Alchymic Journals

that cannot identify tartar stuck to their own teeth. Liars! Fugitives! Horse-leech fops! Executioners! Purse-milkers! Yet as the tare is plucked out of ripening wheat so must the melody of pretence reverberate until Whitsunday. The murderer does not escape the crushing wheel, the thief a gallows-loop, the fish its appointed net, the fox his destined hunter.
BECAUSE WE HAVE made illustrious promises let us keep them albeit the earth quiver underfoot, since to be perceptibly swallowed and wholly to disappear is less dishonorable than egregious dissimulation. There is but one single instrument laboring mightily toward perfection, which is grace within the soul. Lies corrode a susceptible heart and the universe resembles a Harp or a Lute since every occurrence resonates elsewhere, as the son is known by his father.
BE DILIGENT, I have told Oporinus, because the mind proves adroit at generating monsters, since as we draw shapes upon canvas or wood and reconstruct our similitudes with marble so does the mind formulate basilisks which act against us—contriving aspects and molds of grim apprehension. But why? Because nature acts out of habit, she considers only one way suitable and from this she departs with reluctance to create aberrations. Why is this? We could as well ask what accounts for the soft and feline influence of the moon.
I WOULD HAVE Oporinus learn how undines beneath the surface long for sunshine and how their magnetism contrives to pass through impregnable rock for the pleasure of gnomes. Nor should this be disputed, since we know all things aspire to consanguinity. All experience summer and have their winter, all know the taste of fruit.
I SAY WE are kept from seeing aetherea by the fallibility of our senses and therefore the mind’s eye opens to assist these inadequate organs. Now this is most true with herbs or plants because they teach better lessons than stultified pedagogues pawing and braying from the rostrums of colleges. So have I taught Oporinus about this herb called Matuchiol yclept Heliotropium, which revolves according to the sun. If collected beneath the sign of Leo and wrapped in fescue or laurel and accompanied by the sharpened tooth of a wolf, then no man shall hear a single word uttered against him, only peaceable words. And if he fall asleep on this herb then he could not lose his property to a thief. Moreover, if this herb should be secreted in a chapel where women go that have slighted their vows with copulation—well, they cannot walk past. Or a woman that has clasped Urtica to her breast—she would not succumb to deleterious fancy. Also, there is an herb called Celandine which is gathered where swallows nest, or eagles, that if any man accept it together with a badger’s heart he will beat back enemies, annihilating them in argument. Furthermore this same herb if it be laid against a sick man’s brow—if he should die he would rise up singing with a great voice. Or the leaf of Periwinkle if eaten together by any man with his wife, they will lie down in love. This much is true and natural. But of the Mandrake which is alleged to groan or shriek when it is torn out of the earth, I am not persuaded. I do not claim to have heard this voice, albeit I listen for cries of anguish. I am positive that God has given to these herbs inexplicable virtues and powers which free men from infirmities to the end that they might sojourn a little longer. And I am convinced of how death itself cannot imagine the fatal circumstance, but strives eagerly and diligently in order that it may not overlook the appointed minute, proving obedient to its master.
I HAVE SAID that all metals labor with disease, except gold which enjoys perfect health by the grace of elixir vitae. I have taught Oporinus how this metal is sweet and exhibits such goodly luster that multitudes would look toward gold instead of the generous sun overhead. In fixity or permanence this substance cannot be exceeded and therefore it must gleam incorruptibly, being derived from an imperial correspondence of primary constituents which makes it capable of magnifying every subject, of vivifying lepers, of augmenting the heart. Conceived by our gracious Lord, it is a powerful medicament. False gold, which is a simulacrum boasting no remedial virtue, assaults internal organs and therefore it should be abjured, since the alchymic physician repudiates meretricious matter. We must not keep true gold beyond its measure but distribute what we hold, allegorically reminding each man of an earthly choice he is obligated to make between damnation and bliss.
OPORINUS LONGS TO know the components of imperative minerals. So do many dig deep yet glance by the royal vein, mistakenly posting their elevation against some shadow cast at daybreak. I have explained how seven metals coalesce in a private hour, which is the mystery of electrum and a source of corrective medallions, of sigils and bells to benefit the impropriator. Now, if a paralytic wears a ring pressed from this metal he will rise up and stagger away without assistance. Epileptics or spastics will recoup their faculties. Others also profit, because this substance defies corrupt or antipathetic regents while radiating and condensing the influence of host planets. That is why electrum was utilized by the Magi and Chaldeans. But I would teach Oporinus how men undo themselves in the egg which hatched them. So are they brought to assize.
I HAVE WARNED my famulus to note how stars on their progress confer blessings. Still, like the mind they subject humanity to various deceits and provide less guidance than surpassing folly. Therefore, with sidereal phenomena infinite patience may be required to identify and solicit one unwavering light among fickle multitudes. And such is the legacy I would leave which I admonish him to respect, since whatever a man thinks or accomplishes, or what he teaches or what he hopes to learn, must have its right proportion. I