# Magia Adamica
The Antiquity of Magic
With the complete Coelum Terrae
A modern English reading of the 1650 publication
Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes)
Diotimos Editions 2026
Complete publication in original and modern English, with fresh translations, the recovered 1650 errata and Diotimos study features
## Contents
- [About This Edition](#EDITION_STATEMENT)
- [Introduction](#INTRODUCTION)
- [Publication and Transmission](#CHRONOLOGY)
- [Text and Translation Policy](#TEXT_TRANSLATION)
- [The Historical Preliminary Matter](#MA-PRELIMINARIES)
- [The Original Title Page](#MA-FRONT-01-title_page)
- [Dedication to Mathew Harbert](#MA-FRONT-02-dedication)
- [Dedication to Thomas Henshaw](#MA-FRONT-03-dedication)
- [P. B.’s Commendatory Poem](#MA-FRONT-04-poem)
- [To the Reader](#MA-FRONT-05-author_to_the_reader)
- [Magia Adamica](#MA-WORK)
- [The Defence of Magic](#MA-DEFENCE)
- [The Fall and the First Instruction](#MA-FALL)
- [Natural Knowledge and the Patriarchs](#MA-NATURAL-KNOWLEDGE)
- [The Law, the Letters and the Book of Nature](#MA-LAW-AND-NATURE)
- [Egypt, Greece and the Transmission of the Art](#MA-TRANSMISSION)
- [Coelum Terrae](#CT-WORK)
- [From Antiquity to the Art](#CT-MAIN)
- [The Agent and the First Matter](#CT-AGENT)
- [The Seed and the Earth](#CT-EARTH)
- [Nature in Motion](#CT-CHANGE)
- [Hyanthe](#CT-HYANTHE)
- [The Philosophers’ Testimonies](#CT-TESTIMONIES)
- [The Voice of Nature](#CT-NATURE)
- [Secrecy and the Divine Source](#CT-SECRECY)
- [Generation and Restoration](#CT-GENERATION)
- [The Natural Fire](#CT-FIRE)
- [The Region of Light](#CT-REGION)
- [The Living Return to Seed](#CT-REDUCTION)
- [The Reconciliation of the Elements](#CT-MEDIATION)
- [The Address to the Book](#CT-BOOK-POEM)
- [The Printed Corrections](#MA-CORRECTIONS)
- [The Complete Printed Corrections](#MA-ERRATA)
- [Interpretive Essays](#KEYWORDS)
- [Historical Glossary](#GLOSSARY)
- [Contextual Lexicon](#LEXICON)
- [Relations Within the Volume](#RELATIONS)
- [Guide to the Poems](#POEM_GUIDE)
- [Reading Routes](#READING_ROUTES)
- [Questions for Study](#QUESTIONS)
- [Sources and Editorial Credits](#BIBLIOGRAPHY)
- [Subject Index](#SUBJECT_INDEX)
## About This Edition
This Diotimos edition presents the complete Magia Adamica publication of 1650: the historical title, the dedications to Mathew Harbert and Thomas Henshaw, P. B.’s commendatory poem, Vaughan’s address to the reader, the argument of Magia Adamica, and the complete appended Coelum Terrae. The latter includes the Hyanthe poem, the stone’s speeches, the closing address to the book, the doxology and Amen. The printed correction notice is included in full, with its Greek forms recovered from the surviving 1650 leaf in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica copy of The Man-Mouse. Its entries for The Man-Mouse concern another work; the separate Man-Mouse text bound into the surviving Getty volume is outside this edition’s scope.
Thomas Vaughan published under the name Eugenius Philalethes, which remains visible in the historical text. His original language here is English. The new reading modernises that English and translates the embedded Latin, Greek and Hebrew material afresh; it does not claim that this book was originally written in Latin. Where Vaughan follows a foreign quotation with an English rendering of his own, both the fresh translation and his rendering are retained and distinguished.
The original wording accompanies the modern reading in the parallel edition. Stable passage references connect the two works with notes, interpretive essays, a historical glossary, contextual lexicon entries, reading routes, questions and the subject index. These aids are editorial contributions. They distinguish Vaughan’s claims from their interpretation and invite readers to return to the historical passage.
## Introduction
Magia Adamica asks who may claim to know nature, and on what authority. Vaughan’s answer begins with the Creator, Adam and a received wisdom which he believes survived the Fall. It ends with an appeal to things, rather than the accomplishments of verbal disputation. Between those points he assembles Scripture, Jewish traditions as he receives them, philosophical authorities, reported monuments and alchemical testimony. The movement is argumentative: a purported history of magic is meant to vindicate a way of knowing and practising in the present.
His book’s first readers encounter no calm separation between natural philosophy, religion and personal dispute. The Harbert dedication is fiercely abusive; the Henshaw dedication asks where the soul can rest; P. B.’s poem defends experience while taunting an opponent; and the address to the reader moves from a fable of banished Truth into an account of creation. These voices establish stakes which continue through both treatises. The philosophical passages do not erase the invective, and the invective does not make the philosophy expendable. See [the Harbert dedication](#MA-F003-A), [the Henshaw dedication](#MA-F009-A) and [the address to the reader](#MA-F017-A).
The central argument distinguishes magic from the conjuring which Vaughan’s opponents associate with the name. He understands it as a wisdom implanted in creation and communicated by God. His case repeatedly places the sign beside the thing signified: water, salt, oil and light can belong to religious observance and to the constitution of nature. Yet he denies that mere words, letters or outward objects acquire unlimited power by human arrangement. The problem is to understand the relation which makes a sign more than an empty label. See [the discussion of religious signs](#MA-P006-A) and [the distinction between name and thing](#MA-P049-C).
The appended Coelum Terrae changes the scale of inquiry. Its opening explicitly looks back to the promise just performed, then turns towards the one matter and the operations of generation. The woman who yields to love, the tears of Hyanthe, the descriptions collected from other writers, the confession of failed practice and the final distinction between Creator and creature all belong to that turn. Reading the treatises together makes visible the passage from a defended lineage of knowledge to an encounter with the difficulties of knowing its subject. See [the transition into Coelum Terrae](#CT-P078-A) and [the account of error in practice](#CT-P121-A).
The edition keeps material and spiritual interpretation in conversation. Vaughan discusses bodies, moisture, earth, heat, generation and preparation; he also discusses revelation, salvation, divine light and the renewal of creation. A reader need not reduce the former to a hidden modern chemical formula, or treat the latter as a key that dissolves every material assertion into allegory. The essays offer ways to follow both registers while marking where the book asserts, withholds, reasons, quotes or imagines.
## Publication and Transmission
### 1650: the publication
Magia Adamica appeared in London under the name Eugenius Philalethes, printed by T. W. for H. Blunden. Its title announces Coelum Terrae as an added discovery of the first matter. The two discourses share the numbered sequence: Magia’s final sentence continues onto the top of page 78, before Coelum begins on that same page. The first treatise is therefore not complete if it stops at page 77. See [the historical title](#MA-F001-A), [Magia’s conclusion](#MA-P078-A) and [Coelum’s opening](#CT-P078-A).
### 1656: a later title and a supplementary witness
The later issue bears a 1656 title naming John Allen at the Rising Sun in Paul’s Churchyard. Its surviving microfilm supplies a supplementary witness to pages and foreign-language material missing or imperfect in the 1650 Getty copy and its machine-readable transcription. Its title supplies the Greek Epictetus motto where the Getty title leaf is absent. This edition identifies that use rather than presenting a later title as a surviving 1650 leaf.
### The transcribed and digitised witnesses
The Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership transcription identifies the 1650 work as A64768.0001.001. The Internet Archive’s Getty copy provides page images of an imperfect bound volume; a separate microfilm digitisation preserves the 1656 issue. Digital access makes these witnesses comparable, but it does not remove missing leaves, typographical ambiguities or the need to distinguish books bound together. Full links and credits appear in [Sources and Editorial Credits](#BIBLIOGRAPHY).
### The present edition
The Diotimos reading is prepared from the 1650 text with explicitly identified supplementary witnesses, preserving the complete publication’s contents and recording significant decisions in passage notes. The new headings, interpretive essays, glossary and routes belong to the present edition, rather than to Vaughan’s seventeenth-century page.
## Text and Translation Policy
The governing text is the 1650 English publication as transcribed by the Text Creation Partnership, checked against available native page images. Where the 1650 Getty witness is missing or defective, the 1656 issue is used as a disclosed supplementary witness. The shared errata are supplied from the surviving 1650 leaf in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica copy of The Man-Mouse. The historical title and imprint remain those of 1650. This is a reading edition with source evidence and editorial notes, rather than a facsimile or a claim to have collated every surviving copy.
Spelling, punctuation and sentence structure are modernised for clarity, with the argument, images, qualifications, names and historical invective retained. Technical terms are explained from their local use. No modern substance is imposed as the certain identity of Vaughan’s unnamed matter. Where a word remains uncertain, the edition preserves or qualifies the uncertainty instead of concealing it beneath a confident paraphrase.
Embedded foreign passages receive fresh translations. Vaughan’s own following English versions remain present, including differences of emphasis or expansion. Bracketed labels identify editorial transitions between those renderings. Verse retains its line sequence and stanza divisions; a new rendering of a Latin verse is not substituted for Vaughan’s separate English poem. Scriptural and other historical marginal references are identified as historical material.
Original page boundaries remain traceable through stable passage references, including paragraphs which cross them. Blank preliminary surfaces are accounted for in the source inventory; they are not supplied with invented text. Historical subscriptions, signatures, the printed close, the poems, the doxology and the printed corrections are retained. The shared 1650 errata leaf has been checked directly: both Greek forms in the page-70 instruction are reproduced, and its correction governs the modern translation. Differences between the native type and the TCP transcription are explained in the passage notes. The Harbert subscription follows the order visible in the native print where the transcription serialises its closing elements differently.
Editorial divisions and study aids make the long arguments easier to revisit. A link to a passage indicates where to assess an interpretation; it does not mean that Vaughan used the glossary’s modern explanatory wording. His Christian readings of Jewish traditions, his assertions about ancient transmission, and his descriptions of distant inscriptions are presented as historical claims, with the limits of their evidence kept visible.
## The Historical Preliminary Matter
### The Original Title Page
**MA-F001-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 1
**Original English**
MAGIA ADAMICA: OR The Antiquitie of Magic, AND The Descent thereof from Adam downwards, proved.
**Modern English**
Magia Adamica, or The Antiquity of Magic, with its Descent from Adam Onwards Demonstrated.[^n1]
**MA-F001-B** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 1
**Original English**
Whereunto is added a perfect, and full Discoverie of the true Coelum Terrae, or the Magician's Heavenly Chaos, and first Matter of all Things.
**Modern English**
To which is added a complete and full discovery of the true Coelum Terrae, or The Magician’s Heavenly Chaos, and the First Matter of All Things.
**MA-F001-C** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 1
**Original English**
By Eugenius Philalethes.
**Modern English**
By Eugenius Philalethes.[^n2]
**MA-F001-D** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 1
**Greek**
Ἐγὼ δὲ τί βούλομαι; καταμαθεῖν τὴν φύσιν, καὶ ταύτῃ ἕπεσθαι.
**Modern English**
“What, then, do I wish? To understand nature and follow her.”[^n3]
**MA-F001-E** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 1
**Original English**
Epict. in Enchirid.
**Modern English**
Epictetus, in the Handbook.
**MA-F001-F** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 1
**Original English**
LONDON, Printed by T. W. for H. B LUNDEN, at the Castle in Corn-hill, 1650.
**Modern English**
London: printed by T. W. for H. Blunden, at the Castle in Cornhill, 1650.
### Dedication to Mathew Harbert
**MA-F003-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 3
**Original English**
To my Learned, and much Respected friend, Mr. MATHEW HARBERT.
**Modern English**
To my learned and much respected friend, Mr Mathew Harbert.[^n4]
**MA-F003-B** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 3
**Original English**
SIR,
**Modern English**
Sir,
**MA-F003-C** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 3
**Original English**
I Know you are not Great, there's a better title, you are Good. I might have fix'd this Piece to a Pinnacle, made the Dedication high: but to what purpose? Greatness is a Thing I cannot
**Modern English**
I know you are not great; there is a better title: you are good. I might have fastened this piece to a pinnacle and made its dedication lofty—but to what purpose? Greatness is something I cannot
**MA-F004-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 4
**Original English**
admire in others, because I desire it not in my self. It is a proud Follie, a painted ceremonious Raunt. There is nothing Necessarie in it, for most men live without it, and I may not applie to that, which my Reason declines, as well as my Fortune. The Truth is, I know no use of Hog hens and Titulados, if they are in an humor to give, I am no Beggar to receive. I look not any
**Modern English**
admire in others, because I do not desire it in myself. It is a proud folly, a painted, ceremonious swagger. There is nothing necessary in it, for most people live without it; and I cannot court what my reason rejects as much as my fortune does. In truth, I have no use for High Mightinesses and titled grandees. If they are in a giving mood, I am no beggar to receive their gifts. I seek nothing,[^n5]
**MA-F005-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 5
**Original English**
thing Sir, but what the Learned are inrich'd withall, Judgement, and Candor. You are a true friend to Both, and to my third self. This Discourse I shuffl'd up for your spare-houres, for it was born in a Vacation, when I did not so much labour, as play. I was indeed necessitated to some Levity, for my Adversarie proved so impotent, I might not draw out all my forces, because I
**Modern English**
sir, except what enriches the learned: judgement and candour. You are a true friend to both, and to my third self. I put this discourse together for your spare hours, for it was born during a holiday, when I was playing rather than working. Indeed, I was driven to some lightness: my adversary proved so weak that I could not draw out all my forces, because I[^n6]
**MA-F006-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 6
**Original English**
knew not where to employ them. You have here a simple Bedlam corrected, and whipt for his mad Tricks. A certain Master of Arts of Cambridge, & a Poet in the Loll & Trot of Spencer. It is suppos'd he is in Love with his Fairie-Queen, & this hath made him a very Elf in Philosophie. He is indeed a scurvie, slabbie, snotty-snowted thing. Hee is troubl'd with a certain Splenetic
**Modern English**
did not know where to employ them. Here you have a simple madman corrected and whipped for his mad tricks: a certain Master of Arts of Cambridge, and a poet in Spenser’s lolling, trotting manner. He is supposed to be in love with his Faerie Queene, and this has made him quite an elf in philosophy. He is, indeed, a scurvy, slimy, snot-snouted thing. He suffers a certain splenetic[^n7], [^n8]
**MA-F007-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 7
**Original English**
loosnes, & hath such squirts of the Mouth, his Readers cannot distinguish his Breath from his Breech. He is a new kind of Pythonist, speakes no man knows what, & his Bulls have much of his Belly. But I have studied a Cure answerable to his Disease, I have bin somwhat Corrosive, and in defiance to the old Phrase, I have wash'd a Moore clean. I have put his Hog-noddle
**Modern English**
looseness, with such squirts from the mouth that his readers cannot distinguish his breath from his backside. He is a new kind of Pythonic diviner, speaking no one knows what; and his blunders have much of his belly in them. But I have studied a cure suited to his disease. I have been somewhat corrosive and, in defiance of the old proverb, have washed a Moor clean. I have put his pig’s head[^n9], [^n10]
**MA-F008-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 8
**Original English**
in pickle, & here I present him to the world, a Dish of Sous'd Non-sence. This is my Subject Sir, & now I must tell you, my Address to your self hath somthing of Duty in it. I had no sooner left Milke for Meat, but my first Learning came from you. Bee pleas'd to accept this small Acknowledgement from
**Modern English**
in pickle, and here present him to the world as a dish of pickled nonsense. This is my subject, sir; and now I must tell you that my address to you also involves a duty. I had scarcely left milk for solid food when my first learning came from you. Please accept this small acknowledgement from
**MA-F008-C** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 8
**Original English**
Your Pupill, & servant E. P. From Heliopolis 1650.
**Modern English**
Your pupil and servant, E. P.
From Heliopolis, 1650.[^n11]
**MA-F008-B** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 8
**Original English**
Some ten dayes after the Presse was deliverd of my Adversarie's MAURO. MANGO.
**Modern English**
Some ten days after the press was delivered of my adversary’s Mauro-Mango.[^n12]
### Dedication to Thomas Henshaw
**MA-F009-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 9
**Original English**
TO The most Excellently accomplish'd, my best of Friends, Mr. THOMAS HENSHAW.
**Modern English**
To the most excellently accomplished Mr Thomas Henshaw, my best of friends.
**MA-F009-B** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 9
**Original English**
SIR,
**Modern English**
Sir,
**MA-F009-C** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 9
**Original English**
IT was the Quaere of Solomon, and it argued the Supremacie of [Marginal note: Eccle. 2. 3.] his wisedom, What was best for Man to doe all the dayes of his Vanitie under the Sun? If I wish my selfe so Wise, as to know this great Affaire
**Modern English**
Solomon asked—and the question showed the supremacy of [Marginal reference: Ecclesiastes 2:3.] his wisdom—what was best for a person to do throughout the days of their vanity under the sun. If I wish myself wise enough to know this great business
**MA-F010-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 10
**Original English**
of Life, it is because you are fit to manage it. I will not advise you to pleasures, to build Houses, and plant Vine-yards: to inlarge your private Possessions, or to multiplie your Gold and Silver. These are old Errors, like Vitriol to the stone; So many false Receipts which Solomon hath tried before you, And behold all was vanitie, and [Marginal note: Cap. 2. ver. 11.] vexation of Spirit. I have sometimes seen Actions as various, as they were great, and my own sullen Fate hath forc'd me to severall Courses of life, but I finde not one hitherto, which ends not in Surfets, or Satietie. Let us fansie a man as fortunate as this world can make
**Modern English**
of life, it is because you are fit to manage it. I shall not advise you to pleasures, to building houses and planting vineyards, to enlarging your private possessions or multiplying your gold and silver. These are old errors, like vitriol for the Stone: so many false recipes which Solomon tried before you. “And behold, all was vanity and [Marginal reference: Ecclesiastes 2:11.] vexation of spirit.” I have sometimes seen actions as varied as they were great, and my own sullen fate has forced me into several courses of life; yet I have so far found none that does not end in surfeit or satiety. Let us imagine a man as fortunate as this world can make[^n13]
**MA-F011-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 11
**Original English**
him; What doth hee doe but move from Bed to Boord, and provide for the Circumstances of those two Scenes? To day hee eates and drinkes, then sleeps, that hee may doe the like to morrow. A great Happinesse! to live by cloying Repetitions, and such as have more of Necessity, than of a free pleasure. This is Idem per Idem, and what is held for Absurditie in Reason, can not by the same reason be the true perfection of Life. I deny not but Temporall blessings conduce to a Temporall Life, and by Consequence are pleasing to the Body, but if we consider the Soule, shee is all this while upon the
**Modern English**
him. What does he do but move from bed to table and provide for the circumstances of those two scenes? Today he eats and drinks, then sleeps so that he may do the same tomorrow. A great happiness indeed: to live by cloying repetitions which contain more necessity than freely chosen pleasure! This is “the same thing by the same thing”; and what is considered absurd in reasoning cannot, by that same reasoning, be the true perfection of life. I do not deny that temporal blessings support a temporal life and therefore please the body; but if we consider the soul, all this time she is on the[^n14]
**MA-F012-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 12
**Original English**
wing, like that Dove sent out of the Ark, seeking a place to rest: shee is busied in a restless Inquisition, and though her Thoughts, for want of true Knowledge, differ not from Desires, yet they sufficiently prove she hath not found her Satisfaction. Shew me then but a practice wherein my Soule shall rest without any further Disquisition, for this is it, which Solomon calls Vexation of Spirit, and you shew mee, What is Best for Man to doe under the Sun. Surely, Sir, this is not the Philosophers stone, neither will I undertake to define it, but give me leave to speak to you in the Language of Zoroaster:
**Modern English**
wing, like the dove sent out of the ark, looking for somewhere to rest. She is occupied in a restless inquiry; and although, for lack of true knowledge, her thoughts scarcely differ from desires, they sufficiently prove that she has not found satisfaction. Show me, then, a practice in which my soul can rest without further questioning—for this is what Solomon calls vexation of spirit—and you show me what is best for a person to do under the sun. Certainly, sir, this is not the philosophers’ stone. Nor shall I undertake to define it; but allow me to speak to you in the language of Zoroaster:
**MA-F013-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 13
**Original English**
Quaere Tu Animae Canalem.
