CHAPTER III.

The Golden Treatise of Hermes Trismegistus, con-
cerning 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 I have obtained by the inspiration of the
living God alone, who judged fit to open them to
me His servant.1 To those enabled by reason to
judge of truth He has given power to arbitrate,
but to none occasion of delinquency.2

For myself, I had never discovered this matter
to any one, had it not been from fear of the day
of judgment, and the perdition of my soul, if I

1 There are three things said to be necessary for the attain-
ment 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.

2 Without theoretic knowledge and a right principle to begin
with, 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 succeeds 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 intention ; but he who knows the princi-
ples and the way of generation, which consists according to
the intention of nature, is but a very short way from the
completement. (Sum of Perf. book i.) See also Norton's
Ordinal Proheme, and chapters i. and iv. ; and the Introitus
Apertus ad Occlusum Regis Palationem, cap. viii. &c.

106 Exoteric View.

concealed it. It is a debt which I am desirous to
discharge to the faithful, as the Author of our
faith did deign to bestow it upon me.3

Understand ye then, O sons of Wisdom, that the
knowledge of the four elements of the ancient
philosophers was not corporally or imprudently
sought after, which are through patience to be
discovered according to their causes and their
occult operation. For their operation is occult,
since nothing is done except it be compounded,
and because it is not perfected unless the colours
be throughly passed and accomplished.4

Know, then, that the division that was made
upon the Water, by the ancient philosophers,
separates it into four substances ; one to two,
and three to one ; the one third part of which is
colour, that is to say — a coagulating moisture ;

3 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 under-
stand and folloAv in his steps. He nowhere, therefore, addresses
the ignorant, lest his instruction should be abused, but the
predestined sons of wisdom, to guide them, already initiated,
further into the practice of his high art.

4 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 ; non
corpora-liter, as the Scholiast explains, sed spiritualiter et
sapienter, — 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 hetero-
geneous images and superfluities adhering to this subject in its
natural state, which render it unfit for progress ; these there-
fore must be entirely discharged ; which, say the adepts, m>
impossible without the theory of their arcanum, in which 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. R.
Lullii Theoria et Practica, cap. iii. Norton's Ordinal, cap. v.
Ripley's Third Gate, &c. Introitus Apertus ad Occlusum Regis
Palatio, cap. viii.

The Golden Treatise. 107

but the two third waters are the Weights of the
Wise.5

Take of the humidity an ounce and a half, and of
the Meridian Redness, that 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 — which are eight — that is
three ounces ; and know ye that the vine of the
wise is drawn forth in three, and the wine thereof
is perfected in thirty.6

5 The philosophic water then, being divided into four parts
or hypostatic relations, they are called elements. First, the one
part, being divided, produces two, which are as agent and
patient in 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 the unity of the
same spirit, beget all things, giving birth to the whole substrata!
nature. The differences of the colours, observes the Scholiast,
Hermes divides into two threes, i.e., into three red spirits and
three white, which have their growth all from the same
identical water, and are resolved 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 triple 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.

6 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 humidity, the southern redness, soul of gold, seyre,
citrine, auripigment, the vine of philosophers and their wine,
have no other signification, 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 perfec-
tion, resists the fire. Neither wonder, he adds, that eight
parts and three ounces are equivalent ; for by the former
section the one part is divided into two, to each of which there
are added three parts, which are the true philosophic pro-
portions called also by Hermes the Weights of the Wise.
See the Scholium ; Ripley's Epistle ; Introit. Apert. cap. vii. ;
Norton's Ordinal, cap. v.

108 Exoteric View.

Understand the operation, therefore, decoction
lessens the matter, but the tincture augments it :
because Luna after fifteen days is diminished ;
and in the third, she is augmented. This is the
beginning and the end.7

Behold, I have declared that which had been
concealed, since the work is both with you and
about you ; taking what is within and fixed, thou
canst have it either in earth or sea.8

7 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 analogically indicates her. Some divide
the operation of the philosopher's stone into two parts ; the
former Hermes calls decoction, which dissolving the matter
discharges also its impurities by a proper rule ; 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 powerful
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.

8 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 Nature in which they, with all beings in
common, as it were, unconsciously live ; which, in the natural
order of generation, 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
faith 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 that Identity by which the
powers of the Universal Nature are made manifest and intrin-
sically understood. But intending to enlarge inquiry on this
head, we defer our comments.

The Golden Treatise. 109

Keep, therefore, thy Argent vive, which is pre-
pared in the innermost chamber in which it is
coagulated ; for that is Mercury which is spoken
of concerning the residual earth.9

He therefore, who now hears my words, let him
search into them ; I have discovered all things
that were before hidden concerning this knowledge,
and disclosed the greatest of all secrets.10

Know ye, therefore, Enquirers into the rumour,
and Children of Wisdom, 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

9 Our Mercury, says the wise Scholiast, is philosophic, fieryy
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 this argent vive, then,
which is the residuum of the philosophic earth after the separa-
tion, 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 informant, an incomparable treasure, a
thing more precious than gold ; 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 into 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. ; Khunrath, Amph.
Isag. in fig.

10 Give 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
Knowledge, lest, handling the powerful machine of nature
recklessly or unjustly for selfish ends, they subvert the order
of final 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 investigation 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 wilful order the Hermetic mind.

