Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition
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English Page · Branch 162 of 204
On Sulphur · Passage 8
Source reference
- Latin witness
- 1616 · sequence pages 65–66
Latin
Alchimista: Et qui fuerunt illi?
Vox: Innumerabiles fuerunt. Fuit Hermes, qui cum matre eius unum erat: post ipsum fuerunt multi Reges ac Principes, nec non multi alii sapientes, utpote hisce saeculis Aristoteles, Avicenna, et caetera, qui illud liberarunt: hi enim eius ligaturas dissolvere sciverunt.
Alchimista: Domine, quid eis dedit pro deliberatione?
Vox: Dedit illis tria Regna: nam quando illud aliquis dissolvit et liberat, tunc illud custodes suos, qui modo in suo Regno gubernant, vincit, et ligatos huic qui illud liberat in subditos tradit, ac eorum Regna in possessionem dat. Sed quod maius est, in Regno eius est speculum in quo totus Mundus videtur: quicunque in hoc speculum inspicit, tres partes sapientiae totius Mundi in illo videre et addiscere potest: atque ita sapientissimus in hisce tribus Regnis evadet, quales Aristoteles et Avicenna fuerunt et alii multi, qui, sicut et caeteri antecessores, in hoc speculo viderunt, quomodo et Mundus creatus est: ex illo didicerunt caelestium virtutum influentias in inferiora, et quomodo Natura per pondus ignis res componit: tum etiam motum Solis et Lunae, praesertim vero motum illum universalem, quo mater eius gubernatur: ex illo gradus caliditatis, frigiditatis, humiditatis et siccitatis, virtutesque herbarum ac omnium rerum cognoverunt; unde optimi Medici facti sunt. Et certe nisi Medicus talis sit, ut sciat cur haec herba talis vel talis, cur in hoc gradu calida, cur sicca, cur humida sit, non ex libris Galeni aut Avicennae, sed ex fonte Naturae, unde et illi ista habuerunt, fundamentalis Medicus esse non potest. Ista omnia diligenter illi considerarunt, et scripta sua successoribus reliquerunt, ut homines ad altiora studia allicerent, et discerent Sulphur liberare, atque sua vincula dissolvere: sed homines huius saeculi scripta illorum iam pro finali fundamento habent, et ulterius non quaerunt; sufficitque illis quod sciant dicere, sic Aristoteles, sic Galenus scripserunt.
English
Alchemist: Who were they?
Voice: They were innumerable. There was Hermes, who was one with its mother. After him there were many kings and princes, and many other wise men, such as Aristotle and Avicenna in these ages, who freed it. They knew how to loosen its bonds.
Alchemist: Sir, what did it give them for its liberation?
Voice: It gave them three kingdoms. When someone unbinds and frees it, it overcomes its guards, who now rule in its kingdom. It binds them and hands them as subjects to its liberator, giving him possession of their kingdoms. Greater still, in its kingdom is a mirror in which the whole world is seen. Whoever looks into it can see and learn the three parts of the wisdom of the whole world, and so becomes most wise in these three kingdoms. Such were Aristotle, Avicenna and many others. Like their predecessors, they saw in this mirror how the world was created. From it they learned the influences of heavenly powers upon lower things and how nature composes things through fire's weight. They learned the motions of sun and moon, and above all that universal motion by which its mother is governed. From it they knew the degrees of heat, cold, moisture and dryness, and the powers of plants and all things. Hence they became excellent physicians.
Certainly, unless a physician is such a person that he knows why this plant is of this or that kind, why it is hot to this degree, dry or moist—not from Galen's or Avicenna's books, but from nature's fountain, where they too obtained this knowledge—he cannot be a physician grounded in first principles. They considered all these things diligently and left their writings to successors to draw people towards higher studies, so that they might learn to free sulphur and loosen its bonds. But people of this age now take those writings as the ultimate foundation and seek no further. It is enough for them to say: Aristotle wrote this; Galen wrote that.
Socrates
Reading A New Light of Alchemy · On Sulphur · On Sulphur · Passage 8
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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.
Rights
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.