**Modern English**
“Seek the channel of the soul.”[^n15]
**MA-F013-B** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 13
**Original English**
I have a better Confidence in your Opinion of mee, than to tell you, I love you: and for my present Boldness, you must thank your self, you taught me this Familiaritie. I here trouble you with a short Discourse, the Brokage and weake Remembrances of my former, and more intire studies; It is no labour'd Peece, and indeed no fit Present, but I beg your Acceptance as of a Caveat, that you may see, what unprofitable Affections you have Purchased. I propose it not for your Instruction, Nature hath already admitted you to her Schoole, and I would make you my Judge, not
**Modern English**
I have too much confidence in your opinion of me to tell you that I love you; and for my present boldness you must thank yourself, since you taught me this familiarity. Here I trouble you with a short discourse, the fragments and faint recollections of my former, more sustained studies. It is no laboured piece and, indeed, no fitting present; but I beg you to accept it as a warning, so that you may see what unprofitable affection you have acquired. I do not offer it for your instruction: Nature has already admitted you to her school. I would make you my judge,
**MA-F014-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 14
**Original English**
my Pupill. If therefore amongst your serious and more deare Retirements, you can allow this Trifle but some few Minutes, and think them not lost, you will Perfect my Ambition. You will place mee Sir, at my full Height, and though it were like that of Statius, amongst Gods and Stars, I shall quickly find the Earth again, and with the least Opportunitie present my self
**Modern English**
rather than my pupil. If, therefore, amid your serious and more cherished retirements, you can allow this trifle a few minutes and consider them well spent, you will fulfil my ambition. You will place me, sir, at my full height; and even if, like Statius, it were among gods and stars, I shall soon find the earth again and at the first opportunity present myself as[^n16]
**MA-F014-B** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 14
**Original English**
Sir, Your most humble Servant, E. P.
**Modern English**
Sir, your most humble servant, E. P.
### P. B.’s Commendatory Poem
**MA-F015-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 15
**Original English**
On the Author's Vindication, and Replie to the scurvie, scribling, scolding Alazonomastix
**Modern English**
On the Author’s Vindication and Reply to the Scurvy, Scribbling, Scolding Alazonomastix[^n17]
**MA-F015-B** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 15
**Original English**
'T was well he did assault thee, or thy Foe
Could not have hit to thy Advantage so.
what he styles Ignorance, is Depth in Sense;
He thinks there is no skill, but Common Fense.
Had Bacon liv'd in this unknowing Age,
And seen Experience laugh'd at on the Stage,
What Tempests would have risen in his Bloud
To side an Art, which Nature hath made Good?
**Modern English**
It was well that he attacked you, for your foe
Could otherwise not have struck so much to your advantage.
What he calls ignorance is depth of meaning;
He thinks no skill exists beyond common “fense.”
Had Bacon lived in this unknowing age
And seen experience laughed at on the stage,
What tempests would have risen in his blood
To support an art which Nature has made good?[^n18]
**MA-F015-C** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 15
**Original English**
Do'st think that Knowledge comes to thee Innate,
As Preaching on a sudden to thy Pate?
No sure; thou art a simpler Brother; fie!
I must Allarum thee with Hue and Cry.
What art? from Whence? a Presbyterian sure,
An Academic Ratt, holy and pure.
But for thy Soule (and Plato tells thee so)
Thou hast spoil'd that, and plaister'd Plato too.
Just like I. T. thy Poet, who doth lend
Thee fansies in Cleveland from end to end,
And not one right apply'd; you doe mistake
The Stagyrit's Philosophie, and make
His Logic Magicall, what is unknown
Is Conjuration, frothie, and high-flown.
If Arguments arise, you streight grow hoarse,
Thou know st not what belongs to Topic Course.
Shall thou and I to Disputation come
Practic or Theorie, for the Totall summe?
**Modern English**
Do you think knowledge comes to you innately,
Like preaching suddenly into your head?
Certainly not: you are a simpler brother. Shame!
I must raise the alarm against you with a hue and cry.
What are you? Where from? A Presbyterian, surely:
An academic rat, holy and pure.
As for your soul—and Plato tells you so—
You have spoiled that, and plastered Plato too.
Just like I. T., your poet, who supplies you
With fancies from Cleveland, from beginning to end,
And not one rightly applied. You misconstrue
The Stagirite’s philosophy and make
His logic magical; whatever is unknown
Is conjuration, frothy and high-flown.
When arguments arise, you grow hoarse at once:
You do not know the proper course of topical argument.
Shall you and I dispute the whole matter,
In practice or in theory?[^n19], [^n20]
**MA-F016-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 16
**Original English**
What? is't not lawfull for my (learned) friend
T'improve his Reason to his greatest end?
Or shall wee envie him, 'cause hee hath more
Of Nature's favours set upon his Score?
Tell mee in earnest do'st thou think 'tis fit
To believe all that Aristotle writ?
Though he was blinded, yet Experience can
Sever the Clouds, and make a Clearer man.
If Digbie once but view thy rayling Ueine,
Hee'l think th'art Atoms, not yet form'd to braine;
Then to the Pot thou go'st: Oh there's the Losse!
There's no Elixir in Thee, th'art all Drosse.
Then sing another Song, thou that controules
Our Metempsychosis of Bodi'ed Soules:
Yet Platonist thou art, but canst not tell
Where these mysterious spirits have their Cell.
Thus Ambrose flung dark Persius on the ground,
A blind Contempt! because he was profound.
Look neerer man, can'st not distinguish yet
Betwixt the highest, and the lowest wit.
When Cynthia to the watrie Tethis hies
Wee know not there what Treasures she espies,
What Margarits in Chrystall streames; she sends
Onely to us her Influence, and lends
A kind, large Light. But thou poore, trapt Rattoon!
Like Scythian Dogs, do'st bark against the Moon.
Great, rare Eugenius! doe not thou delay
Thy Course, because his Dirt lyes in thy way.
Stain thy white skin for once, and bee thou not
Surpris'd like Ermins, by the dawbing Plot.
Mount to thy full Meridian, let thy Star
Create a Rubric to our Calendar,
And wee will offer Anthems to thy shrine
So long as Date can give a Name to Time.
**Modern English**
What? Is my learned friend not permitted
To develop his reason towards its highest end?
Or shall we envy him because he has more
Of Nature’s favours entered to his credit?
Tell me seriously: do you think it right
To believe everything Aristotle wrote?
Though he was blinded, experience can
Part the clouds and make a clearer man.
If Digby once sees your abusive strain,
He will think you atoms not yet formed into a brain.
Then into the pot you go! Ah, there is the loss:
There is no elixir in you; you are all dross.
Sing another song, then, you who censure
Our transmigration of embodied souls.
Yet you are a Platonist, unable to tell
Where these mysterious spirits have their dwelling.
So Ambrose threw obscure Persius to the ground:
A blind contempt, because he was profound!
Look closer, man: can you still not distinguish
Between the highest and the lowest wit?
When Cynthia hastens to watery Tethys,
We do not know what treasures she sees there,
What pearls in crystal streams. She sends us
Only her influence, and lends
A kindly, abundant light. But you, poor trapped rat,
Like Scythian dogs, bark at the moon.
Great, rare Eugenius, do not delay
Your course because his dirt lies in your way.
Stain your white skin for once, and do not be
Trapped like ermines by this scheme of smearing.
Rise to your full meridian; let your star
Create a red-letter entry in our calendar,
And we shall offer anthems at your shrine
As long as dates can give a name to time.[^n21], [^n22], [^n23]
**MA-F016-B** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 16
**Original English**
P. B. A. M. Oxoniens.
**Modern English**
P. B., Master of Arts of Oxford.[^n24]
### To the Reader
**MA-F017-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 17
**Original English**
To the Reader.
**Modern English**
To the Reader
**MA-F017-B** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 17
**Original English**
WEll-fare the Dodechedron! I have examined the Nativitie of this Book by a Cast of Constellated Bones, and Deuz Ace tels me this Parable. Truth (sayd the witty Aleman) was cōmanded into Exile, and the Lady Lie was seated in her Throne. To performe the Tenor of this Sentence, Truth went from amongst Men, but she went all alone, poore and naked. She had not travail'd very far, when standing on a high mountain, she perceiv'd a great Train to passe by: In the middest of it was a Chariot attended with Kings,
**Modern English**
Good fortune to the dodecahedron! I have examined this book’s nativity by casting constellated bones, and two-and-one tells me this parable. Truth, said the witty Alemán, was ordered into exile, and Lady Lie was seated on her throne. To fulfil this sentence, Truth departed from humankind; but she went alone, poor and naked. She had not travelled far when, standing on a high mountain, she saw a great procession passing. In its midst was a chariot attended by kings,[^n25], [^n26]
**MA-F018-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 18
**Original English**
Princes and Governors, and in that a stately Donna, who like some Queen regent, commanded the rest of the Company. Poor Truth, shee stood still whiles this pompous Squadron past by, but when the Chariot came over against her, the Lady Lie who was there seated, took notice of her, and causing her Pageants to stay, commanded her to come neerer. Here she was scornfully examined, whence she came? whither she would goe? and what about? To these Questions she answered as the Custome of Truth is, very simply and plainly: Whereupon the Lady Lie commands her to wait upon her, and that in the Reare, and Tayle of all her Troop, for that was the known place of Truth. Thanks then not to the stars, but to the Configurations of the Dice! they have acquainted mee with my future fortunes, and what praeferment my Book is like to attain to. I am for my part contented, though the Consideration
**Modern English**
princes and governors, and in it a stately lady who, like a reigning queen, commanded the rest of the company. Poor Truth stood still while this splendid company passed; but when the chariot came level with her, Lady Lie, seated there, noticed her. Stopping her pageant, she ordered Truth to come closer. She was scornfully questioned: where had she come from, where was she going, and on what business? She answered, as Truth customarily does, very simply and plainly. Lady Lie then ordered her to attend her, at the rear and tail of the entire procession, for that was Truth’s recognised place. Thanks, then, to the configurations of the dice rather than the stars! They have told me my future fortunes and the advancement my book is likely to achieve. For my part, I am content, although the thought
**MA-F019-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 19
**Original English**
of this durty Reare be very nauseous, and able to spoile a stronger stomach than mine. It hath been said of old, Non est Planta veritatis super terram, Trueth is an herb, that grows not here below: and can I expect that these few seeds, which I scatter thus in the storm and tempest, should thrive to their full eares, and Harvest? But Reader, let it not trouble thee to see the Truth come thus behind, it may be there is more of a Chase in it, than of Attendance, and her Condition not altogether so bad, as her Station. If thou art one of those, who draw up to the Chariot, pause here a little in the Reare, and before thou dost addresse thy self to Aristotel and his Lady Lie, think not thy Courtship lost, if thou doest kisse the lips of poor Truth. It is not my Intention to jest with thee, in what I shall write, wherefore read thou with a good Faith, what I will tell thee with a good Conscience. God, when hee first made
**Modern English**
of this filthy rear is nauseating enough to spoil a stronger stomach than mine. It was said long ago: [New translation of the Latin:] “There is no plant of truth upon the earth.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “Truth is an herb that does not grow here below.” Can I expect these few seeds, scattered in such storm and tempest, to thrive to their full ears and harvest? But, reader, do not be troubled to see Truth coming behind like this. There may be more pursuit than attendance in it, and her condition may not be altogether as bad as her position. If you are one of those drawing up to the chariot, pause a little here at the rear. Before addressing yourself to Aristotle and his Lady Lie, do not think your courtship wasted if you kiss poor Truth’s lips. I do not intend to jest with you in what I shall write. Read, therefore, in good faith what I shall tell you in good conscience. When God first made[^n27]
**MA-F020-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 20
**Original English**
Man, planted in him a spirit of that Capacitie, that he might know All, adding thereto a most fervent Desire to know, lest that Capacitie should be useless. This Truth is evident in the Posteritie of Man: For little Children before ever they can speak, will stare upon any thing, that is strange to them; they will crie, and are restless till they get it into their hands, that they may feele it, and look upon it, that is to say, that they may know what it is in some Degree, and according to their Capacitie. Now some ignorant Nurse will think they doe all this, out of a desire to play with what they see, but they themselves tell us the Contrarie; For when they are past Infants, and begin to make use of Language, if any New thing appeares, they will not desire to play with it, but they will ask you, what it is? for they desire to know; and this is plain out of their Actions; for if you put any Rattle into their hands,
**Modern English**
humanity, he planted in it a spirit with the capacity to know everything, adding a most fervent desire for knowledge so that this capacity would not be useless. The truth of this is evident in humanity’s descendants. Before little children can speak, they stare at whatever is strange to them. They cry and remain restless until they get it into their hands, so that they can feel it and look at it: that is, know what it is to some degree, according to their capacity. An ignorant nurse may think they do all this from a wish to play with what they see; but the children themselves tell us otherwise. Once they are beyond infancy and begin to use language, if something new appears they do not ask to play with it, but ask what it is: they want to know. Their actions make this plain. Put a rattle into their hands,
**MA-F021-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 21
**Original English**
they will view it, and studie it for some short Time, and when they can know no more, then they will play with it. It is well known, that if you hold a candle neer to a little Child, hee will (if you praevent him not) put his finger into the flame, for hee desires to know what it is, that shines so bright; but there is some thing more than all this, for even these Infants desire to improve their Knowledge. Thus when they look upon any thing, if the sight informes them not sufficiently, they will, if they can, get it into their hands, that they may feel it: but if the touch also doth not satisfie, they will put it into their Mouthes to taste it, as if they would examine Things by more senses than one. Now this Desire to know is born with them, and it is the Best, and most mysterious part of their Nature. It is to be observed, that when men come to their full Age, and are serious in their Disquisitions, they are ashamed to Erre,
**Modern English**
and they will inspect and study it for a little while; only when they can learn no more will they play with it. It is well known that if you hold a candle near a little child, unless you prevent it, the child will put a finger into the flame, wanting to know what shines so brightly. Yet there is more: even these infants want to improve their knowledge. When they look at something, if sight does not sufficiently inform them, they will take it into their hands, if they can, to feel it. If touch does not satisfy them either, they will put it in their mouths to taste it, as though they wanted to examine things through more than one sense. This desire to know is born with them; it is the best and most mysterious part of their nature. Notice that when people reach full age and inquire seriously, they are ashamed to make mistakes,[^n28], [^n29]
**MA-F022-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 22
**Original English**
because it is the proprietie of their Nature, to Know. Thus wee see that a Philosopher being taken at a fault in his Discourse, will blush, as if he had committed something unworthy of himself, and truly the very Sense of this Disgrace prevailes so farre with some, they had rather persist in their Error, and defend it against the Truth, than acknowledge their Infirmities; in which respect I make no Question but many Peripatetics are perversly ignorant. It may bee they will scarcely hear, what I speak, or if they hear, they will not understand: howsoever I advise them not wilfully to prevent, and hinder that glorious end and perfection, for which the very Author, and Father of Nature created them. It is a terrible thing to praefer Aristotel to AEelohim, and condemn the Truth of God, to justifie the Opinions of Man. Now for my part I dare not be so irreligious, as to think God so vain, and improvident in his
**Modern English**
because knowing is a property of their nature. Thus we see a philosopher blush when caught at fault in a discourse, as though he had done something unworthy of himself. Indeed, the feeling of disgrace prevails so far with some that they would rather persist in error and defend it against truth than acknowledge their weaknesses. In this respect I have no doubt that many Peripatetics are perversely ignorant. Perhaps they will scarcely hear what I say, or, hearing, will not understand. Nevertheless, I advise them not wilfully to obstruct and prevent that glorious end and perfection for which the very author and father of Nature created them. It is a terrible thing to prefer Aristotle to Elohim, and condemn God’s truth in order to justify human opinions. For my part, I dare not be so irreligious as to think God so vain and improvident in his[^n30]
**MA-F023-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 23
**Original English**
workes, that he should plant in Man a Desire to know, and yet deny him Knowledge it self. This in plain termes were to give me Eyes, and afterwards shutt mee up in Darkness, lest I should see with those eyes. This earnest Longing, and busie Inquisition wherein Men tyre themselves to attain to the Truth, made a certain Master of Truth speak in this fashion. Ergo liquidò apparet in hac Mundi structurâ, quam cernimus, aliquam triumphare Veritatem; quae toties rationem nostram commovet, agitat, implicat, explicat; toties inquietam, toties insomnem miris modis sollicitat, non fortuitis, aut aliunde adventitiis, sed suis & propriis, & originariis Naturae Illicibus; quae omnia cum non fiunt frustra, uti que contingit, ut Veritatem Eorum quae sunt, aliquo tandem opportuno tempore amplexemur. It is clear therefore (saith he) that in this Fabric of the world, which we behold, there is some Truth that rules; which Truth so
**Modern English**
works that he would plant in humanity a desire for knowledge, yet deny it knowledge itself. In plain terms, that would be to give me eyes and then shut me in darkness lest I should see with them. This earnest longing and busy inquiry, in which people tire themselves seeking truth, led a certain master of truth to speak as follows. [New translation of the Latin:] “It is therefore clearly apparent that in this structure of the world which we behold some truth prevails: a truth which so often rouses, stirs, entangles and unravels our reason; which so often, when reason is restless, so often, when sleepless, solicits her in wonderful ways—not through chance attractions or those arriving from elsewhere, but through Nature’s own, proper and original enticements. Since none of this happens in vain, it follows that at some fitting time we eventually embrace the truth of the things that are.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “It is therefore clear, he says, that in this fabric of the world which we behold some truth rules: a truth which so[^n31]
**MA-F024-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 24
**Original English**
often stirrs up, puzzles, and helps our Reason; so often sollicites her when shee is restless, so often when shee is watchfull, and this by strange meanes, not casual and adventitious, but by genuine provocations and pleasures of nature; All which Motions being not to no purpose, it falls out at last that in some good time wee attain to the true Knowledge of those things that are. But because I would not have you build your Philosophie on Coralls and whistles, which are the Objects of little Children, of whom we have spoken formerly, I will speak som what of those Elements, in whose Contemplation a Man ought to employ himself, and this Discourse may serve as a Preface to our whole Philosophie. Man according to Trismegistus hath but two Elements in his power, namely Earth and Water: To which Doctrine I adde this, and I have it from a Greater than Hermes, That God hath made Man absolute
**Modern English**
often stirs up, puzzles and assists our reason; which so often solicits her when she is restless, so often when wakeful; and this by strange means, neither accidental nor arriving from outside, but by Nature’s genuine provocations and pleasures. Since none of these motions is without purpose, it follows that at some favourable time we attain true knowledge of the things that are.” But because I would not have you build your philosophy on corals and whistles—the objects of the little children of whom we spoke earlier—I shall say something about the elements in whose contemplation a person ought to occupy themselves. This discourse may serve as a preface to our whole philosophy. According to Trismegistus, humanity has only two elements in its power: earth and water. To this doctrine I add something received from one greater than Hermes: God has made humanity absolute[^n32]
**MA-F025-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 25
**Original English**
Lord of the first Matter, and from the first matter, and the Dispensation thereof, all the fortunes of man both good and bad doe proceed. According to the Rule, and Measure of this Substance all the world are rich or poore, and hee that knows it truly, and withall the true use thereof, he can make his fortunes constant, but hee that knowes it not, though his Estate be never so great, stands on a slipperie Foundation. Look about thee then, and consider how thou art compassed with infinite Treasures, and miracles, but thou art so blind, thou doest not see them: nay, thou art so mad, thou doest think there is no use to be made of them, for thou doest believe that Knowledge is a meere Peripateticall Chatt, and that the Fruits of it are not Works, but words. If this were true, I would never advise thee to spend one Minute of thy life upon Learning, I would first be one of those should ruine all Libraries and Vniversities in the world, which God forbid, any good
