Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 225 of 287
The Way of Truth
German & Latin
1619 pp. 257–258 · scans ER261, ER262Dieselben Leut seynd hernach fort gefahren, vnnd angefangen zu schreiben, gleichsam, als ob sie die Sache wol verstanden, oder grossen Vortheil dadurch geschaffet hetten, dannenher sie auch zu armen Stümplern worden seyn. Denn sie haben so lange soluirt, biß all jhr Gelt vnd Guth zerschmoltzen vnd zergangen, Auch so lange sublimirt, daß Töpffe vnd Kessel zum Rauchfange hinauß geflogen, Vnnd so lange putrificirt, daß jhnen die Kleider vom Leibe abgefaulet, Auch haben sie so lang calcinirt, daß all jhr Holtz vnd Kohlen zu Aschen geworden. Das ist nun, lieber Bruder, jrer Nutz vnnd Vortheil, den sie durch jhre schwere Mühe vnd Arbeit erlanget haben, darumb laß sie dir nochmals ein Exempel seyn, vnd stehe ab von solcher Sophistischen Arbeit, denn es nit der rechte Weg zu der wahren Kunst der Alchimey, oder zu der wahren natürlichen Verwandlung der Metallen, sondern es ist nur, wie vor gesagt, ein Weg zu der Sophisterey, den Balbierern vnd Badern, jhre Medicamenta dadurch zu bereiten, wo von sie jhren gewinn können haben, dienlich.
The Sophic Hydrolith: The Way of Truth
1619 pp. 257–258 · scans ER261, ER262Afterwards these same people went on to write as though they understood the matter well or had derived great advantage from it, whereas they had become poor bunglers. They dissolved for so long that all their money and possessions melted and vanished. They sublimed for so long that pots and kettles flew up the chimney. They putrefied for so long that the clothes rotted off their bodies, and calcined for so long that all their wood and charcoal turned to ashes. Such, dear brother, is the profit and advantage they gained through their hard toil and labour. Let them once again serve as an example, and abandon such sophistical work. It is not the right path to the true art of alchemy or to the true, natural transmutation of metals. As already stated, it is only a path to sophistry, useful to barbers and bathkeepers in preparing the medicines from which they can make their profit.
Socrates
Reading The Sophic Hydrolith · The Way of Truth · The Way of Truth · Unit 24
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.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.
- Governing historical witnesse-rara: 1619 witness
- Separately identified later response sourceHerzog August Bibliothek: 1661 responses
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