The Hermetic Museum, Vol. II — trans. A. E. Waite (1893)
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The translator’s English as printed (A. E. Waite). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
charmed "—and recollecting that apotheécaries ornament their mercury bottles with images of serpents, he took up the vessel with the mercury, and repeated the formula of conjuration : *ux, ux, ostas," etc, substituting the word mercury for the name of the serpent: * And thou mercury, most nefarious beast At these words, the Mercury began to laugh, and said to the Alchemist : * Why dost thou trouble me, my Lord Alchemist?" A/eemust: Oho, do you call me your lord? Now I have touched you home. I have found a bit to bridle you with ; wait a little, and you shall soon sing the tune that I bid you. (Then as his courage increased, he cried angrily) :—I conjure you by the living God—are you not that Mercury of the Sages? Zereuzy (pretending to speak in a whimpering and frightened tone of voice): Master, I az Mercury. Ackezzst: Why would you not obey me then? Why could I not fix you? Jercuzy : Oh, most high and mighty Master, I implore you to spare your miserable slave! I did not know that you were such a potent philosopher. 4/cezzst: Oh, could you not guess as much from the philosophical way in which I operated on you? J/fercury : I did so, most high and mighty Master, but I wished to hide myself, though now I see that I cannot hide myself from my most potent Lord. A/ekemst: 'Then you know a philosopher when you see him, as you now do, my gallant? JZZercury: My most high Lord, I see, and to my own great cost, that your Worship is a high and mighty and most potent philosopher. .4/cZezst (with a smile of sátisfaction): Now at last I have found what I sought. (To the Mercury, in awful tones of thunder): Now mind that you obey me, else it will be the worse for you. 7ercury: Gladly, Master, if I can: for lam very weak. .A/eLemzst: Oho, do you begin to make excuses already ? Jercury: No, but I am very languid. A/cenzst: What is the matter with you? /Zereury: An Alchemist is the matter with me. A/ckemzst: Are you laughing at me, you false rogue? /JZercury : Oh, no, no, Master, as God shall spare me, I spoke of an Alchemist—yoz are a philosopher. .A/cALemzst: Of course, of course, that is quite true. But what did the Alchemist do? ercury: Oh Master, he has done me a thousand wrongs ; he belaboured and mixed me up with all manner of disagreeable and contradictory things, which have stripped me of all my powers, and so I am sick, even to death. A/cemzst :
You deserved such treatment, because you would not obey. Mercury: l never yet disobeyed a philosopher, but I cannot help laughing at fools. .4/cLemzst: And what is your opinion of me? Jercury: Oh Master, your Worship is a great man, and mighty philosopher, greater by far than Hermes, both in doctrine and wisdom. .4/cezzst: Well, I won't praise myself, but I certainly am a learned man. My wife says so too. She always calls me a profoundly learned philosopher. ZZercury : I quite believe you. For philosophers are men whom too much learning and thought have made mad. — 4/cAezzzs? : Tell me, what am I to do with you? How am I to make you into the Philosopher's Stone? Jereury: Oh, my master philosopher, that I cannot tell. You are a philosopher, I am the philosopher's humble slave. Whatever he wishes to make me, I become, as far as my nature will allow. — 4/cZezzzsz : This is all very fine, but I repeat that you must tell me how to treat you, and whether you can become the Philosopher's Stone. /fercury : Mr. Philosopher, if you know, you can make it, and if you don't you can't, From me you cannot learn anything with which you have been unacquainted beforehand. — A/cAezzst: You talk to me as to a simple person. Perhaps you do not know that I have lived at the courts of great princes, and have always been regarded as a very profound philosopher. /Zereury: I readily believe you, my Master, for the filth of your brilliant experiments still cleaves to me. ./clemzst: Tell me, then, are you the Mercury of the Sages? Mercury: l am Mercury, but you should know best, whether I am the Mercury of you philosophers. A/ckemzst: Tell me only whether you are the true Mercury, or whether there is another? ZZercury: | am Mercury, but there is also another. With these words, the Mercury vanished. The Alchemist shouts and calls aloud, but there is no answer. At last he is fain to derive some little comfort from the thought that he has had speech of Mercury, and therefore must be very dear to it. With this thought he once more sets himself to sublime, distil, calcine, precipitate, and dissolve the Mercury in the most awful manner, and with different sorts of waters. But his efforts turned out failures, and mere waste of time. Then he began to curse Mercury, and to blaspheme Nature for creating it. When Nature heard this, she called Mercury to her, and asked him what he had done to the Alchemist, and why he would not obey him. Mercury humbly protested his innocence. Nature admonished hin to obey the Sons of Knowledge: who sought to know her. Mercury promised that he would do so,but added :*Mother Nature, who can satisfy fools?" Nature smiled, and departed. Mercury, indignant with our Alchemist, returned also to his own place. The philosopher presently appeared with some excrements of swine, and was proceeding to ply Mercury therewith, when the latter thus wrathfully accosted him: * What do you want of me, you fool? Why did you accuse me?" AZelemzst: Are you he whom I so much desiretosee? 7Zereury: | am ; but blind people cannot behold me. ZZc£emzst: l am not blind. Jereury: You are as blind as a new-born puppy. You cannot see yourself: how then should you be able to see me? — Z/eAezzst : Oh, now you are proud and despise me because I speak humbly. Perhaps you do not know that I have lived at the courts of princes, and have always been called a philosopher? ZJZereury: The gates of princes stand wide for fools; and it is they that fare sumptuously in the palaces of the great. I quite believe that you have been at court. JA/ckemst: You are, undoubtedly, the Devil, and not a good Mercury, if you speak like that to philosophers. Mercury: Now,in confidence, tell me whether you are acquainted ,with any philosophers. .4/eLemzst: Do you ask this of me, when you are aware that I am myself a philosopher? Z7Zereury (smiling): Behold the Philosopher! ^ Well, my philosopher, what do you seek, and what would you have? A/eAemzst: The Philosopher's Stone. JZerceury: Of what substance would you make it?, .4/ckemzst: Of our Mercury. Zercury: Oh, my philosopher, then I had better go: for Iam not yours! cest - You are none but the Devil, and wish to lead me astray. Mercury: Well,my philosopher, I think I may return the compliment: you have played the very devil with me. 4/c&emzst : Oh, what do I hear? "This is most certainly the Devil. For I have done everything most scientifically, according to the writings of the Sages. Jerewry: Truly, you are a wonderful operator; your performances exceed your knowledge by as much as they defy the authorities which you have in your books. For they say that substances should be mixed only with substances of a kindred nature. But you have mixed me, against Nature,