Coelum Terrae

cold and moist, but inwardly hot and dry.” All this is confirmed by Rhodian, apparently another instructor of Kanid, king of Persia. [New translation of the Latin:] “The seed is white and liquid, afterwards red. This seed is the fugitive stone; it is aerial and volatile, cold and moist, and hot and dry.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “The seed is white and liquid, afterwards red. This seed is the flying stone; it is aerial and volatile, cold and moist, hot and dry.” The author of the excellent treatise called The Book of Three Words agrees. [New translation of the Latin:] “This is the Book of Three Words, the book of the precious stone, which is an aerial and volatile body, cold and moist, watery and burning. Within it are heat and dryness, coldness and moisture: one power hidden, another manifest.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “This is the Book of Three Words”—meaning three principles—“the book of the precious stone, an aerial and volatile body, cold and moist, watery and burning. Within it are heat and dryness, coldness and moisture, one power inwardly and the other outwardly.” Belus the philosopher, in that famous and most authoritative assembly of Arisleus, reverses the order to conceal the practice; understood rightly, however, he speaks to the point. [New translation of the Latin:] “Among great philosophers it is an exalted truth that the stone is not