**Modern English**
lord of the first matter; and from first matter and its distribution proceed all human fortunes, good and bad. According to the rule and measure of this substance, all the world is rich or poor. Whoever truly knows it, together with its true use, can make his fortunes constant; but whoever does not know it stands on a slippery foundation, however great his estate. Look around you, then, and consider how you are surrounded by infinite treasures and miracles; yet you are so blind that you do not see them. Indeed, you are so mad that you think no use can be made of them: you believe knowledge to be mere Peripatetic chatter, and its fruits to be words rather than works. If this were true, I would never advise you to spend a single minute of your life on learning. I would be among the first to destroy every library and university in the world—which God forbid any good
**MA-F026-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 26
**Original English**
Christian should desire. Look up then to Heaven, and when thou seest the Coelestiall fires move in their swift and glorious Circles, think also there are here below some cold Natures, which they over-look, and about which they move incessantly to heat, and concoct them. Consider again, that the Middle spirit, I mean the Ayre, is interpos'd as a Refrigeratorie, to temper and qualifie that Heat, which otherwise might be too violent. If thou doest descend lower, and fix thy Thoughts where thy feet are, that thy wings may be like those of Mercurie, at thy Heeles; thou wilt find the Earth surrounded with the Water, and that Water heated, and stirr'd by the Sun and his starrs, abstracts from the Earth the pure, subtil, saltish parts, by which means the water is thickened, and coagulated as with a Rennet: out of these two Nature generates all things. Gold and Silver, Pearles and Diamonds are nothing els but water, and salt of
**Modern English**
Christian should desire. Look up to heaven. When you see the celestial fires moving in their swift and glorious circles, consider also that here below are certain cold natures which they oversee, moving ceaselessly about them to heat and digest them. Consider, too, that the middle spirit—I mean air—is interposed as a cooler to temper and moderate a heat which might otherwise be too violent. If you descend lower and fix your thoughts where your feet are, so that, like Mercury, you may have wings at your heels, you will find earth surrounded by water. Heated and stirred by the sun and stars, this water draws from earth its pure, subtle, salt-like parts, becoming thickened and coagulated as though with rennet. From these two Nature generates all things. Gold, silver, pearls and diamonds are nothing but water and the salt of[^n33]
**MA-F027-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 27
**Original English**
the Earth concocted. Behold! I have in a few words discovered unto thee the whole system of Nature, and her Royal High-way of Generation. It is thy Duty now to improve the Truth, and in my Booke thou mayst, if thou art wise, find thy Advantages. The foure Elements are the Objects, and implicitly the Subjects of Man, but the Earth is invisible. I know the common Man will stare at this, and judge me not very sober, when I affirme the Earth, which of all substances is most gross and palpable, to be invisible. But on my soule it is so, and which is more, the Eye of Man never saw the Earth, nor can it be seen without Art. To make this Element visible, is the greatest secret in Magic, for it is a miraculous Nature, and of all others the most holy, according to that Computation of Trismegistus, Coelum, AEther, Aer, & sacratissima Terra. As for this Faeculent, gross Body upon which we walk, it is a Compost, and no
**Modern English**
earth digested. See: in a few words I have disclosed to you Nature’s whole system and her royal highway of generation. It is now your duty to develop this truth; and if you are wise, you may find your advantages in my book. The four elements are humanity’s objects and, implicitly, its subjects; but earth is invisible. I know the ordinary person will stare at this and judge me scarcely sober when I declare earth—the grossest and most tangible of substances—invisible. Yet, upon my soul, it is so. More than that: the human eye has never seen earth, nor can it be seen without art. Making this element visible is the greatest secret in magic, for it is a miraculous nature and, of all the others, the most holy, according to Trismegistus’s reckoning: “Heaven, ether, air and the most holy earth.” As for this foul, gross body upon which we walk, it is a composite,[^n34]
**MA-F028-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 28
**Original English**
Earth, but it hath Earth in it, and even that also is not our Magicall Earth. In a word all the Elements are visible but one, namely the Earth, and when thou hast attained to so much perfection, as to know why God hath placed the Earth in Obscondito, thou hast an Excellent Figure whereby to know God himself, and how he is visible, how invisible. Hermes affirmeth, that in the Beginning the Earth was a Quakemire, or quivering kind of Jelly, it being nothing els but water congealed by the Incubation, and heat of the Divine spirit; Cum adhuc (sayth hee) Terra tremula esset, Lucente sole compacta est. When as yet the Earth was a Quivering, shaking substance, the Sun afterwards shining upon it, did compact it, or make it Solid. The same Author introduceth God, speaking to the Earth, and impregnating her with all sorts of seeds in these words; Cum que manus aquè validas implesset rebus, quae in Naturâ,
**Modern English**
rather than earth; it contains earth, but even that is not our magical earth. In a word, every element is visible except one, namely earth. When you have reached sufficient perfection to know why God has placed earth in concealment, you possess an excellent figure through which to know God himself and how he is visible and invisible. Hermes declares that in the beginning earth was a quagmire, a trembling kind of jelly: nothing but water congealed through the incubation and heat of the divine Spirit. [New translation of the Latin:] “While earth was still trembling, it was made solid as the sun shone.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “While earth was still a quivering, shaking substance, the sun afterwards shone upon it and compacted it, or made it solid.” The same author introduces God speaking to earth and impregnating her with every kind of seed in these words. [New translation of the Latin:] “And when he had filled his equally powerful hands with the things that were in Nature,[^n35], [^n36]
**MA-F029-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 29
**Original English**
Ambiente que erant, & pugnos validè constringens; Sume (inquit) ô Sacra Terra, quae Genitrix omnium es futura, nè ullâ re egena videaris; & manus, quales oportet Deum habere, expandens, demisit Omnia ad rerum Constitutionem necessaria. When God (saith he) had filled his powerfull hands with those things which are in Nature, and in that which compasseth Nature, then shutting them close again, hee said; Receive from me O holy Earth! that art ordained to be the Mother of all, lest thou shouldst want any thing; when presently opening such hands as it becomes a God to have, hee powr'd down All that was Necessary to the Constitution of things. Now the meaning of it is this; The Holy Spirit moving upon the Chaos, which Action some Divines compare to the Incubation of a Hen upon her Eggs, did together with his Heat communicat other manifold Influences to the Matter; For as
**Modern English**
and in what surrounds it, and had firmly clenched his fists, he said: ‘Receive them, O holy earth, destined to become the mother of all, so that you may seem lacking in nothing.’ Opening hands such as a god ought to have, he sent down everything necessary for the constitution of things.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “When God, he says, had filled his powerful hands with the things which are in Nature and in what surrounds Nature, then, closing them again, he said: ‘Receive from me, O holy earth, ordained to be the mother of all, lest you lack anything.’ Immediately opening such hands as it befits a god to have, he poured down everything necessary for the constitution of things.” This is the meaning: the Holy Spirit, moving upon the chaos—an action which some divines compare to a hen incubating her eggs—communicated various other influences to matter together with his heat. For just as
**MA-F030-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 30
**Original English**
wee know the Sun doth not onely dispense heat, but som other secret Influx; so did God also in the Creation, and from him the Sun and all the starrs received what they have, for God himself is a supernaturall Sun, or fire, according to that Oracle of Zoroaster,
Factor, Qui per se operans fabrefecit Mundum,
Quaedam ignis Moles erat altera.
**Modern English**
we know that the sun dispenses not only heat but also some other secret influx, so God did the same in creation. From him the sun and all the stars received what they possess, for God himself is a supernatural sun or fire, according to that oracle of Zoroaster:
“The maker who, working by himself, fashioned the world
Was a certain other mass of fire.”[^n37]
**MA-F030-B** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 30
**Original English**
Hee did therefore hatch the Matter, and bring out the secret Essences, as a Chick is brought out of the shell, whence that other Position of the same Zoroaster,
Omnia sub uno Igne genita esse.
**Modern English**
He therefore hatched matter and brought forth the secret essences, as a chick is brought from its shell. Hence that other proposition of the same Zoroaster:
“All things were generated under one fire.”
**MA-F030-C** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 30
**Original English**
Neither did he onely generat 'em then, but he also preserves them now, with a perpetuall Efflux of heat and spirit; Hence hee is styl'd in the Oracles,
Pater Hominum que Deûm que
Affatim animans Ignem, Lucem, AEthera, Mundos.
**Modern English**
Nor did he merely generate them then: he also preserves them now through a perpetual outflow of heat and spirit. Hence in the Oracles he is styled:
“Father of men and gods,
Abundantly enlivening fire, light, ether and worlds.”[^n38]
**MA-F031-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 31
**Original English**
This is Advertisement enough: And now Reader, I must tell thee, I have met with some late Attempts on my two former Discourses, but truth is Proof, and I am so far from being overcome, that I am no where understood. When I first ey'd the Libell, and its Addresse to Philalethes, I judg d the Author serious, and that his Design was not to abuse mee, but to informe Himselfe. This Conceit quickly vanish'd, for perusing his forepart, his Eares shot out of his skin, and presented him a perfect Asse. His Observations are one continued κώαξ and the Oyster-Whores read the same Philosophie every day. 'Tis a Scurril, senselesse Piece, and as he well stiles himself, a Chip of a Block-head.
**Modern English**
This is sufficient notice. Now, reader, I must tell you that I have encountered some recent attacks on my two former discourses; but truth is proof against attack, and, far from being overcome, I have nowhere even been understood. When I first saw the libel and its address to Philalethes, I judged the author serious, intending to inform himself rather than abuse me. This notion quickly vanished: as I read his opening part, his ears shot out of his skin and displayed him as a perfect ass. His observations are one continuous croak, and the oyster-whores expound the same philosophy every day. It is a scurrilous, senseless piece; and, as he aptly styles himself, he is a chip of a blockhead.[^n39]
**MA-F031-B** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 31
**Original English**
His qualities indeed are transcendent abroad, but they are peers at home: his Malice is equall to his Ignorance. I laugh'd to see the fooles disease: A flux of Gale, which made him still at
**Modern English**
His qualities do indeed surpass those of others; among themselves, however, they rank as equals: his malice matches his ignorance. I laughed to see the fool’s disease: a flux of gall which set him dripping at[^n40]
**MA-F032-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 32
**Original English**
the Chops, whiles another held the Presse for him like Porphyries Bason to Aristotles Well. There is somthing in him prodigious: his Excrements run the wrong way, for his mouth stooles, and hee is so farr from man, that hee is the Aggravation to a Beast. These are his parts, and for his person, I turn him over to the Dog-whippers, that hee may be well lash'd, a posteriori, and bear the Errata of his front imprinted in his Rere. I cannot yet find a fitter punishment: For since his Head could learn nothing but Nonsense, by sequel of parts, his Tayle should be taught some sense.
**Modern English**
the jaws, while someone else held the press for him like Porphyry’s basin beneath Aristotle’s well. There is something monstrous in him: his excrements run the wrong way, for his mouth defecates. He is so far from being human that he is worse even than a beast. Such are his accomplishments; as for his person, I hand him over to the dog-whippers to be thoroughly lashed from behind, and to bear the corrections of his front imprinted on his rear. I cannot yet find a more fitting punishment. Since his head could learn nothing but nonsense, it follows, part answering to part, that his tail should be taught some sense.[^n41]
**MA-F032-B** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 32
**Original English**
This is all, at this time, and for my present Discourse, I wish it the common fortune of Truth and Honestie, to deserve well, and hear ill. As for Applause, I fish not so much in the Ayre, as to catch it. It is a kind of Popularitie, which makes mee scorn
**Modern English**
That is all for now. For this discourse I wish the common fortune of truth and honesty: to deserve well and be spoken ill of. As for applause, I do not fish so high in the air as to catch it. It is a kind of popularity which makes me despise
**MA-F033-A** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 33
**Original English**
it, for I defie the Noyse of the Rout, because they observe not the Truth, but the success of it. I doe therefore commit this peece to the world, without any protection but its own worth, and the AEstimat of that Soule that understands it. For the Rest, as I cannot force, so I will not beg their Approbation. I would not bee great by Imposts, nor rich by Briefes. They may be what they will, and I shall be what I am.
**Modern English**
it, for I defy the crowd’s noise: they attend to truth’s success rather than truth itself. I therefore commit this piece to the world without any protection beyond its own worth and the judgement of the soul that understands it. As for the rest, since I cannot force their approval, I shall not beg for it. I would not become great through levies, nor rich through appeals for charity. They may be what they will, and I shall be what I am.[^n42]
**MA-F033-B** 1650, unnumbered preliminary 33
**Original English**
Eugen. Phila.
**Modern English**
Eugenius Philalethes.
## Magia Adamica
### The Defence of Magic
**MA-P001-A** 1650, p. 1
**Original English**
Magia Adamica: Or, The Antiquitie of Magic, &c.
Coelum Terrae, &c.
**Modern English**
Magia Adamica, or The Antiquity of Magic, and so forth.
Coelum Terrae (Heaven of Earth), and so forth.[^n43]
**MA-P001-B** 1650, p. 1
**Original English**
THat I should professe Magic in this Discourse, and Justifie the Professors of it withall, is Impietie with Many, but Religion with Mee. It is a Conscience I have learnt from Authors greater than my Self, and Scriptures greater than Both. Magic is nothing els but the Wisdom of the Creator revealed and planted in the Creature. It is a Name (as Agrippa saith) ipsi Evangelio non ingratum, not Distastefull to the very Gospel it self. Magicians were the first Attendants our Saviour met withall in this world, and the onely Philosophers,
**Modern English**
For me to profess magic in this discourse, and defend its practitioners as well, is impiety to many, but religion to me. It is a conviction I have learned from authors greater than myself, and from Scriptures greater than either. Magic is simply the Creator’s wisdom revealed and planted in the creature. As Agrippa says, its name is [New translation of the Latin:] “not unwelcome to the Gospel itself”; [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “not distasteful to the very Gospel itself.” Magicians were the first attendants our Saviour encountered in this world, and the only philosophers[^n44], [^n45]
**MA-P002-A** 1650, p. 2
**Original English**
who acknowledged Him in the Flesh before that hee himself discovered it. I find God Conversant with Them, as Hee was formerly with the Patriarchs; He directs Them in their Travails with a Star, as hee did the I sraelites with a Pillar of Fire; Hee informes Them of future Dangers in their Dreams, that having first seen his Son, they might in the next place see his Salvation. This makes me believe They were Filii Prophetarum, as well as Filii Artis; Men that were acquainted with the very same Mysteries, by which the Prophets acted before them. To reconcile this Science, and the Masters of it to the world, is an Attempt more plausible, than possible, the prejudice being so great, that neither Reason, nor Authoritie can ballance it. If I were to persuade a Jew to my Principles, I could do it with two words אמרו חכמים the Hachamim, or Wisemen have spoken it. Give him but the Authoritie of his Fathers, and presently hee submits to the Seale. Verily our Primitive Galilaeans (I mean those Christians whose Lamps burnt neer the Crosse, and Funer all) were most Compendious in their Initiations. A Proselyt in those dayes was confirmed with a simple πίστευσον Believe, and no more. Nay, the solemnitie of this short Induction was such, that Julian made it the Topic to his Apostasie; οὐδὲν ὑπὲρ τὸ πίστευσον you have
**Modern English**
who acknowledged him in the flesh before he himself disclosed it. I find God communicating with them as he formerly did with the patriarchs. He directs their travels with a star, as he directed the Israelites with a pillar of fire; he warns them of future dangers in their dreams, so that, having first seen his Son, they might next see his salvation. This makes me believe they were [New translations of the Latin terms:] “sons of the prophets” as well as “sons of the art”: men acquainted with the very mysteries through which the prophets had acted before them. To reconcile this science and its masters with the world is an undertaking more plausible than possible: prejudice is so great that neither reason nor authority can outweigh it. If I were to persuade a Jew of my principles, I could do it in two words: [New translation of the Hebrew:] “The sages have said.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “The Hachamim, or wise men, have said it.” Give him the authority of his fathers and he immediately submits to its seal. Truly our first Galileans—I mean those Christians whose lamps burned close to the Cross and burial—were most concise in their initiations. In those days a convert was confirmed with a simple [New translation of the Greek:] “Believe”—[Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “Believe”—and nothing more. Indeed, the solemn force of this brief introduction was such that Julian made it the theme of his apostasy: [New translation of the Greek:] “Nothing beyond ‘Believe.’” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “You have[^n46], [^n47], [^n48]
**MA-P003-A** 1650, p. 3
**Original English**
(sayd he) nothing more than your Crede, to establish your Religion. Such was the simplicitie of those first Times, dum calebat cruor Christi, whiles his wounds were as yet in their Eyes, and his bloud warm at their Hearts. But Alas! those holy Drops are frozen, our Salvation is translated from the Crosse to the Rack, and dismembred in the Inquisition-house of Aristotle. Bee not angrie O Peripatetic! for what els shall I call thy Schooles, where by severall Sects and Factions Scripture is so seriously murthered Pro & Con! A spleen first bred, and afterwards promoted by Disputes, whose damnable Divisions and Distinctions have minc'd one Trueth into a Thousand haereticall whimzies. But the Breach is not considered: Divinitie still is but Chaff, if it be not sifted by the Engine, if it acts not by the Demonstrative Hobby-horse. Thus Zeale poysoned with Logic breathes out Contentious Calentures, and Faith quitting her wings and Perspective, leans on the Reed of a Syllogism. Certainly I cannot yet conceive, how Reason may judge those Principles, Quorum Veritas pendet à solâ Revelant is authoritate, whose Certaintie wholly depends on God, and by Consequence is indemonstrable without the Spirit of God. But if I should grant that, which I will ever deny: Verily, a True Faith consists not in Reason,
**Modern English**
nothing more than your creed, he said, on which to establish your religion.” Such was the simplicity of those first times: [New translation of the Latin:] “while Christ’s blood was still warm”; [Vaughan’s own explanation:] while his wounds were still before their eyes and his blood warm at their hearts. But alas, those holy drops are frozen. Our salvation has been transferred from the Cross to the rack, and dismembered in Aristotle’s Inquisition-house. Do not be angry, Peripatetic: what else should I call your schools, where Scripture is so earnestly murdered, for and against, by different sects and factions? Resentment, first bred and then promoted by disputes, has minced one truth into a thousand heretical fancies through its damnable divisions and distinctions. Yet the breach goes unconsidered: theology remains mere chaff unless sifted by the engine, unless it performs on the hobby-horse of demonstration. Thus zeal poisoned with logic breathes out contentious fevers, and faith, abandoning her wings and telescope, leans on the reed of a syllogism. I still cannot conceive how reason can judge principles [New translation of the Latin:] “whose truth depends solely on the authority of the one who reveals them”; [Vaughan’s own explanation:] whose certainty depends wholly on God, and consequently cannot be demonstrated without the Spirit of God. But even if I granted what I shall always deny, true faith consists not in reason[^n49], [^n50]
**MA-P004-A** 1650, p. 4
**Original English**
but in Love; for I receive my Principles, and believe Them being received Solo erga Revelantem amore; onely out of my Affection to Him that reveales them.
