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UNIVERSITE LIBRE DES HAUTES ETUDES DE PARIS. (Faculté des Sciences Hermétiques). BRANCH SCHOOL OF NORTH AMERICA.

Mie

TREATISE

ON

Che Great rt,

A SYSTEM OF PHYSICS ACCORDING TO HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THE MAGISTERIUM.

BY

Dom ANTOINE-JOSEPH PERNETY,

Benedictine Monk of the Congregation of Saint-Maur, Abbot of Burgel in Thuringe, Librarian of Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, etc.

EDITED BY

EDOUARD BLITZ, M.D.,

Doctor in Kabbalah, Doctor in Hermetic Sciences, Member of the ‘‘ ASSOCIATION ALCHIMIQUE DE FRANCE’’; President of the Grand Council of the MARTINIST ORDER, etc.

BOSTON: OcCULT PUBLISHING COMPANY.

1898.

W.W. HARMON

Preface.

NDER the auspices of the “Unzverszté Libre des

Hautes Etudes’? of Paris, a Branch of which has recently been established in America, we publish the first volume of a series of classical works whose study constitutes the foundation of the teaching of the “ Faculté des Sciences Flermétiques.”

It is not without reason that we have chosen Pernety to inaugurate this series. Of the three thousand volumes composing the bibliography of ALcHEmy, those of Dom Antoine-Joseph Pernety are the only ones in which the theories of the Artificers are exposed with method: he is the first and only writer who has endeavored to present a short, concise and complete system of the Magnum Opus.

Those valiant defenders of the mystic Faith, to whom we are indebted for the present universal awakening of Ideal- ism, have not failed to recognize the important réle which Hermetic Philosophers have played in the preservation and transmission of the sacred tradition regarding the rapports existing between God, Man and Nature. Unhappily they have found themselves face to face with the Sphinx, unable to solve the enigma; they have lost their way in the inextricable labyrinth of apparently contradictory symbols

Preface.

and signs, and in the darkness of their ignorance, they have been incapable of distinguishing Truth from the rubbish that surrounds it, or of separating pure physical facts from mere mystical speculations. Having a vague intuition that Hermetism was not solely concerned with the transmutation of metals, but also with the spiritual emancipation of Man, they have profited by a few analogies which presented them- selves, and have created a mystical Alchemy in which the inner man is the exclusive subject. But while such interpre- tation may, in many instances, be applied to alchemical symbolism, and while we may believe that in this we follow the traditions of the Rosicrucians (who founded a system in which Alchemy and Kabbalah were indissolubly blended), modern commentators, borrowing the jargon of the Alche- mists — who are never more obscure than when they appear to express themselves plainly *— have drawn analogies which a mere acquaintance with the fundamental principles of Physical Alchemy would suffice to cause to be rejected as utterly devoid of appropriateness.

Rosicrucians were indeed mystics, but their studies were above all of a purely physical and experimental character; their association of mysticism and chemistry was founded upon analogies the truth of which could be demonstrated zz the laboratory and duly verified by the physical senses. No metaphysical proposition was accepted by them which could not be fully confirmed by scientific demonstrations, accord- ‘ing to the practice of Roger Bacon, the father of the experimental method.

Alchemists acquired the knowledge of Divine operations by the study of human arts and the observation of natural

*The Thesaurus Philosophie testifies that the plain speaking of the philosophers is completely illusory, and that it is only in their incomprehensible profundities that we must seek the light of Hermes.— Barrett’s Lives of Alchemystical Philoso- phers, edited by Arthur Edward Waite, London, 1888, page 93,

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Preface.

phenomena. Hermetism begins with the study of the operations of Nature, and ends with the knowledge of the Divine Principle. None, however, must hope to behold the secret Sun of this Royal Art while he remains in darkness regarding the fundamental principles of physical Hermetism, or Alchemy.

The Spagyric Art is a dead science; it has long since uttered its last word; nothing remains but a few tracts, fragments of its outer vestment, and a multitude of worth- less lucubrations by pseudo-adepts; the secret is lost, for future generations to recover; but, in order to be freed from the trouble of ransacking dusty old books and manuscripts, and of reconstituting, word after word, this science in its integrity by patient research; in order to avoid the tedious work of deciphering the hieroglyphic pentacles and of restor- ing the secret meaning of the mutilated tracts of the Masters which have reached us through the centuries, one is not permitted to zzvent a new Hermetism, to enlarge it, or to attribute to it a signification which, most probably, it never had. Hermetism is what it is, and we must accept its teachings for what they are worth, without trying to recon- cile them with the assertions of modern science, or to give to them any signification that may suggest itself.

Hermetic Philosophy has long since been rejected by the School, and scientific means of investigation are here of no practical use, even XI Xth century chemistry offers no clue; for the ideas of the Spagyric Art are absolutely the antithe- sis of those of official chemistry. The student must make use of other means; but let him guard against preconceived ideas, against his ardent desire to verify, in the obscure symbols of medizval Artists, his own suppositions. Let him remember that Symbols prove everything, and that the signs chosen to defend the affirmative of any proposition,

Preface.

may also be used successfully in demonstrating the negative of the same proposition; symbols are the expression of the Absolute which is neither positive or negative, but positive and negative, according to the point of view from which one judges.

Thus, in order to distinguish the right way, “ which leads to the Elysian Fields,” from that ‘“ which borders Tartarus,” the assistance of a trusty guide is indispensable. Unfortu- nately such guides are few, and if, perchance, one is found, the student, ninety-nine times in a hundred, far from being willing to follow in silence, prefers to choose his own way If the student depends upon his supposed willingness to obey his Initiator, let him shut this book and renounce his plan of lifting the veil which covers the arcana of Hermetic Philosophy, for unprepared as he surely is, he will either fall a victim to impostors, or fail to acknowledge with gratitude the heavenly gift of a Mentor.

There is but ove method whereby one may succeed without a Master in reconstituting, in its completeness, the Lost Science, and this method which we take pleasure in revealing, as plainly as possible, is infallible in its results. It consti- tutes the most potent operation of the Avs Magica: the EvocaTtion. We shall describe it under its general aspect, referring the Reader to the special works on Transcendental Magic for full details:

Evocation consists in causing departed spirits to manifest their presence before the Conjuror. But as spirits can only appear immaterially—and as zufluences rather than zndi- viduals —it goes without saying that these beings cannot manifest themselves in tangible form, (susceptible of being photographed), unless appeal is made to our own semi- material, semi-spiritual principle, to our Astral Body; this, however, constitutes the Great Operation to which it is

Preface.

neither necessary nor advisable to have recourse, so much the more that the Evocation, such as we recommend, differs from the Great Operation in that it is of longer duration, practically permanent; whilst the latter is depend- ent upon the powers of the Conjuror; moreover the Great Operation is possible only for the Initiate in Theurgy, whilst the simple Evocation, as here described, can be performed with success by any one who possesses the pass-words of the First Degree of Initiation: PATIENCE and WILL-PowER.

The Evocation, or Operation of the lesser Mysteries, con- sists in recreating the atmosphere in which the departed lived while on earth. It is therefore important that the choice of an invisible Master be made znzelligently from the long list of Hermetic Philosophers. The Operator must know the biography of that Master and obtain a correct impression of his exterior appearance; he must know the history of the time in which that Master lived, the geography of the country in which he resided, the topography of his city, the plan of his house, the disposition of his laboratory. Helping himself by whatever informations books, monuments or tradition can furnish, the Neophyte will assemble and classify every detail concerning the home-life, customs, daily vocations, etc., so as to reconstitute, in the imaginative world, the life of the selected Guide. Place him amidst his disciples, either in his laboratory or at the amphitheatre of the school where he taught; gather all the works most probably known and studied by him, read and re-read them; write from memory the very works of that Master, especially his most obscure passages, for the soul of a writer can always be found in his words, ready to convey the true interpretation to the one eager to discover it. Collect objects contemporaneous to that Master, especially books, instruments and works of art. All this constitutes the restoration of the most material

Preface.

part of the atmosphere that will serve as the vehicle for the true magnetic force which shall be the bond uniting the soul, or influence, of the invisible Master to that of the Conjuror. This true magnetic fluid must be established between the mind of the Operator, which now is active, and that of the Master, which is passive; when the rapports are at last established, the mind of the Guide becomes the positive pole and that of the initiate the negative pole of this intellectual battery. To generate the magnetic fluid the student must place his intellect on the same level as that of his chosen Preceptor: he must learn to know and to zgnore that which the Master knew and ignored; he must believe that which the invisible believed, when on earth, whether modern science accepts or rejects these beliefs; he must think over the same thoughts of the Master, speak his own words, use the same expressions, recite the same prayers, practice the same religion, acquire the same habits, perform the same acts of virtue, live the same life; in a word, he must place the heart and the mind in a thoroughly sympathetic condition, in a perfect unison with the heart and mind of his Mentor, so as to attract the latter into his own atmosphere again, of which he will become the intellectual center, as formerly ; he will zzcarnate himself in his disciple whose mind, now a plastic clay, will acquire in its highest degree the faculty of receptzvity, and will become susceptible of receiving the least impressions from the outer world. The Influence of the being thus evoked, thus brought back into the world by an irresistible magnetism, will then unite with the Operator and continue, through the latter’s instrumentality, the work which death interrupted. It is thus that Hans de Biilow, who lived among the souvenirs, the works and the relics of Beethoven, consecrating his entire life to the study of this Master, succeeded in giving that traditional expression

Preface.

established by the composer for the interpretation of his Sonatas and Symphonies.

In order to really possess a Master and perform his works as the author himself imagined them, we must prepare within ourselves a temple fit to receive him; we must place all our mental faculties under his control, we must become a docile instrument into his hands. But, by the law of reaction, this complete submission on our part soon becomes the manifestation of our absolute independence, of our absolute intellectual freedom.

This is the course which we recommend to all our students, and it is to instruct them concerning the scientific opinions of the Hermetic Philosophers that we publish this work of dom Pernety. The opinions herein expressed may not be in accordance with the teaching of scholastic knowledge, but we do not present this work as a substitute for classical Physics and Chemistry. The theories exposed by Pernety were those of the Alchemists! For the mystic, for the seeker of the Universal Panacea, or Philosopher’s Stone, the science described in this Treatise is all that is required; nay, it is the sole one to be accepted, regardless of its differences from the results of modern investigation which, for our purpose, are utterly worthless. Just as it is indispensable for the pupils of Edison and Tesla to base their studies upon the latest works on Natural Philosophy, however erroneous the science of to-morrow may prove them to be; it is indispensable, for those who do not recognize the impossibility of transmuting metals, to base their investiga- tions upon the science which was sufficient to Arnaud de

Villeneuve, Nicolas Flamel and Paracelsus.*

*The lamented Grand Master of the Rose Croix Kabbalistique, Stanislas de Guaita, wrote in his last work: The composition of gold is possible, since Nature composes gold in the bowels of the earth. M. E. Varenne said in 1886: “ Compress hydrogen to two hundred thousand atmospheres and you will obtain an ingot of pure gold,” (quoted by Jules Lermina.) The secretof the Transmutation

Preface.

The present work which we have entitled TREATISE ON THE GREAT ART is composed of the introductory remarks preceding the principal works on Alchemy of the savant dom Pernety, especially his “ Fables Egyptiennes et Grecques dévotlées et réduttes au méme principe”, (& Paris, chez Bauche, 2 volumes, in-12, 1758). This work is almost the sole source from which modern expounders of Alchemy have derived their informations, forgetting, of course, to give due credit to this author, excluding his works from the bibliographical lists terminating their compilations and even going so far, in some instances, as to mutilate his name, when compelled to quote extensively from his works. The publication of this TREATISE constitutes as much a work of justice and restitu- tion to the learned French monk, as an effort to contribute to the renaissance of a Science containing within itself the germs of the most important and unexpected discoveries and offering a sure guide in the maze of obscure symbols of this most obscure of all Occult Sciences.

Antoine-Joseph Pernety was born in Roanne, France, in 1716; and died at Valence (Dauphiné), in 1801. At an early age he joined the Benedictine Congregation of Saint-Maur and there devoted his life to these patient studies for which Bene- dictine monks are justly famous; he published numerous works on theology and fine arts, geography and mythology, philosophy and mathematics, but he became celebrated for his researches in the realm of the hidden Sciences. His explorations into forgotten lore led him to the creation of the “ Académie a’ Avignon,’ a sect of [lluminatt whose

has been lost, but many other secrets of less importance have also been lost. Such are the indelible colours of Egypt and the violin varnish of the luthiers of Cremona, which modern chemistry, with all its progress, is unable toanalyze. There cannot be the least doubt that the chemical elements of school-chemistry will soon be decomposed in simpler elements till the unity of matter, the protyle of Crookes,

the chemical absolute which our forefathers knew so well, will be finally found. E. B.

Preface.

influence in Freemasonry has long been felt: the most famous, if not the most important, degree introduced in the Masonic nomenclature by Pernety is the Twenty-eighth of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, known as Knight of the Sun, or Prince Adept; anda considerable part of his rite is still preserved in other masonic systems, such as the Martinist Order.

The work which we present to the public is the result of a comparative study of the writings of the Spagyric Philoso- phers of all times, schools and nationalities, and not merely a summary of the author’s personal ideas on the subject; it is a monument of patient research, representing over a quarter of a century of investigation. The writer has care- fully analyzed the classical compositions of the Masters, preserving with religious care the dogmas upon which they all agree, and setting aside their contradictions, basing himself upon the axiom that Truth, when once discovered, is the same for all, while error only offers opportunity for discussion.* Pernety, following the example of Trévisan, has compared with an extreme attention the Greek, Alexan- drian, Arab, French, German, Dutch, English, Kabbalistic, Rosicrucian and Islamic schools of Hermetism, presenting the synthesis of their doctrines in the lucid manner so characteristic of the French savant, by nature the mortal enemy of all that which is obscure and incomprehensible.

The present work is divided into three parts: an Introduc- tory Discourse, an Exposé of Natural Philosophy according to Hermetists, without which all attempt to understand the

* By comparing the adepts and examining in what things they agree, and in what they differ, he (Bernard Trévisan) judged that the truth must lie in those maxims wherein they were practically unanimous. He informs us that it was two years before he put his discovery to the test; it was crowned with success, and notwithstanding the infirmities of old age, he lived for some time in the enjoyment of his tardy reward.—Barrett’s Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers. Edited by Arthur Edward Waite, London, 1888. page 128.

Preface.

Art of Transmutations is impossible, and the Theory and Practice of the Magisterium, or Royal Art, briefly, but completely presented.

The editor of this translation has preserved zm the text the notes of Pernety himself, and has introduced, as foot-notes, annotations borrowed from other works of Pernety, from Albert Poisson, the Champollion of Alchemy, Dr. Papus, Jollivet-Castelot, de Guaita, etc, in the very few places where the text seemed to allow a complementary explana- tion. These annotations are always followed by the name of the author to whom the translator is indebted.

The work contains also a table of Alchemical Characters which are so frequently met with in spagyric works and a short Dictionary of Hermetic Symbols, compiled by the lamented Albert Poisson for his “ 7héories et Symboles des Alchimistes,”* which will afford great help in the reading of alchemic pentacles. R:B,

NevapDA, Missour!, March 3, 1898.

*Chacornac, Paris, 1891.

List of Modern Works Consulted.

PERNETY—Dictionnaire Mytho-Hermétique—Paris, 1779. ALBERT Poisson—Théories et Symboles des Alchimistes,— Paris, 1891. 7a,— Cing Traités d’Alchimic—Paris, 1890. JoLLIveET-CASTELOT—Comment on devient Alchmiste—Paris, 1897. TIFFEREAU—L’Or et la Transmutation des Métaux—Paris, 1892. pE GuaiTa—La Clef de la Magic Noire—Paris, 1897. EvipHas Levi—La Clef des Grands Mysteries—Paris, 1861. Dr. Parpus—Traité Méthodique de Science Occulte—Paris. za. La Kabbale—Paris. 2a. Traité de Physiologic Synthétique—Paris. D’ EspaGNET—Hermetic Arcanum—London, 1894 and :— A Lover oF PHILALETHES—A short Enquiry concerning the Hermetique Art,—in Collectanea Hermetica, edited by W. Wynn Wescott—London, 1894. BarreETT—Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers, edited by Arthur Edward Waite—London, 1888,

Table of Contents.

PREFACE, Page \s2

List oF Works CONSULTED, 12

TABLE OF CONTENTS, 13

PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE, 17 Part I. General Principles of Physics according to

Hermetic Philosophy, 49

Of the First Matter, 50

Of Nature, 61

Of Light and its effects, 64

Of Man, 66

Of the Elements, 75

Of the Earth, 79

Of Water, 80

Of the Air, 83

Of Fire, 85

Of the Operations of Nature, QI

Of the General Aspects of Mixts, 04

Of the differences between the Three Kingdoms, 95

The Mineral, 95

The Vegetable, 96

The Animal, 96

Of the Soul of Mixts, 96

Of the Generation and Corruption of the Mixts, 99

Part II.

Table of Contents,

Of Light, Of the Preservation of Mixts, Of the Moist Radical, Of the Harmony of the Universe, Of Movement, Treatise on the Hermetic Work, Philosophical Counsels, Aphorism: Of the Truth of the Sciences, The Key of Science, Of Secrecy, Of the Means of Arriving at the Secret, Of the Keys of Nature, Of Metallic Principles, Of the Matter of the Magnum Opus in general, Ancient Philosophical Names given to this Matter, Matter is All and yet Simple, The Key of the Work, Definitions and Properties of this Mercury, Of the Vase of Art and that of Nature, Names given to this Vase by the Ancients, Of Fire in General, Of Philosophical Fire, Operative Principles, Operative Principles in Particular, Calcination, Solution, Putrefaction, Fermentation, Demonstrative Signs or Principles, Of the Elixir,

Operation of the Elixir according to d’Espagnet,

Quintessence, The Tincture, The Multiplication,

102 108 109 TI2 113 je | 125 126 126 127 127 128 129 130

133 136 143 152 157 158 161 163 167 173 173 174 174 177 180 IQI 193 194 195 196

Table of Contents.

Of the Weights in the Work, Very Instructive Rules, Of the Virtue of the Medicine, Of the Maladies of the Metals, Of the Times of the Stone, Conclusion,

ADDENDA. Dictionary of Hermetic Symbols, Alchemical Characters, Alphabetical Index,

197 200 208 211 212 216

221 228

239

The Great Art.

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Preliminary Discourse.

DO not expect to have the approbation of those vast, sublime and penetrating minds which embrace ll, which know all without having learned anything, which dis- pute concerning everything, which decide about everything without knowledge of the cause. It is not to such people that one gives lessons; to them belongs the name of sage, rather than to Democritus, to Plato, to Pythagoras and to the other Greeks who were in Egypt to breathe the hermetic air, and who drew from it the folly of which we will treat. It is not for sages of this character that this work is made: this contagious air of Egypt is diffused throughout it; they would run the risk of being infected by it; as the Gebers, Synesiuses, Moriens, Arnaud de Villeneuves, Raymond Lullys, and so many others, simple enough to believe in this Philosophy. Following the example of Diodorus of Sicily, of Pliny, of Suidas and many other Ancients, they would, perhaps, become credulous enough to regard this Science as real, and to speak of itas such. They might become ridicu- lous as Borrichius, Kunckel, Beccher, Stahl, mad enough to make treatises which prove it, and to undertake its defense. But if. the example of these celebrated men makes any impression upon minds free from bias and void of prejudice

18 The Great Art.

in this respect, there will be found, doubtless, men sufficiently sensible to wish to be instructed, as they, in a Science little known, in truth, but cultivated in all times. Proud ignorance and fatuity alone are capable of despising and condemning without knowledge. Not a hundred years ago, simply the name of Algebra kept one from the study of that science and was revolting to the so-called good sense of the savants! that of Geometry is capable of giving hysterics to the scien- tific ‘“Petits-Maitres” of to-day. Little by little one has become familiar with them. The barbarous terms with which they bristle, no longer cause fear; one studies them, one cultivates them, honor has succeeded the repugnance, I might say the scorn, with which they were regarded.

Hermetic Philosophy is still in disgrace and consequently in discredit. It is full of enigmas, and probably will not be freed, for a long time, of those allegorical and barbarous terms whose true meaning so few understand. The study of it is so much the more difficult as perpetual metaphors put on the wrong track those who imagine that they under- stand the authors who treat of it, at the first reading. Moreover these authors warn us that such a Science as this cannot be treated as clearly as the others because of the fatal consequences to civil life which might result from it. They make of it a mystery, and a mystery which they study rather to deepen than to develop. So they continually recommend the reader not to take them literally, to study the laws and processes of Nature, to compare the operations of which they speak with hers; to admit only those which will be found conformable to hers. ...

