Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 93 of 204
Dialogue of Mercury, the Alchemist and Nature · Passage 10
Source reference
- Latin witness
- 1607, Google scan PA18, PA19, PA20 · image locators
Latin
Alch.: Iam mihi places quod mihi dicas quod iam senior sis: ego enim semper talem quaesivi qui sit maturior et fixior, ut eo facilius cum illo convenire possim. Merc.: Frustra me visitas senem, qui me non nosti in iuventute. Alch.: Nonne ego te novi qui te semper miris modis tractavi, ut tu ipse dixisti, et adhuc non desinam donec perficiam Lapidem Philosophorum. Merc.: O me miserum, quid sim facturus? Qui fortasse iterum cum stercoribus miscebor, iam crucior denuo. O me miserum, rogo te, o Domine Philosophe, noli me tantum porcino stercori miscere: nam alias iam peribo, foetore enim hoc cogor meam mutare formam. Et quid vis ut amplius faciam? Nonne satis crucior a te? Nonne obedio tibi? Nonne misceo me rebus quibus tu vis? Nonne sum sublimis? Nonne praecipitatus? Nonne Thurbi? Nonne Amalgama? Nonne Masca? Quid iam magis a me cupis? Meum corpus iam ita flagellatum est, iam sputatum, ut et lapis mei possit misereri: ex me habes lac, ex me carnem, ex me sanguinem, ex me butyrum, ex me oleum, ex me aquam, et quod unquam metallorum aut minerarum id praestare possit quod ego solus? Et non est misericordia mecum. O me miserum. Alch.: Oho, non nocet tibi, tu es nequam, licet te quovis modo invertas, tu non mutas te, nisi formam tibi fingis, iterum semper redis in primam speciem tuam. Merc.: Ego facio sicut tu vis: si vis ut sim corpus, corpus sum; si vis ut sim pulvis, pulvis sum. Nescio quomodo me magis humiliare debeam quam cum pulvis et umbra fio.
English
Alchemist: Now I like you, since you tell me you are older. I have always looked for someone more mature and more fixed, so that I can deal with him more easily.
Mercury: You visit me in old age to no purpose, since you did not know me in youth.
Alchemist: Do I not know you? I have always treated you in extraordinary ways, as you said yourself, and I shall not stop until I complete the philosophers’ stone.
Mercury: Wretched creature that I am! What shall I do? Perhaps I shall be mixed with dung again. Already I am being tortured anew. Poor me! I beg you, lord philosopher, only do not mix me with pig dung, or I shall perish. Its stench forces me to change my form. What more do you want me to do? Have you not tortured me enough? Do I not obey you? Do I not mix myself with whatever things you choose? Am I not sublimed? Precipitated? Thurbi? Amalgam? Masca? What more do you want from me? My body is so scourged and spat upon that even a stone could pity me. From me you have milk, flesh, blood, butter, oil and water. What metal or ore could ever perform what I alone can do? Yet there is no mercy for me. Poor me!
Alchemist: It does you no harm. You are a rogue. However you turn yourself about, you do not change: you merely devise a form for yourself and always return to your first appearance.
Mercury: I do as you wish. If you want me to be a body, I am a body; if you want me to be powder, I am powder. I do not know how to humble myself further than by becoming dust and shadow.
Socrates
Reading A New Light of Alchemy · Dialogue of Mercury, the Alchemist and Nature · Dialogue of Mercury, the Alchemist and Nature · Passage 10
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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.