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

MuNDUS saith : It behoves you, O all ye seekers after this Art, to know that whatsoever the Philosophers have narrated or ordained, Kenckel, herbs, geldum, and carmen, are one thing !* Do not, therefore, trouble about a plurality of things, for there is one Tyrian tincture of the Philosophers to which they have given names at will, and having abolished the proper name, they have called it black, because it has been extracted from our sea. And tincture, penetration, and fixation, just as a body has mathematically three dimensions. The distinction is a mere subtlety. Later alchemists speak much of the Elixir at the White and the Elixir at the Red, yet the second is the first in exaltation, and so also the Elixir of metals is at the same time held to be the medicine of men. ' According to the second recension : " Certain Philosophers have named Gold Chelidony, Karnech, Geldum, etc."

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know that the ancient priests did not condescend to wear artificial garments, whence, for purifying altars, and lest they should introduce into them anything sordid or impure, they tinged Kenckel with a Tyrian colour ; but our Tyrian colour, which they placed in their altars and treasuries, was more clean and fragrant than can be described by me, which also has been extracted from our red and most pure sea, which is sweet and of a pleasant odour, and is neither sordid nor impure in putrefaction. And know ye that we have given many names to it, which are all true — an example of which, for those that possess understanding, is to be traced in corn that is being ground. For after grinding it is called by another name, and after it has been passed through the sieve, and the various substances have been separated one from another, each of these has its own name, and yet fundamentally there is but one name, to i86 The Turba Philosophorum.

wit, corn, from which many names are distinguished. Thus we call the purple in each grade of its regimen by the name of its own colour.

The Sixty-Third Dictum. Philosophus* saith : I notify to posterity that the nature is male and female, wherefore the envious have called it the body of Magnesia, because therein is the most great arcanum ! Accordingly, O all ye seekers after this Art, place Magnesia in its vessel, and cook diligently ! Then, opening it after some days, ye shall find the whole changed into water. Cook further until it be coagulated, and contain itself. But, when ye hear of the sea in the books of the envious, know that they signify humour, while by the basket they signify the vessel, and by the medicines they mean Nature, because it germinates

* In the second recension, this speech is put into the mouth of Rarson.

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and flowers.* But when the envious say : Wash until the blackness of the copper passes away, certain people name this blackness coins. But Agadimon has clearly demonstrated when he boldly put forth these words : It is to be noted, O all ye demonstrators of this art, that the things [or the copper] being first mixed and cooked once, ye shall find the prescribed blackness! That is to say, they all become black. This, therefore, is the lead of the Wise, concerning which they have treated very frequently in their books. Some also call it [the lead] of our black coins.

The Sixty-Fourth DictumA

Pythagoras saith: How marvellous is the diversity of the Philosophers in those things which they formerly asserted, and in their coming together [or agreement] , in respect