Original Variant Readings and Corrections

In the manuscript mentioned above, the words “Abyss calls to abyss” were also written on both sides of the figure ABYSSUS DUPLICATA. In all probability, however, these do not come from the author but were added by an enthusiast. In the other figure, the Golden Chain of Homer, line 9 had “concrete bodies” in place of “bodies,” and the final line had “of the universe” in place of “universal.” In the explanation of the double-abyss figure, line 18 had “creep back” in place of “creep in”; line 20 read, “If indeed the lowest is to become the highest.” In the explanation of the other figure, the Golden Chain, line 9 read “here is its name”; line 15, “upon which it takes on a” and so forth; lines 23–24, “Here is the father for all things, who can very easily overcome all the world’s strongholds”; the last line, “From it Eve must spring.” On the second page of this explanation, lines 8–9 read, “Out of Adam Eve also arises, who is called common salt and everything”; line 20, “The fixed ores and stones bear witness.”

In the preface, first page, line 6, read “demonstration” for “indication”; line 14, “art” for “nature.” On the second page, line 12, read “effort” for “touching upon.” Page 1, line 16: delete “alone.” Page 2, line 2: read “out of chaos” for “out of the great chaos”; lines 14–15, “continually successive” for “continual.” Page 5, lines 8–10: read “that the first matter of this great world, after God, is chaotic water and vapour dissolved into water.” At the same place, lines 17–18: “Whoever now desires to reach the origin and fountain of the mystery, let him retain,” and so forth; line 22, “in all the subjects of the whole,” and so forth; lines 24–25, “so they return to this again in their furthest dissolution.” Page 6, line 6: read “the volatile and fixity” for “digestion.” Page 7, line 3: read “to take shape” for “to become viscous”; lines 15–17, “also four and five. At the beginning it was one, as a simple water. Two: a water that concealed its spirit within itself. Three: when it passed into a”.

Page 9, line 15: read “Such sweat and vapour is”; line 26, “commanded” for “brings forth.” Page 10, line 3: “a” for “new.” Page 11, line 17: “conjunction” for “manner”; line 20, “and everything out” for “and everything”; line 21, “for that” for “that.” Page 12, line 19, after “then they unite,” add “in an instant, remaining stable in every fire, whereas previously they spent some time in uniting. Let heaven ascend into air as its medium, and then they unite.” Page 14, line 17: “the water into it” for “the fire into it”; lines 23–24, “it separates” for “let it separate from it”; last line, “stand, and then you will see that” for “stand, that.” Page 15, line 8: “into a spiritual water” for “into a water”; line 22, “external, especially in” for “external in.” Page 16, line 4: “becomes the seed of all things” for “becomes seed.”

Page 18, line 10: read “Thus it is to be understood from this”; line 20, “thus everything has come to be” for “thus all this is word”; line 22, after “it is,” add “but the coarser it is, the more immobile, sluggish, and sleepy.” Page 19, line 4: “placed” for “commanded.” Page 20, line 26: “with the air and subtle vapours.” Page 21, line 11: “attenuation” for “extension.” Page 23, line 22, after “the more,” add “to the highest degree.” Page 26, line 15: “with the lower watery and earthly effluences” for “the lower watery and earthly effluences.” Page 28, line 3: “often” for “above.” Page 31, line 22, after “becomes fixed,” add “and according as a thing becomes very volatile and fixed”; line 26, after “seed,” add “of all things.” Page 32, line 19: “coagulated fixed water” for “coagulated water.” Page 36, line 10: “the earth fluid” for “the earth volatile”; last line, “sublimation” for “subtilisation.” Page 37, line 6: “into air and heaven” for “into heaven.” Page 38, line 16, after “comes,” add “but the nearer it comes to heaven.”

Page 39, line 14: read “again” for “only.” Page 40, line 16: “salt juices” for “juices, salt.” Page 41, lines 12–13: “from one vapour” for “from every vapour.” Page 42, lines 13, 21, and 24: “species” for “spheres.” Page 43, line 8: “the other’s first impulse” for “another impulse”; last line, “gates” for “kinds.” Page 44, line 3: “species” for “spheres”; line 16, replace “according to its kind, and” with “according to its kind; thus air too has its fixity according to its kind; thus.” Page 54, line 1: “fiery” for “watery.” Page 55, lines 12–13: delete “rushing”; line 24, “and coagulated corporeally” for “and corporeally.” Page 59, line 3: “universal nitre and salt” for “universal nitre”; line 22, “universally” for “in a single word.” Page 60, line 6: “nitrous things” for “saline things.” Page 61, line 15: “alkaline salt” for “animal salt”; last two lines, “without the slightest alteration” for “without the slightest suspicion of any attraction.” Page 62, line 16: “to fulminate” for “a thunderbolt.” Page 64, line 13: “prevents” for “loses.”

