CHAPTER II.

Of the Philosophic or Subtle Work.

Omnia in omnibus primum, omni Tertio tradiclit (ex omni
primo sec undo) omnia in omnibus primum secundum, ut inde
omnia in omnibus, et omnia, catholice, agnosceret, eognos-
ceret ac possideret. — Enigma Khunrath, Amph. Sap.

AS there are three reigns or grand distinctive
distributions of the kingdoms of Nature,
so we are informed that in the Philosophic Work,
preceding her, there is a threefold order of legiti-
mate operation and a relation of Causal sequences
which merits especial note. For these three opera-
tions, which are in fact so mairy degrees through
which the Spirit passes from conception to mani-
festation, 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 dis-
covered to the profane. And shall we, who have
hitherto presumed so far on their indifference as to
break the preliminary signets and unloose so man}^
covertures of occult learning, more audacious still,
approach those final cerements unannealed, and
with a full discovering hand expose before all indis-
criminately 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 unworthy 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

482 Hermetic Practice.

a track in 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. Besides 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 confusion
of the Hermetic doctrine has doubtless checked
many aspirants ; some in the beginning, others
in the middle of their philosophic career, have been
disappointed ; many even with a perfect know-
ledge of the preliminary work, and having the
true Matter in Hand also and means of purification,
are said to have faltered in defect of the ultimate
theor}^ whereon to proceed ; some, even when
they understood this, having already approached
through much labour and contemplation towards
the end of their journey, having the Final Purpose
also in mind, have 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 chil-
dren ; on the other, it requires in those who search
for the Truth a profound knowledge of the princi-
ples and of the operations of Nature in the Three
Kinds : Thus Norton says —

Greate neede hath he to be a clerke
That would discerne this Subtill Werke :
He must know hys first fliosophie,
If he trust to come by Alkimie.

The Subtle Work. 483

It is a great point to find out the True Matter and
proper Subject of this work ; even for this we must
pierce through a thousand obscure veils wherewith
it has been overspread : we must distinguish it by
its proper idea and name, among a million of
pseudonymes and abstruse appellations, whereby
the Adepts have chosen to express it : we must
learn to understand the properties of it, in order
to judge of the possibility of the miracles alleged ;
and before we can imagine into the abstruse
Original of Nature, we must reflect profoundly and
patiently, in order to discriminate 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 revolu-
tionary course. We must learn further how to con-
vert 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
Elements, 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 Mercury and nourish it with
its own blood, to the end that it may be converted
into the fixed Sulphur, which is the Stone of
Philosophers.

These are the fixed principles of the Hermetic
Art, in which there is no variableness but in their
discovery, which, having already discussed, we
proceed to redeem our promise of a more subtle
application to practice ; and this, without incur-
ring too great a responsibility on ourselves, may
we trust be intelligibly conceived from such suc-
ceeding evidence as it is expedient only to afford.

WTe read, in the Egyptian Fable of Isis and
Osiris, that they were sister and brother, and being

484 Hermetic Practice.

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 body into pieces and scat-
tered his members to the four 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 from 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,
Plutarch, with the Adepts also being witnesses, is
profoundly couched not only the principiating
action of Intellect but the methodical art of the
same subtle Antecedent to bring itself, by beget-
ting 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 fourfold respect, one of which they assert to
be essence, 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 motion is derived ; and The Fourth
is a cause opposite to this, viz., that for the sake
of which the inquiry subsists, and the Good which
is the end of generation.1

Hence, referring this Peripatetic scheme of
investigation to the art of Wisdom for realisation,
we may conceive the whole intellectual relation-
ship ; 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 Being of Thought, Will, and Under-
standing, which, resting in the sole vision of its
1 See Aristotle's Metaphj7sics3 book i.

The Subtle Work. 485

only begotten perfection, desires not to surpass
itself ; but, perceiving itself indeed to be the
Final Object of its own First Cause, is good, accord-
ing to the words of the Stagyrite, and the end of
spiritual generation.

These, then, are the universal principles which
it has sometimes been deemed expedient in prac-
tice to represent, and these are their several
relations :

Primus dicatur in quo sensus dominatur.
Sensibus sequato 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,2
lest one should put out the other, or that this
should stifle that: over all which the Fourth,
partaking of the aerial fiery element, supervenes
for the accomplishment of the work. And, as
respects the Vessels, the First indeed may be
considered to be opaque, the Second less so, and
the Third still less so. This last containing truly
Him who is to be born ; and 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 van-
quished, the lawful empire is resumed. — Triuna
universalis essentia, quae Jehovah appellatur 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.3

2 Maieri Symbola Aurese Mensse, p. 256.

:j Aquarium Sapientum in Mus. Herm. p. 112.