**Modern English**
but in love. For I receive my principles and, having received them, believe them [New translation of the Latin:] “solely through love for the one who reveals them”; [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] only out of my affection for him who reveals them.[^n51]
**MA-P004-B** 1650, p. 4
**Original English**
Thus our Saviour would have the Jewes to believe Him first for his own sake, and when that fayled for His Workes sake; But some Divines believe onely for Aristotle's sake, if Logic renders the Tenet probable, then it is Creed, if not 'tis Alcoran. Nevertheless Aristotle himself, who was first Pedlar to this ware, and may for Sophistrie take place of Ignatius in his own Conclave, hath left us this Concession: Ἐπιδέχεται τὸ ψεῦδος, οἷον δόξα καὶ λογισμός That Reason is subject to Error, as well as Opinion. And Philoponus expounding these words of his, [Marginal note: That is, We say not onely Science, but the Principle also of Science to be something whereby we understand the Termes.] Non solùm scientiam, sed & Principium Scientiae esse aliquod dicimus, Quo Terminos cognoscimus, hath this excellent and Christian observation. Ἀρχὴν μὲν ἐπιστήμης τὸν νοῦν εἰληφὼς, οὐ τὸν ἡμέτερον ἀλλὰ τὸν θεῖον καὶ ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς· ὅρους δὲ τὰ νοητὰ καὶ θεῖα εἴδη. Taking indeed (saith hee) the mind, to bee the Principle, or first Cause of Knowledge, not our own, but that of God, which is above us: but taking the Termes to be Intellectual, and Divine Formes. Thus according to Aristotle (if you trust the Comment) the Divine mind is the first Cause of Knowledge: for if this Mind once unfolds himself, and sheds his light upon us, wee
**Modern English**
Thus our Saviour wished the Jews to believe him first for his own sake, and, when that failed, for his works’ sake. But some theologians believe only for Aristotle’s sake: if logic makes a tenet probable, it becomes creed; otherwise it is the Koran. Nevertheless Aristotle himself, who first peddled this merchandise and might take precedence over Ignatius for sophistry in his own conclave, has left us this concession: [New translation of the Greek:] “Opinion and reasoning, for example, admit falsehood.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “Reason is subject to error as well as opinion.” Philoponus, explaining these words of his—[Original marginal note:] “That is, we say that not only science, but also its principle, is something through which we understand the terms”; [New translation of the Latin:] “We say that there is something, not only knowledge but also a principle of knowledge, by which we recognise the terms”—makes this excellent Christian observation: [New translation of the Greek:] “Taking intellect as the principle of knowledge—not our own, but the divine intellect above us—and the terms as intelligible and divine forms.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “Taking the mind as the principle or first cause of knowledge, not our own mind but God’s, which is above us; and taking the terms as intellectual and divine forms.” Thus, according to Aristotle—if you trust the commentator—the divine mind is the first cause of knowledge. For if this mind unfolds itself and sheds its light upon us, we[^n52], [^n53], [^n54]
**MA-P005-A** 1650, p. 5
**Original English**
shall apprehend the Intellectuall Formes, or Types of all things that are within him. These Formes hee very properly calls Ὅρους because they terminat, or end all Things: For by them the Creature is defined, and hath his Individuation, or to speak with Scotus, his Haecceitie, by which he is This, and not That. This now is the Demonstration we should look after, namely the Expansion, or opening of the Divine Mind, not a Syllogism, that runns perhaps on all Foure. If once wee be admitted to this Communion of Light, wee shall be able with the Apostle to give a Reason for our Faith, but never without it. Now you are to understand that God unfolds not himself, nisi magno Coelo priùs patefacto, unlesse the Heaven of Man bee first unfolded. Amovete ergo velamen Intellectus [Marginal note: C. Agrip.] vestri, Cast of the veile that is before your faces, and you shall bee no more blind. God is not God a far off, but God at hand. Behold (saith he) I stand at the Doore, and knock: Open your selves then, for it is written, If any man opens, I will come in, and Sup with Him. This is the inward Mysticall, not the outward Typicall Supper, and this is the Spirituall Baptism with Fire, not that Elemental one with water. Truely I am much comforted, when I consider two Things; First, that Magic did afford the first Professors of Christianity,
**Modern English**
shall apprehend the intellectual forms or patterns of all things within it. He very properly calls these forms [New translation of the Greek:] “terms” because they determine or bound all things. Through them the creature is defined and receives its individuation—or, in Scotus’s language, its haecceity—by which it is this and not that. This is the demonstration we should seek: the expansion or opening of the divine mind, rather than a syllogism that perhaps goes on all fours. Once admitted to this communion of light, we shall be able, with the Apostle, to give a reason for our faith; never without it. Now understand that God does not unfold himself [New translation of the Latin:] “unless the great heaven has first been opened”; [Vaughan’s own English explanation:] unless the heaven of man has first been unfolded. [New translation of the Latin:] “Therefore remove the veil from your understanding.” [Original marginal citation: C. Agrippa.] [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “Cast off the veil before your faces, and you shall no longer be blind.” God is no distant God, but a God close at hand. “Behold,” he says, “I stand at the door and knock.” Open yourselves, then, for it is written: “If anyone opens, I will come in and sup with him.” This is the inward mystical supper, rather than the outward figurative supper; and this is spiritual baptism with fire, rather than elemental baptism with water. Truly two things greatly comfort me. First, magic supplied the earliest professors of Christianity,[^n55], [^n56], [^n57]
**MA-P006-A** 1650, p. 6
**Original English**
whose Knowledge and Devotion brought them from the East to Jerusalem. Secondly, that this Art should suffer as Religion doth, and for the very same Reason. The main Motives, which have occasion'd the present Rents, and Divisions of the Church, are the Ceremonies and Types used in it. For without Controversie the Apostles instituted, and left behind them certaine Elements or Signes, as Water, Oile, Salt and Lights, by which they signified unto us some great, and reverend Mysteries. But our Reformers mistaking these things for superstitious, turn'd them all out of Doores. But verily it was ill done: for if the shadow of Saint Peter healed, shall not these shadowes of Christ doe much more? The Papist on the contrary knowing not the signification of these Types, did place a certain Inhaerent holiness in them, & so fell into a very dangerous Idolatrie. I omit many Things which he invented of his own, as Images, Holy Lambes, and Reliques, adding these dead Bones to the Primitive, and beauteous Bodie of the Church. Now to draw up the Paralell: The Magicians, they also instituted certain Signes, as the Clavis to their Art, and these were the same with the former, Namely Water, Oile, Salt and Light, by which they tacitly discovered unto us their Three Principles, and the Light of Nature, which fills and
**Modern English**
whose knowledge and devotion brought them from the East to Jerusalem. Secondly, this art suffers as religion does, and for the same reason. The principal causes of the Church’s present divisions and breaches are the ceremonies and figures used in it. For the Apostles undoubtedly instituted and left behind certain elements or signs—water, oil, salt and lights—through which they signified great and reverent mysteries. But our reformers, mistaking these things for superstitions, turned them all out of doors. Truly that was badly done: if Saint Peter’s shadow healed, shall these shadows of Christ not do much more? The Papist, on the other hand, ignorant of what these figures signify, placed an inherent holiness in them and so fell into very dangerous idolatry. I pass over the many things he invented himself—images, holy lambs and relics—adding these dead bones to the Church’s original and beautiful body. Now to draw the parallel: the magicians also instituted certain signs as the key to their art. These were the same as the former ones: water, oil, salt and light. Through them they tacitly disclosed their three principles and the light of Nature, which fills and[^n58], [^n59]
**MA-P007-A** 1650, p. 7
**Original English**
actuats all Things. The common Man perusing their Books, but not their Sense, took Candles, Common Water, Oile, and Salt, and began to Consecrat, and exorcise them, to make up his damnable and Devilish Magic. The Magicians had a Maxim amongst themselves, Quod nulla vox operatur in Magiâ, nisi prius Dei voce formetur, That no word is efficacious in Magic, unless it be first animated with the word of God. Hence in their Books there was frequent mention made of Verbum, and Sermo, which the Common Man interpreting to his own Fansie, invented his Charmes, and Vocabula, by which he promised to do wonders. The Magicians in their writings did talk much of Triangles and Circles, by which they intimated unto us their more secret Triplicitie, with the Rotation of Nature from the Beginning of her Week, to her Sabaoth. By this Circle also, or Rotation they affirmed that Spirits might be bound, meaning that the Soul might be united to the Body. Presently upon this the Common Man fansied his Triangles and characters, with many strange Cobwebs or Figures, and a Circle to Conjure in; but knowing not what Spirit that was, which the Magicians did bind, he laboured, and studied to bind the Devill. Now if thou wilt question mee, who these Magicians were? I must tell thee, They were
**Modern English**
activates all things. The ordinary reader, studying their books but missing their meaning, took candles, common water, oil and salt, and began consecrating and exorcising them to construct his damnable, devilish magic. The magicians had a maxim: [New translation of the Latin:] “No utterance works in magic unless it is first formed by God’s utterance.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “No word is effective in magic unless first animated by the word of God.” Hence their books often mentioned “word” and “speech.” Interpreting these according to his own fancy, the ordinary reader invented charms and formulas by which he promised wonders. The magicians wrote much about triangles and circles, indicating their more secret threefold nature and Nature’s rotation from the beginning of her week to her Sabbath. Through this circle or rotation, they also declared that spirits could be bound, meaning that the soul could be united to the body. The ordinary reader immediately imagined his triangles and characters, with many strange cobwebs or figures and a circle for conjuring. But, not knowing which spirit the magicians bound, he laboured and studied to bind the Devil. If you now ask who these magicians were, I must tell you: they were[^n60], [^n61]
**MA-P008-A** 1650, p. 8
**Original English**
Kings, they were Priests, they were Prophets: Men that were acquainted with the Substantial, Spiritual Mysteries of Religion, and did deal, or dispense the outward Typicall part of it to the People. Here then wee may see how Magic came to be out of Request; For the Lawyers and Common Divines, who knew not these Secrets, perusing the Ceremonial, Superstitious Trash of some Scriblers, who praetended to Magic, praescribed against the Art it self as Impious, and Antichristian, so that it was a Capital sin to professe it, and the Punishment no lesse than Death. In the Interim those few who were Masters of the Science, observing the first Monitories of it, buried all in a deep Silence. But God having suffered his Truth to be obscured for a great time, did at last stirr up som resolute, and active spirits, who putting the Pen to paper, expell'd this Cloud, and in some measure discover'd the Light. The Leaders of this brave Body, were Cornelius Agrippa, Libanius Gallus, the Philosopher, Johannes Tritemius, Georgius Venetus, Johannes Reuclin, called in the Greek Capnion, with severall others in their severall Dayes. And after all These as an Vsher to the Traine, and one borne out of due time, Eugenius Philalethes.
**Modern English**
kings, priests and prophets: men acquainted with religion’s substantial, spiritual mysteries, who dealt out its outward, figurative part to the people. Here we can see how magic fell into disrepute. Lawyers and ordinary theologians, ignorant of these secrets, read the ceremonial, superstitious rubbish of scribblers who claimed to practise magic, and condemned the art itself as impious and anti-Christian. To profess it became a capital offence, punished by death. Meanwhile the few masters of the science, observing its first injunctions, buried everything in deep silence. But after allowing his truth to remain obscured for a long time, God at last stirred up resolute and active spirits who put pen to paper, dispersed this cloud and partly disclosed the light. The leaders of this brave company were Cornelius Agrippa, Libanius Gallus the philosopher, Johannes Trithemius, Georgius Venetus, and Johannes Reuchlin, called Capnion in Greek, with several others in their respective times. After them all, as an usher to the company and one born out of due time, comes Eugenius Philalethes.[^n62], [^n63]
**MA-P008-B** 1650, p. 8
**Original English**
Seeing then I have publickly undertaken a Province, which I might have governed privatly
**Modern English**
Having therefore publicly undertaken a province that I might have governed privately
**MA-P009-A** 1650, p. 9
**Original English**
with much more Content and Advantage, I think it not enough to have discover'd the Abuses and misfortunes this Science hath suffered, unless I indeavour withall to demonstrate the Antiquitie of it. For certainly it is with Arts, as it is with Men their Age and Continuance are good Arguments of their strength, and Integritie. Most apposit then was that Check of the AEgyptian to Solon: O Solon, Solon! Vos Graeci semper pueriestis, nullam habentes antiquam Opinionem, nullam Disciplinam tempore canam; You Graecians (said hee) are ever childish, having no Ancient opinion, no Discipline of any long standing. But as I confesse my self no Antiquarie, so I wish some Seldon would stand in this Breach, and make it up with those Fragments, which are so neer Dust, that Time may put them in his Glass. I know for my own part, it is an Enterprise I cannot sufficiently performe, but since my hand is already in the Bag, I will draw out those few Pebbles I have, and thus I fling them at the Mark.
**Modern English**
with much greater satisfaction and advantage, I think it insufficient to have exposed the abuses and misfortunes suffered by this science unless I also attempt to demonstrate its antiquity. For arts are surely like people: their age and endurance are good arguments for their strength and integrity. Most appropriate, then, was the Egyptian’s rebuke to Solon: [New translation of the Latin:] “Solon, Solon! You Greeks are always children: you possess no ancient belief, no teaching grey with age.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “You Greeks are forever childish, having no ancient opinion, no discipline of any long standing.” But, as I confess myself no antiquary, I wish some Selden would stand in this breach and fill it with those fragments now so close to dust that Time may put them in his hourglass. For my own part, I know this is an undertaking I cannot adequately accomplish. But since my hand is already in the bag, I shall draw out my few pebbles and sling them at the mark.[^n64], [^n65]
**MA-P009-B** 1650, p. 9
**Original English**
This Art, or rather this Mysterie is to bee considered severall wayes, and that because of its severall Subjects. The Primitive, Original Existence of it is in God himself: for it is nothing els but the practice, or operation of the Divine Spirit working in the matter, uniting
**Modern English**
This art—or rather mystery—must be considered in several ways because its subjects are several. Its first and original existence is in God himself. It is simply the activity or operation of the divine Spirit working in matter, uniting
**MA-P010-A** 1650, p. 10
**Original English**
Principles into Compounds, and resolving those Compounds into their Principles. In this Sense wee seek not the Antiquity of it, for it is AEternal, being a Notion of the Divine Wisdome, and Existent before all Time, or the Creation of it. Secondly, we are to Consider it in a Derivative Sense, as it was imparted, and communicated to Man, and this properly was no Birth, or Beginning, but a Discoverie, or Revelation of the Art. From this Time of its Revelation, wee are to measure the Antiquity of it, where it shall be our Task to demonstrat upon what Motives God did reveale it, as also to whom, and when.
**Modern English**
principles into compounds and resolving those compounds into their principles. In this sense we do not seek its antiquity, for it is eternal: an expression of divine wisdom, existing before all time or time’s creation. Secondly, we must consider it derivatively, as imparted and communicated to man. Properly speaking, this was neither its birth nor its beginning, but a discovery or revelation of the art. We must measure its antiquity from the time of this revelation. Our task will be to demonstrate the reasons why God revealed it, and also to whom and when.[^n66]
**MA-P010-B** 1650, p. 10
**Original English**
The Eye discovers not beyond that stage, wherein it is Conversant, but the Eare receives the Sound a great way off. To give an experieuc'd Testimonie of Actions more Ancient than our selves, is a thing impossible for us, unlesse wee could look into that Glass, where all Occurrences may bee seen, Past, Present, and to Come. I must therefore build my Discourse on the Traditions of those Men, to whom the Word, both Written and Mysticall was intrusted, and these were the Jewes in Generall, but more particularly their Cabalists. It is not my Intention to rest on these Rabbins as Fundamentals, but I will iustifie their Assertions out of Scripture, and intertain my Reader with
**Modern English**
The eye sees no farther than the scene in which it is present, but the ear receives sound from a great distance. We cannot give eyewitness testimony about actions older than ourselves unless we can look into that mirror in which all occurrences—past, present and future—may be seen. I must therefore build my discourse upon the traditions of those entrusted with the Word, both written and mystical: the Jews generally, and their Kabbalists in particular. I do not intend to rest upon these rabbis as foundations; I shall justify their assertions from Scripture and engage my reader with[^n67]
**MA-P011-A** 1650, p. 11
**Original English**
Proofes, both Divine and Humane. Finally, I will passe out of Judaea into AEgypt and Graece, where againe I shall meet with these Mysteries, and prove that this Science did stream (as the Chimists say, their Salt-Fountain doth) out of Jurie, and watered the whole Earth.
**Modern English**
proofs both divine and human. Finally, I shall pass from Judaea into Egypt and Greece, where I shall encounter these mysteries again, and prove that this science flowed out of Jewry, as the chemists say their salt-fountain flows, and watered the whole earth.