Ambition and the love of riches are the only motives which influence almost all of those who work to instruct themselves concerning the processes of this Science; it presents to them mountains of gold in perspective, and long

Preliminary Discourse. 19

life to enjoy them. What riches for hearts attached to the blessings of this world! They hasten, they run to reach this aim, and as they fear not to arrive there soon enough they take the first way which appears to lead to it most quickly, without taking the trouble to instruct themselves concerning the true way. They walk, they advance, they believe themselves at the end; but as they have walked blindly, they find there a precipice in which they fall. They then think to conceal the shame of their fall by saying that this pretended aim is only a shadow, which they cannot embrace; they treat their guides as perfidious ones; they finally arrive at the point of denying even the possibility of an effect, because they are ignorant of its causes. What! because the greatest naturalists have lost their night-studies and their works in trying to discover what processes Nature employs to form and to organize the foetus in the maternal womb, to make a plant germinate and grow, to form the metals in the earth, could we with good grace deny these facts? Would we regard as sensible a man whose ignorance would be the foundation of his negations? One would not even deign to take the trouble to make the least proof to convince him.

But wise people, enlightened and skilful Artists have studied all their lives, and have worked continually to arrive at it, they have given up their lives for it: what must we conclude? That the thing is not real? No: from about the year 550, from the foundation of Rome up to our day, the most skilful people worked to imitate the famous burning mirror of Archimedes, with which he burned the vessels of the Romans in the port of Syracuse; they have not been able to succeed; they treated the fact as an allegory; it was a fable; and even the making of the mirror was impossible. M. de Buffon thinks of taking a simpler way than those who

20 The Great Art.

have preceded him, he arrives at the end; we are surprised, we finally avow that the thing is possible.

Let us conclude then, with more reason, that these Savants, these skilful Artists made their own knowledge of too much importance. Instead of following the straight, simple and smooth ways of Nature, they have attributed to her subtleties which she never possessed. Hermetic Art is, say the Philosophers, amystery hidden to those who rely too much on their own knowledge: it is a gift of God who regards favorably those who are humble, who fear Him, who place all their confidence in Him, and who, as Solomon, demand from Him with eagerness and perseverance that wisdom, who holds in her right hand length of days, and in her left hand riches,(Pvoverbs ch. ill. v. 16); that wisdom which Philosophers prefer to all honors, to all the kingdoms of the world, because she is the Tree of Life to those who lay hold upon her,( Proverbs, ch. iil. v. 18).

All Hermetic Philosophers say that, although the Azs Magna is a natural thing, both in its essence and in its operations, yet things so surprising take place in it, that they elevate the spirit of man toward the Author of his being, that they manifest His wisdom and glory, that they are much above human intelligence, and that only those comprehend them, whose eyes God deigns to open. This is sufficiently proved by the blunders and lack of success of all those artists, famous in vulgar chemistry, who in spite of all their skill in manipulations, in spite of all their pretended knowledge of Nature, have lost their time, their money, and often their health, in the search of this inestimable treasure.

How many Becchers, Homberts, Boerhaves, Geofroys and other skilled chemists, have by their indefatigable labors forced Nature to reveal to them some of her secrets? In spite of all their carefulness in watching her processes, in

Preliminary Discourse. 21

analyzing her productions, to take her in the act, they have almost always failed, because they have been the tyrants of this Nature and not her true imitators. Sufficiently enlight- ened in common chemistry, and instructed in its processes, but blind in regard to Hermetic Chemistry, and carried away by custom, they have erected sublimatory, calcinatory, distillatory furnaces, (Vovum Lumen Chemicum; Tract. 1.), They have employed an infinite number of vases and cru- cibles, unknown to simple Nature; they have summoned to their aid the fratricide of natural Fire; how could they have succeeded with such violent processes? They have abso- lutely departed from those who follow the Hermetic Philos- ophers, if we are to believe President d’Espagnet, (lermetic Arcanum, Can. 6.):

“The Alchemists who have given their minds to their “well-nigh innumerable Sublimations, Distillations, Solu- “tions, Congelations, to manifold extraction of Spirits and “Tinctures, and other operations more subtle than profitable, “and so have distracted themselves by a variety of errors, as “so many tormentors, will never be inclined again by their “own genius to the plain way of Nature and light of Truth; “from whence their industrious subtlety hath twined them, “and by twinings and turnings, as by the Lybian Quicksands, “hath drowned their entangled wits; the only hope of safety “for them remaineth in finding out a faithful guide and “master, who may make the Sun clear and conspicuous unto “them, and free their eyes from darkness.”

“A studious Tyro of a quick wit, constant mind, inflamed ‘‘with the study of Philosophy, very skilful in natural Phi- “losophy, of a pure heart, complete in manners, mightily “devoted to God, though ignorant of practical Chemistry, “may with confidence enter into the highway of Nature and “peruse the books of the best Philosophers.’’*

*Translation by Dr. W. Wynn Westcott, in Collectanea Hermetica.

22 The Great Art.

“Tf Hermes, the true father of Philosophy,” so says the “Cosmopolite (Movum lumen chemicum; Tract. J), if the “subtle Geber, the profound Raymond Lully, and other “justly celebrated chemists could return to the earth, our “alchemists would not only refuse to regard them as their “masters, but would think to confer a favor upon them by “owning them as their disciples. It is true that they would ‘not know how to make all those distillations, circulations, ‘‘calcinations, sublimations, in a word all those innumerable “operations which chemists have imagined, because they “have wrongly understood the books of the Philosophers.”

All real Adepts speak with one voice and if they speak truly, one may, without taking so much trouble, without employing so many vases, without consuming so much char- coal, without ruining one’s purse and one’s health, one may, I repeat, work in concert with Nature, who, being aided, will lend herself to the desires of the Artist and will freely open to him her treasures. He will learn from her, not how to destroy the bodies which she produces, but how and from what, she composes them, and into what they resolve. She will show him that matter, that chaos from which the Supreme Being has formed the Universe. They will see Nature, as in a mirror, and her reflection will manifest to them the infinite wisdom of the Creator, who directs and guides her, in all her operations, by a simple and unique way which constitutes all the mystery of the Magnum Opus.

But that thing, called Philosopher’s Stone, Universal Medicine, Golden Panacea, does it exist in reality as well as in speculation? Why, through the ages, have so many persons, whom Heaven seemed to have favored with knowl- edge superior to that of most men, sought it in vain? But, on the other hand, so many trustworthy historians, so many wise men have attested its existence, and have left in

Preliminary Discourse. 23

enigmatical writings and allegories the method of making it, which can scarcely be doubted, when one knows how to adapt these writings to the principles of Nature.

The Hermetic Philosophers differ absolutely from the common Philosophers or Physicists. The latter have no certain system. They invent new ones daily, and the last seems to be conceived only to contradict, and destroy those that have preceded it. Briefly, if one is erected and estab- lished, it is upon the ruins of its predecessor, and it will exist only until a new one overthrows it and takes its place.

On the contrary, Hermetic Philosophers are all agreed; no one of them contradicts the principles of the other. He who wrote thirty years ago speaks as he who lived two thousand years ago. One thing which appears a little singular is that they never weary of repeating that axiom which the church (Vzxcent de Lerin. Commonit.) adopts as the most infallible mark of the truth in that which it presents to us for belief: Quod ubique quod ab omnibus, et quod semper creditum est, td firmtissimée credendum puta. Observe, say they, read, meditate on the things which have been taught in all times, and by all Philosophers; the truth is enclosed in the passages where they all agree.

What an indication, indeed, when men who have lived in ages so distant, and in countries so different in language, and, I dare to say it, in their manner of thinking, all agree on one point. What! would Egyptians, Arabs, Chinese, Greeks, Jews, Italians, Germans, Americans, French, Eng- lish, etc., have agreed, without knowing each other, without understanding each other, and without having communicated their ideas, in writing and in speaking about a chimera, an imaginary entity? without taking into account all the works on this subject, which were burned by the orders of Diocle-

a Che Great Art.

tian,* who thought thus to deprive the Egyptians of the means of making gold, and to render them unable to sustain war against him, there still remain to us, in all the languages of the world, works sufficiently numerous to justify to the incredulous what I have just advanced. The library of the King alone preserves a great number of ancient and modern manuscripts, in all languages, relating to this science.

Michel Maier said on this subject, in an Epigram, found at the beginning of his Treatise, entitled Symbola auree mens@:

Unum opus en priscis hec usque ad tempora seclis Consona diffusis gentibus ora dedit.

Let one read Hermes, Egyptian; Abraham, Isaac de Moiros, Jews, quoted by Avicenna; Democritus, Orpheus, Aristotle, (De Secretis Secretorum), Olympiodoros, Heliodorus (De rebus chemicis ad Theodostum Imperatorem), Etienne, (De magna et sacra sctentia, ad Heraclium Cesarem) and other Greeks; Synesius, Theophilus, Abugazal, etc., Africans; Avicenna, (De ve recta. Tvractatulus Chemicus. Tractatus ad Assem Philosophum. De anima artis), Rhasis, Geber, Arte- phius, Alphidius, Hamuel, surnamed the F/der, Rosinus, Arabs; Albertus Magnus,(De Alchymia, Concordantia Philos- ophorum,; De Compositione Compositi, etc.), Bernard Trévisan, Basil Valentin, Germans; Alain (Lzber Chemie), Isaac, father and son, Pontanus, Flemish or Dutch; Arnaud de Villeneuve, Nicolas Flamel, Denis Zachaire, Christophe Parisien, Gui de Montanor, d’Espagnet, French; Morien, Pierre Bon de Fer- rare, the anonymous author of the “ Marriage of the Sun and

Postquam (inquit Paulus Diac. in vita Diocletiani) Achillem Hgypiorum Ducem octomenses in Alexandria Aigypti obsessum profligasset Diocletianus omnes Chym- ice artis libros diligenti studio requisitos conflagravit, ne reparatis opibus Romanis repugnarent. Orosius says the same thing, ch. 16, B.7. Suwidas, about the word Chemia expresses himself thus: Chemia est auri et argenti confectio, cujus libros Diocletianus perquisitos exussit, eo quod Aigyptii res novas contra Diocletianum moliti fuerant, duriter atque hostiliter eos tractavit. Quo tempore etiam libros de Chemia auri et argentia veteribus conscriptos conquisivit et exussit, ne deinceps Aigyptiis divitis ex Arte illa contingerent, neve pecuniarum affluentia confisi in posterum Romanis rebellarent.

Preliminary Discourse. 25

Moon,” Italians; Raymond Lully, Spanish; Roger Bacon, (Speculum Alchemie), Hortulain, Jean Dastin, Richard, George Ripley, Thomas Norton, Philalethes and the Cos- mopolite, English or Scotch. Finally, many anonymous authors, (Zurba Philosophorum, Seu Codex veritatis, Clangor Buccine, Scala Philosophorum, Aurora consurgens, Ludus puerorum, Thesaurus Philosophie, etc.), of all countries and of different ages: there will not be found among them one whose principles are different from those of the others. Does not this conformity of ideas and principles form, at least a presumption in favor of the truth and reality of what they teach? If all the ancient fables of Homer, of Orpheus, and of the Egyptians, are only allegories of this Art, as I claim to prove in this work, by the ground-work and origin of the fables themselves, as well as by their conformity to the allegories of almost all Philosophers, could one persuade one’s self that this science is only a vague phantom, which never had any existence among the real productions of Nature?

But if this science has a real object; if this Art has existed, and if we must believe the Philosophers, concerning the wonderful things which they relate of it, why is it so scorned, why so decried, why so discredited? Because the practice of this Art has never been clearly taught. All the Authors, ancient and modern, who treat of it, do so under the veil of Hieroglyphics, Enigmas, Allegories and Fables; so that those who have wished to study them have generally taken the wrong course, whence has arisen a kind of sect, which, through having wrongly understood and explained the writings of the philosophers, has introduced a new Chemistry, and has imagined that its system was the only real one. Many persons have become celebrated in this field. Some skilled in the principles, others extremely

26 Tbe Great Art.

dexterous in practice, especially in the experience required for the success of certain operations, they have all united against Hermetic Alchemy; they have written in a manner more easily comprehended by the multitude; they have proved their opinions by specious arguments. By making at random, mixtures of different substances, and by working blindly, without knowing what the result would be, they have seen monsters arise; and the same chance which produced them has served as a basis for the principles then established. The same mixtures, reiterated, the same work repeated, have given exactly the same result; but they have not observed that this result was monstrous, and analogous only to the abnormal productions of Nature, and not to those which result from her processes, when she confines herself to the classes peculiar to each kingdom. Always from the union of an ass and a mare results a mon- strous animal called a mule; for nature acts always in the same manner when the same materials are furnished her, whether to produce monsters, or to form beings conformable to their particular species. If mules came to us from some distant isle, and we knew nothing of their birth, we would certainly be tempted to believe that these animals form a class, which is multiplied as the others. We would not suspect that they were monsters. We are affected, in this same manner, by the results of almost all chemical opera- tions; we consider abnormal productions as productions made in the natural order of Nature. So that one might say of this kind of Chemistry, that it is the science of destroying methodically the Mixts produced by Nature, in order to form from them monsters, which have almost the same appearance and properties as the natural Mixts. Would more be necessary to conciliate the Public?

Prepossessed by these deceitful appearances; overwhelmed

Preliminary Discourse. ear |

by subtle writings; wearied by the multiplied invectives against Hermetic Alchemy, unknown even to its aggressors, is it surprising that the multitude scorns it ?

Basil Valentin, ( Azoth des Philosophes), compares the “souffleurs’”’ to the Pharisees, who were in honor and au- thority with the Public, because of their affectation of religion and piety. They were, said he, hypocrites, attached only to the earth and their own interests; who would abuse the confidence and credulity of the people, ever ready to be taken by appearances; because their sight is not keen enough to pierce the exterior of things. Yet, let not one imagine that by such a discourse I intend to injure the chemistry of our days. One has found means of rendering it useful; and too much praise cannot be given to those who make an assiduous study of it. The curious experiments which most chemists have made can only satisfy the public. Medicine derives so many advantages from Chemistry, that to decry it would to be hostile to the good of the People. It has contributed not a little to the commodities of life by the means which it has furnished of perfecting Metallurgy and other arts. Porcelain, faience are fruits of chemistry. It furnishes materials for tinctures, for glass-making, etc. But because its utility is recognized, must we conclude that it is the only true chemistry? And must Hermetic Chemistry be rejected and scorned for this? It is true, that many people claim to be Philosophers, and take advantage of the credulity of the foolish. But is Hermetic Science to be blamed for this? Do not the Philosophers cry loud enough to be heard by all, and to warn against the snares laid by this class of people. There is not one of them who does not say that the matter of this Art is of low price, and even that it costs nothing; that the fire, necessary to work it does not cost more; that only one vase, or at most two, is necessary

28 The Great Art.

for the whole course of work. Let us hear d’Espagnet, (Caz. 35): “Philosophical work demands more time and labor than “expense; for there remains very little to be done when one “has the required Matter. Those who demand great sums to “attain this object, have more confidence in riches of others ‘than in the science of this Art. Therefore, let the amateur “be on his guard, and not fall into the snares which rogues “set for him, rogues who wish for his purse even while they “promise him mountains of gold. They demand the Sun to “guide them in the operations of this Art, because they do not ‘see in the least.” Thus it is not necessary to lay the blame on Hermetic Chemistry, which is no more responsible than is honesty for knavery. A stream may become foul and ill- smelling from the dirt which it collects in its course, without its source being the less pure, the less beautiful, the less clear.

Those who still decry Hermetic Science are those bastards of alchemy commonly known as souffleurs and seekers of the Philosopher’s Stone. They are idolaters of Hermetic Philos- ophy. All the receipts presented to them are for them as so many gods before whom they bend the knee. Many of this class are instructed in the operations of common chemistry; they have even much skill in manipulations; but they are not instructed in the principles of Hermetic Philosophy, and will never succeed. Others are ignorant even of the principles of common chemistry, and these are, properly speaking, the souffieurs. To them we may apply the proverb: Alchemza est ars, cujus initium laborare, medium mentiri, finis mendicare.

Most of the Artists, skilful in common Chemistry, do not deny the possibility of the Philosopher’s Stone; the result of many of their operations is a sufficient proof of this. But they are slaves to human opinion; they would not dare to openly avow that they recognize it as possible, because they

Preliminary Discourse. 29

fear to expose themselves to the ridicule of the ignorant, and of pretended savants, blinded by prejudice. In public, they jest about it, or at least speak of it with so much indif- ference, that one suspects that they do not regard it as real, while the tests which they make, in private, tend to its quest. After having passed many years in the midst of their furnaces, without having succeeded, their vanity is offended; they are ashamed of having failed; then, they seek to indemnify themselves, to avenge themselves, by speaking evil of that which they have been unable to obtain. These are the people who had no equals in the theory and practice of Chemistry; they have assumed to be such; they have proved it as well as they could, but by repeating it or causing it to be heralded by others, they have caused people to believe it. When, at the end of their life, they think advis- able to decry Hermetic Philosophy, the multitude will not examine and see if they do it wrongly; the reputation which they have acquired gives them the right, and one would not dare but to applaud them. Yes, they say, if the thing had been feasible, it could not have escaped the science, the penetration, the dexterity of such a skilful man. These impressions are insensibly strengthened; a second one, not having succeeded better than the former, has been disap- pointed in his hope and his work; he adds his voice to that of the others; he even cries louder if he can; he makes him- self heard; the prejudice grows, until finally one reaches the point of saying with them, that Hermetic Philosophy is a chimera, and what is more, they are convinced without any knowledge of the subject. Those to whom experience has proved the contrary, content with their fate, do not envy them the applause of the ignorant. Sapzentiam et doctrinam stultt desciptunt, Proverbs, ch. 1).

Some have written to undeceive them—(Beccher, Stahl,

30 The Great Art.

M. Pott, M. de Justi, undertake its defense openly in their Memoirs)— they have not wished to shake off the yoke of prejudice, they have remained under it.

But finally, what constitutes the difference between com- mon chemistry and Hermetic Chemistry? Simply this. The first is, properly speaking, the art of destroying the composites which Nature has formed; and the second is the art of working with Nature to perfect them. The first puts in practice the furious and destructive Tyrant of Nature; the second employs her gentle, benign Agent. Hermetic Philosophy takes as the subject of its work the secondary* or chief principles of things, to lead them to the perfection of which they are susceptible, by processes conformable to those of Nature. Common chemistry takes the Mixts which have already reached their point of perfection, decomposes and destroys them. Those who may desire to carry further the parallelism between these two arts, may have recourse to the work which one of the great antagonists of Hermetic Philosophy, Father Kircher, S. J., has composed, and which Manget has inserted in the first volume of his Bzblethégue dela Chymtie curieuse. The Hermetic Philosophers scarcely fail to mark the difference of these two arts in their works. But the infallible mark, by which one may distinguish an Adept from a chemist, is that the Adept, according to all Philosophers, takes only one thing, or, at most, two of the same nature, one vase, or perhaps two, and a single furnace to perfect his work; on the contrary, the chemist works on all kinds of matters, indiscriminately. This is also the stone by the touch of which you must try those rogues, or soufleurs, who have designs upon your purse, who demand gold in order to make it, and who, instead of the transmutation which they

*Secondary Matter, or Seed of Metals, the primal Matter of the Philosopher’s Work, to distinguish it from the Prima Materia, or First Created Matter, which is beyond the reach of the Artist.

Preliminary Discourse. 31

promise you, make indeed only a transfer of gold from your purse to theirs. This remark is not the less applicable to those souffeurs of good faith and honesty, who think to be in the right way, and who deceive others while deceiving themselves. If this work makes enough impression upon minds to convince of the possibility and reality of Hermetic Philosophy, God grant that it may also serve to undeceive those who have a mania for spending their property in blow- ing charcoal, in erecting furnaces, in calcining, in sublimat- ing, in distilling, finally in reducing everything to nothing, that is, to ashes and smoke; the Adepts do not run after gold and silver. Morien givesa great proof of this in the Roz Calid. The latter having found many books which treated of Hermetic Science, and being able to comprehend nothing of them, offered a great reward to him who would explain them, (Luxtretien du Rot Calidad). The charms of this reward brought to him many souffeurs. Then Morien, the Hermit, departed from his desert, attracted not by the promised recompense, but by the desire of manifesting the power of God, and of showing how wonderful He is in all His works. He found Calid, and demanded as the others a suitable place to work, in order to prove, by his works, the truth of his words. Morien, having finished his operations, left the Perfect Stone in a vase around which he wrote: 7khose who have all that ts necessary for them, have need netther of recom- pense nor of the aid of others, He then departed without saying a word, and returned to his solitude. Calid having found this vase, and having read the writing, understood well what it signified, and after having tested the Powder, he banished, or put to death, all those who had wished to deceive him.

Therefore, Philosophers rightly say that this Stone is the center and source of virtues, since those who possess it scorn

32 Che Great Art.

all the vanities of the world, vain glory, ambition; since they esteem gold no more than sand or dust,(Sapzentia, chap. 7), and silver is to them no more than dirt. Wisdom alone makes any impression upon them; envy, jealousy and other tumultuous passions do not excite the tempests of their heart; they have no other desires than to live to please God, no other satisfaction than to render themselves secretly useful to their neighbour, and to penetrate more and more into the secrets of Nature.

