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

The Fifty-Ninth Dictum. Theophilus saith : I propose to speak further concerning those things which Bonites hath narrated. And the Turba: Speak, Brother, for thy brother hath discoursed elegantly. And he : Following in the steps of Bonites I will make perfect his sayings. It should be known that all the Philosophers, while they have concealed this disposition, yet spoke the

The Turba Philosophorum. 177

truth in their treatises when -they named water of life, for this reason, that whatsoever* is mixed with the said water first dies, then lives and becomes young. And know, all ye disciples, that iron does not become rusty except by reason of this water, because it tinges the plates ; it is then placed in the sun till it liquefies and is imbued, after which it is congealed. In these days it becomes rusty, but silence is better than this illumination. The Turba answereth : O Theophilus, beware of becoming envious, and complete thy speech! And he: Would that I might repeat the like thing ! And they : What is thy will ? Then he : Certain fruits, which proceed first from that perfect tree, do flourish in the beginning of the summer, and the more they are multiplied the more are they adorned, t until they are f According to the second recension : " The more the tree is adorned."

* The reference in the second recension is to the old man of the previous dictum.

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178 The Turba Philosophorum.

perfected, and being mature become sweet. In the same way that woman,* fleeing from her own children, with whom she lives, although partly angry, yet does not brook being overcome, nor that her husband should possess her beauty, who furiously loves her, and keeps awake contending with her, till he shall have carnal intercourse with her, and God make perfect the foetus, when he multiplies children to himself according to his pleasure. His beauty, therefore, is consumed by fire who does not approach his wife except by reason of lust. For when the term is finished he turns to her. I also make known to you that the dragon never dies, but the Philosophers have put to death the woman who slays her spouses. For the belly of that

• The compiler of the Turba seems to have introduced this allegory from another source, or it has possibly been interpolated at a later period ; its style, indeed, is that of the epoch of Trevisan ; it is, in any case, quite out of character with the text as a whole, and refers, it will be seen, to something which has not been previously described.

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woman is full of weapons and venom. Let, therefore, a sepulchre be dug for the dragon, and let that woman be buried with him, who being strongly joined with that woman, the more he clasps her and is entwined with her, the more his body, by the creation of female weapons in the body of the woman, is cut up into parts. For perceiving him mixed with the limbs of a woman he becomes secure from death, and the whole is turned into blood. But the Philosophers, beholding him turned into blood, leave him in the sun for certain days, until the lenitude is consumed, the blood dries up, and they find that venom which now is manifest. Then the wind is hidden.

The Sixtieth Dictum. BoNELLUS* saith: Know, all ye disciples, that out of the elect things nothing becomes useful without coni8o The Turba Philosophorum.

* In the second recension the name is Bodillus.

junction and regimen,* because sperma is generated out of blood and desire.

For the man mingling with the woman, the sperm is nourished by the humour of the womb, and by the moistening

, blood, and by heat, and when forty nights have elapsed the sperm is

; formed. But if the humidity of the

I blood and of the womb were not heat,

\ the sperm would not be dissolved, nor

\the foetus be procreated. But God has constituted that heat and blood for the nourishment of the sperm until the foetus is brought forth, after which it is not nourished, save by milk and fire, sparingly and gradually, while it