### The Fall and the First Instruction
**MA-P011-B** 1650, p. 11
**Original English**
It is the constant Opinion of the Hebrewes, That before the Fall of Adam there was a more plentifull and large Communion between Heaven and Earth, God and the Elements, than there is now in our Days. But upon the Transgression of the first Man. Malcuth (say the Cabalists) was cut off from the Ilan, so that a Breach was made between both Worlds, and their Chanel of Influences discontinued. Now Malcuth is the Invisible Archetypall Moone, by which our visible Caelestiall Moone is governed, and impraegnated: And truly it may be that upon this Retreate of the Divine Light from Infe riors, those Spots and Darknes, which we now see, succeeded in the Body of this Planet, and not in her alone, but about the Sun also, as it hath been discovered by the Telescope. Thus (say They) God to punish the Sin of Adam withdrew himself from the Creatures, so that they were not feasted with the same measure of Influences as formerly. For the Archetypall Moone which is placed in the השמים Haschamaim, to receive, and convey downe the
**Modern English**
It is the settled opinion of the Hebrews that, before Adam’s Fall, a fuller and more abundant communion existed between heaven and earth, God and the elements, than exists in our days. But through the first man’s transgression, Malkuth, the Kabbalists say, was cut off from the Ilan. A breach was made between the two worlds and their channel of influences interrupted. Malkuth is the invisible archetypal moon, by which our visible celestial moon is governed and impregnated. Perhaps, indeed, the spots and darkness we now see in this planet’s body followed this withdrawal of divine light from lower things; and not in her alone, but around the sun too, as the telescope has disclosed. Thus, they say, God withdrew himself from creatures to punish Adam’s sin, so that they no longer received the same abundance of influences as before. For the archetypal moon, placed in the heavens, Haschamaim, to receive and convey down the[^n68], [^n69]
**MA-P012-A** 1650, p. 12
**Original English**
Influx of the six superior Invisible Planets, was (as the Jewes affirme) either separated from the Ilan, or her Breasts were so sealed up that she could not dispense her Milk to Inferiors in that happy and Primitive Abundance. But because I would not dwell long on this point, let us heare the Cabalist himself state it in a clear, and apposit phrase. Initio [Marginal note: Porta Lucis.] Creationis Mundi Divina Cohabitatio erat descendens in Inferiora, & cum esset Divina Cohabitatio inferiùs, reperti sunt Coeli & Terra uniti, & erant Fontes, & Canales activi in perfectione, & trahebantur à Superiore ad Inferius, & inveniebatur Deus complens supernè & Infernè. Venit Adam primus, & peccavit, & diruti sunt Descensus, & confracti sunt Canales, & desiit Aquae-ductus, & cessavit Divina Cohabitatio, & divisa est Societas.
**Modern English**
influx of the six higher invisible planets, was, as the Jews affirm, either separated from the Ilan or had her breasts so sealed that she could not dispense her milk to lower things in that happy original abundance. But rather than dwell long on this point, let us hear the Kabbalist state it clearly and appropriately. [Original marginal citation: Porta Lucis.] [New translation of the Latin:] “At the beginning of the world’s creation, the divine indwelling descended into lower things. While the divine indwelling was below, heaven and earth were found united; the springs and channels operated in perfection, and were drawn from the higher to the lower, and God was found filling above and below. The first Adam came and sinned: the descents were destroyed, the channels broken, the watercourse ceased, the divine indwelling ceased, and the fellowship was divided.”[^n70], [^n71]
**MA-P012-B** 1650, p. 12
**Original English**
That is: In the Beginning of the Creation of the world God did descend, and cohabitat with Things here below, and when the Divine Habitation was here below, the Heavens and the Earth were found to be united, and the Vital Springs and Chanels were in their perfection, and did flow from the Superior to the Inferior World, and God was found to fill all Things both Above, and Beneath. Adam the first Man came, and sinned, whereupon the Descents from above
**Modern English**
[Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “At the beginning of the world’s creation, God descended and dwelt with things here below. When the divine habitation was below, heaven and earth were found united; the vital springs and channels were perfect and flowed from the higher world to the lower, and God was found filling all things above and beneath. Adam, the first man, came and sinned, whereupon the descents from above
**MA-P013-A** 1650, p. 13
**Original English**
were restrained, and their Chanels were broken, and the Water-Course was no more, and the Divine Cohabitation ceased, and the Societie was divided.
Thus far my Rabbi; Now because I have promised Scripture to my Cabalism, I will submit the Tradition. to Moses, and truly that Rabbi also is of my side, for thus I read in Genesis. And to Adam he said, [Marginal note: Cap. 3. v. 17.] Because thou hast eaten of the Tree, whereof I commanded Thee saying, Thou shalt not eate of it: Cursed is the Ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eate of it all the Dayes of thy Life, Thornes and Thistles shall it bring forth unto Thee, and Thou shalt eate the Herb of the Field. In the sweat of thy face shalt Thou eate Bread, untill thou returne unto the Ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for Dust Thou art, and to Dust shalt thou returne. This is the Curse, and Adam was so sensible of it, that he acquainted his posterity with it. For Lamech prophesying of his Son Noah, hath these words. This same shall comfort us, concerning our [Marginal note: Cap. 5. v. 29.] work, and Toyle of our Hands, because of the Ground, which the Lord hath cursed. And this indeed was accomplished in some sense after the Floud, as the same Scripture tells us. And [Marginal note: Cap. 8. v. 25.] the Lord said in his Heart, I will not Againe curse the Ground any more for Mans sake. Here now we are to consider two Things:
**Modern English**
were restrained, their channels broken, and the watercourse ceased. The divine indwelling ceased, and the fellowship was divided.”
So far my rabbi. Now, since I have promised Scripture to support my Kabbalah, I shall submit the tradition to Moses; truly that rabbi is on my side too, for I read in Genesis: [Original marginal citation: chapter 3, verse 17.] “To Adam he said: Because you have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat from it, cursed is the ground for your sake. In sorrow you shall eat from it all the days of your life. It shall bring forth thorns and thistles for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken: dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” This is the curse, and Adam felt it so keenly that he acquainted his descendants with it. For Lamech, prophesying about his son Noah, says: [Original marginal citation: chapter 5, verse 29.] “This same shall comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.” This was indeed fulfilled in some sense after the Flood, as the same Scripture tells us: [Original marginal citation: chapter 8, verse 25.] “And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake.” Here we must consider two things:[^n72], [^n73]
**MA-P014-A** 1650, p. 14
**Original English**
First, The Curse it self, and next the Latitude of it. To manifest the Nature of the Curse, and what it was, you must know, that Good essentially is Light, and Evill is Darknes. The Evill properly is a Corruption that immediatly takes place upon the Removall of that which is Good. Thus God having removed his Candlestick and Light from the Elements, presently the Darknes and Cold of the Matter praevailed, so that the Earth was neerer her first Deformitie, and by Consequence lesse fruitfull and Vitall. Heaven and Hell, that is Light and Darknes, are the two Extremes which Consummat Good and Evill. But there are some mean Blessings which are but, in ordine, or disposing to Heaven, which is their last perfection, and such were these Blessings, which God recalled upon the Transgression of the first Man. Againe there are some Evills, which are but 'Degrees conducing to their last Extremitie, or Hell, and such was this Curse or Evill, which succeeded the Transgression. Thus our Saviour under these Notions of Blessed and Cursed comprehends the Inhabitants of Light and Darknes: Come you Blessed, and Goe you Cursed. In a word then, The Curse was Nothing else but an Act repealed, or a Restraint of those Blessings which God of his meer Goodnes, had formerly communicated to
**Modern English**
first, the curse itself, and then its extent. To show the nature of the curse and what it was, you must know that good is essentially light, and evil darkness. Evil, properly speaking, is a corruption that immediately takes place upon the removal of good. Thus, when God removed his candlestick and light from the elements, matter’s darkness and cold at once prevailed. The earth approached its first deformity and consequently became less fruitful and alive. Heaven and hell—that is, light and darkness—are the two extremes that consummate good and evil. But some intermediate blessings merely lead towards or prepare for heaven, their final perfection. Such were the blessings God recalled upon the first man’s transgression. Again, some evils are merely degrees leading towards their final extreme, or hell. Such was the curse or evil that followed the transgression. Thus our Saviour comprehends the inhabitants of light and darkness under these ideas of blessed and cursed: “Come, you blessed,” and “Go, you cursed.” In a word, the curse was simply the repeal of an act, or a withholding of blessings that God, from his sheer goodness, had previously communicated to[^n74]
**MA-P015-A** 1650, p. 15
**Original English**
his Creatures: And thus I conceive there is a very faire and full Harmonie between Moses and the Cabalists. But to omit their Depositions, though great and high, we are not to seek in this point for the Testimonie of an Angel. For the Tutor of Esdras, amongst his other Mysterious Instructions, hath also this Doctrine. [Marginal note: Cap. 7. V. 11, 12, 13.] When Adam transgressed my Statutes, then was that decreed, which now is done. Then were the Entrances of this World made Narrow, full of sorrow, and Travell: They are but few and Evill, full of perils, and very painfull. But the Entrances of the Elder World, were wide and sure, and brought forth Immortal Fruit. Thus much for the Curse it self: Now for the Latitude of it, It is true that it was intended Chiefely for Man, who was the only Cause of it, but Extended to the Elements in Order to him, and for his sake. For if God had excluded him from Eden, and Continued the Earth in her Primitive Glories, he had but turned him out of one Paradise into Another, wherefore he fits the Dungeon to the Slave, and sends a Corruptible Man into a Corruptible World. But in Truth it was not Man, nor the Earth alone that suffered in this Curse, but all other Creatures also; For saith God to the Serpent, Thou art Cursed above all Cattel, and above every Beast of the Field, so that
**Modern English**
his creatures. In this way I conceive a very fair and complete harmony between Moses and the Kabbalists. But, passing over their testimony, great and exalted though it is, we need not lack an angel’s testimony on this point. For the teacher of Esdras, among his other mysterious instructions, also gives this doctrine: [Original marginal citation: chapter 7, verses 11, 12 and 13.] “When Adam transgressed my statutes, what is now done was then decreed. Then the entrances of this world were made narrow, full of sorrow and toil: they are few and evil, full of dangers and very painful. But the entrances of the older world were wide and secure, and brought forth immortal fruit.” So much for the curse itself. Now for its extent. It was principally intended for man, who alone caused it, but extended to the elements in relation to him and for his sake. Had God excluded him from Eden while leaving the earth in its original glories, he would merely have turned him out of one paradise into another. Therefore he fits the dungeon to the slave, and sends corruptible man into a corruptible world. In truth, neither man nor earth suffered alone in this curse: all other creatures suffered too. For God says to the serpent, “You are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field,” so that[^n75], [^n76]
**MA-P016-A** 1650, p. 16
**Original English**
Cattel and Beasts also were cursed in some measure, but this Serpent above Them all. To this also agrees the Apostle in his Epistle to the [Marginal note: Cap. 8. v. 20.] Romans, where he hath these words. For the Creature was made subject to Vanitie, not willingly, but by Reason of him, who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the Creature it self also, shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption, into the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God. Here by the Creature he understands not Man, but the inferior species, which he distinguisheth from the Children of God, though he allows them both the same Liberty. But this is more plaine out of the subsequent Texts, where he makes a clear Difference between Man, and the whole Creation. For we know (saith he) that the whole Creation groaneth, and travaileth together in paine untill now. And not only They, but our selves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we our selves groane within our selves, waiting for the Adoption, to wit, the Redemption of our Body. Here we see the first Fruits of the spirit, referred to Man, and why not some second subordinat fruits of it to the Creatures in General? for as they were cursed in the Fall of Man, for Man's sake, so it seems in his Restitution they shall be also blessed for his sake. But of this enough. Let us now summe up and
**Modern English**
cattle and beasts were also cursed in some measure, but this serpent above them all. The Apostle agrees in his Epistle to the Romans, where he says: [Original marginal citation: chapter 8, verse 20.] “The creature was subjected to vanity, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope; for the creature itself shall also be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of God’s children.” By “the creature” he understands the lower species, rather than man: he distinguishes them from God’s children, although he grants both the same liberty. This is still clearer in the following verses, where he distinguishes man from the whole creation: “For we know,” he says, “that the whole creation groans and labours together in pain until now. Not only they, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, awaiting adoption: the redemption of our body.” Here we see the Spirit’s firstfruits referred to man. Why should some second, subordinate fruits not belong to creatures generally? As they were cursed for man’s sake in his Fall, so it seems they will also be blessed for his sake in his restoration. But enough of this. Let us now sum up and[^n77]
**MA-P017-A** 1650, p. 17
**Original English**
consider the several inconveniences our first Parent was Subject to, for they will be of some use with us hereafter. First of all, he was ejected from the presence of God, and exposed to the Malice and Tentations of the Devill. He was altered from Good to Bad, from Incorruptible to Corruptible: In the Day (saith the Scripture) Thou eatest thereof, Thou shalt dye the Death. He was excluded from a glorious Paradyse, and confin'd to a base world, whose sickly infected Elements conspiring with his own Nature, did assist and hasten that Death, which already began to reign in his Body. Heaven did mourn over him, The Earth, and all her Generations about him. He look'd upon himself as a Felon, and a Murtherer, being guilty of that Curse and Corruption, which succeeded in the world because of his fall, as we have sufficiently proved out of the Mosaicall and Cabalisticall Traditions. He was Ignorant, and therefore hopeles of Life aeternal, and for this Temporal present Life, he was not acquainted with the Provisions of it. The Elements of Husbandrie were not as yet known, there was neither House nor Plow, nor any of those manuall Arts, which make up a worldly providence. He was exposed to the Violence of Rains and Winds, Frosts and Snows, and in a word deprived of all Comforts Spiritual,
**Modern English**
consider the various hardships to which our first parent was subject, for these will be useful later. First, he was expelled from God’s presence and exposed to the Devil’s malice and temptations. He was changed from good to bad, from incorruptible to corruptible: “In the day you eat from it,” Scripture says, “you shall surely die.” He was excluded from a glorious paradise and confined to a base world whose sick and infected elements, conspiring with his own nature, assisted and hastened the death already beginning to reign in his body. Heaven mourned over him; so did the earth and all her offspring around him. He regarded himself as a felon and murderer, guilty of the curse and corruption that followed in the world because of his Fall, as we have sufficiently proved from Mosaic and Kabbalistic traditions. He was ignorant, and therefore without hope of eternal life; as for this present temporal life, he did not know how to provide for it. The rudiments of farming were not yet known. There was neither house nor plough, nor any manual art that makes up worldly provision. He was exposed to violent rains and winds, frost and snow: deprived, in a word, of all comforts spiritual[^n78]
**MA-P018-A** 1650, p. 18
**Original English**
and Natural. What should I say more? He was a meer stranger in this World, could not distinguish Medicines from Poysons, neither was he skill'd in the ordinarie praeparations of Meate and Drink. He had no Victuals ready to his hands, but the crude unseasoned Herbage of the Earth, so that he must either starve, or feed as Nebuchadnezar did, with the Beasts of the Field. He heard indeed sometimes of a Tree of Life in Eden, but the Vegetables of this world for ought he knew might be so many Trees of Death. I conclude therefore that he had some Instructor to initiat him in the wayes of Life, and to shew him the intricate and narrow paths of that wilderness. For without question his outward Miseries, and his inward Despaire were Motives whereupon God did reveale a certaine Art unto Him, by which he might relieve his present Necessities, and imbrace a firme Hope of a future and glorious Restitution. For God having ordained a second aeternal Adam, did by some mysterious Experience manifest the possibilitie of his comming to the First, Who being now full of Despaire, and overcharged with the Guilt of his own sin was a very fit Patient for so Divine and mercifull a Physician. But omitting our own Reasons, which we might produce to this purpose, let us repayre to the Cabalists, who
**Modern English**
and natural. What more should I say? He was an utter stranger in this world, unable to distinguish medicines from poisons, or prepare ordinary food and drink. No provisions lay ready to hand except the earth’s raw and unseasoned plants: he must either starve or feed with the beasts of the field, as Nebuchadnezzar did. He had indeed sometimes heard of a tree of life in Eden; but, for all he knew, this world’s plants might be so many trees of death. I therefore conclude that he had an instructor to initiate him into the ways of life and show him that wilderness’s intricate, narrow paths. Undoubtedly his outward miseries and inward despair were reasons for God to reveal to him an art through which he might relieve his present needs and embrace a firm hope of future, glorious restoration. For God, having ordained a second, eternal Adam, manifested the possibility of his coming to the first through a mysterious experience. Now full of despair and burdened by guilt for his sin, the first Adam was a fit patient for so divine and merciful a physician. But, passing over our own arguments for this purpose, let us turn to the Kabbalists, who[^n79]
**MA-P019-A** 1650, p. 19
**Original English**
indeed are very high in the Point, and thus they deliver themselves. God (say they) having made fast the Doores of his Paradyse, and turn'd out Adam, sometimes the Dearest of his Creatures, did notwithstanding the Present Punishment, retaine his former Affection towards him still. For God is said to love his Creatures not that there is any thing lovely in Them without their Creator, but in that hee desires their perfection: That is to say he would have them Conformable to himself, and fitt to receive his Image or Similitude, which is a spiritual Impress of his Beauty. Now to restore this Similitude in Adam was impossible unlesse God should reassume that to himself which was now fallen from him. So transcendent, and almost incredible a Mercie had God treasur'd up in his secret Will, being resolved to unite the Nature of Man to his Own, and so vindicat him from Death, by taking him into the Deitie, which is the true Fountain and Center of Life. This Will (say the Cabalists) was first revealed to the Angels, and that by God himself in these words; Ecce Adam sicut unus [Marginal note: Gen. cap. 3. ver. 22.] ex Nobis: Behold an Adam like one of us, knowing Good and Euill! This speech they call Orationem occultissimam à Creatore Mundi cum beatis Angelis in suae Divinitatis Penetralibus habitam; A most secret Conference
**Modern English**
speak very loftily on this point, and express themselves as follows. God, they say, having shut his paradise’s doors and expelled Adam, once the dearest of his creatures, nevertheless retained his former affection despite the present punishment. God is said to love his creatures because he desires their perfection, rather than because anything in them is lovable apart from their Creator. That is, he wishes them to conform to himself and be fit to receive his image or likeness, a spiritual impression of his beauty. To restore this likeness in Adam was impossible unless God took back to himself what had now fallen away from him. God had stored up such transcendent and almost incredible mercy in his secret will: he resolved to unite human nature with his own and thus rescue man from death by taking him into the Godhead, the true fountain and centre of life. This will, the Kabbalists say, was first revealed to the angels by God himself in these words: [Original marginal citation: Genesis, chapter 3, verse 22.] [New translation of the Latin:] “Behold Adam, as one of us”; [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “Behold an Adam like one of us, knowing good and evil!” They call this speech [New translation of the Latin:] “a most secret discourse held by the Creator of the world with the blessed angels in the innermost sanctuary of his divinity”; [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “A most secret conference[^n80], [^n81]
**MA-P020-A** 1650, p. 20
**Original English**
which God had with the blessed Angels in the Inner-Chambers of Heaven. Now that the same Scripture should speak one thing in the Letter, and another in the Mysterie, is not strange to mee, how difficult soever it may seem to another. For verily this Text may not concern the first Adam, who knowing Evill by Committing it, could not be like God in respect of that Knowledge, which made him sinfull, and altogether unlike him. For God (if I may so expresse it) knows the Evill onely speculatively, in asmuch as nothing can escape his Knowledge, and therefore is not guilty of Evill: For as Tritemius hath well observed, Scientia Mali non est Malum, sed usus; The knowledge of Evill is not Evill, but the practice of it. It remains then, that this Speech concern'd the Second Adam, Christ Jesus, who knew the Evill, but did not commit it, and therefore was like one of us, that is like One of the Trinitie, knowing Good and Evill, and yet no way guiltie of the Evill. This primitive and Compendious Gospell was no sooner imparted to the Angels, but they became Ministers of it, the Law (as St. Paul saith) being ordained in their hands, till Christ should take it into his own and their Administration to Man took Beginning with this Oracle. Thus (say the Cabalists) Raziel the Angel was presently
**Modern English**
which God held with the blessed angels in heaven’s inner chambers.” That the same Scripture should say one thing in its letter and another in its mystery is no strangeness to me, however difficult someone else may find it. Truly this text may not concern the first Adam, whose knowledge of evil through committing it could not make him like God: that knowledge made him sinful and wholly unlike him. God, if I may put it so, knows evil only speculatively, since nothing can escape his knowledge; he is therefore not guilty of evil. As Trithemius rightly observed, [New translation of the Latin:] “Knowledge of evil is not evil, but its use is”; [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “The knowledge of evil is not evil, but the practice of it.” It follows that this speech concerned the second Adam, Christ Jesus, who knew evil without committing it. He was therefore “like one of us”—like one of the Trinity—knowing good and evil, yet in no way guilty of evil. No sooner was this original, concise Gospel imparted to the angels than they became its ministers. As Saint Paul says, the law was ordained in their hands until Christ should take it into his own; and their ministry to man began with this oracle. Thus, the Kabbalists say, the angel Raziel was immediately[^n82]
**MA-P021-A** 1650, p. 21
**Original English**
dispatch'd to communicat the Intelligence to Adam, and to acquaint him with the Mysteries of both world, AEternall, and Temporall. For as he could not obtain the Blessings of the AEternall World, unless by a true faith hee apprehended the Three AEternall Principles of it, so neither could he fully injoy the benefits of this Temporall World, unless hee truly understood the Three Visible substances whereof it consists. For there are Three above, and Three beneath, Three (as St. John saith) in Heaven, and Three on Earth; The Inferior bear witness of the Superior, and are their only proper Receptacles. They are Signatures and Created Books, where wee may reade the Mysteries of the supernaturall Trinitie. But to proceed in our former Discourse: The Cabalists doe not onely attribute a Guardian to Adam, but to every one of the Patriarchs, allowing Them their Praesidents and Tutors both to assist and instruct Them in their wearisome and worldly Peregrinations. A Doctrine in my Opinion not more Religious than Necessary, how Prodigious soever it may seem to some Phantastic, insiped Theologicians. For Certainly it is impossible for us to find out Mysteries of our selves, wee must either have the Spirit of God, or the Instruction of his Ministers, whether they bee Men or Angels. And thus wee see out of the
**Modern English**
sent to communicate this knowledge to Adam and acquaint him with the mysteries of both worlds, eternal and temporal. As Adam could not obtain the eternal world’s blessings unless he apprehended its three eternal principles through true faith, so he could not fully enjoy the temporal world’s benefits unless he truly understood its three visible substances. For there are three above and three below: three in heaven, as Saint John says, and three on earth. The lower bear witness to the higher and are their only proper receptacles. They are signatures and created books in which we may read the mysteries of the supernatural Trinity. But to continue our earlier discourse: the Kabbalists assign a guardian not only to Adam but to every patriarch, granting each presiding spirits and tutors to assist and instruct them in their weary worldly wanderings. In my opinion this doctrine is as necessary as it is religious, however monstrous it may seem to fanciful, insipid theologians. We certainly cannot discover mysteries by ourselves. We must have either God’s Spirit or the instruction of his ministers, whether men or angels. Thus we see from the[^n83], [^n84]
**MA-P022-A** 1650, p. 22
**Original English**
Traditions and Doctrine of the Jewes, how their Cabala, and our Magic came first into the world. I shall now examine the Scriptures, and consult with them: where (if I am not much mistaken) I shall find some Consequences, which must needs depend on these Principles, and thus I apply my self to the Task.