Hermetic Philosophy is therefore, the school of piety and religion. Those to whom God accords the knowledge of it are either already pious or they become so, (/lamel, Hiero- glyph). All the Philosophers begin their works by demand- ing of those who read them, with the intention of penetrating into the sanctuary of Nature, an upright heart and a God- fearing spirit: Jutteum sapientie timor Domini, a compas- sionate mind, to aid the poor, a profound humility, and a fixed purpose to do all for the glory of the Creator, who conceals His secrets from the proud and pretended wise of the world to manifest them to the humble, (Matthew, ch. XJ).

When our first father heard the sentence of death pro- nounced as a punishment for his disobedience, he received, at the same time, the promise of a Deliverer who was to save the entire human race. God, all-pitiful, did not wish to permit the most beautiful work of His hands to perish abso- lutely. The same wisdom which had prepared with so much goodness the remedy for the soul, did not forget to indicate one against the evils which were to afflict the body. But, just as all men do not profit by the means of safety, which Jesus Christ has procured for us, and which God offers to us, so all men do not know how to use the remedy, which can cure the ills of the body, although the matter of which it is composed is common, and present before their eyes. They

Preliminary Discourse. 33

see it without knowing it, and employ it for other purposes than the one for which it was designed, (Laszl Valentin Azoth des Phil. and the Cosmopolite). This proves, indeed, that it isa gift of God which is bestowed upon those who please Him. Vr tusiptens non cognoscet, et stultus non intellt- get hec. Although Solomon, the wisest of men, says to us, Altissimus de terra creavit medicinam et posuit Deus super terram medicamentum quod sapiens non desprciet, (Eccl., ch. 38).

It is this matter which God used to manifest His wisdom in the composition of all beings. He animated it with the breath of that spirit which “moved upon the face of the waters,’ before His omnipotence had disentangled the chaos of the Universe. This it is, which is susceptible of all forms, and which, properly speaking, has none of its own, (B. Valen- tin). Thus most of the Philosophers compare the confection of their Stone to the creation of the Universe. There was, so say the Scriptures, (Genesis, ch. 1), a confused chaos, in which no individual could be distinguished. The terrestrial globe was submerged in the waters; they seemed to contain the Heavens, and to enclose in their womb the germs of all things. There was no light, all was in darkness. The light appeared, the shadows were dissipated, and the stars were placed in the firmament. The Philosophical Work is exactly the same thing. First it is a shadowy chaos; all appears so / confused in it, that one cannot distinguish the principles | which compose the matter of the Stone. The Heaven of the | Philosophers is plunged in the waters, shadows cover all | their surface; finally light separates them; the Moon and / the Sun are manifested, and bring joy to the heart of the | Artist and life to the matter. .

This chaos consists of the szccum and humidum. The siccum constitutes the Earth; the humzdum is the Water. The shadows are the black color, which Philosophers call

34 The Great Art.

nigrum, nigro nigrius, (black, blacker than black itself). This is the Philosophical Night, and the palpable shadows. Light in the creation of the world appeared before the sun; it is that whiteness of matter, so much desired, which succeeds the black color. Finally the sun appears, of an orange color, _ the red of which is deepened, little by little to the red of _ purple: this makes the completion of the first work. / The Creator wished then to place the seal upon His work; He formed Man from Earth, and from an earth which ap- peared inanimate: He breathed into him the breath of life. That which God did then in regard to Man, the agent of Nature, whom some call her ArcuHEus, (Paracelsus, van Hel- mont), does now with the Earth or Philosophical clay. He works it by its interior action, and animates it so that it begins to live, and to strengthen itself, day by day, until it reaches perfection. Morien, (/oc. cz¢.), having remarked this analogy, has explained the confection of the Wagisterium by a comparison, drawn from the creation and the generation of Man. Some even claim that Hermés speaks of the resur- rection of bodies in his Pymander, because he concludes it by stating what he has observed in the progress of the Magistertum. The same matter which had been forced toa certain degree of perfection in the first work, is dissolved and putrified, which can very well be called a death, since our Saviour has said of a grain which one sows, (/lame/), Nisi eranum frumentt cadens in terram mortuum fuerit ipsum solum manet. In this putrefaction the Philosophical Matter be- comes a black, volatile earth, more subtle than any other powder. The Adepts even call it Corpse when it is in this state, and say that it has the odor of one; not, says Flamel, that the Artist smells a bad odor, since it is made in a sealed Vase; but he judges that it is such by the analogy of its cor- ruption to that of dead bodies. This powder, or ashes, which

Preliminary Discourse. 35

Morien says we must not despise, because it is to revive, and because it contains the diadem of the Philosopher-King, recovers its vigor, little by little, in proportion as it escapes from the arms of death, that is to say, from the blackness: it is revivified, and takes a more brilliant splendour, a state of incorruptibility more noble that the one in which it existed before its putrefaction.

The Egyptians, observing this metamorphosis, imagined the existence of the Phoenix, which they said to be a bird of purple color, which sprang from its own ashes. But this fabulous bird is simply the Philosopher's Stone, which has reached the color of purple after its putrefaction.

Several ancient Philosophers, enlightened by these wonder- ful effects of Nature, have concluded from them, with Hermés, from whom they had derived the principles in Egypt, that there was a new life after death had taken away this. This is what they have wished to prove when they have spoken of the resurrection of plants from their own ashes into other plants of the same species. One finds no one who has spoken of God and of Man with so much eleva- tion and nobility... He explains even, how one can say of men that they are Gods. Ego dixi dit estts, et filit excelsi omnes, says David; and Hermés: (Pymand., ch. I1.), “The “soul, O Thaut, is of the essence of God himself; for God ‘has an essence, and what it is He alone knows. The soul “is not a part, separated from this divine essence as a part is “separated from any other material; but it is, we may say, “an effusion, almost as the light of the sun, which is not the “sun itself. This soul is a Godin Man; this is why one says “of men that they are Gods, because that which constitutes, “properly speaking, humanity, is akin to divinity.”

What then must be the knowledge of man? Is it surprising that, enlightened by the Father of lights, he penetrates even

36 Che Great Art.

into the gloomiest, most hidden recesses of Nature? that he knows her properties, and how to use them? But God dis- tributes His gifts asit pleases Him. If He is good enough to establish a remedy for the maladies which afflict humanity He has not judged fit to make it known to all. Consequently Morien says, (Lxtretzents de Caltd et de Morten), “that the “ Magistertum is the secret of secrets of the most high God, “ Creator of all that exists; and that He himself has revealed “this secret to His holy Prophets, whose souls He has placed “in Paradise.”

If this secret is a gift of God, some will say it must doubt- less be placed in the category of the talents which God bestows and which must not be buried. If Philosophers are people so pious, so charitable, why do we see so few good works on their part? A single one, Nicolas Flamel, in France, has built and endowed churches and hospitals. These monuments exist today in the sight of all Paris. If there are other Philosophers, why do they not follow such a good example? Why do they not cure the sick? Why do they not relieve the families of honest people overwhelmed with misery? I answer, that one does not know all the good done in secret. One must not do good and then publish it at the sound of the trumpet; the left hand, according to the precept of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, must not know the good which the right hand doeth. It was not known, until after the death of Flamel, who was the author of these good works. The hieroglyphic figures, which he had placed in the Cemetery of the Innocents, presented only that which was pious and in conformity with religion. He himself lived humbly, without ostentation, and without giving the least sign of the secret which he possessed. Moreover, there were in those times greater facilities for doing good than now.

Philosophers are not so common as physicians. They are

Preliminary Discourse. 37

few in number. They. possess the secret of curing all maladies. They are not lacking in the desire to do good to all the world; but this world is so perverse that it is dan- gerous for them to try it. They would do so, at the risk of their lives. Will they cure some one as by miracle? A mur- | mur will be heard among the Physicians and the People; | and even those who most doubted the existence of the Philosophical Remedy will then suspect that there is such a thing. This man will be followed; his actions will be — observed; the report will spread; the avaricious, the ambi- | tious will pursue him to discover his secret. Then, what can — he hope for but persecutions, or voluntary exile from his | country?

The experience of the Cosmopolite and of Philalethes proves this sufficiently. ‘We are,” says the latter, “ envel- “oped in malediction and infamy; we cannot enjoy tran- “quilly the society of our friends; whosoever will discover ‘‘who we are, will wish either to extort from us our secret, “or to plan our ruin, if we refuse to reveal it to them. The “world today is so wicked and so perverse, interest and ‘ambition so dominate men that all their actions have no ‘other aim but the satisfaction of these passions. Do we “wish, as the Apostles, to perform works of mercy, one re- “turns to us evil for good. I have made the trial of this lately “in some distant places. I have cured, as by miracle, some “dying ones, abandoned by Physicians; and to escape perse- “cution, I have been obliged, more than once, to change my “name, my dress, to shave my hair and my beard, and to flee “under cover of the night.’”’ Yet, to what greater dangers would a Philosopher not expose himself, if he should make the transmutation? although he should intend to make use of the gold for a very simple life, and for the benefit of those in need. This gold, finer and more beautiful than common

38 The Great Art.

gold, as they say it is, will soon be recognized. By this mark alone, one will suspect the bearer, perhaps even of counterfeiting money. What frightful consequences would a Philosopher, charged with such a suspicion, not have to fear?

I know that many Physicians exercise their profession, not so much through self-interest as through the desire of serv- ing the Public; but all of them are not so. Some will rejoice at the good fortune of their neighbour, others will be angry because they have been deprived of a chance to increase their revenues. Jealousy would not fail to take possession of their hearts, and would their vengeance be long in making its effects felt? Hermetic Science is not taught in schools of Medicine, although we cannot doubt that Hippocrates under- stood it, when we weigh well scattered expressions in his works, and the praise which he bestowed upon Democritus before the inhabitants of Abdera, who regarded this Philos- opher as a madman because, on returning from Egypt, he distributed among them almost all his patrimony, in order to live as a Philosopher in a little country house, removed from tumult. Yet this would be an insufficient proof of the antiquity of Hermetic Science; but there are so many others, that to deny this antiquity is to show one’s ignorance of ancient authors. What means Pindare, (Olymp. 6), when he relates that the greatest of the gods caused to fall in the city of Rhodes a golden snow, made by the art of Vulcan? Zosimus, Panopolite, Eusebius and Synesius teach us that this Science was long cultivated at Memphis in Egypt. They quote the works of Hermés. Plutarch says, (7eolog. Physico Grecor), that the ancient Theology of the Greeks and Barbarians was simply a discourse on Physics, hidden under the veil of Fables. He even tries to explain it when he says that by Latona they understood night; by Juno, the earth;

Preliminary Discourse. 39

by Apollo, the sun; and by Jupiter, heat. He adds that the Egyptians said that Osiris was the sun, Isis the moon,

aera en mal

Jupiter the universal spirit diffused throughout Nature, and Vulcan, fire, etc. Manetho enlarges much upon this subject.

Origen, (LZ. /. against Celse), says that the Egyptians amused the people by these fables, and that they veiled their Philosophy under the names of the gods of the country. Coringius,(Omnzino tamen et ipse existimo Eigyptiorum FHero- phantas, omnium mortalium principes xpvoowojow Jactisasse, et ab his chemiwe profluxisse exordia), in spite of all that he , has written against Hermetic Philosophy, has been forced, by strong proofs, to avow that the Priests of Egypt prac- | ticed the Art of making gold, and that Chemistry took | its origin there. Saint Clement of Alexandria, in his Szvo- | mates, gives great praise to the six works of Hermés, on Medicine. Diodorus of Sicily, (Anizg. 7. 4, ¢. 2), speaks in © detail of a secret which the Kings of Egypt possessed, of drawing gold from a white marble, found on the frontiers of their Empire. Strabo, (Geogr. 7. 77), also, makes mention of a black stone, from which they made many mortars, at Memphis. It will be seen, in the course of this work, that this black stone, white marble and gold were merely allegor- ical, and signified the Philosopher’s Stone, which has reached the state of the black color, Stone which the same Philoso- phers have called Mortar, because the matter is ground and dissolved. The white marble was this same matter, arrived at the white color, called Marble because of its fixity. The — gold was the Philosophical Gold, which is derived from this whiteness, or the fixed Red Stone. More detailed explana- tions of this will be found in the course of this work.

Philo, the Jew, (£20. /. de Vita Mosis), relates that Moses learned in Egypt, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Sym- bolical Philosophy, which was written only in sacred charac-

40 The Great Art.

ters, Astronomy and Mathematics. Saint Clement of Alex- andria adds to these Medicine and the knowledge of Hiero- glyphics, which the priests taught only to their sons, and the sons of the kings of their country. (Cum autem Moses jam esset elate grandior, Arithmeticam et Geometriam, Rhytmicam et Harmonicam et preeterea medicinum simul et musicam ab tis (Zigyptus), edoctus est, qui inter Eigyptios evant insigniores; et preterea eam, que traditur per symbola et signa Philosophiam, quam in litterts ostendunt hieroglyphicts. Alium autem doc- trine orbem tanquam puerum regium Grect eum docuere in CLgypto, ut decit Philo in Vita Mosis. Didicit autem litteras Egyptirum et rerum celestium scientiam a Chaldets et ab Cgyptius. Unde in egus gestis, dicitur eruditus, futsse in omni sctentia Eigyptiorum. (Clemens Alexand. l. I. Strom.)

Hermés was the first who taught all these sciences to the Egyptians, according to Diodorus of Sicily, (Z. 2c. 7), and Strabo, (£26. 77). Father Kircher, although very bitter against Hermetic Philosophy, has proved, himself, (@dyp. Egypt. L. 2p. 2), that it was practiced in Egypt. See also Diodorus, (Aztzg. /, c. 17) and Julius Matern. Firmicus, (2d. 3, ¢. I. de Petosirt et Nicepso). Saint Clement of Alexandria thus expresses himself on this subject: We have still forty- two works of Hermés which are very useful and very neces- sary. Thirty-six of these books contain all the Philosophy of the Egyptians; and the other six relate especially to Med- icine: the first treats of the construction of the body or anat- omy; the second of diseases; the third of instruments; the fourth of medicines; the fifth of the eye; and the sixth of diseases of women.

Homer had travelled in Egypt, (Dzodorus of Sicily, 7. [, c. 2), and learned many things from his association with the Priests of that country. We may even say that from. here he derived his Fables. He gives proof of this in several

Preliminary Discourse. 41

places in his works, and especially in his third Hymn, to Mercury, in which he says that this god was the first who invented the Art of Fire: rupés d éwenaero réyvnv. V. 108 & V. 111. —’Eppijs to. mpwrisa mupyia, wip, 7 avédwye. Homer even speaks of Hermés, as the author of riches, and calls him con- sequently Xpvodppaws, SGrop édwy. It is because of this that he says, (zdzd v. 249), that Apollo went to Hermés to obtain news of the oxen which had been stolen from him. He saw him, lying in his obscure cavern, which was full of nectar, of ambrosia, of gold and silver, and of the red and white gar- ments of Nymphs. This nectar, this ambrosia, and these garments of the Nymphs refer to the Philosophic Work.

Esdras, in his fourth book, chapter eight, thus expresses himself: Quomodo tnterrogabts terram, et dicet ttbi, quoniam dabit terram multam magts, unde fiat fictile, parvum autem pulverem unde aurum fit.

Stephen, of Byzantium, was so well persuaded that Hermés was the author of Chemistry, and had such a high idea of him, that he has not hesitated to name Egypt ’Eppoydpuos, and Vossius, (de /dol.), has thought it his duty to correct this word by the one *Eppoyyjpuos. It was doubtless this which led Homer to imagine that his plants Moly and Nepenthes, which had so many virtues, came from Egypt. Pliny, (£28. I}, c. 2), bears witness to this in the following terms: Homerus quidem primus doctrinarum et antiquitatis parens, multus alias in admiratione Circes, gloriam herbarum Cigypto tributt. Flerbas certé Gigyptias &@ Regis uxore traditas sue Helene plurimas narrat, ac nobtle tllud nepenthes, oblivionem tristitie, veniamque afferens, ab Helend utique omnibus mortalibus pro- pinandum.

It is then beyond doubt that the Chemical Art of Hermés was known among the Egyptians. It is scarcely less certain that the Greeks who travelled in Egypt learned it there, at

42 The Great Art.

least some of them; and that, having learned it from hiero- glyphics, they taught it under the veil of fables. Eustathius implies this in his commentary on the Iliad.

The idea of making gold by the aid of Art is therefore not new; besides the proofs which we have given, Pliny, (£20. 33, ¢. 4), confirms it because he relates of Caligula “The love “which Caius Caligula had for gold, induced this Prince to ‘“‘work to obtain it. Therefore, says this author, he digested “a great quantity of orpiment and succeeded, indeed, in “making excellent gold; but in such a small quantity that “he lost much more than he gained.” Caligula knew, then, that gold could be made artificially; therefore Hermetic Philosophy was known.

As for the Arabs, no one doubts that both Hermetic and common Chemistry have been always known among them. Moreover, Albusarius teaches us, (Dynastzd nond), that the Arabs have preserved a great number of the works of the Chaldeans, of the Egyptians, and of the Greeks, by the translation which they made of them into their own lan- guage; we have still the writings of Geber, Avicenna, Abu- bali, Alphidius, Alchindis, and many others on these subjects. One may even say that Chemistry has been diffused through all Europe by means of them. Albert the Great, Archbishop of Ratisbonne, is one of the first known, since the Arabs. Among other erudite works on Dialectics, Mathematics, Physics, Metaphysics, Theology and Medicine, several works on Chemistry are found, one of which bears the title de Alchymia,; it has been swelled later on with an infinity of additions and sophistications. The second is entitled, De Concordantia Philosophorum. The third, De Compositione Composit?z, He has also written a Treatise on minerals, at the end of which he places a special article on the Matter of Philosophers, under the name De Electrum Minerale.

Preliminary Discourse. 43

In the first of these Treatises, he says: “The desire to ‘‘instruct myself in Hermetic Chemistry has led me to travel “over many cities and provinces, to visit the wise in order “to acquaint myself with this Science. I have copied and “studied, with much care and attention, the books which “treat of it, but for a long time, I have not recognized what “they advance as true. I studied, anew, books for and “against it, and I have been unable to derive any benefit “from them. I have met many canons, some learned in “Physics, some ignorant, who meddled in this Art, at an “enormous expense; in spite of their trouble, their work and “their money, they did not succeed. But all this did not “discourage me; I began to work myself; I made expendi- “tures; I read; I watched; I went from one place to another, “and I meditated constantly on these words of Avicenna: “Tf the thing ts, how ts tt? if tt is not, how 1s it not? Then I “worked; I studied with perseverance, until I found what I “sought for. I owe my success to the grace of the Holy « Spirit, who enlightened me, and not to my own knowledge.” He says also in his Treatise on minerals, (£20. 3, c. 7): “Tt is not the province of Natural Philosophers to judge “of the transmutation of metallic bodies, and of the change “of one into the other: this belongs to the Art called “Alchemy. This Science is very certain, because it teaches “one to know each thing by its peculiar cause; and it is not “difficult for it to distinguish from things even the acciden- ‘tal parts, which are not of their nature.”” He then adds, in the second chapter of the same book: “The Primal Matter “of the metals is a humidity, oily, subtle, incorporated and “even largely mixed with terrestrial matter.” He speaks as a Philosopher, and in conformity with Hermetists, as will be seen later on.

