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The Philosophers’ Testimonies

I know some sophists of the Heptarchy—those whose learning is all noise, in which sense magpies and parakeets are philosophical—will conclude that this is mere bait and poetry: that we entertain without asserting anything and deceive the reader's very judgement. To forestall such feeble slanders, and to shed a little more of our secret light on the well-disposed student, I shall produce the testimony of some capable philosophers concerning first matter itself as it is naturally found, before any alteration by art. Here the reader may indeed discover the mark. He may do so most easily if he attends to

the flights of my verse or follows the more sober pace of their prose. First I shall cite Arnold of Villanova, a thoroughly accomplished master of the art. He describes the philosophical chaos in these plain terms. [New translation of the Latin:] “It is a stone and not a stone, spirit, soul and body. If you dissolve it, it dissolves; if you coagulate it, it coagulates; and if you make it fly, it flies. For it is volatile, white as a tear from the eye. Afterwards it becomes yellow, salty and without hairs; no one can touch it with his tongue. See: I have now shown it through its description, yet I have not named it. Now I wish to name it, and I say that if you call it water, you speak the truth; if you say it is not water, you lie. Do not therefore be deceived by numerous descriptions and operations, for it is one thing, to which nothing foreign is introduced.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “It is a stone and no stone, spirit, soul and body. If you dissolve it, it will dissolve; if you coagulate it, it will coagulate; and if you make it fly, it will fly. It is volatile, or flying, and clear as a tear. Afterwards it becomes citrine, then salty, but without shoots or crystals, and no one may touch it with his tongue. See: I have truly described it to you, but have not named it. Now I will name it: if you say it is water, you speak the truth; if you say it is not water, you

lie. Do not be deceived, then, by many descriptions and operations, for it is only one thing, to which nothing extraneous may be added.” So says Arnold, who borrowed this from the Turba. Let us now hear his disciple Raymond Lull. Speaking very grudgingly and obscurely of seven metallic principles, he describes the third, which includes four of the seven, in these words: [New translation of the Latin:] “The third is a clear compound water, and it is the thing most nearly approaching quicksilver. It is found running and flowing upon the earth. This quicksilver is properly generated in every elemental body from the matter of air, and therefore its moisture is very heavy.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “The third principle is a clear compound water, the substance nearest in constitution to quicksilver. It is found running and flowing upon the earth. This quicksilver is generated in every compound from the substance of air, and therefore its moisture is extremely heavy.” To these I shall add Albert the Great, whose testimony in this kind of learning is like the stylanx to gold. He had searched it thoroughly and knew what part would withstand the test. [New translation of the Latin:] “The mercury of the wise is a watery element, cold and moist: permanent water, spirit of the body, oily vapour,

blessed water, potent water, water of the wise, philosophers' vinegar, mineral water, dew of heavenly grace, virgin's milk, bodily mercury. It is called by these and countless other names in the philosophers' books. Although these names vary, they always signify one and the same thing: the mercury of the wise alone. From it alone all the power of the alchemical art is drawn, and in its own manner the white and red tincture.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “The mercury of the wise is a watery element, cold and moist. This is their permanent water, the spirit of the body, the oily vapour, the blessed water, the potent water, the water of the wise, the philosophers' vinegar, the mineral water, the dew of heavenly grace, virgin's milk and bodily mercury. It is called by these and countless other names in the philosophers' books. These names, though various, always mean one and the same thing: the mercury of the wise. From this mercury alone all the power of the art is extracted, and according to its nature the tincture, both red and white.” Rachaidibi the Persian agrees. [New translation of the Latin:] “The seed of the stone is cold and moist in what is manifest, and hot and dry in what is hidden.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “The seed, or first matter of the stone, is outwardly

