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Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition

Anonymous

The Sophic Hydrolith

Water Stone of the Wise

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The Sophic HydrolithThe Way of Truth

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English Page · Branch 212 of 287

The Way of Truth

German & Latin

1619 pp. 242–243 · scans ER246, ER247

Dann, lieber Bruder, die Essentia ist die fürnemste Sache, da die Warheit vnnd kunst ligt. Aber dennoch sein verführte Sophistische Alchymisten so plump vnnd vnverständig, daß sie diß nicht können ersinnen noch begreiffen, sondern zumartern sich von tag zu tag, mit so viel vnnd mancherley, der Natur gar wider, Substantien, die gar nicht dienlich zu der wahren Kunst, gleich als ich Horn, Holtz oder Stein seen wolt, vnnd darab natürlich Korn zu erndten verhoffte. Das es doch vnmüglich, das man auß allerhand Substantien, die man erdencken möchte, Sonn vnnd Monde machen köndte, sondern allein aus der natürlichen Essentia der Naturen, davon alle ding ihren anfang bekommen, vnd hernach durch die vnderschiedene kochung in vnderschiedene Substantzen sich außtheilen. Also hat ein jeglich natürlich Ding in den Naturen sein sonderliche kochung. Darumb müssen wir, so fern wir anders zu der wahren Kunst der Alchymia begehren zu kommen, arbeiten, als die Natur in den Adern der Erden ihre Arbeit vollbringet.

1619 pp. 242–243 · scans ER246, ER247

The Sophic Hydrolith: The Way of Truth

1619 pp. 242–243 · scans ER246, ER247

Dear brother, essence is the principal thing in which the truth and the art reside. Yet misled, sophistical alchemists are so clumsy and ignorant that they cannot discern or comprehend this. Instead they torment themselves day after day with so many different substances contrary to Nature, which are wholly unfit for the true art. It is as though I intended to sow horn, wood or stone and hoped to harvest natural grain from them. It is impossible to make Sol and Luna from every imaginable substance; they can be made only from the natural essence of the natures, from which all things receive their beginning and thereafter, through different coctions, divide into different substances. Every natural thing thus has its particular coction in the natures. If we wish to attain the true art of alchemy, we must therefore work as Nature accomplishes its work in the veins of the earth.

1619 pp. 242–243 · scans ER246, ER247

About This Reading Edition

The anonymous Water Stone of the Wise of 1619, with German text, a new English translation, 240 annotations, three companion treatises from the original volume, two separately identified responses of 1661, and the complete supplied study apparatus.

Historical Text and Translation

Anonymous, Wasserstein der Weysen. Frankfurt: Lucas Jennis, 1619. The governing e-rara copy belongs to the Stiftung der Werke von C. G. Jung, Zürich (DOI 10.3931/e-rara-8968). The work is traditionally attributed to Johann Siebmacher; this remains an attribution, not a name printed in the anonymous witness. The separately sourced First and Second Responses use the 1661 Wolfenbüttel witness, qun-642-1s, pp. 200–206.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

Historical texts printed in 1619 and 1661 are in the public domain. The supplied 2026 German reading text, new English translation, introduction, notes and complete study apparatus are published with the site owner’s authorization. The original triangle is credited to the Stiftung der Werke von C. G. Jung, Zürich, and e-rara, Public Domain Mark.