Arnaud de Villeneuve, Raymond Lully, his disciple, and

44 Ube Great Art.

Flamel, appeared shortly after; the number increased little by little, and this Science spread throughout all the King- doms of Europe. In the last century one saw the Cosmopo- lite, d’ Espagnet, and Philalethes—doubtless there were many others—and some live in our times; but the number is so small, or they conceal themselves so well, that they cannot be discovered. This is a strong proof that they do not seek the glory of the world, or at least, that they fear the effects of its perversity. They are guarded in their speech, as well as in their writings. Works on this subject appear from time to time; but it is only necessary to have read and medi- tated on those of the true Philosophers, to perceive that these resemble them only in the barbarous terms and enig- matical style, and not at allin the main. Their authors had read good books; they quote them often enough, but so inopportunely as to clearly prove, either that they have not meditated on them, or have done so, in such a manner as to adapt the expressions of the Philosophers to the false ideas which prejudice has placed in their minds, in regard to the operations and Matter, and not so as to rectify their ideas by those of the authors whom they read. These works of false Philosophers are numerous; everybody has wished to write, most of them, doubtless, in order to find in the purse of the bookstore a resource, which would otherwise fail them, or at least to make a name, which they certainly do not deserve. A certain author formerly expressed the desire that some true Philosopher would have enough charity toward the Public, to publish a list of the good writers on this Science, so as to prevent many from reading with confidence the bad, who lead them into error. Olaus Borrichius, the Dane, had printed at the end of the last century, a work, entitled: Cons- pectus Chymicorum celebriorum. We makes separate articles on each one, and tells, prudently enough, what he thinks of

Preliminary Discourse. 45

them. He excludes a great number of authors from the class of true Philosophers; but those whom he gives as true —are they, indeed, so? Besides, the number is so great, that one does not know which to choose in preference to the others. Consequently one will be embarrassed, when wish- ing to devote one’s self to this study. I would prefer to take the wise advice of d’Espagnet, which he gives in these terms in his Arcanum Hermetice Philosophie Opus, can.g. “Leta lover of truth make use of few authors, but of the best note and experienced truth.” And canon 1o, “As for the authors “of chiefest note, who have discoursed both acutely and “truly of the secrets of Nature and hidden Philosophy. “Hermés, (Lmerald Table) and Morienus Romanus, (£xtrezz- “ents du Rot Calid et de Morien), amongst the Ancients, are, “in my judgment, of the highest esteem; amongst the mod- “erns, Count Trévisan, (La Philosophie des Métaux, and his “Lettre &@ Thomas de Boulogne), and Raimundus Lullius are “in greatest reverence with one; for what that most acute Doc- “tor hath omitted, none almost hath spoken; let a student ‘“‘therefore peruse his works, yea, let him often read over his “Former Testament, and Codicil, and accept them as a “legacy of very great worth. To these two volumes let him ‘‘add both his volumes of Practice, out of which works all “things desirable may be collected, especially the truth of “the First Matter, of the degrees of Fire, and the Regimen “of the Whole, wherein the final Work is finished, and those “things which our Ancestors so carefully laboured to keep “secret. (Most of the works of Raimundus Lullius, not here ‘‘mentioned, are worse than useless). ‘The occult causes of “things and the secret motions of Nature, are demonstrated “nowhere more clearly and faithfully. Concerning the first ‘‘and mystical Water of the Philosophers he hath set down “few things, yet very pithily.”’

46 The Great Art.

“As for that Clear Water sought for by many, found by “so few, yet obvious and profitable unto all, which is the ‘Basis of the Philosophers’ Work, a noble Pole, not more “famous for his learning than subtlety of wit, who wrote ‘anonymously, but whose name, notwithstanding a double «Anagram hath betrayed, (The Cosmopolite. When d Espag- “net wrote this, the Public was not yet aware of his error tm “vegard to the author of this book, which Michael Sendivogtus, “a Pole, published under an anagram of his name, but it has “since been made known that he recetved the manuscript from “the widow of the Cosmopolite.”), hath in his Movum Lumen “ Chymicum, Parabola, and Ginigma,as also in his Tract on “ Sulphur, spoken largely and freely enough; yet he hath “expressed all things concerning it so plainly, that nothing “can be more satisfactory to him that desireth knowledge.” Cai. wlan:

“‘¢ Philosophers,’ continues the same author, (Caz. 12), “do usually express themselves more pithily in types and ‘‘enigmatical figures, (as by a mute kind of speech), than “by words; see, for example, Senior’s Table, the Allegorical “ Pictures of Rosarius, the Pictures of Abraham the Jew in “Flamel, and the drawings of Flamel himself; of the later “sort, the rare Emblems of the most learned Michael “‘Maiérus, wherein the mysteries of the Ancients are so fully “opened, and as new Perspectives they present antiquated “truth, and though designed remote from our age, yet are “near unto our eyes, and are perfectly to be perceived Dy US. Hig

Such are the only Authors commended by d’Espagnet, as being beyond all doubt, competent to instruct in Hermetic Philosophy, any man who wishes to apply himself to it. He says that one must not be contented with reading them once

*Translation by W. Wynn Westcott, in Collectanea Hermetica. Vol. I, pp. 13-14.

Preliminary Discourse. 47

or twice, but must read them ten times or more, without becoming discouraged; that one must do this with a pure heart, free from the fatiguing cares of the age, with a fixed purpose to use one’s knowledge of this Science only for the glory of God, and the good of one’s neighbour, so that God may diffuse His wisdom in the mind and heart; for Wisdom, so says the Sage, will never dwell in a heart impure and stained with sin.

Yet d’Espagnet demands an extended knowledge of Phy- sics; and, for this reason, I will place at the end of this Discourse, an abridged Treatise which will contain its general Principles, drawn from the Hermetic Philosophers, which have been collected by d’Espagnet in his Exchyridion. The Hermetic Treatise, which follows is absolutely necessary to prepare the reader to understand this work.* I will add quotations from the Philosophers to show that they all agree on the same points.

The study of Physics cannot be too highly recommended, for from it one learns to know the principles which Nature employs in the composition and formation of the individuals of the three kingdoms, animal, vegetable and mineral. With- out this knowledge, one would work blindly, and would try to form a body, from that which would be suitable only to form one of another genus or species, entirely different from that proposed. For man comes from man, ox from ox, plant from its own seed, and metal from its own germ. Therefore, he who would seek, outside of the metallic nature, the art and means of multiplying, or of perfecting the metals, would be certainly in error. Yet we must avow that Nature alone could not multiply the metals, as does Hermetic Art. It is true that the metals contain within themselves this multipli- cative property; but they are apples plucked before their

*Les Fables Egyptiennes et Grecques dévoilées of which this work is an extract. E. B.

48 The Great Art.

maturity, according to Flamel. The perfect bodies or metals (Philosophical) contain this more perfect, more abundant germ; but it is so obstinately bound to them, that only Hermetic Solution can draw it out. He who has the secret of it, has the secret of the Magnum Opus, if we are to believe the Philosophers. It is necessary, in order to suc- ceed, to know the agents which Nature employs to reduce the Mixts to their principles; because each body is composed of that into which it may be naturally resolved. The princi- ples of Physics, which follow in detail, may well serve asa torch to enlighten the steps of him who would penetrate the wells of Democritus and there discover the truth, hidden in the thickest shadows. For this well is only the enigmas, the allegories, and the obscurity, scattered throughout the works of the Philosophers, who have learned from the Egyptians, as did Democritus, zo¢ to unveil the secrets of wisdom.

[Part 1.

General Principles of Pbystcs according to

hermetic Philosophy.

General Principles of Pbysics according to Hermetic Pbilosopby.

T is not given to all to penetrate the innermost sanc-

tuary of the secrets of Nature, very few know the road that leads to it. Some, impatient, err by taking paths which seem to shorten the route; others find, at almost every step, cross-roads which perplex them, lead to the left and to Tartarus, instead of holding the right which lead to the Elysian Fields, because they have not, as A‘neas, a sibyl for a guide. Others think not to be mistaken in following the most beaten and most frequented ways. Yet all perceive, after long labors, that far from having reached their aim, they have either passed on one side or turned their back Upom 1?

Errors have their source in prejudice as well as in the want of knowledge and sound instructions. The true road must be very simple, since there is nothing more simple than the operations of Nature. But although traced by this same Nature, it is little frequented; and even those who pass in it make it their jealous duty to conceal their steps with thorns and brambles. One walks there only through the obscurity of fables and enigmas; it is very difficult not to go astray, unless a guardian angel bears the torch before us.

«Therefore I will not step one step farther without a Guide, for I dread going again into the Labyrinth.” (Collectanea Hermetica, edited by Dr. Wynn Westcott. Vol. III. A Short Enquiry Concerning the Hermetic Art, by a Lover of Philalethes, page 30).

+ ‘‘This guide must be a very wise Man, indued with singular gifts.”’—Jbid.

52 The Great Art.

It is then necessary to know Nature before undertaking to imitate her and to perfect what she has left on the road to perfection. The study of Physics gives us this knowledge; not of that natural philosophy of the schools, which teaches only speculations, and stores the memory with terms more obscure than the thing which one wishes to explain. Physics, which claiming to define clearly a body, tells us that it isa composition of points, or parts; of points which, led from one place to another, will form lines; these lines, brought together, a surface, whence extent and other dimensions; from the union of parts will result a body, and from their separation, divisibility ad tmfinttum. Finally, so many other reasonings of this kind, which are incapable of satisfying a mind curious to arrive at a palpable and practical knowledge of the individuals who compose this vast Universe. It is to Chemical Philosophy that one must have recourse. It is a - practical Science, founded on the theory, the truth of which experience has proved.* But this experience is unfortunately so rare that many people doubt its existence.

In vain authors, people of mind, of genius, and very wise in other departments, have wished to invent systems, in order to represent to us, by a flowery description, the formation and birth of the world. One is caught in whirlwinds + the too rapid movement of which has borne him away, he is lost with them. His Przma Materia, divided into subtle, ramous and globulous parts, has left us only an empty subject for artful discussions, without teaching us what is the essence

of bodies. Another,{ not less ingenious, has thought of

*See ‘ Traité Méthodique de Science Occulte,’? by Papus, p. 643, for irrefutable proofs of the possibility of the Transmutation of metals.

+ Theory of Descartes, who taught that every star was a sun occupying the cen- ter of an immense circulary current, within which moved each planet, itself the center of an interior current. These whirlwinds, in spite of their inequality in regard to the space they occupy, are nevertheless compensated by the rapports existing between the volume of the central body and the expanse of the current.

+ Newton.

General Principles. 53

submitting all to calculation, and has imagined a reciprocal attraction, which would, at most, aid us in giving the reason for the actual movement of bodies, without giving us any information as to the principles of which they are composed. He knew very well that this would have been to revive, under a new name, the occult qualities of the Peripateti- cians,* banished so long from the School; also he has stated this attraction only as a conjecture, while his votaries have made it their duty to uphold it as a real thing.

The head of a third author, struck by the same blow with which his pretended comet struck the sun, has permitted his ideals to take routes as irregular as those which he fixes for the planets, formed, according to him, of parts separated by the shock of the “zgneous body” of the star which presides over the day.

The imaginations of a Talliamed, and other similar writers, are dreams which merit only scorn or indignation. Finally, all those who have wished to depart from what Moses has left us in Genesis, have lost themselves in their vain reason- ings.

Let one not say that Moses has wished to make only Christians and not Philosophers. Instructed by the revela- tion of the Author of Nature, well-versed in all the sciences of the Egyptians, who were most enlightened in all those which we cultivate today, who, better than he, could teach us something certain as to the history of the Universe?

His system, it is true, is very fit to make Christians; but is this quality, which is lacking in most of the others, incompatible with truth? Everything in it announces the grandeur, the omnipotence and wisdom of the Creator; but at the same time, everything manifests to us the creature,

* Disciples of Aristotle. It was customary for the Master to instruct his disciples while walking with them in the country. From this the etymology of the word Peripatetician, from the Greek to walk, E. PB.

54 Tbe Great Art.

such as he is. God spoke and all was made: Dzzit et facta sunt, (Gen. 1). That was enough for Christians, but not for Philosophers. Moses adds whence this world has been derived; what order it has pleased the Supreme Being to place in the formation of each kingdom of Nature. He does more: he declares positively what is the principle of all that which exists, and what gives life and movement to each individual. Could he say more in so few words? Could one demand from him that he should describe the anatomy of all the parts of these individuals; and if he had done so, would one have had more faith in him? One wishes to examine; and that because one doubts. One doubts through IGNo- RANCE; and on such a foundation what system can one erect which will not soon fall in ruins? ;

The wise man could not better designate this kind of architects, these makers of systems, than by saying that God has given over the Universe to their vain reasonings, (Lcc/es. Chidll, v.71). Leet: us say more; there 1s ne, oneswersednin the Science of Nature, who does not recognize Moses as a man inspired of God, as a great philosopher and a true physicist. He has described the creation of the World and of Man with as much truth as if he had assisted in person. But let us confess, at the same time, that his writings are so sublime, that they are not within the comprehension of all; and that those who combat him, do so because they do not understand him, because the shadows of their ignorance © blind them, and their systems are only mad dreams of a head inflated with vanity and diseased with too much presumption. Nothing more simple than Physics. This subject, although very complicated to the eyes of the ignorant, has only a single principle divided into parts, some more subtle than others. The different proportions employed in the mixture, the reunion and combinations of the more subtle parts with

General Principles. 55

those which are less so, form all the individuals of Nature, and as these combinations are almost infinite, the number of Mixts * or Composites is also infinite.

God is an eternal Being, an infinite Unity, the radical Principle of all: His essence is a great light, His power is omnipotence, His desire a perfect good, His absolute will an accomplished work. To him who would know more, there remains only astonishment, admiration, silence and an im- penetrable abyss of glory. Before Creation, He was as if folded within Himself and sufficient into Himself. In creation, He brought forth this great work which He had conceived for all Eternity. He developed Himself by a manifest extension of Himself, and rendered actually mate- rial this ideal world, as if He had wished to render palpable the image of His Divinity. This is what Hermés has wished to make us understand, when he says that God changed form: that then the World was manifested and changed into Light, (Divine Pymander, chap. I). It appears probable that the Ancients understood something like this, by the birth of Pallas, issuing from the brain of Jupiter, with the aid of Vulcan, or Light.

Not less wise in His combinations than powerful in His operations, the Creator has established such order in the organic mass of the Universe, that superior things are mixed without confusion with inferior ones, and become similar to them by certain analogy.{ The extremes are very closely bound by an imperceptible mean, or a sacred knot,§ of that

* We have adopted this orthography for designating, without confusion, bodies formed by the association of different elements; Mixts are what modern chemistry calls composed substances, or composites.— E. B.

¢ Phenomena in material bodies and in organic bodies have for conditions the same elements and the same elementary properties, Jt is the complexity of the arrangement which causes the difference.— CLAUDE BERNARD.

{The fundamental dogma of the Occult Sciences is resumed in the well-known aphorism: ‘“‘ Harmony results from the analogy of contraries.”— E. B.

§ This secret bond, uniting into a triunity all opposites, whether physical or metaphysical, constitutes the GRAND ARCANUM, the Universal Solvent of Alchy- mists.— E, B.

56 The Great Art.

adorable Workman, so that all obeys the direction of the Supreme Moderator, while the bond of the different parts can be broken only by Him who has combined them. Her- més was right in saying that “that which is below is like that which is above, in order to perfect all the admirable things which we see”’, (Tabula Smaragdina).

Some Philosophers have supposed a Matter existing before the elements;} as they did not understand it, they have spoken of it in a very obscure manner. Aristotle, who appears to have believed the World eternal, speaks of a universal First Matter, yet, without daring to entangle himself in the dark windings of the ideas which he had of it, he has expressed himself in regard to it in a very ambiguous manner. He regarded it as the principle of all sensible things, and seems to wish to imply that the elements were formed of a kind of antipathy, or repugnance, which was found between the parts of this Matter, (de Ortu et [nteritu, B Il, Chap. 1-2). He would have reasoned better, if he had seen only sympathy and perfect harmony; since one sees no opposition in the elements themselves, although one usually thinks that fire is opposed to water. One would not be mistaken, if he noticed that this pretended opposition comes

Of tbe

First Matter.*

* The First Matter, or Prima Materia, or Hylé, is the Cosmic Ether, the Grand Telesma of Hermés. The Alchemical Theories are founded upon the unity of matter; the Artificers recognized but one Cosmic element, a chemical absolute which they named Azoth. The dogma of the unity of matter, after having been rejected by modern chemistry, is now again attracting the attention of scientists. The Unity of Matter was symbolically represented by a Serpent biting its tail, the circle being the hieroglyphic of the continuity of material transformations through a gradual, imperceptible progression. E. B.

+ In Hermetic Philosophy, the elements mean certain conditions in which bodies are found: they are the equivalents of Solid, Liquid, Gaseous, etc.

Of the First Matter. 57

only from the aim of their qualities and the difference of subtlety of their parts, since there is no water without fire.

Thales, Heraclitus, Hesiod, have regarded water as the First Matter of things. Moses appears, (Geneszs, Chap. 1), to favor this idea by giving the names Abyss and Water to this First Matter; not that he understood water as the element which we drink, but as a kind of smoke, a humid vapor, thick and dark, which is condensed, more or less, according to the greater or less density of the things which has pleased the Creator to form from it. This mist, this immense vapor, was condensed or rarefied into a universal chaotic Water, which thus became the principle of all for the present and for the future, (Cosmop. Tract 4).

In its beginning this Water was volatile, as a mist; con- densation made of it a matter more or less fixed. But what- soever may have been this Matter, the first principle of things, it was created in shadows too thick for the human mind to see clearly. Only the Author of Nature knows it, and in vain would theologians and philosophers wish to determine what it was; yet, it is very probable that this dark abyss, this chaos, was an aqueous, or humid, matter, since it would be more easily rarefied and condensed, and conse- quently more suitable, because of these qualities, for the construction of the heaven and earth.

The Sacred Scripture calls this unformed mass sometimes Empty Earth and sometimes Water, although it was actually neither one nor the other, but only in potentiality. It would, then, be permissible to conjecture that it could have been almost like fumes, or a thick vapor, stupid and inert, torpid by a kind of cold, and without action, until the same Word ‘which created this vapor, infused in it a vivifying spirit, which became visible and palpable by the effects which it ‘produced.

58 The Great Art.

The separation of the waters above the firmament from the waters below, of which mention is made in Genesis, seems to have been made by a kind of sublimation of the more subtle and more tenuous parts, from those which were less so, almost as in a distillation, where the spirits rise and separate from the heavier, more terrestrial parts, and occupy the upper part of the vase, while the grosser ones remain at the bottom.

This operation could have been made only by the aid of that luminous spirit which was infused in the mass. For Light isan igneous spirit, which by acting on this vapor, and in it, rendered some parts heavier by condensation, and opaque by their closer adhesion; this spirit drove them toward the inferior region, where they kept the shadows in which they were first buried.* The parts more tenuous, and which had become more and more homogeneous by uni- formity of their tenuity and purity, were elevated and pressed towards the upper region where, being less con- densed, they permitted a freer passage to Light, which was manifested in all its splendour.

That which proves that the dark Abyss, the Chaos, or the World’s First Matter, was an aqueous and humid mass, is that, besides the reasons which we have brought forward, we have a palpable instance under our eyes. The property of water is to run, to flow, so long as heat animates and holds it in its fluid state. The continuity of bodies, the adhesion of their parts, is due to the aqueous humour. It is the ciment which unites and binds the elementary parts of bodies. So long as it is not separated from them entirely, they preserve the solidity of their mass. But if fire warms

* This Universal Light, when considered particularly as the main metal-forming agent, is called AZOTH, or Sophic Mercury. It is the menstrum, the Universal Solvent, the bond of union, or in less mystic terms, the Cosmic Ether dynamized.

DE GUAITA.

Of the First Matter. 59

these bodies beyond the degree necessary for their preser- vation in their state of actual being, it drives away, rarefies this humour, makes it evaporate, and the body is reduced to powder, because the bond which united its parts no longer exists.

Heat is the instrument which fire employs in its operations; | it even produces by this means two effects, opposite in appearance, but conformable to the laws of Nature, and representing to us that which has taken place in the disen- tanglement of chaos. In separating the most tenuous, the most humid part from the most terrestrial, heat rarefies the first and condenses the second. Thus, by the separation of the heterogeneous, is made the union of the homogeneous.

Indeed, we see in the world only water, more or less con- densed. Between the heavens and the earth, all is smoke, mist, vapors, pressed from the center, the interior of the earth, and elevated above its circumference in the part which which we call air. The weakness of the organs of our senses does not permit us to see the subtle vapors, or emanations of celestial bodies, which we call influences, and which mingle with the vapors sublimating from sub-lunar bodies. The eyes of the mind must aid the weakness of the eyes of the body.

At all times bodies exhale a subtle vapor, which is mani- fested more clearly in summer. The warm air sublimates the waters into vapors, and attracts them to itself. When, after a rain, the rays of the sun beam upon the earth, one sees it smoke and exhale itself in vapor. These vapors hover in the air in the form of fogs, when they do not rise far above the surface of the earth: but when they mount to the middle region, one sees them float, here and there, in the form of clouds. Then they are resolved into rain, snow, hail, etc., and fall to return to their origin.

60 The Great Urt.

The workman feels this to his great inconvenience, when he works vigorously. Even the idle man feels it in great heat. The body perspires always, and the transpiration which often runs from the brow manifests this sufficiently.

Those who have accepted the fantastical ideas of the rabbis, have believed that there existed, before this First Matter, a certain principle, more ancient than it, to which they have very improperly given the name of Hy/é.* It was less a body than an immense shadow; less a thing, than a very obscure image of a thing, which one could rather call a gloomy phantom of being, a very black night and the retreat or center of shadows, finally, a thing which exists only in potentiality, and which the human mind could imagine only inadream. But even the imagination could represent it to us, only as a man born blind represents to himself the light of the sun. These votaries of the rabbis have seen fit to say that God drew from the First Principle a gloomy, formless abyss as the matter from which would be derived the ele- ments and the world. But finally, everything announces to us that Water was the first principle of things.

