense ; but herein consists the 
 meritorious struggle of the powers, until, by artificial 
 force of heat and exhalation, the Light, so long 
 hidden and enshrined in the Archeus, comes forth 
 as a dry splendour, surviving through all. And 
 this is that Tincture of the Sapphiric Mine before 
 alluded to, and that Subtendent which is found se- 
 minally equal to the whole of the parts whence it is 
 derived. In hdc aqua rosa latet hiejiie ; in this 
 water, when destruction has done its worst with the 
 elements of life, the principle of all is artificially pre- 
 served, as Noah in the ark, who, surviving, was able 
 to renew all things out of the remnant of creation that 
 was saved therein ; that elect remnant, worthy the 
 sacrifice that was made even of the whole corruptible 
 humanity, that has power to reproduce all and each 
 with tenfold perfection and increase out of itself. 
 
 Thus Wisdom is the perpetual theme of early 
 poetry, and though unknown to modern philosophy, the 
 ground of ancient science ; of theology, the true End 
 and proper subject of Divinity. For this Wisdom is 
 the vehicle of the Catholic Reason in Identity, the 
 bearer and measure of the Demiurgic Fire — that Fire 
 which the sensual conception occultates, and so for- 
 
 c c 
 
386 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 cibly restricts, that man does not suspect it even ; 
 but in his wiUing thraldom, fancies himself at hberty, ^ 
 not knowing in truth what it is to be free i\when, the S- 
 integral efficience of this Identity set in motion, 
 effects follow the voluntary Axle in a necessitous full 
 accord. — That was Free Will, not the motiveless chi- 
 mera which human fancy has been prone to coin, but 
 the operative Almighty Magnet freed from Tartarean 
 bondage and obscurity, and drawn upward to the glo- 
 rious consciousness of the revolving Light above. 
 
 And the whole secret of this discovery, it would 
 seem, consists in the sanguinary circulation of the 
 Vital Spirit ; in which there is a threefold Law, as 
 before explained, which has to be revolutionized also 
 in three periods ; called by the Alchemists, for certain 
 accurate reasons, Altitude, Latitude, and Profundity: 
 Altitude and Profundity, being united at their extreme 
 poles, make Latitude; and so the wheel of Life is 
 turned about : the Profundity is the subjective life, the 
 w^ater that is below; the Altitude is the objective 
 Light, the «tfeam that is above; and the conflux of 
 these two is in a Calx, out of which, as from a rocky 
 fountain, the physical TETRACTi'S springs through the 
 contrite experience into life, with attributes prolific 
 and enduring fruits. 
 
 That was the Water so much magnified by the wise 
 Adepts, the miraculous product of the spiritual poles 
 of mind in sublime conjunction at their source ; this 
 was their St ilia ?'o?is, Lac Vh^gi}ns, Elixir, Aqua Vitce 
 Azoth, Prima JlJateria Lapis ct Reins, regenerate in its 
 once assumed body, visible, tangible, and sensible to 
 every sense, local and finite, made manifest of itself 
 regeneratively, by the obstetric hand of the physico- 
 chemical art for benefits and uses almost infinite. 
 
 Fresher liquor there is none to taste, 
 And it will never consume nor waste ; 
 Tho' it be occupied evermore, 
 Tt will never be less in store ; 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 387 
 
 Which Democrit named to his intent, 
 Lux umbra carens. Water most orient ; 
 And Hermes said, no liquor so necessary, 
 As was water of crude Mercury : 
 And this shall stand, said that noble clerke, 
 For the Water within our werke.^ 
 
 Another Tablet is here which Philosophy y- upoj»~ft (Tyl^^-S^ 
 l^mo gratofi ;^ erected to the memory of her early 
 friend. 
 
 Blessed be thou. Experience ! 
 
 Full mighty is thy Influence, 
 
 Thy wondrous works record full well, 
 
 In world of worlds where thou dost dwell ; 
 
 In earth, in heaven, and in hell. 
 
 That thou art the very same, 
 
 That didst from nothing all things frame ; 
 
 Wherefore, now blessed T^ thy name ! 
 
 By whose pm*e and simple Light, 
 
 All creation sprung forth Bright, 
 Flames and floods began to roar. 
 And to present their hidden store 
 Of spirits, that sing evermore, 
 All glory and magnificence. 
 All humble thanks and reverence, 
 Be given to Experience ! 
 
 To that most Sapient, 
 
 The High Omnipotent ! 
 That said, Be It, and it was done. 
 Our earth, oui* heaven, were begun ; 
 I am, quoth she, the most in might, 
 In word, in life, and eke in light, 
 In mercy and in judgment right. 
 The Depth is mine, so is the Hight, 
 The Cold, the Hot, the Moist, the Dry, 
 Where all in all is, there Am I. 
 What thing can tell when I began, or where I make an end, 
 Wherewith I wrought, and what I mought, or what I did intend 
 
 To do, when I had done 
 
 The work I had begun ? 
 For when my Being was alone, 
 One Thing I made when there was none ; 
 A mass confused and darkly clad, 
 That in itself, all Nature had 
 To form and shape the good and bad ; 
 And then, as time began to fall, 
 
 ^ See Norton's Ordinal, chap. iv. 
 
 c c 2 
 
388 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 It pleased me the same to call. 
 
 The first Material Mother of all. 
 And from that lump divided I foure sundry elements, 
 Whom I commanded for to reigne in divers regiments ; 
 In kind they did agree, 
 But not in qualitye. 
 
 Whose simple substance I did take, 
 
 My seat invisible to make ; 
 
 And of the qualities compound, 
 
 I made the starry sky so round, 
 
 With living bodies on the ground, 
 
 And blessed them infinitely, 
 
 And bade them grow and multiply ! 
 One Thing was first employed, 
 Which shall not be destroyed ; 
 
 It compasseth the world so round, 
 
 A matter easy to be found : 
 
 And yet most hard to come by : 
 
 A secret of secrets pardye, 
 
 That is most vile and least set by. 
 
 But it's my love and darling, 
 
 Conceived with all living thing, 
 
 And travels to the world's ending. 
 A childe begetting his own Father, and bearing hys Mother, 
 Killing himself to give life and light to all other, 
 Is that I meane, 
 Most mild and most extreme. 
 
 Did not the world that dwelt in me 
 
 Take form and walk forth visibly ; 
 
 And did not I then dwell in It, 
 
 That dwelt in me for to unite, 
 
 Three Powers in one seat to sit.^ 
 
 And these are the Three continually noted in Al- 
 chemy, the Sulphur and Mercury and Salt, the active 
 and the passive, and the resulting experience of life. The 
 first, in the regeneration, is the Word of God indepen- 
 dent without all human will, miraculously conceived 
 and confessed divine in the new birth : The second is 
 of the Humanity, i. e. of the selfhood, prepared and 
 sanctified ; and the result of these two in union is the 
 Bodily Substance of things thenceforth created. By 
 a severance from real being, non-being, that is to say 
 Matter, is produced ; and the sacrifice that is gratefully 
 
 1 See Ashmole's Theat., page 336 ; Experience and Philosophr. 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 389 
 
 provided of the material nature in their reunion, as 
 
 supplying body to the Divine, excites the Powers to 
 
 participation, conceives them when they accede, and 
 
 consciously unfolds them into visibility and act. And 
 
 hence we may be enabled to conceive perhaps, in a 
 
 measure at least, how the microcosmical tradition 
 
 arose, how the human hypostasis becomes, through 
 
 a self-perceivance, into universal intelligence, and of ^ 
 
 its own voluntary resignation, If the nothingness of /ki-^o-^-v/ 
 
 self oblivion, to be the All, precedent to that wherein 
 
 is all. For with the desire of rest and contact, there 
 
 is a power of accession, and with accession a suffi- 
 
 cience, operative and universal. 
 
 Come and see, says the Rabbi in Zohar, Thought is 
 the Principle of all that is ; but it is at first Unknown 
 and shut up in itself When the Thought begins to 
 develope itself forth, it arrives at that degree when it 
 becomes Spirit. Arrived at this estate, it takes the \ 
 
 name of Intelligence, and is no longer as before it was 
 shut up in itself. The Spirit, in its turn, developes 
 itself in the bosom of the mystery with which it is sur- 
 rounded ; and there proceeds a voice which is the 
 reunion of the celestial choirs, a voice which rolls 
 forth in distinct utterance articulate, for It comes from 
 the Mind.i 
 
 Thought is the principle of all that is. Mag- 
 nificent, yet impervious assertion, shall we say ? or 
 what conceptive height may struggle to confirm it? 
 What imagination strong or hardy enough to glance 
 into the full faith ? To Be the Understanding of that 
 Light, of which all Nature is the Efflux, to move One 
 with the First Mover, and Be His Will, who is at once 
 the Antecedent and Final Cause of all? We cannot, 
 profanely as we live without the knowledge of our- 
 selves, attain to the Divine Idea; either to entertain or 
 think It self-actively is impossible. For the Thought 
 which is of God creative is the inversion of our 
 
 ^ Part i. 246 verso ; Frank, part ii. p. 191. 
 
390 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 thought ; and to know Him in It is self-annihilation in 
 the life which is eternal. 
 
 Yet if thou wilt even break the Whole, instructs 
 Pnemander, and see those things that are without the 
 world, thou mayest. Behold how great power and 
 swiftness thou hast ! Consider that which contains all 
 things, and understand that nothing is more capacious, 
 than that which is incorporeal, nothing more swift, 
 nothing more powerful ; but it is most capacious, most 
 swift, and most strong. And judge of this by thyself, 
 assimilating, for the like is intelligible by the like. 
 Increase thyself into an immeasurable greatness, leap- 
 ing beyond eveiy body, and transcending time, become 
 Eternity, and thou shalt understand God. If thou 
 art able to believe in thyself, that nothing is impos- 
 sible, but perceivest thyself to be immortal, and that 
 thou canst understand all things, every art, every 
 science, and the manner and custom of every living 
 thing ; become higher than all height, lower than all 
 depth, comprehend in thyself the qualities of all the 
 creatures ; of the fire, the water, the dry, and the moist, 
 and conceive likewise that thou canst at once be every- 
 where, in the sea and in the earth : Thou shalt at once 
 understand thyself, not yet begotten, in the womb, 
 young, old, to be dead, the things after death and all 
 these together, as also times, places, deeds, qualities, 
 or else thou canst not yet understand God. But if 
 thou hast shut up thy soul in the body, to abuse it ; 
 and say, I understand nothing, I can do nothing, I am 
 afraid of the sea, I cannot climb up into Heaven, I 
 know^ not who I am, I cannot tell what I shall be ; 
 what hast thou to do w^ith God? For thou canst 
 understand none of those fair and good things, and It 
 is the greatest evil not to know God. But to be able 
 to know, and to will, and to hope, is the straight w^ay 
 and the divine way proper to the Good ; and it will 
 meet thee everywhere thereafter and everywhere be 
 seen of thee, plain and easy, even when thou dost no 
 longer expect or look for it. It will meet thee waking. 
 
Manifestation of the Matter. 391 
 
 sleeping, sailing, travelling by night and by day, when 
 thou speakest and when thou keepest silence. For 
 there is nothing which is not the Image of God.^ 
 
 But the exemplary Logos is hidden, — slain from 
 the foundation in the exterminating fiat of our Iden- 
 tity ; and the occultation of this does not take place 
 therefore, but in two poles or principles diametrically 
 reverse. We must pass the eternal wheel of the vicis- 
 situdes of things, from the manifest created individu- 
 ahty, back into the Initial germ ; through all ages, all 
 revolutions and the infinitude of soul experience, until 
 Hfe, as an ocean tide flowing to its extreme boundary, 
 returns to refund its treasury again in its First Source. 
 Most mighty and surpassing magic of Reflection. — 
 And thou august Mother of all things, Divine Ex- 
 perience. — Thought emanating Light, as by Intelli- 
 gence excruciated. Life springs forth with motion, 
 feeling itself to Be. — In the which affirmation, in the jy / /) // 
 Divine I am, is by the Cabal signified the Substant ^otJ^i^tU^^ 
 Unity of all that is ; the fountain of Universal Na- 
 ture and her Exemplary Law, the source of so 
 many miracles and magical accordances, as of every 
 natural and supernatural increase — where Experience 
 is present with Power, and Efi^ect in substance to bear 
 them witness — where Wisdom is poured forth like 
 Water and Glory faileth not before Him for 
 ever. 
 
 For visibles here are said verily to spring out of 
 that which is invisible, as from the precedent no- 
 thingness Something is produced ; and thus the 
 recreation was seen to be a stupendous metaphysical 
 birth out of the Infinite into Light, according to that 
 notable saying of the Sybil in Boissard, 
 
 Yerbum intisibile fiet palpabile et geeminabit ut Eadix. 
 
 Ought we not therefore to take That which is impal- 
 pable and imperfectly conceived at first, and work 
 
 ^ Hermes' Divine Poemander, book s. 
 
392 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 faithfully, as the philosopher tells us, until it be the 
 Divine pleasure to make it appear ; to dissolve, coagu- 
 late, resolve, refine, and regulate, until Reason becoming 
 a bright Light in the periphery of her fiery essence 
 remains immortal, and is the Mistress of Life. 
 
 HiC EST MeECUBIUS NOSTEE NOBILLISSIMrS, ET DeUS NUN- 
 QTJAM CEE4.VIT EEM NOBLLIOEEM SUB CCELO PE^TEE ANIMAM 
 EATIONALEM. 
 
 And here the External and Internal World? were 
 seen to blend together in confluent harmony, proving 
 and establishing each other, and leaving reason nothing 
 more to doubt of, or the senses to desire, but a fulfil- 
 ment under the Universal Law. 
 
393 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Of the Mental Requisites and Impediments incidental 
 to Individuals either as Masters or Students in the 
 Hermetic Art. 
 
 Quserunt Alchimiam falsi quo que recti, 
 Falsi sine numero, sed hi sunt rejecti ; 
 Et cupiditatibus, lieu ! tot sunt iufecti, 
 Quod inter mille, millia, vix sunt tres electi 
 Istam ad scientiam. 
 
 Norton's Ordinal, Proheme. 
 
 TO those whom indmation has led thus far, with 
 a benevolent sphit, to the Inquiry, it may appear 
 no trifling object that we are in pursuit of, or irra- 
 tional, if we may help to recover the Ancient Experi- 
 ment of Nature into her Causal Light : nor, let us be 
 assured, will a few short years of study or idle handling 
 of the Matter, be sufficient to admit a man to the 
 arcana of Hermetic science. Neither does it follow (and 
 which is more to be regretted), that because all men 
 have the material and live by it, that every one is 
 therefore fitted to handle the same, or able to im- 
 prove, promote, and profit by it in the manner here 
 proposed. Few, we fear, judging by our own ob- 
 servation, and very few according to the testimony of 
 more experienced observers, are endowed with a dis- 
 position naturally adapted towards this peculiar re- 
 search ; for that it is pecuhar and distinct fi*om every 
 other branch of philosophy, may, without a more 
 lengthening demonstration, have become apparent. 
 To save fruitless labour, therefore, and deter the idle, 
 it may be well to learn at once, before we enter on 
 the routine of Practice, what the impediments are, and 
 those mental endowments most insisted on, for se- 
 curing success in the experimental pursuit. 
 
 Geber, who, in his Sum of Perfection, writes at 
 
394 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 length, and better than many, on this head, excludes 
 several classes, which may serve as a foundation for de- 
 veloping the defects of each. Natural Impotency, he 
 asserts, is manifold, and may proceed partly from the 
 physical defects of the artist, and partly from his soul ; 
 for either the organ may be weak or wholly corrupted, 
 or the soul in the oi'gan having nothing of rectitude or 
 reason in itself; or because it is fantastical, imduly 
 susceptive of the contrary of forms, and suddenly ex- 
 tensive fi'om one thing knowable to its opposite, 
 without discrimination. If a man have his faculties 
 therefore so incomplete, he cannot come to the com- 
 pletion of this work ; no more either than if he were 
 sick, or blind, or wanting in his limbs, because he is 
 helped by those members, by mediation of ivhich like- 
 wise, as ministering to nature, this art is perfected. 
 And further on, respecting the Impediments of Mind, 
 the Arabian continues, He that hath not a natural 
 sagacity and soul, searching suhtly, and scrutinizing 
 natural principles, the Fundamentals of Nature, and 
 Artifices which can follow Nature in the properties of 
 her action, cannot find the true Radix of this most 
 precious science. As there be many who have a stij/' 
 neck, void of ingenuity and every sort of perscrutina- 
 tion. Besides these, we find many who have a soul 
 easily opinionating every phantasy ; but that which 
 they believe to be truth is all imagination, deviating 
 from reason, full of error, and remote from natural 
 Law ; because their brain is replete with fumosities , it 
 cannot receive the true intention of natural things. 
 There be also, besides these, others who have a soul 
 moveable from opinion to opinion, and from will to 
 will ; as those who suddenly believe a thing and will 
 the same, without any ground at all of ?'eason ; and a 
 little after do believe another thing, and accordingly 
 will another. And these, being so changeable, can ill 
 accomplish the least of what they intend : but rather 
 leave it defective. There be, moreover, others who 
 cannot discern any truth at all to look after in natural 
 things, no more than beasts ; others again, who con- 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments. 395 
 
 demn this science and believe it not to be ; whom, in 
 hke manner and together with the rest, this science 
 contemns and repels from the accomplishment of 
 this most pious work. And there are some besides, 
 who are slaves, loving money, who do affirm this to 
 be indeed an admirable science, but are afraid to in- 
 terposit the necessary charges. Therefore, although 
 they approve, and according to reason, have sought the 
 same, yet to the experience of the work they attain 
 not, through covetousness of money. Therefore our 
 science comes not to them. For how can he who is 
 ignorant or neghgent in the pursuit of Truth, other- 
 wise attain it ? ^ 
 
 Now, if some of these should appear forced, or 
 rather fanciful obstacles to the pursuit of science, we 
 pray the reader to consider their application more 
 closely, and whether, by particularizing, w^e may be 
 able to discover their real drift. And to begin with 
 this first and last defect of Avarice ; those mammon- 
 worshippers appear indeed formerly to have believed 
 but too much ; j±ei^ that miserable division of them 
 ©siy who sought in ignorance, from inert matter, 
 without a ray of light to guide their benighted hopes. 
 Thew did but small harm comparatively, it ^Tnot they 'Cv~&^ 
 who^^ so greatly obnoxious to philosophy, -fe^^rnay 
 be rather compassionated for their folly, who found""' 
 nothing but loss and disappointment in exchange for 
 years of patient and expectant labour. There have 
 been others, far more blameworthy, tl%ft ^ H4io f ^: ^ and 
 more fallacious, against whom the true adepts have 
 unanimously declaimed ; depraved minds, that having 
 entered, as Geber implies, by the right way of reason, 
 forsook her guidance nevertheless, and basely en- 
 tangling the clue of life, climbed by it into forbidden 
 regions of self-sufficiency, and in the open face of 
 Truth, stole her young hopes, the first-fruits of her 
 divining growth, and slew her there. 
 
 ^ Summa Perfect, lib. i. cap. iii. 
 
396 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 Mammon led them on ; 
 Mammon that least erected spirit that fell 
 From heaven, for e'en in heaven his looks and thonghts 
 Were always downward bent, admiring more 
 The riches of heaven's pavement-trodden floor 
 Than ought divine or holy else enjoyed 
 In vision beatific.^ 
 
 These are they who have been held in abhorrence 
 by the good in all ages ; who, having succeeded in in- 
 ducing an exalted energy, have wilfully denied the 
 Light its true fulfilment, and substituting their own 
 hasty purpose instead of the Divine, defiled it ; com- 
 pelling the Spirit to their private ends. And what 
 will not the subject soul suffer when pressed by so 
 execrable an evil? For such is the constitution of 
 things, that it must either be filled with a superior 
 or inferior power ; and as the former is the reward 
 of piety and proximate to the Final Cause, the 
 latter is the punishment of the impious who defile the 
 divine part of their essence, insinuating an evil spirit 
 in the place of the Divine. ^ — They have discovered se- 
 crets, says the prophet, and they are those who have 
 been judged : for they know every secret of the 
 angels, ev^ery oppressive and secret power of devils, 
 and every power of those who commit sorcery, as well 
 as of those who make molten images in the whole 
 earth. They know lioiv silver is produced from the 
 dust of the earth, and how, on earth, the metallic drop 
 exists ; for lead and tin are not ]:)roduced from the 
 earth as the primary fountain of their production. 
 There is an angel standing upon it, and that angel 
 struggles to prevail. They have discovered secrets, 
 and these are they who are to be judged -^ who have 
 turned the discovery of nature to an ill account ; and 
 these are they to whom Geber alludes, who do ajjirm 
 this to be indeed an admirable science, and have sought 
 it also according to reason, yet could 7iot enter into the 
 
 1 Paradise Lost, book i. 
 
 2 Book of Enoch, cap. Ixiv. sect. ii. 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments. 397 
 
 experience, being afraid in their own persons to inter- 
 posit the necessary charges, i. e. to abandon the life of 
 selfhood, and return the product to a benevolent and 
 truthful end. Just to the pomt, we have the story of 
 an Arabian Magician, who must needs steal a little 
 boy, to go with him to the mountain, in order to sup- 
 ply the material his own wickedness did not suffer him 
 to approach. 
 
 No impure leaven (need we repeat it ?) can enter into 
 Wisdom ; she scorns to promote folly in any guise, 
 much less will she suffer defilement at man's finite 
 hand. But if anything be done against the right of 
 nature, she forsakes the polluted tabernacle and is lost. 
 Know, likewise, says the pious author of the Aquarium, 
 that if by reason of that gift vouchsafed to thee by 
 God, thou happen thereupon, even after thou hast it, 
 to wax proud or be covetous, under whatever cover of 
 false pretence, and dost hereby tempt thyself to a 
 turning away from God, by little and little ; know, for 
 I speak the truth, that this art ivill vanish from under 
 thy hands, insomuch that thou shalt not know even 
 that thou hadst it. The which, verily, hath befallen 
 more than one without their expectation.^ Does any 
 one at this day, really conversant with the Subject, 
 ridicule such an assertion ; or are our minds so far 
 estranged from the sphere of final causes, as to be 
 unable to conceive the accountability of moral evil 
 under the Law ? Is not destruction to the wicked ? 
 says Job, and a strange punishment to the workers of 
 iniquity ? Doth not He see my ways, and count all my 
 steps ? If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot 
 hath hasted to deceit ; let me be weighed in an even 
 balance, that God may know mine integrity. If my 
 step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart 
 walked after rnine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to 
 mine hands : then let me sow, and let another eat ; 
 yea, let my offspring be rooted out. — If I have made 
 gold my hope, or have said to the Jitie gold, Thou art 
 
 ^ Aquarium Sapientfim, Appendix. 
 
/ 
 
 398 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 my confidence; if I rejoiced because my wealth was 
 great, and because mine hand had gotten much ; if I 
 beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in 
 brightness : and my heaj^t hath, heen sectrtli/ enticed, or 
 7)11/ mouth hath kissed my hand: this also were an 
 iniquity to be punished by the Judge: for I should 
 have denied the God that is above} 
 
 That was the transgression of Eve, and of Adam, 
 who sought to hide his iniquity in his bosom ;^ but so 
 multifanous are the estrangements of sense, and so 
 rapidly are effects carried along and remotely imaged 
 in this world, that their source becomes less and less 
 an object of general regard. The Laws of Nature 
 indeed are examined into, and practically demonstrated 
 to be just what they appear to be ; the moral, the 
 physical, and the organic are well reasoned and ohown 
 tiptigt ; as in their constitutional consequences , att aliimat - 
 (X^(xrcu «4 from each other, fixed and independent. For nature 
 at the circumference subsists in this way ; animals, birds, 
 insects, fishes, herbs too, and minerals, having their 
 parts so variously qualified, that not anything homo- 
 geneous is discovered to sight. Each creature never- 
 theless has its class ; and a kingdom in common belongs 
 to each specific variety. As a tree, with its flowers, 
 leaves, and branches, in plural manifestation, is at the 
 root one ; and as the flower may die and the leaves 
 still survive, or the trunk without either live to endure 
 the winter's blast, so with respect to the natural laws ; 
 and in such a respect are they seen, independent and 
 apart fi'om each other ; neither more nor less, for in 
 their root are they not also one ? Let the virus but 
 once reach this by either channel, the moral, the phy- 
 sical or the organic vitally infiinged, the whole structure 
 sympathizing decays. It is true, a man may be unjust, 
 cruel, avaricious ; may indulge in many vices without 
 suffering in health, provided the structural Laws be well 
 conditioned and obeyed : contrariwise, also, the best 
 
 ^ Job, xxxi. 3—21. 
 2 Idem, 33. 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments. 399 
 
 men may suffer from physical defects and infringe- 
 ment of the organic law. In mechanical arts, too, and 
 ordinary intellectual operations, we image out ideas 
 by suitable subjects independently ; so that, whether 
 it be for the sake of gain, fame, or object of what- 
 ever kind, whether the work be undertaken with a 
 benevolent, malicious, or other uncertain intent, the 
 thing resulting may be the same, and remain to image, 
 not the motive instigatory but the Idea. It is either 
 well or ill done, beautiful or deformed, according to the 
 pattern and skill that have been exercised, irrespective 
 of the individual intention which gave it birth. The 
 pictures of Holbein are not less beautiful for all the 
 covetous spirit that reigned with their conception ; the 
 deformity of the artist's soul was, as the Laws of 
 Nature, apart, nor ever manifested in his produced 
 work. The motive-springs of humanity are very 
 generally made occult^ like the armament within the 
 Trojan Horse, are often admitted under other pretext, 
 to develope their force securely, whether of good or evil, 
 in the world. And whilst yet they are borne along 
 in outward consequence far from their originating 
 source, the many are slow to perceive it, though they 
 should retain all the while possibly, in the abiding 
 purpose, the conscious rewards of its own kind. 
 
 But in Alchemy, where the nature of things is alto- 
 gether altered and ultimately reversed. Final Causes 
 are of all things most manifestly revealed, and that in 
 their immediate act and operation no less than in the 
 eifect. Here is no gathering of grapes from thorns, 
 or figs from thistles, as in this life is attempted ; but 
 the intention is received back according to its kind most 
 exactly ; where the subject, object, and result, through 
 eveiy phase of life agree together, where the end is 
 determinate fi'om the beginning, as the beginning is by 
 the end made manifest, without intervention or con- 
 cealment in the ministering Spirit throughout. Spring- 
 ing directly from ourselves, this highly effective agent, 
 even in the natural state, inclines, as the will directs, 
 to image the conceived Idea ; how much more, when 
 
400 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 promoted through a second to a third degree of con- 
 centration, does it become fortified ; and further mul- 
 tiplying in the Conjunction, impose in sure conse- 
 quences on him who wields it the inherent account- 
 ability ? An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth ; so 
 does the Law of Justice exact retribution in those 
 spheres : hence so much caution and secrecy, that the 
 Power might only be discovered through the long labour 
 of an experienced and upright mind. Hence so much 
 continued warning off the profane ; lest, deviating, they 
 should either break or become broken necessitously 
 upon the Wheel of Life. Sons of science ! for this reason 
 are the philosophers said to be envious, declares Hermes, 
 not that they grudged the truth to religious or just 
 men, but to fools, ignorant and vicious, who are without 
 self control and beneficence, lest they should be made 
 powerful and able to perpetrate sinful things, for of 
 such the philosophers are made accountable to God, 
 and evil men are not accounted worthy of this Wis- 
 dom.^ 
 
 Mais tryeful, merveyloys, and Archimastrye 
 
 Is the tincture of holi Alkimy ; 
 
 A wonderful science, and secret filosophy 
 
 A singular grace and gift of the Almightye ; 
 
 Which never was found, as witness we can, 
 
 Nor thys science was ever tauglit to man, 
 
 But he were proved perfectly with space. 
 
 Whether he were able to receive this grace. 
 
 For his trewth, virtue and for his stable wit, 
 
 Which, if he faill, he shall never have it. 
 
 Also no man should this science teach, 
 
 For it is so wonderful, and so selcouth, 
 
 That it must needs be taught fro' mouth to moutli ; 
 
 Also he must (if he be never so loath), 
 
 Receive it with a most sacred oath, 
 
 That, as we refuse great dignity and fame, 
 
 Soe he must needly refuse the same. 
 
 And this science ii ust ever secret be, 
 
 The cause whereof is this, as ye may see. 
 
 If one evil man had hereof all his will. 
 
 All Christian pease he might easily spill ; 
 
 And with his pride he might pull downe, 
 
 Eightful Kings and Princes of reuowne ; 
 
 ' Tract. Aur. cap. i. 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments. 401 
 
 Wherefore the sentence of peril and jeopardy 
 
 Upon the teacher resteth dreadfully. 
 
 So that for doubt of such pride and wealth 
 
 He must beware, that will this science teach, 
 
 No man therefore may reach this great present. 
 
 But he hath virtues excellent. 
 
 Soe tho' men weene possessors not to aide 
 
 To hallow this science, as before is saide, 
 
 Neither seem not blessed effectually. 
 
 Yet, in her order, this science is holy. 
 
 And forasmuch as no jnan may her find 
 
 But only by grace, she is holy in her kind. 
 
 Also it is a work and cure divine, 
 
 Foul copper to make gold and silver fine ; 
 
 No man may find such change by his thought, 
 
 Of divers kinds which Grod's hands have wrouglit ; 
 
 Por Grod's conjuctions man may not undoe. 
 
 But if his grace fully consent thereto. 
 
 By help of this science, which our Lord above, 
 
 Has given to such men as He doth love, 
 
 Wherefore old Fathers, conveniently, 
 
 Called this science Holy Alkimy.' 
 
 None ever truly attained to the fruits of this philo- 
 sophy, as the wise declare, without rectitude of in- 
 tention and the blessing of God on a well tried expe- 
 rience : and it is the reiterated assertion of this grate- 
 ful truth that has encouraged us, by a natural faith, to 
 pursue the inquiry and recommend it to others who 
 are desirous of instruction. To say that the pursuit is 
 without danger to the ill-informed, would be presuming 
 too much on late acquaintanceship and contrary to the 
 credible assertion of adepts. But there are many de- 
 grees of success in the le2:itimate path, and every step 
 is progressive where the Rule of Reason is pursued. 
 Avarice, or ambition, or a curious hope, may long to 
 prove the golden promise of Alchemy ; but neither will 
 be found to be the true Form of Gold ; Reason alone 
 can enter into It ; Mammon may draw the dead metal 
 in heaps about its sordid circumference ; but it cannot 
 quicken the aurific seed in life ; that Spirit is too gross 
 to permeate the ethereal profundity ; all he can draw 
 from it is stolen ; for he is the first to fly from Wis- 
 
 ^ Norton's Ordinal, chap. i. in Ashmole's Theatrum. 
 D D 
 
402 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 dom's fiery ordeal, not able to enter with his camel 
 form, or daring to prove his vaporous essence in Her 
 pure Light. 
 
 But to proceed ; next above the Covetous, Sceptics 
 are condemned by Geber : but as these by their own 
 choice remain in ignorance, they would merit less re- 
 proval were it not that they endeavour to hinder 
 others as well as themselves from the pursuit of truth. 
 And of all evil spirits that haunt this world and set up 
 their bar to human advancement, infidelity perhaps is 
 the most absurd : by infidelity, we mean that fashion- 
 able kind of faithlessness, w^hich, without rational 
 foundation, denounces everything that is new, or 
 not seeming immediately to square with the received 
 common-place, and which in truth conceives nothing 
 w'orthy to be believed, or held in veneration. The 
 age of religious intolerance has passed gradually away, 
 and great allowances are now made for most things, 
 all kinds of folly and diversities of opinion ; but so 
 much higher does the folly of scepticism run than 
 heretofore, over all boundary, test of reality and pro- 
 bability of truth, that we had as lieve the days of 
 Galileo had been our's, as live so much later to see the 
 recovered secret of ages dwindle and sink into obloquy 
 for lack of faith and mind verily to bear it witness in 
 manifestation. 
 
 It is the wisdom of modern sceptics to ape the thing 
 which they stand most in need of, viz., sound reason; ' q 
 the deficiency too is doubled in their disguise, as,, igno- '"^ 
 rant of their own ignorance, they push forward as so 
 many stolid bolts before the gate of Truth. Yet, de- 
 spite of all the rejectors and scoffers. Nature opens 
 her hospitable door to the multitude in the highways 
 and byways, seeking them out to alleviate their sufferings 
 and offer a new guide to knowledge and felicity. We 
 7u; o allude to Mesmerism : wei^^er ashamed, but grateful 
 
 to acknowledge the neglected Door-keeper that gave us 
 first introduction to the vestibule of antique science. 
 Do they not perceive how she has risen up, lifted by a 
 few faithful hands out of their reach ? Those scoffers ? 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments. 403 
 
 But her monarchy was estabhshed and triumphant 
 even before they perceived her, or ever their wicked 
 crusade against her was begun. They warred with 
 they knew not what, or wished either to know ; or, 
 had they wislied, would it avail without faith to sti- 
 mulate in the pursuit. Nature, who is liberal of her 
 common gifts and lavishes earthly blessings without 
 personal respect, opens not this casket after the same 
 rule ; she must be moved to it subtly, conscientiously, 
 courteously, and then she will surrender to none but a 
 philosopher, one too that has been disciphned in her 
 schools, tried and proven to ensure his ability to bear 
 the sacred trust. 
 
 Therefore no man shulcle be too swifte, 
 
 To cast away our Lord's precions gifte, 
 
 Consideriuge liow the Almighty God, 
 
 From great doctors hath this science forbod ; 
 
 And granted it to few men of his mercy, 
 
 Such as be faithful, trew and lowly. 
 
 And as there be but planets seven 
 
 Among the multitude of stars in heaven, 
 
 Soe among millions of millions of mankind 
 
 Scarcely seven men male this science finde. 
 
 Wherefore laymen ye may lere and see 
 
 How many doctors of great authority, 
 
 With many searchers have this science souglit, 
 
 Yet all their labours have turned to nought. 
 
 And if they did cost, yet found none availe, 
 
 But in their purpose often tyme did faile. 
 
 Then in despair, they reason and departe. 
 
 And then they say how there is noe such arte ; 
 
 But fained fables, they name it as they goe, 
 
 A fals fond thing, they say it is alsoe. 
 
 Such men presume too much upon their minde, 
 
 They weene their wits sufficient this arte to finde ; 
 
 But of their slander and wordes of outrage. 
 
 We take thereof trewly little charge : 
 
 For such be not invited to our feast. 
 
 Which weeneth themselves wise, and can doe leaste. 
 
 Albeit such men list not longer to pursue, 
 
 Tet is this science of Alkimy full trew ; 
 
 And albeit some proud clerks say nay, 
 
 Tet every wise clerke weU consider may. 
 
 How he which hereof might no trewth see. 
 
 May not hereof lawful witness be ; 
 
 D D 2 
 
404 Laws and Conditions, 
 
 For it were a wondrous thing and queinte 
 
 A man ilmt never had sight to peinte. 
 
 How sliould a born blinde man be sure 
 
 To write or make good portraiture ? 
 
