Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Latin Page · Branch 48 of 204
Treatise X · Passage 1
Source reference
- Latin witness
- 1606 pp. 123–125
Latin
Caput X. De generatione supranaturali filii Solis.
Tractavimus de rebus, quas natura creat, et quas Deus creavit, ut scrutatores artis eo facilius possibilitatem naturae intelligerent, sed ne diutius differam, modum ac artem conficiendi lapidis Philosophorum aggredior. Lapis Philosophorum seu tinctura, nil aliud est, quam aurum in supremum gradum digestum: nam aurum vulgi est sicut herba sine semine, quando maturescit producit semen: sic aurum quando maturescit dat semen seu tincturam. Sed quaeret aliquis, quare aurum vel aliud metallum non producat semen? Ratio redditur talis, quia non potest esse maturum, propter aeris cruditatem, non habet sufficientem calorem, et contingit in quibusdam locis, ut reperiatur aurum purum: quod natura voluit perficere, sed impedita fuit ab aere crudo, exempli gratia, videmus, quod pomorum Arantiorum arbores hic quidem crescant instar aliarum arborum. In Italia et alibi, ubi est illarum solum nativum, dant et ferunt fructus, quia sufficientem habent calorem, in his vero frigidioribus locis minime: ubi enim maturescere deberent, desinunt, quia frigore opprimuntur: et sic nunquam a natura in hisce locis habentur earum fructus, licet aliquando iuvetur natura suaviter et cum ingenio, tunc ars iam perficit, quod natura non potuisset. Idem plane in metallis accidit. Aurum potest dare fructum et semen, in quo se multiplicat industria sagacis artificis, qui scit naturam promovere: sed si absque natura id velit tentare, errabit: nam non solum in hac arte, sed et in omni re, nihil possumus, quam naturam iuvare, et hoc non alio medio, quam igne seu calore.
English
Treatise X The Generation beyond Nature of the Son of Sol
We have discussed the things nature creates and those God created, so that investigators of the art might understand more readily what nature can do. To delay no longer, I turn to the method and art of making the philosophers’ stone. The philosophers’ stone, or tincture, is nothing other than gold digested to the highest degree. Common gold is like a herb without seed: when it ripens, it produces seed. Likewise, when gold ripens, it gives seed or tincture. Someone will ask why gold or another metal does not produce seed. The reason is this: it cannot become ripe because of the air’s crudity; it lacks sufficient heat. In some places pure gold is found that nature wished to perfect, but crude air prevented her. For example, we see orange trees growing here like other trees. In Italy and elsewhere in their native soil, they bear fruit because they have sufficient heat; in these colder places they do not. Where they ought to ripen, they stop, overwhelmed by cold, and so their fruit is never obtained from nature in these places. Yet if nature is sometimes assisted gently and skilfully, art then completes what nature could not. Precisely the same happens in metals. Gold can give fruit and seed, in which it multiplies through the industry of a discerning practitioner who knows how to advance nature. If he attempts it without nature, he will go astray. Not only in this art but in every matter, we can do nothing beyond assisting nature, and by no means other than fire or heat.
Socrates
Reading A New Light of Alchemy · Treatise X · Treatise X · Passage 1
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
The complete supplied Latin–English edition of the Twelve Treatises, Epilogue, Enigma, Parable, Dialogue of Mercury and Treatise of Sulphur, with original preliminaries, John French’s historical English address and its separately labelled modernisation, 101 annotations and the complete study apparatus.
Historical Text and Translation
The Twelve Treatises and their concluding texts follow the selected 1606 Herzog August Bibliothek witness. The Dialogue uses the 1607 Cologne printing; the author’s preface and Alsted epigram use Frankfurt 1611. Sulphur uses the 1616 Munich and Rome witnesses. John French’s 1650 address is separately identified as historical English reception.
About Diotimos Editions
This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.
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The historical Latin texts and John French’s 1650 English address are in the public domain. The new translation, modernisation and editorial apparatus were prepared with AI assistance for Diotimos Editions in 2026 and are published with the site owner’s authorization.