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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 HydrolithNature’s Demonstration

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Facing Pages · Branch 169 of 287

Nature’s Demonstration

Book Mode

German & Latin

1619 pp. 156–158 · scans ER160, ER161, ER162

Beweiß der Natur / welchen sie den jrrenden Alchimisten thut / in deme sie sich vber den Sophisten vnd thörichten Kolenblaser beschweret. Beschrieben durch Johann von Mehung. NATURA. Ach Gott wie bin ich so bekümmert / wenn ich das menschliche Geschlecht betrachte / welches Gott nach seinem Ebenbilde / zu einem vollkommenen Werck gemacht / das aber vber alle andere Creaturen / ohne rechten Gebrauch der Zeit vnnd Ration so weit von mir der Natura vnd meiner Ordnung abweichet. Ich rede mit dir phantastischen Narrn / der du dich einen Alchimischen Practicanten vnd guten Philosophum nennest / vnnd hast doch weder Kunst noch rechte Materi / weder Theoriam, noch Wissenschafft / oder meiner Erkentniß. Du grober Esell brichst Gläser / vnnd brennest Kolen / daß dich der Dampff im Kopff toll machet: du kochest Alaun / Saltz / Auripigment, siedest Schwartz / vnnd geust Metall / machest kleine vnnd grosse Ofen / vnnd brauchest viellerley Geschirr: vnnd dennoch schäme ich mich deiner Thorheit / auch welches mehr ist / kränckestu mich mit deinem stinckenden Schweffelrauch. Du vermeinest durch dein starck brennend Fewer das Argentum vivum zu figiren, da es doch nur das gemeine volatilische / vnnd nicht das jenige ist / darauß ich ein Metall mache. Vnnd richtest vff diesem Weg / wann du nicht einen andern gehest / nichts auß. Denn du gebrauchest meiner Weg nicht recht / vnnd verstehest mein Artificium nicht. Es were dir besser deines thuns zu warten / als so viel geschmieres dissolviren vnnd distilliren, darnach durch alembicos, cucurbitas, distillatoria vnnd pellicanos congeliren. Nimmermehr wirstu Argentum vivum also stehend machen. Du gebrauchest zu deiner vivation das reverberir Fewer / vnnd dasselbige so heiß / biß daß es alles im Fluß gehet / vnnd auff solche weise verrichtest du dein Werck / aber im Ende verderbest du dich vnnd einen andern mit dir. Nimmermehr wirst du solcher gestallt etwas finden / wovon du nicht in meine Schmiede gehest / in der ich in den innern der Erden ohne auffhören Metall schmiede. Denn in dieser wirstu die Matery / mit der ich arbeite / vnd die Art meiner Arbeit sehen.

1619 pp. 156–158 · scans ER160, ER161, ER162

The Sophic Hydrolith: Nature’s Demonstration

1619 pp. 156–158 · scans ER160, ER161, ER162

Nature’s demonstration to the erring alchemist, in which she complains of the sophist and foolish charcoal blower. Written by Johann von Mehung. NATURE. Ah God, how troubled I am when I consider the human race, which God made in his own image as a perfect work, yet which, beyond all other creatures, departs so far from me, Nature, and my order, failing to use time and reason properly. I am speaking to you, fanciful fool, who call yourself a practising alchemist and a good philosopher, although you possess neither art nor the right matter, neither theory nor knowledge nor understanding of me. You coarse ass, you break glasses and burn charcoal until the fumes drive your head mad. You boil alum, salt and orpiment, seethe things black and cast metal; you make small and large furnaces and use all sorts of vessels. Yet I am ashamed of your folly; worse still, you sicken me with your stinking sulphurous smoke. You suppose that your fiercely burning fire will fix quicksilver, though it is only the common volatile kind and not that from which I make a metal. You accomplish nothing by this path unless you take another. For you do not use my ways rightly and do not understand my craft. You would do better to attend to your own affairs than dissolve and distil so much muck, then congeal it by means of alembics, cucurbits, stills and pelicans. You will never make quicksilver remain fixed in that way. For your vivification you use a reverberating fire, so hot that everything melts, and thus carry out your work; but in the end you ruin yourself and another person with you. You will never discover anything in this manner unless you go into my forge, where I ceaselessly forge metal in the earth’s interior. There you will see the matter with which I work and the manner of my working.

1619 pp. 156–158 · scans ER160, ER161, ER162

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.