The Hermetic Museum, Vol. I — trans. A. E. Waite (1893)

Thus, then, those who would truly know and prepare the first Matter of the Philosopher's Stone (the chief and principal mystery of this earth) must have a deep insight into the nature of things, just as those who would know the Heavenly Stone (Ze, the indissoluble, triune essence of the true and living God) must have a profound spiritual insight into the things of heaven : hence we said in our first part, that the student of our Art must first have a thorough knowledge of Nature and her properties If a man would come to know the highest good, he must rightly know, first God, and then himself (Acts xvii.: * For in Him we live" etc) If anyone learn to know himself and God (Ze.

our duty as men, our origin, the end of our being, and our affinity to God), he has the highest scholarship, without which it is impossible to obtain happiness, either in this world, or in the world to come.

If we would find that high and heavenly Stone, we must remember that, as our earthly Philosophical Stone is to be sought in one thing and two things, which are met with everywhere, so we must look for Him nowhere but in the eternal Word of God, and the Holy Scripture (consisting of the Old and New Testaments)—as God the Father testified at His Transfiguration on Mount Tabor (Mark ix., Luke ix.), when He said : *'Thisis My Beloved Son: hear ye Him." In the same way Christ, the essential and eternal Word of God, speaks of Himself : * No one comes to the Father, but by Me "—Aaccording to the Scripture, the infallible testimony of the Divine Word (Isaiah xxxiv.) In Isaiah viii. we find the words: * to the Law and the Testimony." And Christ, the aforesaid Corner Stone, bears witness to the necessity of Scripture, when He says: * Search the Scriptures, for in them ye believe that ye have eternal life, and it is they that testify of Me" Therefore, David says in Psalm cxix., long before the coming of Christ: * My delight, O Lord, is in Thy commandments, for they are my counsellors ; Thy word is a lamp unto my feet ; I rejoice in the way of Thy testimonies more than in great riches. Also, I consider Thy ways, and walk in Thy testimonies."

[Cp. Gen. xiii Psal xlv. Isaiah ix, 49. Jerem. xxxii.
I obnessgra MEO rS OT]

Moreover, when and where the First Matter of this heavenly Stone was founded (*from the beginning of the world"), is expressly set forth in several passages of Holy Scripture, especially in the fifth chapter of Micah : * Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" ^ When the Jews asked the Corner Stone Himself who He was, He answered: * I that speak to you was from the beginning," and again: * Before Abraham was,l am." From these passages it follows that He had His being, without a beginning, from all eternity, and that He will abide throughout all eternity.

And although this knowledge is to be found and obtained nowhere but in the Old and New Testaments, nevertheless he

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