 To build Poule's steeple might be greate double 
 
 For such proud clerks to bring aboute ; 
 
 Such might be apt to break their crowne, 
 
 Ere they could wisely take it downe. 
 
 Wherefore all such are full far behind e, 
 
 To fetch out the secretest pointe of kinde ; 
 
 Therefore all men, take their fortune and chance, 
 
 Eemit such clerks to their ignorance.^ 
 
 Rational scepticism has quite another object and 
 never exhibits itself in the refractory form of its mock 
 ally. It is the province of reason to inquire and en- 
 deavour, by perscrutination, to prove all things, that, 
 finally rejecting the false, it may hold fast that which 
 is true. Such scepticism, more properly perhaps 
 called discrimination, is as much required by the Her- 
 metic Student as the other is obnoxious. For this 
 kind of analytic exercise helps to corroborate the mind, 
 and cultivate that distinctive supremacy of truth in the 
 qAoU'I understanding/^which is so essential to success in the 
 
 ^ / practical research ; but which is very rarely to be met 
 
 with in uneducated minds. And, being without it, 
 need we wonder that so many are now, as in Geber's 
 and Norton's time, opinionative, unstable in purpose, 
 wilful and dissimulating ; or that they wlio have never 
 entertained the true ideal should fail to recognise the 
 image when represented before their eyes ? The 
 searcher of nature ought to be, as she herself is, faith- 
 ful, simple, patient, constant, giving his mind to the 
 discovery of truth alone, hopeful and benevolent. It 
 behoves him, also, who would be introduced into this 
 hidden Wisdom, says the Hermetic Master, to free him- 
 self from the usurpation of vice, and to be good, just, 
 and of a sound reason, ready at hand to hel]) mankind, of 
 a serene countenance, diligent to save, and be himself a 
 patient guardian of the arcane secrets of philosophy.^ 
 
 * Norton's Oi-dinal, chap. i. 
 2 Tract. Aur. cap. ii. 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments. 405 
 
 And if to these qualifications a convenient leisure be 
 added, all may be hoped for progressively passing by 
 a living experience into the Light. But neither will a 
 busy head nor a faithless heart, by impure hands, be 
 able ; nor does a vagabond inclination enter in by the 
 narrow way of life. 
 
 With respect to the impediments of body mentioned 
 by Geber, these are less numerous and more com- 
 monly supplied : Hands and eyes are to be had in 
 abundance, and where these are conjoined with the 
 foregoing conditions, other hinderances with respect to 
 the artist may, for the occasion, be passed by. Then 
 for the student; he should, as a matter of course, be 
 possessed, or learn, at least, to cultivate the incipient 
 qualifications he intends afterwards to bring to prac- 
 tice. The same patient hope and free perspicuity of 
 thought and imagination also will be called for, in ac- 
 quiring the Hermetic doctrine, by perusal, as is after- 
 wards needed for the experimental proof. Reading was 
 not formerly adapted to the million, as it now is, in 
 thought, language, and reference — familiarized and 
 made easy to the understanding of all. No such al- 
 luring baits to idleness are to be found on the title 
 pages of the middle age school of philosophy ; — no 
 such simplifications of science, as we now hear of, are 
 belonging to Alchemy. It is true, there are Revelations, 
 Open Entrances, New Lights and True Lights, Sun- 
 shine and Moonshine, with other Auroras, and pictured 
 Dawns ; Manuals, Introductory Lexicons of obscure 
 terms, with meanings no less obscured ; Trium- 
 phal Chariots also, ^\£a»&. Gates, Keys, and Guides 
 too without number, all directing on the same Royal 
 Road when this is found ; but useless to most way- 
 farers ; nothing that we observe at all suited to the 
 means or taste of the miUion?ffy class of readers whose 
 understanding, like that of pampered children, has 
 grown flaccid ; and, by excess of object-teaching, has 
 forgotten how to think. 
 
 Very few there will be found to relish the enigmas 
 of the old Alchemists ; no thoughtless experimentalist. 
 
 /3. 
 
 ayrx/y^*- 
 
 'o^O^^ 
 
 I 
 
406 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 persisting in his mere senses — no hopeful receipt - 
 monger, sectarian fanatic, or fact idolator — no idhng 
 curiosity seeker, or dilettanti imaginist, will find even 
 his leisure well occupied in this pursuit : we warn 
 them all, the subject is too abstruse, and too intricately 
 dealt with, for the natural understanding to appre- 
 jUL. / hend at first view. But it io trucks the adepts in- 
 
 deed foretold, their records have proved like a curious 
 two-edged instrument — to some it has cut out dainties, 
 and to others it has only served to cut their fingers ; 
 yet are they not altogether to be blamed. It is not 
 for the ignorant to blame the power of that which they 
 do not know how to handle ; or would it not be a ridi- 
 culous thing, if some child or arrogant rustic were to 
 denounce the language of Astronomy, or say that Che- 
 mistry was a vain science, and merely because the 
 terms are not comprehensible without instruction ? In 
 almost all the records of Alchemy, the inner sense is 
 held aloof from the literal ; and if, by hazard or bene- 
 volent design, the truth has escaped in plain discourse, 
 it has been either slighted over or disbelieved. Thus 
 Sendivogius relates it had frequently happened to him, 
 that having intimated the Art to some friends, word by 
 word explaining it, they could by no means understand 
 him, not believing, as he quaintly expresses it, that there 
 was any water in our sea; and yet, says he, they would be 
 accounted philosophers. Other instances of the same 
 kind are given, amongst whom, Eireneus, in the run of 
 his allegory relates, — There were a multitude of men, 
 who, seeing my Light in my Hand, which they could not 
 discern well, they being in that darkness which would 
 not be enlightened ; but, as through a thick cloud be- 
 holding my candle, judged it ominous, and left their 
 stations. For their eyes with darkness and smoke were 
 made so tender, that my candle overpowered them, and 
 they could not bear its lustre ; therefore they, crying out, 
 ran away. I mused much at this, continues the philo- 
 sopher, how they could be in such Cimmerian darkness; 
 and as I wondered, I bethought me, that they had with 
 them another light, as it were. Fox-fire or Rotten wood, 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments. 407 
 
 or Glow-worm's tails; and with this they sat in consul- 
 tation, reading Geber, Rhasis, and such whom I heard 
 them name, and commenting on them, not without 
 much pleasantness. Then I considered that the light 
 which I had brought with me did not enlighten that 
 place, but stood separated, as it were, from the dark- 
 ness ; and withal I remembered that there was once a 
 Light in the World, and the Darkness comprehended it 
 not : and that darkness I now perceived had a false 
 fire of its own, with which it seemed to its inhabitants 
 to be wonderfully well enlightened.^ i^l ^ 
 
 This hnmoroua intududa of Eiren^us,.in the out- 'JJia^^ 
 ward application, bears not unaptly to our con- 
 clusion, that the abstruse light of Alchemy is not 
 fit for the understanding of all, neitlier is percep- 
 tible to the gross intelligence of the mass of man- 
 kind. But this singular fate of incredulity has seemed 
 always to attend, lest folly or wilfulness, precipi- 
 tously passing into practice, should either perish or 
 break the divine legislation in inharmonious effects. 
 And thus the Art will probably continue concealed 
 through many ages still ; nor, except by a very few, 
 be more accredited, though all early Christendom 
 should rise up in attesting array to give it evidence. 
 For what is truth to triflers, or light to the indifferent 
 worldling, who cares not to be undeceived ? How en- 
 list him in a search so arduous, so uninteresting to his 
 affections, and inimical to his self-love ? No ! wise in 
 his generation, rather let him sleep on ; for what 
 would it profit him to learn to believe without the 
 power of realizing any good ? Without a stable 
 theory, and the desire of truth absolutely leading, all 
 is mere vanity and a vexation of the spirit. 
 
 It wei'e much better for such to cease, 
 Than for tliis art to put them in presse ; 
 Let such-like butterfles wonder and pass, 
 Or learne this lesson both now and lasse, 
 Following the sentence of this lioli letter, 
 
 1 Ripley Eevived, First Gate, p. 12 1 . 
 
408 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 Attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter, 
 
 Disponens omnia suaviter ; 
 
 That is proceede mightily to th' End 
 
 From the beginning maugre the Fiend. 
 
 All tilings disposing, in the meane space, 
 
 AVitli great suavity that cometh of grace, 
 
 All short-witted men and mutable 
 
 Such must needes be variable ; 
 
 And some do every man believe, 
 
 Such credence doth their coffers grieve ; 
 
 To every new tale to them told, 
 
 They give credence and leave the old. 
 
 But some Lords be of stable wit, 
 
 Such only be apt to finish it.^ 
 
 Adepts all therefore advise discretion, and are cir- 
 cumspect in their revealments, lest That, which in the 
 hands of a philosopher becomes most precious, should 
 be otherwise made worthless, or worse than all. He 
 that understands, says the royal artist, let him under- 
 stand and advance ; but let him that cannot, be igno- 
 rant still. For this treasure is not to be bought with 
 money ; and as it cannot be bought, so neither can it 
 be sold.^ Ye sons of Avarice and Ignorance, cries 
 Geber, and ye of evil manners, avaunt and fly from 
 this science, for it is inimical to you, and wdll bring 
 you to poverty. For this great gift of God is, by His 
 judgment, hidden fi'om you forever ; and therefore we 
 treat of it in such words as to the wise shall, by pur- 
 suit, become intelligible : but to such as we have de- 
 scribed, men of mean capacity, will be most jirofound; 
 and fools shall be absolutely debarred entrance therein.^ 
 
 Common language is suited to express common 
 jcn-Ufh-^ idoftc , and to convey them to the vulgar conception ; 
 ^ but the Alchemists, for various sufficient reasons, have 
 
 not thought lit to deliver their Wisdom in this w^ay, as 
 if it could be syllabled out like a romance or a com- 
 mon ballad, for the amusement of the first runner by, 
 who would deign to look with his mere eyes and read. 
 They better knew the value of their instructions, and 
 
 1 Norton's Ordinal, chap. vi. 
 
 2 Calid in Salmon, p. 30. 
 
 3 Summa Perfect, in fine. 
 
 ,fjto 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments. 409 
 
 so studiously veiled it, that he only who was really de- 
 sirous, and made fit by long study to pursue the work, 
 should be able to understand them. — The words of the 
 wise are as goads, says the preacher, and as nails fast- 
 ened by the master of assemblies which are given by 
 one shepherd. — One spirit indeed reigns throughout, 
 and one intention ; but she is so hedged in with ca- 
 balisms, metaphors, types, emblems, and sophistica- 
 tions, there is but One Leader, who should undertake the 
 deliverance ; one only, we repeat ; he that is allied — / • /I 
 the same^hat, in practice strengyiening,_afterwardsJ& ^-s? Cc&r\jKt 
 enabled to raise the allegoric siege of life ; and by the aCu^/^ 
 fire of his divine wrath enkindled, to overcome the ■^ 
 
 stronghold of evil therein allied. 
 
 And let the sapient artificer, concludes the prince, 
 studiously peruse our books, collecting our dispersed 
 intention, which we have described in divers places 
 that we might not expose it to malignant, ignorant 
 men ; and let him prove his collection even into 
 the knowledge, studying and experimenting with the 
 instance of sagacious labour, till he come to an 
 entire understanding of the whole. Let the stu- 
 dent exercise himself, in order to find out this our 
 proposed way of investigation, so as to acquire a 
 plenary knowledge of the verity of the perfecting 
 and con-upting Matter and Form.^ And again, — I 
 beg of thee, my son, says the adept Ricliardus, to 
 examine the writings of the philosophers ; for if thou 
 art slothful at thy books, thy mind cannot he prepai'ed 
 for the icork ; nor will he be able advantageous lij to 
 bring his Hand to the practice whose Mind is sluggish in 
 studying the theory. But he with more security shall 
 advance to the w^ork who has stored his mind with 
 resources : ignorance is wiped off by study, which 
 restores the human intellect to true science and know- 
 ledge, and by these enigmas the Dagon is overthrown.^ 
 Zachary likewise, in his Opusculum — This I tell thee, 
 
 1 Epilogue to the Invest, of Perfection. 
 
 ^ See Lucerna Salis, many passages to the same effect. Eichardi 
 Ang. libel, cap. iii. 
 
410 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 he says, that thou oughtest first to read with un- 
 wearied patience and perseverance the writings of the 
 philosophers hefore thou extendest thy Hand to the 
 Pliilosophic Work, and pray to God for his grace and 
 wisdom to help thee therein ; for no one ever acquired 
 this art by chance, but by prayer rather than by any 
 other means. Mediums nevertheless are to be em- 
 ployed.^ Pray, says Sendivogius, pray; but work. 
 God indeed gives understanding; but thou must 
 know how and when to use it.^ Arnold, in his 
 Rosary, mentions three requisites, viz., subtlety of 
 mind, manual skill, and a free will for the operation ;'* 
 to which Lully, likewise adds a sufhciency of the Divine 
 Favour, and books to open the understanding and 
 give it zest for truth. ^ The author of the Luccnia 
 Sails, moreover, agrees that in order to aequiie this 
 science study is required in the beginning, and medita- 
 tion, that a good foundation may be laid ; for that 
 without this God does not reveal His grace, nor unless 
 He be prompted thereto by the fervent prayers of him 
 who desires so signal a favour. He does not either 
 grant it immediately to any person, but always by 
 mediate dispositions , to wit, by instructions and the 
 labour of the hands ; to which He gives a thorough 
 blessing if He be invoked thereto with a sincere heart: 
 whereas, when recourse is not duly had to Him by 
 
 ^ Zachary Opuscule, p. 69. 
 
 - New Light, p. 122. 
 
 •■* Arnoldi Rosarium, 1. ii. cap. v. Puta subtile iugenium ar- 
 tiHcis, opera niauuum et arbitriuni ; quod quideui requirit divitias, 
 sapieutiam, et libros. 
 
 '^ LuUii Theor. Test. c. 31. Et idcirco fili tibi dico, quod tria 
 reqiiiruutur, scilicet, iugenium subtile natiirale non sopliisticuiii, 
 mauuum operatic, et liberuni arbit\[uni, et hoc requirit sapieutiam, 
 divitias, et libros. Sapieutiam, ad sciendum lacere : divitias, ad 
 habendum potestatem facieudi : libros ad intellect um aperieudum 
 divcrsvuu qui est in multis gentibus. And Kic^ardus — Studium se- 
 cundum doctores amovet ignorantiam et reducit humanum intel- 
 lectum ad veram scientiam et cognitioncm cujuslibet rei. Ergo 
 in primis necesse est per studium hujus suavis operis scientiam 
 acquirere et per philosophica dicta iugenium acuere, cum in ipsis 
 sit cognita via veritatis si ergo laborantes laborem non de- 
 spexerint fructum iudo provenientem dulciter gustabuut, &c. — 
 Theat. Chem. vol. ii. p. 419. Iticlyardi Anglici Libellus, cap. ii. 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments. 411 
 
 prayer, He stops the effect thereof, either by inter- 
 posing obstacles to things already begun, or else suf- 
 fering them to conclude with an evil event. ^ 
 
 These several preliminary requirements will not ap- 
 pear astonishing to those who have obtained an insight 
 into the nature of this science, nor will it be deemed 
 by any, we hope, a canting pretence or affectation for 
 philosophers to talk of praying for Divine assistance in 
 a research, which is so much wrapped in and about the 
 Desire as to be ultimately made manifest through its 
 means. Besides, are we not accustomed to seek for 
 benefits where we think they are to be found ? if we go 
 to the musician to learn music, the chemist to procure 
 instruction in his art, to the astronomer, builder, or 
 other mechanist to learn their several acquirements, 
 how^ much more ought we not to apply to the Causal 
 Fountain for Wisdom, which is His alone and volunta- 
 rily to bestow ? And as the learned of this w^orld must 
 be won by some means to impart their knowledge, 
 shall we not by the same parallel endeavour to move 
 the Divine Nature by prayers, who has promised all 
 things to those humbly and early seeking Him ? For 
 to desire and covet after Wisdom is to seek to be a 
 partaker of that Divinity to which we aspire, and no 
 otherwise can we be made partakers, it is taught, but 
 by a voluntary assimilation. — My son, instructs the 
 wise Hermes, I admonish thee to love God, in wliom 
 is the strength of thy undertaking and the bond of 
 whatsoever thou meditatest to unloose, and this 
 science I have obtained by the sole gift of the living 
 God inspiring me.^ Man may conditionate — ought, by 
 patient labour disciplining, to prepare the way of the 
 Greater in the Lesser Good ; but he cannot compel, 
 much less impart, the Divine blessing on his handi- 
 work, neither cement the spiritual union yiov give 
 it increase. There is a period too, when in conjunc- 
 
 1 Digby's Translation of the Lucerua Sails, page 320. Ee- 
 capitulation. 
 
 - Tract. Aur. cap. i. & ii. 
 
412 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 tion, the Spirit transcends all earthly control, and 
 passing under the Divine Hand, recreates by His sove- 
 reign will alone. But it is vain to look for a blessing 
 from Nature without His co-operation who is her Will ; 
 for without controversy, as the Scripture alludes, the 
 Lesser is blessed by the Greater. — Every good gift and 
 every perfect gift comes from the Father of Lights in 
 whom there is no variableness or shadow of turning. 
 — And again, Paul may plant and Apollos may water, 
 but God alone giveth the Increase. — And God withholds 
 not this increase alone, but deprives the talent like- 
 wise, where it is wasted or hoarded without interest or 
 promotion. To them that have and use is given 
 more abundantly, but from him that improves not 
 there is taken away even that which he has. For the 
 Almighty will not permit his gifts to remain idle, 
 much less may they suffer abuse, being immortal ; and 
 he therefore must be a good steward who w^ould over- 
 look the rich treasury of life. 
 
 Our gold and silver ben no common plate, 
 
 But a sperme owte of a body I take, 
 
 In tlie wliycb is alia, Sol, Lune, Life and Light, 
 
 "Water and Ertb, Fyre and Frygbt : 
 
 And alle cometb of one Image, 
 
 But the AVater of the Wood, maketb the marriage. 
 
 Therefore there ys no other waye 
 
 But to take thee to thy beades and pray : 
 
 For covetous men yt fiudeth never 
 
 Though they seek yt once and ever : 
 
 Set not your hearts in thys thing 
 
 But only to God and good lyvinge 
 
 And he that will come thereby 
 
 Must be meeke and full of mercy : 
 
 Botli in spyrit and in countenance. 
 
 Full of charitie and good governance, 
 
 And ever more full of alms deede. 
 
 Symple and pewerly hys lyf to leade : 
 
 AVitli prayers, penances, and piety. 
 
 And ever to God a lover be, 
 
 And all the riches that he ys sped, 
 
 To do God worshippe with almes deed. 
 All you that have sought manie a day. 
 Leave worke, take your beades and pray.* 
 
 ' Fierce, the Black Monk, on the Elixir, in Aslimole's Theat. 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments. 41^ 
 
 With the nature and effects of prayer, in ordinary 
 Hfe, all men are familiar in one degree or other; for 
 every desire of the mind is in its kind a prayer and 
 preparative for the acquirement of its object ; and if 
 prayer effected nothing else, it certainly collects the 
 mind, and coiToborates the faculties in their pursuit ; 
 for when the thoughts are concentered, means and ad- 
 juncts suggest themselves, which do not occur when 
 they are indifferently drawn ; and thus by a prayerful 
 communion we often obtain and divine things which 
 otherwise we should not. But the esoteric ground 
 brings us acquainted with prayer in a far deeper sense, 
 and adepts are eloquent in their imputations of its 
 efficacy in Spagyric Works, when the mind is lifted 
 up ; — even in the midst of the operations of Vital 
 Chemistry, full of labour and toil, they prayed, says 
 Kirchringius, and every man knows, that hath entirely 
 devoted himself to this business, how effectual prayer 
 is, and how often those things which he long sought 
 and could not find, have been imparted to him in a mo- 
 ment, as it were, infused from above, or dictated by 
 some good genius. That also is of use in solving rid- 
 dles and enigmatical writings ; for if you burn with a 
 great desire of knowing them, that is pi^ayer : and 
 when you incline your mind to this or that, variously 
 discussing and meditating many things, this is co- 
 operatioti : that your prayer may not be, for want of 
 exertion a tempting of God ; yet all endeavour is vain 
 until you find the solution. Nevertheless, if you 
 despair not, but instantly persist in desire, and cease 
 not from labour, at length, in a moment, the solution 
 will fall in ; this is irvdation, which you cannot 
 receive unless you pray with great desire and labour, 
 using your utmost endeavour ; and yet you cannot 
 perceive how from all those things, of which you 
 thought, which were not the solution of the Enigma, 
 the solution itself arose. This unfolding of the Riddle 
 opens to you the mystery of all things, and shows how 
 available prayer is for the obtainment of things spiri- 
 tual and eternal, as well as corporeal and perishing 
 
414 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 goods : and when prayer is made with a heart not 
 feigned, hut sincere, you icill see that there is nothing 
 more Jit for the acquiring of what you desire. Thus 
 piety is available for all things, as the oracles declare, 
 and prayer especially, which is its principal exercise, is 
 profitable for great undertakings.^ 
 
 But lest, with all this, it should appear to any su- 
 perstitious or otherwise unrighteous to invoke the 
 Divine aid to this particular undertaking, as if God 
 were mutable, we take leayp to add a few further con- a 
 ^} siderations in defence, and^the different kinds of invox . 
 cation which were employed by the ancients in 
 their celebration of Theurgic rites. 
 
 Prayer, according to Jamblicus, was divided into 
 three classes. The first of which, as pertaining to 
 the early initiations, was called Collective, having 
 for its object to gather the mental powers into ac- 
 cord with their leader, seeking a clue whereby it 
 may enter the intelligible profundity of the Enigma. 
 The second effects the bonds of concordant spirits; 
 caUing forth, prior to the energy of speech, the 
 gifts imparted by Divinity, and perfecting the subor- 
 dinate operations, prior to intellectual alliance. The 
 third is the final authoritative seal of union ; when the 
 desire, leading from faith, becomes into its true end. 
 The first, recapitulates our author, pertains to Illumi- 
 nation ; the second, to a Communion of Operation ; 
 but through the energy of the third, we receive a per- 
 fect plenitude of Divine Fire. And supplication, in- 
 deed precedes, like a precursor, preparing the way be- 
 fore the sacrifice appears ; but sometimes it intercedes 
 as a mediator f' and sometimes accomplishes the end 
 of sacrificing. No operation however, in sacred con- 
 cerns, can succeed without the intervention of prayer. 
 Lastly, the continual exercise of prayer nourishes the 
 
 ^ Sec the Auuotations of Kirchriiigius on Basil Yalentiue, sub 
 init. ]). 5. 
 
 2 See St. Paul's Epistle to the Eomans, viii. 26, 27. 
 
 H- 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments. 415 
 
 vigour of our intellect, and renders the receptacles of 
 the soul far more capacious (by enlarging the desire) 
 for the communications of the gods. It likewise is 
 the Divine Key ivhich opens to men the penetralia of 
 Wisdom ; accustoms us to the splendid rivers of super- 
 nal light ; and by tliese, in a short time, perfects the 
 inmost recesses and disposes them for the ineffable 
 knowledge and contact of Divinity : nor does adora- 
 tion desist till it has raised the sublimated soul up to 
 the summit of all. For it gradually and silently 
 draws upw^ards the manners of the soul, by divesting 
 her of every thing foreign to a Divine nature, and 
 clothes her with the perfections of the gods. Besides 
 this, it produces an indissoluble communion and friend- 
 ship with Divinity, nourishes a Divine love, and in- 
 flames the Divine part of the soul. Whatever is of an 
 opposive and contrary nature it helps to expiate and 
 purify, expels whatever is prone to generation, and re- 
 tains nothing of the dregs of mortality in its ethereal 
 and splendid spirit ; perfects a good hope and faith, 
 concerning the reception of Divine Light, and in one 
 word, renders those by whom it is employed the fa- 
 miliars and domestics of the gods.^ 
 
 Such then being the advantages of prayer, and such 
 the connection of adoration with sacrifice, and the 
 end of Theurgic sacrifice is a conjunction wdth the 
 Demiurgic Intellect ; hence, does it not follow, that the 
 benefit of prayer, if we concur at all in opinion con- 
 cerning these things, is of the same extent with the 
 good which is conferred by such an alliance? And 
 these three terms of adoration, in w'hich, according to 
 the authorities, all the Divine measures are contained, 
 not only conciliate the warring elements of life, but 
 extend to man three supernal benefits ; as, trans- 
 lated from one form of perfection to another, Life pro- 
 gresses, bringing forth an offspring to be sacrificed on 
 the alternating confines of each ; as it w^ere three Hes- 
 perian Apples of Gold. 
 
 1 See J^amMicus, De Mysteriis, cap. xxvi. 
 
 1 
 
O-L 
 
 MH 
 
 u 
 
 
 416 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 And thus the end of all adoration is attained, and 
 there the rational inquiry rests as in its proper object, 
 and there the true attraction of love is to be found, 
 which in this life never can be but by an ablation of 
 p ' •jfei For the attractions which are here supplied to 
 sensible perception, and for which so many pray, are 
 transitory, and the desire of them is nothing more than 
 the desire of images which lose ultimately the mag- 
 netic virtue imparted to them by the idea, and because 
 without it, when in the possession, they are found to 
 be neither truly desirable, nor sufficient, nor good. 
 
 But if, •« the HidifFereat concerns of life, men pray 
 D and for a general prosperity in public worship, hoping 
 
 to be heard, how much more should not the desire be 
 conceived effectual when addressed within the Living 
 f^crr^-^ Temple t® the Divine Light within ; when, in the con- 
 gress of allied mind, the Spirit wakes to consciousness ; 
 and, in thcLmniversal harmony conspiring, dissolves 
 the total life to love. 
 
 I called upon the Lord, exclaims the Psalmist, and 
 He heard me out of His holy temple, and my cry 
 came before Him, even unto His ears. I prayed, and 
 understanding was given me ; I called upon God, and 
 the Spirit of Wisdom came to me. — And hence it may 
 more readily be conceived, how prayer and self-sacri- 
 fice conspiring, mutually corroborate and confer on 
 each other a perfect efficacy in Divine works ; since, 
 even Matter itself is said to be extended to the desir- , / 
 able, i.e., to the Good; and tl^ugh this desire isX,^/ 
 filled with as many goods as it is able to participate. 
 And when things have run up so far as to this Suffi- 
 cience they become tranquil in it, and are liberated 
 from the parturitions, and the desire which they na- 
 turally possess. Neither will it therefore be proper to 
 omit any part of this concord, or deny any faculty of 
 the mind its due exercise in the Preparation, since 
 these diversified parts of the Spirit are in their re- 
 nascent harmony made one ; thence again to be evolved 
 in catholic procession to complete the equilibriated cir- 
 cle of their Law. And this much mav suffice concern- 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments, 417 
 
 ing the nature of prayer, and the corroborative efficacy 
 of the Human Will, acting in concert with its Final 
 Cause to fulfil It. 
 
 The next difficulty presenting itself to the mind of 
 the student, after he has obtained a general knowledge 
 of the Hermetic ground, with a hopeful desire to 
 commence operations, has been to find suitable assist- 
 ance in the undertaking ; many have halted here a long 
 while unprofitably, for it is evident that without a 
 Subject to work with and reciprocate the design it re- 
 mains abortive, as a statue in the conception without 
 the marble to give it utterance. 
 
 The ascent to Unity is arduous, and the descent is 
 not undertaken in safety alone ; neither is there any 
 increase of the Spirit, as we have already shown, with- 
 out a medium and a bond, — Behold, two are better 
 than one, says the Preacher, because they have a good 
 reward for their labour, and nmtually assist each other 
 by the way : but for one alone, there is no end of his 
 labour; and for wdiom do I labour, saith he, and be- 
 reave my soul of good? This is vanity, yea, it is a 
 sore travail.^ 
 
 But so much has been written, and with such a deal 
 of sophistication, about the Philosophic Vessel and 
 its multiform distillatory apparatus, of nerves, veins, 
 and alembics, that we should be in doubt where to 
 choose a guide in this respect sufficiently intelligible, 
 and who is at the same time trustworthy and of equal 
 fame ; one hint, how^ever, in the sum of Norton's Or- 
 dinal, may help to extricate us from the difficulty of 
 explaining many more, 
 
 Which are full derke, 
 To ordeyne instruments according to the werke. 
 As every Chaj^ter hath divers intents, 
 So hath it divers instruments. 
 Both in matter also in shape, 
 In concord tliat nothing may mishap ; 
 As workers of division and separation 
 Have small vessels for their operation ; 
 
 1 Eccles. iv. 8, 9. 
 E E 
 
418 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 But vessels broad for humectation, 
 
 And some deale broad for circulation ; 
 
 But long vessels for ])recipitatio)i ; 
 
 But short and long serve sublimation ; 
 
 Narrow vessels and four inches bigU 
 
 Serve correction most properly. 
 
 Of vessels some be made of leade, 
 
 And some of cla^/ both quick and dead ; 
 
 Dead clay is called such a thing, 
 
 As hath suffered great roasting ; 
 
 Such meddled in potvder with good raw clay, 
 
 ^iWjier abide and not go away ; 
 
 But many clayes will woll leap iwfier, 
 
 Such for vessels doe not desire. 
 
 Other vessels be made of stone, 
 
 For fier sufficient, but few or none ; 
 
 Among workemen, as yet is founde 
 
 In any county of English grounde, 
 
 Which of wafer nothing drinke shall 
 
 And yet abide driefier withall ; 
 
 Such Stones, large for our intente, 
 
 Were a precious instrument ; 
 
 But other vessels be made ol' glasse. 
 
 That spiritual matters should not outpasse ; 
 
 Of ashes, of feme in this lond everi each cue 
 
 Be made, but elsewhere be of stone : 
 
 Of our glasses, the better kinde, 
 
 The morning stuffe ye shall it finde, 
 
 Which was ashes the night before, 
 
 Standing in heate, all night and more, 
 
 The harder stuffe is called Freton, 
 
 Of clipping of other glasses it come ; 
 
 Tincture with ancaling of glasiers 
 
 Will ]iot perse him as they reherse. 
 
 By this doctrine chuse or refuse. 
 Take that which you woll unto your use, 
 For in figures of vessels kinde, 
 Everie man followeth his own minde ; 
 The best fashion is yc maie be sure, 
 She that concordeth with vessel of Nature ; 
 And figure that best concordeth with quantity, 
 And with all circumstances, to matter best is she, 
 And this sheweth best Albertus Magm/s, 
 In his Boke De Minei-alibus. 
 Hereof a secreate disclosed was. 
 By my good Master, to more and lesse, 
 Saying, Si Deus non dedisset nobis vas 
 Nihil dedisset, and that is glasse} 
 
 1 JSTorton's Ordinal, chap. vi. p. 94. 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments. 419 
 
 The Spirit finally constructs its own vessel and vi- 
 trifies it ; and since the artist is at liberty to make 
 choice according to convenience of his instruments in 
 the beginning, and each one would be likely to vary 
 in his preference, we avoid a superfluity of description ; 
 besides, of the many that may be called together, at 
 first, few, it will be understood, are chosen to proceed 
 beyond the exigencies of the preliminary Gross Work. 
 And then, will they not speak for themselves ? Those 
 philosophic vessels, like the planks of Argo, on occa- 
 sion, are still oracular ; being felled from the self-same 
 ground too, in the same classic grove, made vocal by 
 Apollo. 
 
 And metliiuks few potters within this Eeahn, 
 
 Have made at ony tyme such cunning ware. 
 
 As we, for our science, doe fashion and prepare. 
 
 Few ever formed such, nor the like of them, 
 
 Yet they are plain without wrinkle or hem ; 
 
 One within another, it is a pretty feate, 
 
 The Third without them to guide up the heate. 
 
 First then with the potter thou must begin, 
 
 Which cannot make what he hath never seen. 
 
 In order that thy vessels be made to thy mind 
 
 Stand by while he worketh more surety to finde 
 
 And shew him what to do by some sign or similitude, 
 
 And if his wits be not too dull and rude, 
 
 He will understand what thou dost meane.^ 
 
 A humorous story is related in continuation, by this 
 author, of the difficulties he met w^ith in the practice 
 from indifferent assistance : and how% after so much 
 vexation and loss of time, he was obliged to take the 
 whole of the Manual labour upon himself. 
 
 For servants doe not passe, how our workes to frame. 
 
 But have more delighte to play and to game. 
 
 A good servant, saith Solomon, let him be unto thee, 
 
 As thine own hearte, in each degree : 
 
 For it is precious a faithful servant to finde, 
 
 Esteem him above treasure if he be to thy minde. 
 
 Not wreckless, but sober, wise and quiet, 
 
 Such a one were even for my dyet.^ 
 
 ^ Charnocke's Breviary of Philosophy, chap. i. 
 2 Idem, chap. iii. 
 
 E E 2 
 
420 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 The value of such assistance may be better appre- 
 ciated when we come to speak of the Preparatory 
 Practice which Norton, naively, and without much 
 envy, describes, enumerating also the needful qualifi- 
 cation and numbers of individuals employed about the 
 Gross Work, as follows : — 
 
 The Second Concord with this Arte is, 
 
 When ye can finde apt Ministers 
 
 Noe Minister is apt to this intent 
 
 But he be sober, wise, and diligent ; 
 
 Trewe, and ivatchful, and also timerovs. 
 
 Close of tongue, of body not vicious, 
 
 Clenhj of hands, in tucking curious. 
 
 Not disobedient, neither presumptuous ; 
 
 Such servants may your workes of charge 
 
 Minister, and save from all outrage : 
 
 But trust me that two such servants or three 
 
 Male not sufficient for your work be ; 
 
 If your matter be of quantity reasonable, 
 
 Then eight such servants be convenable ; 
 
 But upon little quantitye, finde ye shall 
 
 Foure men able to performe alle : 
 
 Then one half oi them, must werke 
 
 AVhile the other half sleepeth or goeth to kerJie : 
 
 For of this Arte ye shall not have praije 
 
 But it he ministered as loell by night as daye ; 
 
 Continually, except the holi Sonday alone ; 
 
 From Evensong begin till Evensong be done. 
 
 And while they worke they must needs eschew 
 
 All ribaudry, else they shall finde this trewe, 
 
 That such mishap sliall them befall 
 
 They shall destroy part of their werks or all ; 
 
 Therefore all the ministers must be men. 
 
 Or els thei must be all weomen ; 
 
 Set them not occupied one with another, 
 
 Though some to you be sister or brother ; 
 
 iTet thei must have some good disporte, 
 
 Their greate labors to recomforte : 
 
 Then nothinge shall better avaunce 
 
 Your woi'ke than sliall this Concordaunce. 
 
 Yet Instruments useful there be more. 
 
