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

t According to the second recension : "much has been said of the regimen but of the conjunction little."

The Turba Philosophorum. 137

bodies, and that every body which is mingled with it is ground and delivered over to be destroyed. When, therefore, ye have diligently pounded the bodies, and have exalted them as required, therefrom is produced that Ethel nature, and a colour which is tingeing* and not volatile, and it tinges the copper which the Turba said did not tinge until it is tinged, because that which is tinged tinges. Know also that the body of the copper is ruled by Magnesia, and that quicksilver is four bodies, also that the matter has no being except by humidity, because it is the water of sulphur, for sulphurs are contained in sulphurs. The Turba saith: O Dardaris, inform posterity what sulphurs are ! And he : Sulphurs are souls which are hidden in four bodies, and, extracted by themselves, do contain one another, and are naturally conjoined. For if ye rule that which is hidden in the belly of sulphur with water, and cleanse well that which

•Otherwise : " not fleeing from the fire."

138 The Turba Philosophorum.

is hidden, then nature rejoices, meeting with nature, and water similarly Avith its equal. Know ye also that the four bodies are not tinged but tinge.* And the Turba : Why dost thou not say like the ancients that when they are tinged, they tinge ? And he : I state that the four coins of the vulgar populace are not tinged, but they tinge copper, and when that copper is tinged, it tinges the coins of the populace. +

The Forty-Fourth Dictum.

MoYSES saith : This one thing of which thou hast told us, O Dardaris, the Philosophers have called by many names, sometimes by two and sometimes by three names! Darbakis answereth : Name it, therefore, for posterity, setting aside envy. And he : The one is that which is fiery, the two is the t According to the second recension, they are not tinged, " except copper, which then tinges the coins of the vulgar."

* According to the second recension, " they tinge a fifth."

The Turba Philosophorum. 139

body composed in it, the three is the water of sulphur, with which also it is washed and ruled until it be perfected. Do ye not see what the Philosopher affirms, that the quicksilver which tinges gold is quicksilver out of Cambar ? Dardaris answereth : What dost thou mean by this ? For the Philosopher says : sometimes from Cambar and sometimes from Orpiment. And he : Quicksilver of orpiment is Cambar of Magnesia, but quicksilver is sulphur ascending from the mixed* composite. Ye must, therefore, mix that thick thing with fiery venom, putrefy, and diligently pound until a spirit be produced, which is hidden in that other spirit ; then is made the tincture which is desired of you all.

The Forty-Fifth Dictum.
But Plato saith : It behoves you all,
O Masters, when those bodies are

* Some abbreviations in the printed editions obscure the passage. According to the second recension : " Sometimes it is Cambar and sometimes it is Orpiment, but here

140 The Turba Philosophorum.