110 Exoteric View.

White, and the Citrine of the Bed ; and I speak
the very truth.11

And know that the chief principle of the art
is the Crow, which in the blackness of the night
and clearness of the day, flies without wings. From
the bitterness existing in the throat, the tincture
is taken ; the red goes forth from his body, and
from his back is taken a pure water.12

Understand, therefore, and accept this gift of
God. In the caverns of the 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,

11 The vulture, according to our Scholiast, is the new born
quintessential spirit or Proteus ; the mountain upon which the
vulture stands is a fit vessel placed in a well-built philosophic
furnace encompassed with a wall of fire. In him all the multi-
farious virtues of nature are declared to be held in capacity,
as in rapid evolution he passes about his axis, making the
light manifest without refraction in every variety of its
colourings and creative imagination.

12 The vulture and the crow are interpreted to be one and the
same thing, only differing somewhat in 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 vulture is the first sublimed
quintessence not yet 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 throat occultly indicates the death
of the first life, whence the soul is educed ; which is also the
red and living tincture taken from the body ; and the thin
water is the viscous humidity made by the dissolution which
radically dissolves all metals, and reduces 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

Nocte tenebrosa mediaque in luce diei,
Namque ortis caput est ille vel iste tuse.
— See The Scholium — Atalanta Fugiens Emblema, xliii.

The Golden Treatise. Ill

who hath taught you this knowledge ; for He
loves the grateful.13

Put the matter into a moist fire, therefore, and
cause it to boil, in order that its heat ma}^ be
augmented, which destroys the siccity of the
incombustible nature, until the radix may appear ;
then extract the redness and the light part, till
the third part remains.14

Sons of the Sages ! For this reason are philo-
sophers said to be envious ; not that they grudge
the truth to religious or just men, or to the wise ;

13 Our author here, repeating his exception of the unintelli-
gent, at the same time eloquently identifies the philosophic
matter, calling it mens sublimis 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 proprium nomen haberet lapis
esset nomen ejus ; and Arnold — Est lapis et non lapis spiritus,
anima, corpus, quern si dissolvis dissolvitur, et si coagules
coagulatur, et si volare facis volat ; est enim volatilis, albus
ut lachryma oculi. It is a stone and no stone, spirit, soul, and
body, which if thou dissolvest, it will be dissolved ; 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, &c.
See Arnoldi Speculum — Khunrath Amph. Isag. in fig. cap. iii.

14 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 sublima-
tion, repeatedly operated over and over again, is the occasion
of many changes in the matter and effects, which, though
differently designated, are in their source the same. This
sublimation is not, therefore, 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 sublimation 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 Ripley
Revived, p. 263 ; Lumen de Lumine, p. 58 ; Introit. Apert.
cap. iii.

112 Exoteric View.

but to the ignorant and vicious, who are without
self-control and benevolence, lest they should be
made powerful in evil for the perpetration of sinful
things ; and in consequence philosophers are
made accountable to God. Evil men are unworthy
of wisdom.15

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
incombustible ash, 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 that sea, the fire, and
the heavenly Flyer, to the latest moment of his
exit. But I adjure you all, Sons of philosophy, by
our Benefactor who gives to you the ornament of
His grace, that to no fatuous, ignorant, or inept
person ye open this Stone.16

15 The monitions to secrecy are no less stringent than
frequent in the writings of adepts, modern as well as ancient.
Thus, Raymond Lully, in his Thesaurus, gives the following
charge : — Juro tibi supra animam meam quod si ea reveles,
damnatus es : nam a Deo omne procedit bonum et ei soli
debetur. Quare servabis et secretum tenebis illud quod ei
debetur revelandum, &c. And Norton writes —

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 down
Rightful Kings and Princes of renown.
Wherefore the sentence of peril and jeopardy
Upon the teacher resteth dreadfully.

See Lullii Testam. ; Aquinas Thesau. Alchim. ; Norton's
Ordinal, cap. i. and viii. ; R. Bacon, Speculum.

16 The philosophic matter has indeed received many per-
plexing 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,

The Golden Treatise. 113

I have received nothing from any, to whom I
have not returned that which he had given me,
nor have I failed to honour and highly respect
Him.17

This, 0 son, is the concealed Stone of many
colours ; which is born 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. 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.18

SECTION SECOND.

My Son, before all things I admonish thee to
fear God, in whom is the strength of thy under-
taking ; and the bond of each separated element.

humid state it is called the sea of the wise, passive to all
impressions and influences of the light. By the fire 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.

17 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 Arnolde of the New Towne,

As his Rosary maketh mencione ;

He sayeth right thus withouten any lye

There may noe man Mercury 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 Chanon's Yeoman. Theat. Chem.

Brit, page 254. Arnoldi Rosarium, circa finem.

18 The consummate union of the purified spirit with its
course 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.

114 Exoteric View.

Mv Son, 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, 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 hurt it : in like manner, he who is
rational shuts himself within from the threshold
of ignorance ; lest supinely he should be deceived.19
Take the flying volatile and drown it flying, and
divide and separate it from its rust, which yet
holds it in death ; draw it forth, and repel it from
itself, that it may live and answer thee, not by

19 Further suggestions are now given concerning the true
subject and operation of the Hermetic work. Having pre-
viously shown that the way to the attainment of the magistery
is by communion 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 transgressed 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 Nature have truly and
properly understood what it is, and why God is to be feared.
Ingrafted in that root, writes our scholiast, the true under-
standing will grow up in thee, and fill thee, even as the body
is rilled, with life. Thou must enter with thy whole spirit
into the centre of nature, and there behold how all things are
begun, continued and perfected. But thou must first 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 things are 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 himself within, away from
the distractions of sense and this life's ignorance, and learn
to open to himself the door of a higher consciousness, lest in
the outward acceptation of words or things he should be
deceived. Having premised thus much, he proceeds to detail
the process by which the spirit is carried on from each succeed-
ing dissolution into a more perfect form of being.

