Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 28 of 204
Treatise III · Passage 2
Source reference
- Latin witness
- 1606 pp. 98–99
Latin
Si habes aures et sensus, hic animadverte et securus eris, non tantum ab illis qui locum spermatis ignorant, totumque granum in semen reducere nituntur, verum etiam ab his omnibus, qui in solutione metallorum versantur vana, et metalla per totum solvere volunt, ut postea ex illorum commixtione mutua novum creent metallum. At hi, si naturae processum considerarent, viderent rem se habere longe aliter: nam nullum metallum est tam purum, quod non habeat et suas impuritates, unum tamen altero pauciores vel plures: sed, tu amice lector primum observabis naturae punctum, ut supra dictum, et satis habes: sed hanc tibi habeto cautelam, ne in metallis vulgi illud quaeras. In quibus non est: nam haec metalla, praesertim aurum vulgi mortua sunt, sed nostra sunt viva, spiritum habentia, quae omnino sumenda: scito enim metallorum vitam esse ignem, dum adhuc in suis mineris sunt, et mortem etiam ignem, fusionis videlicet.
English
If you have ears and understanding, pay attention here, and you will be safe both from those who do not know the place of seed and try to turn the entire grain into seed, and from all those engaged in vain dissolution of metals. They want to dissolve metals completely and then create a new metal from their mutual mixture. If they considered nature’s process, however, they would see that the matter is quite otherwise. No metal is so pure that it has no impurities, although one has fewer or more than another. But you, reader and friend, should first observe nature’s point, as said above, and you have enough. Take this precaution, however: do not seek it in common metals. It is not in them. These metals, especially common gold, are dead; ours are living and possess spirit, and these must certainly be taken. Know that fire is the life of metals while they are still in their ores; fire is also their death, namely the fire of melting.
Socrates
Reading A New Light of Alchemy · Treatise III · Treatise III · Passage 2
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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.