Alchymic Journals

well as the circumstances of our environment. Thus we attempt to perceive, foresee and augurate. Did not William of Paris at his laboratory construct a Brazen Head which nodded, beckoned and spoke to visitors in the voice of a man? Accordingly we manifest more than brief conjunctions drawn of flesh, bone and nerve. Upon measurable degrees we exemplify the cognizant universe. Therefore we must not be fictive but represent a palpable quintessence, which was the ambition of our Creator.
IF WE WISH to illustrate the several properties of mankind would we not trace in miniature a precise copy or replica of our cosmos? If so, then what persuades us to reiterate and duplicate mistakes through treacherous dissimulation? Is it not more logical to collaborate toward a melioration of Lead, thereby to form and guarantee what we anticipate? By day we are wont to clasp hands and replenish our lives with honor while by night we turn obligations into cobwebs, deceiving ourselves under nets, entanglement and falsehood. What beggary is this? Have we not ourselves become beggars begging at our own door?
OFTEN HAVE I talked with Oporinus of a path to the Citadel where an inimitable Infant slumbers, encircled by dragons. I have told Oporinus that lineage and privilege mean little, that only distress has meaning, since which of us is exempt? And I have explained how if an alchymist’s heart play false so must his prescription. Sooty empiricks puffing and blowing make wrong turnings. Divided ashes lie estranged.
I HAVE TAUGHT Oporinus how nothing concerning us be declared irrelevant and foreign. Why has God endowed men with thought unless they should apprehend their predicament? For too many is thought considered a vacant entity, but this is misguidance. Thoughts have ponderable crystalline shapes inexplicably formed of nutritious components within the soul much as ice crystals develop in freezing water. Hence, we may impose upon all men our disposition toward maleficence or beneficence, generosity or selfishness, since thoughts being formed of quiet volition may be thrown like icicles into the mental spheres of others. Why? Because the world’s huge frame is known to encompass all and the focus of meditation appears very great.
I HAVE ADVISED Oporinus to scrutinize ancient manuscripts because each opens against its opposite. I say he that observes, studies, and learns during his tenure on earth shall be dressed with gold during the Resurrection, while not one that has loitered should aspire to superiority. This is because exploration leads upward.
OPORINUS WOULD HAVE our secret delivered into his hands. I respond by asking how he would catalogue the structure of rainbows, or if he be employed with Nilotic darkness, or if he has found absolution. Let him think privately on the melioration of nature and reflect how it is impossible to grasp what is first or last, or take hold of the first that is not also last. So do we annotate the circularity of Man and we call this ubiquitous since it is identified with its subject, and no man has discovered how to escape. Should Oporinus climb as high as heaven it would be there.
I HAVE SAID that in God’s presence the most execrable vices of our world disseminate. How is this explained? I point out how treasure flows to chattermag niggard hucksters marketing pinchbeck remedies meant for a Lazaret while the best endure calumny, ridicule, neglect, ingratitude—but to what purpose? Look at what has occurred since the beginning.
LET US ASSUME the throne of heaven was framed within and that every corporeal benefit has been tabulated. Say that a physician controverts himself at midnight, then he could be no itinerant hunched on the door-step of humanity. Neither is he pseudo-medicus or imposter quick to interpret the allegoric journey of a pilgrim, having met in each some hollow glory.
MANY WILL CHARGE according to their expedient how upheavals and the deaths of kings are adumbrated by comets approaching, yet our worldly lot rests on the palm of an Indecipherable who is its commencement and its end, who displaces sceptres and crowns and tumbles down the mightiest. So must the worst and finest tumble in dust upon august authority, commingled with a universe of streaming shadows.
DOMINANT PLANETS AND various stars spread their glory between Flanders and Brazil. Others thoughtfully conceal their light, for what emprize we do not know. Similarly, invidious spirits often deceive or hide their employments from the inquisitive novice. Yet between microcosm and macrocosm every item stands related, albeit we hear much opposed logic formed in concert with strange denial.
I SAY THE impetus of ascending planets invigorates animals with harmonious organs no less than minerals or vegetables. We ask why. But what is planetary exhalation save its vital elixir? We see one patient get up and walk away from his bed while for no cause his neighbor vomits and writhes and dies, so it is impossible to contest the power of heavenly light. We are no more devised from insensate clay than is an herb blossoming out of mud.
SHOULD IT BE God’s will to instruct an alchymist at his art He will dispense understanding at the appropriate season. But if by this wisdom He concludes that any man was unfit or should He decide that irrevocable mischief would ensue, then that sanction is withheld. Neither would God undertake to show one man for a principality so that others crowd up against him piteously bleating—or go trotting behind him like sheep after a ram. And he that fails to read blackness at the beginning shall fail at his magistery.
I HAVE SAID men descry what pleases them because what appears reasonable, that is what they approve. Out of Electrum Magicum they make mirrors which are fundamentally conjoined, as Jupiter conjoins with Venus, since this is nature’s scheme and geniture. Hidden causes. Future portents.
THE BENEFICIAL ASPECTS of numerous herbs have been concealed, as are their insalubrities, yet we know how to discover them just as we are able to perceive