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

a stone; among the unlearned it is contemptible and incredible. Who would believe that a stone becomes water, and water a stone, when nothing is more different? Nevertheless it is truly so. For this very permanent water is the stone; while it is water, it is not a stone.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “Among all great philosophers it is a masterly truth that our stone is no stone; among the ignorant it is ridiculous and incredible. Who will believe that water can become a stone, and a stone water, when nothing differs more than these two? Yet it is truly so. For this very permanent water is the stone; while it is water, it is no stone.” But the ancient Hermes abounds in this meaning, almost disclosing too much. [New translation of the Latin:] “Know, sons of the wise, that there is a division of the ancient philosophers' water that divides it into four other things.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “Know, you children of the wise, that the ancient philosophers' separation was performed upon water, dividing it into four other substances.” A very learned author has written on this subject more openly than any we have cited. [New translation of the Latin:] “Just as the world owes its origin to the water over which the Spirit of the Lord brooded, all things heavenly and earthly proceeding from it, so this limbus arises from a water that is not common, neither from heavenly dew nor from air

condensed in the earth's caverns or in the receiver itself; neither from the depth of the sea, springs, wells or rivers, but from a certain water that has suffered, available to all but known to very few. It contains whatever is necessary to complete the whole work, with everything external removed.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “As the world was generated from the water upon which God's Spirit moved, all things proceeding from it, heavenly as well as earthly, so this chaos is generated from a certain water that is not common: not from dew, nor air condensed in the earth's caverns or artificially in a receiver; not from water drawn from the sea, springs, pits or rivers, but from a certain tortured water that has undergone alteration. It lies before everyone, yet is known to very few. This water contains everything necessary to perfect the work, without any external addition.” I could produce a thousand more authors, but that would be tedious. I shall conclude with one of the Rosy Brothers. His testimony equals the best of theirs, but his instruction is far more excellent. His discourse on first matter is rather long. To avoid prolixity I shall leave out the Latin and give you his meaning in precise, plain English.

244.Py-annets and paraquitoes are magpies and parakeets. Vaughan’s joke equates merely noisy learning with the cries of birds. Heptarchy literally means a sevenfold government; here it is part of his polemical address.

245.The Latin pilis carens literally means “without hairs.” Vaughan explains this as “without shoots or crystals”; the new translation and his own interpretation are both given. The Latin albus means white, while Vaughan’s following English says clear.

246.Arnold of Villanova is Vaughan’s attribution for the cited alchemical authority. The following reference to the Turba names the older collection commonly called Turba philosophorum.

247.The “seven metallic principles” are reported in the language of the cited authority. Vaughan’s term enviously means withholding knowledge, not merely feeling another person’s good fortune as a grievance.

248.Stylanx is retained as printed. The comparison and the following reference to a test associate it with the testing of gold; its specific material or object is not identified here. Albert the Great is Vaughan’s named authority, and the citation alone does not settle the authorship of the alchemical work transmitted under that name.

249.The Persian authority’s printed name is Rachaidibi, legible in the Getty image where EEBO-TCP leaves a gap. The name is preserved without conjecturally replacing it with a better-known historical alchemist.

250.The many names are expressly said to refer to one subject. They are translated individually; none has been collapsed into a single modern chemical equivalent.

251.Liber trium verborum means “Book of Three Words.” Vaughan explains the three words as principles. The contrary qualities, hot and dry versus cold and moist, are distributed between hidden and manifest aspects of the same subject.

252.The assembly of Arisleus and its speaker Belus belong to the literary setting of the Turba tradition as Vaughan presents it.

253.The new translation follows the Latin’s statement about the division of water; Vaughan’s own historical rendering explains the division as a separation into four substances. Both forms of the passage are retained.

254.Limbus is retained in the new translation as the author’s term for the primordial matrix. Vaughan renders it chaos in his own following English.

255.Perpessa means having suffered or undergone something. Vaughan expands it as tortured water that has undergone alteration. These are historical philosophical descriptions, retained without replacing them with a modern procedure.

256.Vaughan himself omits the Rosy Brother’s Latin, announcing that he will provide its sense in English. No Latin text is absent from this edition at that point: the 1650 book already contains only Vaughan’s English rendering.