The Hermetic Museum, Vol. I — trans. A. E. Waite (1893)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
The translator’s English as printed (A. E. Waite). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
Hence, the Ancients said that there was no sulphur in anything but in the metals, and hence also they called the metallic liquid quicksilver. But names do not alter facts : the fact is that the elementary fire must be so united to its elementary liquid by natural coction that they become indivisible. For the liquid protects the fire against combustion, so that both remain fixed and unchanged in common fire. This perfected substance the Ancients have well called Elixir, or fire which has undergone a process of perfect coction: for that which before was crude and raw is * cooked," or digested by the process of coction. "That element which, by its imperfection, causes base metals to be broken up and disintegrated by fire, has been digested and perfected by natural heat.
For this reason you must not grudge the labour which the proper performance of this heating process demands, seeing that it includes purification, sublimation, dissolution, and all the other
L2
* chemical processes enumerated by the ancient alchemists. All these you may safely dismiss from your mind, as they can cause you nothing but trouble, loss, and waste of time. My purpose in writing this faithful admonition is to caution you again and again to beware of those pitfalls with which the contemptuous obscurity of the Ancients has so plentifully beset the path of the ingenuous enquirer. Il also desired to suggest to you the true suósiance, and the one true zzezAod, and have throughout endeavoured to express myself in a style as free from allegorical obscurity as possible. I have recalled you from your wanderings in the pathless wilderness, and put you in the right way.
Now you must beseech Almighty God to give you the real:
philosophical temper, and to open your eyes to the facts of nature. Thus alone you will be able to reach the coveted goal.
THE
(GLORY OB THESW ORDD.
OR,
TASTE SOJEUCUPASIRSZASDIESIEUS
THAT IS TO SAY,
. A TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE ANCIENT SCIENCE WHICH ADAM LEARNED
FROM GoD HIMSELF; WHICH NOAH, ABRAHAM, AND SOLOMON
HELD AS ONE OF THE GREATEST GiFTS OF GOD; WHICH
ALSO ALL SAGES, AT ALL TIMES, PREFERRED TO THE
WEALTH OF THE WHOLE WORLD, REGARDED AS
THE CHIEF TREASURE OF THE WHOLE
WORLD, AND BEQUEATHED ONLY TO
Goop MEN;
NAMELY,
IHR SOGIENGE OR-THE PHILOSOPHER'S SW OINIB:
DPI, XH 9:
"or this they willingly, through their sickedness, are zgnorant o/, that through the Word ot God the heavens were 0/ old, and the earth standing out oí the vafer, and m the water."
155 dii
THE GEORY (OE LHB WORLD,
OR,
TABLE OF PARADISE:
A most precious book, containing art, the like of which is not to be found upon earth; shewing the truth concerning the true Philosophy, and the most noble medicine, and priceless Tincture, together with divers other valuable Arts, and the Instruments required for them.
Preserver of this World, I venture to shew forth the hidden mysteries of Nature, which God has planted there, and deigns to reveal to men, that they may see how marvellously things are created, and how wonderfully all classes of natural objects are brought forth : for a testimony to all believing Christian men, and for a comfort to all afflicted and troubled hearts—seeing that allthings created perish and are decomposed only to be renewed again, to be multiplied, animated, and perfected after their kind. For nothing that is created, or born, is at rest, but daily undergoes increase or multiplication on the part of Nature, until it becomes that which is created and ordained to be the treasure of all mankind.
Therefore, beseech God to give you such wisdom and understanding as will enable you to understand this Art, and to bring it, by His blessing, to a good issue for His own glory, and the good of your neighbour.
If then you would obtain this knowledge at the hand of God, you must confess yourself a miserable sinner, and implore His blessing, which alone can enable you to receive His Gift
N OW, in the name of God, the Almighty Creator and