486 Hermetic Practice.

Hence the Divine Monarchy consists, and is
established ; the primary principles whereof, as
here announced, are in their representation fami-
liar ; 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 Elijah, the
prophet, before the coming of the Great and terrible
Day of the Lord, and he shall turn the hearts of
the Fathers unto the Children, and the hearts of
the Children to their Fathers, lest I come and strike
the earth with a curse.4 But, say the Adepts,
Natus est jam Elias Artista :5 Elias, the artist, is
born already ; and this is he that was appointed a
forerunner, baptizing with the water unto repent-
ance, who has foreshown all things in his appar-
ition to the wise, whose birth is miraculous in the
hypostatic transfiguration, and prior to the Divine
Light,

Whom to seeke it availeth right nought,

Till the white medicine be fully wrought.

Alsoe both medicins in their beginninge

Have one manner of vessel and workinge,

As well for the White as also for the Red,

Till all quick things be made dead ;

When vessels and forme of operation

Shall chaunge in matter, figure and graduation.

But my herte quake th, my hand is tremblinge,

When I write of this most selcouth thinge.

Hermes brought forth a true sentence and blounte.

When he said, Ignis et Azoth tibi sufficiunt.*

It will be unnecessary now to remind the atten-
tive reader of what 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 Mason, of Grand Architects, as the
Brethren have it, to erect structures in the air. The
task is too onerous for inferior craftsmen. It is

4 Malachi, iv. 5, 6.

5 Introit. Apertus, cap. xiii

6 Norton's Ordinal, cap. v.

The Subtle Work. 487

the part of Mind alone to represent herself in this
way by her own reflective energy, to embody the
ethereal Image, and chisel it out in Light. — O
blessed watery Form ! that dissolvest the Ele-
ments ! 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 dis-
solved, it is the Key of the Restoration. And when
thou shalt pour forth thy Fire upon the Foliated
Sulphur, continues the Master, the boundary of
hearts {i.e., the Final Cause) does enter in above it,
and is washed in the same, and the mortal matter
thereof is extracted. Then is he transformed in
his tincture. Our 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
lives. 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 super-excellent.
For this Son is the treasury, bearing even (in his
hand) the Philosophic Matter.7 — Now then bring
ye gifts of salutation to the Rain ; that, not being
withholden, 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
capable 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
7 Tract atus Aureus , cap. ii.

488 Hermetic Practice.

Lord of Spirits.8 — Behold, I will send my Messenger
and he shall prepare the way before me : and the
Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly 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 appeareth ?
For he is like a Refiner's Fire, and like fullers' 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 the}^ may offer unto
the Lord an offering in righteousness.9

This was He whom the Patriarchs and Hebrew
prophets looked for, and the Ethnic philosophers, in
anticipation, adored ; who in the sacred humanity
of Jesus Christ was at last made manifest ; whom
the Apostles and early Christian Fathers, Saints,
and Martyrs testify of, and with understanding
worshipped ; even — That which was from the
Beginning, which they had heard, and seen with
their eyes, which they had looked upon, and their
hands had handled, of the Word of Life ; for the
Life was made manifest, and they had seen it,
and bear witness, and shew unto us that Eternal
Life, which was with the Father, and was mani-
fested unto them.10 And now also the axe is laid
unto the root of the trees : therefore every tree
which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down,
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 I am not worthy
to bear : He shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost and with Fire : Whose fan is in his Hand,
and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather
his wheat into the garner ; but the chaff he will
burn up with unquenchable fire.11

8 Book of Enoch, xcix.

9 Malachi, iii., 1, 2, 3? 4.

10 First Epist. Gen. St. John i. St. Paul to the Hebrews i.

11 St. Matthew, iii., 10, &c.

The Subtle Work. 489

0 mysteries truly sacred ! exclaims the Bishop
of Alexandria in holy transport, 0 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 who is the Hierophania. He
sets his seal upon the Adept, whom he illuminates
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 received.12

Thus the Mysteries of Antiquity changed their
form only to appear more resplendent when
Christianity came to be the prevailing religion ;
when baptismal regeneration was an effectual
rite, and the Eucharist a true consummation ;
when Faith, by humiliation under the exemplar
cross of Christ, brought Him forth anew in each
regenerate life, identically perfect in all things,
immortal, and transcending every precedent
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 upholding 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.13

Meditate, therefore, says the Theosophist, and
study theosophically to reduce the Ternary by the
Quaternary, through the rejection of the Binary,
to the simplicity of the Monad ; that thy body,
soul, and spirit be gathered to rest in the name of
Jesus.14 Learn to unite the Principles of our Chaos

12 Clemens Alexandrinus. See De Septchenes, Relig. of the
Greeks, chap. ii.

13 St. Paul to the Hebrews, i. 1, &c.

u Khunrath Amp. Sap. Etern. in medio.