The Spirit of God which moved upon the waters, (Gen., ch. 1), was the instrument which the Supreme Architect used, to give form to the Universe. It diffused Light instantly, reduced from latent into actual existence the germs of things, up to this time confused in chaos, and, by a constant alternation of coagulations and resolutions, it main- tains all individuals scattered through all the mass; it animates each part of it, and by a continual and secret operation, it gives movement to each individual, according to the genius and species to which it has appointed it. It is, properly speaking, the sow/ of the world; and he who ignores or denies it, ignores the laws of the Universe.

*Word derived from the Greek bry, and which signifies forest, chaos, confusion. It is also the name given by the Alchemists to the matter of the Philosopher’s Stone.— Pernety, in Dict. Mytho-Herm., p, 205.

Of Wature. 61

To this First Motive or principle of genera- tion and transformation is joined a second material one, to which we give the name of Nature. The eye of God, always attentive to His work, is, properly speaking, Nature herself, and the laws which He has placed for her preservation, are the causes of all that which takes place in the Universe. The Nature which we have just called a second material motive, is a secondary nature, a faithful servant who obcys exactly the order of her Master, (Cosmopol. Tract. 2), or an instrument guided by the hand of a Workman, incapable of making a mistake. This nature, or Second Cause, is a Universal Spirit, which has a vivifying and fertilizing property of the Light created in the beginning and communicated to all parts of the Macrocosm. Zoroaster and Heraclitus have called it an igneous Spirit, an invisible Fire, and “the Soul of the World.” It is of it that Virgil speaks when he says, (Zed. /.6): from the beginning a certain igneous spirit was infused into the heaven, the earth and sea, the moon and the Titanian, or terrestrial bodies — that is to say, the minerals and metals, to which one has given the names of planets. This Spirit gives them life and preserves them. The Soul, diffused through every body, gives movement to all the mass and to each of its parts. Whence have come all kinds of living beings, quadrupeds, birds, fishes. This igneous Spirit is the principle of their vigor; its origin is celestial, and it is communicated to them through the germ which produces them.

The order which reigns in the Universe is only a conse- quence of the eternal laws. All the movements of the different parts of its mass depend upon them. Nature forms, alters, and disintegrates continually, and her moderator, everywhere present, repairs continually the transformations of the work.

62 Tbe Great Art.

One may divide the Wor'd into three regions*, the superior, the middle, and the inferior. The Hermetic Philosophers give to the First the name of INTELLIGIBLE, and say that it is spiritual, immortal or unalterable; it is the most perfect region.

The Middle is called CELESTIAL: it encloses bodies less perfect and a quantity of spirits. It is necessary to notice that the Philosophers do not understand by these spirits, immaterial or angelic spirits, but simply physical spirits, such as the igneous spirit scattered throughout the Universe; such is also the spirituality of their superior region. This region being in the middle, participates in the character of both the superior and inferior. It serves as the means to unite these two extremes, and as the canal by which the vivifying spirits which animate all the parts of the inferior region are com- municated to it. It is subject only to periodical changes.

The Inferior or ELEMENTARY, contains all sublunary bodies. It receives from the two others vivifying spirits only to return them. This is why all is changed, all is corrupted, all dies; there is no generation which is not preceded by corruption; and no birth which is not followed by death.

Each region is subject to and dependent upon the one superior to it, but they act in concert. The Creator alone has the power of annihilating beings, as He alone has had the power of drawing them from nothingness. The laws of Nature do not permit that that which bears the character of being, or substance, should be subjected to annihilation; which has caused Hermés to say, (Pymand.), that nothing dies in this world, but that all passes from one state of being to another. Every Mixt is composed of elements, and resolves finally into these same elements, by a continual rotation, as said Lucretius:

*These three divisions are identical with those adopted by the Kabbalists, who divide the Universe in three worlds: Archetypal, Astral and Elemental, ORL Ly fe

Of Wature. 63

Fluic accedit uti quicque tn sua corpora rursum Dissolvat natura; neque ad nthilum interimat res.

There existed then, in the beginning, two principles: the one luminous, approaching spiritual nature; the other mate- rial and dark. The first, the principle of light, of movement and of heat; the second, the principle of shadows, of torpor and of cold, (Cosmopol. Tract /.), the former, active and mas- culine; the latter, passive and feminine. From the first comes the movement for generation in our elementary world, and from the second proceeds the alteration, whence death has taken its origin.

All movement is made by rarefaction and condensation, | (Beccher, Physica Subterranea). Ueat, the effect of sensible | or insensible light, is the cause of rarefaction, and cold produces contraction or condensation. All generations, vege- tations and accretions are made only by these two means; because these are the first two dispositions by which bodies were affected. Light is diffused only by rarefaction; and

condensation, which produces the density of bodies, has alone arrested the progress of light, and preserved the shadows.

When Moses said that God created the heavens and the earth, he seems to have wished to speak of the two formal and material, or active and passive, principles which we have explained, and he does not appear to have understood by the earth, that arid mass which appeared after the waters were separated from it. That of which Moses speaks is the mate- rial principle of all that which exists and comprehends the globe terra-aqua-aerian. The other has taken its name from its dryness, and in order to distinguish it from the mass of waters: e¢ vocavit Deus aridam terram, congregationesque aquarum maria, (Gen., chap. I).

64 The Great Art.

The Air, Water and the Earth are only the same matter, more or less tenuous and subtilized, in proportion as it is more or less rarefied. The Air, as the principle most approaching rarefaction, is the most subtle, Water comes next, and then Earth. As the object which I have, in giving these abridged principles of Natural Philosophy, is only to instruct the amateurs of Hermetism, I will not enter into the details of the formation of the stars and their move- ments.

Light, after having acted upon the parts of the dark mass, which were nearest to it, and having rarefied them more or less in propor- tion to their distance, finally penetrated even to the center, in order to animate it in its entirety, to fertilize it, and to make it produce all that which the Universe presents to our eyes. Thus it pleased God to fix its natural source in the sun, yet without collecting it there entirely. It seems that God had wished to establish it as the only dispenser of light, in order that the light created by an unique God, Himself the Increate Light, should be communicated to creatures by a single agent, as if to indicate to us its first origin.

From this luminous torch all the others borrow their light and the brilliancy which they reflect upon us; because their compact matter produces in regard to us the same effect as a spherical polished mass, or a mirror on which the rays of the sun fall. We must judge of celestial bodies as of the moon, in which sight alone reveals to us solidity, and a property common to terrestrial bodies of intercepting the rays of the sun, and of producing shadow, which property belongs only to opaque bodies. One must not conclude from

Of Higbt and Its “Effects.

Of Ligbt and its Effects. 65

this that the stars and planets are not transparent bodies; since clouds, which are only vapors of water, also make a shadow intercepting the solar rays.

Some Philosophers have called the sun the soul of the world, and have supposed it placed in the middle of the Universe, as it would be easier for it to communicate every- where its benign influences from a center. Before having received them the Earth was in a kind of idleness, or as a female without the male. As soon as it was impregnated by them, it produced immediately, not simple vegetation as formerly, but animated and living beings, animals of all species.

Thus the animals were the fruit of light, and having all the same principle, how could they, according to the common opinion, be antipathetic and contradictory? It is from their union that all bodies are formed according to their different species, and their diversity arises only from the greater or less proportion of each element in their composition.

The First Light had scattered the germs of things into the matrix which was fit for each one; that of the sun has fertilized them and made them germinate. Each individual preserves within himself a spark of that Light, which reduces germs from latency into activity. The spirits of living beings are raised of this Light, and the soul of Man is a ray, or emanation, of the Increate Light. God, that eternal, infi- nite, incomprehensible Light, could He manifest Himself to the world except by light? and must one be astonished if He has infused so many beauties and virtues in His image, which He has formed Himself, and in which He has estab- lished His throne: /x sole posuit tabernaculum suum, (Psalm

I8.)

66 The Great Art.

God in materializing Himself, to speak thus, by the Creation of the World, did not think that it was enough to have made such beautiful things, He wished to place upon it the seal of His divinity, and to manifest Himself still more perfectly by the forma- tion of Man. To this end, He made him in His image, and in that of the World. He gave him a soul, a mind and a body ; and of these three things, united in the same subject, He constituted humanity.

He composed this body of a clay extracted from the purest substance of all created bodies. He drew his mind from all that which is most perfect in Nature, and He gave him a soul made by a kind of extension of Himself. It is Hermés who speaks: ‘ Mens, 0 Tat, ex propria essentid Det est. Aliqua siquidem est Det essentia. Qualiscumque tamen ille sit, hec ipsum sola absoluté novit. Mens ttaque ab essentie Det habitu non est precisa: Quin etiam velut diffusa, solis splendoris instar. lec autem mens in hominibus quidem Deus est, ed de causa homines dit sunt, acipsorum humanttas divinitati est confinis,” (Pymand., cap. II.) The Bopy represents the sublunary world, composed of Earthand Water; it is because of this that it is composed of the dry and humid, or of bone, of flesh and of blood.

The Minp,* infinitely more subtle, holds the middle place between the soul and the body, and serves as a bond to unite them, because one can join two extremes only by a mean. It is this, which by its igneous virtue, vivifies and moves the body under the direction of the soul, of which it is the min- ister; sometimes, rebellious to its orders, it follows its own

fantasies and inclinations. It represents the firmament, the

*What Pernety calls MIND answers to the Astral Body of the Kabbalists ; the “Perisprit” of the Spiritists, equilibriating term between the material body and the pure Spirit. It isthe 4%, Ruah, of the Kabbalah; the Linga Sharira of Eastern Philosophy.

Of Man.

E. B.

Of Man. 67

constituent parts of which are infinitely more subtle than those of the Earth and Water.

Lastly, the Sout is the image of God Himself, and the Light of Man.

The body draws its nourishment from the purest substance of the three kingdoms of Nature, which pass successively from one into the other to end in Man, who is the comple- ment, the end and the epitome.

Having been made of Earth and Water, it can be nourish- ed only by an analogous substance, that is to say Water and Earth, and it could not fail to resolve into them.

The mind is nourished by the Spirit of the Universe and by the quintessence of all that which constitutes it, because it has been made from it. The soul of man communicates with the divine Light from which it derives its origin. |

The preservation of the body is confided to the mind. It works over the gross nourishment which we take from vege- tables and animals, in the laboratories in the interior of the body. It separates the pure from the impure; it keeps and distributes, through the different circulatory systems, the quintessence analogous to that from which the body has been made, in order to increase its volume, or to maintain it ; it rejects the impure and heterogeneous by means destined for _ this purpose.

It is the true ARcHEUS* of Nature, which van Helmont, (Traité des Maladies,) supposes placed in the orifice of the stomach ; but of which he seems not to have had a clear idea,

* Physicists and particularly Spagyric Philosophers call this the Universal and Particular Agent; itis that which induces movement in Nature and causes the seeds and germs of all sublunary beings to reproduce and multiply their species.

Pernety in Dict. Myth. Herm.

68 The Great Art.

since he has spoken of it in such a confused manner as to be almost unintelligible.*

This Archeus is an igneous principle, the principle of heat, of movement and of life, which animates bodies and pre- serves its manner of being as long as the weakness of its -organs permit. It is nourished by principles analogous to itself, which it attracts continually by respiration: this is why death succeeds life almost immediately when respiration is intercepted.

The body is by itself a principle of death, analogous to that formless, cold and dark mass, from which God formed the World. It represents shadows. The mind is derived from and participates in this matter, animated by the spirit of God, which in the beginning moved upon the waters, and which by its diffused light, infused into the mass that heat, producer of movement and life in all nature, and that fertiliz- ing virtue, principle of generation, which furnishes to each individual the means of multiplying its species.

Infused into the womb with the germ which it animates, it works there to form and to perfect the dwelling which it is to inhabit, according to the quality of the materials fur- nished, the geographical conditions and the specification of matter. If the materials are of good quality, the building will be more solid, the temperament stronger and more vigorous. If they are bad, the body will be weaker, and less fit to resist the perpetual assaults which it will have to sus- tain as long as it will exist. If the matter is susceptible of a more perfect organization, the mind will be able to exercise its action with all the liberty and ease possible. Then the

progeny who will proceed from it will be more alert, and the

*The Reader will discover, through the embarassed mannerin which Pernety expresses himself here, that the ARCHEUS is that same nervous(?) force which is concentrated in the Solar Plexus, that part of our organism which is the theatre of

the occult life of the Initiate. E. B.

Of Aan 69

mind will manifest itself in the actions of life with more brilliancy. But if something is wanting, if the matter is gross and terrestrial, if this mind is weak in itself, because of its little strength or quantity, the organs will be defective, or vitiated ; the mind can only work feebly in its abode ; the progeny will be more or less stupid. The soul which will be infused into it, will not be less perfect, but its minister, being able to exercise its functions only with difficulty—because of the obstacles which it meets at each step—will not appear in all its splendour and will not be able to manifest itself as it is. The cabin of a peasant, even the house of a merchant, would not announce the dwelling of a king, although a king should make his abode there. In vain will he have all the qualities required to reign gloriously, in vain will his minister be intelligent and capable of aiding his sovereign ; if the constitution of the state is bad, if they cannot command obedience, if there is no remedy, the state will not be splendid; all will go wrong, all will decline; it will go to its destruction without one being able to deny the existence of the sovereign, or to blame him for the lack of glory and splendour. One will render, even to the king and his minister, the justice which is due to them.

Thus one sees why reason is manifested in children only at a certain age, and in some sooner than in others; why, in | proportion as the organs are weakened, the reason appeared | to be weakened also: Corpus quod corrumpitur aggravat animam, et terréna inhabttatio deprimit sensum multa cogitan- tem, (Sap. /.) A certain time is necessary for the organs to be strengthened and perfected. They are finally consumed ; they fall into decay and are destroyed. Even if the state were at its highest degree of glory, if it begins to decline, if its destruction is inevitable, the king and his minister, with all the care and aptitudes possible, will be able, at most, only

ree The Great Art.

to make from time to time efforts, which will manifest their talents, but which will not suffice to arrest the ruin of the state.

Howsoever little an intelligent man looks into himself, and makes the analysis of his composition, he will soon recognize these three principles of his humanity, really distinct, but united in a single individual, (Vccolas Flamel, Explanation of Figures, Chap. 7).

Let the pretended strong minds, the materialists, ignorant and little accustomed to reflect seriously, consider themselves in good faith, and follow step by step this little detail of Man, and they will soon recognize their mistake and the weakness of their principles. They will see that their igno- rance causes them to confound the king with the minister, and the subjects, the Soul with the mind and the body. Finally, that a prince is responsible both for his own actions and those of his minister, when the latter acts by his order, or with his consent and approbation.

Solomon confounds the errors of the materialists of his time, and teaches us at the same time that they reasoned as foolishly as those of our day: —

“They have, said he, (Saf. c. 2), spoken as madmen who think evil, and have said :—

“Our Life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave. |

“For we are born at all adventure: and we shall be here- after as though we had never been; for the breath in our nostrils is as smoke, and a little spark in the moving of our heart:

“Which, being extinguished, our body shall be turned into ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air. . . .

“Come on, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are

Of Man. 71

present: and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youths. ah...

«Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them.

“As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor dis- cerned a reward for blameless souls.

“For God created man to be eternal, and made him to be an image of 47s own eternity.”

One sees clearly in this chapter the distinction between mind and soul. The former is an igneous vapour, a spark, a fire, which gives animal life and movement to bodies, and vanishes in the air when the organs are destroyed. The Soul is the principle of the actions of the will and of reason, and survives the destruction of the body and the dissolution of the mind.

Consequently this chapter explains these words of the same author, (Lcclestast. chap. III, v. 19): “For that which “befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing “befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, “they have all one breath; so that a man has no preeminence “over a beast: for all is vanity.” This igneous vapour, this spark of light animates the body of Man and puts in play all its resources. In vain will one seek for the particular place where the soul makes its residence, while it commands as a master. It is the particular abode of this spirit which it would be necessary to seek; but vainly would one wish to determine it. All the parts of the body are animated by it; | it is diffused everywhere. If the pressure of the pineal | gland,* or the callous body, arrests the action of this spirit,

it is not because it dwells there in particular, but because *Descartes placed the seat of the soulin the brain, in the small gland called

Glandula pinealis, situated between the Optic Thalimi and Corpora quadrigemina. E, B.

72 The Great Art.

the resources which the spirit employs to put in play the machine, end there mediately or immediately. Their action is hindered by this pressure; and the spirit, although diffused everywhere, can no longer make them act.

The tenuity of this igneous vapour is too great to be apparent to the senses, except by its effects. The minister of God and of the Soul in Man, it follows in the animals only the impressions and laws which the Creator has imposed upon it in order to animate them, to give them the movement conformable to their species. It accommodates itself to all, and is specified in man and the animals according to their organs. Whence comes the conformity which is noticeable in a great number of the actions of men and beasts. God uses it as an instrument by means of which the animals see, taste, smell and hear. Hehas constituted it under His orders the guide of their actions. He specifies it in each of them according to the different functions which it has pleased Him to give to their organs. Whence the difference of their char- acters, and their different manners of acting, yet always uniform as to each one in particular, taking always the same road to arrive at the same aim, when no obstacles are found in it.

This spirit, which is usually called instinct, when animals are spoken of, determined and almost absolutely specified in each animal, is not so in Man, because the spirit of Man is the epitome and quintessence of all the spirits of animals. So man has not a particular character which is peculiar to him, as each animal has: every dog is faithful, every lamb is gentle, every lion is bold, every cat is treacherous; but man is all at the same time, faithful, indiscreet, treacherous, intem- perate, gentle, furious, bold, timid, courageous; circum- stances, or reason, decide always what he is at each instant of life, and one never sees in any animal those varieties

Of Man. 73

which one finds in Man, because he alone possesses the germ of all. Each man would develop it, and would convert it from potentiality to actuality as the animals, when the occasion would present itself, if this spirit was not subordi- nated to another substance superior to itself. The Soul, purely spiritual, holds the reins. It guides the spirit, and conducts it in all its deliberate actions. Sometimes it does not give it time to communicate its orders, and to exercise its empire. It acts of itself; it puts in play the resources of the body, and Man then acts simply as an animal. These actions one calls first zmpulse,* and those which one makes without reflection, such as coming, going, eating, when one is worried by some serious affair which occupies him entirely.

The animal obeys always, infallibly, his natural inclination, because it tends only to the preservation of its transient, mortal existence, in which lies all its happiness and welfare. But Man does not always follow this inclination; because, while he is disposed to preserve that which is mortal in him- self, he feels also another desire which disposes him to work for the felicity of his immortal part, to which he is certain that he owes the preference.

Thus God has created Man in His image, and has formed him as the abrégé of all His works, and the most perfect of material beings. One calls him rightly: Microcosm. He is the center where all ends: he contains the quintessence of the entire Universe. He participates in the virtues and properties of all individuals. He has the fixedness of the metals and minerals, the vegetability of the plants, the sensitive faculties of the animals, and besides, an intelligent and immortal Soul. The Creator has placed in him, as in the

box of Pandora, all the gifts and virtues of things superior

*For the study of these involuntary acts, immediate result of Reflex Action, see the remarkable works of Dr. Papus: Traité de Physiologie Synthétique, Traité Méthodique de Science Occulte, etc.

7+ The Great Art.

and inferior. He finished His work of creation by the formation of Man, because it was necessary to create all the Universe in stupendous proportions before reducing it in hominal limits. And asthe Supreme Being, Himself with- out beginning, was yet the beginning of all, He wished to place the seal of His work on an individual, who, not being able to be without beginning, was at least without end as Himself.

Therefore let not man dishonor the Model of which he is theimage. He should think that he has not been created to live solely according to his animality, but according to his humanity, properly speaking. Let him drink, let him eat; but let him pray, let him subdue his passions, let him work for eternal life; in this he will differ from the animals, and will be really a man.

The body of Man is subject to change and entire dissolu- tion, as other composites. The action of heat produces this change in the manner of being of all sublunary individuals, because their mass being a composition of parts more mate- rial, less pure, less connected, and more heterogeneous than those of the stars or planets, is more susceptible to the effects of rarefaction.

This alteration is in its progression a real corruption, which is made successively, and which, by degrees, leads to a new generation, or new manner of being; for the harmony of the Universe consists in a different and gradual interior formation of the matter which constitutes it.

This change of form takes place only in the bodies of this inferior world. The cause is not, as some have thought, the contradiction or opposition of the qualities of matter, but its own essence, dark and purely passive, which, not having in itself power to acquire a permanent form, is obliged to receive these different and transient forms of the principle

Of Ahan. 45

which animates it; always according to the end which has | pleased God to give to the genera and species.

To supply this original defect of matter, from which even the body of Man has been formed, God placed Adam in a Terrestrial Paradise, so that he could combat and conquer this caducity by the use of the fruit of the Tree of Life, of which he was deprived, in punishment for his disobedience, and he was condemned to undergo the fate of other individ- uals whom God had not favored with this aid.