 As be Furnaces ordcyned therefore ; 
 
 Old men imagined for this Arte 
 
 A special fiirnace for every parte 
 
 Every each devising after his owne thoughte 
 
 But many furnaces of them be noughte ; 
 
 Some were too broad, some too long, 
 
 Mani of them did nature wrong. 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments. 421 
 
 Therefore some furnaces may well be used, 
 But many of them must be refused.^ 
 
 The true furnace has been described as a little sim- 
 ple shell ; thou mayest easily carry it, says Vaughan, in 
 one of thy Hands ; the glass is one, and no more ; 
 but philosophers have used two, and so mayest thou. 
 As for the work itself, it is no way troublesome ; a lady 
 may read the Arcadia, and at the same time attend 
 this philosophy without disturbing her fancy. For 
 my part, continues the philosopher, I think women 
 are fitter for it than men, for in such things they are 
 more neat and patient. And again, in the Lumen de 
 Lurnine — the excitation of the Fire is a very trivial, 
 slight, almost a ridiculous thing ; nevertheless, all the 
 secrets of corruption and generation are therein con- 
 tained.^ Geber calls this furnace Athanor ; and from 
 his example, others have described the same with a 
 misleading subtlety, little commendable or instructive 
 to any. 
 
 But who knoiveth the power, the working, and kinde 
 
 O^ every furnace, he maye well trexdh finde ; 
 
 But he which thei-eof dwelleth in ignorance. 
 
 All his worke faleth upon chance. 
 
 Noe man is sure to have his Intent 
 
 "Without full concord of arte with hys instrument. 
 
 Mani more instruments occupied ye shall see 
 
 Than in this chapter now rehearsed be, 
 
 Which ye must ordayne by good or sad advice, 
 
 And prove them before hand, if ye be wise.^ 
 
 After showing that indeterminate instruments must 
 be employed in the beginning, until the determinate 
 shall declare themselves as by the Spirit they are 
 proved fit, Norton proceeds in due order to point out 
 the best local and other outward circumstances for 
 
 1 Norton's Ordinal, cliaj^. vi. 
 
 2 See Yaughan's Lumen de Lumine, &c. ; Coelum Terrae, p. 
 118, &c. ; and Sendivogius's New Light ; and Eiren^us's Introitus 
 Apertus, chap. viii. and xxiv, '.^q_. 
 
 ^ Ordinal, chap. vi. 
 
422 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 carrying on the different Hermetic operations, as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 The Fourth Concord is full notable 
 
 Eetween this arte and places convenable. 
 
 Some places must needs be ever more drie, 
 
 Close from aier and no waies windy ; 
 
 Some must be darke and dim of sight, 
 
 In which Sun-beams none maye light ; 
 
 But for some places., the trewth so is, 
 
 Thei cannot have too much brightnes : 
 
 Some places must needes be moist and cold, 
 
 For some workes as Auctors toulde ; 
 
 But in our workes in everie place, 
 
 Wind will hurt in everie case : 
 
 Therefore for every worke in season 
 
 Ye must ordaine places by reason. 
 
 Philosophers said, by their engine, 
 
 How it should be wrought within locks 7}yne. 
 
 Astrologers said it was a grace 
 
 To finde a fitting ivorking j)lace : 
 
 For manie things will wondrous doe 
 
 In some places and elsewliere not soe ; 
 
 But contrarie wonders be of one thinge. 
 
 In contrarie coimtries wrought without leasing ; 
 
 "Whereof none other cause maye appeare. 
 
 But only contrarye places of the spheare : 
 
 Wherto places contrairye of the grounde. 
 
 To them concordant and obedient be founde ; 
 
 Hereof great evidence and wittnes full cleare. 
 
 In the Magnet's stone openly doth appeare, 
 
 AV'hose north pointe drawoth towards his conntnje, 
 
 AVhich uader the South Star driveth needles away. 
 
 AV^herefore wuse men which for this Arte soughte. 
 
 Found some places concordant, some places not.' 
 
 Secrecy having heen a principal object with those 
 practising this Art, difficulty was found often to secure 
 this, and at the same time su})ply the other conditions, 
 which vary with the constitution and instinct of the 
 spiritual guide. Just such a locality as Virgil appoint- 
 ed for his Bees, has been mentioned as desirable with 
 all his appropriate allegorical exceptions of corrupt and 
 evil associates. Strong currents of air are well known 
 
 ' Ordinal, chap. vi. 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments. 423 
 
 to disturb communion ; and the entranced Subject is 
 more or less susceptible cf all imaginative impressures, 
 which, even after their act has passed away, hang and 
 pollute the ether of their pertinacious abode, as adepts 
 well testify, and Cornelius Agrippa, in his Occult Phi- 
 losophy^ diffusely expounds, showing that truly 
 
 It is a grace 
 To finde a fitting working-place. 
 
 The following lessons of an English Adept, neither 
 antique nor envious, may not be uninstructive in con- 
 clusion of the rest. — If thy desire leads thee on to 
 the practice (that is of the ultimate Philosophic 
 Work), says Vaughan, consider well with thyself what 
 manner of man thou art, and what it is that thou 
 wouldst do : For it is no small matter. Thou hast 
 resolved with thyself to be a co-operator with the 
 living God, and to minister to Him in his work of 
 generation. Have a care, therefore, that thou dost 
 not hinder his work ; for if thy heat exceeds the 
 natural proportion, thou hast stirred up the wrath of 
 the moist natures, and they will stand up against the 
 central fire, and the central fire against them, and there 
 will be a terrible division in the Chaos ; but the sweet 
 spirit of Peace, the true eternal Quintessence, will de- 
 part from the elements, leaving both them and thee 
 to confusion ; neither will he apply himself to that 
 Matter as long as it is in thy violent destructive 
 Hands. We should always remember that doctrine of 
 Zeno, that Nature gave us one tongue and two ears, 
 that we might hear much and speak little. Let not 
 any man therefore be ready to vomit forth his own 
 shame and ignorance ; let him first examine his know- 
 ledge, and especially his practice, lest upon the expe- 
 rience of a few violent knacks he presume to judge of 
 Nature in her very sobrieties. But if thou knowest 
 the principal First Matter, know also for certain thou 
 hast discovered the Sanctuary of Nature. There is 
 nothing between thee and her treasures but the Door : 
 
424 Laws and Conditions. 
 
 that indeed must be opened. Have therefore a chari- 
 table seraphic mind, charitable and not destructive to 
 thyself. There is in every true Christian a spice, I will 
 not say a grain, of faith, for then we could work miracles. 
 But know that as God is the Father, so Charity is the 
 nurse of Faith. For there springs from charitable 
 works, (fi'om the effects of spiritual beneficence,) a 
 hope of heaven ; and who is he that will not gladly be- 
 lieve what he hopes to obtain? On the contrary, 
 there springs no hope at all from the works of dark- 
 ness, and by consequence no faith, but that faith of 
 devils to believe and tremble. — Settle not in the lees 
 and puddles of the u'orld. Have thy heart in heaven 
 and thy hands upon earth Ascend in piety and de- 
 scend in charity. For this is the Nature of Light and 
 the way of the children of it. Thou must live, as says 
 Agrippa, according to God and the angels, rejecting 
 all things that are dissimilar to the heaven ; otherwise 
 thou canst have no communion with superiors. Lastly, 
 Unas esto non solus. Avoid the multitude, as well of 
 passions as of persons. And, in conclusion, I would 
 have thee understand that every day is a contracted 
 year, and that each year is as an extended day. An- 
 ticipate the year in the day, and lose not a day in the 
 year. Make use of indeterminate agents till thou 
 canst find a determinate one : the many wish well, but 
 one only loves. Circumferences spread, but centres 
 contract : so superiors dissolve and inferiors coagulate ; 
 stand not long in the su)i nor long in the shade, where 
 extremes meet, there look for complexions. Learn 
 from thy errors to be infallible, and from thy misfor- 
 tunes to be constant. There is nothing stronger than 
 Perseverance, for it ends in miracles.^ 
 
 Abundant evidence might here be brought to bear ; 
 but sufficient has been said for suggestive purposes, 
 and addition would be as little likely to stimulate 
 incjuiry without ])ractical information as to satisfy the 
 incredulous. Nothing is more generally insisted on, 
 
 ^ Aiiinia INlagia Abscondita, p. 51, itc. ; Ca-luiii Terra-, p. 137. 
 
Mental Requisites and Impediments. . 425 
 
 next to benevolence and rectitude of intention, than 
 perseverance for this experiment ; and if to the fore- 
 going instructions we add in sum, that effects ration- 
 ally investigated lead into their causes, and that as the 
 plant of its seed is reared, and according to its proper 
 species germinates in a congenial soil, so in this phi- 
 losophy the end is implied in the beginning, and the 
 purpose is by the product made manifest — the motive, 
 through the resulting action, by the metaphysical 
 cause, into physical effect ; 
 
 Qui capit, Ille Sapit. 
 
 And with this advice we conclude our introduction, 
 as it may be called, to the Sphinx's lair. — The first 
 link in the chain of vital causes moves, as we apply 
 the Master Key. 
 
 PORTTJS 
 
 Explicit, at Pbaxis ma^ualis c-eteea pandet. 
 
PART IV. 
 
 THE HERMETIC PRACTICE. 
 
429 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Of the Vital Purification, commonly called 
 The Gross Work. 
 
 Dii sudoribus vendunt Artes. — Arcanum Ignis Jquce Resp. 6. 
 
 NEXT^.the preliminary aids already noted, and a 
 sufficient theory to begin with, follows the Pre- 
 paration of the Philosophic Subject, which is per- 
 formed, says the Monk Basil, by operation of the 
 Hands, that some real effect may be produced. From 
 preparation arises knowledge, even such as opens all 
 the fundamentals of Alchemy and Medicine. Opera- 
 tion of the hands, continues he, requires a diligent 
 application of itself, but the praise of the science con- 
 sists in experience ; hence that notable maxim — Phy- 
 sician, heal thyself. But the difference of these, ana- 
 tomy (that which is spiritual) distinguisheth : operation 
 shows thee how all things may be brought to light 
 and exposed to sight visibly ; but knowledge, i. e. expe- 
 rience, reveals the practice and shows further how to 
 proceed, and that whence the true practitioner is, and 
 is no other than a confirmation of the previous work : 
 because the operation of the hands manifests some- 
 thing that is good, and draws the latent and hidden 
 nature outwards, and brings it to light for good. And 
 thus, as in Divine things the way of the Lord is to be 
 prepared, so also, in these (spiritual) things, the ivay 
 has to be opened and prepared, that no error be made 
 from the right path : but that progress may be made 
 without deviation in the direct way to health. — 
 AJanual operation is chiefly required, therefore ; with- 
 out which, indeed, every other operation, like a ship 
 without ballast, floats and is uncertain. But it is difficult 
 to express this with a pen ; for more is learned by otice 
 
430 HERMETIC PRACTICE. 
 
 seeing the work done, than can be taught by the irriting 
 of many pages} 
 
 Although the Alchemists have written diffusely on 
 the Manual Practice, and delivered many Keys, 
 whereby, as they say, we may enter into the sanc- 
 tuary of philosophy and open her interior recesses ; 
 yet the first way of approach and shut entrance to 
 these has not been unfolded, nor would it be possible, 
 we think, for any one to discover the Practice from 
 their books alone. For although it is called a play of 
 children, and represented as a very trivial, slight, al- 
 most a ridiculous thing, one linear decoction through- 
 out and dissolution by line, yet neither instinct nor 
 reason would probably suggest, without instruction, 
 the tractive artifice now made publicly easy of en- 
 trancing the senses in their own medial light. 
 
 But recent observation has proved various means of 
 effecting this, and determining the natural life to an in- 
 traction of its beams, by the hand or eye of another mes- 
 merising, or by a passive fixed gaze ; the virtues of ether 
 and chloroform too are familiar, and in these days igno- 
 rant] y preferred to the former expedients, since their 
 effects are considered analogous and more easily sup- 
 plied ; which however are very different, as proved by 
 the contrariety of their cause. For, whereas the one, 
 overcoming in light, oxygenates, purifies, and sublimes 
 the arterial blood, and in proportion the intellectual 
 powers ; the other contrariwise, by influxion of dark- 
 ness, drowns the oxygenating spirit, prostrates and con- 
 founds the mental powers, and, further overwhelming, 
 often produces syncope and death. But we have no 
 space to dwell here on errors that daily experience 
 promises to remove. The ancients appear to have 
 been acquainted with other analogous means and me- 
 dia of curative repute ; other revolutionary arts, too, 
 by which the human spirit may be involuted and con- 
 verted to its proper spheres. But to eft'ect this was. 
 
 ' B.Valentinii Currus Triumphalis Antimonii, sub initio ; Kircli- 
 ringiug in Basilio Idem nota. 
 
THE GROSS WORK. 431 
 
 as we have repeatedly shown, a beginning only of the 
 Hermetic art ; the medium in its natural state is vola- 
 tile, immanifest, phantastic, irrational, and impotent, 
 compared with what it subsequently is able and by 
 artificial conception suffers itself to become. The Al- 
 chemists, we repeat therefore, did not remain satisfied 
 with a few passes of the hand, or any first phenomena 
 whatever, but they proceeded at once scientifically to 
 purify, depriving the ether of its wild affections and 
 impressures by a dissolution of the circulating body 
 in its own blood. For this is that Brazen Wall cele- 
 brated by Antiquity, which surrounds our Heaven and 
 must be scaled, and through past before any one can 
 hope to discern the equilibriate felicity of Being within. 
 — Take the occult Nature, which is our Brass, says 
 Albertus, and wash it that it may be pure and clean ; 
 dissolv^e, distill, sublime, incerate, calcine, and fix it ; 
 the whole of which is nothing else than a successive 
 dissolution and coagulation to make the fixed vola- 
 tile, and volatile fixed. The beginning of the whole 
 work is a perfect solution.^ 
 
 Now, although there are many ways of including 
 the sensible medium and of unfolding the interior 
 hght temporarily, yet for the Purification we read but 
 of one way, called by the Adepts, Manual, and their 
 Linear icay, which supersedes all other fi-om begin- 
 ning to end of the Dissolution. And, according to 
 their general testimony, and for other explicable rea- 
 sons, we judge that the Hand was the instrument em- 
 ployed, not only to impart the Spirit as a natural gift, 
 but by a continual mechanic trituration, as it were, to 
 dissolve and ultimately obliterate its innate defects. The 
 Mercury of philosophers, says LuUy, comes not but by 
 help of ingenuity, and the Manual operations of man. 
 And Vaughan says, Nature is not moved by theory 
 alone, but by sagacious Handicraft and human assist- 
 ance. — Nature cannot of herself enter into the disso- 
 
 1 Secret. Tract. Albert! Mag. in fine ; Ars Aurifer«6, p. 130, and / ^ 
 another. / 
 
432 HERMETIC PRACTICE. 
 
 lution, says the author of the Filiun Ariadne, because 
 she has no Hands, — The Hand, says Van Helmont, is 
 the instrument of instruments, which the soul hkewise 
 useth, as a means by which it bears its image into 
 operation.^ We could bring together a multitude of 
 passages showing the literal application of these, but 
 have a doubt about the utihty, since they would prove 
 nothing to unbelievers ; and those who are disposed to 
 inquire for themselves, looking to context and proba- 
 bility, may be i:eadily convinced. We are less than ever 
 anxious at this late stage of inquiry to persuade others, 
 or induce trial of the practice where theoretic power is 
 deficient ; but leave the incredulous therefore to their 
 incredulity, until faith has independently estabhshed 
 the fact over their heads. For neither will the pre- 
 lude of Hermetic practice be attractive to the idle, but 
 continual labour is exacted throughout the perform- 
 ance — patient toil, skill, unremitting attention, in the 
 execution, and a free will to the discovery of error, 
 without discordant slurring or disguise. 
 
 He that neglects the knowledge, being disheartened 
 by the difficulties thereof, shall never find where the 
 disease lieth, says Crollius, for these Chemical Secrets 
 will never be fingered by those slothful or sottish de- 
 spisers of them, by reason of their indisposition and 
 unaptness for Manual operation. As also of the profane, 
 lewd, and unworthy, there will be little danger of their 
 apprehending and discerning Divine Mysteries ; because 
 they want the spirit of Wisdom, and are not quick of un- 
 derstanding in these things.^ — Some indeed, amongst 
 the ignorant and pseudo-chemists, says Eiren^us, ima- \(^^' 
 gine that our w^ork is a mere recreation and amuse- 
 ment from beginning to end, holding indeed the 
 labour of this artifice in light account. In the work 
 which they account so easy, however, we observe they 
 reap an empty harvest for their idling pains ; we know, 
 
 ^ R. Lullii Theoria et Practica ; Yauglian, Coolum Terra; ; Le 
 Filet d' Ariadne, circa med..; Norton, Ordinal, c. iv. Helmont, 
 Oreatrike, Introd. and cap. c. 
 
 ^ Crollius Phil. p. 10. 
 
THE GROSS WORK. 433 
 
 next the Divine blessing and a good principle to begin 
 with, that it is by assiduity and industry that we ac- 
 comphsh the First Work. Nor is the work so easy 
 that it should be considered as a mental recreation, 
 either (since a concentrated attention is necessary) , but 
 according to the labour we do likewise reckon the 
 reward ; as Hermes says — I spared no labour either of 
 mind or body; which also verifies that proverb of 
 Solomon — The desire of the idle shall cause him to 
 perish. Neither is it wonderful that so many chemical 
 students were in former times reduced to poverty, since 
 they spared labour, but no expense. But, continues 
 the same author, we, who know the truth, have 
 worked, and we know beyond doubt that there is no 
 work more tedious than our First Operation, concern- 
 ing which Morien gravely warns King Calid, saying 
 that many philosophers had been overcome with the 
 fatigue of this work. Neither would I have these 
 things understood figuratively, continues he ; I am not 
 speaking here indeed of the commencement of the 
 Supernatural Work, but of things as wejirst find them : 
 and to ivell dispose the ;//r//^tv, this truly is a labour and 
 a work.^ 
 
 The work of philosophers, says Arnold, is to dissolve 
 the Stone in its own Mercury, that it may be reduced 
 into its first Matter. — Opus namque philosophorum, 
 est dissolvere Lapidem in suum Mercurium, ut in pri- 
 mam reducatur materiam.^ This labour has, by the 
 author of the Hermetic Secret, Urbigeranus, and 
 some others, been styled a Labour of Hercules. For 
 there is such a mass of heterogeneous superfluities 
 adhering to our subject, that nothing short of disso- 
 lution can give it rest ; and^ wMeli Adepts say, it v/ill '"IKJIaoA- 
 be entirely impossible to accomplish without the Theory 
 of their Arcanum, in which they show the medium by 
 which the Royal Diadem may be extracted from our 
 Sordid Subject. And even when this is known, con- 
 tinual labour is required in the application, lest re- 
 
 ^ Introit. Apert. cap. viii. ; Morieni de Trans. MelaL 
 2 Arnoldi llosar, cap. ix. lib. i. 
 
 F F 
 
434 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 maining in any pavt, if left alone, before the total solu- 
 I tion of her enigma, the Sphinx should retrieve her 
 X- / dominion unawares and frustrate the work begun — 
 (JL Tere, coque, et reitera, et non te 4^eat — Grind, coct, 
 
 ' says the wise author of the Rosarium, and reiterate 
 . your labour and be not weary. ^ Work not to-day and 
 be sorry to-morrow ; but lay sorrow aside and continue 
 your labour steadfast unto the end, lest perad venture 
 God hoodwink and make open the Light, says the 
 Spirit to Dr. Dee ; the labour is equal to the work, and 
 to fight against the Powers of Darkness requires great 
 force. '^ And let him who would learn, says Van Hel- 
 mont, buy coals and fire, and discover those things 
 which watching successive nights, and expenses, have 
 afforded to philosophers.^ Kings and powerful princes 
 have not been ashamed to set their hand to the work 
 in order to seek out, by their sweat and labours, the 
 secret of Nature, which they have faithfully be- 
 queathed.^ 
 
 Ardua prima via est ; et quii vix mane recentes 
 Enitantur eqiii.'^ 
 
 Fresh horses there are verily needed to this Celestial 
 Ploughshare and laborious assistance for a toil that is 
 incessant, to clear the wasted field of human life, and 
 harrow it for a more congenial growth : nor once nor 
 twice ; but many times the labour must be repeated, 
 as each dying is renewed into a better life. This the 
 wise poet, in his Georgics, teaches ; and this recals to 
 mind the advice of Norton and his brother Adepts 
 about the choice of servants, their capacities and qua- 
 lifications, which moreover are tried in a double, 
 single, manifold, and triply complicated sense. All the 
 operators, says Zachary, supply themselves with three or 
 four, sometimes ten, furnaces or more — as for solution, 
 
 ' Eosar. cap. iii 
 
 - Dee's Couversat. sub. init. 
 
 2 Oreatrike, fol. p. 710. 
 
 * Digbv's Luc-enia Salis, Dialog. 
 
 ^ Ovidii :Metam. lib. i. Gi. 
 
The Gross Work. 435 
 
 sublimation, calcination- -and the wr//^<^r passes througli 
 vessels innumerable ; but not all would avail without 
 a Method in their distribution ; one would not advance 
 in effect beyond another, unless the operation were 
 altered ; there is indeed but one way of working, in one 
 matter, one linear way throughout, one vessel uniform 
 throughout, excepting removal. Unicus operandi mo- / 
 
 dus in unico vase, in unica fornacula, praetei^ moti- - G-- > 
 onem, donee decoctio compleatur.^ 
 
 The Preparing Spirit dissolves the body of Light, 
 and cleanses it from the corrupting causes, and extracts 
 a Second Spirit subsisting and tinging in the body, and 
 reduces the bodies by dissolution into itself; and these, 
 says the Adept, are the advantages of the Spirit pre- 
 paring its body and extracting from it the tinging 
 spirit : for this Argent vive was at first gross, unclean, 
 fugitive, being mingled with extraneous Sulphurs ; but 
 by the operation of Art it is cleansed and renewed, 
 and coagulated by its own internal sulphur, red and 
 white, and is double ; not viscous, but acidulated, sub- 
 tle, and very penetrative, resolving the bodies mineral. 
 
 But our evidence runs in advance ; as we remark 
 by the way that this Argent vive, which is de- 
 cocted lineally, is generated pontically, as it were 
 by a reciprocal alternation, distributing its advanced / / 
 virtue from hand to hand. — And know, says Eireneus, 'Q^l 
 that the exact preparation of the philosophic Eagles 
 may be considered the first degree of perfection in this 
 Art, in the knowledge of which there is required also 
 some sagacity of mind. For do not suppose that this 
 science has become known to any of us by chance, or 
 by a happy guess of the imagination; but we have 
 worked and sweated daily, and passed many sleepless 
 nights, much labour and sweafuig iwXy ^'Q have under- 
 gone in the pursuit of truth. You, therefore, that are 
 but beginning, as a tyro, in this study, be assured that 
 nothing can be achieved in the First Operation without 
 sweating and much labour. In the Second, however, 
 
 ' Zacharius Opusc. Lucerna Salis, p. 96. 
 F F 2 
 
43(J Hermetic Practice. 
 
 Nature alone operates, and without any imposition of 
 hands, by the sole assistance of a wt/I-reguiiitt'd ex- 
 ternal Jwe} 
 
 Avicen, in Porta, wrote, if ye remember, 
 How ye shoulde proceede perfection to engender, 
 Trewly teaching as the pure treuth was, 
 Comedas lit bibas, etbibas ut comedas ; 
 Eatt as it drinketh and drink as it doth eafce, 
 And in the meane season, take it a perfect sweate. 
 Rasis set the dietary and spake some deale far, 
 Non tamen comedat res festiuanter ; 
 Let not your matters eate over hastilie, 
 But wisely consume their foode leisnrelie. 
 Hereof the prophet made wondrous mention, 
 If ye apply it to this intention 
 Visitasti terram et inebriasti eam, 
 Multiplicasti locupletare eam, 
 Terram fructiferam in salsuginem 
 Et terram sine aqua in exitus aquarum. 
 If I have plenty of meate and drinke. 
 ]\Ien must wake when they desire to winke ; 
 For it is labor of watch and paines greate, 
 Alsoe the foode is full costly meute. 
 Therefore all poore men beware, says Arnolde, 
 For this Art 'longeth to greate men of the worldo. 
 Trust to his words, ye poore men all. 
 For I am witness, that soe ye finde shall. 
 Esto longanimus et suavis, said he, 
 For hasty men th' end shall never see. 
 The length of clensing matters infected 
 Deceiveth much people for that is unsuspected. 
 Excess for one half quarter of an hour 
 May destroy all ; therefore chief succour, 
 In primum pro quo et ultimum pro quo non 
 To know the simperings of our Stone, 
 Till it may no more simper do, nor cease, 
 "/mA^^^^^^ -^^*^ y®^ ^*^^g continuance may not cause increase. 
 
 ' ' I Remember that water will bubble and boyle, 
 
 yy^ But butter must simj^er and also oyle ; 
 
 ' And so with long leisure it will waste, 
 
 And not with bubbling made in haste. ^ 
 
 Frequent advices are given against haste in the pre- 
 paration, lest the centres should be stirred up before 
 
 ^ Introitus Apertus, cap. vii. 
 ^ Ordinal, chap. iv. 
 
The Gross Work. 437 
 
 the circumferences are made ready to conceive them ; 
 and we may observe that CEdipus, he who of yore over- 
 came the Sphinx, was lame and impotent in his feet, 
 signifying by this (amongst other abstruse alkisions), 
 that we should not make too much haste to the solu- 
 tion of her riddle, lest she should expound herself with- 
 out a proper understanding unawares — Alciatus, paint- 
 ing a dolphin wreathed about an anchor, for an emblem, 
 wrote these w^ords — Festina Lente — Make not too 
 much haste — which admonition applies not only well 
 to the common affairs of life, but especially to the 
 trituration of the Philosophic Subject, which ought to 
 be slow, gentle, and continuous. 
 
 Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed saepe cadendo. 
 
 And therefore the Adepts, again and again, admonish 
 and caution, lest by too great excitation the internal 
 agent awakening should cause a disseveration in the 
 Chaos, and the two Principles stand up one against the 
 other, before the intended mastery is secure. — Cause, 
 therefore, wings to be prepared for the Matter by Juno, 
 . Bacchus, and Vulcan ; but as you love your Life, says 
 fee, permit it not to fly suddenly, rather deliver it to 
 Mercury, to be instructed by him gradually to accus- 
 tom itself to flying ; yea, bind it with a cord, lest (as 
 a bird got out of its cage and past your reach) it 
 through ignorance approach too near the Sun, and like 
 Icarus, having its unproved feathers burnt, fall head- 
 long into the sea ; but after you have detained it for 
 its due time, loose its bonds that it may fly and come 
 to those fortunate Islands towards which all the sons . f nJ^J^ 
 of Art direct their sight, and whereunto all Adepti«te^ ^/ \^^^^^ 
 aim to arrive as to their long-desired and sought for / 
 harbour.^ Take the flying bird, says Hermes, and 
 drown it flying; and divide and separate it from its 
 redness, which holds it in death ; draw it forth and 
 repel it from itself, that it may live and answer thee 
 not by flying away indeed to the region above, but 
 truly by forbearing to fly. For if thou shalt dehver 
 
 ^ Kirchringius, in Basilio, Latin, 12mo. p. 160; Eng. 74. 
 
438 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 it out of its prison, after this thou shalt govern it 
 according to Reason and according to the days specified; 
 then it will become ajl companion to thee, and by it 
 thou shalt become to be an honoured Lord. Extract 
 from the ray its shadow and its obscurity, by which 
 the clouds hang over it and corrupt, and keep away 
 the light by means of its constriction also, and fiery 
 redness, it is burned. Take, my son, this watery cor- 
 rupted redness, which is, as a live coal holding the fire, 
 which if thou shalt withdraw so often until the redness 
 is made pure, then it will associate with thee, by whom 
 it w^as cherished and in whom it rests. ^ 
 
 He that would seek tincture most specious, 
 Must needly avoid all things wild and vicious ; 
 Of manifold means each hath his property 
 To do his office after his degree, 
 With them hid things be outset 
 Some that will help, and some that woulde let. 
 AVho woulde have trew worke may no labour spare, 
 Neither yet his purse, though he make it full bare ; 
 And in the Gross AVorke he is furthest behind, 
 That dayly desireth the end thereof to finde. 
 If the Gross Worke'with all his circumstance 
 Were done in three years it were a blessed chance.^ 
 
 This is meant chiefly in reference to the Second 
 Operation, and the periods are often to be understood 
 metaphorically with respect to the discovery of the 
 philosophic Salt. Some have met the Light sooner, 
 some later, and the natural periods are protracted by 
 faulty conditions from the commencement, by the in- 
 disposition of patients, as by the ignorance of agents, 
 which things also are more or less implied. Years 
 have been employed by some in the Preparation, the 
 perplexity of the records have added to the natural 
 difficulty, and to others it has never been vouchsafed. 
 Eireneus, mentioning his case as remarkably favoured, 
 says that in the course of two years and a half the 
 whole Arcanum was revealed to him. — I made, says 
 he, not five wrong experiments in it before I found the 
 
 ^ Tract. Aur. cap. ii. 
 
 ^ Norton's OrdinalK cap. iv. 
 
The Gross Work. 439 
 
 true way, although in some particular turnings of the 
 Eneheiresis I erred often ; yet, so that in my error I 
 knew myself a master, and in no less than two full 
 years and a half, of a vulgar ignoramus I became a 
 true Adept, and have the secret through the goodness 
 of God. ^ 
 
 It is to be imagined that the better foundation there 
 is laid in theory from the commencement, other things 
 being equal, the surer, easier, and more rapid would 
 be the result ; but from books, general principles only 
 can be gathered, and instruction from particular expe- 
 rience. The working theory, as we long ago suggested, 
 can be obtained through the practice only ; for the 
 way developes itself in the practice by rational inqui- 
 sition of the Light within. And this may be a matter 
 of gratulation to students, •tbui- whilst adepts are so 
 very abstruse and envious in their disguises, to learn 
 that the Hermetic Art is not so much the offspring of 
 natural intelligence as of involved thought. Ab actio- 
 jiibus procedit speculatio is a famous maxim of Aris- 
 totle's and eminently applies to this philosophy, where 
 each discovery opens into a new field of inquiry, and 
 the fruit of contemplation is ever more sown in order 
 to bring about the solution of its proper dilemma in 
 the explanatory growth of truth. 
 
 Not all by reading, uor by long sitting still ; 
 Nor fond conceit, nor working all by will ; 
 But, as I said, by grace it is obtained : 
 Seek grace therefore, let foola be refrained.^ 
 
 Seek grace ; and, by importunity of reason, seek for 
 the clue of Truth within the Spirit's life ; if haply she 
 may find it, or we be able to discover whether she 
 have it or not — That which analyzes even must be 
 analyzed ; that, returning analytically, it may resolve 
 the separable Selfhood and reiterate the same by al- 
 ternation until it arrives at the inseparable Unit of 
 Truth. — Liber lib rum explicit — And this is the way of 
 
 ^ Hipley Revived, p. 87. 
 
 ^ See Kelly's Verses in Ashmole's Theatrum. 
 
440 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 rational permeation, by the Understanding of Nature, 
 into her Causal Light. 
 
 So shalt thou instant reach the realms assigu'd 
 In wondrous ships self-moved, instinct with mind ; 
 No helm secures their course, no pilot guides ; 
 Like man intelligent they plough the tides, 
 Conscious of every coast and every bay. 
 That lies beneath the Sun's all-seeing ray ; 
 And, veiled in clouds impervious to the eye. 
 Fearless and rapid through the deep they fly ! ^ 
 
 And that court of King Alcinous, to which Ulysses 
 became admitted, is the dominion of Intellect, which, 
 in the description of these Phoeacian ships, also, is 
 admirably signified ; the hyperbole, in fact, would be 
 absurd without other reference, and the well-illumined 
 Taylor has shown, in his Dissertation, that the \;ho\e of 
 the Odyssey is an allegory pregnant with latent mean- 
 ing and the recondite Wisdom of antiquity. 
 
 Here again, then, we observe that it is not from a 
 moderate study or a few spontaneous revelations of the 
 Spirit's \drtue, or natural instinct, that we should pre- 
 sume to judge of the Hermetic JNIystery ; since brazen 
 walls and adamantine are between, and all the breadth 
 of that vast sea to be passed over before we can hope 
 to set foot upon the royal coast ; a sea — 
 
 Huge, horrid, vast — where scarce in safety sails 
 The best built ship, tho' Jove inspires the gales.^ 
 
 Even with these advantages, and after the first flood- 
 gates and barriers of sense are overpast, greater ob- 
 stacles await him, and Herculean labours, who dares, 
 approaching to the Nether confines, to make choice of 
 Light. No one may hope, without toil and perseve- 
 rance, to obtain it. Wisdom is the reward of volun- 
 tary and arduous research. Perseus passed through 
 dangerous encounters, strugghng with monstrous Chi- 
 meras ; and Theseus before Ariadne vouchsafed her 
 love and assistance ; Bacchus, Ulysses, Hercules, and 
 
 ' Pope's Homer's Odyssey, lib. viii. 55, &c. 
 - Idem. 
 
la^ 
 
 The Gross Work. 441 
 
 the rest ; Jason, also, passing through many hopes and 
 fears, and performing dangerous feats and supernatural 
 labours, before Medea led him to the Field of Mars. 
 
 For the Gross "Worke is foul in lier kinde, 
 Aud full of perills as ye shall finde, 
 No man's wit can him so availe 
 But that sometimes he shall make a faile : 
 As well the layman, so shall the clerke, 
 And all that labor in the gross w^orke. 
 Wherefore Anaxagoras said trewly thus — 
 Nemo prima fronte reperitur discretus.^ 
 
 They all set forth expectant heroes only in the begin- 
 ning, content also with the company of their rude de- 
 serts, and it is satisfactory to learn with all this pro- 
 spective discouragement, that 
 
 He that shall end it once for certaiue 
 Shall never have neede to begin agaiue. 
 
 Much I might write of the Nature of Mynes, 
 Which in the gross icorke be but engines ; 
 For in this worke find ye nothing shall, 
 But handle crafte, called Art mechanical. 
 Wherein a hundred wayes and moe, 
 Te may commit a fault as ye therein goe. 
 Wlierefore believe what old Auctors tell ; 
 Without experience ye may not do well. 
 Consider all circumstances, and set your deligte 
 To keep Uniformity of all things requisite ; 
 Use one manner of vessel in matter and in shape, 
 Beware of Commixtion that nothing miscape. 
 And hundredth foidtes in speciall 
 Te may make under this warning generall. 
 Nethlesse this doctrine woll suffice 
 To him that can in practice be wise. 
 If your ministers be witty and trew, 
 Such shall not need your workes to renew. ^ 
 
 And here we may bethink ourselves how Flamiuel V 
 learned discretion from his Second Book, and how 
 Eiren^us promises a guide, and describes him too in 
 his Ripley Revived. And, in Vulcan's labours, says 
 ,J£8knrath, I have worked indefatigably with no small 
 expense, but, thanks to God, my own alone; now in 
 companionship, and now not ; both happily sometimes, 
 
 ^ Ordinal, cap. iv. 
 2 Idem. 
 