The Golden Treatise. 115

flying away into the regions above, but by truly
forbearing to fly. For if thou shalt deliver it out
of its straitness, after this imprisonment, and in
the days known to thee shalt by reason have ruled
it, then will it become a suitable companion unto
thee, and by it thou wilt become to be a conquering
lord, with it adorned.20

Extract from the ray its shadow and impurity
by which the clouds hang over it, defile and keep
away the light ; since by means of its constriction
and fiery redness, it is burned. Take, my son, this
redness, corrupted with the water, 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 was cherished,
and in whom it rests.21

20 These images, indicating the mode of rational operation
with the freed spirit and its soul, will appear inevitably
obscure. The 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.

21 A shadowy darkness passes always along with the philo-
sophic 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 dissolved 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, continues 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 Sapientum, or Water Stone : —

116 Exoteric View.

Return then, 0 my son, the extinct coal to the
water for thirty days, as I shall note to thee ; and,
henceforth, thou art a crowned king, resting over
the fountain as known to thee, and drawing from
thence the Auripigment dry, without moisture.
And now I have made glad the heart of the
hearers, and the eyes looking unto thee in hope of
that which thou possessest.22

Spiritus ipse datur 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
i^stu conveniunt extremo sive calore,

Quisque suam sedem cum gravitate tenet.
Integritas prsesto est, nulla et perfectio desit

Amplis lsetitiis glorificatur opus.

See the Scholium, and Aquarium Sapientum, Musaeum Her-
meticum, p. 95.

22 Here again the allusions will appear wilfully obscure to
the uninitiated, for the master presupposes not only a know-
ledge of the Matter, but of the Vessel also in which it is
scientifically concocted ; but we must pass on. The life of"
the coal is fire, which 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 than 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 ignorant ly 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 occult 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.
When 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, ,

The Golden Treatise. 117

Observe, then, that the water was first in the
air, then in the earth ; restore thou it, also, to the
superiors by its proper windings, and alter skilfully
before collecting ; then to its former red spirit
let it be carefully conjoined.23

Know, my son, that the fatness of our earth is
sulphur, the auripigment, siretz, and colcothar,
which are also sulphur ; of which auripigments,
sulphurs, 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 sulphur itself, and of the brain,
which too is auripigment ; of the like kind also
are the lion's and cat's claws, which is siretz ;
the fat of white bodies, and the fat of the two
oriental quicksilvers, which hunt the sulphurs and
contain the bodies.24

I say, moreover, that this sulphur doth tinge
and fix, and is the connection of the tinctures ; oils
also tinge, tiiey fly away, which in the body are
contained, which is a conjunction of fugitives with

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 may est rest and bait, and enjoy
the glory of thy white elixir ; now is the time at hand in which
that of the poet is fulfilled.

Ne te pceniteat faciem fuligine pingi
Adferet hsec Phcebi nigra fa villa jubar.

See Eirenseus, Riply Revived ; Vaughan, Lumen de Lumine,
p. 58, &c. ; Anthrop. Theomag. p. 22 ; and the Scholium.

23 Convert the elements, says Arnold, and you shall have
what you desire ; that is to say, separate the matter into its
essential relationships, and join them again together in
harmonious proportion. — See Arnoldi Speculum sub initio,
Basil Valentine's Stone of Fire, Smaragdine Table, &c.

24 Hermes alludes here in part to the various manifestations
of the spirit in this natural life, and the vegetable growth of it
in animal bodies. The occult luminous principle of vitaliza-
tion he calls sulphur, auripigment, &c, hiding it also under
a variety of other covertures.

118 Exoteric View.

sulphurs and albuminous bodies, which hold also
and detain the fugitive Ens.25

The disposition sought after by the philosophers,
0 son, is but one in our egg ; but this in the hen's
egg can, by no means, be found. But lest so much
of the Divine Wisdom as is in a hen's egg should be
extinguished, its composition is from the four
elements adapted and composed.26

Know, my son, that in the hen's egg is the
greatest proximity and relationship in nature ; for
in it there is a spirituality and conjunction of
elements, and an earth which is golden in its
tincture.27

The son, enquiring of Hermes, saith — The sul-
phurs which are fit for our work, whether are they
celestial or terrestrial ? And he answers, certain
of them are celestial, and some are terrestrial.28

25 A distinction is here made by our author of the different
estates and uses of the philosophic sulphur, or Light, as it
becomes developed in the Hermetic work.

26 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 catholicityr
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 : pullaster et inde

Exortus, ferri victor et ignis erit.

See Atalanta Fugiens, p. 41, Epigramma viii. and the Scholium.

27 The Alchemists uniformly recommend us to observe
nature, that from analogy we may be better able to imagine
and judge of the proper method of experimenting, and learn
to co-operate with her Spirit effectually to regenerate it.
For particulars of the Hermetic similitude, see the Scholium.

