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.
* The Greek equivalent of Decoction identifies the process with that cooking which is so often ordained in all alchemical experiments. In the New Light of Arnoldus de Villa Nova three grades of the operation are described, together with the special furnaces and appliances required. In the first grade, the matter becomes black ; in the second, white ; and in the third, red. The description is accompanied in each case by a citation from the Tvrba.
f The second recension substitutes : " for which cause there must be frequent pounding and imbuing."
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ethelia. Yet I direct you not to pour on the whole of the water at one time, lest the Ixir be submerged, but pour it in gradually, pound and dessicate, and do this several times until the water be exhausted. Now concerning this the envious have said : Leave the water when it has all been poured in^ and it will sink to the bottom. But their intention is this, that while the humour is drying, and when it has been turned into powder, leave it in its glass vessel for forty days, until it passes through various colours, which the Philosophers have described. By this method of cooking the bodies put on their spirits and spiritual tinctures, and become warm.* The Turba amswereth : Thou hast given light to us, O Effistus, and hast done excellently ! Truly art thou cleared from envy; wherefore, let one of you others speak as he pleases.
* The second recension leads : " bodies become spirits, and the spirits are made hot, and they tinge."
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The Thirty-Ninth Dictum. Bacsen saith ;* O all ye seekers after this Art, ye can reach no useful result without a patient, laborious,! and solicitous soul, persevering courage, and continuous regimen. He, therefore, who is willing to persevere in this disposition, and would enjoy the result, may enter upon it, but he who desires to learn over speedily, must not have recourse to our books, for they impose great labour before they are read in their higher sense, once, twice, or thrice. Therefore, the Master saith: Whosoever bends his back over the study of our books, devoting his leisure thereto, t The like exhortation is met with everywhere in the literature of the adepts. " Patience and delay are indispensable in our magistery. Haste, indeed, is ot the devil's part in this magistery." — Bosary of the Philotophers, And again, " It is impossible for this to be known by the seeker unless he learns it irom God, or from the instruction ot a master. Know also that the way is very long ; therefore are patience and delay needful in this our magistery." — Ibid.
* The speaker in the second recension is called Admion.
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is not occupied with vain thoughts, but fears God, and shall reign in the Kingdom without fail until he die.* For what ye seek is not of small price. Woe unto you who seek the very great and compensating treasure of God ! Know ye not that for the smallest purpose in the world, earthly men will give themselves to death, and what, therefore, ought they to do for this most excellent and almost impossible offering ? Now, the regimen is greater than is perceived by reason, except through divine inspiration. I once met with a person who was as well
* The fear of God has always been regarded as essential to the success of the true alchemist. The explanation is to be sought in the fact that the operations of nature were a region of awe and wonder to early experiment. The Greek alchemists regarded no operation as possible without the divine concurrence, and Zosimus says : " Abide at thine own fireside acknowledging but one God and one Art ; do not deviate in search of another God ; for God will come to thee, He who is present everywhere. . . . . Rest thy body, and hush thy passions ; so, governing thyself, thou shalt call unto thee the Divine Being, and the Divine Being will come to thee. . . . When thou shaltjtriow thyself, then shalt thou know also the only God existing in thee ; and acting thus thou shalt attain truth and nature, rejecting matter with contempt."
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