442 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 sometimes without success. But how should he do 
 well who never has done amiss ? What was wrong 
 taught me what w'as right, from day to day one book 
 throicing light iipoji another, I was enabled to inter- 
 pret them. / observed what nature taught by the 
 ministry of art. O thou edifying Cabal of much 
 profit ! O thou Physico-Chemical Cabal ! how hath 
 she not advanced me ! Meanwhile, carefully keeping 
 note of conversations, experiments, and conceptions of 
 my own as well as others : when ye, my cotempo- 
 raries, were idly dozing, I was watching and at work. 
 Meditating earnestly day and night on w^hat I had seen 
 and learnt — sitting, standing, recumbent, by sunshine 
 and moonshine, by banks, in meadows, streams, 
 woods, and mountains.' And thus w'c read, in the 
 Hermetic at Triumph, how the Stone of Philosophers, 
 which is a pure petrifaction of the Spirit, is prepared 
 by those who trace nature with the assistance of the 
 Lunar Vulcan ; by which Lunar Vulcan, as we long 
 ago suggested, is meant the first prepared Subject, 
 which is also called Diana, and the secret natural interior 
 Fire of Adepts, and because this same Lunar Caustic 
 is brought into act by an exterior excitation. — Sol est 
 Fons totius caloris, Luna autem Domina Humiditatis. 
 The ethereal humidity nourishes the Solar^ Light and 
 educates it ; and this is that Nemean Lion said to be 
 born of her foam. 
 
 AVith respect to the rule of Investigation, however, 
 having opened thus much, we would add a few re- 
 marks, for neither is it said to be expedient to inquire 
 about Ends so much as about things pertaining to 
 ends, the Artist holding his right intention from the 
 beginning. This principle Aristotle, in his Ethics, as- 
 tutely argues. For neither, he obsen^es, does a phy- 
 sician consult whether he shall heal the sick, nor a rhe- 
 torician whether he shall persuade, nor the politician 
 whether he shall establish an equitable legislation, nor 
 does any one of remaining characters consult about 
 
 ' Amph. Sap. Etern. in medio. 
 
The Gross Work. 443 
 
 the End. But, proposing a certain end, they consider 
 how and by what Medium it may be obtained. If 
 also it appears that this end is to be obtained through 
 many media, they consider through which of them it 
 may be obtained in the easiest and best manner. But 
 if through one medium they consider how it may be 
 accomphshed, and through what Hkewise this may be 
 obtained until they arrive at the First Cause which is 
 discovered in the last place. For he who consults, 
 continues the artful moralist, appears to investigate 
 and analyze in the above-mentioned manner, as if he 
 were investigating and analyzing a diagram.^ 
 
 Even so, in the Hermetic Inquiry, he who consults, 
 the end being proposed which is not immediately in his 
 power, investigates the Medium by which he hopes to 
 obtain it ; and if this Medium be not entirely enhghten- 
 ed, he explores another, and further till he discovers the 
 first Medium which is immediately in his power, in the 
 discovery of which inquiry terminates, and the work, 
 beginning from thence, passes into accomplishment. 
 That Medium, therefore, which is last in the analysis 
 is first in generation, being proved able to the accom- 
 plishment, and of the many called to the consultation 
 of means few are chosen to proceed with the Philoso- 
 phic Work. For philosophers were not wont to in- 
 vestigate trifles, but they inquired about such things 
 as tend to purification and the method of perfect- 
 ing life. And when things, thus truly eligible, are 
 the objects of inquiry, the Divine Will being con- 
 cihated. Wisdom runs lovingly by her own rule to 
 fulfil it ; and hence our deeds and discourses extend 
 their Hands, as it were, to assist us in our assent, and 
 Will is the greatest power of purgation. And when 
 That which from the first is efficacious returns into 
 its proper Efficient, how much more will not those 
 strokes, reverberating, be effectual to overcome ? 
 
 Ille plus Cheieon justissimus omnes 
 Inter Nubigenas et Magni Doctor Achillis. 
 
 This is he who, in his double capacity of Power and 
 
 1 jS'iclioraacbean Ethics, book iii. cap. iii. 
 
444 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 Motive in alliance, corrects and educates the Heroic 
 Fire, tames and directs its illimitable vdrtue, and rectifies 
 the Armed Magnet by an infallible rule. And that 
 Intellect rides through the abyss of the sensual mo- 
 narchy, secure in its Ether ; and, as a ship upon the 
 stormy seas is directed by the beacon-light, it follows 
 until integrally related, when, centre meeting centre, 
 the consciousness transcends in revolutionary Light. 
 
 We know that, in common life, the hands perform 
 innumerable offices and image mind about, by mate- 
 rial subjects, in a variety of ways. And as the mind 
 more easily retains that which the hand before has 
 noted by its exterior sense; so, in Hermetic works, the 
 hand is found best able to express and impart what 
 the mind has well premeditated : and thence, from its 
 replenished members, thought carries itself by volun- 
 tary motion into effect. Such were those Dactyli 
 Idrei, literally the Fingers of Mount Ida, so renowned 
 in fable for their medicinal and magic skill, who 
 worked, it is said, at the foot of the Parnassian Moun- 
 tain to exhibit by their incessant fiery artifice the me- 
 tallic veins therein imbedded.^ So Pallas is fabled, by 
 the help of Vulcan, to have been brought forth from 
 Jove ; for, without the instrumentality of Motion, 
 which the lame god personates, the Fabricative Intel- 
 lect is not born. But if thereafter it should happen, 
 says the wise Adept, that Pluto's Palace should be ex- 
 posed to any one together with Minerva's Artifice, or 
 if Vulcan stands together with her at the Altar there, 
 the Association is ominous. 
 
 Coexistunt namque naturalia opera mentali splendore, 
 Vitifer Ignis, 
 
 Centre incitans seipsum lumine resouante. 
 Fontanum alium, qui Einpyreum mundum ducit, 
 Centrum quo omues, usque quo forte equales fueriut.^ 
 
 To instruct the ignorant is no part of the present 
 object; but to stimulate the inquiry of such as are 
 
 1 See Bell's Pantlieon, p. 209. 
 
 2 Oracula Chaldeor. Muudus, Anima, Natura. 
 
The Gross Work. 445 
 
 already enlightened, and to advance the faithful in the 
 pursuit of truth, we conclude with such instructions 
 as may be finally needful concerning this said hyper- 
 physical Gross Work. 
 
 The Second part of the Gross Work is described by 
 Vaughan as one of the greatest subtleties of the Art ; 
 Cornelius Agrippa, he observes, knew the First Pre- 
 paration, and has clearly discovered it ; but the diffi- 
 culty of the Second made him almost an enemy to his 
 own profession. By the Second Work we are to un- 
 derstand, therefore, the Solution of the Philosophic 
 Salt (/. e. the voluntary bond) ; which is a secret which 
 Agrippa did not rightly know, as it appears by his 
 practice at Malines, and as he confesses in the first 
 book of Occult Philosophij, that he could not increase 
 the transmutative virtue, nor would Natalius teach 
 him for all his frequent and serious entreaties. This 
 was it, adds his disciple, that made his necessities so 
 vigorous and his purse so weak, that I can seldom find 
 him at full fortune. But in this he is not alone: Ray- 
 mond Lully received not this mystery either from 
 Arnold, but, in his first practices, he followed the com- 
 mon tedious process which after all is scarcely profit- 
 able. Here he met with a drudgery almost invincible. 
 Ripley also laboured for new inventions to putrify this 
 Red Salt which he enviously calls his Gold; and his Art 
 w^as to expose it to alternate fits of heat and cold, but 
 in this he is singular ; Faber is so wise that he will 
 not understand him. Let us return then to Raymond 
 Lully, who became so great a master that he performed 
 the Solution in nine days, and this secret he had from 
 God himself since this is his profession. — Nos, says he, 
 de prima ilia nigredine a paucis cognita benignum 
 Spiritum extrahere affectantes, pugnam ignis vincen- 
 tem, et nos victum, licet sensibus corporis multoties 
 palpa^amus, et oculis propriis ilium vidimus ; Extrac- 
 tionis tamen ipsius notitiam nos habuimus quacumque 
 scientiarum vel arte : ideoque sentiebamus nos adhuc 
 aliqua rusticitate excsecatos, quia nuilo modo eam 
 
446 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 comprehendere valuimus, donee alius Spiritus prophe- 
 iioe, spiralis a Patre Luminum deseendit, tanquam 
 suos nuUatenus deserens, aut a se postulantibus defi- 
 ciens, Qui in somniis tantam elaritatem mentis nos- 
 tr?e oculis infulsit ut Illam intus et extra, remotaomni 
 figura, gratis revelare dignatus est insatiabili bonitate 
 nos reficiendo demonstrans, ut ad earn implendam dis- 
 poneremus corpus ad unam naturalem decoctionem 
 secretam, qua penitus ordine retrogrado cum pungenti / 
 lancea totaejus natura in meram nigredinam visibiliter /^ 
 dissolveretur.^ 
 
 In the first act of the physico-chemical works, ex- 
 plains Kuhnrath, by diverse instruments and labours 
 and the various artifice of the Hands and of Fire, 
 from Adrop, (which in its proper tongue is called Sa- 
 turn, /". e. the Lead of the Wise,) our heart of Saturn, 
 the bonds of coagulation being dexterously relaxed, 
 the Green Duenech and the Vitriol of Venus, which 
 are the true matters of the Blessed Stone will appear. 
 The Green Lion, lurking and concealed, is drawn forth 
 from the Cavern of his Saturnine Hill by attractions 
 and allurements suitable to his nature. All the blood 
 copiously flowing from his wounds, by the acute lance 
 transfixed, is diligently collected iiie and ////"; the mud 
 earth, wet, humid, stagnant, impure, partaking of 
 Adam, the First Matter of the creation of the Greater 
 World of our very selves and of our potentStone,is made 
 manifest — the Wine which the Wise have called the 
 Blood of the Earth, which likewise is the Red of 
 Lully, so named on account of its tincture which is the 
 colour of its virtue, thick, dense, and black, blacker 
 than black, will then be at Hand ; the bond by which 
 the soul is tied to the body and united together with 
 it into one substance is relaxed and dissolved. The 
 Spirit and the Soul by degrees depart from the body 
 and are separated step by step ; whilst this takes place 
 the fixed is made volatile, and the impure body (of the 
 Spirit) from day to day is consumed, is destroyed, 
 
 ^ See the passage quoted in Vaughan's Preface to the Fame 
 and Confession of tlie K. C. 
 
The Gross Work. 447 
 
 dies, blackens, and goes to Ashes. These Ashes, 
 my Son, deem not of little worth ; they are the diadem 
 of thy body ; in them lies our pigmy, conquering and 
 subduing giants. In the Second Operation, which takes 
 place in one circular crystalline vessel justly proportion- 
 ed to the quality of its contents, also in one theoso- 
 phic cabalistically sealed furnace of Athanor, and by 
 one fire, the body, spirit, and soul, externally washed 
 and cleansed and purged with the most accurate dili- 
 gence and Herculean labours, and again compounded, 
 commingle, rot of themselves and without manual co- 
 operation, by the sole labours of nature, are dissolved, 
 conjoined, and reunited ; and thus the fixed becomes 
 volatile wholly ; these three principles also are of 
 themselves coagulated, diversifiedly coloured, calcined, 
 and fixed ; and hence the World arises renovated and 
 new.^ 
 
 Here then lies the Gordian Knot of the Hermetic 
 Mystery — and who is he that is able to untie it, en- 
 quires the philosopher? — Qui scit Salem et ejus solu- 
 tionem, scit secretum occultum antiquorum philoso- 
 phorum. — He w^ho knows the Salt and its solution, 
 knows the secret of the Ancient Sages. And if it be 
 again asked who '? We have already named him, and 
 openly; but this Light shining everywhere in Dark- 
 ness, how hardly should it be comprehensible without 
 Itself? 
 
 Janua clausa est, vah quae lamentabilis hsec vox ; 
 Orcina sed frustra pulsabitis ostia pugnis > 
 Vestrse namque Manus uequeunt difiirigere ferrum. 
 
 What then ought we to be doing, since hands and in- 
 tellect are here alike incapable, and the truth of this dis- 
 covery was never yet put to paper, and for this suffi- 
 cient reason, that it is proper alone, as LuUy says, to 
 God to reveal it; since it is His alone prerogative, and 
 no mortal can communicate it to another unless the 
 Divine Will be with him. — Not every messenger, says 
 
 ^ Kwiinratli, x\mpliitlieat. Sap. Isag. in fig. c. 
 
 KUI 
 
448 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 Van Helmont, approaeheth to the mine of Stones ; 
 but he alone, who, being loosed ft-om his bonds, has 
 known the wars, being fitted for his journey, a friend 
 to the places and who has virtue. They err, there- 
 fore, who ascribe this single combat only to Corro- 
 sives ; to wit, they too much trusting to Second quali- 
 ties, as being ill secure, do sleep thereupon, and 
 through a neglecting of specifical qualities, also ap- 
 propriated ones, (which are only extended on their 
 proper object,) being slighted, they have gone into Ob- 
 scurity. For the Ostrich does not digest iron or little 
 birds flints, through an emulous quality of corrosion ; 
 but there is a virtue of loosing the bars and bolts of 
 Tartar. It is convenient to meditate about this virtue, 
 continues the physician, and of what I have spoken ; 
 blessed be that God of Wonders, who hath sometimes 
 converted the Water into Rocks, and at other times the 
 Rocks into pools of Water. ^ Who then shall ascend 
 into the Mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand in 
 His Holy Place? He that hath clean hands and a 
 pure heart, who hath not given up his soul unto vanity 
 nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing 
 from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his 
 salvation. 
 
 We do not quote casually, or because the Scriptural 
 phrase is popular ; but because it is apt, as seen and 
 proved on the Divine Ground ; where man indeed may 
 experiment, plough, plant, and irrigate, but cannot of 
 himself (or in alliance, unless he dare a deadly sin,) 
 compel the Divine Blessing without its free accord. — 
 Wisdom was with thee, says the PTermctic Master ; it 
 was not gotten by thy care, nor, if it be freed from 
 redness, by thy study. '^ So neither, it is written, is he 
 that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but 
 God, that giveth the increase.^ He therefore must be 
 propitiated, not by prayer and supplication alone, but 
 
 ^ Oreatrike, cap. vi. p. 710. 
 
 ^ Tract. Aur. cap. iv. 
 
 ^ 1 Corinth, cap. iii. v. 7. 
 
The Gross Work. 449 
 
 by faithful and charitable works preparing the way be- 
 fore Him ; nor would it be thought astonishing, per- 
 haps, if Antimony should cause a sudden transpiration, 
 or that an Iron Key should help to unlock a treasury 
 of fine Gold. Desire leads into its object by faith im- 
 mediately ; but mediately, by just works, that hope is 
 engendered which, kindling into faith, by ecstacy, pene- 
 trates to its First Source. — Our Antimony, says Basil 
 Valentine, which is fixed, searcheth out fixed diseases 
 and eradicates them ; which purgers, not fixed, cannot 
 do ; but they do only carry away some spoil from dis- 
 eases ; or they may be compared to water which, driven 
 by force through a street, penetrates not the earth 
 itself Fixed remedies purge not by the inferior parts, 
 because that is not the true way of expelling fixed 
 venoms ; and that way they would not touch the Ker- 
 nel, as it may be called, or centre of the disease ; but 
 by expelling sweat, and otherwise, they strike at the 
 very inmost root of the disease, not contented with a 
 certain superficial expulsion of filths. Therefore we 
 admonish all and every one, that all venomous impu- 
 rity is totally to be taken away from Antimom/, before 
 it can either be called a medicine truly or adminis- 
 tered with safety — in other words, that all arrogant 
 self-will, sensuality, folly, avarice, and variability of 
 purpose, all but the one voluntary faith to rectify and 
 perfect, be removed from the mind of him who is to 
 enter into the radical dissolution of Life. For the 
 weapons of this warfare are not carnal, as the Apostle 
 teaches, but mighty through God to the pulling down 
 of strong holds ; casting down imaginations, and every 
 high thing that exalteth itself against the Knowledge 
 of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to 
 the obedience of Christ.^ And for this cause, con- 
 tinues the Monk, the good must be separated from 
 the evil, the fixed from the unfixed, the medicine 
 from the venom, with accurate diligence, if we hope 
 by the use of Antimony to obtain true honour and 
 
 ' 2 Corinthians, x. 4, 5. 
 G G 
 
450 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 true utility ; but Fire only can effect that, and Vulcan 
 is the sole and only master of all these. Whatsoever 
 the Vulcan in the Greater Orb leaves crude and per- 
 fects not, that in the Lesser World must be amended 
 by a certain other Vulcan, ripening the immature, and 
 cocting the crude by heat, and separating the pure 
 from the impure. That this is possible, no man will 
 doubt ; for daily experience teaches the same, and it is 
 very apparent in the corporeal aspect of colours which 
 proceed from the Fire. For by Separation and Fire, 
 •which perfects its fixation, venomosity is taken away, 
 and a change is made of the evil into good ; therefore 
 Fire is the Separation of Venom from the Medicine, 
 and of good and evil ; which however is a thing that 
 none of the physicians either dares or can truly and 
 fundamentally own or demonstrate, unless he who 
 hath firmly contracted friendship with Vulcan, and in- 
 stituted the Fiery bath of Love.^ 
 
 There is one operation of heat, says Vaughan, 
 whose method is vital and far more mysterious than 
 all other, and there be but few of that Spirit that can 
 comprehend it : But because I will not leave thee 
 without some satisfaction, I advise thee to take the 
 Monn of the Firmament, which is a middle Nature, 
 and place her so that every part of her may be in two 
 elements at one and the same time ; these elements 
 also must equally attend her body ; not one further off, 
 nor one nearer than the other. In the regulation of 
 these there is a twofold geometry to be observed, na- 
 tural and artificial. Flammel also, speaking of the 
 Solar and Lnnar Mercury, and the plantation of the 
 one in the other, gives this instruction. Take them, 
 he says, and cherish them over a fire in thy Alembic ; 
 but it must not be a fire of coals, nor of any wood, 
 but a bright shining fire like the Sun itself, whose heat 
 must neither be excessive, but always of one and the 
 same degree.'- Our operation, concludes Morien, is 
 
 ^ Triump. Chor. of Antim. Kirchringius, Eiig. ed p. 58. 
 ' Ccelum Terrse, p. 11.8 ; Flaminelli 8u)ntniila. 
 
The Gross Work. 451 
 
 nothing else but extracting water from the earth and re- 
 turning it again, so long and so often until the earth is 
 completely putrefied ; for by elevation of the mois- 
 ture the body is heated and dried, and by returning it 
 again it is cooled and moistened ; by the continuation 
 of which successive operations it is brought to corrupt 
 and to lose its Form, and for a season to remain 
 dead.^ This then is the true intention and manner 
 of working to supply the right conditions for attract- 
 ing the Divine Seed, by action and re-action raising 
 successively actives by passives, and, vice versa, pas- 
 sives by actives, until the spiritual ability is complete. 
 
 For wliat one doth concoct t'otber -will drive away ; 
 
 But if thou canst each work perform apart, 
 
 And knowest them afterwards to reconcile, 
 
 Then thou art master of a princely Art. 
 
 The very success will thy hopes beguile ; 
 
 Thou hast all Nature's works ranked on a file, 
 
 And all her treasures at command dost keep ; 
 
 On thee the Fates will ne^er dare but smile. 
 
 No Mystery is now for thee too deep : 
 
 Th' art Nature's darling whether dost wake or sleep. 
 
 Pardon my plainness, of the Art, thou knowest 
 
 It was the fruit of my untame desire 
 
 To profit many ; and, without a boast, 
 
 No man above my candor shall aspire. 
 
 My zeal was kindled by Minerva's Fire.^ 
 
 But for an explanation of the whole difficulty, adds 
 the same author, in his Ojjeii Entrance, attend to these 
 instructions — Take four parts of our Fiery Dragon, 
 wdiich bears in his belly the Magic Steel, and conjoin 
 to nine parts of our Loadstone, that by a violent con- 
 cussion they may be reduced into a mineral w^ater; re- 
 ject the superfluous scum which sw^ims upon it ; leave 
 the Shell and take the Kernel ; and purge thrice with 
 Salt and with Fire : which will be easy to do, if Sa- 
 turn have chanced to regard his beauty in the glass of 
 Mars. — Hence comes the Chamelion which is our 
 Chaos, in which all the Arcana are contained ; not in 
 act as yet, but in virtue.^ — Non igitur externus solis 
 
 / 1 De Trans. Metal. 
 
 / aW 2 Eii-en^us, Hipley Revived, verses in fine. 
 3 Introitus Aportus, cap. vii. 
 G G 2 
 
4.')2 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 coelestis calor est qui profuiidum terroe calefacit sed 
 potius solis terresti'is iiniatus calor ; duplex enim est 
 calor, unus reverberationis qui externus est, alter influx- 
 ionis et penetratioiiis, qui internus est, de quo jam lo- 
 quor, cujus natura est vivificare augmentare conservare 
 per sustentaculum radicalis humoris in hoc igne con- 
 
 tenti.^ , . is . . 
 
 Which \ulcanic action, to destroy life andAmaintain 
 it, Democritus before all, and as it were pyrographically, 
 poui'trays, as — Drawing the fixed Brass out bodily, in- 
 structs this Abderite, thou shalt compose a certain ob- 
 long tongue, and placing it again upon the coals, stir 
 Vulcan into it ; now irradiating with the Fossil Salt, 
 now with the incessant Attic Ochre, adorning now the 
 shoulder and the breast of Paphia till she shall appear 
 more manifestly beautiful, and, throwing the glau(j^s lOi 
 veil aside, shall appear entirely Golden. Perchance ' 
 it was when Paris gazed on such a Venus, he did pre- 
 fer her both to Juno and Minerva.^ 
 
 This evidence may suffice for the present occasion, 
 which is to promote inquiry rather than pursue it. 
 For when the inquirer has learned how he ought to 
 begin, having increased also his natural store ol' incli- 
 nation and faith by practice in equal companionship 
 and reciprocal benefaction, he will not despair; and 
 even though the riddle should appear ever so intricate 
 at first, it will solve itself at every stage, opening into 
 new prospects within the veil of life. Labour to know 
 causes, advises the philosopher ; he that seeks ra- 
 tiovally finds the true end, not otherwise ; for such a 
 conduct conciliates Minerva, and at her behest Jove 
 prospers the undertaking. Everything depends upon 
 the Motive, which is the true spiritual ferment ; and 
 according to the virtue of the fermenting principle is 
 the result obtained. 
 
 Sic fiiiis ab origine pendet. 
 
 The end depends from the beginning ; and as the 
 
 ^ Nuvsement, Sal Lumeu, the Latiu of Conibachius. 
 
 '^ In Flammelli Summula, Quae ex Democrito coUeguutur. 
 
The Gross Work. 453 
 
 vine draws its sap from the foeculent impure earth, 
 and yields a fluid fruit, wiiich by the fermentive art 
 is turned into wine, spiritualised, and advanced into 
 a more permanent form of being; so, in the Herme- 
 tic art, the philosophic matter, drawn in part from the 
 heterogeneous air and defiled breath of vitality, is puri- 
 fied by successive interchanging of ferments, fretted, 
 dissolved, and rectified into a consummate and immortal 
 Form of Light. But Nature halts many times before 
 this final rest, at each stage offering the fruits of her 
 conceptive imagination to allure ; if the artist be am- 
 bitious, however, and a true philosopher, he will ac- 
 cept of none of these, but will proceed, sacrificing 
 all the intermediate benefits, again and again tortur- 
 ing her, and, with relentless hands, slaying the first- 
 born offspring until the Divine Perfection is attained. 
 — For other foundation can no man lay, as says the 
 Apostle, than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 
 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, 
 silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble ; every 
 man's work shall be made manifest : for the Day shall 
 declare it, because it shall be revealed by Fire ; and the 
 Fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 
 If any man's work abide which he hath built therc- 
 upou, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work 
 shall be burned, he shall suffer loss : but he himself 
 shall be saved ; yet so as by Fire. Know ye not that 
 ye are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God 
 dwelleth in you ? If any man defile the Tem])le of 
 God, him shall God destroy ; for the Temple of God 
 is holy, which Temple ye are.^ 
 
 It is vain to look in expectation, or believe ourselves 
 in the hereditary possession, of a treasure, without so 
 much as opening or suspecting even the casket in 
 which it is shut up. The common elements of Nature 
 obscure their Divine Original, and Chemistry and all 
 our experimental physics drive it forcibly without 
 the means of Identification. Yet as the experienced 
 
 ' 1 Corinthians, iii. 11 — 17. 
 
454 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 Chemist knows how, by a skilful application of his art, 
 to analyse the common elements, and distil them to 
 a high virtue and strength of refinement, so the Alche- 
 mists long since have taught by a more subtle aj)- 
 paratus and artifice, and tests more cogent than all, 
 to rectify the Universal Element, and compress its in- 
 visible vapour into a tangible Form. By applying the 
 proper voluntary corrosive they teach to obliterate its de- 
 filements ; by gentleness to mollify its Durity ; by bene- 
 ficence to sweeten its acerbity ; by justice to moderate 
 its intensity, and to irradiate it with hope, truth, beauty, 
 and universal intellection ; supplanting the sensual do- 
 minion, and rectifying, until finally, by an actual sub- 
 version of the selfhood, they made their Sublimate 
 sublime. 
 
 Thus he who, like Qidipus, is able to solve the 
 Enigma of the Sphinx ; in other words, to penetrate 
 rationally the darkened essence of his natural under- 
 standing, will, by conversion illuminating its obscurity, 
 cause it to become lucid throughout, and to be no 
 longer what it was before. — For Mind is the Key of 
 this Hermetic Enigma, and no sooner does it attain 
 to Self Knowledge, by proper inquiry within, than the 
 Efficient proceeds outwards to image its motive in 
 operation, so that)^which before lay in speculation only 
 is carried out in Life. But it is not until the right 
 Motive is discovered, and until the mundification of the 
 / Spirit is completed in both kinds, and all things are 
 
 0^1 reduced to a crystalline diaphaneity, that the Philoso- 
 ' ' phic Work has been said truly to begin. For, as was 
 before observed, if any permanent confection is made 
 or suffered to take place before-hand, the immature 
 offspring does not abide. 
 
 He that would seek Tincture niost specious 
 Must needly avoid all things Avild and vicious. 
 The philosopher's worke doe not begin 
 Till all things be pure without and within.* 
 
 * XovtoiTs Ordinal. t"i[). iv. 
 
455 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of the Philosophic or Subtle Work. 
 
 Omnia in omnibus primum, omni Tertio tradid.it (ex omni pri- 
 mo secundo) omnia in omnibus primum secundum, ut inde omnia 
 in omnibus, et omnia, catholice, aguosceret, cognosceret ac pos- 
 sideret. — Enigma Kuhnrath, Amph. Sap. 
 
 AS there are three reigns or grand distinctive dis- 
 tributions of the kingdoms of Nature, so we are 
 informed that in the Philosophic Work, preceding her, 
 there is a threefold order of legitimate operation and 
 a relation of Causal sequences^ which merits especial 
 note. For these three operations, which are in fact 
 so many degrees through which the Spirit passes from 
 conception to manifestation, are perplexed by the 
 Adepts in their records, and reserved strictly under 
 the Master Key of their Dilemma, in order that the 
 mysteries of this most venerable science might not 
 be discovered to the profane. And shall we, who 
 have hitherto presumed so far on their indifference as 
 to break the preliminary signets and unloose so many 
 covertures of occult learning, more audacious still, 
 approach those final cerements unannealed, and with 
 a full discovering hand expose before all indiscrimi- 
 nately the Art of simple Nature, which the ancients 
 kept so holily, and which the Wisest in modern times 
 have deemed it unprofitable to reveal? The unwor- 
 thy alone would have it so ; the intelligent lovers of 
 truth would bewail nothing more than a desecration 
 of it in incapable hands ; nor will they be offended or 
 grudge the additional pains which a conscientious 
 reserve may occasion them to discover, by a theoretic 
 conduct, the ultimate Art of Life. 
 
 The tradition of the Preliminary Practice, as it has 
 been delivered by each one following his own guide 
 independently, may be regarded as it were a track in 
 
456 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 the sands easily changeable, and where we ought to 
 conduct ourselves rather by the polar star-light than 
 by any footsteps which are seen implanted there. Be- 
 sides the confusion of the tracks which the many 
 wayfarers have left is so great, and one finds so many 
 different paths and wilful deviations, that it is almost 
 impossible not to be led astray from the right road, 
 which the Star alone points out for all and each one 
 by his proper sight beholding it. The wilful con- 
 fusion of the Hermetic doctrine has doubtless checked 
 many aspii'ants ; some in the beginning, others in the 
 middle of their philosophic career, have been disap- 
 pointed ; many even with a perfect knowledge of the 
 preliminary work, and having the true Matter in Hand 
 also and means of purification, are said to have fal- 
 tered in defect of the ultimate theory whereon to pro- 
 ceed ; some, even when they understood this, having 
 already approached through much labour and contem- 
 plation towards the end of their journey, having the 
 Final Purpose also in Mind, hav^e been entangled by 
 the snares and pitfalls which their predecessors had 
 dug in the midway between them and the fulfilment 
 of their destined course. I vow sincerely to you, 
 says Eudoxus, in that introduction of his to the Six 
 Keys, that the practice of our Art is the most difficult 
 thing in the world, not in regard to its operations, but 
 in respect of the difficulties which are in it, to learn it 
 distinctly from the books of the philosophers. For 
 if, on the one side, it is called with reason a recreation 
 and play of children ; on the other, it requires in those 
 who search for the Irut/i a profound knowledge of 
 the princi})les and of the operations of Nature in the 
 Three Kinds : Thus Norton says — 
 
 GTreate neede hatli he to be a clerke 
 That would discerne tliis Subtill "Werke : 
 He must kuow hys first filosophie, 
 If he trust to come by Alkiiiiie. 
 
 It is a great point to find out the True Matter and 
 proper Subject of this work ; even for this we must 
 
The Subtle Work. 457 
 
 pierce through a thousand obscure veils wherewith it 
 has been overspread : we must distinguish it by its 
 proper idea and name, among a miUion of pseudo- 
 nymes and abstruse appellations, whereby the Adepts 
 have chosen to express it : we must learn to under- 
 stand the properties of it, in order to judge of the pos- 
 sibility of the miracles alleged ; and before we can 
 imagine into the abstruse Original of Nature, we must 
 reflect profoundly and patiently, in order to discrimi- 
 nate the secret Fire of the Wise, which is the only 
 agent granted by Art to purify and dispose Nature to 
 a sacrifice of her last life. This, we must know, and 
 the Divine Law that succeeds to animate her by a re- 
 volutionary course. We must learn further how to 
 convert and congeal the new-born Quintessence or 
 mercurial water into an incombustible fixed unguent, 
 and, by the entire revolution of its body, to awaken 
 the occult Light to Life. 
 
 And to effect this, moreover, adds our author of The 
 Triumph, you must make the conversion of the Ele- 
 ments, the separation and the reunion of the Three 
 Principles ; you must learn how to make thereof a 
 white Mercury and a citrine Mercury, and you must 
 fix this IMercury and nourish it with its own blood, to 
 the end that it may be converted into the fixed Sul- 
 phur, which is the Stone of Philosophers. 
 
 These are the fixed principles of the Hermetic Art, 
 in which there is no variableness but in their disco- 
 very, which, having already discussed, we proceed to 
 redeem our promise of a more subtle application to 
 practice ; and this, without incurring too great a re- 
 sponsibility on ourselves, may we trust be intelligibly 
 conceived from such succeeding evidence as it is expe- 
 dient only to afford. 
 
 We read, in the Egyptian Fable of Isis and Osiris, 
 that they were sister and brother, and being conjoined 
 in marriage likewise, that their kingdom was cruelly 
 divulsed and usurped by their brother Typhon, who 
 in a malignant and envious spirit killed Osiris, cut his 
 
3 
 
 458 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 body into pieces and scattered his members to the 
 fom* winds. Isis however, recollecting these, preserved 
 them in a chest which floated on the Nilotic waters in 
 safety until the period arrived for a restitution ; when 
 the king was thenceforth resuscitated, and came forth 
 invulnerable fi-om his ashes, and far more powerful 
 than he was before, to the enjoyment of his dominions 
 and rightful throne. 
 
 Now in this fable, already explained in part, Plu- 
 tarch, with the Adepts also being witnesses, is pro- 
 foundly couched not only the principiating action of 
 Intellect but the methodical art of the same subtle An- 
 tecedent to bring itself, by begetting a supernatural 
 offspring, into natural effect. 
 
 And since it is requisite, according to the ancient 
 Metaphysics, to consider the doctrine of Causes from 
 its Principle, and causes are said to subsist in a four- 
 fold respect, one of which they assert to be essence, asd 
 iit^ the subsisting as a certain particular thing and 
 cause and principle, form the First Why ; but the 
 second cause is matter and that which subsists as a 
 subject; A Third is, that whence the beginning of mo- 
 tion is derived ; and The Fourth is a cause opposite to 
 this, viz., that for the sake of which the inquiry sub- 
 sists, and the Good which is the end of generation.^ 
 
 Hence, referring this Peripatetic scheme of investi- 
 gation to the art of Wisdom for realisation, we may 
 conceive the whole intellectual relationship ; and how 
 the speculative Motive of the First Cause is finally 
 produced in reversionary order from the Third, in 
 whom it becomes efficient, by the Second into the 
 Fourth ; as it were a triplicate f eing of Thought, Will, 
 and Understanding, which, resting in the sole vision of 
 its only begotten perfection, desires not to surpass 
 itself; but, perceiving itself indeed to be the Final Object 
 of its own First Cause, is good, according to the words 
 of the Stagyrite, and the end of spiritual generation. 
 
 These, then, are the universal principles which it has 
 
 ^ See Aristotle's Metaphysics, book i. 
 
The Subtle Work. 459 
 
 sometimes been deemed expedient in practice to re- 
 present, and tliese are their several relations: 
 
 Primus dicatur in quo sensus domiiiatur. 
 Sensibus aequato gaudet Natura Secundo. 
 Tertius excedit, cujus tolerantia Isedit. 
 Destructor sensus nescit procedere Quarto. 
 
 And, as respects the operation of these, viz. of the 
 natural, unnatural, and the supernatural Fires, they 
 should be quickly lighted, says the Adept, ^ lest one 
 should put out the other, or this should stifle that : 
 over all which the Fourth, partaking of the aerial fiery 
 element, supervenes for the accomphsliment of the 
 work. And, as respects the Vessels, the First indeed 
 may be considered to be opaque, the Second less so, 
 and the Tliird still less so. This last containing truly 
 Him who is to be born ;^as the embryo in the mother 
 is protected with a triple covering and sustained within 
 until mature, even so is the metaphysical offspring 
 said to be involved : which, by the birth of Horus in 
 the Egyptian Fable, is accurately represented, when, 
 Typhon being vanquished, the lawful empire is re- 
 sumed. — Triuna universalis essentia, quae Jehovah ap- 
 pellatur et ex Uno, divina essentia, dein ex Duobus, Deo 
 et homine, ex Tribus, personis videlicet, ex Quatuor, 
 utpote tribus personis et una Divina Essentia, quem- 
 admodum etiam ex Quinque tribus personis, et duabus 
 Essentiis nimirum, divinis et simul humanus est.'^ 
 
 Hence the Divine Monarchy consists, and is esta- 
 bhshed ; the primary principles whereof, as here an- 
 nounced, are in their representation famihar ; but of 
 the form of the Fourth in that burning Fiery Furnace, 
 we may conceive only from what is written. — Behold 
 I will send you FAijah, the prophet, before the coming 
 of the Great and terrible Day of the Lord, and he 
 shall turn the hearts of the Fatliers unto the Children, 
 and the hearts of the Children to their Fathers, lest I 
 come and strike the earth with a curse. ^ But, say the 
 
 1 Maieri Synibola Aureae Mensae, p. 256. 
 
 '^ Aquarium Sapientum in Mus. Herm. p. 112. 
 