The Prima Materia from which all has been made, which serves as a basis for all the composites, seems to have been so mingled and identified in them, after it had received its form from Light, that it could not be separated from them without causing their destruction. Nature has left us an example of this confused and formless mass, in that dry water, which does not moisten, which may be seen rising from mountains, and which exhale from some lakes, impregnated with the germs of things, and which evaporates at the least heat. This dry water is that which forms the basis of the Ars Magna, according to all Philosophers. He who would know how to unite this volatile matter with its male, to extract from it the Elements, and to separate them philo- sophically, could flatter himself, so says d’Espagnet, (E£chz- rid. Phys. restit. can. 49.), that he had in his possession the most precious secret of nature, and even the epitome of the essence of the heavens.

Thus Nature employed from the beginning only two simple principles, from which all that which exists was made, namely, the

passive Prima Materia, and the Luminous Agent which gave

*In the Alchemical Theory, says Albert Poisson, the four Elements, not any more than the three Principles, represent particular substances; they are simply

Of the

Elements.*

76 Tbe Great Art.

it form. The Elements proceeded from their action, as secundary principles, from the different mixture of which was formed a Secunda Materia* subject to the vicissitudes of generation and corruption.

In vain will one imagine to be able by the aid of chemical art to arrive at and separate the Elements absolutely simple and distinct from each other. The human mind does not even know them. Those to which the profane gives the name of elements, are not really simple and homogeneous: they are so mingled and united as to be inseparable.

The perceptible bodies of the earth, the water and the air, which in their spheres are really distinct, are not the first and simple elements which Nature employs in her different generations. They seem to be only the matrix of others. The simple Elements are imperceptible, until their union forms a dense matter, which we call body, to which are joined the gross elements as integral parts. Ex znsenst- bilibus namque omnia confiteare principiis constare, (Lucret. lib, 2). The elements which constitute our globe are too crude and impure to form a perfect generation. Unseason- ably the chemists and physicists attribute to them the prop- erties of the parent-Elements: the Prima Materia and Lumi- nous Agent. The latter are as the soul of the composites, the former only the body. Art is ignorant of the first, and would work in vain to resolve the Mixts into them: this is the work of Nature alone.

On these principles the ancient Philosophers distinguished

_ only three Elements, and imagined the Universe governed by

states of matter, simple modalities. Water is synonymous with the liquid state, Earth with the solid; Air with the gaseous and Fire with that of a very subtle gaseous state, such as a gas expanded by the action of heat ... Moreover, Ele- ments represent, by extension, physical qualities such as heat, (Fire); dryness and solidity, (Earth); moisture and fluidity,(Water); cold and subtility, (Air); Zosimus gives to their ensemble the name of Tetrasomy. ( Théories et Symboles des Alchimistes.) «Secunda Materia, or Seed in Metals.

Of the Elements. T7

three gods, children of Saturn, whom they called sons of Heavens and Earth. The Egyptians, from whom the ancient Greek Philosophers derived their systems, regarded Vulcan as the father of Saturn, if we believe Diodorus of Sicily. Doubtless this is the reason which led them not to place Fire in the number of Elements. But as they supposed that the Fire of Nature, the principle of elementary Fire, had its source in the Heavens, they gave the government of it to Jupiter; and, asa scepter and distinctive mark, they armed him with a thunderbolt with three darts, and gave him fora wife his sister Juno, whom they imagined to preside over the Air. Neptune was placed over the sea, and Pluto over the infernal regions. The poets adopted these ideas of the Philosophers, who, knowing Nature perfectly, saw fit to make only a trine division of it, persuaded that the accidents, which distinguish the inferior region of the air from the superior, did not form a sufficient reason to make a real. distinction. They saw in them only a difference of dry and humid, szccum and humidum, of heat and cold united; which made them imagine the two sexes in the same Element.

Each of the three brothers had a three-pointed scepter as a mark of his empire, and to indicate that each Element, as we see it, is a composition of three. They were, properly speaking, brothers, since they were derived from the same principle, sons of the Heavens and the Earth, that is to say, the first animate matter from which all has been made.

Pluto is called the god of riches and the master of the infernal regions, because the earth is the source of riches, and because nothing torments men as does the thirst for wealth and ambition. |

It is not more difficult to apply the rest of the Fable to Physics. Several authors have interested themselves in this matter, and have demonstrated that the ancients proposed

78 The Great Art.

only to instruct by the invention of these fables. The Her- metic Philosophers, who claim to be the true disciples and imitators of Nature, made a double application of these prin- ciples: seeing in the processes and progress of the Avs Magna the operations of Nature, as in a mirror; they no longer distinguished the one from the other, and explained them in the same manner. Then they compared all that which takes place in the Magzstery, to the successive stages of the crea- tion of the Universe, by a certain analogy which they thought to remark in them. Is it surprising that all their fictions have had these two things for an object? If one reflected, one would not find much of the ridiculous in their myths. If they personified all, it was to render their ideas more obvious; and one would soon recognize that the ridiculous and licentious actions, which they attributed to these imagi- nary gods, were only the operations of Nature, which we see daily without noticing them. Wishing to explain themselves only by allegories, could they suppose things done otherwise and by other actors? Does not our ignorance of Physics give us the foolish privilege of mocking them, and imputing to them ridicule, which they could perhaps easily turn upon us if they were on the earth, to speak in the fashion of the present century? The analysis of the composites, or Mixts, gives us only the szccum and humtdum, whence one must conclude that there are only two perceptible Elements in the composition of bodies, namely, Earth and Water. But the same experiment shows us that two others are concealed in them. The Air is too subtle to strike our eyes: hearing and touch are the only senses which demonstrate to us its exist- ence. As tothe Fire of Nature, it is impossible for Art to manifest it, except by its effects.

Of the Lartb. 79

The Earth is naturally cold, because of its participating more of the nature of the opaque and dark Primal Matter. This cold makes the body heavier and denser; and this density renders it less penetrable to Light, which is the principle of heat. It has been created in the midst of the waters, with which it is always mixed; and the Creator seems to have made it dry on its surface, only to render it suitable for the abode of vege- tables and animals.

The Creator has made the Earth spongy, so that the Air, Water and Fire might have free access, and that the interior Fire, which was infused into it by the spirit of God before the formation of the Sun, (Cosmopol. Tract 4), could press from the center to the surface by its pores the virtues of the Elements, and exhale those humid vapors, which corrupt the germs of things by a slight putrefaction, and prepare them for generation. These germs thus prepared receive the celestial and vivifying heat, and even attracted by a magnetic love, the germ develops, and the seed produces its fruit.

The heat peculiar to the Earth, is fit only for corruption. Its moisture weakens it, and could produce nothing unless aided by the celestial heat, pure and without mixture, which leaves to generation, by exciting the action of the internal fire, by developing it, by expanding it, and by drawing it, to speak thus, from the center of the seed, where it lies torpid and concealed. These two heats by their homogeneity work in concert for the production and preservation of the Mixts. /

All cold is contrary to production. When a matter is of this nature, it becomes passive, and is fit for production only as long as it is aided and corrected by an outside force. The Author of Nature, designing the Earth to be the womb of the composites, warms it consequently, continually by the heat of the Celestial and Central Fire, and joins to it the

Of the arth.

80 The Great Art.

humid nature of Water; so that, aided by the two principles of generation, the warm and the humid, it is not sterile, and becomes the Vase in which are conceived all the generations, (Cosmop. zbtd). One says for this reason, that the Earth contains the other Elements.

It can be divided into two classes, the pure and the impure. The first is the basis of all the composites, and produces all by the mixture of Water and the action of Fire. The second is the garment of the first; it enters as an integral part in the composition of individuals.

The pure is animated by a Fire which vivifies the Mixts, and preserves them in their manner of being, as long as the cold of the impure does not rule, or as long as it is not too much excited and tyrannized over by the artificial and elementary fire, its fratricide. That which is visible in the Earth is fixed, and that which is invisible is volatele.

The density of Water holds the middle place between that of the Air and that of the Earth. It is the MWenstrum* of Nature, and the vehicle of the germs. It is a volatile body, which seems to flee from the attacks of fire, and evaporates at the slightest heat. It is susceptible of all forms, and more changeable than Proteus. Water is a mercury, which, partaking sometimes of the nature of a terra-aqueous body, sometimes of that of an aqua-aerian body, attracts and seeks the virtues of things superior and inferior. It becomes, by this means, the messenger of the gods and their mediator;

Of Water.

*Or Solvent —‘* One has also given the name of Menstrum, however improperly, to Vegetable and Metallic waters, which are regarded as the feminine principle of these two reigns, and in which is placed the matter to be dissolved.”

Pernety, Dict. Mytho-Herm., p 292.

Of Water. 81

through it is maintained the commerce between the heavens and the earth.

An unctious phlegm is diffused in Water, (Mémotre de ? Académie de Berlin). M. Eller has recognized it in his observations: “A water,” said he, “very pure and free from all heterogeneous parts, (in the manner of the common chemist), can suffice for vegetation. It furnishes the earth, the basis of the solidity of plants: it diffuses in it that inflammable, or oily part, which one finds in it.”

Let us take some earth, after having been washed in lye and parched by fire, in which we are certain that there is no germ of plants, let us expose it to the air in a vase, and let us be careful to water it with rain water, it will produce little plants in great number; proof that it is the vehicle of germs.

As Water is of a nature closely approaching that of the First Matter of the World, it becomes easily its symbol, or image. The chaos, whence all was derived, was like a vapor, or a humid substance, similar to a subtle smoke. Light having rarefied it, the heavens were formed of the most subtilized portion; the Air of that which was less so; the elementary Water of that which was a little more terrestrial; and the Earth, of the densest, and as feces, (Raymond Lully, Testam, Anc. Theor... Therefore Water partaking of the nature of the Air and Earth, is placed in the middle. Lighter than the Earth and heavier than Air, it is always mixed with both. Atthe least rarefaction it seems to abandon the Earth to take the nature of the Air; it is condensed by the least cold, it quits the Air, and unites itself with the Earth.

The nature of Water is rather humid than cold, because it is thinner and more open to the Light than the Earth. Water has preserved the humidity of the Prima Materia and of chaos; the Earth has retained its cold.

The siccity is an effect of cold as of heat, and moisture is

82 The Great Art.

the principal subject on which heat and cold act. When the latter is powerful, it condenses the moisture; we see it in snow, ice and hail. From this comes the fall of leaves in autumn. If the cold increases, winter succeeds, the moisture in the plants congeals, the pores close, the stalk becomes weak through lack of nourishment: they finally wither. If the winter is severe, it bears the dryness even to the roots: it attacks the vzto-humidum,; and the plants perish. How can one say after this that cold is a quality of Water, since it is its enemy, and since Nature does not suffer that an Element act upon itself. One speaks, it seems to me, more correctly, when one says that the cold has duzned the plants. Cold and heat burn equally, but in a different manner; heat by expanding, and cold by contracting the parts of the Mixts.

That which Water presents to us visibly is volatile; its interior is fixed. The Airtempers its humidity. That which the Air receives from Fire, it communicates to Water, which in turn communicates it to the Earth.

One may divide this Element into three parts; the suze, the purer, and the purest, (Cosmopol., of Water); from the

latter the heavens have been made; from the purer, the Air; and the simply pure has remained in its sphere: it is the ordinary Water, which forms only one globe with the Earth. These two Elements united make all, because they contain the two others. From their union is born a mud, which Nature uses to form all bodies. This mud is the Matter from which will evolve all generations. It is a kind of chaos, in which the Elements are confounded. Our first father has been formed from it, as well as all the generations which have followed him. From the sperm and the menstrum is formed a mud, and from this mud an animal.

In the production of vegetation the seeds putrefy and change into a slime before germinating. It is then consoli-

Of the Air. 83

dated and grows into a vegetable body. In the generation of the metals, Sulphur and Mercury resolve into a viscous Water, which is a true slime. The decoction coagulates this Water, fixes it more or less, and from it results the minerals and the metals. In the Sophic Work, one first forms a slime of two substances, or principles, after having purified them. As the four Elements are found in them, the Fire preserves the Earth from submersion and entire dissolution: the Air maintains the Fire; the Water preserves the Earth against the violent attacks of the Fire; and acting thus in concert upon each other, there results from them a harmonious whole, which composes what is called the Phzlosopher’s Stone, or the Wicrocosm.

The Air is light, and is not visible; but it contains a substance which corporifies itself, which becomes fixed. Its nature is midway between that which is above and that which is below it; for this reason it takes easily the qualities of its neighbours. Whence come the changes which we experience in the low regions, those of cold, as well as those of heat.

The Air is the receptacle of the germs of all, the sieve of Nature, by which the powers and influences of other bodies are transmitted to us. It penetrates all. It is a very subtle smoke; the fit subject of light and of shadows, of day and night. A body always full, transparent, and most susceptible of foreign qualities, as well as most ready to abandon them. The Philosophers call it Sfzvz¢, when they treat of the Azs Magna. It contains the vital spirits of all bodies; it is the aliment of fire, of vegetation and of animals, who die when deprived of it. Nothing would be born in the world without

Of the Hir.

84 The Great Art.

its penetrating and altering force; and nothing can resist its rarefaction.

The superior region of the Air, next to the moon, is pure without being igneous; as has been long taught in the schools, according to the opinion of some of the ancients. Its purity is contaminated by none of the vapours which rise from the lower region.

The middle region receives the most subtle sulphurous exhalation, free from the gross vapours. They wander in it, and are set on fire from time to time by their movements and the different shocks which they undergo among them- selves. These are the different meteors which we perceive in the middle region.

In the lower region, the vapours of the earth rise and mingle. They are condensed by the cold and fall by their own weight. Thus Nature purifies Water to render it fit for her productions. This is why one distinguishes the superior waters from the inferior. The latter are near the earth, they are supported upon it as on their foundation and form only one globe with it. The superior waters occupy the lower region of the air, where they are raised in the form of vapours and clouds, and where they wander at the will of the winds. The air is full of them at all times; but they are manifest to our sight only in part, when they are condensed into clouds. This is the consequence of creation. God separated the waters of the firmament from those which were below. It should not be surprising that all the waters, united, have been able to cover the entire surface of the earth, and to cause an universal deluge, since they covered it before God had separated them, (Gex. Chap.V). These humid masses which hover over our heads are like travellers, who go to collect the riches of all countries, and return to benefit their native land.

Of Fire. 85

Some of the ancients placed Fire as a fourth Element, in the highest region of the Air, be- cause they regarded it as the lightest and most subtle. But the Fire of Nature does not differ from the Celestial Fire; this is why Moses makes no mention of it in Genesis, because he had said that Light was created on the first day.

The fire which we use ordinarily is partly natural and partly artificial The Creator has placed in the sun an igneous spirit, the principle of movement and of gentle heat, such as is necessary to Nature for her operations. It com- municates it to all bodies, and by exciting and developing the Fire which is innate in them, it preserves the principle of generation and of life. Each individual partakes of it more or less. He who seeks in Nature another element of Fire, is ignorant of what the sun and light are.

It is placed in the Mozst Radical as its proper seat. With animals it seems to have established its chief domicile in the heart, which communicates it to all parts, as the sun does to all the Universe.

The Fire of Nature is her first agent. It reduces the germs from potentiality to actuality. Assoon as it no longer acts, all apparent movement and all vital action ceases. The principle of movement is light, and movement is the cause of heat. This is why the absence of the sun and of light has such a great effect upon bodies. Heat penetrates to the interior of the most opaque and hardest substances, and animates the hidden and torpid nature. Light penetrates only transparent bodies, and its property is to manifest the perceptible accidents of the composites. Thus the sun is the first natural and universal agent.

In departing from the sun light strikes the dense bodies, the celestial as well as the terrestrial; it places their faculties

Of Fire.

86 | The Great Art.

in movement, carries them with it, reflects them and diffuses them in the upper Air as well as in the lower. Air having a disposition to mix with the Water and the Earth, becomes the vehicle of these faculties, and communicates them to the bodies which are formed of them, or which are by analogy most susceptible of them. These are the faculties which are called zzfluences. Many natural philosophers deny their existence, because they do not know them.

One divides Fire into three kinds, the Celestial, the Terrestrial, or Simple, and the Artificial. The first is the principle of the other two and is divided into Universal and Particular. The Universal diffused everywhere, excites and puts in movement the forces of bodies ; it warms and pre- serves the germs of things infused into our globe, destined to serve as their makers. It develops the particular Fire; it mixes the elements and gives form to matter.

The particular Fire is innate, and implanted in each mixture with its germ. It acts little, except when excited; it then does, in the part of the Universe, what the sun, its father, does in the whole.

Everywhere there is production, there must be Fire, as the efficient cause. The ancients thought as we:

Inde hominum pecudumque genus, viteque volantum,

Et que marmoreo fert monstra sub @quore pontus.

Lgneus est tllis vigor, et celestis origo

Semenibus. —Virg. Aineid. 1. 6. But it is surprising that they have admitted a contradiction between Fire and Water, since there is no Water without Fire and since they always act in concert in the generations of individuals.

Every discerning eye must, on the contrary, remark a love, a sympathy which causes the preservation of the Universe, the cube of Nature, and the strongest bond, to unite the

Of Fire. 87

Elements and the superior with the inferior things. This love is, to speak thus, what we should call Nature, the Minister of the Creator, who employs the Elements to execute His will according to the laws which He has imposed upon them. Everything is done in the World in peace and unity, which cannot be an effect of hatred and contradiction. Nature would not be so like to herself in the formation of individuals of the same species, if all was not done in con- cert. We would see only monsters proceed from the hetero- geneous germs of fathers perpetually hostile, constantly at war with each other. Do we see the animals work through hatred and contradiction for the propagation of their species ? Let us judge the other operations of Nature by this : her laws are simple and uniform.

Let philosophy cease to attribute the alteration, the corrup- tion, the decay of the Mixts to a pretended antagonism of the elements; it is found in the penury and weakness peculiar to the First Matter; for in chaos Frigzda non pugnabant calidis, humentia siccts. All was cold and humid, qualities which belong to Matter, considered as feminine. The warm and the dry, masculine and formal qualities, have come to it from Light, from which it has received its forms. Thus it is only after the retreat of the Waters that the Earth was called arid or dry.

We see continually that heat and dryness give form to everything. A potter would never succeed in making a vase, if dryness does not give to the clay a certain degree of adhe- sion and solidity. If the earth is too moist, too soft, it is a mud, which has no determined form.

Such was chaos, before the heat, or Light, had rarefied it, and caused the evaporation of a part of its moisture. The parts drew closer together, the clay of chaos became earth,

88 The Great Art.

and an earth of a consistency fit to serve as the material in the formation of all the composites in Nature.

Thus heat and dryness are only accidental qualities of the First Matter. It has been endowed with them on receiving its form, (Genesis, Chap. J). Thus itis not said in Genesis that God found chaos very good, as He did Light and other things. The abyss seems to have acquired a degree of perfec- tion, only when it began to produce. Confusion, lack of form, and opaque density, a coldness, a crude moisture, and powerlessness, were its characteristics; qualities which indi- cate an ill body, inclined to corruption. It has preserved something of this original fault, and has infected with it all the bodies which have proceeded from it, to be placed in this lower region. This is why all the composites have a tran- sient manner of being, in regard to the determination of their individual and specific form.

Howsoever opposed light and shadow may seem to be, since they have concurred, the one as agent, the other as patient, in the formation of the Universe, they have made by this agreement of their contrary qualities, an almost unalter- able treaty of peace, which has passed into their homogene- ous family of the Elements, whence has resulted the peaceful generation of all individuals. Nature is pleased in combina- tion and does all by proportion, weight and measure, and not by contradiction. |

Est modus in rebus sunt certt denique fines, Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum. —ffor. Art. Poét.

Each element has, peculiar to itself, one of the qualities of which we speak. Warmth, dryness, cold and moisture are the four wheels which Nature employs to produce the slow, graduated and circular movement which she seems to affect in the formation of all her works.

Of Fire. 89

Fire, her universal agent, is the principle of elementary fire. The latter is nourished by all fat matters, because all that which is fat is of a humid and aerial nature. Although, externally, it may appear dry to us, as sulphur, gunpowder, etc., experience teaches us that this exterior conceals a fat, oily moisture, which is resolved by the action of heat.

Those who have imagined that it was formed in the air- principle of hard bodies such as aerolites, have been mis- taken, if they have regarded them as terrestrial bodies. It is a substance which belongs to the gross element of Water: a fat, viscous humour, enclosed in the clouds as in a furnace, where it condensed and mixed with the sulphurous exhala- tions, which are warm and very inflammable. The air, which is too much compressed by this condensation, is rare- fied by heat, and produces the same effect as gunpowder in a bomb: the vessel breaks, the fire diffused in the air, freed from its bonds by this movement, produces that light and noise, which often startle the most intrepid.

Our artificial and common fire has properties exactly con- trary to the Fire of Nature, although derived from it. It is the enemy of all production; it is maintained only by the ruin of bodies; it is nourished only by rapine; it reduces all to ashes, and destroys all that which the other forms. It is a parricide; the greatest enemy of Nature; and if we did not know how to oppose obstacles to its fury, it would destroy all. Is it surprising that the “broilers” * see all perish in their hands, their property and health vanish in smoke, and useless ashes as their only resource?