490 Hermetic Practice.

to a new Life, and they will be regenerated by
Water and the Spirit. These two are in all things,
and each has in himself, as Trismegistus says, the
seed of his own regeneration.15 Proceed then
patiently but not manually. The work is performed
by an invisible Artist ; for there is a secret incuba-
tion 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
constitution. Does any one think this impossible !
further inquires 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 Septenary is the true
Sabaoth, the rest of God, into which the creature
shall enter. This is the best and plainest manu-
duction that I can give }^ou : in a word, Salvation
is nothing else but a Transmutation16 — of the
component principles of life in the circulation.
And this is the true metempsychosis which has been
the source of many errors in the common accept-
ancy ; but which, in the Ancient Schools of
Divinity, signified neither more nor less than a
transmigrating of the human Identity out of this
animal terrene existence through the ethereal
elements of its original formation. These elements
are the universal fundamentals of nature ; but
in the human form alone are found to attain to
that supremacy of Reason which re-enters to its
First Cause ; when, by a Triplicate growth of
Light in the Understanding, becoming consciously
allied, It emanates a Fourth Form, truthful, god-

15 See the Divine Psemander, Sermon on the Mount of
Regeneration.

16 Lumen cle Lumine, p. 92.

The Subtle Work. 491

like, being the express image of its motive
magically portrayed.

The True Light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world,17 in the Saviour was per-
fected ; one ray of which, intrinsically permeating, is
able to cleanse this leprous life of ours, and convert
it to the virtue and perfect potency of its Whole.

And whosoever in &ny 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 ordi-
nance, and against himself ; 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 increase. The rule of Wisdom, in the verification
of her Light, is absolute, and though intermediates
apply themselves naturally for the generation,
they are rejected in the accomplishment ; as it
is explained — Non fit ad monadis simplicitatem
reductio, nisi rejiciatur binarius, non enim cum
Jehovah unio nisi prius a teipso devitatio et tui
abnegatio. — For as the absolute Identification in
theory is not conceived but by self- ablation 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 imme-
diately to bring forth, an imperfect offspring would
result, and discordant by predominance of either
generating extreme, as in this life is manifest ;
but by carrying the circulation upward through a
Third principle for reprobation, it is rectified,
overcome in its proper volition, and dying (if the
divine rule be thenceforth followed), is raised
again by reversion, and through a diligent analysis
passing, as it were, from heaven to earth and from
17 St John's Gospel, i. v. 9.

492 Hermetic Practice.

earth to heaven, it receives the strength of
superiors and of inferiors, to make manifest the
Flower of Intellect retrospectively to its Arche-
typal Source, according to the Hermetic Riddle :

Omnia in omnibus primum, omni Tertio tradidit, ex
omni primo secundo, omnia in omnibus primum secundum,
ut inde omnia i^: omnibus, et omnia catholice agnosceret,
cognosceret ac possideret.

The First all things in all gave the First Second all
things in all, from the all in the flrst second to the
Third all ; that he might discover, know, and possess
all things universally.

And this, it would seem, is the Catholic Art of

Reason investigating her First Source, which the

Chaldaic oracle no less orderly pursues.

Where the Paternal Monad is ?

The Monad is enlarged which generates Two,

For the Duacl 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 all sections :
For the mind of the Father said that all things be cut into

Three — Whose will assented ; and then all things were

divided.
And there appeared in it (the Triad) Virtue, Wisdom, and

multiscient Verity :
This way floweth the form of the Triad, being pre-existent,

not the First (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 which cherisheth the Earth in Fire ;
And Fountain of all Fountains,
The Matrix containing all things, 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.18

Such is the recreant progress of mind, ascending
and descending throughout life, for the investi-
gation of its manifold resources and powers ;

18 Chaldaic Oracles, i.

The Subtle Work. 493

where there is an exact machinery to be observed,
a method which, though simple, is difficult for
common sense to conceive 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 separated principles
of Will and Understanding in their 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 Eirenaeus, which can calcine
gold. This centre turns naturally towards the Pole
where the virtue of the steel is gradually strength-
ened. In this Pole is the heart of the Mercurv,
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
rejoice, 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 extrava-
sated and bearing the notable Sign of Omni-
potence. 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 Beginning 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 ma}7 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
everlasting honour.19