**Modern English**
traditions and teaching of the Jews how their Kabbalah and our magic first entered the world. I shall now examine and consult Scripture, where, unless I am greatly mistaken, I shall find consequences that necessarily depend upon these principles. So I apply myself to the task.
**MA-P022-B** 1650, p. 22
**Original English**
The first Harvest I read of, was that of Cain, and the first Flocks, those of Abel. A Shepheards life in those Early Dayes was no difficult Profession, it being an Imployment of more Care, than Art, but how the Earth was plow'd up before the sound of Tubal's Hammers, is a piece of Husbandrie unknown in these Dayes. Howsoever it was a Labour perform'd, and not without Retribution. Cain hath his Sheaves, as well as Abel his Lambs: both of them receive, and both acknowledge the Benefit. I find established in these Two a certain Priesthood, they attend both to the Altar, and the first Bloud was shed by Sacrifice the Second by Murther.
**Modern English**
The first harvest I read of is Cain’s; the first flocks, Abel’s. A shepherd’s life in those early days was no difficult profession: it required care more than art. But how the earth was ploughed before Tubal’s hammers sounded is a farming practice unknown today. Nevertheless the labour was performed, and rewarded. Cain has his sheaves as Abel has his lambs: both receive a benefit and both acknowledge it. I find a priesthood established in these two. Both attend the altar: the first blood was shed in sacrifice, the second in murder.[^n85]
**MA-P022-C** 1650, p. 22
**Original English**
Now so dull am I, and so short of Syllogismes, those strange Pumps, and Hydragogues, which lave the Truth ex Puteo, like Water, that all my Reason cannot make these Men Levits without Revelation. For I desire to know how came they first to Sacrifise, and by whom were they initiated? If you will say, by Adam:
**Modern English**
But I am so dull, so short of syllogisms—those strange pumps and water-drawers that bail truth [New translation of the Latin:] “out of the well” like water—that all my reasoning cannot make these men Levites without revelation. For I ask how they first came to sacrifice, and who initiated them. If you say Adam,[^n86]
**MA-P023-A** 1650, p. 23
**Original English**
The Question indeed is deferr'd, but not satisfied For I would know further In what Schoole was Adam instructed? Now that it was impossible for him to invent these Shadowes and Sacraments of himself, I will undertake to Demonstrate and that by invincible Reason, which no Adversarie shall dare to contradict.
**Modern English**
the question is postponed rather than answered, for I ask further: in what school was Adam instructed? I undertake to demonstrate that he could not have invented these shadows and sacraments for himself, and to do so through invincible reason that no adversary shall dare contradict.
**MA-P023-B** 1650, p. 23
**Original English**
It is most certain that the Hope and Expectation of Man in Matters of Sacrifices, consist in the Thing signified, and not in the Signe it self. For the Material Corruptible shadow is not the Object of Faith but the Spiritual, aeternall Prototype, which answers to it, and makes the dead figure Effectual. The Sacrifices of the Old Testament, and the Elements of the New, can be no way acceptable with God, but inasmuch as they have a Relation to Christ Jesus, who is the great, perfect Sacrifice offered up once for all. It is plain then that Sacrifices were first instituted upon supernatural grounds, for in Nature there is no reason to be found, why God should be pleased with the Death of his Creatures. Nay the very Contrary is written in that Book, for Death both Natural and Violent proceeds not from the pleasure, but from the displeasure of the Creator. I know the learned Alkind builds the efficacie of Sacrifices on a Sympathie of parts with the great world; for there is in every Animal a portion
**Modern English**
In matters of sacrifice, man’s hope and expectation certainly rest in the thing signified, rather than in the sign itself. The material, corruptible shadow is no object of faith: that object is the spiritual, eternal prototype that answers to it and makes the dead figure effective. The Old Testament’s sacrifices and the New Testament’s elements can be acceptable to God only in relation to Christ Jesus, the great and perfect sacrifice offered once for all. Plainly, then, sacrifices were first instituted on supernatural grounds. No reason can be found in Nature why God should be pleased by the death of his creatures. Indeed, the contrary is written in that book: death, whether natural or violent, proceeds from the Creator’s displeasure, rather than his pleasure. I know the learned al-Kindi bases the efficacy of sacrifices on the sympathy between parts and the great world. For in every animal there is a portion[^n87]
**MA-P024-A** 1650, p. 24
**Original English**
of the star-fire; which fire upon the Dissolution of the Compound is united to the General fire from whence it first came, and produceth a sense, or Motion in the Limbus to which it is united. This indeed is true, but that Motion causeth no Joy there, and by Consequence no Reward to the Sacrificer: for I shall make it to appeare elsewhere that the Astral Mother doth mourn, and not rejoyce at the Death of her Children. Now if wee look back on these two first Sacrificers, we shall find Abel and his Oblation accepted, which could not be, had he not offerr'd it up as a Symbol, or Figure of his Saviour. To drive home my Argument then, I say, that this knowledge of the Type, in whom all offerings were acceptable, could not bee obtained by any humane Industrie, but by sole Revelation. For the Passion of Christ Jesus was an Ordinance wrapt up in the secret will of God, and he that would know it, must of Necessitie bee of his Councell. Hence it is called in Scripture the Hidden Mysterie, for the Truth and Certainty of it, was not to bee received from any, but onely from him, who had both the Will, and the Power to ordain it. But if you will tell mee (like the Author of the Praedicables) that men sacrifised at first by the Instinct of Nature, and without any Respect [Marginal note: Porphyr. de Sacrif.] to the Type, I shal indeed thank you for my
**Modern English**
of star-fire. When the compound dissolves, this fire unites with the general fire from which it first came, and produces sensation or motion in the limbus with which it unites. This is indeed true; but that motion causes no joy there and consequently brings no reward to the sacrificer. For I shall show elsewhere that the astral mother mourns, rather than rejoices, at her children’s death. Now, looking back to those first two sacrificers, we find Abel and his offering accepted. This could not have happened unless he offered it as a symbol or figure of his Saviour. To press my argument home: knowledge of the type through whom all offerings were acceptable could not be obtained through human effort, but solely through revelation. Christ Jesus’s Passion was an ordinance wrapped in God’s secret will: anyone wishing to know it must necessarily belong to his counsel. Hence Scripture calls it the hidden mystery, for its truth and certainty could be received only from him who had both the will and power to ordain it. But if, like the author of the Predicables, you tell me that people first sacrificed from natural instinct and without regard to the type—[Original marginal citation: Porphyry, On Sacrifice]—I shall thank you indeed for my[^n88], [^n89]
**MA-P025-A** 1650, p. 25
**Original English**
mirth, whensoever you give mee so just a Reason to laugh. It remains then a most firme infallible Foundation that Adam was first instructed concerning the Passion, and in order to that, he was taught further, to Sacrifise, and offer up the Blouds of Beasts as Types and Prodroms of the Bloud of Christ Jesus, the Altars of the Law being but steps to the Cross of the Gospell. Now if it be objected that severall Nations have sacrifised, who did not know God at all, much less the Son of God, who is the Prototype and perfection of all Oblations: To this I answer, that the Custome of Sacrificing was communicated to Heathens by Tradition from the first Man: who having instructed his own Children, they also delivered it to their Posteritie, so that this Vizard of Religion remained, thought the Substance and true Doctrine of it was lost. And thus in my Opinion it sufficiently appears, that the first men did sacrifise, not by Nature as Prophyrius that Enemie of our Religion would have it, but some by Revelation, others by Custome and Tradition. But now I think upon it, I have Scripture to confirme me concerning this Primitive Revelation, for Salomon numbring those severall Blessings which the Divine Wisdome imparted to the Ancient Fathers, amongst the rest specifies her Indulgence to Adam. Shee praeserved
**Modern English**
amusement whenever you give me so good a reason to laugh. It remains a firm and infallible foundation, then, that Adam was first instructed concerning the Passion. In relation to it, he was further taught to sacrifice and offer the blood of beasts as types and forerunners of Christ Jesus’s blood: the altars of the law were merely steps towards the Gospel’s Cross. If it is objected that various nations sacrificed without knowing God at all, much less God’s Son, the prototype and perfection of all offerings, I answer that the practice of sacrifice was communicated to the heathen through tradition from the first man. Having instructed his own children, they passed it on to their descendants. Thus this mask of religion remained, although its substance and true doctrine were lost. In my opinion it is sufficiently clear, therefore, that the earliest people sacrificed through revelation or through custom and tradition, rather than by Nature, as Porphyry, that enemy of our religion, would have it. But now I think of it, Scripture confirms this original revelation. For Solomon, numbering the blessings divine Wisdom imparted to the ancient fathers, specifies among them her kindness towards Adam: “She preserved[^n90], [^n91]
**MA-P026-A** 1650, p. 26
**Original English**
(saith hee) the first formed Father of the world, that was created alone, and brought him out of his Fall. Here I find Adam in some measure restored, and how could that bee, but by discovering unto him the Great Restorative Christ Jesus, the second Adam in whom he was to believe? for without Faith he could not have been brought out of his Fall, and without Christ revealed, and preached unto him, hee could have no Faith, for hee knew not what to believe. It remaines then that hee was instructed, for as in these last dayes wee are taught by the Son of God, and his Apostles; so in those first times they were taught by the Spirit of God and his ministring Angels. These were their Tutors, for of them they heard the Word, and verily wee are told that faith comes by hearing.
**Modern English**
(he says) the first-formed father of the world, created alone, and brought him out of his fall.” Here I find Adam restored to some degree. How could that happen except by revealing to him the great restorative, Christ Jesus, the second Adam in whom he was to believe? Without faith he could not have been brought out of his fall; and without Christ revealed and preached to him, he could have no faith, since he did not know what to believe. It follows, then, that he was instructed. Just as in these last days we are taught by God’s Son and his apostles, so in those first times they were taught by God’s Spirit and his ministering angels. These were their tutors, from whom they heard the Word; and truly we are told that faith comes by hearing.[^n92], [^n93]
### Natural Knowledge and the Patriarchs
**MA-P026-B** 1650, p. 26
**Original English**
It is now (as I think) sufficiently proved, that Adam had his Metaphysics from Above: our next Service (and perhaps somewhat difficult) is, to give some probable. if not Demonstrative reasons, that they came not alone but had their Physics also to attend them. I know the Scriptures are not positive in this point, and hence the Sects will lug their Consequence of Reprobation. Truly for my part. I desire not [Marginal note: Coloss. 2. 8.] their Hum but their patience: I have though against the Praecept for many years attended
**Modern English**
I think it is now sufficiently proved that Adam received his metaphysics from above. Our next task, perhaps rather difficult, is to give probable, if not demonstrative, reasons that these did not come alone, but brought their physics with them. I know Scripture is not explicit on this point, and the sects will drag their conclusion of condemnation out of that silence. For my part, I ask for their patience rather than their murmur of approval. Although against the precept, I have attended for many years to[^n94], [^n95], [^n96]
**MA-P027-A** 1650, p. 27
**Original English**
their Philosophie, and if they spend a few hours on my Spermalogie it may cost them some part [Marginal note: Act. 17. 18] of their Justice, but none of their Favours. But that we may come to the thing in hand; I hold it very Necessarie to distinguish Arts, for I have not yet seen any Author, who hath fully considered their difference. The Art I speak of, is truly Physicall in Subject, Method, and Effect But as for Arts publickly professed, and to the Disadvantage of Truth allowed, not one of them is so qualified: for they are meer Knacks and Bables of the Hand, or Braine, having no firm Fundamentals in Nature. These in my opinion Salomon numbers amongst his Vanities, when hee speakes in a certaine [Marginal note: Ecclesiast. 7. 29.] place, That God had made man upright, but hee had sought out many Inventions. Of these Inventions we have a short Catalogue in Genesis, where Moses separates the Corn from the Chaff, the Works of God, from the Whymzies of Man. Thus wee read that Jabal was the [Marginal note: Gen. 4. 20.] Father of such as dwell in Tents, his brother Jubal the father of all such as handle the Harp and Organ, and Tubal-Cain an Instructer of every Artificer in Brasse and Iron. What mischiefes have succeeded this Brasse-and-Iron Cyclops, I need not tell you: if you know not the fates of former Times, you may studie the Actions of your owne, you live in an Age that
**Modern English**
their philosophy. If they spend a few hours upon my discourse of seeds, it may cost them some justice, but none of their favours. But to come to the matter in hand: I consider it most necessary to distinguish among arts, since I have not yet seen an author fully consider their difference. The art I mean is truly natural in subject, method and effect. None of the publicly professed arts, permitted to Truth’s disadvantage, is qualified in this way. They are merely tricks and trifles of hand or brain, without firm foundations in Nature. In my opinion Solomon numbers these among his vanities when he says that God made humanity upright, but humanity sought out many inventions. We have a short catalogue of these inventions in Genesis, where Moses separates the corn from the chaff, God’s works from human whims. Thus we read that Jabal was the father of those dwelling in tents, his brother Jubal the father of everyone handling harp and organ, and Tubal-cain an instructor of every craftsman in brass and iron. I need not tell you what evils followed this brass-and-iron Cyclops. If you do not know the fortunes of former times, study the actions of your own: you live in an age that[^n97], [^n98], [^n99], [^n100]
**MA-P028-A** 1650, p. 28
**Original English**
can instruct you. Verily, it is worth our observation that these Arts, and their tooles, proceeded not from the Posterity of Seth, in whose Line our Saviour stands, for as wee shall make it appeare hereafter questionlesse they had a better knowledge; But they proceeded from the Seed of Cain, who in Action was a Murtherer, and in the Circumstance of it a fratricide.
**Modern English**
can teach you. Truly it is worth observing that these arts and their tools did not proceed from Seth’s descendants, in whose line our Saviour stands. As we shall show, they undoubtedly possessed better knowledge. They proceeded instead from Cain’s seed: a murderer by his act, and, through its circumstances, a murderer of his brother.
**MA-P028-B** 1650, p. 28
**Original English**
To be short, there is no Vanity to the Vanitie of Sciences, I mean those Inventions, and their Professors, which produce nothing true and Natural, but Effects either false, or in their Ends corrupt and Violent. But 'tis no Conquest to tread on Ruines, Cornelius Agrippa, hath already [Marginal note: De vanit. Scient.] layd these Rodomontados in the Dirt, and that so handsomely, they were never since of a general Reputation. Give me an Art then, that is a perfect intire Map of the Creation, that can lead me directly to the Knowledge of the true God, by which I can discover those Universal invisible Essences which are subordinat to him; An Art that is no way subject to Evill, and by which I can attain to all the Secrets and Mysteries in Nature. This is the Art wherein the Physics of Adam, and the Patriarchs consisted, and that this Art was revealed to him, I will undertake to demonstrat by Scriptures, and the Practice of his Posteritie.
