The Turba Philosophorum (complete) — trans. A. E. Waite (1896)

The Ninth Dictum. ExiMENUS saith : — God hath created all things by his word, having said unto them : Be, and they were made, with the four other elements, earth, water, air, and fire, which He coagulated, and things contrary were commingled, for we see that fire is hostile to water, water

' The necessity of concealing the Art is one of the chief anxieties of the Greek alchemists. Isis herself is «worn to secrecy by heaven and earth and hell, by the four elements, by the height and the depth, by Hermes, by Anubis, and by the bowlings of Kerkoros. " An oath has Tieen required of us to reveal nothing clearly to any [uninitiated] person," says Democritus in the Epistle of Synesius to Dioscorus.

t The reader will not fail to observe the artless way in Avhich this passage betrays the whole dialogue as a literary •composition.

26 The Turha Philosophorum.

hostile to fire, and both are hostile to earth and air. Yet God hath united them peacefully, so that they love one another. Out of these four elements, therefore, are all things created — heaven and the throne thereof; the angels; the sun, moon, and stars; earth and sea, with all things that are in the sea, which indeed are various, and not alike, for their natures have been made diverse by God, and also the creations. But the diversity is more than I have stated ; each of these natures is of diverse nature, and by a legion of diversities is the nature of each diverse. Now this diversity subsists in all creatures, because they were created out of diverse elements. Had they been created out of one element, they would have been agreeing natures. But diverse elements being here mingled, they lose their own natures, because the dry being mixed with the humid and the cold combined with the hot, become neither cold nor hot; so also the humid being mixed with the dry becomes neither dry nor

The Turba Philosophorum. 27

humid. But when the four elements are commingled, they agree, and thence proceed creatures which never attain to perfection, except they be left by night to putrefy and become visibly corrupt. God further completed his creation by means of increase, food, life, and government. Sons of the Doctrine, not without purpose have I described to you the disposition of these four elements, for in them is a secret arcanum ; two of them are perceptible to the sense of touch and vision, and of these the operation and virtue are well known. These are earth and water. But there are two other elements which are neither visible nor tangible, which yield naught, whereof the place is never seen, nor are their operations and force known, save in the former elements, namely, earth and water ; now when the four elements are not commingled, no desire of men is accomplished. But being mixed, departing from their own natures, they become another thing. Over these Jet us meditate very carefully. And the

28 The Turba Philosophorum.

TuRBA :— Master, if you speak, we will give heed to your words. Then he: — I have now discoursed, and that well. I will speak only useful words which ye will follow as spoken. Know, all present, that no true tincture is made except from our copper.* Do not therefore, exhaust your brains and your money, lest ye fill your hearts with sorrow. I will give you a fundamental axiom, that unless you turn the aforesaid coppert into