The Turba Philosophorum (complete) — trans. A. E. Waite (1896)
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.
with many variations, and even in Hermetic poems, such as Norton's Ordinal of Alchemy.
92 The Turba Philosophorutn.
tion, for the punic dye,* having embraced his spouse, passes swiftly into her body, liquefies, congeals, breaks up, and disintegrates the same. Finally, the redness does not delay in coming, and if ye efifect it without the weight, death will take place, whereupon it will be thought to be bad. Hence, I order that the fire should be gentle in liquefaction, but when it is turned to earth make the same intense,! and imbue it until God shall extract the colours for us and they appear.
The Twenty-eighth Dictum. CusTos saith : I am surprised, O all ye Turba ! at the very great force and nature of this water, for when it has entered into the said body, it turns it first into earth, and next into powder, to test the perfection of which take in the hand, and if ye find it impalpable as water, it is then most excellent;
• The second recension reads : "the male." t That is, "intenser in congelation," according to the second recension.
The Turba Philosophorum. 93
otherwise, repeat the cooking until it is brought to the required condition. And know that if ye use any substance other than our copper, and rule with our water, it will profit you nothing. If, on the other hand, ye rule our copper with our water, ye shall find all that has been promised by us. But the Turba answereth: Father, the envious* created no little obscurity when they commanded us to take lead and white quicksilver, and to rule the same with dew and the sun till it becomes a coin-like stone. Then he-. They meant our copper and our permanent water, when they thus directed you to cook in a gentle fire, and affirmed that there should be produced the said coinlike stone, concerning which the Wise have also observed, that Nature rejoices in Nature, by reason of the affinity which they know to exist between the two bodies, that is to say, copper and permanent water. Therefore, the nature of these two is one, for between them there is a mixed affinity, without which they would not so swiftly unite, and be held together so that they may become one. Saith the Turba: Why do the envious direct us to take the copper which we have now made, and roasted until it has become gold ?
* The distinction between the Wise and the Envious is a little difficult to follow, nor is it at all certain that the envious had less wisdom than the wise, or the wise less envy than the envious. In either case, they were all Greeks indifferently.
94 The Turba Philosophorum.
Th& Twenty-Ninth Dictum. DiAMEDES saith : Thou hast spoken already, O Moses*, in an ungrudging manner, as became thee ; I will also confirm thy words, passing over the hardness of the elements which the wise desire to remove, this disposition being most precious in their eyes. Know, O ye seekers after this doctrine, that man does not proceed except from a man ; that only which is like unto themselves is begotten from brute animals ; and so also with flying creatures.
• This reference is omitted from the second recension. Moses may be a misprint for Custos, or vice versa.
The Turba Philosophorum. 95
I have treated these matters in compendious fashion, exalting you towards the truth, who yourselves omit prolixity, for Nature is truly not improved by Nature, save with her own nature, seeing that thou thyself art not improved except in thy son, that is to say, man in man.* See, therefore, that ye do not neglect the precepts concerning her, but make use of venerable Nature, for out of her Art cometh, and