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

White Magnesia is made in the same way, and the male is converted with it. But forasmuch as there is a certain affinity between tlie magnet and the iron, therefore our nature rejoices. + Take, then, the vapour which the Ancients commanded you to take, and cook the same with its own body until tin is produced. Wash away its blackness according to custom, and cleanse and roast at an equable fire until it be whitened. But every body is whitened with governed quicksilver, for Nature converts Nature. Take,therefore, Magnesia, Water of Alum, Water of Nitre, Water of the Sea, and Water of Iron ; whiten with smoke. + What-

* The second recension reads : " Ye shall impose upon copper, that is, governed iron, and it shall be whitened."

t The alternative reading is : " Therefore Nature also rejoices in Nature."

} Hermes, as quoted by Olympiodorua, defines smoke as intermediary between the warm and the dry.

soever ye desire to be whitened is whitened with this smoke, because it is itself white, and whitens all things. Mix, therefore, the said smoke with its faeces until it be coagulated and become excessively white.* Roast this white copper till it germinates of itself, since the Magnesia when whitened does not suffer the spirits to escape, or the shadow of coppert to appear, because Nature contains Nature. Take, therefore, all ye Sons of the Doctrine, the white sulphureous nature, whiten with salt and dew, or with the Flower of White Salt.I until it become 2t The shadow of copper is the flower of copper, i.e., M. Berthelot explains, protoxide, verdegris. The epistle of Democritus to Leucippus explains that a metal without shadow is a brilliant metal. Zosimus says that the act oi burning is called the destruction of the shadow. Pelagus defines the shadow of copper as the black tinge which it produces in silver. Democritus also gives a recipe for the removal of the shadow from copper.

I The second recension in the edition of Mangetus reads Sol throughout for Sal, but it is a printer's error.

40 The Turba Philosophorum.

excessively white. And know ye, that the Flower of White Salt is Ethel from Ethelia. The same must be boiled for seven days, till it shall become like gleaming marble, for when it has reached this condition it is a very great Arcanum, seeing that Sulphur is mixed with Sulphur, whence an excellent work is accomplished, by reason of the affinity between them, because natures rejoice in meeting their own natures. Take, therefore, Mardek and whiten the same with Gadenbe,* that is, wine and vinegar, and Permanent Water. Roast and coagulate until the whole does not liquefy in a fire stronger than its own, namely, the former fire. Cover the mouth of the vessel securely, but let it be associated with its neighbour, that it may kindle the whiteness thereof, and beware lest the fire blaze up, for in