 2 Malaclii, iv. 5, 6. 
 
 Cbr<^ 
 
460 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 Adepts, Naliiscstjcnn Elias Artista ^ Elias, the artist, 
 is bom already ; and this is he that was appointed a 
 forerunner, baptizing with the water unto repentance, 
 who has foreshown all things in his apparition to the 
 wise, whose birth is miraculous in the hypostatic 
 transfiguration, and prior to the Divine Light, 
 
 AVlioin to seeke it availeth right nought, 
 
 Til] the white medicine be fully wrought. 
 
 Alsoe both medicins in their beginninge 
 
 Have one manner of vessel and workinge, 
 
 As well for the AVhite as also for the Eed, 
 
 Till all quick things be made dead ; 
 
 When vessels and forme of operation 
 
 Shall chaitnye in matter, figure, and graduation. 
 
 But my herte quaketh, my hand is tremblinge, 
 
 When I write of this most selcouth thinge. 
 
 Hermes brought forth a true sentence and blounte, 
 
 AVheu he said, Ignis et Azoth tihi sujfficiunt? 
 
 It will be unnecessary now to remind the attentive 
 reader of w^hat has been before explained. Nature, 
 indeed, provides us with the foundations of Wisdom, 
 and materials wherewith to construct her immortal 
 / Edifice of Light ; but it is the work only of a Master 
 
 lCA^^ Mason, of Grand Architects, as the I/odgc. ha s it, to 
 erect structures in the air. The task is too onerous 
 for inferior craftsmen.^ It is the part of Mind alone 
 to represent herself in this w^ay by her own reflective 
 energy, to embody the ethereal Image, and chisel it out 
 in Light. — O blessed watery Form ! that dissolvest the 
 Elements ! Now it behoves us with this watery soul 
 to possess ourselves of a sulphurous Form, and to 
 minele the same with our Acetum. For when bv the 
 power of the Water the composition is dissolved, it is 
 the Key of the Restoration. And wdicn thou shalt 
 pour forth thy Fire upon the Foliated Sulphur, con- 
 tinues the Master, the boundary of hearts {i. e. the 
 Final Cause) does enter in above it, and is w^ashed 
 in the same, and the mortal matter thereof is ex- 
 tracted. Then i,s he transformed in his tincture. Our 
 
 1 Introit. Apertus. cap xiii. 
 
 ^ Norton's Ordinal, cap. v. 
 
 " .tjgii L'aililo I- JMivnua l of Froo Maauuiv, jiaii iii. p. 17. 
 
The Subtle Work. 461 
 
 Son the King takes his tincture from the fire and 
 death even, and darkness and the waters flee away. 
 The Dragon shuns the sunbeams which dart through 
 the crevices, our dead Son Uves. The King comes forth 
 from the Fire, and rejoices with his spouse, and the 
 occult treasury is laid open. The Son, already vivified, 
 is become a warrior in the Fire, of tincture superexcel- 
 lent. For this Son is the treasury, bearing even (in 
 his hand) the Philosophic Matter.^ — Now then bring 
 ye gifts of salutation to the Rain ; that, not being 
 withh olden, it may descend upon you ; and to the dew, 
 if it has received from you gold and silver. Open 
 your eyes, and lift up your horns, ye that are ca- 
 pable to comprehend the Elect One; before whose 
 feet all his antecedents fall away, and are consumed. 
 Those mountains which thou hast seen, the mountain 
 of copper, the mountain of silver, the mountain of 
 gold, the mountain of fluid metal, and the mountain 
 of lead, all these in the presence of the Elect One 
 shall be like a honeycomb before the Fire ; and like 
 water descending from above upon the mountains, and 
 shall become debilitated before his feet. All these 
 things shall be rejected when the Elect One shall 
 appear in the presence of the Lord of Spirits.'^ —Behold, 
 I will send my Alessenger, and he shall prepare the 
 way before me : and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall sud- 
 denly come to his Temple, even the messenger of the 
 covenant, whom ye delight in : behold he shall come, 
 saith the Lord of Hosts. But who shall abide the day 
 of his coming? And who shall stand when he ap- 
 peareth ? For he is like a Rejiner's Fire, and X\\ie ful- 
 lers' soap : and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of 
 silver : and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge 
 them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the 
 Lord an offering in righteousness.^ 
 
 This was He whom the Patriarchs and Hebrew 
 prophets looked for, and the Ethnic philosophers, in 
 
 1 Tractatus Aureus, cap. ii. 
 
 2 Book of Enoch, xcix. 
 
 3 Malachi, iii. 1, 2, 3, 4. 
 
462 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 anticipation, adored ; who in the sacred humanity 
 of Jesus Christ was at last made manifest ; whom the 
 Apostles and early Christian Fathers, Saints, and Mar- 
 tyrs testify of, and wdth understanding worshipped ; 
 even — That which was from the Beginning, which they 
 had heard, and seen with their eyes, w^hich they had 
 looked upon, and their hands had handled, of the 
 Word of Life ; for the Life w as made manifest, and 
 they had seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto 
 us that Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and 
 was manifested unto them.^ And noiv also the axe is 
 laid unto the root of the trees : therefore every tree 
 which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn dowm, and 
 cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with Water 
 unto repentance : but He that cometh after me is 
 mightier than I, whose shoes 1 am not worthy to bear: 
 He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and wdth 
 Fire : Whose fan is in his Hand, and he will throughly 
 purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner ; 
 but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.'^ 
 O mysteries truly sacred! exclaims the Bishop of 
 Alexandria in holy transport, O pure Light; at the 
 Light of torches, the veil that covers God and Heaven 
 falls off. I am holy now that I am initiated. It 
 is the Lord himself ivho is the Hicrophdnta. He sets 
 his seal upon the Adept, whom he illumi//ates with his 
 beams: and whom, as a recompense for faith, he will 
 recommend to the eternal love of the Father. These 
 are the orgies of my mysteries, come ye and be re- 
 ceived.-^ 
 
 Thus the Mysteries of Antiquity changed their 
 
 form only to appear more resplendent when Chris- 
 
 >-^, tianity came to be the prevailing religion ; when bap- 
 
 ^\<^ tismal regeneration was an effectual rite, and the 
 
 S't'^ Eucharist a true isitratiefl ; when Faith, by humilia- 
 
 ^ tion under the exemplar} cross of Christ, brought Him 
 
 1 Pirst Epist. Gen. St. John, i. St. Panl to the Hebrews, i. 
 
 2 St. Matthew, iii. 10, &c. 
 
 •■' Clemens Alexandrinns. See De Septchene.s, l^olig. of the 
 Greeks, chap. ii. 
 
The Subtle Work. 463 
 
 forth anew in each regenerate hfe, identically perfect 
 in all things, immortal, and transcending every pre- 
 cedent revelation of the Light; as St. Paul, in his 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, also bears witness : — God, 
 who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in 
 times past unto the Fathers by the prophets, hath in 
 these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he 
 hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he 
 made the Worlds ; who being the brightness of his 
 glory and the express image of his person, and up- 
 holding all things by the Word of his power, when he 
 had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right 
 hand of the Majesty on High.^ 
 
 Meditate, therefore, says the Theosophist, and study 
 theosophically to reduce the Ternary by the Quater- 
 nary, through the rejection of the Binary, to the sim- 
 plicity of the Monad ; that thy body, soul, and spirit 
 be gathered to rest in the name of Jesus. ^ — Learn to 
 unite the Principles of our Chaos to a new Life, and 
 they will be regenerated by Water and the Spirit. 
 These two are in a 1 things, and each has in himself, 
 as Trismegistus says, the seed of his own regeneration.^ 
 Proceed then patiently but not manuaUii. The work 
 is performed by an invisible Artist ; for there is a se- 
 cret incubation of the Spirit of God upon Nature ; you 
 must only see that the outward heat fails not, but 
 with the subject itself you have no more to do than 
 the mother with the child that is in her womb. The 
 two former principles perform all. The Spirit makes 
 use of the water to purge and wash his body, and he 
 will bring it at last to a celestial immortal constitu- 
 tion. Does any one think this impossible ? further in- 
 quires the Adept. — Remember, that in the incarnation 
 of Jesus Christ, the Quaternarius, or four elements, as 
 some call them, were united to their eternal Unity and 
 Ternarius. Three and Four make seven. This Sep- 
 
 St. Paul to the Hebrews, i. 1, &c. 
 j^tknratli Amp. Sap. Etern. in medio. 
 2 See the Divine Pfemander, Sermon on tlie Mount of Regene- 
 ration. 
 
 -~0My 
 
464 Hermetic Practice 
 
 tenary is the true Sabaoth, the rest of God, into which 
 the creature shall enter. This is the best and plainest 
 manuduction that I can give you : in a word, Salvation 
 is nothing else but a Transmutation^ — of the compo- 
 nent principles of hfe in the circulation. And this is 
 the true metempsychosis which has been the source 
 of many errors in the common acceptancy ; but 
 which, in the Ancient Schools of Divinity, signified nei- 
 ther more nor less than a transmigrating of the human 
 Identity out of this animal terrene existence through 
 the ethereal elements of its original formation. W^^^l/i^^ 
 elements are the universal fundamentals of nature ; 
 but in the Human Form alone are found to attain to 
 that supremacy of Reason wdiich re-enters to its First 
 Cause ; when, by a Triplicate growth of Light in the 
 Understanding, becoming consciously allied, It ema- 
 nates a Fourth Form, truthful, godlike, being the 
 express image of its motive magically portrayed. 
 
 I. In the beginning was the Word, 
 II. And the "Word was with God, 
 III. And the Word was- God. 
 
 All things were made by Him, and without Him 
 was not any thing made that was made. In Him was 
 Life, and the life was the Light of Men. And the 
 Light shineth in Darkness ; and the Darkness compre- 
 hendeth it not. 
 
 IV. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 
 
 The same came for a Wit/iess, to bear w itness of the 
 Light, that all men through him might htlieve. He 
 was not that Light, but w^as sent to bear Witness of 
 that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth 
 every man that cometh into the world ;'^ — which in the 
 Saviour was perfected ; one ray of which, intrinsically 
 permeating, is able to cleanse this leprous life of ours, 
 
 ^ Lumeu de Lumiue, p. 92. 
 ^ tSt. John's Gospel, i. 
 
The Subtle Work. 465 
 
 and convert it to the virtue and perfect potency of its 
 Whole. 
 
 And whosoever in any other Light or Form of Light 
 should look for the First Cause, or for any other Final 
 Cause in this, except the First, would seek contrary to 
 reason, against the divine ordinance, and against him- 
 self; for nothing else is worth seeking, or can terminate 
 in good, but will be the fruit of the Fall only, which 
 Adam took upon himself; the mortal consequences of 
 which are hourly expiated by our race, and which no 
 one, unless he were insane, haply would labour to in- 
 crease. The rule of Wisdom, in the verification of her 
 Light, is absolute, and though intermediates apply 
 themselves naturally for the generation, they are re- 
 jected in the accomplishment ; as it is explained — Non 
 fit ad monadis simplicitatem reductio, nisi rejiciatur 
 binarius, non enim ^um Jehovah unio nisi prius a 
 teipso devitatio et tui abnegatio. — For as the absolute 
 Identification in theory is not conceived but by self ab- 
 lation and avoidance, so, practically, neither is Nature 
 reduced to the Monadic simplicity of her Element but 
 by rejection of her Binary conception. For if in the 
 Duad the divine Idea were suffered immediately to 
 bring forth, an imperfect offspring would result, and 
 discordant by predominance of either generating ex- 
 treme, as in this life is manifest ; but by carrying the 
 circulation upward through a Third principle for repro- 
 bation, it. is rectified, overcome in its proper voU- 
 tion, and dying, (if the divine rule be thenceforth fol- 
 lowed,) is raised again by reversion, and through a 
 diligent analysis passing, as it were, from heaven to 
 earth and from earth to heaven, it receives the 
 strength of superiors and of inferiors, to make mani- 
 fest the Flower of Intellect retrospectively to its Ar- 
 chetypal Source, according to the Hermetic Riddle : 
 
 Omnia in omnibus peimum, omni Teetio teadidit, ex omni 
 peimo secundo, omnia in omnibus primum secundum, ut inde 
 omnia in omnibus, et omnia catholice a&nosceket, cognos- 
 oeeet ac possideeet. 
 
 H H 
 
466 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 The First all things in all gave the First Second all 
 
 THINGS IN ALL, FROM THE ALL IN THE FlEST SeCOND TO THE 
 
 Third all ; that he might discover, know, and possess all 
 
 THINGS universally. 
 
 And this, it would seem, is the CathoHc Art of 
 Reason investigating her First Source, which the Chal- 
 daic oracle no less orderly pursues. 
 
 Where the Paternal Mouad is ? 
 
 The Monad is enlarged which generates Two, 
 
 For the Duad sits beside him and glitters with intellectual sections, 
 
 And to govern all things and to order everything not ordered. 
 
 For in the whole world shineth the Triad over which the Monad 
 
 rules. 
 This order is the beginning of aU sections : 
 For the mind of the Father said that all things be cut into Three 
 
 — "Wliose will assented ; and then all things were divided. 
 And there appeared in it (the Triad) A^irtue, Wisdom, and multi- 
 
 scient Verity : 
 This way floweth the Form of the Triad, being pre-existent, not 
 
 the Fii'st (Essence) but where they are measured. 
 For thou must conceive that all things serve these three Principles. 
 Their First Course is sacred, but in the middle another, and the 
 
 third Aerial wliich cherisheth the Earth in Fire ; 
 And Fountain of all Fountains, 
 
 The Matrix containing all tilings, thence abundantly springs forth 
 The generation of multi-various matter ; 
 Whence is extracted a Prester the Flower of glowing Fire, 
 Flashing into the cavities of the world, for all things from thence 
 
 begin to extend downwards their admirable beams ^ 
 
 Such is the recreant progress of mind, ascending 
 and descending throughout life, for the investigation 
 of its manifold resources and powers ; where there is 
 an exact machinery to be observed, a method which, 
 though simple, is difficult for common sense to con- 
 ceive aright — a mainspring exquisitely tempered, an 
 enduring pivot, wheel within wheel revolving vitally. 
 Mercury, Sulphur, and an immortal Salt. And as 
 steel draws the loadstone and the loadstone in like 
 manner turns towards steel, so is it with the sepa- 
 rated principles of will and understanding in their 
 
 ' Chaldaie Oracles, i. 
 
The Subtle Work. 467 
 
 freed state. It is true, moreover, that our loadstone 
 contains in its inmost centre an abundance of that 
 marvellous Salt, which is that menstruum in the 
 sphere of Saturn mentioned by Eireneus, which can 
 calcine gold. This centre turns naturally towards 
 the Pole, where the virtue of the steel is gradually 
 strengthened. In this Pole is the heart of the Mer- 
 cury, which is a true Fire, in which its Lord rests ; 
 and passing through this great sea, guided by the 
 Light of that Polar star which our magnet exhibits, it 
 arrives at its original destination. — The Wise will re- 
 joice, adds the Adept, but fools and the ignorant will 
 hold it for a small thing, nor yet learn Wisdom, 
 though they should see the Central Pole extravasated 
 and bearing the notable Sign of Omnipotence. But 
 let the Son of Philosophy hearken to the Words of the 
 Wise, who unanimously declare that their work may 
 be likened to the creation of the world. — In the Be- 
 o-iiuwis God made Heaven and Earth. And the Earth 
 was without Form and void ; and Darkness was upon 
 the Face of the Deep. And the Spirit of God moved 
 upon the Face of the Waters. And God said. Let 
 there be Light: and there was Light. — And these 
 words may suffice, continues the philosopher ; for the 
 Heaven and Earth philosophical, even as agent and 
 patient, must be united upon the throne of friendship 
 and love, where they will thereafter reign together in 
 ev^erlasting honour.^ 
 
 Maria sonat breviter quod talia tonat, 
 Gummis cum binis fugitivum figit in imis, 
 Horis in trinis tria vinclat fortia finis. 
 Maria lux roris ligam ligat in tribus horis, 
 Filia Plutonis consortia jungit amoris 
 Gaudet in assata per Tria sociata.^ 
 
 Thus exalted by a rotary circulation, as it were, from 
 the lowest to the most perfect form of vitality — from 
 its beginning in voluntary indigence, through each 
 succedent sphere of resolute conception, the Spirit 
 
 1 See Introitus Apertus, cap. iv. ; Genesis, chap. i. 
 
 2 Maria Practica, &c. ; Ars Aurifera, vol. ii. p. 208. 
 
 H H 2 
 
468 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 goes on to increase and multiply its hidden light out- 
 wardly, until its substance, being replenished, it is 
 brought forth to sight. The First has it and refuses 
 
 it ; the Second gives it and regards it not ; 
 
 And the Fourth, as the Artist, applies it to the work 
 in furtherance, thus proving himself from first to last 
 to be essential, and the greatest Handicraft of all ; — 
 when the Stone, so singularly raised up by the builders 
 each in turn rejecting it, becomes the Head Stone of 
 the Corner. — This is the Lord's doing, and it is mar- 
 vellous in our Eyes. 
 
 And as the Stone of the Wise is completed in 
 three successive circulations, so likewise was the 
 Temple of mighty Solomon built up by the joint 
 assistance of Hiram and Queen Sheba, and wonder- 
 fully adorned with gold, and silver, and constellated 
 beams ; as in the book of Jezirah we also read — that, 
 with the Fiery Letters of the Law, He engraved the 
 empty, and the void, and the obscure mind, and made, 
 as it were, a heap of grain and a straight statue, and 
 intersected it with joined beams.' Which brings to 
 mind those lines in the nineteenth book of the 
 Odyssey, when Ulysses and Telemachus, removing the 
 weapons out of the armory, Minerva preceded them, 
 having a golden Lamp, with which she produced a 
 very beautiful Light, on perceiving which, Telema- 
 chus thus immediately addresses his Father : O 
 Father ! this is certainly a most admirable thing which 
 presents itself to my eyes. For the walls of the 
 House, the beautiful spaces between the rafters, the 
 tir beams, and the columns appear to rise in radiance 
 as if on fire. Certainly some one of the gods is pre- 
 sent who inhabit the extended heaven. But the Wise 
 Ulysses thus answered him : — Be silent, repress your 
 intellect, and do not speak. For this is the custom of 
 the gods in Olympus.^ Homer, therefore, in common 
 with the philosophers of his age, indicates that for the 
 
 1 Cap. i. 
 
 ^ Ody.ssey, book xix. 
 
The Subtle Work. 469 
 
 proper reception of divinity, quietude and a cessation 
 of mental energy are becoming and necessary to the 
 consummating knowledge of the First Cause. — And 
 the knowledge of it, says Trismegistus, is a most Di- 
 vine Silence, and a rest of all the senses ; for neither 
 can he that understands That understand anything 
 else, nor he that sees That see anything else, nor in 
 sum move the body. For, shining steadfastly up and 
 around the whole mind, it enlighteneth all the soul, 
 and loosing it from the bodily senses and motions, 
 it draweth it from the body, and changeth it wholly 
 into the Essence of God, 
 
 We awaken from the intellectual Intuition, says 
 Schelling, as from a state of death — and we awaken, 
 by reflection, into that created personality wherein it 
 is impossible any longer to know Him. — The vision 
 graven in hallowed memory is all that remains to us ; 
 for the object of human reason is the limit of its 
 power, and the pure zero of all relative conception 
 waits l)efore the throne of God. — But to our work. 
 
 The last concord is well known to Clerkes 
 
 Between the sphere of Heaven and our Subtil Werkes. 
 
 Nothing in erth hath more simplicitie, 
 
 Than th' elements of our Stone woll be, 
 
 Wherefore thei, being in worke of generation, 
 
 Have most obedience to constellation : 
 
 Whereof concord most kindly convenient 
 
 Is a direct and Fiery ascendant, 
 
 Being sign common for this operation, 
 
 For the multitude of their iteration : 
 
 Fortune your ascendant with his Lord alsoe, 
 
 Keeping th' aspect of shrews them fro' ; 
 
 And if they must let, or needly infect. 
 
 Cause them look with a trine aspect. 
 
 For the ivhife Worke make fortunate the Moone, 
 
 For the Lord of the Fourth House likemse be it done ; 
 
 For that is Thesaurum ahsconditum of old clerkes ; 
 
 Soe of the sixth house for servants of the Werkes ; 
 
 Save all them well from great impediments, 
 
 As it is in picture, or like the same intents. 
 
 Unless that your nativity pretend infection, 
 In contrariety of this Election, 
 The virtue of the IMover of the orbe is foi'mall, 
 The virtue of the eight sphere is here instrumental], 
 With her signs and iigures and parts aspectuall, 
 
470 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 The planet's virtue is proper and speciall, 
 
 The virtue of the elements is here materiall, 
 
 The virtue infused resulteth of them all : 
 
 The First is like to a workman's mind, 
 
 The Second like to his hand ye shall linde ; 
 
 The Third is like a good instrument, 
 
 The remnant like a thing wrought to your Intent. 
 
 Make all the premises with other well accord, 
 
 Then shall your merits make you a greate Lord. 
 
 In this wise Elixir, of whom ye make mencion, 
 
 Is engendered a thing of Second Intention.^ 
 
 I could tell thee, says Vaughan, of a first and second 
 sublimation, of a double nativity, visible and invisible, 
 without which the Matter is not alterable as to our 
 final purpose. I could tell thee also of sulphurs sim- 
 ple and compounded, of three Argent vives and as 
 many Salts, and all this would be new news (as the 
 schoolmen phrase it) , even to the best learned in Eng- 
 land. But I hope not by this discourse to demolish 
 any man's castles ; for why should they despair when 
 I contribute to their building?^ 
 
 Out magistery is Three, Two, and One— 
 
 The Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral Stone. 
 
 First, I say, in the name of the Holy Trinity, 
 
 Look that thou join in one persons Three — 
 
 The Fixt, the Variable, and the Fugitive — 
 
 Till they together taste death and live. 
 
 The first one is the Dragon fell, 
 
 That shall the other twaine both slay and quell ; 
 
 The Sun and IMoon shall lose their light. 
 
 And in mourning sable, they shall seem dight. 
 
 Three score days long, or neere thereabouts ; 
 
 Then shall Phoebus appear first out. 
 
 With strange colours in all the Firmament, 
 
 Then our joy is coming and at Hand present. 
 
 Then Orient Phoebus in his hemisphere 
 
 To us full gloriously shall appear : 
 
 Thus he who can work wisely. 
 
 Shall attain unto our IMaistery.^ 
 
 Which magistery is a fiery form of Light inspissate, 
 
 ' Norton's Ordinal, chap. vi. 
 ^ See Vaughan' s Lumen de Lumine. 
 
 3 Theatrum Chemicum Brit. ; Conclusion of Bloomfield's Camp 
 of Philosophy. 
 
The Subtle Work. 471 
 
 made manifest by a triplicate introversion and multi- 
 plication of the hypostatic unit by the circulatory me- 
 dium throughout life. 
 
 Already see the laurel brauches wave ! 
 Hark ! sounds tumultuous shake the trembling cave. 
 Far, ye profane, far off w4th beauteous feet, 
 Bright Phoebus comes and thunders at the gate. 
 See ! the glad sign the Delian Palm hath given, 
 Sudden it bends ; and hovering in the heaven. 
 Soft sings the Swan with melody divine. 
 
 BUEST OPE YE BaES ! TE GaTES, TOUE HeADS EXPAND, 
 
 He comes ! The Gtod of light, the God's at hai^d. 
 
 Begin the song, and tread the sacred ground 
 
 In mystic dance symphonious to the sound. 
 
 Begin, young men ! Apollo's eyes endure 
 
 None but the good, the perfect, and the pure. 
 
 Who view the god are great, but abject they 
 
 From whom he turns his favouring eyes away. 
 
 All-seeing God ! in every place confessed, 
 
 "VVe will prepare, behold thee, and be blessed. 
 
 He comes, young men ! Nor silent should ye stand, 
 
 "With harp or feet, when Phoebus is at hand.^ 
 
 Fit thy roof to thy God in all thou canst, continues 
 the philosopher, and in what thou canst not he will help 
 thee ; thou must prepare thyself till thou art conform- 
 able to Him whom thou wouldest entertain, and that 
 in every way of similitude. Thou hast three that are 
 to receive, and there be three accordingly that give. 
 And when thou hast set thy house in order, think not 
 that thy guest will come without invitation. 
 
 Perpetual knockings at his doore, 
 Teares sullying his transparent rooms. 
 Sighs upon sighs, weep more and more. 
 
 He comes. 
 
 This is the way that thou must walk, in which, if 
 thou dost, thou shalt perceive a sudden illumination 
 — Eritque^tecum Lumin^, Ignis ; cum Tgne Vent(|) ; US 
 cum Vento, Potestas ; cum Potestate, Scientia ; cum 
 Scientia, sanae mentis integritas.^ — And then it is re- 
 
 * Callimachus' Hymn to Apollo, by Dodd. 
 2 Anima Magia Abscond, page 47, &c. 
 
 L/vc^lJCe^ 
 
472 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 quisite to believe that we have seen Him, says Ploti- 
 nus, when the Soul receives a sudden Light. For the 
 Light is with Power, and is God. — And then it is 
 proper to think that He is present, when, hke another 
 Divinity, entering into the house of some one w^ho in- 
 vokes him, he fills it with splendour. For, unless he 
 entered, he would not illuminate it, and then the soul 
 would be without Light, and without the possession 
 of God.^ But when illuminated, it has That which 
 it sought for ; and the Thought and understanding 
 are in the experience One. 
 
 Nec Sentire Deum nisi qui pahs ipse Dei est. 
 
 That was the sum of the Hermetic Mystery, and the 
 ultimate object of the Alchemical Art to accomplish ; 
 and by such a subtle analysis and pure synthesis of 
 vital agencies and effects, the Word of Life would 
 seem to have been sought after by our ancestors, and 
 experimentally found : which their neglected Scrip- 
 tures everywhere testify of, and the Smaragdine Table 
 yet lives summarily instructing us to reprove. 
 
 True "without eebor, certain and most true ; That which 
 
 IS ABOVE is as that WHICH IS BELOW, AND THAT WHICH IS 
 BELOW IS AS THAT WHICH IS ABOVE, FOR PERFORMING THE 
 MIRACLES OF THE OnE ThING. AnD AS ALL THINGS WERE 
 
 FROM One, by the mediation of One, so all things pro- 
 ceeded FROM this One Thing by adaptation. The Father 
 of it is the Sun, the Mother of it is the Moon, the 
 "Wind carried it in its belly ; the nurse thereof is 
 THE Earth. This is the father of all perfection and 
 consummation of the whole world. The povvf;r of it is 
 
 INTEGRAL, IF IT BE TURNED INTO EaRTH. ThOU SHALT SE- 
 PARATE THE EARTH FROM THE FIRE, THE SUBTLE FROM THE 
 GROSS, GENTLY, WITH MUCH SAGACITY. It ASCENDS FROM 
 EARTH TO HEAVEN, AND AGAIN DESCENDS TO EARTH ; AND RE- 
 CEIVES THE STRENGTH OF THE SUPERIORS AND OF THE INFE- 
 RIORS. So THOU HAST THE GLORY OF THE WHOLE WORLD : 
 THEREFORE LET ALL OBSCURITY FLEE BEFORE THEE. ThIS IS 
 THE STRONG FORTITUDE OF ALL FORTITUDES, OVERCOMING 
 EVERY SUBTLE AND PENETRATING EVERY SOLID THING. So 
 THE WORLD WAS CREATED. HeNCE WERE WONDERFUL ADAP- 
 
 > Plotinus's Select Works, Taylor, p. 453. 
 
The Subtle Work. 473 
 
 TATIONS, OF WHICH THIS IS THE MANNEE. ThEKEFOEE AM I 
 CALLED ThEICE GeEAT HeEMES, HATI>'G THE THEEE PAETS 
 OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WHOLE TTOELD. ThAT WHICH I 
 HATE SPOKEN IS CONSUMMATED CONCEENING THE OPEEATION 
 
 OF THE Sun. 
 
 The six following "Keys," delivered into the safe 
 hand of the intelhgent inquirer (since they will be use- 
 ful to none else) , may be acceptable ; that, without 
 involving more responsibility on ourselves, he may 
 apply their explanatory words as he thinks fit. But 
 we would deter all from hasty trial and avow our 
 wilfiil reservation of an important link in the applica- 
 tion of these principles to practice, lest any attempting 
 to realize,, without a full investigation of the method, 
 should fail utterly in the pursuit. 
 
474 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Six Keys of Eudoxus, opening into the most 
 Secret Philosophy. 
 
 THE FIRST KEY. 
 
 THE First Key is that which opens'the dark prisons 
 in which the Sulphur is shut up : this is it which 
 knows hotv to extract the seed out of the body, and 
 which forms the Stone of the philosophers by the con- 
 junction of the spirit with the body — of sulphur with 
 mercury. Hermes has manifestly demonstrated the 
 operation of this First Key' by these words: In the 
 caverns of the metals there is hidden the Stone, which 
 is venerable, bright in colour, a mind sublime, and 
 an open sea. This Stone has a bright glittering : it 
 contains a Spirit of a sublime original : it is the Sea of 
 the Wise, in which they angle for their mysterious 
 Fish. But the operations of the three works have a 
 great deal of analogy one to another, and the philoso- 
 phers do designedly speak in equivocal terms, to the 
 end that those who have not the Lynx's eyes may pur- 
 sue wrong, and be lost in this labwinth, from whence 
 it is very hard to get out. In effect, when one 
 imagines that they speak of one work, they often treat 
 of another. Take heed, therefore, not to be deceived 
 here ; for it is a truth, that in each work the Wise 
 Artist ought to dissolve the body with the spirit ; 
 he must cut off the Raven's head, whiten the Black, 
 and vivify the White ; yet it is properly in the 
 First operation that the Wise Artist cuts off the head of 
 the Bhick Dragon and of the Raven. Hence, Hermes 
 says, What is born of the Crow is the beginning of this 
 Art. Consider that it is by separation of the black, 
 foul, and stinking fume of the Blackest Black, that 
 
The Six Keys. 475 
 
 our astral, white, and resplendent Stone is formed, 
 which contains in its veins the blood of the Pelican. It 
 is at this First Purification of the Stone, and at this 
 shining whiteness, that the work of the First Key 
 is ended. 
 
 THE SECOND KEY. 
 
 The Second Key dissolves the compound of the 
 Stone, and begins the separation of the Elements in a 
 philosophical manner : this separation of the Elements 
 is not made but by raising up the subtle and pure 
 parts above the thick and terrestrial parts. He who 
 knows how to subhme the Stone philosophically, justly 
 deserves the name of a philosopher, since he knows 
 the Fire of the Wise, which is the only Instrument 
 which can work this sublimation. No philosopher has 
 ever openly revealed this Secret Fire, and this power- 
 ful agent, which works all the wonders of the Art : he 
 who shall not understand it, and not know how to 
 distinguish it by the characters whereby it is described, 
 ought to make a stand here, and pray to God to make 
 it clear to him ; for the knowledge of this great Secret 
 is rather a gift of Heaven, than a Light acquired by the 
 natural force of reasoning; let him, nevertheless, read 
 the writings of the philosophers ; let him meditate ; 
 and, above all, let him pray : there is no difficulty 
 which may not in the end be made clear by Work, Me- 
 ditation, and Prayer. Without the sublimation of the 
 Stone, the conversion of the Elements and the extrac- 
 tion of the Principles is impossible ; and this conver- 
 sion, w^hich makes Water of Earth, Air of Water, and 
 Fire of Air, is the only way whereby our Mercury can be 
 prepared. Apply yourself then to know this secret 
 Fire, which dissolves the Stone naturally and without 
 violence, and makes it dissolve into Water in the great 
 sea of the Wise, by the distillation which is made bij the 
 rays of the Sun and Moon. It is in this manner that 
 the Stone, which, according to Hermes, is the vine of 
 the Wise, becomes their Wine, which, by the operations 
 of Art, produces their rectified Water of Life, and their 
 
476 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 most sharp Vinegar. The Elements of the Stone can- 
 not be dissolved but by this Natm'e wholly Divine; 
 nor can a perfect dissolution be made of it, but after a 
 proportioned digestion and putrefaction, at which the 
 operation of the Second Key of the First Work is 
 ended. 
 
 THE THIRD KEY. 
 
 The Third Key comprehends of itself alone a longer 
 train of operations than all the rest together. The 
 philosophers have spoken very little of it, seeing the 
 Perfection of our Mercurij depends thereon ; the sin- 
 cerest even, as Artefius, Trevisan,Flammel, have passed 
 in silence the Preparation of our Mercury, and there 
 is hardly one found who has not feigned, instead of 
 showing the longest and the most important of the 
 operations of our Practice. With a design to lend you 
 a hand in this part of the w^ay which you have to go, 
 and where for want of Light it is impossible to know 
 the true road, I will enlarge myself more than others 
 have done on this Third Key ; or at least I will follow 
 in an order, that W'hich they have treated so con- 
 fusedly, that without the inspiration of Heaven, or 
 w^ithout the help of a faithful friend, one remains un- 
 doubtedly in this labyrinth, without being able to find 
 a happy deliverance from thence. I am sure, that you 
 who are the true Sons of Science will receive a very 
 great satisfaction in the explaining of these hidden 
 ]\Iysteries, which regard the separation and the purifi- 
 cation of the Pr'mciples of oia^ JMercury, which is 
 made by a perfect dissolution and glorification of the 
 body, whence it had its nativity, and by the intimate 
 union of the soul with its body, of whom the Spirit is 
 the only tie which uorks this conjunction. This is 
 the Intention, and the essential point of the Operations 
 of this Key, which terminate at the generation of a 
 new substance infinitely nobler than the First. 
 
