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.
is dust, and the more it burns the more, the bones being strengthened, it is led towards youth, arriving at which it is independent.t Thus it behoves you also to act in
• Otherwise : " Know that nothing is generated without complexion."
t This absurd confusion is not found in the second recension, which reads: "So long as it is little, it is nourished with milk, and in proportion as the vital heat is maintained, the bones are strengthened."
The Turba Philosophorum. i8i
this Art. Know ye that without heat nothing is ever generated, and that the bath causes the matter to perish by means of intense heat. If, indeed, it be frigid, it puts to flight and disperses, but if it have been tempered, it is convenient and sweet to the body, wherefore the veins become smooth and the flesh is augmented. Behold it has been demonstrated to you, all ye disciples ! Understand, therefore, and in all things which ye attempt to rule, fear God.
The Sixty-First Dictum.
MosES saith : It is to be observed that the envious have named lead of copper instruments of formation, simulating, deceiving prosterity,* to whom I give notice that there are no instruments except from our own white, strong, and splendid powder, and from our i82 The Turba Philosophorum.
* This passage is so corrupt as to be almost untranslatable. According to the second recension : " The envious have in many ways described the process of making lead, and have represented that there are a number of instruments," etc.
concave stone* and marble, to the whole work whereof there is no more suitable powder, nor one more conjoined to our composition, than the powder of Alociae,t out of which are produced instruments of formation. Further, the Philosophers have already said : Take instruments out of the egg. Yet they have not said what the egg is, nor of what bird. I And know ye t A severe critic, having failed to trace this terra, might suggest a slight emendation, and read Alogiee, i,e., " many words and no sense."
* The concave stone does not seem to be a term which entered into the nomenclature of later philosophers. We hear much concerning the form of the stone, but that is not to be understood as its configuration, being used in the same sense as Latin theology was accustomed to speak of the form of the soul. So Bernard Trevisan, in his BpUtle to Thomas of Boiwnia: "Our stone does not possess a formal form (forma forTnabilis) such as vegetative or sensitive, yet, nevertheless, it has a formed form (forma formata), which form is the elements themselves, and this is because it is homogeneous, whereas the human body, or that of other sensitive things, is heterogeneous." For the term concave stone the second recension substitutes gleaming, i.e., candidus.
I This entire passage is considerably shortened in the second recension, which simply observes that out of the powder mentioned at the beginning, instruments adapted to the egg are composed, but that at the same time the envious have omitted to name the egg, etc.
The Turba Philosophorum. 183
that the regimen of these things is more difficult than the entire work, because, if the composition be ruled more than it should be, its light is taken and extinguished by the sea. Wherefore the Philosophers have ordered that it should be ruled with profound judgment. The moon, therefore, being at the full, take this and place in sand till it be dissolved. And know ye that while ye are placing the same in sand and repeating the process, unless ye have patience, ye err in ruling, and corrupt the work. Cook, therefore, the same in a gentle fire until ye see that it is dissolved. Then extinguish with vinegar, and ye shall find one thing separated from three companions. And know ye that the first, Ixir, commingles, the second burns, while the third liquefies.* In
* Alchemy does not seem to have generally recognised the existence of three elixirs. Fundamentally, indeed, it holds there is but one elixir, having various degrees of perfection. Zosimus, however, recognises in the true povi-der of perfection the existence of three powers and three activities proceeding from those powers, namely.
184 The Turba Philosophorum.
the first place, therefore, impose nine ounces of vinegar twice — first while the vessel is being made hot, and second when it is heated.
The Sixty-Second Dictum.