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

ye seek is sold at the smallest possible price.* If men knew this, and how great was the thing they held in their hands, they would in no wise sell it. Therefore, the Philosophers have glorified that venom, + have treated of it variously, and in many ways, have taken and applied to it all manner of names, wherefore, certain envious persons have said : It is a stone and not a stone, but a gum of Ascotia, consequently, the Philosophers have concealed the power thereof. For this spirit which ye seek, that ye may tinge therewith, is concealed in the body, and hidden away from sight, even as the soul in the human body.J But ye t The second recension reads : " that useful and abject thing."

* This passage recalls many statements to the same effect in the Greek alchemists, as, lor example, that the end is not to be obtained by money, " for the Lord God has delivered the same gratuitously, by reason ot the beggars and the despairing." But this passage from the Byzantine Assembly of the Philosophers is in part at least an interpolation.

I Otherwise : " Therein is the spirit which you seek, which tinges, vivifies, gives health and life to bodies."

no The Tiirba Philosophorum.

seekers after the Art, unless ye disintegrate this body, imbue and pound both cautiously and diligently, until ye extract it from its grossness (or grease), and turn it into a tenuous and impalpable spirit, have your labour in vain. Wherefore the Philosophers have said : Except ye turn bodies into notbodies, and incorporeal things into bodies, ye have not yet discovered the rule of operation. But the Turba saith: Tell, therefore, posterity how bodies are turned into not-bodies. And he ; They are pounded with fire and Ethelia till they become a powder.* And know that this does not take place except by an exceedingly strong decoction, and continuous contrition, performed with a moderate fire,i not with hands, + t The counsel of Olympiodorus is similar : " The fire must burn with moderation and gentleness, lest the vapour should escape in smoke and be lost," And, again : " Know that this Art is not practised by means of a fierce fire.''

* The second recension reads : " When Ethelia is pounded until it becomes dust," but it is evidently corrupt.

} Some Latin alchemists say that the Magnum Oput is a work of the hands, which others deny, and a very pretty

The Turba Philosophorum. iii

with imbibition and putrefaction, with exposure to the sun and to Ethelia. The envious caused the vulgar to err in this Art when they stated that the thing is common in its nature and is sold at a small price. They further said that the nature was more precious than all natures, wherefore they deceived those who had recourse to their books. At the same time they spoke the truth, and therefore doubt not these things. Bui the Turba answereth : Seeing that thou believest the sayings of the envious, explain, therefore, to posterity the disposition of the two natures. And he : I testify to you that Art requires two natures, for the precious is not produced without the common, diversity of opinion has risen up among interpreters in consequence. The partisans of the first view, denying the metallic object of the Art, affirm that the mystery of the manual operation was the mystery of animal magnetism. The Turba in the passage above, and in other places, is against the use of the hands, whatever that may have signified, here following Olympiodorus: " Think not thou, as do some, that manual action is of itself and alone sufficient ; there is also required that of Nature, an action superior to man's." — On the Sacred Art.

113 The Turha Philosophorum.