**Modern English**
To be brief, no vanity equals the vanity of sciences: I mean those inventions, and those who profess them, which produce nothing true and natural, only effects that are false or corrupt and violent in their ends. But trampling ruins is no conquest. Cornelius Agrippa has already laid these braggarts in the dust, so handsomely that they have never since enjoyed general esteem. Give me, then, an art that is a complete, entire map of creation; that can lead me directly to knowledge of the true God; through which I can discover the universal invisible essences subordinate to him; an art in no way subject to evil, through which I can attain all Nature’s secrets and mysteries. This is the art in which Adam’s and the patriarchs’ physics consisted. I undertake to demonstrate from Scripture and their descendants’ practice that it was revealed to him.[^n101], [^n102], [^n103]
**MA-P028-C** 1650, p. 28
**Original English**
This Truth, I am certain, will seem difficult,
**Modern English**
I am certain this truth will seem difficult,
**MA-P029-A** 1650, p. 29
**Original English**
if not incredible to most men, the Providence of God being praejudic'd in this point, for they will not allow him to instruct us in Naturall things, but onely in Supernaturals, such as may concerne our Souls, and their Salvation. As for our Bodies he must not praescribe for their Necessities, by teaching us the true Physic, and discovering the Lawes of his Creation; for though he made Nature, yet hee may not tutor us in Natural Sciences: by no means, Aristotle and his Syllogism can doe it much better. Certainly this Opinion is nothing different from that of the Epicure, Deum ad Coeli Cardines obambulare, & nullâ tangi Mortalium curâ, That God takes the Aire I know not in what walkes and Quarters of his Heaven, but thinks not of us Mortals, who are here under his feet. Questionlesse, a most eminent Impietie, to make God as Iertullian said of old, Otiosum, [Marginal note: Apolog. advers.] & inexercitum Neminem in rebus Humanis, An idle, unprofitable No body in this [Marginal note: Gent. Cap. 24.] World, having nothing to doe with our Afaires, as they are Natural, and Humane. Sure these Men are afraid lest his Mercy should diminish his Majestie, they suffer him to trade onely with our immortal parts, not with Corruptible bodies that have most need of his Assistance, they are base Subjects, which he hath turned over to Galen, and the Apothecaries.
**Modern English**
if not incredible, to most people, who prejudge God’s providence in this matter. They will not allow him to instruct us in natural things, only in supernatural matters concerning our souls and their salvation. As for our bodies, he must not provide for their necessities by teaching us true medicine and revealing the laws of his creation. Though he made Nature, he may not tutor us in natural sciences. Certainly not: Aristotle and his syllogism can do it much better. This opinion differs in nothing from the Epicurean view: [New translation of the Latin:] “God strolls about the pivots of heaven, untouched by any concern for mortals.” [Vaughan’s English:] God takes the air in I know not what walks and quarters of heaven, but gives no thought to us mortals under his feet. This is a most remarkable impiety, making God, as Tertullian said long ago, [New translation of the Latin:] “an idle, unoccupied nobody in human affairs.” [Vaughan’s English:] an idle, unprofitable nobody in this world, having nothing to do with our affairs insofar as they are natural and human. Surely these people fear that his mercy would diminish his majesty. They allow him to deal only with our immortal parts, not with the corruptible bodies that most need his assistance: those are base subjects he has handed over to Galen and the apothecaries.[^n104], [^n105], [^n106]
**MA-P030-A** 1650, p. 30
**Original English**
Not so my friend: he hath created Physic, and brings it out of the Earth, but the Galenist knowes it not; Hee it is, that pitties our afflictions, he is the good Samaritane that doth not pass by us in our miseries, but poures Oile and Wine into our wounds; This I know very well and I will prove it out of his own Mouth. Did not hee instruct Noah to build an Ark, to pitch it within and without, and this to save life in a Time, when hee himselfe was resolved to destroy it? In a time when the world was acquainted with no Mechanics, but a little Husbandrie, and a few Knacks of Tubal-Cain, and his brethren? But even those Inventions also proceeded from that light which hee planted in man: an Essence perpetually busie, and whose Ambition it is to performe wonders, yet hee seldome produceth any thing of his owne, but what is fantastic, and monstrous. Did he not put his spirit in Bezaleel the son of [Marginal note: Exod. 31.] Uri, and in Aholiab the son of Ahisamach? Did hee not teach them to devise cunning Workes, to work in Gold, in Silver, in Brasse, in Cutting of stones, in setting of them, in Carving of Timber, and in all manner of Workmanship? But to come neerer to our purpose: did hee not informe Moses in the Composition of the Oile, and the Perfume? Did hee not teach him the Symptoms of the Leprosie, and the
**Modern English**
Not so, my friend. He created medicine and brings it out of the earth, although the Galenist does not know it. He pities our afflictions: he is the good Samaritan who does not pass us by in our misery but pours oil and wine into our wounds. I know this very well and shall prove it from his own mouth. Did he not instruct Noah to build an ark and pitch it inside and out, to save life at a time when he himself had resolved to destroy it? At a time when the world knew no mechanical arts except a little husbandry and a few tricks of Tubal-cain and his brothers? Yet even those inventions proceeded from the light he planted in humanity: an essence perpetually busy, ambitious to perform wonders, yet seldom producing anything of its own except what is fanciful and monstrous. Did he not put his Spirit in Bezalel son of Uri and Oholiab son of Ahisamach? Did he not teach them to devise skilful works: to work in gold, silver and brass, to cut and set stones, to carve timber, and to practise every kind of craftsmanship? But to come closer to our purpose: did he not instruct Moses in the composition of the oil and perfume? Did he not teach him the symptoms of leprosy and its[^n107], [^n108], [^n109]
**MA-P031-A** 1650, p. 31
**Original English**
Cure thereof? Did he not praescribe a Plaster of Figs for Hezekiah, and to use your owne Term; an Ophthalmic for Tobit? Did not Jesus Christ himself in the Dayes of his Flesh, work most of his Miracles on our bodies, though his great Cure was that of our Soules? Is hee not the same then to day as yesterday? Nay was hee not the same then from the Beginning? Did he care for our Bodies then, and doth he neglect them now? or being seated on the right hand of the Majestic on high, is hee become lass good, because more glorious? God forbid to think so were a sin in Superlatives. Let us then take him for our Praesident, for he [Marginal note: Hebr. 4. 15.] is not (saith St. Paul) such an one which cannot bee touched with the feeling of our Infirmities, but hee is indeed one that looks to our present estate aswell as to our future and is as sensible of our Insirmitie. as hee is Carefull of our Immortaletie. When hee was on Earth, with the Dust of that Earth hee made the Blind to [Marginal note: John 9.] see, and of meer Water he made Wine. These were the visible Elements of his Physic, or rather (so the Notion doth not offend you) of his Magic. But shall I shew you his Librarie, and in that his Three-fold Philosophie? Observe then first, and censure afterwards. Have Salt in your selves, and again, you are the salt of the Earth, and in a third place, salt is good.
**Modern English**
cure? Did he not prescribe a plaster of figs for Hezekiah and, to use your own term, an eye medicine for Tobit? Did not Jesus Christ himself, in the days of his flesh, work most of his miracles upon our bodies, although his great cure concerned our souls? Is he not the same today as yesterday? Was he not the same from the beginning? Did he care for our bodies then and neglect them now? Seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, has he become less good because more glorious? God forbid: thinking so would be a sin in the superlative. Let us take him, then, as our precedent. As Saint Paul says, he is not one unable to feel our infirmities. He looks to our present condition as well as our future one, as sensitive to our weakness as he is careful of our immortality. When on earth he made the blind see with that earth’s dust, and made wine from mere water. These were the visible elements of his medicine—or, if the term does not offend you, his magic. But shall I show you his library, and in it his threefold philosophy? Observe first, and judge afterwards. “Have salt in yourselves”; again, “You are the salt of the earth”; and in a third place, “Salt is good.”[^n110], [^n111], [^n112]
**MA-P032-A** 1650, p. 32
**Original English**
This is his mineral Doctrine, will you know his Vegetable? It is in two little Books, a Mustard-seed, and a Lillis. Lastly, he hath his Animal Magic, and truly that's a Scrowle Seal'd up, I know not who may open it. Hee needed [Marginal note: Joh. cap. 2 v. 25.] not that any should beare witnesse of man, for he knew what was in man. And what of all this Blasphemie sayes some splenetic Sophister? Behold I will instruct thee. First of all have Salt in thy self, for it will season thy soule that is infected, and praeserve thy Braines that are putrified with the Dirt of Aristotle. In the second place learn what the Salt of the Earth is, to which the Disciples are compared, and that by a regular, solid speculation. Thirdly come up to Experience, and by a Physicall legitimat practice know in what sense Salt is most good. Fourthly, examine the Lilies by Fire, and the Water of Fire, that thou mayst see their miraculous invisible Treasures, and wherein that speech of Truth is verified, That Salomon in all his Royaltie was not cloathed like one of them. If thou wilt attempt a higher Magic, thou mayst being first seasoned. but in this place it is not my designe to lead Thee to it. Animal and Vegetable Mysteries thou canst never perfectly obtain without the Knowledge of the first mineral secret, namely the Salt of the Earth, which is Salt and no Salt, and the Praeparation
**Modern English**
This is his mineral doctrine. Would you know his vegetable doctrine? It is contained in two little books: a mustard seed and a lily. Finally he has his animal magic, truly a sealed scroll; I do not know who may open it. “He needed no one to bear witness concerning humanity, for he knew what was in humanity.” “What of all this blasphemy?” says some ill-tempered sophist. Look: I shall instruct you. First, have salt in yourself. It will season your infected soul and preserve your brains, putrefied with Aristotle’s dirt. Second, learn what the salt of the earth is, to which the disciples are compared, through orderly, sound contemplation. Third, rise to experience and know, through legitimate natural practice, in what sense salt is most good. Fourth, examine the lilies by fire and the water of fire, so that you may see their miraculous invisible treasures and discover how that saying of Truth is verified: Solomon in all his royalty was not clothed like one of them. If you wish to attempt a higher magic, you may, once you are seasoned; but I do not intend to lead you to it here. You can never perfectly attain animal and vegetable mysteries without knowing the first mineral secret: the salt of the earth, which is salt and no salt, and its preparation[^n113], [^n114], [^n115]
**MA-P033-A** 1650, p. 33
**Original English**
thereof. This Discourse I confesse, is somewhat remote from that I first intended, namely that Philosophie was revealed to Adam, as well as Divinitie, but some Pates are Blocks in their own wayes, and as I told you formerly, will not believe that God dispenseth with any Naturall secrets; This made mee produce these few Instances out of Scripture, as Praeparatives to the Proposition it self, and if hee be any thing ingenious, to the Reader. His Compliance to my Principles I expect not, nay I am so far from it, hee may suspend his Charitie. Let him bee as rigid as Justice can make him, for I wish not to praevaile in any thing but the Truth, and in the Name of Truth, thus I begin.
**Modern English**
for use. I confess this discussion is somewhat removed from my original purpose: that philosophy, as well as divinity, was revealed to Adam. But some heads are blocks in their own path and, as I told you, refuse to believe that God imparts any natural secrets. That made me produce these few scriptural examples as preparations for the proposition itself and, if he has any understanding, for the reader. I do not expect him to comply with my principles. Indeed, far from it: he may withhold his charity. Let him be as strict as justice can make him. I wish to prevail in nothing except Truth; and in Truth’s name I begin.
**MA-P033-B** 1650, p. 33
**Original English**
You have been told formerly, that Cain and Abel were instructed in Matters of Sacrifice by their father Adam, but Cain having murthered his brother Abel, his Priesthood descended to Seth, and this is confirm'd by those Faculties which attended his Posteritie, for Enoch, Lamech, and Noah, were (all of them) Prophets. It troubles you perhaps that I attribute a Priesthood to Abel but I have besides his own practice, Christs Testimonie for it, who accounts [Marginal note: Luke cap. 11. ver. 15 & Math. 23. 35.] the Bloud of Abel amongst that of the persecuted Prophets and Wisemen. Now to conclude that these men had no Knowledge
**Modern English**
You were told earlier that Cain and Abel were instructed in sacrifice by their father Adam. But when Cain murdered his brother Abel, Abel’s priesthood descended to Seth. The faculties accompanying Seth’s descendants confirm this, since Enoch, Lamech and Noah were all prophets. Perhaps it troubles you that I attribute a priesthood to Abel. Besides his own practice, however, I have Christ’s testimony: he numbers Abel’s blood among that of persecuted prophets and wise men. Now, concluding that these people possessed no knowledge[^n116], [^n117], [^n118]
**MA-P034-A** 1650, p. 34
**Original English**
in Philosophie, because the Seripture doth not mention any use they made of it, is an Argument that denies something, but proves nothing. To shew the vanitie of this Inference, I will give you an Example out of Moses himself. Wee know very well there are no Prophecies of Abraham extant, neither doe wee read any where, that ever hee did Prophesie, but notwithstanding he was a Prophet. For God reproving Abimelech King of Gerar, who had taken Sarah from him supposing she had been his Sister, hath these words; Now therefore restore [Marginal note: Genel. 20. 7.] the Man his Wife, for hee is a Prophet, and hee shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live. Hence wee may learn, that the holy Ghost doth not alwayes mention the secret perfections of the Soul, in the public Character of the Person. Truly I should not be so impudent, as to expect your assent to this Doctrine, if the Scriptures were silent in every Text, if I did not find there some infallible steps of Magic, such as may lead me without a Lanthorn to the Archives of the Art it self. I know the Troup, and Tumult of other Affaires are both the Many, and the Maine in the Historie of Moses. But in the whole Current, I meet with some Acts which may not be numbred amongst the fortunes of the Patriarchs, but are performances extraordinarie, and speak their Causes not Common.
**Modern English**
of philosophy because Scripture mentions no use they made of it is an argument that denies something but proves nothing. To show how empty this inference is, I shall give an example from Moses himself. We know very well that no prophecies of Abraham survive, nor do we read anywhere that he ever prophesied; nevertheless, he was a prophet. For God rebuked Abimelech king of Gerar, who had taken Sarah from Abraham under the impression that she was his sister, in these words: “Now therefore restore the man’s wife, for he is a prophet; he shall pray for you, and you shall live.” We may learn from this that the Holy Ghost does not always mention a soul’s secret perfections in the public account of a person. I would not be so impudent as to expect your assent to this doctrine if Scripture were silent in every text, if I did not find infallible traces of magic there, leading me without a lantern to the art’s own archives. I know that the crowd and tumult of other affairs form both the greater number and the main substance of Moses’s history. Yet throughout its course I meet acts that cannot be numbered among the patriarchs’ ordinary fortunes: they are extraordinary performances, pointing to uncommon causes.[^n119], [^n120]
**MA-P035-A** 1650, p. 35
**Original English**
I have ever admir'd that Discipline of Eliezer the steward of Abraham, who when [Marginal note: Genes. 24. 11 12.] he prayed at the Well in Mesopotamia, could make his Camels also kneele. I must not believe there was any Hocas in this, or that the spirit of Banks, may be the spirit of Prayer. Jacob makes a Covenant with Laban, that all the spotted and brown Cattell in his Flocks should be assigned to him for his wages. The Bargain is no sooner made, but he finds an Art to Multiplie his own Colours, and sends his Father-in-law almost a Woolgathering. And Jacob took him Rods of green Poplar, and of the Hasel, [Marginal note: Gen. 30. 37.] & Chesnut-tree, & pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods; And hee set the rods, which he had pilled, before the Flocks in the Gutters, in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink: And the Flocks conceived before the Rods, and brought forth Cattel ring straked, speckled and spotted. As for that which the Scripture tells us elsewhere, namely that Jacob saw in a dream, and behold [Marginal note: Cap. 31. v. 10.] the Rams that leaped on the Cattell were ringstraked speckled, and grisled, This doth no way impaire our Assertion, or prove this generation miraculous, and supernatural: For no man, I believe is so mad as to think those Appearances, or Ramms of the dream, did leap, and
**Modern English**
I have always admired the discipline of Eliezer, Abraham’s steward, who, when he prayed at the well in Mesopotamia, could make his camels kneel too. I must not believe that this was juggling, or that Banks’s spirit could be the spirit of prayer. Jacob covenants with Laban that all the spotted and brown cattle in his flocks shall be assigned to Jacob as wages. No sooner is the bargain made than Jacob discovers an art for multiplying his own colours and almost sends his father-in-law woolgathering. “Jacob took rods of green poplar, hazel and chestnut, peeled white strips in them and exposed the white within the rods. He set the peeled rods before the flocks in the gutters and watering troughs when they came to drink, so that they would conceive when drinking. The flocks conceived before the rods and brought forth ring-streaked, speckled and spotted cattle.” Scripture says elsewhere that “Jacob saw in a dream, and behold, the rams leaping upon the cattle were ring-streaked, speckled and mottled.” This in no way weakens our assertion or proves that generation miraculous and supernatural. No one, I believe, is so mad as to think the appearances, or rams of the dream, actually leapt upon the flock and[^n121], [^n122], [^n123]
**MA-P036-A** 1650, p. 36
**Original English**
supplie the natural males of the Flock: God using this Apparition onely to signifie the Truth of that Art Jacob acted by, and to tell him that his hopes were effected. But I shall not insist long on any particular, and therefore I will paste from this Dream to another. Joseph being seventeen years old, an Age of some Discretion, propounds a Vision to his Father, not loosly and to no purpose, as wee tell one another of our dreams, but expecting, I believe, an Interpretation, as knowing that his Father had the skill to expound it. The wise Patriarch being not ignorant of the Secrets of the two Luminaries, attributes Males to the Sun, and Females to the Moon, then allowes a third Signification to the minor starrs, and lastly answers his sonne with a Question: What is this Dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I, and thy Mother, and thy Brethren indeed come to bow down our selves to thee, to the Earth?
