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 penetration, 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 days for the information 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 Hesperides : nor yet that any, though learned, as. the adept adds, should by once or twice overly and slightly reading, as the dogs lap the waters of Nilus, the magistery of this science forbids so great a
104 Exoteric View.
sacrilege : our books are made for those who have been or intend to become conversant about the search of nature.50 For this is the first step towards the recovery of truth, to be diligent in the investi- gation ; other requirements there are and reasons 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 inginn, To know all the secrets pertaining to this myne, For it is most profounde philosophy, This subtill science of holi Alkimy.51
50 See Eirenseus, Ripley Revived.
51 Norton's Ordinal.
The Golden Treatise. 105