M. Stahl is not the first, as M. Pott states, who has given reasonable and connected ideas as to the substance of Fire which is found in bodies; but he is the first who has reasoned

*Quack Alchemists.

90 The Great Art.

concerning it under the name of Phlogiston.* One has seen the sentiment of the Hermetic Philosophers on this subject. It is only necessary to open their books to be convinced that they know this agent of Nature perfectly; and that M. Pott states unseasonably that the authors anterior to M. Stahl lost themselves in continual obscurity and innumer- able contradictions. Perhaps he speaks only of the common chemists and physicists; but in that case he should have made an exception of the Hermetic Chemists, whom he has doubtless read, and whom he has so happily met, in his Treatise on Five and Light, printed with the French transla- tion of his Lzthogeognosta. M. Stahl had studied them care- fully. He furnishes a proof of this, not only by having reasoned as they on this matter, but by the great number of quotations which he has made from them in his Treatise enti- tled: Fundamenta Chemie dogmatice et experimentalis. He gives to Mercury the name Dry Water, name which the Her- metic Philosophers give to theirs. Basil Valentin, Phila- lethes, and several others, are quoted in this respect. He even distinguishes the common chemist from the Hermetic Chemist, (part 1, page 124), by naming the first Physic? com- munes, and the second Chymzcz aliz. In the same part of the same work, (fage 2), he says that Isaac of Holland, Arnaud de Villeneuve, Raymond Lully, Basil Valentin, Trithéme, Paracelsus, etc., have made themselves commendable in Chemical Art.

Far from scorning and rejecting as faults, as do so many others, all that these authors say, this able man contents

* Fixed Fire, Fire inherent to bodies. It is the inflammable matter, or Sulphur- principle of substances. ... This quality is found in all the beings in Nature. It abounds in the fatty or oily parts of the animal, these parts the most susceptible of inflammation. M. Wipacher, (Dissertation imprimée parmi les Eléments de Chymie de Boerhave), regards the animal spirits as an igneous matter, to which he gives the name of Automatic Phlogiston.

Pernety, Dict. Mytho-Herm. p. 281.

Of the Operations of Wature. 91

himself with speaking as they, and says, (p. /§3), that they have expressed themselves in enigmas and allegories, in order to conceal their secret from the people, and that they seem to have affected contradiction only to place ignorant readers upon the wrong track. He enlarges still more on this matter, (f. 279), where he calls the Hermetic Chemists by the name of Philosophers. One can employ this denomi- nation after such a great man. We will have occasion to speak of Mr. Pott, in treating of Light and its effects.

The proximity of the Water and the Earth causes them to be almost always mingled. The Water dilutes the Earth; the Earth thickens the Water; from them is formed clay. If this mixture is exposed to a lively heat, each visible element returns to its sphere, and the form of the body is destroyed.

Placed between the Earth and the Air, Water is really the cause of the revolutions, the disorder, the tumult, and the ruin which we remark in the air and the earth. It obscures the air by black and dangerous vapours, it inundates the earth: it carries corruption into both, and by its abundance or scarcity, it disturbs the order of the seasons and of Nature. Finally, it is the cause of as many misfortunes as benefits.

Some of the ancients have said that the sun presided | ‘especially over Fire, and the moon over Water, because they regarded the sun as the source of the Fire of Nature, and the moon as the principle of moisture. This has caused Hippocrates to say, (Lz. 7, de Divtd.), that the elements of Fire and of Water could do all, because they contained all.

Sublimation, distillation and concoction are three instruments or methods of operating which Nature employs to perfect her works. By the first she throws off the superfluous moisture, which

Of the Operations

of ature.

92 The Great Art.

would smother the Fire, and hinder its action in the earth, its matrix.

By distillation she returns to the earth the moisture of which vegetation, or heat, have deprived it. Sublimation is made by the elevation of vapours in the air, where they are condensed into clouds. The second is made by rain and dew. Fair weather succeeds rain, and rain fair weather, alternately; a continual rain would inundate everything: perpetual fair weather would wither all. Rain falls drop by drop, because if poured down too abundantly it would destroy all, as a gardener who would water his grains by bucket full. Thus Nature distributes her benefits with weight, measure and proportion.

Concoction is a digestion of the crude humours instilled in the bowels of the Earth, a ripening, and a conversion of this humour into food by means of its secret fire.

These three operations are so connected, that the end of one is the beginning of the other. The aim of sublimation is to convert a heavy thing into a light one; and exhalation into vapour; to reduce a thick and impure substance, and to despoil it of its faeces;* to cause these vapours to assume the virtues and properties of superior things; and finally to free the Earth of a superfluous humour which would hinder its productions.

Scarcely are these vapours sublimated, when they are con- densed into rain, and spiritual and invisible though they were, they become a moment after a dense and aqueous body, to fall again on the Earth and to soak it with the celestial nectar by which it has been impregnated during its abode in the air. As soon as the Earth has received it, Nature works to digest and to ripen it.

* Which Sir Ripley calls Terra damnata, it is also designated as Caput Mortuum. They are the heterogeneous parts of a Composite, those which remain from the body after the elimination of its pure philosophical elements. E. B.

Of the Operations of Mature. 93

Each animal, the lowest worm, is a little world in which all these things take place. If man seeks the world outside of himself, he will find it everywhere. The Creator has made an infinity of them from the same matter; their form alone is different. Thus humility becomes Man, and glory belongs to God only.

Water contains a ferment, a spirit, a life, by which it has become impregnated while wandering through the air, which proceeds from the superior natures to the inferior, and which is finally deposited in the bosom of the Earth. This ferment is a germ of life, without which men, animals and vegetables could not live and could not produce. Every- thing in Nature breathes; and man does not live by bread alone, but by this aerial spirit which he continually inhales. :

God and Nature, His minister, alone know how to com- mand the primal material elements of bodies. Art could not approach them. But the three, which result from them, become sensible in the resolution of the Mixts. Chemists name them Sulphur, Salt and Mercury.* These are the ele- ments principied. Mercury is formed by the mixture of Water and Earth; Sulphur, of Earth and Air; Salt, of Air and Water condensed. The Fire of Nature is added to these as a formal principle. Mercury is composed of an oily, viscous Earth and a limpid Water; Sulphur of very dry, very subtle Earth, mixed with the moisture of the Air;

* Sulphur in a metal represents its colour, combustibility, its faculty of attack- ing other metals, its hardness.

Mercury: its brilliancy, volatility, fusibility, malleability.

Salt: mean uniting Sulphur and Mercury.—Sulphur, Mercury, Salt are conse- quently abstract words serving to designate the ensemble of properties.

F. Jollivet-Castelot: Comment on devient Alchimiste, Paris, 1897.

The Universal Sulphur is invariably considered as the father. To a certain point of view, Mercury is the mother, and Salt the child.

Stanislas de Guaita: La Clef dela Magie Noire, p. 727.

94 Ube Great Art.

Salt of a thick, ponderous Earth and a crude Air which finds itself entangled with it. (See the Physzque Souterraine, by Beccher).

Democritus* has said that all the Mixts were composed of atoms; this belief seems not to be far from the truth, when we notice what reason dictates and experience demonstrates to us. This philosopher, as the others, has verified, under this obscure manner of explaining himself, the true mixture of the Elements, which in order to be conformable to the operations of Nature, must be made intimately, or, as we say, per minima et actu tndivisibilia corpuscula. Without this the parts would not make acontinuous whole. The Mixts are resolved into a very subtle vapour by artificial distillation; and is not Nature amore skilful workman than the most experienced man? This is all that Democritus has wished to

say.

We notice three manners of being, (Cosmop. Nov. lum. Chem. Tr. 7), which constitute three genera, or three classes, called Azzgdoms, the Animal, the Vegetable and the Mineral. Minerals are pro- duced in the earth alone; vegetables have their roots in the earth, and rise in the water and the air; animals are born in the air, the water and the earth; and air is a life-principle of all.

Whatsoever different the Mixts appear to be as to their exterior form, they do not differ in principle, (Cosmop. Tract. 2), the Earth and Water serve as a basis for all, and the Air enters into their composition only as an instrument, as does Fire. The Light acts upon the Air, the Air on the Water,

*Greek Mystagogue and Alchemist, born in Thrace 460 B. C., founder of the atomic system.

Of the General

Aspects of mMirxts.

The Mineral. 95

the Water on the Earth. Water often becomes the instru- ment of mixture in works of Art, but this mixture is only superficial; we see it in bread, bricks, etc. There is another intimate mixtion which Beccher calls Central, (Phys. sud. sect. [.,ch. 4). tis that one by which the Water is so mixed with the Earth that they can not be separated without de- stroying the form of the Mixt. We will not enter into the detail of the different degrees of this cohesion, as we wish to be brief. All this can be seen in the work just quoted.

Of the Differences between the Three Ringdoms.

We say ordinary of minerals that they exist, and not that they live, as we say of animals and vegetables; nevertheless we may say that the metals derive life in some manner from the minerals, either because in their generation there is, so to speak, a union of male and female under the name of Sulphur and Mercury, which by fermentation, circulation and continuous concoction, are purified by the aid of the Salt in Nature, and finally are formed into a mass which we call metals; or because the perfect metals contain a principle of life, or innate Fire, which become weak and without movement under the hard exterior which encloses it; a principle which is concealed there as a treasure, until being freed by a philosophical solution of this exterior, it is developed and exalted by a vegetative movement, to the highest degree of perfection which Art can give it.

The

Mineral.

96 The Great Art.

A vegetative soul or spirit animates plants; by it they grow and multiply. But they are deprived of the feeling and movement of animals. Their germs are hermaphrodite, although natural- ists have remarked two sexes in almost all vegetables. The vegetative and incorruptible spirit is developed in the fer- mentation and putrefaction of the germs. When the grain decavs in the earth without germinating, this spirit joins its sphere again.

The Wegetable.

Animals have, above minerals and vegetables, a sensitive soul, the principle of their life and movement. They are, one may say, the com- plement of Nature as far as sublunary beings are concerned. God has distinguished and separated the two sexes in this kingdom, so that from two there should come athird. Thus in the most perfect things is manifested more perfectly the image of the Trinity.

Man is the sovereign prince of this lower world. All his faculties are admirable. The troubles which rise in his mind, his agitations, his anxieties are as the winds, the lightnings, the thunders, the whirlwinds and meteors which take place in the Macrocosm. His heart, his blood, all his body even, are agitated by them, but they are as the trembling of the earth and everything proves in him that he is truly the epitome of the Universe. Was not David right in exclaim- ing that God is infinitely admirable in all His works, (Psalm gi, v. 6 and 138, v. I4)?

The Animal.

All perfect Mixts which have life, have a soul, or spirit, and a body. The body is com- posed of clay, or Earth and Water; the soul, which gives form to the Mixts, is a spark of the Fire of Nature, —

Of the Soul

of Wixts.

Of the Soul of Mixts. 97

or an imperceptible ray of Light, which acts in the Mixts according to the actual arrangement of the Matter, and the perfection of the specific organs in each of them. If the beasts have a soul, it differs from their mind only in degree.

The specific forms of the composites, or, if one prefers, their soul, preserve some knowledge of their origin. The soul of Man reflects often upon the divine Light. It seems to wish to penetrate into that sanctuary, accessible to God alone: it strives continually to reach it, and finally returns to it. The souls of animals, these beings, which a secret motive of Heavens has placed here below, and which derive their organization from the treasures of the sun, the souls of animals seem to have a sympathy with this star by the dif- ferent omens of its rising, of its setting, even of the move- ment of the heavens, and of the changes of temperature in the air, which their movements announce to us.

Supported by the air, and almost entirely aerial, the souls of vegetables push the head of their stalk as high as possible, as if eager to return to their native land.

Rocks, stones, formed of Water and of Earth, are baked in the earth as in a potter’s oven, this is why they incline to the earth as if making parts of it. But the precious stones and metals are more favored by celestial influences; the first are as the tears of Heaven, anda congealed celestial dew; for this reason the Ancients attributed to them so many virtues. The sun and the stars seem to have also a particular care for the metals, and one would say that Nature leaves to them the duty to give them their form. The soul of metals is, we may say, imprisoned in their material envelope; the Philosopher’s Fire can draw it from this envelope and make it producea son worthy of the sun, and an admirable quintessence, which draws Heavens near to us.

Light is the principle of life, and shadow of death. The

98 The Great Art.

souls of the Mixts are rays of Light, and their bodies are abysses of shadows. Everything lives by Light, and every- thing which dies is deprived of it. It is because of this prin- ciple, to which we pay so little attention, that we say com- monly of a dead man, z/ a perdu la lumiére, (he has lost Oe light); and as Saint John says, “Light zs the life of men,” (Evang., ch. I).

Each composite has faculties which are panties tonite far as animals are concerned, we need only to reflect upon their actions to be convinced of this. Thetime of mating, which is so well known to them, the just distribution of parts in the progeny; the use which they make of each member; the attention and care which they give to the nourishment and defense of their young; their different affections, of pleasure, of fear, of good will toward their masters, their dis- position to receive instructions, their skill in procuring the necessaries of life, their prudence in shunning that which could injure them, and many other things which an observer may notice, prove that their soul is endowed with a kind of reasoning.

Vegetables have also a mental faculty, and a method of knowing and foreseeing. The vital faculties are with them the care of producing their like, the multiplicative, nutritive, augmentative, sensitive and other virtues. Their idea is manifested in the presage of the weather, and the knowledge of the temperature which is favorable to them to germinate and shoot forth their stalks; their strict observation of climatic changes, as laws of Nature, in the choice of the aspect of the heavens which is suitable for them; in the manner of burying their roots; of elevating their stalks; of extending their branches; of developing theirleaves; of form- ing and coloring their fruits; of transmuting the elements into food; of infusing into their germs a prolific virtue.

Generation and Corruption of the Mixts. 99

Why do certain plants grow only in certain seasons, although one sows them as soon as they are mature, or they are sown by the natural fall of their grains? They have their vegetative principle, and yet they will develop it only at certain times, unless art furnishes them that which they would find in the season suitable for them. Why doesa plant sown in bad ground, adjacent to good soil, why does it direct its roots to the side of the latter? What teaches an onion placed in the earth, germ downwards, to direct it towards the air? Why do ivy and other plants of the same species, direct their feeble branches towards the trees which can sustain them? Why does the pumpkin push its fruit with all its strength towards a vase of water placed near it? What is it that teaches plants, in which one remarks the two sexes, to place themselves almost always the male near the female, and often very much inclined toward each other? Let us confess that all this passes our understanding; that Nature is not blind, and that she is governed by Wisdom.

Be tae Goveration Everything returns to its principle. Each | and Corruption | individual exists in potentiality in the mat- aldaeiahi erial world before appearing in its individual form, and will return inits timeand in its order to the point whence it has departed, as the rivers in the sea, to be born again in their turn, (Zccles., ch. [. v. 5). It 1s perhaps thus that Pythagoras understood his metempsychosis which has not been comprehended.

When the Mixt is dissolved, because of the weakness of the corruptible elements which compose it, the ethereal part abandons it, and returns to its native country. Then derangement, disorder and confusion take place in the parts

100 The Great Art.

of the corpse, because of the absence of that which preserved order in it. Death, corruption, take possession of it, until this matter receives anew the celestial influences, which reuniting the scattered Elements, will render them suitable for a new generation.

This vivifying spirit does not separate from matter during generative putrefaction, because it is not an entire and perfect corruption, as that which produces the destruction of the Mixt. It is a corruption combined and caused by this same spirit, to give to matter the form which suits the indi- vidual which it is to animate. It is some time in a state of inactivity, as we see in the germs; but it only needs to be excited. As soon as it is, it places the matter in movement; and the more it acts, the more it acquires new forces until it has finished the perfecting of the Mixt.

Let the materialists, the ridiculous partisans of chance in the formation and preservation of composites, examine what we have said, and reflect upon it seriously and without preju- dice; and let them then say how an imaginary being, can be the efficient cause of something real and so well combined. Let them follow this Nature step by step, her processes, the means that she employs and her results. They will see, if they do not close their eyes to the light, that the genera- tion of the composites has a determined time; that everything in the Universe is made by weight and measure, and that only an Infinite Wisdom could preside over it.

The Elements begin their generation by putrefaction. They are resolved into a humid nature or First Matter; then chaos is made, and from this chaos generation. Thus rightly do Physicists say that preservation is a continual creation since the generation of each individual corresponds to the creation and preservation of the Macrocosm. Nature is al- ways consistent; she has only one right way, from which

Generation and Corruption of the Mizts. 101

she departs only because of insurmountable obstacles, then she makes monsters.

Life is the harmonious result of the union of Matter with) Form, which constitutes the perfection of the individual. Death is the appointed limit where the disunion and separa- tion of Form from Matter takes place. One begins to die as soon as this separation begins, and the dissolution of the Mixt is the end.

Everything which lives, whether vegetable or animal, has need of nourishment for its preservation, and there are two kinds of food. Vegetables are nourished not less on air than on water and earth. The bosom of the earth would soon be exhausted if not continually replenished with the Ethereal Milk. Moses expresses this perfectly in the terms of the benediction which he gave to the sons of Joseph: De benedic- tione Domini terra egus,; de pomis celi et rore atque abysso subjacente, de pomts fructuum Solis et Lune; de poms collium aternorum, de vertice antiquorum montium: et de frugibus terra, et de plenitudine ejus, etc., (Deuter. 3}).

Would Nature have taken the care to place the lungs, those admirable and indefatigable bellows, near the heart simply to refresh it? No, they have a more important office: it is to inhale and to transmit to the heart this ethereal spirit, which comes to the aid of the vital spirits; repairs! their loss and multiplies them sometimes. This is why we breathe oftener when much agitated, because a greater waste of spirits then takes place, and Nature seeks to repair this loss. |

Philosophers give the name of sfzrzts, or spirttual natures, not only to immaterial beings, who can be known only by the intellect, such as angels and demons, but also to those which, although material, cannot be perceived by the senses because of their great tenuity. Pure air, or Ether, is of this

102 Che Great Art.

nature, as are the influences of celestial bodies, Innate Fire, seminal, vital, vegetable spirits, etc. They are the ministers of Nature, who seems to act upon Matter only by means of them.

_ The Fire of Nature is manifested in animals only by the heat which it excites. When it is withdrawn death takes its place, the elementary body or corpse remains entire until putrefaction begins. This Fire is too weak in the vegetables to become apparent even to the sense of touch. :

We do not know what is the nature of common fire; its matter is so tenuous that it is manifested only by the other bodies to which it attaches itself. Coal is not fire, nor is the wood which burns, nor the flame, which is only an inflamed smoke. It appears to be extinguished and to vanish when food is lacking to it. It must be an effect of Light on combustible bodies.

The origin of Light proves to us its spiritual

Of Ligbt.* nature. Before matter began to receive its

form, God created Light; it was immediately

diffused in matter, which served as the wick for its mainte-

nance. The manifestation of Light was, we may say, the

act which God exercised upon Matter; the first marriage of the Creator with the creature, of the spirit with the body.

At first diffused everywhere, Light seemed to collect in the

sun, aS several rays unite ina point. The light of the sun

is consequently a luminous spirit, inseparably attached to

*It is the Universal Agent, the Universal Plastic Mediator, the common recep- tacle of vibrations, of Movement and of the images of Form, Maya.

This Universal Agent, is the Od 3) of the Hebrews and of Chevalier deReichem- bach, the Astral Light of the Martinists. The use and manipulation of this force constitutes the Grand Arcanum of Practical Magic.

F, Jollivet-Castelot, Comment On devient Alchimiste, p. 282.

The Universal Light when magnetizing the world, is called Astral Light : when it forms the metals, it is named AzorH or Sophic Mercury. ... Eliphas Lévi,

Of Light. 103

this star, whose rays are clothed with particles of Ether in order to become sensible to our eyes. They are streams which flow continually from an inexhaustible source, and which diffuse themselves throughout the vast extent of the Universe.

Yet, we must not conclude that these rays are purely spiritual. They are corporified with Ether, as the flame with the smoke. If we furnish in our hearths a perpetually smoky fuel we will have a perpetual flame.

The nature of Light is to flow continually: and we have agreed to call rays those effluxions of the sun mixed with Ether. Yet, we must not confound Light with the ray, or with the splendour and brightness. Light is the cause; brightness the effect.

When a lighted candle is extinguished the igneous and luminous spirit, which inflames the wick, is not lost, as is commonly believed. Its action simply disappears when food is lacking to it. It is diffused in the air, which is the receptacle of Light, and of the spiritual nature of the material world.

So bodies return by resolution to the matter whence they have been derived; so also, the natural forms of individuals return to the universal forms, or Light, which is the vivifying spirit of the Universe. One must not confound this spirit with the rays of the sun, since there are only the vehicle of it. It penetrates even to the center of the earth, when the sun is not on our horizon.

