Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Latin Page · Branch 97 of 204
Dialogue of Mercury, the Alchemist and Nature · Passage 14
Source reference
- Latin witness
- 1607, Google scan PA25, PA26, PA27 · image locators
Latin
Alch.: Tamen alii ex te, si tu es vera Natura, solent facere. Nat.: Verum est, sed solummodo hi qui me noverunt, qui pauci sunt. Qui me vero novit non cruciat filios meos neque me impedit, sed mihi facit ad placitum et augmentat bona mea et filiorum meorum corpora sanat. Alch.: Tamen et ego sic facio. Nat.: Tu mihi contraria omnia facis et contra meam voluntatem cum filiis meis procedis: ubi deberes revivificare tu occidis, ubi figere tu sublimas, ubi calcinare tu distillas, praesertim hunc mihi obedientissimum filium Mercurium quem tot corrosivis aquis, tot venenosis rebus crucias. Alch.: Tunc ego sic procedam cum illo suaviter per digestionem solummodo. Natura: Bene est si scis, sin minus non illi sed tibi nocebis ipse et sumptibus tuis: nam idem est illi, ita cum stercore se miscet sicuti cum auro, gemma semper bona est et stercus illum non minuit, etiamsi in illud proiicietur, quando lavatur eadem est gemma quae fuit antea. Alch.: Sed ego libenter scirem facere Lapidem Philosophicum. Natura: Ergo non sic filium meum tractato: scito enim quod ego multos filios et filias habeo, et adsum praesto quaerentibus me si sunt me digni. Alch.: Dic ergo mihi quis est iste Mercurius? Natura: Scito quod est mihi unus tantum talis filius, unus ex septem est et primus est, quoque omnia est, qui unus tantum erat: nihil est et numerus eius integer est. In illo sunt quatuor Elementa, qui tamen non est Elementum: spiritus est qui tamen corpus habet: vir est et tamen vices foeminae agit: puer est et viri arma gerit: animal est et tamen ales avis habet. Venenum est et tamen lepram curat: vita est et tamen omnia occidit: Rex est, alter tamen possidet eius regnum: fugit cum igne et tamen ex illo paratur ignis: aqua est et non madefacit: terra est et tamen seminatur: aer est et vivit aqua.
English
Alchemist: Nevertheless, other people do make it from you—if you are true Nature.
Nature: That is true, but only those who know me, and they are few. Someone who truly knows me does not torture my children or hinder me. He acts to please me, increases my goods and heals my children’s bodies.
Alchemist: That is what I do too.
Nature: Everything you do is contrary to me. You treat my children against my will. Where you should revive, you kill; where you should fix, you sublime; where you should calcine, you distil. Above all you torture Mercury, this most obedient son of mine, with so many corrosive waters and poisonous things.
Alchemist: Then I shall treat him gently, by digestion alone.
Nature: Good—if you know how. If not, you will harm yourself and your finances, rather than him. It is all the same to him: he mixes with dung as with gold. A gem is always good. Dung does not diminish it, even if it is thrown into dung; when washed, it is the same gem as before.
Alchemist: But I would very much like to know how to make the philosophers’ stone.
Nature: Then do not treat my son in that way. Know that I have many sons and daughters and stand ready for those who seek me, if they are worthy of me.
Alchemist: Tell me, then, who this Mercury is.
Nature: Know that I have only one such son. He is one of seven and is the first; he also is all things, who was only one. He is nothing, and his number is whole. In him are the four elements, yet he is no element. He is a spirit, yet has a body. He is male, yet performs the female’s role. He is a boy and bears a man’s arms. He is an animal, yet has a bird’s wings. He is poison, yet cures leprosy. He is life, yet kills all things. He is a king, yet another possesses his kingdom. He flees with fire, yet fire is prepared from him. He is water and does not wet. He is earth and yet is sown. He is air and lives by water.
Socrates
Reading A New Light of Alchemy · Dialogue of Mercury, the Alchemist and Nature · Dialogue of Mercury, the Alchemist and Nature · Passage 14
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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.