 After the Wise Artist has made a spring of living 
 water come out of the Stone, and has pressed out the 
 vine of the philosophers, and has made their wine, he 
 
The Six Keys. 477 
 
 ought to take notice that in this homogeneous sub- 
 stance, which appears under the form of Water, there 
 are three different substances, and three natural prin- 
 ciples of bodies — Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury — which 
 are the spirit, the soul, and the body ; and though 
 they appear pure and perfectly united together, there 
 still wants much of their being so ; for when by distil- 
 lation ice draw the Water, tvhich is the soul and the 
 spirit, the Body remains in the bottom of the vessel, like 
 a dead, black, and dreggy earth, which, nevertheless, 
 is not to be despised ; for in our subject there is 
 nothing which is not good. The philosopher, John 
 Pontanus, protests that the very superfluities of the 
 Stone are converted into a true essence, and that 
 he who pretends to separate anything from our sub- 
 ject knows nothing of philosophy ; for that all which 
 is therein superfluous, unclean, dreggy — in fine, the 
 whole compound, is made perfect by the action of our 
 Fire. This advice opens the Eyes of those, who, 
 to make an exact purification of the Elements and of 
 the Principles, persuade themselves that they must 
 only take the subtile and cast away the heavy. But 
 Hermes says the power of it is not integral until it be 
 turned into earth ; neither ought the sons of science 
 to be ignorant that the Fire and the Sulphur are 
 hidden in the centre of the Earth, and that they must 
 wash it exactly with its spirit, to extract out of it the 
 Fixed Salt, which is the Blood of our Stone. This 
 is the Essential Mystery of the operation, which is not 
 accomplished till after a convenient digestion and a 
 slow distillation. You know that nothing is more con- 
 trary than fire and water; but yet the Wise Artist must 
 make peace between the enemies, who radically love 
 each other vehemently. Cosmopolite told the manner 
 thereof in a. few words: — All things thei^efore being 
 purged make Fire and Water to be Friends, which they 
 will easily do in their Earth which had ascended with 
 them. Be then attentive on this point ; moisten often- 
 times the earth with its water, and you will obtain what 
 you seek. Must not the body be dissolved by the 
 
478 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 water, and the Earth he penetrated with its Humidity, 
 to he made proper for generation ? According to phi- 
 losophers, the Spirit is Eve, the Body is Adam ; they 
 ought to be joined together for the propagation of 
 their species. Hermes says the same in other terms : 
 For Water is the strongest Nature which surmounts and 
 excites the Jixed Nature in the Body, that is, rejoices in 
 it. In effect, these two substances, which are of the 
 same nature but of different genders, ascend insensibly 
 together, leaving but a little foeces in the bottom of 
 their vessel ; so that the soul, spirit, and body, after 
 an exact purification, appear at last inseparably united 
 under a more noble and more perfect Form than it was 
 before, and as ^idifferent from its first liquid Form as 
 the alcohol of Wine exactly rectified and acuated with 
 its salt is different from the substance of the wine 
 from whence it has been drawn : this comparison is 
 not only very fitting, but it furthermore gives the sons 
 of science a precise knowledge of the operations of the 
 Third Key. 
 
 Our Water is a living spring which comes out of the 
 Stone by a natural miracle of our philosophy. The 
 first of all is the water which issueth out of this 
 Stone. It is Hermes who has pronounced this great 
 Truth. He acknowledges, further, that this water is 
 the Foundation of our Art. The philosophers give it 
 many names ; for sometimes they call it wine, some- 
 times water of life, sometimes vinegar, sometimes oil, 
 according to the difterent degrees of Preparation, or 
 according to the diverse effects which it is capable of 
 producing. Yet I let you know that it is properly 
 called the Vinegar of the Wise, and that in the distilla- 
 tion of this Divine Liquor there happens the same thing 
 as in that of common vinegar ; you may hence draw 
 instruction : the water and the phlegm ascend first ; 
 the oily substance, in which the efficacy of the water 
 consists, comes the last, &c. It is therefore necessary 
 to dissolve the body entirely, to extract all its humi- 
 dity which contains the precious ferment, the sulphur, 
 that balm of Nature, and wonderful unguent, without 
 
The Six Keys. 479 
 
 which you ought not to hope ever to see in your ves- 
 sel this blackness so desired by all the philosophers. 
 Reduce then the whole compound into water, and 
 make a perfect union of the volatile with the fixed ; it 
 is a precept of Senior's, which deserves attention, that 
 the highest fume should be reduced to the lowest ; for 
 the divine water is the thing descending from heave?!, 
 the reducer of the soul to its body, ivhich it at length 
 revives. The Balm of Life is hid in these unclean 
 foeces ; you ought to wash them with this coelestial 
 water until you have removed away the blackness 
 from them, and then your Water shall be animated with 
 this Fiery Essence, ivhich works all the ivonders of our 
 Art. 
 
 But, further, that you may not be deceived with the 
 terms of the Compound, I will tell you that the philo- 
 sophers have two sorts of compounds. The first is 
 the compound of Nature, whereof I have spoken in 
 the First Key ; for it is Nature which makes it in a 
 manner incomprehensible to the Artist, who does no- 
 thing but lend a Hand to Nature by the adhibition of 
 external things, by the means of which she brings 
 forth and produces this admirable compound. The 
 second is the compound of Art ; it is the Wise man 
 who makes it by the secret union of the fixed with the 
 volatile, perfectly conjoined with all prudence, which 
 cannot be acquired but by the lights of a profound 
 philosophy. The compound of Art is not altogether 
 the same in the Second as in the Third Work ; yet it 
 is always the Artist who makes it. Geber defines it, 
 a mixture of Argent vive and Sulphur, that is to say, 
 of the volatile and the fixed ; which, acting on one 
 another, are volatilized and fixed reciprocally into a 
 perfect Fixity. Consider the example of Nature ; you 
 see that the earth will never produce fruit if it be not 
 penetrated with its humidity, and that the humidity 
 would always remain barren if it were not retained and 
 fixed by the dryness of the earth. So, in the Art, you 
 can have no success if you do not in the first work 
 purify the Serpent, born of the SHme of the earth ; 
 
480 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 if you do not whiten these foul and black foeces, to 
 separate from thence the white sulphur, which is the 
 Sal Amoniac of the Wise, and their Chaste Diana, 
 who washes herself in the bath ; and all this mystery 
 is but the extraction of the Jixed salt of our com- 
 pound, in which the whole energy of our Mercury 
 consists. The water wiiich ascends by distillation 
 carries up with it a part of this fiery salt, so that the 
 affusion of the water on the body, reiterated many 
 times, impregnates, fattens, and fertilizes our JMercury, 
 and makes it fit to be fixed, which is the end of the 
 Second Work. One cannot better explain this Truth, 
 than by Hermes, in these words : When I saiv that the 
 water by degrees did become thicker and harder I did 
 rejoice, for I certainly knew that I should Jind ichat I 
 sought for. It is not without reason that the philo- 
 sophers give this viscous Liquor the name of Pontick 
 Water. Its exuberant ponticity is indeed the true 
 character of its virtue, and the more you shall rec- 
 tify it, and the more you shall w^ork upon it, the more 
 virtue will it acquire. It has been called the Water of 
 Life, because it gives life to the metals ; but it is pro- 
 perly called the great Lunaria, because of its bright- 
 ness w^herewith it shines. 
 
 Since I speak only to you, ye ti*ue scholars of 
 Hermes, I will reveal to you one secret which you will 
 not find entirely in the books of the philosophers. 
 Some of them say, that of their liquor they make two 
 Mercuries — the one White and the other Red; Flammel 
 has said more particularly, that one must make use of 
 the citrine Mercury to make the Imbibition to the 
 Red ; giving notice to the Sons of Art not to be de- 
 ceived on this point, as he himself had been, unless 
 the Jew had informed him of the truth. Others have 
 taught that the White Mercury is the bath of the 
 Moon, and that the Red Mercury is the bath of the 
 Sun. But there are none who have been wdlling to show 
 distinctly to the Sons of the Science by what means 
 they may get these two mercuries. If you apprehend 
 me well, you have the point already cleared up to you. 
 
TuR Six Keys. 481 
 
 The Lunaria is the White Mercury, the most sharp 
 Vinegar is the Red Mercury ; but the better to deter- 
 mine these two mercuries, feed them with flesh of their 
 own species — the blood of innocents whose throats 
 are cut ; that is to say, the spirits of the bodies are the 
 Bath where the Sun and Moon goto wash themselves. 
 I have unfolded to you a great Mystery, if you reflect 
 well on it ; the philosophers who have spoken thereof 
 have passed over this important point very slightly. 
 Cosmopohte has very wittily mentioned it by an in- 
 genious allegory, speaking of the purification of the 
 Mercury : This will be done, says he, if you shall give 
 our old man gold and silver to swalloic, that he may 
 consunie them, and at length he also dying may be burnt. 
 He makes an end of describing the whole magistery in 
 these terms ; — Let his ashes be streived in the water ; 
 boil it until it is enough, and you have a medicine to 
 cure the leprosy. You must not be ignorant that Our 
 Old Man is our Mercury ; this name indeed agrees 
 with him because He is the Jirst matter of all metals. 
 He is their water, as the same author goes on to say, 
 and to which he gives also the name of steel and of the 
 loadstone ; adding, for a greater confirmation of what 
 I am about to discover to you, that if gold couples with 
 it eleven times it sends forth its seed, and is debilitated 
 almost unto death ; but the Chalybes conceives and be- 
 gets a son more glorious than the Father. Behold a 
 great Mystery which I reveal to you without an 
 enigma ; this is the secret of the two mercuries which 
 contain the two tinctures. Keep them separately, 
 and do not confound their species, for fear they should 
 beget a monstrous Lineage. 
 
 I not only speak to you more intelligibly than any 
 philosopher before has done, but I also reveal to you 
 the most essential point in the Practice ; if you medi- 
 tate thereon, and apply yourself to understand it well ; 
 but above all, if you work according to those lights 
 which I give you, you may obtain what you seek for. 
 And if you come not to these knowledges by the way 
 which I have pointed out to you, I am very well as- 
 
 I I 
 
482 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 sured that you will hardly arrive at your design by 
 only reading the philosophers. Therefore despair of 
 nothing — search the source of the Liquor of the Sages, 
 which contains all that is necessary for the work ; it is 
 hidden under the Stone — strike upon it with the Rod 
 of Magic Fire, and a clear fountain will issue out : then 
 do as I have shown you, prepare the bath of the King 
 with the blood of the Innocents, and you will have the 
 animated Mercury of the wise, which never loses its 
 virtue, if you keep it in a vessel well closed. Hermes 
 says, that there is so much sympathy between the pu- 
 rified bodies and the spirits, that they never quit one 
 another when they are united together : because this 
 union resembles that of the soul with the glorified 
 body ; after which. Faith tells us, there shall be 
 no more separation or death ; because the spirits de- 
 sire to be in the cleansed bodies, and having them, 
 they enliven and dwell in them. By this you may ob- 
 serve the merit of this precious liquor, to which the 
 philosophers have given more than a thousand dif- 
 ferent names, which is in sum the great Alchaest, 
 which radically dissolves the metals — a true perma- 
 nent water which, after having radically dissolved 
 them, is inseparably united to them, increasing their 
 weight and tincture. 
 
 THE FOURTH KEY. 
 
 The Fourth Key of the Art is the entrance to the 
 Second Work (and a reiteration in part and develop- 
 ment of the foregoing) : it is this which reduces our 
 Water into Earth ; there is but this only Water in the 
 world, which by a bare boiling can be converted into 
 Earth, because the Mercury of the Wise carries in its 
 centre its own Sulphur, which coagulates it. The ter- 
 rification of the Spirit is the only operation of this 
 work. Boil them with patience; if you have pro- 
 ceeded well, you will not be a long time without per- 
 ceiving the marks of this coagulation ; and if they 
 appear not in their time, they will never appear ; be- 
 cause it is an undoubted sign that you have failed in 
 
The Six Keys. 483 
 
 some essential thing in the former operations ; for to 
 corporify the Spirit, which is our Mercury, you must 
 have well dissolved the body in which the Sulphur 
 which coagulates the Mercury is enclosed. But 
 Hermes assumes that our mercurial water shall obtain 
 all the virtues which the philosophers attribute to it 
 if it be turned into earth. An earth admirable is it for 
 fertility — the Land of Promise of the Wise, who, 
 knowing how to make the dew of Heaven fall upon it, 
 cause it to produce fruits of an inestimable price. 
 Cultivate then diligently this precious earth, moisten 
 it often with its own humidity, dry it as often, and 
 you will no less augment its virtue than its weight 
 and its fertility. 
 
 THE FIFTH KEY. 
 
 The Fifth Key includes the Fermentation of the 
 Stone with the perfect body, to make thereof the 
 medicine of the Third order. I will say nothing in 
 particular of the operation of the Third work ; except 
 that the Perfect Body is a necessary leaven of Our 
 Paste. And that the Spirit ought to make the union 
 of the paste with the leaven in the same manner as 
 water moistens meal, and dissolves the leaven to com- 
 pose a fermented paste fit to make bread. This com- 
 parison is very proper ; Hermes first made it, saying, 
 that as a paste cannot be fermented ivithout a ferment ; 
 so luhen you shall have sublimed, cleansed, and sepa- 
 rated the foulness from the Fceces, and would make 
 the conjunction, put a ferment to them and make the 
 water earth, that the paste may be made a ferment ; 
 which repeats the instruction of the whole work, and 
 shows, that just so as the whole lump of the paste 
 becomes leaven, by the action of the ferment which 
 has been added, so all the philosophic confection be- 
 comes, by this operation, a leaven proper to ferment a 
 new matter, and to multiply it to infinity. If you ob- 
 serve well how bread is made, you will find the pro- 
 portions also, w4iich you ought to keep among the 
 matters which compose our philosophical paste. Do 
 
 I I 2 
 
484 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 not the bakers put more meal than leaven, and more 
 water than the leaven and the meal? The laws of 
 Nature are the rules you ought to follow in the prac- 
 tice of our magistery. I have given you, upon the 
 principal points, all the instructions which are neces- 
 sary for you, so that it would be superfluous to tell 
 you more of it ; particularly concerning the last oper- 
 ations, about which the Adepts have been less re- 
 served than at the First, which are the foundations of 
 the Art. 
 
 THE SIXTH KEY. 
 
 The Sixth Key teaches the Multiplication of the 
 Stone, by the reiteration of the same operation, which 
 consists but in opening and shutting, dissolving and 
 coagulating, imbibing and drying ; whereby the vir- 
 tues of the Stone are infinitely augmentable. As my 
 design has been not to describe entirely the apphca- 
 tion of the three medicines, but only to instruct you 
 in the more important operations concerning the pre- 
 paration of Mercury, which the philosophers com- 
 monly pass over in silence, to hide the mysteries 
 from the profane which are only intended for the wise, 
 I will tarry no longer upon this point, and will tell 
 you nothing more of what relates to the Projection of 
 the Medicine, because the success you expect depends 
 not thereon. I have not given you very full instruc- 
 tions except on the Third Key, because it contains a long 
 train of operations, which, though simple and natural, 
 require a great understanding of the Laws of Nature, 
 and of the qualities of Our Matter, as well as a perfect 
 knowledge of chemistry and of the different degrees of 
 heat which are fitting for these operations. 1 have 
 conducted you by the straight way without any wind- 
 ing ; and if you have well minded the road which I 
 have pointed out to you, I am sure that you will go 
 straight to the end without straying. Take this in 
 good part from me, in the design which I had of 
 sparing you a thousand labours and a thousand trou- 
 bles, which I myself have undergone in this painful 
 
The Six Keys. 485 
 
 journey for want of an assistance, such as this is which 
 I give you from a sincere heart and a tender affection 
 for all the true sons of science. I should much be- 
 wail, if, like me, after having known the true Matter, 
 you should spend fifteen years entirely in the work, in 
 study and in meditation, without being able to extract 
 out of the Stone the precious juice which it encloses 
 in its bosom, for want of knowing the secret fire of 
 the wise, which makes to run out of this plant (dry 
 and withered in appearance) a water which wets not 
 the hands, and which by a magical union of the dry 
 water of the sea of the wise, is dissolved into a viscous 
 water — into a mercurial liquor, which is the beginning, 
 the foundation, and the Key of our Art : — Convert, se- 
 parate, and purify the elements, as I have taught you, 
 and you will possess the true Mercury of the philoso- 
 phers, which will give you the fixed Sulphur and the 
 Universal Medicine. But I give you notice, moreover, 
 that even after you shall be arrived at the knowledge 
 of the Secret Fire of the Wise, yet still you shall not 
 attain your point at your first career. I have erred 
 many years in the way which remains to be gone, to 
 arrive at the mysterious fountain where the King 
 bathes himself, is made young again, and retakes a 
 new life exempt from all sorts of infirmities. Besides 
 this you must know how to purify, to heal, and to 
 animate the royal bath ; it is to lend you a hand in 
 this secret way that I have expatiated under the 
 Third Key, where all those operations are described. 
 I wish with all my heart that the instructions which I 
 have given you may enable you to go directly to the 
 End. Bat remember, ye sons of philosophy, that the 
 knowledge of our Magistery comes rather by the In- 
 spiration of Heaven, than from the Lights which we 
 can get by ourselves. This truth is acknowledged by 
 all artists ; it is for this reason that it is not 
 enough to work ; pray daily, read good books, and 
 meditate night and day on the operations of Nature, 
 and on what she may be able to do when she is as- 
 sisted by the help of our Art : and by these means 
 
486 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 you will succeed without doubt in your undertaking. 
 This is all I have now to say to you. I was not will- 
 ing to make you such a long discourse as the matter 
 seemed to demand ; neither have I told you anything 
 but what is essential to our Art ; so that if you know 
 the Stone which is the only matter of Our Stone, and 
 if you have the Understanding of Our Fire, which is 
 both secret and natural, you have the Keys of the Art, 
 and you can calcine Our Stone ; not by the common 
 calcination which is made by the violence of fire, but 
 by a philosophic calcination which is purely natural. 
 Yet observe this, with the most enlightened philoso- 
 phers, that there is this difference between the com- 
 mon calcination which is made by the force of Fire 
 and the natural calcination ; that the first destroys the 
 body and consumes the greatest part of its radical 
 humidity ; but the second does not only preserve the 
 humidity of the body in calcining it, but still consi- 
 derably augments it. Experience will give you know- 
 ledge in the Practice of this great truth, for you will in 
 effect find that this philosophical calcination, which 
 sublimes and distils the Stone in calcining it, much 
 augments its humidity ; the reason is that the igneous 
 spirit of the natural fire is corporified in the substances 
 which arc analogous to it. Our Stone is an Astral 
 Fire which sympathizes with the Natural Fire, and 
 which, as a true Salamander receives its nativity, is 
 nourished and grows in the Elementaiy Fire, which is 
 geometrically proportioned to it. 
 
 The Keys of Eudoxus open no more ; and as these 
 last ones, entering to the Multiplication and Projec- 
 tion, are avowedly defective, and the information may 
 be interesting to the studious, we propose to supply 
 it briefly from another and not less credible source. 
 
 It remains only for the work of Multiplication, says 
 the Author of the Opoi Entrance, to take one part of 
 the Perfect Matter and to join it with three or four 
 parts at most of the Mercury of the First Work, and 
 to place both in a vessel well luted and sealed ; and, by 
 
The Multiplication and Projection. 487 
 
 the help of a gentle and well-regulated fire, you will 
 see with satisfaction all the operations before named 
 pass through rapidly in seven days, and the virtue is 
 augmented a thousand times in this revelation above 
 what it was before. Tiien repeat thereupon the same 
 operation, and all will be run through before your eyes 
 in three days, and the matter will have again attained 
 by this a redoubled virtue. After this, if you desire to 
 repeat the same work, one natural day will complete 
 the whole, and every regiment of the colours will in 
 that brief space be passed through ; which, if the 
 same process be again repeated, an hour will suffice, 
 increasing likewise in multiplicable proportion, thou- 
 sands by thousands; so that at length, if you multiply it 
 a fifth time, you will be no longer able to calculate the 
 strength of the medicine. Render thanks to God, then, 
 who hath put into thy possession the universal treasury 
 of nature. — 
 
 And for the final Projection, as the metalline per- 
 fectibility of the matter is sometimes called, we have 
 this concluding advice : — 
 
 Take one part of your perfect Stone, whether white 
 or red ; then cause to be melted in a crucible four 
 parts of one of the fixed metals, i. e. silver if it 
 be for the white, or gold if it be for the red ; join to 
 this one part of the Stone, according to the kind that 
 you desire to produce ; throw the whole into a horn, 
 and there will result to you a pulverizable mass. Take 
 then ten parts of mercury purged and purified, place 
 it on the fire, and when it begins to crackle and to 
 smoke throw in one part of your powder, which will, 
 in the twinkhng of an eye as it were, penetrate the 
 mercury ; melt this w^ith an augmented fire ; and you 
 will have the medicine, though of an inferior order. 
 Take one part of this last matter and project it on any 
 metal so that it be only purified and set in fusion ; pro- 
 ject only as much of the Stone as you desire to tinge 
 of the metal, and you will have gold or silver more 
 pure than that which nature ever yields. However it 
 is always best to make projection by degrees until the 
 
488 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 Stone yields no more tincture ; because, in projecting a 
 small quantity of powder on a large quantity of im- 
 perfect metals (except indeed our Ahrcury alone) , the 
 Stone sustains great loss on account of the impurities 
 with which they abound. Therefore, the more the 
 metal is purijicd before projection, the more successful 
 will be the transmutation.^ 
 
 But, be it remembered, there is a tW'Ofold fermenta- 
 tion — a spiritual and a bodily. The spiritual fermenta- 
 tion is performed by multiplying the tinctures, which 
 is not done with common gold or silver ; for they are 
 not tinctures, but gross compacted bodies. — Be thou 
 well advised, says Sendivogius in hi^ Praxis, that thou 
 takest not common gold or silver, for these are dead ; 
 take Ours which are living; then put them into Our Fire 
 and let there be made of them a dry liquor : first of 
 all the Earth will be resolved into Water, which is 
 called the Mercury of philosophers, and that water 
 shall resolve those bodies of gold and silver, and shall 
 consume them so that there shall remain but the 
 tenth part with one part ; and this shall be the radi- 
 cal moisture of metals. Then take water and salt- 
 nitre, which comes from Our Earth in which there is 
 a river of living water, if thou diggest the pit knee 
 deep, therefore take the water out of that ; but take 
 that which is clear ; upon this put that radical mois- 
 ture ; and set it over the fire of putrefaction and gene- 
 ration, not on such a one as thou didst in the first 
 operation : govern all things with a great deal of dis- 
 cretion, until colours appear like a peacock's tail ; 
 govern it by digesting it, and be not weary, until these 
 colours be ended, and there appear throughout the 
 whole one green colour, and so of the rest ; and when 
 thou shalt see in the bottom ashes of a fiery colour 
 and the water almost red, open the vessel, dip in a 
 pen, and smear some Iron with it ; if it tinge, have in 
 readiness that water which has been spoken of, and 
 
 ' From tlio Introitus Apertus of Eirenius Philalethes, cap. 
 xxxiv. I 1 
 
The Multiplication and Projection. 489 
 
 put in so much of that water as the cold air was 
 which went in, boil it again with the former fire, until 
 it tinge again. So far reached my experience ; — I can 
 do no more, says the wary Artist, I found out no 
 more. — Now that water must be the menstruum of 
 the world, out of the sphere of the Moon so often 
 rectified until it can calcine gold.^ 
 
 And when thou hast made the Stone and magic me- 
 dicine, says Vaughan, and it is become a liquid fiery 
 spiritual substance, shining like the sun, in this com- 
 plexion, if you would project, you would hardly find 
 the just proportion : the virtue of the medicine is so 
 intensive and powerful. The philosophers therefore 
 take one part of their Stone and cast it upon ten parts 
 of pure molten gold — this single grain brings all the 
 gold to a bloody powder; and, on the contrary, the gross 
 body of the gold abates the spiritual strength of the 
 projected grain. This descent or incorporation, some 
 wise authors have called a bodily fermentation ; but 
 the philosophers did not use common gold to make 
 their Stone (though so many deceptively write about 
 it), they used it only to qualify the utensive power of 
 it when it was made, that they might the more easily 
 find what quantity of base metal they should project 
 upon. By this means they reduced their medicine to 
 a dust, and this dust is the Arabian Elixir. This 
 Elixir the philosophers could carry about them ; but 
 the medicine itself not so, for it is such a subtle moist 
 fire that there is nothing but (its proper) glass that 
 will hold it.2 
 
 And it siifficeth iu one glasse to put 
 
 So much of composition as may cost 
 
 The price of half an ounce of gold, which shut 
 
 "With Hermes' seal, no fear it should be lost ; 
 
 Except some error be committed, which 
 
 How to avoid I faithfully shall teach.^ 
 
 And because our intention is to the changing of 
 
 ' Sendivogius' New Light of Alchemy, Treatise xi. 
 2 Vaughan' s Lumen de Lumiiie, p. 95. Norton's Ordinal, 
 chap. ii. 
 
 ^ Marrow of Alchemy, book iii p. 77. 
 
490 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 metals into gold, says the Author of Luccnia Scilis, 
 it is requisite that they should first be fermented with 
 very good and most pure gold ; for otherwise the im- 
 perfect metals would not be able to support its too 
 great and supreme subtlety ; but there would rather 
 ensue loss and damage in the projection. The im- 
 perfect and impure metals (let not the allusion here 
 be misapprehended) must also be purified, if one will 
 draw any profit therefrom ; one drachm of gold is 
 sufficient for the fermentation in the red, and one 
 drachm of silver for the fermentation in the white. 
 And the artist need not to be at the trouble of buying 
 gold or silver for this fermentation, because, with one 
 single very small part, the tincture may afterwards be 
 augmented more and more in such a manner that 
 whole ships might be loaded with the precious metal 
 that would accrue from this confection. For if this 
 medicine be multiplied, and be again dissolved and 
 coagulated by the virtue of its mercury, white or red, 
 of which it was prepared, then the tinging virtue 
 will be augmented each time by ten degrees in perfec- 
 tion, which may be reiterated as often as one pleases.^ 
 
 Like the sun's atoms 'tis a powder fine, 
 
 Wliite for tlie white, and red for red projection. 
 
 The metals, by it teined, exceed the mine 
 
 In piu'ity ; and such is its perfection 
 That he who hath it in an hour's space 
 And less than, may command in any place. 
 
 At first it is of virtue very small, 
 Compared with the might it doth attain 
 By oft reiteration : who so shall 
 It oft dissolve, and then congeal again. 
 
 Shall find a medicine that will translate 
 
 Innumerable parts to Sol's estate. 
 
 'Tis ponderous and yet in grains divided, 
 That powder all appears as soft as silk, 
 On metal it, like wax, in flux is guided 
 To enter to the centre, just like milk 
 
 Is penetrated by the Kennet sour, 
 
 And curdled in the minute of an hour. 
 
 This medicine is best thus to project : 
 First on a portion of the metal pure, 
 
 ' See Digby's Lucerna Salis, cap. viii. 
 
The Multiplication and Projection. 491 
 
 Which of the powder is to be effect 
 As red on gold, on silver eke be sure, 
 
 The white to throw, one part of this, your Stone 
 
 On four of metal, or else five to one. 
 
 Then brittle like to glasse that masse will be, 
 
 Of colour bright and shining very clear, 
 
 Yet not transparent, also thou shalt see 
 
 Its virtue lessened, which will appear 
 To view most glittering, like a ruby fair, 
 Then upon Argent vive cast this with care. 
 
 On ten parts one so long project until 
 The tincture to decrease thou shalt perceive. 
 Which being done, thou soon shalt, at thy will, 
 Most perfect Sol and Lune from fire receive ; 
 Thus guide thy operation aad be sure, 
 The effect will prove both gold and silver pure. 
 
 And if thou list thy essence to augment 
 In goodness or in weight, thou so maist work, 
 That never shall thy stock with use be spent, 
 So great a power in this Stone doth lurk, 
 
 That it, like fire, is apt to multiply 
 
 Itself in weight as eke in dignity. 
 
 A portion once I saw, and found by proof. 
 
 That which a man's belief might far exceed 
 
 Of the Red medicine, which for behoof 
 
 Of such who to this science may proceed, 
 I shall declare, by which may well appear 
 That useless it is not, as many fear 
 
 I saw then, as I said, a powder so 
 Increast in virtue, scarce to be believed 
 That so smaU quantity, as scarce would show 
 In bulk a grain, nor weighed much more indeed, 
 Which yet to gold so great a quantity 
 Could well transmute as may be deemed a lye. 
 
 No man by art its number could attain. 
 
 So great it was, yet was the tincture sound, 
 
 For on an ounce projected was that grain. 
 
 In which perfection did so abound, 
 
 That all was essence made, of which one grain 
 Was cast upon ten times as much again. 
 
 That is one ounce in ten, and these likewise 
 On ten times more, which yet was medicine made, 
 Ten more to one of these would not suffice. 
 To metal it to bring ; nor was't aUay'd, 
 So with these oft projections made before, 
 But one at last ting'd ninety thousand more.^ 
 
 ^ Eirendus' Marrow of Alchemy, book iii. v. 45, &c. 
 
492 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 And the Author of the Rosary declares that he who 
 shall have accomplished this Art, even though he were 
 to live thousands of years, and ev^ery day maintain 
 thousands of men, yet he would never know scarcity ; 
 having attained this hlessed abundance, also, not by 
 the oppression of others or by unlawful means, but 
 
 I by industry, patience, and the labour of his own hand. 
 
 ^ (^ And not only, continues Eiren^us, could he transmute 
 baser metals into gold and silver, but make precious 
 stones also more beautiful and perfect than those of 
 nature ; and would possess a universal medicine, more- 
 over, capable of curing all diseases ; even one adept, 
 were he permitted, might impart health to the wdiole 
 world. ^ 
 
 But lest this kind of testimony should grow egregious, 
 and our book, by ill hazard falling into the hand of 
 some credulous dunce or adventurous gold-seeker, 
 should detain either for a moment to deliberate about 
 looking at home for that wdiich their instinct and pro- 
 per destiny w^ould otherwise direct them to find 
 abroad, we desist therofmf ^, and implore these, should 
 there be any, as they value their ow^n lives and peace 
 of mind and fortune, to regard nothing of all that has 
 been written. For would it not, even supposing the 
 whole of the assertions to be true, (and wdiich literally 
 taken they are not) would it not, w^e ask, be a delirious 
 speculation for any one to undertake to make the pre- 
 cious metal which is to be had in plentiful abundance, 
 all ready elaborated by nature, ripe, and easy to his 
 hand ; to be had for the mere gathering, and if not 
 without some natural risk, yet without laborious study 
 or other mystical alloy ? — Let not one then be allured 
 by the ultimate promises of Alchemy ; which are the 
 rewards only of a longsutlering and laborious life ; of 
 unwearying thought, patience under afflictions, conquest 
 over unruly passions, hunger, thirst, stripes merited 
 and unmerited, persecutions, indigence, self-denial — all 
 
 * lutroitug Apertiis, cap. xxxv. De Multipiici hujus Artis. 
 
iJjKr 
 
 Rewards and Potencies. 493 
 
 which philosophers have undergone, even encounter- 
 ing the terrors of death and hell itself in pursuit of 
 their object ; which was not gold however, or silver ; 
 but the substance of these things which, after all, 
 when it was gotten by them, was despised and sw^al- 
 lowed up in the vision of a yet more alluring prospect 
 of the Light. 
 
 To sum up then, lest w^e should never come to an 
 end of this fugitive pursuit — In the last operation the 
 union of the Philosophic Stone is said to be finally 
 cemented, in its component parts agreeing and hav- 
 ing relation to the external world ; which union or 
 consummation of its transmutative virtue is called 
 Fermentation. Mark the harmonious mystery — that , n 
 
 which in the Cabal is denominated the union of man, ^OLVtvle^-^fC 
 reduced to the simplicity of the Monad, with God, 
 that iuy^physico-chemistry is called Fermentation. The 
 most pious and experienced amongst the Adepts do 
 not demur either to compare the phenomena of their 
 work to the Gospel tradition of the Life of Christ 
 and our human redemption ; ^^nrath, Bohme, Freher, 
 Grasseus, and various others amongst the more modern, 
 agree with the early Adepts ; pointing out too how, in 
 every minute respect, their magistery not only cor- 
 responds, but is in very deed a type, and promise, and 
 foundation of our Christian Creed. Not, be it under- 
 stood, that they identify or in the least confound the 
 metalline perfection, which belongs to the primary 
 evolution of life only, with the ultimate Divine asso- 
 ciation ; but they show that their Stone exhibits, alike 
 in its origin, developement and artificial preparation 
 throughout, the Universal Law of Light in Nature. 
 And as man, united with God, becomes divinely em- 
 powered, and therefore can do what he wills, since he 
 wills what God Himself does in consonance with reason ; 
 so does the Philosopher's Stone in the greater world, 
 fermented in its parts by reason of the fermentation, 
 transform itself into which it wills, and works for 
 
494 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 the diverse natures of all things, coequals itself to all, 
 to every and each, and to universals. 
 
 It is the universal medium of restoration and pre- 
 servation, says K«knrath, which by its own equilibriate 
 virtue expels suffering and every disease whether of 
 mind or body ; in either kingdom of nature rectifying, 
 according to the capability of each. Metals it is said to 
 benefit by transference of their radical moisture, depriv- 
 ing its terrestreity and foreign oxides ; vegetables, by 
 an increase of their efflorescent spirit ; and animals, ac- 
 cording to the natural exigence of their being. Azoth 
 of our Stone, continues he, reduces bodies to their First 
 Matter and reanimates them with the Universal Form, 
 crystals it advances to gems, and many pearls artificially 
 it concretes into one. Metals, also, as I myself have 
 seen, crystals, gems, as well as gold, it makes fluid 
 and potable ; it frees animals from disease, and pre- 
 serves them in the strength of its virtue ; it refreshes 
 vegetables ; though nearly dead it will revive them ; 
 fermented with the specific essence of simples, and me- 
 thodically applied in a fitting lamp, its enduring water, 
 lighted by art, burns perpetually, for ever. It expels 
 and drives away evil spirits from the possessed — 
 wherefore not ? There are particular potencies in na- 
 ture which malignant powers give way to — why not to 
 the universal? The author of confusion could not 
 endure symmetry. — It exalts and ennobles natural abi- 
 lity in the healing art, and it draivs doivn sublime me- 
 mory and prudence. It wonderfully excites perpetual 
 joy, and an honest boldness and fortitude of mind ex- 
 hilarating all life. And, that I may include many 
 things in a few words, it is miraculously efficient in all 
 the productions of nature, also the sublunary spirits, 
 for every and all of these, by an inherent necessity, 
 obey this Stone. ^ 
 
 For this powerful vivific Ens is of the same origin 
 as that which it assimilates — viz., the Universal Spirit, 
 
 ' JfeAnrath Amph. cap. ix. &c., in fine. 
 
Rewards and Potencies. 495 
 
 which has been so often fermented, rectified, and re- 
 calcined, until the central force being wholly drawn 
 without, acts forcibly at the circumference, and is able 
 to draw, by a supernatural magnetism, the Homogeneal 
 Nature everywhere into itself, according to the Rational 
 Form inbred. And hence we may conceive why the 
 Hermetic philosophers have given it the name of 
 Azoth, which adheres to bodies; which if thou dost 
 rightly conceive, says Ifehnrath, thou art he of whom it 
 may be truly said, He who has begun aright, has done 
 half of the whole. The Stone is fermented with its 
 metal existing in the highest purity, with pure silver 
 for the White, and with Red for fine Gold. And this 
 is the work of three days.^ 
 
 The Stone is here said accurately to be fermented 
 with its own metal : for is not Light the true Aurific 
 Seed ; not common Light, but that which in the first 
 rotary wheel of life becomes efficient, which is poten- 
 tially included everywhere in either kingdom of na- 
 ture, though laid asleep ? Or what else should pos- 
 sibly transmute or multiply by its own assimilative 
 virtue? What else but Light can multiply, or does 
 multiply, anyhow or anywhere ; and if everywhere 
 else, why not in the mineral kingdom, when set free 
 to attract its proper fuel indeficiently, without hetero- 
 geneous hindrance or alloy? 
 
