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

"

elements. One moment of excess, one moment of premature diminution, may mar the labour of months. He that regulates the fire aright is worthy of being hailed as a great Master of the Fire. It is exceedingly difficult to tell the exact degree of heat which any given fire will produce ; and here the sense of sight is the only reliable test. No sound or intelligible directions can be given in writing: the only schoolmistress that can impart to you a thorough knowledge ofthis branch of our Art is experience. Itisin regard to this variety of heat that Anaxagoras says: * Nobody is all at once an accomplished Sage" (10) The next kind of heat is of a consuming fierceness. It is employed to smelt very hard minerals. It cannot be too fierce or powerful, even though it may occasionally be necessary to keep it up for some length of time. (r1) The next variety of heat is that of calcination, and is used for the purging of impure metals, the essential qualities of which would be impaired by smelting. (12) The kind of heat used for sublimation comes next, and by its means volatile minerals may be sublimed. (1:3) The last variety of heat is the most important of all. It should be employed at the time of the projection of our Stone. But experience is a good teacher, and I will say no more, except that he who makes a mistake at this point, must begin the work over again.

I have now told you all things as plainly as if I had been describing to you the way to this or that town. I have, as it were, named every county, river, bridge, and village that has to be passed, and, with this my guide-book in his hand, a judicious traveller may easily find his way. A wise and intelligent man may, by means of this Book, discover the secret of our science ; for the foolish and dull-witted it was not intended, and it will not teach them anything. Our Science is the height of earthly knowledge, and is to be attained by neither Pope nor Emperor through their rank, influence, or power, but only by virtue, and by Divine grace. Our Stone cannot be discovered or perfected unless it be sought with intense devotion. In the works ofthe Ancients, understood in the light of this my Ordinal, the truth of the matter is fully set forth ; the present Book, in particular, was written for the purpose of resolving all your doubts; here everything is in its proper place, and nothing is wanting. Time was when I would cheerfully have paid down a thousand pounds forp. 67 the contents of this volume ; and this last chapter I would not have missed for three hundred pounds.

Do not wonder, Masters and Friends, that our Science is here so plainly expounded : I set pen to paper with the requirements of the common people in view. For just because the vulgar are not instructed in this knowledge, infinite wealth is annually wasted in this country, as all Sages know, and many others of all ranks are daily reduced to beggary. Study our Art, then, ye uninstructed, and scorn to abide in fatuous ignorance. It is better for you to take to this study late than never.

Let all that are benefitted by the reading of this Ordinal offer up prayers for my soul, and for the living and the dead.

In the year-of our Lord 1477 this Book was begun.

Glory be to God !

""us9 TESTAMENT

CRENMIE XR;

ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER, AND BROTHER OF THE

BENEDICTINE ORDER.

ZASQUTREATUISVASSGRTS EIE ON GSTUETIS QSVVORIEG

Bv M. M.

• * Either the meaning of the Author or the letter "
• * of his writings is deceitful. Be on your guard,"
• * therefore. Everywhere a serpent lurks among " *the flowers. Yet scorn not a friend who spoke " *as plainly as he might. Beneath the shadowy "
• * foliage of words is concealed the golden fruit"

fe GYRO SAP IS OL TE SC

SIUS SORS TANEEZINGE

OF
QREMER, THE ENGLISHMAN,

ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER, AND FRIAR OF THE
BENEDICTINE ORDER.

Alchemy without using any of those obscure technical terms, which have proved so serious a stumbling-block in