28 A short dialogue hereupon ensues between Hermes and
his son ; the father explaining that the distinctions of lights or
sulphurs in the process ought not to be indifferently under-
stood, 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 Golden Treatise. 119

The Son — F at her, 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.29

The Son — Father, which of these is more worthy
than the other, to be the heaven or to be the earth?
He replies — Each needs the other ; for the pre-
cepts demand a medium. As if thou should say
that a wise man governs all mankind, because
every nature delights in Society 01 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 every nature there are three from two,
first the needful water, then the oily tincture,
and lastly the feces or earth which remains
below.30

29 The purified sulphur, fixed and incombustible, is the
generating seed of the universal nature, according to the
adepts ; but the mercury (which is the 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, perfected, 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.

30 When, by their strong attracting law, the active and
passive 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 universal 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 Mercury of the Adepts, without which, 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 occult soul ; which three (being of one only
substance in a triple relationship), if thou shalt join them
together, having been previously separated and well purified,
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 some call

120 Exoteric View.

But a Dragon inhabits all these and are his
habitation ; and the blackness is in them, and
by it he ascends into the air. But, whilst the fume
remains in them, they are not immortal. Take
away therefore the vapour from the water, and the
blackness from the oily tincture, and death from
the faeces : and by dissolution thou shalt achieve
a triumphant reward, even that in and by which
the possessors live.31

them, salt, sulphur 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.

31 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 account 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 Philosophic Heaven are wonderfully shaken
and defiled, insomuch, that like 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, $a,ys
Hermes, take away the vapour from the water, and the black-
ness from the oily tincture, and death 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 spirit, and
without this discovery and the arising evil, it cannot return
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, that 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 the pores of the earth ;
and then, contrariwise, the air will be turned into water, 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 scattered into the water, and thou shalt boil that
water until it be enough, thou shalt have a medicine to cure
the leprosy (of life). See the Scholium ; Sendivogius, New
Light, p. 35 ; Maria Practica.

The Golden Treatise. 121

Know, my son, that the temperate unguent,
which is fire, is the medium between the faeces
and the water, and is the Perscrutinator of the
water. For the unguents are called sulphurs,
because between fire and oil and the sulphurs
there is a very close propinquity, even as so the
fire burns, so does the sulphur also.32

All the wisdoms of the world, 0 son, are com-
prehended in this my hidden Wisdom, and the
learning of the Arts consists in discovering these
wonderful hidden elements beneath which it
hides completed. It behoves him, therefore,
who would be introduced to this our hidden
Wisdom, to free himself from the vice of arrogance ;
and to be just and good, and of a profound reason,
ready at hand to help mankind, of a serene coun-
tenance, to be courteous, diligent to save, and
be himself a guardian of the secrets of philosophy
open to him.33

And this know, that except one understandeth
how to mortify to induce generation, to vivify the
Spirit, to cleanse and introduce Light, until they
fight with each other and grow white and freed
from their defilements, as blackness and darkness,
he knoweth nothing, nor can he perform anything ;
but if he knoweth this, he will be of great dignity,
so that the kings shall reverence him. These
secrets, son, it behoves us to guard and conceal
from the wicked and foolish world.34

32 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 the stirrer-up of the whole power
and efficacy and purifier of the matter ; hence Hermes calls it
the Perscrutinator, eminently distinguishing the Rational
Ferment, concerning which it will be our purpose to inquire
hereafter.

33 The whole paragraph will speak plainly for itself when it is
understood, which we leave for the present therefore unex-
plained.

34 The principles of the art of working the matter are here
repeated. The two contrary natures of light and darkness
must contend together, as it were, in mortal strife, and the

122 Exoteric View.

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 limbs ; and
mortifying the same by its proper nacure, which
is also in it, to preserve the water and fire dwelling
therein, which is from the four elements and in
their waters, to 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.35

O, blessed watery pontic form, that dissolvest
the elements ! Now it behoves us, with this watery
soul, in order to possess ourselves of the sulphurous
Form, 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.36

war must be waged unceasingly for the destruction of the
foreign life until it succumbs, grows white, as Hermes says,
in order that the internal agent may return to vivify the whole ,
and yield the abundant tincture of its light.

35 The catholic nature is multifarious in its conception, and
passes in the art through a strange variety of forms and
appearances : but she operates her proper progress necessi-
tously under the threefold law of life ; the ingress, egress, and
alternating action of which, under dominance of either of its
principles, constitutes the whole phenomena of the Hermetic
process.

36 Great is the reputed virtue of this Aqua Philosophica,
which distils itself finally to manifestation by the Art of Life ;
for, as common water washes and cleanses things outwardly,
so this inwardly effects the same, even itself purifying itself
from its inbred defilements, so that no vestige of evil remains.
And, being conjoined in consciousness with the central
Efficient, it becomes all 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.;

The Golden Treatise. 123

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 rejoice
in them. And when these spirits are united to
them, they vivify them and inhabit them, and
the bodies hold them, nor are they separated
any more from them.37

Then the dead elements are revived, the com-
pounded bodies tinge and are altered, and operate
wonderful works which are permanent, as saith
the philosopher.38

37 This may again remind the reader of the passage from
Dernocritus, 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, accord-
ing to the scholiast's teaching, is not made by chance, but
by means of the affinity which is between the body and its
spirit, as Maier also alludes, in his Emblems — Naturam natura
docet, debellat 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 praecepta, neque ilium
Orando flectes : vim duram et vincula capto
Tende. Doli circum ha3C demum frangentur inanes.