Light is for us a vivid image of Divinity. Divine love being unable, to speak thus, to contain itself in itself; has been diffused outside itself and multiplied in creation. So Light is not confined to luminous bodies: it is scattered, it is multiplied, it is as God, an inexhaustible source of benefit. It is communicated always without any diminution; it seems

104 The Great Art.

even to acquire new strength by this communication, as a master who, by imparting knowledge to his pupil, strengthens his own.

This igneous spirit, born into bodies by the rays, is easily distinguished fromthem. The latter are communicated only as long as they find in their way no opaque bodies which arrest their course. The former penetrates even the most dense bodies, since we feel the heat on the side of a wall opposite to that on which the rays fall, although they have not been able to penetrate it. This heat exists even after the rays have disappeared with the luminous body.

Every transparent body, glass especially, transmits this igneous and luminous spirit without transmitting the rays: this is why the air, which is behind, in furnishing a new body to this spirit, becomes illuminated and forms new rays, which are diffused as the first ones. Besides, every transparent body, while serving as a means to transmit this spirit, not only finds itself enlightened, but becomes luminous; and this increase of brightness is easily manifested to those who notice it. This augmentation of splendour would not take place, if the transparent body transmitted the rays as it receives them.

Mr. Pott appears to have adopted these ideas of the Her- metic Philosophers regarding Light, in his Essay: Of chemical and physical observations on the properties and effects of Light and Fire. He has agreed perfectly with d’Espagnet, whose sentiments I here analyze and who lived about a century and a half ago. The observations which this learned professor of Berlin brings forward, all agree in proving the truth of what we have said. He calls Light the eveat and marvellous agent of Nature. He says that its substance, because of the tenuity of its parts, cannot be examined by number, measure or weight; that chemistry cannot expose its exterior form, because it cannot be thought of in any substance, much less

Of Light. 105

expressed; that its dignity and excellence are announced in the Sacred Scriptures, where God causes Himself to be called by the name of Light and of Fire: since it is said that God is Light, that He dwells in Light; that Light is His Vest- ment; that life consists in Light, that He makes His angels flames of Fire, etc., and finally, that several persons regard Light rather as a spiritual being than a corporeal substance.

In reflecting on Light, the first thing, says this author, which is presented to my eyes and my mind, is the Light of the sun; and I presume that the sun is the source of all the Light found in Nature; that all Light returns to it as in its circle of revolutions, and that from it it is sent anew upon our globe.

I do not think, adds he, that the sun contains a burning, destructive fire; but it encloses a substance luminous, pure, simple and concentrated, which enlightens all. I regard Light as a substance which delights, which animates, and which produces brightness; in a word, I regard it as the first instrument which God employed, and as the one which He still employs in Nature. Whence comes the worship which some pagans have rendered to the sun; whence the fable of Prometheus, who stole Fire from Heaven, to communicate it to the earth.

Although Mr. Pott does not approve apparently, he does, in reality, support the sentiment of those who make Ether a vehicle of the substance of Light, because, says he, they mul- tiply beings without necessity. But if Light isa simple being, as he avows, could it be manifested except through some sensible substance? It has the property of penetrating very subtle bodies by its tenuity, which is superior to that of the air, and by its progressive movement, which is more rapid than we can imagine; but he does not dare to decide whether it is due to a spiritual substance, although he is certain that the moving principle is as ancient as this substance itself.

106 The Great Art.

Movement, as movement, does not produce Light, but manifests it in suitable substances. It shows itself only in mobile bodies, that is to say, in an extremely subtle matter, adapted to the rapid movement, whether this matter flows immediately from the sun, or its atmosphere, and penetrates to us; or whether, (which appears, says he, more probable), the sun puts in movement those extremely subtle substances of which our atmosphere is full.

This is, then, a vehicle of Light, and a vehicle which does not differ from Ether; since this Savant adds, further on: “Tt 7s also the cause of the movement of Light which acts on our Ether, and which comes principally and most efficaciously from the sun,” This vehicle is not, even according to him, a being multiplied without necessity.

He distinguishes Fire from Light, and notes their differ- ences; but after having said that Light produces brightness, he here confounds the latter with the luminous principle, as one may conclude from the instances which he relates. I would have concluded from them that there is a Fire and a Light which do not burn, that is to say, which do not destroy the bodies in which they are adherent; but not that there is a Light without Fire. This lack of distinction between the principle, or cause of the splendour and brightness, and the effect of this cause, is the source of an infinite number of errors in regard to this matter.

Perhaps it is only the mistake of the translator who may have employed the terms Light and brightness, indifferently as being synonymous. I would be much inclined to believe this, since Mr. Pott, immediately after having related the different phenomena of phosphorescent substances, rotten wood, glow worms, burned clay rubbed, etc., says, that the substance of Light in its purity, or separated from every other body, does not permit itself to be perceived; that we

Of Light. 107

treat it surrounded by an envelope, and that we know its presence only by induction. This is to distinguish Light, properly speaking, from the brightness which is the effect of it. With this distinction it is easy to explain a great num- ber of phenomena which would remain incomprehensible without it. ©

Heat, although the effect of movement, is, we may say, identified with it. Light being the principle of Fire, is the principle of movement and of heat. The latter being only a lesser degree of Fire, or the movement produced by a more moderate Fire, more distant from the affected body, it is to this movement that water owes its fluidity, since without this cause it becomes ice.

One must not confound elementary Fire with the fire of the cook-stove, and one must observe that the former becomes an actual burning fire only when combined with combustible substances; of itself it gives neither flame, nor Light. Thus the Phlogiston, ora substance oily, sulphurous, resinous, is not the principle, but simply the matter suitable to maintain and manifest it.*

The arguments of Mr. Pott prove that the opinions of d’Espagnet and other Hermetic Philosophers, in regard to Fire and Light, are very reasonable and conformable to the most exact Physico-chemical observations, since they agree with this learned professor of Chemistry in the Academy of Sciences and Belles-Lettres of Berlin. So these Philoso- phers understood Nature: and since they understood her, why not try to lift the obscure veil under which they have concealed her processes by their enigmatical, allegorical and

*A substance quite analogous to the Philosopher’s Fire is Oxygen, a gas without the presence of which combustion is impossible, although incombustible itself; and quite opposite to Hydrogen, which burns in the air although incapable of maintaining combustion. E. B.

Sa a

108 The Great Att.

mythical discourses, rather than to scorn their reasonings because they appear unintelligible, or to accuse them of ignorance and deceit ?

The igneous spirit, the vivifying principle gives life and vigour to the Mixts, but this Fire would soon consume them, if its activity was not tempered by the aqueous humour which binds them together. This moisture circulates continually in all things. It makes a revolution in the Universe, by means of which some of the Mixts are formed, or nourished, or even in- creased in volume, while its evaporation and absence causes others to perish.

All the machinery of the world composes only one body, all the parts of which are bound by means which partake of the nature of the extremes. This bond is hidden, this knot is secret; but it is not the less real, and it is by means of it that all these parts lend themselves to mutual aid, since there

Of the Preservation of Mixts.

'is a relation, and a true commerce between them. The emissary spirits of the superior natures make and maintain

this communication; some go away while others come; some return to their source while others descend from it; the last come takes their place, the others depart in their turn, still others succeed them; and by this continual flux and reflux Nature is renewed and maintained. These are the wings of Mercury, by the aid of which this messenger of the gods made such frequent visits to the inhabitants of the Heavens and the Earth.

This circular succession of spirits is made by two means,

_rarefication and condensation, which Nature employs to

_spiritualize bodies and to corporify spirits; or, if one wishes, ‘to thin the gross elements, to open them, to elevate them to

Of the Moist Radical. 109

the subtle nature of spiritual matters, and then make them | return to the nature of the gross and corporeal elements. They undergo continually such metamorphosis. The air fur- nishes water a thin aerial substance which begins to corpori- fy; water communicates it to the earth, where it 1s corporified still more. It then becomes food for mineral and vegetables. In the latter it becomes stalk, bark, leaves, flowers, fruit, in a word, a corporeal palpable substance.

In the animal, Nature separates the most subtle, the most spiritual part of solid and liquid food, to change it in the principle of nourishment. It changes and specifies the purest substance into sperm, flesh, bone, etc., and leaves the grossest and most heterogeneous parts for the excrements. Art imitates Nature in her resolutions and compositions.

The life and preservation of individuals con- sists in the close union of form and matter. The knot, the bond, which forms this union, consists in that of the Innate Fire with the Humid Radical. This humidity is the purest, the most digested portion of matter, and an oil extremely rectified by the alembics of Nature. The germs of things contain much of this Moist Radical, in which a spark of celestial Fire is nourished; and when placed ina suitable matrix, causes, when constantly aided, all that is necessary for production.

We find something immortal in this Humid Radical; the death of the Mixts does not cause it to vanish or to disappear. It resists even the most violent fire, since it may be found in the ashes of burned corpses.

Of the

Moist tRadical.*

*Or Viscous Moisture. It is the Mercury of the Philosophers, which is the basis of all the beings of the three kingdoms of Nature; but which is more particularly the seed and basis of metals when philosophically prepared for Hermetic Work.

Pernety. Dict. Myth. Herm. p. 202.

110 The Great Art.

Each Mixt contains two moistures, the one of which we have just spoken, and an elementary moisture, in part aqueous, in part aerial. The latter yields to the violence of fire; it vanishes in smoke, in vapours, and when it is entirely evap- orated the body is only ashes, or parts separated the one from the other.

Not so with the Moist Radical; as it constitutes the basis of the Mixts, it braves the tyranny of fire, it suffers martyr- dom with insurmountable courage, and remains obstinately attached to the ashes of the Mixt; which indicates plainly its great purity.

Experience has shown to glass-makers, people usually very ignorant concerning Nature, that this Moisture is concealed in ashes. They have found by means of fire the secret of manifesting it, so far as art and the violence of artificial fire © are capable. To make glass the ashes must be fused, and there could be no fusion where there is no moisture.

Without knowing that the salts extracted from ashes contain the greatest virtue of the Mixts, laborers burn the stubble and grass to increase the fertility of their fields. Proof that this Humid Radical is inaccessible to the attacks of fire; that it is the principle of generation, the basis of the Mixts, and that its virtue, its active fire, remains torpid only until the earth,common matrix of principles, develops its faculties, which we see daily in seeds.

This Radical Balm is the ferment of Nature, which is ‘scattered through the whole mass of individuals. It is an ineffaceable tincture, which has the property of multiplying and which penetrates even its grossest detritus, since one employs it successfully to manure lands and to increase their fertility.

One can rightly conjecture, that this basis, this root of the Mixts, which survives their destruction, is a part of the

Of the Moist Radical. 111

First Matter, the purest and indestructible portion stamped with the seal of Light from which it received form. For the marriage of this First Matter with its form is indissoluble, and all the elements corporified as individuals derive their origin from it. Indeed was not such a matter necessary to serve as the incorruptible basis, and as the cubic root to corruptible Mixts, to be able to be their principle, constant, perpetual and yet material, around which would turn contin- ually the vicissitudes and changes which material beings experience daily?

If one was permitted to conjecture and to penetrate the obscurity of the future, would one not say that this unalterable substance is the foundation of the material world, and the ferment of its immortality, by means of which it will exist even after its destruction, after having passed through the tyranny of fire, and after having been cleansed of its original defects, in order to be renewed and to become incorruptible and unalterable for all eternity?

It seems that Light has as yet worked only upon it, and that it has left the rest in shadows. So it preserves always a spark of it, which it is only necessary to excite.

But the Innate Fire is very different from Moisture. It partakes of the spirituality of Light, and the Humid Radical is of a nature midway between the extremely subtle and spiritual matter of Light, and gross, elementary, corporeal

matter. It partakes of the nature of both, and connects

these two extremes. It is the seal of the visible and palpable treaty of light and shadows; the point of union and of commerce between the Heavens and the Earth.

Thus one cannot, without error, confound this Humid Radical with Innate Fire, The latter is the inhabitant, the former the habitation, the dwelling. It is, in all the Mixts, the laboratory of Vulcan; the hearth on which is preserved

112 The Great Art.

that immortal Fire, the prime-motor created from all the fac- ulties of individuals; the universal Balm, the most precious Elixir of Nature, the perfectly sublimated Mercury of Life, which Nature distributes by weight and measure to all the Mixts. He who will know how to extract this treasure from the heart, and from the Azdden center of the productions of this lower world, to despoil it of its thick elementary shell, which conceals it from our eyes; and to draw it from the dark prison in which it is enclosed and inactive, may boast of knowing how to make the most precious MEDICcINE to relieve the human body.

Of the The superior and inferior bodies of the ‘harmony World having the same source, and the same matter as a principle, have preserved a sym- pathy which causes that the purest, the noblest, the strongest, communicate to those who are less so all the perfection of which they are susceptible. But when the organs of the Mixts are badly arranged, naturally or through accidents, this communication is hindered: the order established for this commerce is deranged; the feeble, being less aided, be- comes weaker, succumbs, and becomes the principle of its own ruin, mole ruzt sud. (Cosmop. Tract 2).

The four qualities of Elements, cold, heat, dryness and moisture, are, we may say, the harmonic tones in Nature. They are not more contrary than the grave tone in music is to the acute; but they are different, and separated by inter-

of the Universe.

Of the Harmony of the Universe. 113

vals, or middle tones, which connect the two extremes. Just as by these middle tones a very beautiful harmony may be composed, so Nature can combine the qualities of the Ele- ments, so that from them may result a temperament* which constitutes that of the Mixts.

Properly speaking, there is no repose in Nature, (Cosmop. Tract 4). She cannot remain idle; and if she should permit real repose to succeed Movement for a single instant, all the machinery of the Universe would fall in ruin. Movement has, we may say, drawn it from nothingness; repose would replunge it into nothingness. That to which we give the name repose, is only Movement less rapid, less sensible. Movement is then continual in each part as in the whole. Nature acts always in the interior of the Mixts. Even corpses are not in repose, since they are corrupted, and since corruption cannot take place without Movement.

Order and uniformity reign in the manner of Movement, the machinery of the World; but there are different degrees in this Movement, which is unequal and different in differ- ent and unequal things. Geometry even demands this law of inequality: and we may say that celestial bodies have an equal Movement in geometric ratio, namely, in proportion to the difference of their size, their distance and their nature.

We easily perceive in the course of the seasons that the methods which Nature employs differ only in appearance.

Of Movement.

*Temperament, in Music, is the name given by the theorists of the XVIIIth century, to that which modern musicians call Tonality, viz., “the ensemble of the mysterious laws which govern the rapports existing between sounds, whether heard successively or simultaneously.” E. B.

114 The Great Art.

During the winter she appears without Movement, dead, or at least torpid. Yet, it is during this dead season, (morte saison), that she prepares, digests, covers the seeds, and disposes them for generation. She gives birth, to speak thus, in the spring; she nourishes and rears in the summer. She even ripens certain fruits; she keeps others for the autumn, when they have need of a longer digestion. At the end of this season everything decays, in order to be disposed for a new generation.

Man experiences in this life the changes of the four seasons. His winter is not the time of old age, as we usually say, itis that which he spends in the womb of his mother without action and in shadows, because he has not yet enjoyed the benefits of solar light. Scarcely is he born when he begins to grow: he enters into his spring; which lasts until he is capable of ripening his fruits. Then his summer succeeds; he strengthens himself, he digests, he develops the principle of life which is to give it to others. When his fruit is ripe, autumn takes possession of him; he dries up, he withers, he bends towards the principle to which his nature draws him, he falls into it, he dies, he is no more.

From the unequal and varied distance of the sun proceed the differences of the seasons. The Philosopher who wishes to imitate the processes of Nature in the operations of the Great Work, must meditate on them very seriously.

I will not here enter into the detail of the different Move- , ments of celestial bodies. Moses has explained only that _ which concerns the globe we inhabit. He has said almost ~ nothing of other planets, doubtless in order that human curi- osity should find matter for admiration, rather than subjects for dispute. The inordinate desire to know all still tyrannizes over the feeble mind of Man. He does not know how to conduct himself, yet he is mad enough to prescribe for the

Of Movement. 115

Creator rules to conduct the Universe. He makes systems, and speaks in such a decisive tone, that one would say that God has consulted him to draw the world from nothingness, and that he has suggested to the Creator the laws which preserve the harmony of its general and particular Move- ments. Happily the arguments of these pretended philoso- phers have no effect upon this harmony. We would have reason to fear consequences as grievous for us, as those which one draws from their principles are ridiculous. Let us calm ourselves: the world will continue in its course as long as it will please its Creator to preserve it. Let us not lose the time of a life as short as ours in disputing about things of which we are ignorant. Let us rather seek the remedy for the ills which overwhelm us: let us implore | Him who has created the Medicine of the Earth, to permit us { to know it; and that after having favored us with this won- | derful knowledge we should use it only for the advantage of | our neighbour, through love of the Sovereign Being, to whom alone be glory through all the ages.

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Part 11.

Treatise

on the

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Treatise on the Great Work.

HE aim of this Art is to discover the source of long C life and riches, two foundations upon which the happi- ness of this human existence rests. It has always beena mys- tery; andthose who have treated ofit, have in all times spoken of it, as a Science, the practice of which contains something surprising, and the result of which partakes of the nature of the miracle in itself and in its effects. God, the Author of Nature, whom the Philosopher proposes to imitate alone, can enlighten and guide the human mind in the search for this inestimable treasure, and in the labyrinth of the operations of this Art. So all these authors recommend one to address one’s self to the Creator, and to demand from Him this favor with much fervor and perseverance.

Should we be surprised that the possessors of such a beau- tiful secret have veiled it in the shadows of hieroglyphics, fables, allegories, metaphors and enigmas, in order to keep the knowledge of it from the multitude? They have written only for those whom God deigns to enlighten concerning it. To decry them, to declaim strongly against the Science, because one has made useless efforts to obtain it, is a low vengeance; it is to hurt one’s own reputation, it is to publish one’s own ignorance, and powerlessness to succeed. Let one

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122 The Great Art.

raise his voice against those vulgar chemists, those souffleurs, those burners of charcoal, who, after having been duped by their own ignorance, seek to make dupes of others. I would willingly join this class of critics. I would even wish for the voice of Stentor to make myself better heard. But who are those who concern themselves with speaking and writing against Hermetic Philosophy? People who are ignorant of it, I wager, even of its definition; people whose ill-humour is excited by prejudice. I appeal to their good faith; let them seriously consider whether they understand that which they criticize; have they read and re-read twenty times and more, the good authors who treat of this subject? Who among them can flatter himself that he knows the operations and processes of this Art? What Cédipus has given them knowl- edge of its enigmas, and its allegories? What sibyl has introduced them into its sanctuary? Let them remain then in the narrow sphere of their knowledge: xe sutor ultra crept- dam. Or, since it is the fashion, let them bark after such a great treasure which they despair of obtaining. Poor -conso- lation, but the only one which remains to them. And would to God that their cries could be heard by all those who waste their wealth in the pursuit of that which escapes them, instead of knowing the simple processes of Nature. , Monsieur de Maupertuis thinks differently of it. Under whatsoever aspect one considers the Philosopher’s Stone, one cannot, says this celebrated Academician, prove the impossibility of obtaining it, but its value, adds he, is not enough to balance the slight hope of finding it, (Lettres). M. de Justi, Director-General of the mines of the Empress- Queen of Hungary, proves not only the possibility of it; but its actual existence, in a discourse which he has given to the Public, the arguments of which are founded on his own experience,

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Pbilosopbical Counsels. 125

Worship God alone; love Him with all your

eats: heart, and your neighbour as yourself. Have

always the glory of God as the aim of all your

actions; call upon Him; He will hear you, glorify Him, He will exalt you.

Be slow in speech, and action. Do not rely upon your own prudence, upon your knowledge, or upon the word and riches of men, especially of the great. Put your trust in God alone. Cultivate the talent which He has intrusted to you. Be avaricious of time; it is infinitely short for a man who knows how to use it. Do not put off until to-morrow, which is not yours, that which you should do to-day. Asso- ciate with the good and the wise. Man was born to learn; his natural curiosity is a palpable proof of this; and to stag- nate in idleness and ignorance, is to degrade humanity. The more a man knows the more closely he approaches the Author of his being, who knows all. Therefore profit by the knowledge of the Wise; receive their instructions with gen- tleness, and their corrections always in good part. Flee | from the association of the wicked, the multiplicity of affairs, — and the multitude of friends.

Sciences are acquired only by study, by medztatzon, and not by dispute. Learn a little at a time; repeat often the same study; the mind can do all when concentrated upon one sole object, but nothing when trying to embrace too many.

Knowledge, joined to experience, forms the truest wisdom. Lacking it, one must have recourse to opinion, to doubt, to conjecture and to authority. |

The subjects of Science are God, the Universe, or Macro- © cosm, and Man. Man has been made for God, Woman for God and Man, and the other creatures for Man and Woman, (Sap. Chap. 9, v. 2 and follow.), so that they should make use

126 The Great Art.

of them for their occupations, their own preservation, and the glory of theircommon Author. Above all