 And if in the mineral kingdom it can overcome so 
 great inertness, and renews the vegetable spirit, im- 
 parting health and increase to decaying nature, how 
 much greater benefits will it not bestow on man who 
 nourished it ? Nor in the outward ministration of the 
 medicament only, but above all, and most perma- 
 nently, in the vital rectification. Thus Juhan, in his 
 Oration to the Ejrtra-Mundane Alother, for example, 
 tells us that when the soul gives herself to Divinity, 
 and wholly delivers herself to the guidance of a better 
 nature, divine institutions, through purification, taking 
 the lead, the Divine Light will immediately shine on 
 
 1 Amph. Sap. Etern. cap. viii. p. 211. 
 
 ^/ 
 
496 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 her ; and, in consequence of being thus deified, she 
 transfuses a certain vigorous strength into her connate 
 spirit, which, when included, and as it were possess- 
 ing dominion, becomes, through this spirit, the cause 
 of safety to the whole body. For, continues the Em- 
 peror, diseases, or at least the greater part, happen 
 from the mutative and erroneous motion of the spirit 
 — which physicians likewise allow ; or, at all events, 
 that those most difficult to be cured originate from 
 thence. For health is a certain symmetry or equiH- 
 brium of nature, which it is the pre-eminent power of 
 the Telestic art to impart, ordering all things by the 
 unity within. And, indeed, the oracles testify the 
 truth of these assertions, when they declare that 
 through purifying ceremonies bodies become worthy 
 of receiving divine assistance and health, and that the 
 mortal vestment of bitter matter will by these means 
 be preserved. 
 
 Harmonia resouat namque, sub qua est corpus mortale. 
 Extendens, igneam nientem, ad opus pietatis, et fliixile corpus 
 servabit.i 
 
 And that which a man has received, will he not be 
 able to impart again, and bestow of his exuberant 
 felicity for the benefaction of others ? Or at least it 
 is so related of Hippocrates, that he cured extraordi- 
 nary maladies because he was endowed with a divine 
 nature, and had carried up medicine from a low estate 
 unto great achievements. For he was the descent of 
 many generations, and a divine man, as the tradition 
 says, by direct descent from JEsculapius on the father's 
 side, and by his mother Praxithea of the race of the 
 Heraclides. Wherefore from both seeds he had his origin 
 from the g<>ds. For he was initiated as a young be- 
 ginner in medicinal affairs by his great-grandfather, so 
 far as he knew. But himself did also teach himself— ://«i'- 
 ing made use of a divifie nature — the whole art. And, in 
 
 ' Oracula Chaldaica ; Auima, Corpus. Homo ; Juliau's Orations 
 ii., in fine. 
 
Rewards and Potencies. 497 
 
 the industry of his mind, he as far excelled his proge- 
 fiitors as he also exceeded them in the excellency of 
 Art. For he takes away (continues the narrator) not 
 only the kind of bestial, but also of brutishly fierce 
 and wild diseases, through a great part of the land 
 and sea; dispersing the succours of -^sculapius, even 
 as Triptolemus the seed of Ceres ; balmy health and 
 healing virtues, 
 
 Sucli as sage Chiron, sire of pharmacy, 
 First taught Achilles, and Achilles thee.^ 
 
 Therefore he hath most justly obtained divine ho- 
 nours in many places of the earth ; and is made 
 worthy by the Athenians of the same gifts with 
 Hercules and ^sculapius. And this man is the 
 father and preserver of health, the curer of all griefs. 
 In sum, this man is the prince of divine know- 
 ledge, concludes the Persian, Petris, in his epistle 
 addressing Artaxerxes — send thou for Him !^ 
 
 Honour the physician with the honour due unto 
 him, says Solomon ; for the Lord created him — as if he 
 specially were above all men created by God, who is 
 able to heal the sick and restore life to the distressed, 
 which all physicians, however, are not able. — But a 
 physician chosen by God, continues Helmont, His own 
 signs shall follow, and wonders for the schools ; for he 
 shall prepare to the honour of God his free gifts, to 
 the comfort of his neighbour ; compassion shall be his 
 leader. For he shall possess truth in his heart, and 
 knowledge in his understanding ; charity and the 
 mercy of the Lord shall enlighten his way ; and he 
 shall bestoiv favour of the Lord, and the hope of gain 
 shall not be in his thoughts. For the Lord is rich 
 and liberal, and will give him one hundred fold in an 
 heaped-up measure : He will fructify his work, and 
 anoint his Hands with Blessing. He will fill his 
 mouth with consolation and with the trumpet of His 
 
 ^ Iliad, b. xi. Pope, 965. 
 2 Helmont, Tumulus Pestis. 
 K K 
 
498 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 Word, from which diseases shall flee. He will fill his 
 life with length of days, his house with riches, and his 
 children with the fear of the Lord. His footsteps 
 shall bring felicity, and diseases shall be in his sigJit as 
 snow in the noon-day of summer in an open valley. 
 Curse and punishment shall flee away, and health 
 shall follow him. These are the promises of the Lord 
 unto physicians whom He hath chosen. These are 
 the blessings of those wiio walk in the path of mercy. 
 Because the Lord loveth those that work mercy ; and 
 therefore he will enhghten them with his Spirit, the 
 Comforter, For who is liberal as the Lord, who 
 giveth many things freely, and, for some small matter, 
 bestoweth all things ? Blessed is the Lord who saves 
 the merciful, and who saves him that is to be saved 
 freely. And consolation shall meet the merciful man 
 in the way of hope, because he has chosen a faithful 
 master. — But, continues the same estimable narrator, 
 arrogance and sloth, which long since extinguished 
 Charity, but a few^ ages ago sequestered a chirurgeon 
 also from a physician ; wherefore afterwards servants 
 handled the manual instruments and operations ; as if 
 it unbeseemed a Christian to help his neighbour with 
 his hands. In the mean time some noble matrons 
 healed defects with their own hands that were de- 
 spaired of by physicians. And truly after that the 
 study of ambition and gain were practised, charity 
 greiv cold, mercij was extinguished, art perished, and 
 the Giver of Lights withdrew his Gifts ; the number 
 of our calamities increased, and physicians were made 
 the fable of the vulgar. Truth retnaiued buried in the 
 grave of science ; and instead thereof a confused kind 
 of brawling arose, being discursive, which was ac- 
 counted for doctrine. And those false doctors de- 
 scribed and drew of themselves a whole army of dis- 
 eases, almost grieving, too, that the catalogue of them 
 was yet so small. For they, being allured with the 
 facility of the art of Galen, promised to measure all 
 diseases by the geometrical demonstrations of degrees 
 of heat and cold, and to heal them all thereby. Chi- 
 
Rewards and Potencies. 499 
 
 rurgeons also, as well the modern as the ancient, from 
 an imitation and emulation of these, largely and widely 
 treated promiscuously of all diseases, snatching the 
 cures of them all under themselves, in the sight and 
 despite of their former masters. Because at first, and 
 from the root of medicinal ordination, all things be- 
 longed to be cured only and alone by physicians ; but 
 unto chirurgeons afterwards only by permission and 
 from favour. Both of them have failed, however, under 
 a confused strife and become inefficient.^ 
 
 So the origin, decline, and fall of the Healing Art has 
 been pictured by one of its brightest ornaments ; and 
 truly is it not deplorable to think that knowledge once 
 so perfectly attained and demonstrated in its efficacy, 
 should, by a degenerate usage, have been lost to man- 
 kind? The accounts given by Van Helmont of the 
 cures which he himself alone effected of some 10,000 
 individuals yearly, without any diminution of his medi- 
 cine, would now be unaccredited, except by those few, 
 perhaps, who, with a fragment of the same virtue, have, 
 by a benevolent application, learnt to conceive some- 
 thing of the illimitable powers and artificial increase of 
 vitalization. These will vindicate the Light, if any, who 
 observing its first dawn, shall promote it by a truthful 
 inquiry, nor suffer it again to fall into disuse through 
 negligence, or by obloquy be tempted to an unchari- 
 table ambuscade. 
 
 And then have we no other defects than those of 
 body to distress us? Are not our minds, too, ailing, 
 and is there no balm ready ? Is there no physician 
 there ? In Greece there were many temples to many 
 gods — to Ceres, Minerva, Apollo, Bacchus, and the 
 rest, all ministering to the defects of mind, educating 
 and disciplining the understanding for the conception of 
 Wisdom and a better life within. iEsculapius was a 
 demigod only amongst them, who is of modern Mes- 
 merism the only just pride. — Honour the physician 
 with the honour due unto him for the use you may 
 
 1 Tumulus Pestis, chap. i. 
 K K 2 
 
500 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 have of him, for the Lord created him. There is a 
 time when in his hands there is a good success ; then 
 let him not go from thee, for thou hast need of him. ^ — 
 But to whom hath the root of Wisdom been rev^ealed ; 
 or who hatli known her wise councils? Unto whom 
 hath the knowledge of Wisdom been made manifest ? 
 or who hath understood her great Experience ? She is 
 with tdtquen, replies the prophet, according to his 
 gift ; but Her secret is with the Faithful.^ 
 
 Now such a faith as the Scriptures inculcate as be- 
 stowing Wisdom on the possessor, is unknown at this 
 day ; nor does man any longer seek after the Truth 
 that is in himself, rarely imagines it even, so far 
 do we live without the true knowledge of ourselves. 
 We pray the liberal reader to reflect, therefore, and 
 link his imagination to the probabilities of reason, and 
 ponder on the testimony of experience, and believe 
 that Mesmerism, as it is mechanically practised in the 
 present day, is a first step indeed, and this only before 
 the entrance of that glorious temple of Divine Wisdom 
 which a more scientific Handicraft enabled the an- 
 cients experimentally to enter, and from its founda- 
 tion build up, as it were, a crystalline edifice of Light 
 and Truth. The materials are yet present with us ; 
 the foundations easily laid ; the will only is wanting 
 to discover the way, and faith to resuscitate the Corner 
 Stone, which ignorance has rejected from immemorial 
 
 For if man does not enter in to understand himself, 
 and the evil under which he lies enchanted in this life, 
 he cannot understand the ancient doctrine concerning 
 the fall or regeneration, or presume to deliver matter 
 from the original curse, unless he perceive it, or be 
 instrumental in the restoration. — While Adam stood 
 in Paradisaical innocency, explains the theosophist, 
 The Eternal Word was his leader, and had dominion 
 in him : his Ufe, which w^as a clear flame, burned in 
 and was noui'ished by that pure spirit of the divine 
 
 ^ Ecclesiasticus, viii. 2 IJem, i. 
 
Rewards and Potencies. 501 
 
 substantiality, which, together with the Water of 
 eternal life, generated in the angelical world, gave 
 forth a glorious and bright shining Light. Imme- 
 diately after the fall of man, God said to the Serpent, 
 I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and 
 between thy seed and her seed ; her seed shall bruise 
 thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Herein the 
 Philosopher's Stone or tincture lyeth. For though 
 this concerneth man, in the first place, yet secondly it 
 concerneth the whole creation The bruising of the 
 serpent's head is done spiritually and corporally, both 
 in nature and in the soul, and though in different de- 
 grees, yet by a parallel process in each. The serpent's 
 sting is the wrath fire, and the woman's seed the light 
 and love fire : these two are in every thing ; the 
 former predominated in outward nature, by the fall, 
 and therefore the latter must be raised up, and, by its 
 shining through the wrath, must subdue and keep it 
 under ; taking away from it its predominant power, so 
 that it may exercise its true natural office as a servant 
 to the light ; that these two may no more stand in 
 opposition to each other, but be one thing reharmo- 
 nised by light and love, and re-introduced into Pa- 
 radise ; when the dark poisoning Mercury is thus 
 tinctured, his anguishing death is turned into tri- 
 umphing life, and his former dark desire into the 
 desire of light, which is able to make a pure love and 
 light substantiality, — viz., a heavenly body out of an 
 earthly. The whole work therefore consists sum- 
 marily herein — That Two Natures be reduced to One, 
 as they were at the beginning. A heavenly and an 
 earthly matter are to be mutually united and brought 
 to a heavenly consistency. Earth must be turned in, 
 and Heaven out. The Mercury which is therein doth 
 all this itself: the Artist is not to attempt it — he can- 
 not do it — he is to prepare the way, the matter as is 
 requisite, and leave the work to be done by the work- 
 man which is in it already : nevertheless, understand- 
 ing and faith are required of him. His design being 
 no less than to redeem matter from the curse, and 
 
502 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 to raise it from the dead, which never can be done by 
 one who is dead himself in his understanding and in- 
 ternal life.^ 
 
 Who then is competent, who qualified to minister 
 in so great a matter ? Who but he that the Spirit has 
 already prepared, and endowed with prudence for the 
 undertaking. — He that is holy, he that is true, he that 
 hath the Key of David, he that openeth, and no man 
 shutteth ; and shutteth, and no man openeth.^ Or 
 what man is he, asks Solomon, that can know the 
 counsel of God ? or who can think what the Will of 
 the Lord is? For the thoughts of mortal men are 
 miserable, and our devices are but uncertain. For the 
 corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the 
 earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that 
 museth upon many things. And hardly do we guess 
 aright at things which are upon earth, and with labour 
 do we find the things that are before us ; but the 
 things that are in heaven who hath searched out ? 
 and thy counsel who hath known, except thou give 
 Wisdom and send thy llolif Spirit from above 1 For 
 so the ways of them which lived on the earth were re- 
 formed, and men were taught the things that are 
 pleasing vuito thee, and were saved through Wisdom. 
 She preserved the first formed Father of the world 
 that was created alone, and brought him out of his 
 fall, and gave him power to rule all things. But 
 w^hen the unrighteous went away fi'om her in his 
 anger, he perished also in the fury wherewith he mur- 
 dered his brother. For whose cause, the earth being 
 drowned with the Flood, Wisdom again preserved it, 
 and directed the course of the righteous in a piece of 
 ivood of small value. Moreover, the nations in their 
 wicked conspiring being confounded, she found out the 
 righteous and preserved him blameless unto God, and 
 kept him strong against his tender compassion to- 
 wards his Son. When the ungodly perished, she 
 
 1 See D. A. Frelier, Of the Analog}- iu the Process of the Phil. 
 AYork with the Eedernption of Man through Jesus Christ. 
 ^ Eev. chap. iii. v. 7. 
 
Rewards and Potencies. 503 
 
 delivered the righteous man who fled from F'lrt, which 
 fell upon the Jive cities, of whose wickedness, even to 
 this day, the waste land that smoketh is a testimony, 
 and plants bearing fruits that never come to ripeness, 
 and a standing pillar of Salt is a monument of an un- 
 believing soul. But Wisdom delivered from pain those 
 that attended upon her. When the righteous fled 
 from his brother s wrath, she guarded him in right 
 paths, showed him the kingdom of God, and gave him 
 knowledge of holy things ; made him rich in his tra- 
 vels, and multiplied the fruit of his labours. In the 
 covetousness of such as oppressed him, she stood by 
 him and made him rich ; she defended him from his 
 enemies, and kept him safe from those that lay in 
 wait, and, in a sore conflict, she gave him the victory : 
 that he iniaht know that godliness is strong-er than all. 
 She entered into the soul of the servant of the Lord, 
 and withstood dreadful kings in wonders and signs. 
 She rendered to the righteous a reward of their la- 
 bours, guided them in a marvellous way, and was unto 
 them for a cover by day and a light of Stars in the 
 jiight season ; brought them through the Red Sea, 
 and led them through much water. But she drowned 
 their enemies, and cast them up out of the bottom of 
 the Deep. Therefore the righteous spoiled the un- 
 godly, and praised thy Holy Name, O Lord, and mag- 
 nified, with one accord, thy Hand that fought for 
 them. For Wisdom opened the mouth of the dumb, 
 and made the tongues of them that cannot speak elo- 
 quent. She prospered their works in the Hand of the 
 Holy Prophet.^ 
 
 When once the Divine Light is loosened in life, 
 everything is prospered as long as her Rule is observed ; 
 for the understanding then bears its motive energy 
 into eifect. — And the Word of the Lord is unto them 
 Line upon line. Precept upon pjxcept, (purifying and 
 perfecting) here a little and there a little.'^ The whole 
 individual is occupied ; every look and action is by 
 
 1 Wisdom of Solomon, xxi. ^ Isaiah, xxviii. ] 3. 
 
504 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 rule and with power ; as is it not likewise w^ritten, 
 The Hands of the Wise are very heavy 1 The right 
 hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass. — 
 And His brightness w^as as the light, says Habbakuk, 
 and he had horns coming out of his hand, and there ivas 
 the hiding of his power. ^ Is it not promised, more- 
 over, that the horn of the righteous shall be exalted, 
 and his seed made triumphant over many nations? 
 Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a 
 crown of life.^ And again of Wisdom, — Length of days 
 is in her right hand, and in her left riches and honour. 
 Exalt her and she shall promote thee, she shall bring 
 thee to honour when thou dost embrace her, she shall 
 give to thy head an Ornament of Grace, a Crowai of 
 Gloiy shall she deliver unto thee.^ 
 
 Nor are these the only passages in Scripture where 
 with Wisdom a promise is given of more material 
 fruits : — 
 
 He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the 
 Spirit saith unto the Churches : 
 
 To him that overcometh wall 1 give to eat of the Tree 
 of Life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of 
 God. 
 
 To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden 
 Manna, and will give him a White Stone, and in the 
 Stone a new name wa'itten, which no man knoweth 
 saving he that receiveth it. 
 
 And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto 
 the end, to him will I give power over the nations ; 
 and he shall rule them with a rod of iron ; as the 
 vessels of a potter shall they be broken in shivers 
 even as I received from my Father. And T will give 
 him the Morning Star. 
 
 He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in White 
 Raiment. And I wall not blot out his name out of 
 the Book of Life. Behold I come quickly : hold fast 
 that which thou hast that no man take thy Crown. 
 
 ^ Habbakuk, iii. 4. 
 '^ Revelations, ii. 10. 
 ^ Proverbs, viii. 
 
Rewards and Potencies. 505 
 
 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple 
 of my God, and he shall no more go out : and I will 
 write upon him the name of my God,^which is New a a^rx^ -,^- 
 Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from Tujt-r*^^ (fiAt 
 my God : and I will write upon him my New Name, ^f ^^^ oL-yj^x^ 
 
 Behold I stand at the door and knock, and if any man C u^ ^ 
 hear my voice and open the door I will come in with ^ 
 
 him, and sup with him, and he with me. 
 
 And to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with 
 me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am 
 set down with my father in his throne. 
 
 He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the 
 Spirit saith unto the Churches.^ 
 
 But as Agrippa says, Clausum est Armarium — the 
 Scripture is obscure and mystical throughout ; even in 
 the simplest details most profound, but significant in 
 its promises even of material blessings and gifts. For 
 when we begin to love the Spirit, adds the disciple, 
 then he sends us these things as tokens and pledges of 
 his love, to whom all hearts are open, all desires 
 known, and from whom no secrets are hid ; whose 
 prolific virtue is the source of all things, and in the 
 conscious aUiance becoming known, potentialises the 
 whole in each individual universally without reserve.^ 
 
 That was the ground of ancient doctrine, the founda- 
 tion of those creeds in the shadowy tradition of which 
 mankind now live. They are all plain to him that 
 hath understanding, as Solomon says, and right to 
 them that find knowledge. Behold instruction is 
 better than silver, and knowledge than choice gold. 
 Wisdom is better than rubies, and all the things that 
 may be desired are not to be compared to Her. I, 
 Wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge 
 of witty inventions. Counsel is mine and sound 
 Wisdom ; I am Understanding ; I have strength. 
 Riches and honour are with me, yea, durable riches 
 and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold ; and 
 
 ' Kevelation St. John, ii. iii. 
 
506 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 my revenue than choice silver. I love them that love 
 me, and those that seek me early shall find me.^ 
 
 They, then, who have been fortunate enough to 
 perfect this work, having received so much grace from 
 the Father of Lights as to obtain this inestimable gift 
 of Divine Wisdom, what more on earth should they 
 desire, but that it may be always applied aright in 
 obedience to the Divine Will, for the benefaction of 
 mankind and vindication of true virtue ? For not 
 only were they exempt from human ills, having the 
 means of abundant wealth, power, and health at their 
 command, but, moreover, they had a manifest token 
 of divine favour, and sure promise of immortality in a 
 life to come. Nor is it to be wondered, therefore, 
 why philosophers, when they have obtained this medi- 
 cine, have not cared to lengthen their days, or make a 
 vain parade of their riches to the world which they 
 despised, with every temporal power and advantage, 
 in comparison of that which, in the acquirement of 
 these things, was by their art foreshown. Or who now 
 having human perfectibility, and a prospect of a happy 
 immortality set before them in a plain physical type and 
 experience, would rest in a mere metalline good, like 
 Midas, who, preferring an earth-born harmony to the 
 music of the spheres, was dishonoured by the god, 
 and bore evidence of his misfortune in sight of the 
 whole world ? 
 
 Many prophecies there are of times to come, and 
 those days are even said to be at hand, when the 
 Fourth Monarchy, which is the Intellectual reign of 
 Truth and Peace, shall predominate, when the Mo- 
 ther of sciences will come forth, and greater things 
 be discovered than have been hitherto in the past 
 monarchies of the world. But we do not tarry about 
 these matters ; the revelation of all things is always 
 at hand for him who knows how to investigate, and 
 the rest will be always far behind. If truly there 
 be minds prepared, or if the great era approaches 
 more rapidly than is given us yet even in faith to 
 
 2 Proverbs, chap. viii. 
 
Rewards and Potencies. 507 
 
 foresee (for notwithstanding so many signs that are 
 appearing, and signal rumours of a coming change, yet 
 they are fewer and far between and more rare yearly 
 which indicate the progression of Truth) ; but if, we 
 say, a better age is approaching, which at some period 
 of time must come, when abundance of all things 
 by an equitable distribution of all, shall help to 
 break down the competitive barrier of society, and 
 introduce a co-operative alliance amongst mankind, 
 then this incentive to inquiry may not be inoppor- 
 tunely ojEFered, to advance the foremost intellect, and 
 fix its dominion in the self-discovery of truth. 
 
 At the present time, when all are more or less 
 eagerly engaged in the pursuance of external advan- 
 tages, and under penalty of being cast into the fiery 
 fiurnace of the world's scorn, do fall down and wor- 
 ship that earth-born goddess of temporal Utility, which 
 opinion has set up, it would be vain enthusiasm to 
 attempt to divert attention, but for a moment, from 
 so favoured an idol, were it not that in the minds of 
 all, even its most degraded votaries, there exists a 
 most real and bitter sense of its insufficiency and la- 
 tent deformity ; everywhere without, the evil is ap- 
 parent, and presses closer as time speeds on, fatally 
 accelerating as if it neared some attracting focus. 
 Yet hope still lingers in expectation ; and, with that 
 abiding patience which is the test of faith in a good 
 cause, may we continue to seek on, not vaguely 
 around us for passing excitements, but with steady 
 perseverance looking within, until Conscience reveal 
 to us those higher objects of pursuit, and truer attrac- 
 tions, which will not suffer the mind aspiring to them 
 to fall into dishonour ; but purifying and corroborating 
 as they draw, will, when at length they are w^orthily 
 won, unite with and transmute their worshipper into 
 that Harmony and Beauty, which, in the dim be- 
 holding, he venerated and loved. 
 
 " Begin to-day, nor end till evil sink 
 In its due grave ; and if at once we may not 
 
508 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 Declare the gi-eatiiess of the work we plnn, 
 Be sure at least that ever in our mind 
 It stand complete before us, as a dome 
 Of light beyond this gloom, a house of stars 
 Encompassing these dusky tents ; a thing 
 Absolute, close to all, though seldom seen, 
 Near as our Hearts and perfect as the Heavens. 
 Be this our aim and model, and our Hands 
 Shall not wax faint until the work is done." 
 
 The Idea of the Good, the Pure, and the True is 
 the alluring object which we all innerly worship — the 
 progeny of Divine Intellect, immortal and strong — 
 even Moral Beauty which, though obscurely now, as 
 through the mists of sense and selfishness, ever shines 
 attractively — our Polar Star. 
 
 " When from the lips of Truth one mighty breath 
 Shall like a whirlwind, scatter in its breeze 
 The whole dark pile of human mockeries. 
 Then shall the reign of Mind commence on earth, 
 And starting fresh, as from a second birth, 
 Man, in the sunshine of the AV^orld's new Spring, 
 Shall walk transparent like some holy thing." 
 
 Having discussed thus much of the Hermetic Mys- 
 tery, and suggested certain particulars concerning the 
 Practice at this latter end, which may be unfamiliar to 
 the reader, we would repeat our warning to beware of 
 hasty interpretation and trials of skill, without a proper 
 foundation laid by study of the Hermetic records and 
 scientific Laws of Art. Many things have no doubt 
 escaped us inadvertently ; others we have designedly 
 reserved, lest falling into incapable hands, the highest 
 trust of Nature should be betrayed, and the w^ay of truth 
 become perplexed by duphcity in the pursuit. In vain 
 the ignorant, in vain the avaricious, — the selfish, faith- 
 less, or frivolous, will in vain seek to percolate this 
 Mystery. The right-minded and studious alone be- 
 nevolently, conscientiously, and rationally persisting 
 to the end, will unravel it: and in this case each must 
 labour singularly for himself. The success of the 
 experiment, as we have repeatedly shown, depends 
 on the discovery of the true Intention. And this 
 
Rewards and Potexcies. 509 
 
 being more or less inv^olved in every mind, is not 
 clearly distinguishable in all ; nor are they many, 
 therefore, but few only, who have been found to enter 
 in by the narrow way of life. The talent is granted 
 only to a few, and for them conditions are needful to 
 draw it forth to increase ; for them we have written, 
 and to persuade those only who may be able amidst 
 so many heterogeneous elements of Nature, to dis- 
 cern the rational possibility by the infallible touch- 
 stone of her Original Light. 
 
 Tunc mentis divinse homines oracula caeca, , 
 
 Volventes animo ancipiti vix tempore longo, / / 
 
 Experti multa, et non parvis sumtibus illAm ' ^^-^/ 
 
 Invenere artem, qua non ars dignior ulla est, 
 ringendi Lapidem ^therium, quem scire profanis. 
 Hand quaquam licet, et frustra plebs improba quserit. 
 Quem qui habet, ille potest, ubi \'ult habitare decenter : 
 Nee fortune iram metuit, nee bracbia furum, 
 Sed tanto paucos dignantui* munere divi.^ 
 
 Injunctions likewise are frequent respecting the 
 sacred nature of the ministration, and of the responsi- 
 bility incurred by those even who are favoured in the 
 undertaking, lest desiring too little or presuming too 
 far in self-sufficient pride, it should fall, and Satan 
 establish a monarchy upon the most holy of works. 
 Does any smile at the surmise? It is of small ac- 
 count, so he be ignorant; those warnings do not apply, 
 nor were ever meant to scare his complacency, who, 
 without the Light of Reason, would be least of all able 
 to precipitate its downfall. But lest the desire of 
 such a one should lead him to practise, w^hich by 
 good fortune it may not, we advise him of our know- 
 ledge, and of the vindictive Spirit of Wisdom for the 
 justification of her Rule — Ne tii augeas fatum — En- 
 large not thou thy destiny — Neither break a super- 
 ficies, as the Pythagoric precept runs — lest the sin of 
 the agent being multiphed in the patient, it should 
 survive in the unhappy offspring unto the third or 
 fourth generation. The Spirit of Wisdom runs lov- 
 
 ^ Palingenius Zodiacus Yit^e, Theat. Cheni. 2, p. 87. 
 
510 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 ingly by her own Rule to fulfil it ; but leaves him to 
 hopeless confusion who abandons the Divine purpose 
 for the accomplishment of private ends. 
 
 So the Israelites, that so wonderfully stiff-necked 
 race, suffered for their rebellion and selfish lusts ; 
 falling into a multitude of snares and misfortunes — 
 by fire, famine, and sword, and no less miserable capti- 
 vity, by the Divine command. And that those errors 
 might be guarded against, and that no presumption 
 might thereafter arise, the Lawgiver, in his book of 
 Deuteronomy , instructs them to be grateful, humble, 
 and mindful, throughout the passage, of past be- 
 nefits received, nor ever to murmur at the decrees 
 of God. 
 
 — But thou shalt consider in thy heart, he says, that 
 as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God 
 chasteneth thee. Therefore thou shalt keep the com- 
 mandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, 
 and to fear him. For the Lord thy God bringeth 
 thee into a Good Land ; a land of brooks of w^ater, of 
 fountains, and depths that spring out of valleys and 
 hills ; and of wdieat, and barley, and vines, and fig- 
 trees, and pomegranates ; aland of oil-olive, and honey ; 
 a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarce- 
 ness, thou shalt not lack anj'thing in it ; a land whose 
 stones are iron, and out of wdiose hills thou mayest 
 dig brass. And when thou hast eaten and art full, then 
 thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which 
 he hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the 
 Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and 
 judgments, and statutes : lest, when thou hast eaten 
 and art full, and hast built goodly houses and dwelt 
 therein ; and wdien thy herds and thy flocks multiply, 
 and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that 
 thou hast is multiplied : then thy heart be lifted up, 
 and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought 
 thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of 
 bondage : who led thee through that great and terrible 
 wilderness, wherein w^ere fiery serpents, and scorpions, 
 and drought, where there was no water ; wdio brought 
 
Rewards and Potencies. 511 
 
 thee forth water out of the rock of flint. Who fed 
 thee ill the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers 
 knew not ; that He might humble thee, and that He 
 might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end : 
 and lest thou say in thine heart My Power and the 
 might of Mine Hand hath gotten me this wealth. But 
 thou shalt remember the Lord thy God ; for it is He 
 that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may 
 establish his covenant which He sware unto thy fa- 
 thers, as it is this day. And it shall be, if thou do at 
 all forget the Lord thy God and walk after other gods, 
 and serve them and worship them, I testify against you 
 this day that ye shall surely perish.^ 
 
 For immortality is only to be consummated in 
 union, and in the abandonment of the dual selfhood 
 and its volition to the Divine Will. Wherefore I ab- 
 hor myself, cries Job, (when all else being deprived he 
 renounced himself,) and repent in dust and ashes. — 
 Look on every one that is proud and abase him, and 
 tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the 
 dust together, and bind their faces in secret. — Then 
 will i also confess unto thee that thine own 
 Right Hand can save thee.^ 
 
 That was the path and promise to blameless souls 
 which the wise men and prophets constantly pursued, 
 passing through every ordained disciphne, ordeal rite, 
 and humiliation, in order that they might become con- 
 formable to the Divine Perfection they desired to 
 approach. Once delivered from the exterior bondages 
 of sense and heterogeneous desire, from the passions 
 and false affections of this transitory life, the final step 
 is declared comparatively easy ; as transcending by the 
 energy of faith, from the separable selfhood, the 
 Identity passes into universal accord. — To go forth 
 and to return ; therefore was the agreement cut 
 off — so says the C a ba l — Close thy eyes and meditate : 
 
 1 Deuteronomy viii. from ver. 10. 
 '^ Job xl. 12, &c. xlii. 
 
512 Hermetic Practice. 
 
 and if thy heart fail thee, return again ; since therefore 
 it is written, 
 
 Egeedeee et eegeedeee, et peopteeea pactum 
 pk.ecisum est.' 
 
 This is the work — this the Hermetic method and its 
 end : The line returns to form a circle into its be- 
 ginning, and they join not in time, for their union is 
 Eternity. This, reader, is the true Christian Philoso- 
 pher's Stone, which, if it be a chimera, then is the 
 universe itself not stable, of which it has been proven 
 to be the most exact epitome, having passed the test 
 of experimental reason not only, but, analyzed to the 
 last extremity of contrite conscience, is confirmed in 
 operation, visibility, and luminous increase, when 
 rising in rational supremacy over sense and finite re- 
 flection, the Ethereal Hypostasis revolves in its First 
 Cause. 
 
 ' Zepliir Jezirah, cap. i. 
 
513 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Conclusion. 
 
 IT has been our endeavour, as clearly as the limits 
 prescribed by evidence and our understanding 
 would enable us, to discuss the ground and practical 
 pretensions in general of the Hermetic Mystery. To 
 explain all would require an extensive range and a 
 closer opportunity of experience than has been hitherto 
 granted us. Nor with these auxiliaries, perhaps, should 
 we become more intelligible, since caution very usually 
 increases with observation, and the truth has been so 
 intricately, arbitrarily, and in many folds enveloped, 
 and the cloud of witnesses is such that it might 
 puzzle Apollo himself to explicate the whole Enigma 
 intelhgibly to the w^orld. To induce research, there- 
 fore, we pretend only to have signalized the Light, 
 that any one fortunately perceiving, might be led along 
 by its attracting presence to the discovery of Truth. 
 Evidence has constantly preceded, neither have we 
 ventured many assertions of our own ; but the repu- 
 table witness of individuals of various ages and nations, 
 whose names are renowned in philosophy, have been 
 gathered together in aid of this Inquir}'', and in sup- 
 port of the dignity of the Hermetic Science ; which 
 they have not only judged to be true, but many add 
 their personal experience in confirmation, attesting the 
 reality of the Philosopher's Stone. 
 
 The confection of this miraculous substance, more- 
 over, they have helped us to trace in theory from its 
 foundation in the free Ether, through an artificial pro- 
 cess of elaboration, into manifest effect. And the 
 principle of Transmutation, they have shown to be re- 
 lating not to Species but to their Universal Subject, 
 whose concentrated virtue the Stone likewise itself is. 
 
 L L 
 
514 Conclusion. 
 
 And Man was the proper laboratory of the whole Art; 
 not only the most perfect chemical apparatus, devised 
 by Nature for the distillation of her Spirit, but having 
 besides the whole fermentative virtue, motive, and 
 principle of vital melioration and every requisite com- 
 plete within himself, for the rectification and further- 
 ance of her prescribed Law ; mind and manual efficacy, 
 as it is narrated, by the Divine Will, to effect all things, 
 though concealed in this life by the external attraction 
 and obstructive energies of sense. 
 
 This hidden capacity it has been shown to be 
 the purpose of the Hermetic artifice to explore ; and 
 that adepts well-skilled, as they profess, in the vital 
 analysis of bodies, by such means discovered the life of 
 man therein circulating to be a pure fire incorporated 
 in a certain incombustible ethereal vapour ; also, that 
 the Universal Efficient was in this fire, and the diverse 
 kingdoms of nature, as it were, bound together in the 
 threefold enchantment of his natural Identity ; one of 
 which only, the animal life, being developed to con- 
 sciousness, the other two, viz, the vegetable and mine- 
 ral, are known only to those who have entered experi- 
 mentally within to prove the hypostatic action and 
 passion of the working essences in life. 
 