See the Georgics, lib. iv. 397 ; Maieri Atalanta Fugiens Em-
blema, xx. ; Dernocritus, in the Fable of Proteus ; Aquarium
Kapientum Enigma ; and the Scholiast on Hermes.

38 The bodies of 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,
extended, and purified, and by their vivifying power, the life
and fire hitherto lying dormant is excited and made to appear.
For the life which dwells in the metals is laid, as it were, asleep
(in sense), nor can it exert its powers, or show itself, unless the
bodies {i.e., 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 per-

124 Exoteric View.

0 permanent watery Form, creatrix of the regal
elements ! who, having united to thy brethren
and by a moderate regimen obtained the tincture,
findest rest.39

Our most precious stone cast forth upon the
dunghill, being most dear is made altogether
vile. Therefore it behoves us to both mortify
two Argent vives together, and to venerate the
Argent vive of Auripigment, and the oriental
Argent vive of Magnesia.40 ■

manent 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, then 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 generations. — See the Scholium ; Introit. Apert. cap. viii. ;
Trevisanus Opusculum circa finem.

39 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 virtue above all other
fountains in the whole world, shining like silver and of cseru-
lean clearness. It is the Framer of the royal elements, says
Hermes, i.e., it draws to itself the rubified light of its internal
agent permeating the same throughout the whole essentiality.
Separate, says Eirenseus, 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 super-
natural 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 ; New Light
of Sendivogius, 10th Treatise ; and the Introit. Apert.
cap. iii. &c.

40 The same catholic nature, which in its preternatural
exaltation appears so very precious in the eyes of the philo-
sopher, is in the common world denied ; abiding everywhere

The Golden Treatise. 125

in putrefactions and the vilest forms of life. It is likewise
despised by mankind, who are, for the most part, unconscious
even of its subsistence, much more are the}'' not ignorant of
the method of exculpating it and handling their life to good
effect ? Hermes, indeed, gives instruction, as did Moses also,
but under a veil, which it may be hardly expedient to look
through at this stage of our investigation.

We have signified from the testimony of the adepts already',
though without particularizing, that light or sulphur, as they
call it, is the true form or seed of gold, and the concentering
virtue of their philosophic stone. Thus far, then, the theory
of the Hermetic 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 principle, that is to say, inthespecifi-
cative form by which it is intrinsically generated and made to
be that particular kind of grain and no other. Thus, 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 virtue in manifold
increase.

Ruricolse pingui mandant sua semina terra?,

Cum fuerit rostris haec foliata suis.
Philosophi niveos aurum docuere per agros

Spargere, qui folii se levis instar habent :
Hoc ut agas, illud bene respice, namque quod aurum

Germinet, ex tritico videris, ut speculo.

But the Alchemical art has been continually compared to
agriculture ; and the analogy, indeed, appears to bear through-
out so intimately as to suggest and, almost without deviation,
point out the method of its application. The body is gold, says
the author of the New Light, which yields seed, our lune or
silver, not common silver, is that which 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 thus the infant of the second generation is produced ; and
when the seed of that 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
this ultimate perfection, it must many times, therefore, suffer
itself to be eclipsed, and die and corrupt, as the adepts teach,
according to the similitude of nature ; yet, with this difference,

126 Exoteric View.

But when we marry the crowned king to our red
daughter, and in a gentle fire, not hurtful, she
doth conceive a son, conjoined and superior, in it,
and he lives by our fire.41 But when thou sh alt-
send forth fire upon the foliated sulphur, the
boundary of hearts doth enter in above it, let
it be washed from the same, and the refined matter
thereof be extracted. Then is he transformed,
and his tincture by help of the fire remains red,
as flesh. But our son, king-born, takes his tincture
from the fire, and death even and darkness, and
the waters flee away.4

42

that whereas the produce of common husbandry exhausts and
deteriorates rapidly the earth whence it springs, and is always
terminated in its kind without 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 before the final resurrection
of the Quintessence into a permanent form of life. — See the
Scholium ; Maieri Atalanta Fugiens Epigramma vi. ; Sendiv-
ogius, New Light, Treatise 9 and 10.

41 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, observes the scholiast, that the parents, who
were before the nurses and feeders again bv 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 conform-
able to the heavenly fire. But when we say, adds the adept,
that our stone generated by lire, men neither see nor do they
believe there is any other fire but the common 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 distinguish
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 nature, &c. — See the Scholium, Lumen de Lumine,
p. 58.

42 O happy gate of blackness, cries the sage, which art the
passage to this so glorious a change. Study, therefore, whoso-

The Golden Treatise. 127

The Dragon, who watches the crevices, shuns
the sunbeams, and our dead son will live ; the
king comes forth from the fire and rejoices in the
espousal ; the occult treasures will be laid open
and the virgin's milk whitened. The son, already
vivified, is become a warrior in the fire and over
the tincture super-eminent. For this son is
himself the treasury, even himself bearing the
Philosophic Matter.43

Approach, ye sons of Wisdom, and rejoice :
let us now rejoice together ; for the reign of death
is finished and the son doth rule, and now he is

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
ignorant of all. For putrefaction precedes the generation of
every new form into existence. It is the business of the
philosophic fire not only to vivify, but also to depurate and
segregate the heterogeneity of its vehiculum, which being done
there appears at length in the faeces, a most pure and rubicund
tincture of the colour of flesh and blood. And as flesh is
nothing but blood coagulated , abounding with a full and vigor-
ous 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 Scholium, and Ripley Revived,
5th Gate.