Page 90, line 2: read “fixes one part within itself” for “fixes one part”; line 12, “the acid” for “rectifies, then.” Page 92, third line from the end: “distilled vinegar” for “acid.” Page 95, line 19: “thus the salts are to the” for “thus also to the oil and.” Page 96, lines 21–22: “most common” for “philosophical.” Page 99, line 9: “fluid” for “volatile.” Page 100, line 8: “escaped” for “withdrawn.” Page 102, fourth line from the end: “quintessence” for “quintessence of nature.” Page 103, line 17: delete “to this process”; next-to-last line, read “a quarter of a pound” for “four pounds.” Page 104, line 17: “cases” for “errors.” Page 105, line 21: “draw” for “hold.” Page 106, line 14: “as” for “also.” Page 107, line 4: “another way of making vinegar” for “sharpened vinegar”; line 8, “ten parts” for “twelve parts”; fourth line from the end, after “alkalis,” add “which makes the difference.” Page 109, lines 11–12: “an acid and an alkali that are volatile” for “an acid and an alkaline spirit”; line 18, “the volatile and the fixed” for “of volatility and fixity.” Page 111, line 13: “subjects” for “principles.”

Page 115, line 7: read the plural “mucilaginous seeds” for the singular “mucilaginous seed”; line 18: delete “oils.” Page 117, line 3: “as clear, indeed clearer” for “so much clearer”; line 8, “dry” for “dry or.” Page 118, line 18: “more volatile” for “volatile”; lines 23–24, “tame and wild” for the printed phrase “behalt und unbehauenen.” Page 119, line 13: “antlered” for “feathered”; line 21, “fatter” for “and moister.” Page 120, line 21: “stock” for “seed”; line 25, after “consists,” add “what it is?” Page 121, lines 11–12: “a hundred” for “many thousands.” Page 122, line 2: “dead” for “rotten”; line 4, after “putrefactions,” add “and solutions”; line 26, after “makes,” add “the mineral so tasteless to the vegetable.” Page 123, line 14: “in the nodes” for “soft.” Page 125, lines 29–31: read “The root, then, is the vegetable magnet, which draws nourishment from the earth and attracts the incoming rain.” Page 126, line 2: “anatomy and examination” for “examination”; line 29, “nutriments and excrements” for “nutriments of.” Page 127, line 29: “subtilises” for “sublimates.”

Page 131, line 12: read “rain, dew, and in the earth” for “rain and dew.” Page 132, line 29: “or entirely” for “but entirely and very.” Page 139, line 9: “nearest” for “right.” Page 145, line 6: “with difficulty up” for “with difficulty”; last two lines: “and even when they are to unite, they must be digested for a most tiresomely long time.” Page 148, lines 3–4: “known to few” for “consider little.” Page 150, line 11: correct Medicinat to Medicinal; line 14: read “safely” after “itself.” Page 154, line 6: “forge” for “separate”; line 17, “on it” for “in it.” Page 155, lines 8–9: “it can at once be dissolved with spring water without any corrosive”; line 16, “see” for “set.” Page 156, line 12: “show clearly” for “show forth.” Page 157, line 8: “stonier” for “stronger”; line 14, “eats” for “is to eat”; after “increase,” add “before the gold is to yield. From this the practitioner sees”; line 18, “this into a sulphur or” for “then again into sulphur and”; line 26, “gold” for “body.” Page 158, line 11, after “bring,” add “and transmute”; lines 17–18, “most fixed” for “fixed first.” Page 160, line 8: “in far” for “into a.” Page 161, line 8: read sive Gur, “or Gur,” for the corrupt iade Gur; line 13, “improperly” for “improper”; line 16, “I here the” for “I the.”

Page 163, line 13: read “minerals” for “metals”; line 17, “nature” for “matter”; line 20, after “variety,” add “and so forth, and so forth”; line 28, after “metals,” add the same. Page 165, line 16, after “plants,” add “and in animals”; line 27, after “both,” add “nitre and salt.” Page 166, line 22: “sublunary” for “subterranean”; line 31, “redissolve” for “dissolve.” Page 167, line 20: delete “not only.” Page 168, lines 11–12: read “produce a great fermentation” for “will produce a fermentation.” Page 169, line 19: “proximate” for “first.” Page 170, line 26: “swollen earth, then, or Gur” for “swollen Gur.” Page 171, line 26: change procediret to progrediret, both indicating proceeding or progressing. Page 162, line 15: read “soft parts, until” for “soft, until.” Page 174, line 5, after “also,” add “for it would be impossible to describe everything; let each person reflect for himself.” Page 175, line 16: delete “or of the imperfect”; line 25, replace “added, gold be” with “intended for gold be.” Page 176, line 26: “with regulus and metal” for “with regulus.” Page 177, line 15: “from saltpetre and salt” for “from salt.” Page 180, lines 18–19: “some acid or dissolving salt” for “every acid or dissolved salt.” Page 185, line 6: “high” for “quartered.” Page 194, line 3: “bind” for “finish.” Page 199, line 11, after “little,” add “than the common one”; lines 23–24: delete “the order of nature.”