Maria sonat breviter quod taJia tonat,
Gummis cum birds fugitivum figit in imis,

19 See Introitus Apertus, cap. iv. : Genesis, chap. i.

494 Hermetic Practice.

i 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.20

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 con-
ception, the Spirit goes on to increase and multiply
its hidden light outwardly, 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 essen-
tial, 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
marvellous 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 won-
derfully 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.21 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, Telemachus
thus immediately addresses his Father : 0 Father !
this is certainly a most admirable thing which

20 Maria Practica, &c. ; Ars Aurifera, vol. ii. p. 208.

21 Cap. i.

The Subtle Work. 495

presents itself to my eyes. For the walls of the
House, the beautiful spaces between the rafters,
the fir beams, and the columns appear to rise in
radiance as if on fire. Certainly some one of the
gods is present who inhabit the extended heaven.
But the wise Ulysses thus answered him : — Be
gilent, repress your intellect, and do not speak.
For this is the custom of the gods in Olympus.22
Homer, therefore, in common with the philo-
sophers of his age, indicates that for the proper
reception of divinity, quietude and a cessation of
mental energy are becoming and necessary to the
consummating knowiedge of the First Cause. —
And the knowledge of it, says Trismegistus, is a
most Divine Silence, and a rest of all the senses ;
for neither can he that understands That under-
stand anything else, nor he that sees That see
anything else, nor in sum move the bod}^. 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 before 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,

22 Odyssey, book xix.

496 Hermetic Practice.

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 white Worke make fortunate the Moone,

For the Lord of the Fourth House likewise be it done ;

For that is Thesaurum absconditum 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 Mover of the or be is for mall,

The virtue of the eight sphere is here instrumental!,

With her signs and figures and parts aspectuall,

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 finde ;

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.23

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 simple 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 England. But I hope not
by this discourse to demolish any man's castles ;
for why should they despair when I contribute
to their building ?24

Our 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 —

23 Norton's Ordinal, chap. vi.

24 See Vaughan's Lumen de Lumine.

The Subtle Work. 497

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 Moon 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 Maistery.25

Which magistery is a fiery form of Light inspis-
sate, made manifest by a triple introversion and
multiplication of the hypostatic unit by the circu-
latory medium throughout life.

Already see the laurel branches wave !

Hark ! sounds tumultuous shake the trembling cave.

Far, ye profane, far off with 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.

Burst ope ye Bars ! ye Gates, your Heads expand,

He comes ! The God of light, the God's at hand.

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,

We 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.26

Fit thy roof to thy God in all thou canst, con-
tinues the philosopher, and in what thou canst not
he will help thee ; thou must prepare thyself till
thou art conformable to Him whom thou wouldest
entertain, and that in every way of similitude.

25 Theatrum Chemicum Brit. ; Conclusion of Bloomfield's
Camp of Philosophy.

26 Callimachus' Hymn to Apollo, by Dodd.

498 Hermetic Practice.

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 illumina-
tion— Eritque in te cum Lumine, Ignis ; cum
Igne, Ventus ; cum Vento, Potestas ; cum Potest-
ate, Scientia ; cum Scientia, sana3 mentis inte-
gritas.27 — And then it is requisite to believe that
we have seen Him, says Plotinus, 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, like another Divinity
entering the house of some one who invokes 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.28. But when illuminated, it has That which
is sought for ; and the Thought and understanding
are in the experience One.

Nec Sentire Deum nisi qui pars ipse Dei sit.

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 Scriptures everywhere testify
of, and the Smaragdine Table yet lives summarily
instructing us to reprove.

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.

27 Anima Magia Abscond, page 47, &c.

28 Piotinus's Select Works, Taylor, p. 453.

The Subtle Work. 499

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. tlie power 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 j and re-
ceives the strength of the superiors and of the infe-
riors, so thou hast the glory of the whole world i
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-
tations, of which this is the manner. therefore am i
called Thrice Great Hermes, having the three parts
of the philosophy of the whole world. that which i
have spoken is consummated concerning the operation
OF THE Sun.

The six following ' Keys," delivered into the
safe hand of the intelligent inquirer (since they
will be useful 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 wilful reservation of an import-
ant link in the application of these principles to
practice, lest any attempting to realize without a
full investigation of the method, should fail
utterly in the pursuit.

500