43 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
interchange 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 quintessential nature concentrated, as
it were personified, bearing in hand the golden light of life
to perpetuali se it universally. — See the Philosophical Epitaph
of W. C. title page, and Ripley Revived.

128 Exoteric View.

invested with the red garment, and the purple
is put on.44

SECTION FOURTH.

Understand ye Sons of Wisdom, the Stone
declares : Protect me, and I will protect thee ;
give me my own, that I may help thee.45

My Sol and my beams are most inward and
secretly in me. My own Luna, also, is my light,
exceeding every other 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 what
they ask about I make to know and understand
and to possess divine things.46

Behold, that which the philosophers have
concealed is written with seven letters : for Alpha
follows two, viz. : Yda and Liber ; and Sol, in

44 The internal light, once made manifest to sense, so far is
ready for the perscrutination of another life into which it must
be induced to enter, to suffer again, and die in order to trans-
mute the foul material into itself. Hermes proceeds, in the
next chapter, to describe the work, which, in principle,,
differs nothing from the foregoing but in the images and
delineation of phenomena only.

45 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.

46 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 again, will it not then probably
meet itself in a yet more profound 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 searchest
for wisdom as for hidden treasures ; then shalt thou under-
stand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
Proverbs ii. 4, 5. But we postpone the examination of this
mystical ground, suggesting so much only as, in proceeding,
we find requisite to elucidate the Hermetic mind.

The Golden Treatise. 129

like manner follows : nevertheless, if desirous
to have dominion to guard the Art, join the son
to Buba, which is Jupiter and a hidden secret.47

Hearers, understand : and then let us use our
judgment, for what I have written I have with
most subtle contemplation and investigation
demonstrated to you ; the whole matter I know
to be one only thing. But who is he that under-
stands the true investigation and inquires
rationally into this matter ? There is not from
man anything but what is like him ; nor from
the ox or bullock ; and if any creature conjoins
with one of another species, that which is brought
forth is like neither.48

Now saith Venus : I beget light, nor is the
darkness of my nature ; and if my metal were not
dry all bodies would desire me, for I liquify them
and wipe away their rust, and I extract their
substance. Nothing, therefore, is better or more
venerable than I and my brother being conjoined.

4»

47 The seven letters are taken to signify the necessary
phases through which the philosophic material passes in
order of colour and qualitative virtue ; 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 principles for the repro-
duction of light out of the whole.

48 The profound significance of the first monition to use our
reason may be better appreciated on inquiry ; for Hermes has
chosen to conceal the philosophic vessel. 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 there
it is coagulated ; and where metals grow, there they may be
found. — See Maria Practica, and the Scholium.

49 All here is to be understood etherially, according to the
principles before laid down. Venus personifies the central light
of nature, which is occultated in her generations, and in
metalline bodies is more especially bound on account of their

130 Exoteric View.

But the king, the ruler, his brethren attesting,
saith : I am crowned, and I am adorned with a
diadem ; I am clothed with the royal garment,
and I bring joy and gladness of heart ; for, being
chained to the arms and breast of my mother, and
to her substance, I cause my substance to keep
together ; and I compose the invisible from the
visible, making the occult matter to appear.
And everything which the philosophers have
hidden will be generated from us.50

Hear then these words, and understand them ;
keep them, and meditate thereon ; and seek for
nothing more : Man is generated from the prin-
ciple of Nature whose inward substance is fleshy,
and not from anything else. Meditate on this
letter and reject superfluities.51

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 thinks
perhaps his work is finished, 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 imperfect, alone, and transient, without the
masculine tincture to fix it in manifestation. Hence the fable
of Mars and Venus taken together by Vulcan, as will be
hereafter explained, in the last extremity of life. — See the
Scholium ; Freher's Analogy ; and Democritus, in Flammelli
^Summula.

50 By the king, the Rational 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 artficially constrained, lest it should
escape the fiery ordeal, returns, fastening, as Hermes says,
upon 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 intimate recess of life. —
See the Scholium ; Introitus Apertus, cap. viii.

51 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 nothing else. Man, it is said, was created of the
dust of the earth ; that is, interprets the adept, of the arising
quintessence of the universal nature ; but the understanding

The Golden Treatise. 131

Thus saith the philosopher : Botri is made from
the Citrine, which is extracted out of the Red, and
from nothing else ; and if it be citrine and nothing
else know it will be thy Wisdom. Be not concerned
if thou art not anxious to make extract from the
Red. Behold, I have written to the point, and if
ye understand I have all but opened the thing.52

Ye sons of Wisdom ! burn then the Brazen
Body with an exceeding great fire ; and it will
imbue you with the grace which ye seek. And
make that which is volatile so that it cannot fly
from that which flies not. And that which rests
upon the fire though itself a fiery flame, and that
which in the heat of the boiling fire is corrupted
is Cambar.53

has never reached us, who, without self-investigation, are
unable to perceive the reality of those things which are spoken
out of an experimental knowledge of Life.

52 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.

53 The self-willed hypostasis of nature must die, as we before
explained, in order to evolve her universal being ; and this also
must suffer and die necessarily in order to multiply the per-
fection of its first form. Thus, in his own operative language,
as it were pyrographicalty, does Democritus exemplify the
Hermetic process at this juncture, when the innate evil being
made manifest, 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 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 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 Summula ; and Freher's Analogy.