 Partly, also, on the authority of the Ancients, 
 coupled with certain other arguments, not altogether 
 speculative, we have been thence led to regard the 
 Mysteries celebrated at Eleusis and the rest, in a more 
 important light than heretofore; not as mere external 
 ceremonials, pictured scenes of sufferings and beati- 
 tudes, but as real inductions of the Understanding 
 Spirit to its Source. 
 
 And with the development of these Mysteries we have 
 been enabled to connect Alchemy ; and with these both, 
 in their preliminary practice, the modern art, called Mes- 
 merism, strikingly accords ; which we have proposed 
 suggestively, therefore, as a first key opening to the 
 vestibule of this Experiment, where sits the Sphinx 
 with her eternal enigma, still to perplex intruders, and 
 open to philosophers only the inner halls of Light. 
 
Conclusion. 515 
 
 Bearing these things in mind, by the assistance of 
 the Greek Ontologists, we have ventured, intimately 
 pursuing their course, to follow mysterious Nature 
 through many intricate windings and circumstantial 
 difficulties, into her Initial Source; and there observed 
 her, after operating voluntarily about her own annihi- 
 lation, to survive and establish a stable monarchy upon 
 her redeemed Light. 
 
 Particulars, also, of the metaphysical experience we 
 have attempted to delineate, and to show the catho- 
 licity and causal reference of the Hermetic Work 
 throughout. 
 
 From impediments likewise described, and rare in- 
 tellectual conditions, it has been shown why the Divine 
 Experiment has been so seldom attempted and more 
 rarely brought to a legitimate conclusion on this earth. 
 And why philosophers, in all ages, considering the 
 unfitness of the multitude, and fearful consequences 
 that might ensue from individual abuse, have con- 
 cealed their knowledge, communicating almost by word 
 of mouth only the practical device. 
 
 If we have been freer in our expositions, the spirit 
 was not the more reckless, but because the thresholds 
 of ignorance are already overpast, and experiment is in 
 need rather of a motive to dignify it than^practical 
 machinery. What if the darkness should contend with 
 and prevail awhile, yet there in the centre the light 
 will kindle and increase, and gain strength to radiate 
 upwards through the whole circumference, despite of 
 every effort of ignorant selfishness and folly to prevent. 
 So reason instructs that we should have faith in hu- 
 manity as in the ultimate realization and prevalence 
 of good. But tiiey are all now incredulous who were 
 formerly dreaded in their belief; and under that safe 
 guardianship we leave them, happily supine in the 
 conviction that our conduct will neither be attractive 
 or intelhgible, much less practically useful to the pro- 
 fane multitude of mankind. For although this Art of 
 Alchemy is eminently experimental and practical in 
 its consequences, vet it is wholly unsuited to minds 
 
 L L 2 
 
 7^^^?^ 
 
516 Conclusion. 
 
 commonly so styled practical, who are impatient of 
 every proposition that is not immediately applicable to 
 the affairs of life. For these the Hermetic Art is no 
 more suited than they for it ; it needs a philosopher, 
 one of the antique mould, a true lover of Wisdom, 
 who, for her sake, will devote everything else, stu- 
 dious, simple, ardent, and withal suscipient of appear- 
 ing truth. 
 
 They who in a kindred spirit have ])ursued this 
 Inquiry, may have divined many things which will be 
 hidden from the indifferent and thoughtless reader ; 
 for we have spoken of principles with reference to 
 practice, and in an order indirectly indicative of the 
 genealogical method of ascent ; even that artistic fa- 
 brication of the Fire which Prometheus received from 
 Vulcan, and Minerva disseminated providentially for 
 the sake of her luminous radix, lest it should be smoth- 
 ered in our iiTational alliance, and perish ungratefully 
 without return. 
 
 In the course of this vital experiment the ancients 
 
 discovered the whole of the philosophy they teach, 
 
 the quintessence of Universal Nature and her fruitful 
 
 springs : by this pyrotechnical induction, powers were 
 
 / , revealed to conscience, the whole generative original 
 
 / -t/e, / ^^^ those temptations whieh^Reason alone, purified and 
 
 / / singled out by Art for the encounter, is able entirely to 
 
 withstand. 
 
 And that ray of motive Light, pure, vital, and 
 efficient, we have shown to be the true Form of Gold, 
 the alone universal principle of increase and perfection, 
 the same which in the circulatory system, becoming 
 dominant, is made concrete in life; and is the trans- 
 mutative ferment — even the Philosophic Stone. 
 
 And this is the grand Hermetic secret, that there is 
 a Universal Subject in nature, and that Subject is sus- 
 ceptible of nourishment in Man ; and this is the 
 greatest Mystery, of all mysteries the most wonderful, 
 '}ur{~(nJ^i ^^^^ ^^^ should be able to find the Divine Nature not 
 // ftaiy, but to effect It. 
 
 The philosophers sought after Wisdom for her own 
 sake; for her beauty and bright divinity they wooed her, 
 
Conclusion. 517 
 
 and gained with her an ample dowry, gold, silver, and 
 the glittering treasures of her creative light in abund- 
 ance. And some have dwelt gratefully on these inter- 
 mediate benefits, recording them, but were, above all, 
 careful to celebrate the primary attraction which led 
 them in for the discovery of life. And we have omitted 
 many things, which, to the many, might be more 
 attractive, even than gold or silver, or a more remote 
 prospect of immortality ; for every desire is, in the 
 magic region, made prolific, embodying itself, by the 
 ethereal conception, as a principle to enact its volun- 
 tary accord. But to allure by particular promises, 
 however rich or real, which might restrict to individual 
 interests a virtue which is infinite, forms no part of 
 our design ; man is sufficiently bounded already in 
 all — how many ways is he not fettered, by the poverty 
 of his imagination and the littleness of his love ? 
 
 Having then run cursorily through the circuit of the 
 Hermetic Tradition, without attempting, however, to 
 include the whole length, which would embrace a far 
 wider field of philosophical inquiry than is commonly 
 imagined, it may be proper, in conclusion, to consider the 
 several bearings of the same with respect to other sci- 
 ences, and their comparative value to mankind at large. 
 
 Between the Physical and Moral sciences, com- 
 monly so called, though there are links found indi- 
 cative of a radical relationship, yet each are through- 
 out their departments divergent, and the class of mind 
 usually occupied by either is distinct. The former, 
 based externally, having the senses for chief evidence, 
 makes practical utility its end and only value; whilst 
 the latter, having its evidence and object alike within 
 the mind, attaches less consequence to worldly bene- 
 fits, misprising the lights of sense also as inferior and 
 comparatively insecure. And thus Philosophy stands 
 divulsed at this day, the Spiritual unable to prove 
 itself absolutely, or the Material to disprove the other 
 practically ; they accordingly maintain on either side a 
 negative, though relatively assured, ground. Bat the 
 
^ 
 
 518 Conclusion. 
 
 Hermetic Science, supposing this indeed to be well 
 founded, would include both in the ample compass of 
 its experiment, as passing from either extreme of Mind 
 and Matter, to prove them, it arrives at the Catholic 
 Effect of Life. And here the external and internal 
 worlds are said to blend together in confluent har- 
 mony, establishing each other, and leaving reason no- 
 thing more to doubt or the senses to desire, but a ftil- 
 filment under the Law. 
 ,1 jj2. If then, in contrariety to every popular prejudice, 
 
 ^jr<v-^ ^ I and on the lonly^.eyidence,J of defunct philosophers, we 
 can yet imagine this Art of Alchemy to be real, and an 
 experimental foundation of science, notwithstanding 
 all the learned cavils and clamours of disappointed 
 chemists that have been raised against it ; — if it be true 
 that there is a Subtle Nature pervading the universe, 
 which is the All in every thing and susceptible of arti- 
 ficial alteration through all ; and if man by his especial 
 prerogative of Reason and rectitude of purpose is able, 
 by a development of these, to advance and bear the 
 life within him through dissolution into a new birth, 
 superior to nature and beyond the reach of elementary 
 discord to destroy ; and if all this has been accom- 
 plished, passed through in the conscious experience, 
 and proved demonstratively in facts, visible deeds, and 
 effects; then, these things supposed, and experience 
 being the admitted test of philosophy, will it not fol- 
 low that theirs was the right and true philosophy, 
 which at the vertex of a double ignorance has been 
 forgotten and despised ? 
 
 For the experience of intellect would, under the sup- 
 position, be esteemed pre-eminently above that of sense, 
 inasmuch as the one revelation is naturally supei'ior 
 and acknowledged, even in this life, before the other ; 
 and that kind of evidence would be necessarily pre- 
 ferred by all which is universally inclusive and leading 
 out from the Causal Fountain into natural effect. But 
 by no reason that comes from sense will such an evi- 
 dence be obtained, nor shall we ever learn, without 
 Identic co-operation, how Nature works, or by what oc- 
 
Conclusion, 519 
 
 cult virtue the grain of wheat is even instigated, so 
 that it grows and bears its abundant increase upon 
 earth. All our knowledge without the experience is 
 empirical, the result only of observation of remote 
 effects. And therefore Alchemy has been declared to 
 be the only true glass of the mind, which shows how 
 to enter, and to touch, and to discover the Truth in 
 her own simplicity and univocal demonstration. Nei- 
 ther does it therefore bring so many arguments, as 
 might be, to prove itself, since the evidence is self- 
 sufficient, and without itself cannot, however truly 
 imaginable, be known. Such a demonstration would 
 stand above all common-sense conclusions, above ima- 
 gination, above opinion, and all logical proof, which 
 is barren without self-knowledge, and isolated and ^^^JjxA-.y^ 
 erring upon the plane of Truth. / 
 
 Yet this^is the only guide we now can boast of, ^■^/rfuaocM j_ 
 which, if stable in its own criterion, yet being de- J^i^j^^c^tty 
 pendent on externals for matter and practical pur- 
 suit, fluctuates, and hence many evils arise and those 
 diversities of opinion which distract mankind. The 
 world, so imperfectly ruled, has instituted a sort of 
 free-will standard of its own ; men will believe as 
 they like, see or not see, assume as suits their 
 convenience, or reject their own criterion at plea- 
 sure, even the testimony of their own highly esteemed 
 sober senses ^ when these do not tally with their pre- 
 conceived prejudices, interests, or hopes. But it is 
 evident, irrespective of all particular objections, that 
 true science does not consist in the exhibition of phe- 
 nomena, neither can anything short of the Causal Dis- 
 covery fulfil the Idea of Truth. The doubt would not 
 rest therefore about the superiority of Causal science, 
 if it were possible, but whether it be truly possible or 
 not. If the philosophy of the Ancients is without a 
 true foundation, if there is not any other essence of 
 things besides that which is apparent and has a sensi- 
 ble subsistence, then the Physical will indisputably be 
 the first and only science ; but if otherwise there is 
 proved to be a certain immutable Being of all, pre- 
 
520 Conclusion. 
 
 existent to sensibles, which can be proven in intellect 
 and confirmed in sensible phenomena, as the Al- 
 chemists and Greek metaphysicians assert, then this 
 will be prior, sm'er, and the best philosophy. 
 
 To those in whom the spirit of observ^ation has been 
 wholly drawn to externals, it may have seemed a ridi- 
 culous thing to speak of life and intellect indepen- 
 dently, as apart from their manifest operations ; still 
 more so to enter on specific idioms and modes of spi- 
 ritual subsistence, seeing- we have no tangible proof 
 calculated by any means to satisfy the searchers of ex- 
 act science ; that as life is nowhere seen apart from 
 organization, or moral consciousness from either, 
 they are phenomena little likely to be discovered 
 apart or practically understood. — Against such an opi- 
 nion we have no present demonstration to offer ; our 
 own assertion w^ould add nothing to the authorities 
 already cited ; inquiry is the only antidote of ra- 
 tional scepticism. For this we have laboured to sup- 
 ply means ; and the natural subsistence of Universals 
 in the human mind may afford a ground of probability 
 wdience to proceed into their proof. That we are de- 
 prived of the power of apprehending the ancient doc- 
 trine of internal Wisdom is no proof that it is untrue ; 
 there is a strongly enchanted fortress about it, whose 
 forces yield not either to impertinent curiosity or the 
 peremptory demands of sense. Nor can all the ne- 
 gativ^e evidence of sensual certainty in array disprove, 
 or for an instant nullify, assertions which belong to 
 another Experience and another probability of Art and 
 Nature. 
 
 But, will it be objected, that which has never been 
 in our thought, things so far above us, are nothing 
 to us? Truly, if beyond our possible attainment, 
 they would be indifferent; but benefits are not the 
 less real because unexpected, or promises to be cast 
 away because the means of fulfilment are not im- 
 mediately discernable. The evils of this life are mani- 
 fold, and a prospect of escape, or melioration even, 
 will not be obnoxious to those who are fortunately 
 
Conclusion. 521 
 
 able to perceive it. Neitiier let it be supposed, that 
 because the Wisdom of the ancients transcends, that it 
 by any means contradicts human reason, but quite 
 otherwise ; that was, in truth, the basis of their philo- 
 sophy, which is with us the boundary and summit of 
 our knowledge. That Faith alone, indeed of all else, 
 remains to us in common — in that we are, we have a 
 witness which believes and infers, a reality beyond 
 present experience ; and hence it is in vain that meta- 
 physicians, inductively arguing, have sometimes en- 
 deavoured to reduce the Idea of Cause to mere ante- 
 cedence or juxta-position in time. The instinct of 
 human nature is constantly opposed to them, and be- 
 lieves, heedless of all doubt and difficult discussion. 
 For Power is latent everywhere, and we feel it in the 
 shadow, and recognize its presence spontaneously in 
 every action of life. Striking upon this Faith therefore, 
 in default of its true object, and taking to witness 
 some of the closer records of transcendental experience, 
 we have hoped to awaken the imaginative centres to 
 such an accord as might stir Reason from her long le- 
 thargy to seek for genuine reminiscence in her root 
 of Light. 
 
 " Thougli from our birth the faculty divine 
 Is chained and tortured, cabin' d, cribb'd, confin'd, 
 And bred in darkness, lest the light should shine 
 Too brightly on the uninstructed inind, 
 The beams pour in, and truth and skill may couch the blind." 
 
 Were it not that the ancients acknowledge and uni- 
 formly insist on the use of means for removing the bar- 
 riers by which the Divine Light is here held in thraldom, 
 we might more consistently despair of their Wisdom ; 
 but it was avowedly a thing acquired, the reward only 
 of peculiar and arduous discipline ; not such as mere 
 school logic or the mathematics now afford, but as dif- 
 ferent and far above as was the promise and ultimate 
 aim. No modern institutions, either secular or re- 
 ligious, furnish anything analogous, no effectual 
 means of moral elevation, no rites of purifying or 
 awakening efficacy to the mind. We plant and in- 
 
522 Conclusion. 
 
 crease knowledge, and give precepts and devise ex- 
 amples, and draw forth the observing faculties to their 
 superficial contentment ; but all our circumstantial 
 labours do not rectify the mind, or turn the inbred 
 inclination out of life. Circumstances indeed do mo- 
 dify, and, according as they are well or ill devised, 
 improve or deteriorate the habitual character of man- 
 kind ; but they do not recreate ; no power that is not 
 vital can touch the evil that is inbred, or even discover 
 it truly without introspective proof That which 
 generation binds dissolution only can unloose — the evil 
 must be met by its proper antidote, overcoming dark- 
 ness by Light in the hypostatical alliance ; every ac- 
 cessory means of melioration will be preparative to 
 this, which restores the human mind to integrity and 
 universal science. 
 
 Man has never been observed to advance himself 
 individually through adventitious acquirements ; but, 
 on the contrary, the increase of luxury, to which 
 thought is now applied, enervates the moral character, 
 fosters selfishness by competition, fraud, and emulous 
 hate. Institutions, framed by the same defective pat- 
 tern, multiply the evil, as every advance we make in 
 externals leads us further off from the First Source. 
 And until Wisdom shall have effected that individual 
 reformation, which above all things we now need, it is 
 vain to look in externals for a perfection and feficity 
 which have not been imaged there. We may alter, and 
 improve, and educate, and prepare the way with ad- 
 vantage ; but the notion will be variable, and every 
 plan defective without the Exemplary Light. 
 
 But some one still considers the discovery impossi- 
 ble, or, if possible, yet that this Wisdom is too diffi- 
 cult perhaps in the pursuit? To the former objection, 
 supposing it to be inveterate, we oppose nothing, 
 having nowhere undertaken to convince, but only to 
 promote investigation. Incredulity is the strongest 
 barrier of possibilities over the world, no doubt wisely 
 provided to prevent a too rapid movement of mind 
 into practice, before it is well prepared and disposed to 
 
Conclusion. 523 
 
 the pursuit of truth. With respect to the difficulties 
 of the pursuit, we have nowhere denied them, or 
 that they are insuperable to the common herd of man- 
 kind. Without an earnest desire of discovery, the 
 liveliest faith will be frustrated, and labour will be vain 
 unless reason give direction to the persuasion of 
 faith. But how hardly can these either subsist with- 
 out the other ? since faith is the very attracting load- 
 stone which hope pursues, and desire and reason, and 
 the whole willing armament of Mind, to which, in her 
 allied forces, nothing is impossible ; or what apparition 
 of difficulties would deter conviction steeled to the 
 purpose of her Motive Light ? 
 
 Or does any one, persisting to calumniate this Philo- 
 sophy, say it threatens to sacrifice important temporal 
 interests for the sake of visionary and remote gains ? 
 Such objections however will not be rational, but 
 spring out of the baser affections of humanity and 
 short-sighted sense. The eye is not satisfied with see- 
 ing, nor is the ear filled with hearing, nor does any 
 transitory good suffice to human desire ; above all, 
 there is no selfish object worthy the pursuit of In- 
 tellect ; nor is any worldly recompense found corre- 
 sponding to its need. But the proper object of the 
 rational faculty is in its Source, which lies profoundly 
 buried in this life of sense. And this it is the province 
 of the Hermetic Artifice to resuscitate and bring 
 through self-knowledge into the experience of life. For 
 this same Root of Reason is Wisdom, and that saving 
 Salt which philosophers were wont anciently to exca- 
 vate and by so many circulating media to exalt. The 
 diadem of Wisdom is ulu buuiti with this Stone, 
 which, as a halo or crown of light, the regenerate soul 
 puts on as a new body, wherein it can rule over the 
 elementary world and pass through it, overcoming evil 
 and falsehood, and ignorance and death. 
 
 To the faculty of Reason, therefore, nothing is more 
 attractive than this philosophy, which immortalizes it ; 
 yet, will it be argued, there are other faculties of the 
 human mind equally real, if not as important, and 
 
524 Conclusion. 
 
 which ought not to be despised? Neither, we reply, 
 is any faculty of the soul repudiated in that supernal 
 alliance ; but all are present together in obedience to 
 their rightful rule and habitude ; or if any one is re- 
 fractory during the passage, it is the occasion of suf- 
 fering to the better natures, which are all engaged 
 voluntarily in the restitution of their King. But if 
 they all must be sacrificed for the sake of him who is 
 their source, would not this be expedient, rather than 
 that he should continue in an illegitimate thraldom 
 under all? Such is not the ultimate necessity of the 
 case however ; for the bn'thren all are renewed to- 
 gether with him, and every dignified sentiment is set 
 in accord, to testify and maintain the triumphant Mo- 
 narchy of Light. 
 
 And what more alluring to a cultivated Imagination 
 than this pursuit, which abounds in ideality and the 
 beautiful symbolism of universal truth, which discovers 
 the occult springs of Classic inspiration, tradition, my- 
 thology, fable, and every graceful remain? 
 
 And will not Veneration, too, be intimately invited 
 by the prospect of its own antique worshipful Idea — 
 there where, in the presence of Divinity, true awe is 
 felt, and man discovers and knows the perfect good- 
 ness, which profanely without the temple's veil he 
 cannot, or unless the understanding is absolutely con- 
 joined? 
 
 And are not Hope and Benevolence interested in 
 this research, and Justice longing for an equilibrium, 
 uXJi^xA-U^ ^^^^ Self-respect and Kuty , and every honourable mo- 
 / tive herein allied ? And to know the First Truth of 
 things really and experimentally, and to revolve the 
 Causal Light in permanence of intellection, is not this 
 the highest privilege that man may propose to himself? 
 And when we are told that all things are added to that 
 felicity, that the springs of Universal Nature, with her 
 growth and fruits, are at our delegate disposal, if we 
 can believe, what else is worthy our whole desire ? 
 And what kind of science, supposing it real, would 
 be so conclusive as this, which exhibits all things in 
 
Conclusion. 525 
 
 their constructive Causes, such as no other science 
 does, or other conviction can do, but that only 
 which, Identically penetrating, enters into the Whole 
 of Existence ? 
 
 Let no one therefore conceive that this philosophy 
 is unattractive, which has occupied the best faculties 
 of the best minds, and at the tnp'^'^^^ summit of their 
 capacity. Nor are the rewards so remote, either as in- 
 dolence and adverse inclination may cause them to ap- 
 pear. But if inferior interests should yet complain, as 
 in danger of their present dominion, and pride or 
 avarice, or ambition or ignorance, accustomed to rule 
 in this life, should disdain the subaltern station which 
 the Di\dne Law assigns to them, let not one enlist or 
 be drawn by promises, however alluring, lest they be 
 deceived and swallowed up in the gulph of their own 
 overwhelming delusion. As who would wish it should 
 be otherwise, unless it were to generate evil by the 
 viperous progeny of self-love ? 
 
 Should it be considered, on the other hand, that the 
 research of Causes is altogether impious, and above 
 the destined capacity of man, and vain, since, as Job 
 says, no one by searching can Jind out the Almighty 
 to perfection — we would observe, with respect to this 
 last assertion, that it is easily explicable ; for though 
 it is eminently true that man, searching in his own 
 will alone, is incompetent to the Divine Discovery, 
 yet, by conditionating, in obedience to the Divine Will, 
 he comes into the integral alliance and power — 
 Knock and it shall be opened unto you, ask and ye shall 
 receive, that your joy may befall. 
 
 With respect to the charge of impiety, should this 
 persist, the evil is inherent in the preposterous idea ; 
 nor can we be at the pains just now to vindicate the 
 most sacred science from such an aspersion ; but re- 
 commend those who really think in this way, with the 
 rest already warned off, to desist from inquiry, nor 
 give heed to the subject as long as the fatal suggestion 
 lurks ; lest it should become manifested forth in some 
 practical form of pusillanimity, or faithless attempt to 
 interrogate the profundity it fears. There is nothing 
 
526 Conclusion. ^, 
 
 impure, or of itself impious, mnnli ]nni Wm* Art of Wis- 
 dom, long distinguished as holy. But to him that 
 esteems a thing unclean, as St. Paul says, it is un- 
 clean, for the thought will defile it. Honi soit qui 
 MAL Y PENSE. Let not this good then be evil spoken 
 of. All things are iiideed pure ; but it is evil for 
 that man ivho eateth the bread of life ivith offence. — 
 The Art of Alchemy is of all Arts thQrofoi'c distin- 
 guished as holy, since it has been piously occupied, 
 and aided the most devout minds, in times past, to the 
 attainment of their common end. Not that we would 
 insinuate that human salvation is dependent on a 
 mere art — far otherwise ; the Divine Will operates its 
 fulfilment alone ; but the Art is said to be a remedy of 
 imperfect souls, and offers the means of assimilation : 
 whether a knowledge of these means is absolutely neces- 
 sary, we dare not take on ourselves to determine — the 
 power of God is infinite ; but Adepts declare that He 
 has always revealed them to his elected children. 
 
 If doubt yet further should arise about this Wisdom ; 
 seeing she did not reveal herself in common arts and 
 the discoveries of human invention ; it may be plainly 
 observed that such particulars are foreign to the Di- 
 vine purpose, they are foolishness to her ; she teaches 
 an Art which supersedes all these and comprehends 
 every liberal science in sublime freedom of intellection 
 and every subordinate discovery in her revealed accord. 
 Yet who will now believe ? 
 
 It is by the searching and proving of His own Iden- 
 tity, no otherwise, that man can arrive at the assur- 
 ance of this Wisdom, which is above science, art, and 
 every other kind of faith ; which includes all know- 
 ledges, arts, and every particular which the inquiring 
 Spirit seeks within itself. This is that Well of Hera- 
 clitus in which the Truth yet lies profoundly hidden ; 
 whence also those philosophic tears. This is that 
 Nothing which Socrates knew, on account of which 
 the oracle pronounced him to be the wisest of man- 
 kind ; which Democritus, beholding, laughed at other 
 things : it was this which warned Friar Bacon from 
 
Conclusion. 527 
 
 the error of his ways, and convicted Agrippa of the 
 vanity and confusion of his youth, when at length in 
 his manhood he came to know^ that to know No- 
 thing was the most happy Hfe. For he who in such 
 w^ise knows Nothing — no one apostate particular — has 
 the All, and, being composed of the whole, he is able 
 to discern, to make, and to effect the whole ; but falling 
 off from this, in becoming dividual, he ceases to be 
 the Universe : returning again, however, into the Uni- 
 versal and abandoning the selfhood, he raises himself 
 on high, and governs the world. 
 
 And when we consider the highly elevated philo- 
 sophy of the Platonic successors ; the profound yet j /) ^ 
 simple metaphysics of the Hebrew €aifti, as it has /Oi/t^xOZ^ 
 been partially transmitted, with a persuasion of reality 
 unequalled in modern language ; the soul-stirring 
 syllables of the Hermetic and Chaldaic Fragments ; the 
 refined enthusiasm of the Middle Age Adeptists ; and 
 all these and many more separately agreeing in the same 
 divine tradition ; and, added to these all, the Christian 
 doctrine of fulfilment in the Gospel ; we cannot but feel 
 regret, mingling with the satisfaction these things might 
 otherwise afford, that so early and great a promise of 
 the human mind should have been bhghted, not only, 
 but forgotten almost in the w^orld. Or can w^e recall such 
 hghts without reflection, and incuriously believe that 
 knowledge w^as once granted to man by revelation, but 
 has since, we cannot tell why, passed away for ever ? 
 Are we the children of a second fall, or what spell 
 holds us that w^e no longer aspire even to understand 
 the language of our Fathers, or desire to pass into the 
 life of those elder times, when Man, not yet always the 
 poor servant and interpreter of Nature, moved under 
 his God, her Lord and Master? Are we not all born / / 
 of one generation, in the same surrounding world ; ^be- "T^fez 
 identical sun now enlightening us as formerly shone 
 upon the bards and hallowed sages of Asia Minor? 
 Yet, whilst they so many centuries ago bear testimony 
 to a knowledge of their Creator and his intimate 
 works, we continue still in uncertainty, blind and 
 
528 Conclusion. 
 
 baffled everywhere about the beguilements of sense. 
 No longer careful for ourselves, life is wasted on ex- 
 ternals, which, always ungrateful, yield new burdens 
 and perplexities in proportion as they increase. The- 
 oretic science is everywhere condemned ; but there is 
 no such thing at this day ; since, with all her extolled 
 artifice, array of disciplines and powers, the Wisdom 
 of Antiquity has disappeared from amongst men. 
 
 And to what are we arrived without her? Even at 
 the proudest pinnacle of external science, the whole 
 physical nature explored, and facts of all generations 
 accumulated together before our eyes, wdiat should w'e 
 be wdser without the Causal knowledge of these things? 
 What single advantage have we gained by misprising 
 the ancients? Those low, literal, spiritless interpre- 
 tations of poetic fable and philosophy — wdiat satisfac- 
 tion have they afforded ? Or of what use will they 
 ever be, but to memorialize our ignorance to future 
 generations? It is true, they have flattered our self- 
 complacency for awhile into a belief that former Wis- 
 dom w^as foohshness, and that men never lived in 
 reality who wxre more know'ing, religious, and vir- 
 tuous than ourselves. But then the evil far outlives 
 the temporary gratulation of those conceits^ which 
 have stripped the Ideal Standard of all excellency, and 
 shorn the imagination of its brightest hopes of beauty, 
 goodness, and immortal truth. All has been swept 
 away wdth a remorseless hand ; all veneration and faith 
 in ideality, whilst sense has been the acknowledged 
 beacon hght, and praotioal utihty the highest good. 
 
 Is it not full time to return, wdien things are arrived 
 at the precipice of self-oblivion, w hen experimental phi- 
 losophy labours for selfish aggi'andisement, and self is 
 least of all served in the attempt ; when thought 
 wastes its eternal substance in the pursuit of time, and 
 the idea of Truth is mangled in the reckless machinery 
 of Error ? Has not Lord Bacon himself, the leader of 
 this exterminating chase, wdiilst endeavouring to super- 
 sede the bare exercise of logic, and clear the field of 
 Learning in his Inauguration, recommended the pur- 
 
Conclusion. 529 
 
 suit of Causes above every other, and taught, by his 
 own energetic example, to inquire of the ancients, and 
 to experiment after their hidden Wisdom, though he 
 knew it not, but only burned about the lights which 
 they had bequeatlied ? What more, then, should we 
 add to exhort, extol, or explicate, having studied to -, /^__ 
 revive these^and relics of the Sacred Art long buried a Uf^-^^ 
 in oblivion ? If their witness is disbeheved, addition 
 would be useless ; if otherwise, we await the result. — 
 It would be as impossible in an exposition of this kind 
 to concihate all tastes, as to draw divergent prejudices 
 into accord. There is one pleasure of a horse, another 
 of a dog : a goat differs from either in his natural 
 choice ; and in man eveiy various inclination is to be 
 found, and a multifarious understanding in the affairs 
 of life ; so that those arguments which to some w^ould 
 be convincing, by others are not discerned, or needed 
 by many more who are endowed with an instinctive 
 faith and appreciation. Truths which are grateful to 
 certain persons are odious to others, according as they 
 may be constituted or habitually trained. In this In- 
 quiry, therefore, we have sought to attract those 
 chiefly to whom such a pursuit would be naturally 
 pleasing, and such as have been customarily esteemed 
 worthy of the reward. 
 
 With respect to the practical benefits, our hopes, 
 though not enlarged, are vigorous and of the most 
 grateful kind ; for those to whom it is addressed the 
 Light will attract, and to them will not be moderately 
 useful, if they advance by it to the true end. 
 
 That the subject is worthy of inquiry from the 
 highest order of minds, we repeat our persuasion, and 
 at the same time entertain a belief that the period is 
 not far distant when this will be obtained, and the 
 truth, by these means, be so manifestly presented be- 
 fore the eyes of all, that contrary prejudices, and 
 doubts, and false interests, will be merged in the 
 revelation of power and irresistible fact. 
 
 The catholic torch, miraculously kindled, kindles 
 the Light of Universal Nature, and either exter- 
 
 M M 
 
530 Conclusion. 
 
 nally or internally, morally or physically, or in all 
 these ways, according to the application, works 
 from thence through every part, diffusing energy, life, 
 and joy, in either of the three kingdoms, as we 
 have shown, by its voluntary assimilation, increas- 
 ing and promoting things to their utmost boundary 
 of strength. But, above all, it rejoices in the Mind 
 of Man, when, in conscious rectitude of thought 
 and action, he bears it in comprehensive superiority 
 elect over the rest — when, including all in the ca- 
 tholic perceivance of this Reason, he submits his own 
 omnipotence to the omniscience of its Rule — when 
 Nature opening up to him the vast resources of her 
 essence and the mystery of the most wonderful crea- 
 tion, with every temptation to self-idolatry laid open 
 to view, oblivious of all else in admiration and love of 
 so much Wisdom and integral perfection, he co-operates 
 with the First Cause. 
 
 Some may consider we have opened too much, 
 others too little of a mystery irrelevant to the common 
 understanding of mankind, and no doubt our conduct 
 is blameworthy in other respects ; yet those for whon) 
 we have laboured will not prove ungrateful if they 
 attain to the end of our proposed discovery. For the 
 discoveiy of the Causal Nature is doubtless of all parts 
 of knowledge the worthiest to be sought after, if it be 
 possible to be found; and, as to the possibility, they 
 are computed for ill discoverers that think there is no 
 land because they discern nothing but sea. — Believe 
 it, then, beyond the turbulent sea of sense, there is a 
 haven and signal marks to direct where the Promised 
 Land is to be found. And Life is the nucleus of the 
 /^ /} whole Hermetic Mystery, and the Key thereof is feitcl- 
 A-C^/Cc 4ect ; the golden ore of which, likewise, we have lavishly 
 / shown. If, however, the Key be wanting, how may we 
 
 presume to enter ; or, without it, explain the intricate 
 intelligence of those mirific wards which were con- 
 structed by it, and for it to pass through, and for it 
 alone? They, we repeat, who can understand the 
 language of the philosophers, will understand their 
 
Conclusion. 531 
 
 Art ; for this we have opened the way only, which if 
 any one will consent to travel in, we assure him of 
 success, but not otherwise ; for neither was this re- 
 search undertaken indiscriminately, nor can it be pro- • y, 
 secuted without a congenial 4^^i4. But he who ^<L^/(yC. 
 desires to enter, let him search for the Root of Reason ^ 
 rationally, and hold by It, and conspire with It, if he 
 would have Truth at last. He who knows the first 
 entrance, and how to render the fixed tincture of life 
 volatile, and to return it, being free, is already admitted 
 to the temple of Divine Science, and joins in with the 
 whole conclave ; because, through all the interior re- 
 cesses, the method is allied. Let him search into the 
 enigmas, peruse the fables, and consider the parables 
 and maxims of the wise Adepts. They all tend to one 
 discovery, and declare the same, and even in their 
 inconsistencies will be instructive to him who has the 
 Key. And he who sets himself in this wise to the 
 comprehension of the whole philosophy, will be a 
 competent judge of our labours, how much assistance 
 we have added towards the recovery of lost Wisdom, 
 and with what sincerity we have opened the way 
 permeating into those antiquated abodes of Light. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Stevens and Co., Printers, Bell Yard, Temple Bar. 
 
Will he published shortly y 
 
 THE ENIGMA OE ALCHEMY AND 
 (EDIPUS RESOLVED. 
 
 A POEM IN FIVE PAETS. 
 
 DESIGNED TO EHICinATE THE 
 
 FABLES, SYMBOLS, AND OTHER MYTHOLOGICAL DISGUISES, 
 
 IN WHICH THK 
 
 HERMETIC ART 
 
 HAS BEEN ENVELOPED AND SIGNALIZED IN VARIOUS AGES; 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL CEEEMONIES, MASONIC FORMUL.^, 
 
 ASTUOiS'OMICAL SIGNS AND CONSTELLATIONS, 
 
 EVEN THE EMBLAZONMENTS OF CHI- 
 
 VALEY, HERALDIC BADGES, AND 
 
 OTHER EMBLEMS, 
 
 Which without explanation have been handeil down, and which are shown to 
 have originated in the same mystic school ; through each particular tracing 
 their allusion to the 
 
 MEANS AND MECHANISM 
 
 UNIVERSAL SCIENCE. 
 
 Hereby it is hoped not only to draw the attention of the curious, but to offer 
 a new incentive to inquiry, a prospect real, beautiful, and more fruitful than 
 heretofore to the 
 
 ^tlmuing ClaiSSic antJ ^tutJjnt of Snncnt Itfarmng. 
 
13 
 
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^ BOUND BY~^ 
 ^ LONDON ^ 
 
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