132 Exoteric View.

And know ye that the Art of this permanent
water is our brass, and the colouring of its tincture
and blackness is then changed into the true red.54

I declare before God, I have spoken nothing
but the truth. The destroyers are the renovators,
and hence the corruption is made manifest in
the matter to be renewed ; and hence the meliora-
tion will appear and each side is a signal of the
Art.55

SECTION FIFTH.

My son, that which is born of the crow is the
beginning of this Art. Behold, I have obscured
the matter treated of, by circumlocution, de-
priving it of light. I have termed this dissolved,
and this joined, this nearest I have termed furthest
off.56

54 By a conjunction with its own permanent prepared spirit,
the albified water is made red. Adonis ab apro occiditur, cui
Venus occurrens tinxit rosas sanguine. — See the Scholium ;.
Atalanta Fugiens, Emb. xli.

55 Thus, even as the Hermetic material is one the art is one ;
and the stone is also one mineral spirit, exalted by fermenta-
tion 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, creeping upon earth, assumes the
nature of a serpent, but being emersed in water, it represents
itself as a fish ; and presently being in air, and taking to iitelf
wings, it flies as a bird ; yet is, notwithstanding, One through-
out the multiformity of nature. With this the artist works,
and with it he transacts all the necessary operations of our
Stone.

56 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 everywhere adopted by the Alchemists ; the nature
of the process gves iroom for this, and our author set an
example, imitating the devious instinct of the spirit in his
illustrations.

The Golden Treatise. 133

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 it
becomes the Dragon eating his own wings and
destroying himself ; this being done, let it be put
in a furnace, which lute diligently, and observe
that none of the spirit vnzy escape. And know
that the periods of the earth are in the water which
is bound until you put the bath upon it.57

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 putrefaction ; the dark clouds which were
in it before it died in its own body will be changed.
This process being repeated, as I have described ;
it dies again as I said, thence it lives.58

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 in them. Being arrived then at this, that
which 3^e have been searching for is made apparent.
I have even related to thee the joyful signs, that
which doth fix its own body.

But these things, and how they attained to the
knowledge of this secret, are given by our ancestors
in figures and types : I have opened the riddle,
and the book of knowledge is revealed ; the hidden
things I have uncovered and have brought together

57 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 philosophic 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
*Sapieiitia?, or Hermetic seal, about which he gives particular
instructions, and how the orifices and junctures of the philo-
sophic vessel must be encircled, so that no breath may go
forth.

58 The cerebral, or superior life of the Spirit, is obscured
during the purification, and for the revealment of its true
mineral radix or source.

134 Exoteric View.

the scattered truths within their boundary, and
have conjoined many various forms, even I have
associated the Spirit. Take it as a gift of God.59

SECTION SIXTH.

It behoves us to give thanks to God, who
bestows liberally to the wise, who delivers us-
from misery and poverty. Along with the fulness
of his substance and his provable wonders I am
about to try and humbly pray God that whilst
we live we may come to him.60

Away then, 0 sons of Science, with unguents
extracted from fats, hair, verdigrease, tragacanth,
and bones, which are written in the books of
our fathers.61

59 In a scientific association of the Spirit the Hermetic Art
has been said summarily to coDsist —

Ut ventus qui flat est ille qui clat. — Qui capit ille sapit.

60 He who shall have received so much grace from the Father
of Lights, as to obtain in this life the inestimable gift of the
philosopher's stone ; who carries about with him, as the
Scholiast expresses it, even in his own breast, the treasury of
universal nature ; has need not 5nly to be grateful but to be
watchful oF~e very temptation, lest he should be drawn, even
unwittingly, to abuse it ; for he 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 into the single adoration
of the divine goodness ; for in this humble state, God only
is to be met with, as the law of reason proves in its ordinary
development, much more so in the awakening of its objective
light.

61 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 pre-
serve them perpetually from distemper and rust. The more
anything abounds with this balsam, the longer it lives and is
preserved from perishing. 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
hereditary, by propagation, restoring the sick to health and
integrity. — See the Scholium and Lucerna Salis towards the
end.

The Golden Treatise. 135

But concerning the ointments which contain
the tincture, coagulate the fugitive and adorn the
sulphurs, it behoves us to explain their disposition
more at large. It is the Form of all other unguents
in which is the occult and buried unguent, and of
which there appears to be no preparation. It
dwells in his own body, as fire in trees and stones,
which by most subtle art and ingenuity it behoves
us to extract without combustion.62

And know that the Heaven is joined mediately
with the Earth ; but the middle nature, which is ^
the Water, is a Form along with the Heaven and
the Earth. Bub the water holds of all the first
place which goes forth from the Stone ; the second
is gold ; but the third is our almost or medial
gold which is more noble than the water with the
faeces.63

But in these are the smoke, the blackness, and
the death. It behoves us, therefore, to drive awa}^
the vapour from the water, the blackness from the

62 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.

63 The two invisible poles of the Spirit are here especially
signalised 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, communicatmi!
its tincture ; 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, essentialised in its proper vehicle or under-
standing 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 Salis, &c.

[■

136 Exoteric View.

unguent, and death from the faeces, and this by
dissolution. Which being done we have the
sovereign philosophy and secret of all hidden
things.64

SECTION SEVENTH.

Know ye then, 0 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 corrupt nor che 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, therefore the philo-
sophers have preferred and magnified it, saying
that this gold, in relation of other bodies, is as
the sun amongst the stars, more splendid by his
light ; and as, by the will of God, every vegetable
and all the fruits of the earth are perfected through
it, so gold, which is the ferment Ixir, vivifies and
contains every metallic body.65

64 By an artificial dissolution of the vital bond, by means
of Alchemy, 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 into such a science of nature as the ancients propose.

65 The gold of the philosophers, or living gold, as they some-
times call their luminous concrete, is here alluded to through-
out ; 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 itself. But as the solar luminary is the medium 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 aurific 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 philosopher's gold are manifold, when
applied to external nature, restoring her energies, and con-
verting her circumferential manifestations into their central
whole conditionedly, yet these things are not so much denoted
of the paragraph which refers to the spontaneous operations
in the divine Law in life.

The Golden Treatise. 137

For as dough, without a ferment, cannot be
fermented, so when thou hast sublimed the body
and purified it, separating the uncleanness from
the faeces, thou wilt then conjoin and mix them
together, and put in them the ferment confecting
the earth with the water until the Ixir ferment
even as dough ferments. Think of this, meditate
and see how the ferment in this case doth change
the former natures to another thing : observe,
also, that how there is no ferment otherwise than
from a kindred nature.66

Observe, moreover, that the ferment whitens
the confection and hinders it from combustion,
and holds the tincture lest it should fly, and
rejoices the bodies, and makes them intimately
to be joined and to enter one into another, and
this is the Key of the philosophers and the end
of their works ; and by this science bodies are
meliorated and the operation of them, God assist-
ing, is consummated.67

66 This is a very favourite analogy with the alchemists, and
eminently suggestive ; Hermes, therefore, advises us to medi-
tate here, that we msiy imbibe the principle of perfecting
in our understanding 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 Valentine's Chariot of Antimony throughout, and the
Stone of Fire.

67 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 mountains, grind it fresh when it is
arrived at its determined hour, for in 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 soul 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,

138 Exoteric View.

But, through negligence and a false opinion
in the matter, the operation is perverted, as bad
leaven on the dough, or curds for cheese, and
musk among aromatics.68

The colour of the golden matter points to
redness, and the nature thereof is not sweetness ;
therefore we make of them Sericum, i.e., Ixir ; and
of them we make the encaustic of which we have
written, and with the king's seal we tinge the
clay, and in that have set the colour of heaven
which augments the sight of them that see it.69

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 further required but to maintain a moderate fire ;
after which it is wonderful to see how, in less than an hour,
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 wild 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.

68 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 master, therefore, needs not further illus-
trating .

69 The apparition of the new light to the outward qualifica-
tions of the spirit is not welcome or sweet at first, but causes a
terrification of the whole circumferential life. The wrathfulness
is mightily exasperated by this appearance of love, says the
theosophist, 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 pestilence to hell ; for the wrathful
properties are terrified at this entering of love into them, which
is contrary to their quality, and renders them weak and

The Golden Treatise. 139

The Stone, therefore, is the most precious gold
without spots — evenly tempered, which neither
fire, nor air, nor water, nor earth is able to corrupt ;
the Universal Ferment rectifying all things by its
composition, which is of the yellow or true citrine
colour.70

The gold of the wise, concocted and well
digested, with the fiery water, makes Ixir ; for
the gold of the wise is more heavy than lead,
which, in a temperate composition is the ferment

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 great Law of Light or univer-
sal reason, which is finally impressed upon the regenerated
vitality of nature.

70 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 nature 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 accustomed to produce :
and, by its means, crystals may be transformed into precious
gems. But, if the intention be to change metals into gold, it is
requisite they should be first fermented with the most pure
gold ; for otherwise the imperfect metals would not be able
to support its too great and supreme subtility ; but there
would ensue loss and damage in the projection. The imperfect
metals, also, ought to be purified, if any one will draw profit
therefrom. One drachm of gold is sufficient for the fermenta-
tion in the Red, and one of silver for the fermentation in the
White ; 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 prepared, then the tinging virtue will
be augmented each time by ten degrees perfection which may
be reiterated at will. — See Lucerna Salis, Khunrath Amphi-
theat. circa finem.

140 Exoteric View.

Ixir, and, contrariwise, becomes distempered by
an equal composition.

For the work begins from the vegetable, next
from the animal, as in the egg of the hen, in which
is the great support ; and our earth is gold, of all
which we make seriacum, which is the ferment
Ixir.71

71 The seven chapters of the Golden Treatise are here con-
cluded ; which are a fair example of the Alchemical writings
in general, and less sophistical than many, which may be
considered perhaps as a small recommendation of the rest.
For, although the discourse 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 philosophic vessel,
with the whole apparatus for working the Spirit to perfection,
is wrapped up under an ambiguous disguise. It is impossible
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 advan-
tageous, becomes burdensome in this inquiry, occasioning a
difficulty of discretion 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
will there be found of a mind ready to exert itself about the
traditional report of bygone wisdom. We had not ourselves,
thus singly without modern precedent, ventured within the
confines of this magic wild, but for the theoretic promise of
possibility held out ; having observed also much of the do©-
trines and tangled enigmas to unfold and arrange themselves
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
Tsis who is alone able to gather them together into the beauty
and perfection of their original form.