**Modern English**
supplied the place of its natural males. God used this apparition only to signify the truth of the art by which Jacob acted and tell him his hopes were fulfilled. But I shall not dwell on any particular, and so pass from this dream to another. Joseph, seventeen years old and at an age of some discretion, presents a vision to his father. He does not do so casually and without purpose, as we tell one another our dreams; I believe he expects an interpretation, knowing his father has the skill to explain it. The wise patriarch, understanding the secrets of the two luminaries, assigns males to the sun and females to the moon; then he gives a third significance to the lesser stars. Finally, he answers his son with a question: “What is this dream you have dreamed? Shall I, your mother and your brothers truly come and bow down to you upon the earth?”[^n124]
**MA-P036-B** 1650, p. 36
**Original English**
Now, I think no man will deny but the Interpretation of Dreams belongs to Magic. and hath been ever sought after as a piece of secret Learning. True it is, when the Interpreter receives his knowledge immediatly from God, as Daniel did, then it falls not within the Limits of a Naturall Science; but I speak of a Physicall Exposition as this was, which depends on certain abstruse Similitudes, for hee
**Modern English**
I think no one will deny that interpreting dreams belongs to magic and has always been sought as a kind of secret learning. It is true that when the interpreter receives knowledge directly from God, as Daniel did, it falls outside natural science’s limits. But I mean a natural interpretation such as this, depending upon certain obscure likenesses. For anyone[^n125]
**MA-P037-A** 1650, p. 37
**Original English**
that knowes the Analogie of parts to parts in this great body, which wee call the World, may know what every Signe signifies, and by Consequence may prove a good Interpreter of dreames. As for Jacob's first practice, which wee have formerly mention'd, namely the Propagation of his speckled Flocks, it is an effect so purely Magicall that our most obstinat Adversaries dare not Question it. I could cite one place more, which referrs to this Patriarch, and points at the Fundamentals of Magic, but being annex'd to this discourse, it would discover too much, I shall therefore leave it to the Search of those, who are Considerable Proficients, if not Masters in the Art. The summ of all is this: Man of himself could not attain to true Knowledge it was God in meer mercie did instruct him. To confirm this, I shall desire the Reader to Consider his own Experience. Wee have in these our dayes many Magicall Books extant, wherein the Art is discovered both truly, and plainly. Wee have also an infinite Number of Men, who studie those books, but after the Indeavours of a long life not one in Ten Thousand understands them. Now if wee with all these Advantages cannot attain to the Secrets of Nature, shall we think those first fathers did, who had none of our Libraries to assist them, nor any learned man upon
**Modern English**
who knows the analogy of parts to parts in the great body we call the world can know what each sign signifies, and consequently may become a good interpreter of dreams. Jacob’s first practice, mentioned earlier—the increase of his speckled flocks—is an effect so purely magical that our most obstinate opponents dare not question it. I could cite another passage concerning this patriarch and pointing towards magic’s foundations; added to this discussion, however, it would disclose too much. I therefore leave it to the investigation of those considerably advanced in the art, if not its masters. The sum is this: humanity could not attain true knowledge by itself; God instructed it through sheer mercy. To confirm this, I ask the reader to consider personal experience. In our own day many magical books exist, disclosing the art truly and plainly. Countless people study these books; yet after a lifetime of effort not one in ten thousand understands them. If, with all these advantages, we cannot attain Nature’s secrets, shall we think those first fathers did so, possessing none of our libraries to help them and no learned person upon[^n126], [^n127]
**MA-P038-A** 1650, p. 38
**Original English**
Earth to instruct them? Could they doe that without means, which wee cannot doe with means, and those too very considerable? The Peripaterties perhaps will tell me their Syllogism is the Engine that can perform all this. Let 'em then in Barbara or Baroco demonstrate the first matter of the Philosopher's stone. But they will tell mee there is no such thing. Behold I tell them again, and assure them too on my Salvation, there is, but in Truth their Logic will never find it out. It is clear then, that God at first instructed Adam from him his Children received it, and by their Tradition it descended to the Patriarchs, every Father bequeathing these Secrets to his Child, as his best and most lasting Legacie. I have now attended [Marginal note: Gen. 32. 28.] Jacob, the Israel of God, both in his Pilgrimage at Padan-aram, and in his Typicall Inheritance, the Earnest of the Land of Canaan. But two Removalls perfect not the wandrings of a Patriarch; God calls him from the Habitation of his Fathers to the Prison of his Posteritie, and provides him a plac of Freedom in the house of Bondage. I must follow him where his Fortune leads, from I saac's Hebron, to the Goshen of Phaaroh then back again to the Cave and Dust of Machpelah. As for his sons and their Traine, who attended his Motion thither, I find not any Particular Remembrance
**Modern English**
earth to instruct them? Could they accomplish without means what we cannot accomplish with very considerable means? Perhaps the Peripatetics will tell me their syllogism is the engine capable of all this. Let them then demonstrate the philosophers’ stone’s first matter in Barbara or Baroco. But they will tell me there is no such thing. Look: I tell them in return, and assure them upon my salvation, that there is; yet their logic will never discover it. It is clear, then, that God first instructed Adam; Adam’s children received the knowledge from him; and through their tradition it descended to the patriarchs. Each father bequeathed these secrets to his child as his best and most lasting legacy. I have now accompanied Jacob, the Israel of God, both in his pilgrimage at Padan-aram and in his symbolic inheritance, the pledge of the land of Canaan. But two removals do not complete a patriarch’s wanderings. God calls him from his fathers’ dwelling to his descendants’ prison, providing him a place of freedom in the house of bondage. I must follow where his fortune leads: from Isaac’s Hebron to Pharaoh’s Goshen, then back to Machpelah’s cave and dust. As for his sons and the company accompanying his journey there, I find no particular record[^n128], [^n129], [^n130]
**MA-P039-A** 1650, p. 39
**Original English**
of them onely Moses tells me of a generall [Marginal note: Exod. 1. ver. 6.] Exit: Joseph died, and all his brethren and all that Generation. I must now then to prove the Continuance and Succission of this Art addresse my self to the Court, where I shall find the Son of Levi newly translated from his Ark, and Bulrushes. Yet, there is somthing may be sayd of Joseph, and verily it proves how Common Magic was in those dayes, and the effects of it no newes to the Sons of Jacob; for having conveyed his Cup into the Sack of Benjamin, and by that policie detain'd his Brethren, hee asks them: What Deed is this [Marginal note: Cap. 44. ver. 15.] that you have done? Knew yee not that such a man as I can certainly divine?
**Modern English**
of them. Moses tells me only of a general departure: “Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation.” To prove the art’s continuance and succession, I must now turn to the court, where I shall find Levi’s son newly translated from his ark and bulrushes. Yet something remains to be said about Joseph, and it truly proves how common magic was in those days, its effects familiar to Jacob’s sons. Having conveyed his cup into Benjamin’s sack and detained his brothers by that stratagem, he asks them: “What deed have you done? Did you not know that a man such as I can certainly divine?”[^n131], [^n132]
**MA-P039-B** 1650, p. 39
**Original English**
In this Speech he makes his Brethren no strangers to the performances of Art, but rather makes their familiarity therewith an Argument against them: Knew you not? but the following words are very effectuall, and tell us what qualified persons the ancient Magi were. They were indeed (as hee speaks of himself) such as Joseph was, Princes, and Rulers of the People, not beggarly Gypsies, and Mountebanks, as our Doctors are now. It was the Ambition of the Great in those Dayes to bee Good, and as these Secrets proceeded from God, so were they also entertained by the Gods, I mean by Kings: For saith the Scripture, I have said yee are
**Modern English**
In this speech he treats his brothers as familiar with the art’s performances, even making that familiarity an argument against them: “Did you not know?” But the following words are especially effective in showing what kinds of people the ancient Magi were. They were indeed such as Joseph describes himself: princes and rulers of the people, rather than beggarly Gypsies and mountebanks like our doctors now. In those days the great aspired to be good. As these secrets proceeded from God, so they were received by the gods—I mean kings. For Scripture says: “I have said, you are[^n133], [^n134]
**MA-P040-A** 1650, p. 40
**Original English**
Gods: a name Communicated to them, because they had the power to doe wonders, for in this Magical sense the true God speaks to Moses: See, I have made thee a God to Phaaroh, and [Marginal note: Exod. cap. 7. vc. 1.] thy Brother Aaron shall bee thy Prophet. And verily this true Knowledge. and this Title that belongs to it, did that false Serpent praetend to our first Parents; Eritis sicut Dii, You [Marginal note: Genes. cap. 3. vers. 5.] shall be as Gods knowing good and evill. But 'tis not this subtill Dragon, but Bonus ille Serpeats, that good, Crucified Serpent, that can give us both this Knowledge, and this Title: [Marginal note: John 1. 3.] for by him all things were made, and without him not any thing was made, that is made; If hee made them then, hee can teach us also how they were made. I must now refer my self to Moses who at his first Acquaintance with God, saw many Transmutations: One in his own Flesh, another of the Rod in his hand, with a third promised, and afterwards performed upon Water. It is written of him, that he was skill'd in all the learning of the Egyptians: but for my part I doe much question what kind of learning that was, the Scripture assuring mee, and [Marginal note: Exod. 7. 11. 22.] that by the Pen of Moses, their Wonders were effected by Inchantments. This is certain, their Learning was Ancient, for I find Magicians in AEgypt, four hundred and thirty years and upwards, before Jamnes and Jambres. This is
**Modern English**
gods”—a name communicated to them because they had power to perform wonders. In this magical sense the true God speaks to Moses: “See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.” It was this true knowledge and the title belonging to it that the false serpent offered our first parents: [New translation of the Latin:] “You shall be like gods.” [Vaughan’s English:] “You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” But it is not that subtle dragon, but the good serpent—the good, crucified serpent—who can give us both this knowledge and title. For “all things were made by him; and without him nothing was made that has been made.” If he made them, he can also teach us how they were made. I must now turn to Moses, who at his first acquaintance with God saw many transmutations: one in his own flesh, another in the rod in his hand, and a third promised and later accomplished upon water. It is written that he was skilled in all the Egyptians’ learning. I very much question what kind of learning that was, however, since Scripture, through Moses’s own pen, assures me that their wonders were accomplished by enchantments. Their learning was certainly ancient: I find magicians in Egypt more than four hundred and thirty years before Jannes and Jambres. This is[^n135], [^n136], [^n137]
**MA-P041-A** 1650, p. 41
**Original English**
Confirmed by Phaaroh's Dreame, which his own Sorcerers, and Wizards could not interpret, [Marginal note: Gen. Cap. 9. ver. 41.] but Joseph alone expounded it. Verily it cannot be denyed, but some Branches of this Art, though extremely corrupted, were dispers'd among all Nations by Tradition from the first man, and this appeares by more Testimonies than one. For in the Land of Canaan, before ever Israel possest it, Debir, which Athniel the son of Kenaz conquered, was an Universitie, at least had in it a famous Librarie, wherefore the Jewes call'd it Kiriath-Sepharim. I might speak in this place of the Universalitie of Religion: for never yet was there a people, but had some confused Notion of a Deitie, though accompanied with Lamentable Ceremonies, and Super stitions. Besides, the Religious of all Nations have alwaies praetended to Powers Extraordinarie, even to the performance of Miracles, and the healing of all Diseases, and this by some secret meanes, not known to the common Man: and verily if wee examine all Religions, whether false, or true, wee shall not find one, but it praetends to something, that is Mysticall. Certainly if men be not resolved against Reason, they must grant, these Obliquities in matters of Faith proceeded from the Corruption of some Principles received, (as we see that Heretics are but so many false Interpreters)
**Modern English**
confirmed by Pharaoh’s dream, which his own sorcerers and wizards could not interpret, while Joseph alone explained it. It cannot be denied that some branches of this art, although extremely corrupted, were spread among all nations by tradition from the first human being. More than one testimony shows this. In Canaan, before Israel possessed it, Debir, conquered by Othniel son of Kenaz, was a university, or at least possessed a famous library; hence the Jews called it Kiriath-sepharim. Here I might speak of religion’s universality, for no people ever lacked some confused notion of a deity, however accompanied by lamentable ceremonies and superstitions. Moreover, the religious of all nations have always claimed extraordinary powers, even miracles and the healing of every disease, through secret means unknown to ordinary people. Examine every religion, false or true: none fails to claim something mystical. Certainly, unless people are determined to oppose reason, they must grant that these deviations in matters of faith proceeded from the corruption of inherited principles, just as heretics are merely so many false interpreters.[^n138], [^n139], [^n140]
**MA-P042-A** 1650, p. 42
**Original English**
but not withstanding in those very Errors there remained some Marks and Imitations of the first Truth. Hence comes it to passe, that all parties agree in the Action, but not in the Object. For Example: Israel did Sacrifise, and the Heathen did Sacrifise, but the One to God, the other to his Idol; Neither were they onely Conformable in some Rites, and Solemnities of Divinitie, but the Heathens also had some Hints left of the Secret Learning, and Philosophie of the Patriarchs, as wee may see in their false Magic, which consisted for the most part in Astrologicall Observations, Images, Charmes, and Characters. But it is my Designe to keep in the Rode, not to follow these Deviations, and misfortunes of the Art, which notwithstanding want not the weight of Argument, the Existence of Things being proved as well by their Miscariage, as by their Successe. To proceed then, I say, that during the Pilgrimage of the Patriarchs, this Knowledge was delivered by tradition from the Father to his Child, and indeed it could be no otherwise, for what was Israel in those Dayes, but a privat Familie? Notwithstanding when God appointed them their Possession, and that this private house was multiplied to a Nation, then these secrets remained with the Elders of the Tribes, as they did formerly with the Father
**Modern English**
Nevertheless, even in those errors some marks and imitations of the first truth remained. Hence all parties agree in the action, although not in its object. Israel sacrificed, for example, and the heathen sacrificed; but one to God, the other to an idol. Nor did they correspond only in certain religious rites and solemnities. The heathen also retained hints of the patriarchs’ secret learning and philosophy, as their false magic shows, consisting chiefly of astrological observations, images, charms and characters. But I intend to remain on the road rather than follow these deviations and misfortunes of the art. Still, they have argumentative weight, since the existence of things is proved by their miscarriages as well as their successes. To proceed: during the patriarchs’ pilgrimage, this knowledge was handed from father to child by tradition. It could hardly have been otherwise: what was Israel then but a private family? Yet when God appointed their possession, and this private household multiplied into a nation, the secrets remained with the tribes’ elders, as formerly with the father[^n141]
**MA-P043-A** 1650, p. 43
**Original English**
of the Familie. These Elders, no doubt, were the Moysaicall Septuagint, who made up the Sanhedrim, God having Selected some from the rest, to be the stewards, and Dispensers of his Mysteries. Now that Moses was acquainted with all the abstruse Operations, and Principles of Nature, is a Truth I suppose which no man will resist. That the Sanhedrim also participated of the same Instruction and Knowledge with him is plain out of Scripture, where wee read, That God took of the spirit that [Marginal note: Numb. cap. 11. ver. 25.] was in Moses, and gave it to the Seventy.
**Modern English**
of the family. These elders were undoubtedly the Mosaic seventy, forming the Sanhedrin. God selected some from the rest to be stewards and dispensers of his mysteries. I assume no one will resist the truth that Moses knew all Nature’s hidden operations and principles. Scripture plainly shows that the Sanhedrin shared his instruction and knowledge: we read that God took of the Spirit within Moses and gave it to the seventy.[^n142], [^n143]
### The Law, the Letters and the Book of Nature
**MA-P043-B** 1650, p. 43
**Original English**
But lest any Man should deny that, which wee take for granted. namely the Philosophie of Moses, I shall demonstrate out of his own Books, both by reason, as also by his practice, that hee was a Natural Magician.
**Modern English**
But lest anyone deny what we take for granted—Moses’s philosophy—I shall demonstrate from his own books, through both reasoning and his practice, that he was a natural magician.
**MA-P043-C** 1650, p. 43
**Original English**
First of all then it is most absurd, and therefore improbable, that hee should write of the Creation, who was no way skill'd in the Secrets of God and Nature, both which must of necessitie be known before wee should undertake to write of the Creation. But Moses did write of it, Ergo. Now I desire to know what hee hath written, Truth or a Lie; if Truth, how dare you denie his Knowledge? if a Lie (which God forbid) why will you believe him? You will tell mee perhaps he hath done it onely in general Termes: and I could tell you that Aristotle
**Modern English**
First, it is most absurd, and therefore improbable, that someone wholly unskilled in God’s and Nature’s secrets should write about creation. Both must necessarily be known before undertaking such a work. But Moses did write about it; therefore the conclusion follows. Now I ask what he wrote: truth or a lie? If truth, how dare you deny his knowledge? If a lie—which God forbid—why believe him? Perhaps you will tell me he wrote only in general terms. I could reply that Aristotle[^n144]
**MA-P044-A** 1650, p. 44
**Original English**
hath done no otherwise: but think you in good earnest that hee knew no more, than what hee did write? There is nothing you can say in this point, but wee can disprove it, for in Genesis he hath discovered many particulars, and especially those Secrets which have most Relation to this Art. For Instance; hee hath Discovered the Minera of Man, or that Substance out of which Man, and all his fellow-Creatures were made. This is the first matter of the Philosophers stone: Moses calls it sometimes Water, sometimes Earth; for in a certain place I read. thus; And God said, Let the waters bring [Marginal note: Gen. cap. 1. ver. 20.] forth abundantly the moving. Creature that hath life, and Fowle that may fly above the Earth in the open Firmament. But elsewhere wee read otherwise: And out of the Ground [Marginal note: Cap. 2. ver. 19.] the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowle of the Aire. In this later Text hee tels us that God made every fowle of the Ayre out of the Ground, but in the former it is written, hee made them out of the Water. Certainly Aristotle and his Organ can never reconcile these two places, but a little skill in Magic will mak them kisse, and be friends without a Philtre. This substance then is both Earth and Water, yet neither of them in their Common Complexions, but it is a thick water, and a subtil Earth. In plain termes it is a
**Modern English**
did no otherwise. But do you seriously think he knew no more than he wrote? Nothing you say on this point is beyond our refutation, for in Genesis he reveals many particulars, especially secrets closely related to this art. For example, he revealed humanity’s mine or source: the substance from which humanity and its fellow creatures were made. This is the philosophers’ stone’s first matter. Moses calls it sometimes water, sometimes earth. In one place I read: “God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life, and birds that may fly above the earth in the open firmament.” Elsewhere, however: “Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air.” The latter text says God made every bird from the ground; the former says he made them from water. Aristotle and his Organon can never reconcile these places; a little skill in magic, however, will make them kiss and be friends without a love potion. This substance is therefore both earth and water, although neither in its ordinary constitution. It is a thick water and a subtle earth: plainly, a[^n145], [^n146], [^n147]
**MA-P045-A** 1650, p. 45
**Original English**
slimie, spermatic, viscous Masse, impraegnated with all powers Coelestiall, and terrestriall. The Philosophers call it Water and no Water, Earth and no Earth: and why may not Moses speak as they doe? or why may not they write, as Moses did? This is the true Damascen Earth, out of which God made man: you then that would be Chimists, seem not to be wiser than God, but use that subiect in your Art. which God himself makes use of in Nature. He is the best workman, and knowes what matter is most fit for his work, hee that will imitate him in the Effect, must first imitate him in the Subject. Talk not then of Flint-stones and Antimonie, they are the Poets Pin-dust, and Egshells; Seek this Earth, this Water. But this is not all that Moses hath written to this purpose, I could cite many more Magicall and mysticall places, but in so doing I should be too open. wherefore I must forbeare. I shall now speak of his Practice, and truly this is it which no Distinction, nor any other Logicall Quibble can wave, nothing but Experience can refell this Argument, and thus it runs. And Moses took the Calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and grinded it to powder, and strewed it vpon the water, and made the Children of Israel drink of it. Certainly here was a strange kind of Spice, and an Art as strange as the
**Modern English**
slimy, spermatic, viscous mass impregnated with every heavenly and earthly power. The philosophers call it water and no water, earth and no earth. Why may Moses not speak as they do, or they write as Moses did? This is the true Damascene earth from which God made humanity. You who wish to be chemists, do not try to be wiser than God: use in your art the subject God himself uses in Nature. He is the best workman and knows the matter most suitable for his work. Whoever would imitate his effect must first imitate his subject. Do not talk, then, of flints and antimony: they are the poet’s pin dust and eggshells. Seek this earth, this water. Moses wrote more to this purpose. I could cite many further magical and mystical passages, but that would be too open, and I must refrain. I shall now speak of his practice, which no distinction or logical quibble can evade. Only experience can refute this argument, which runs thus: “Moses took the calf they had made, burnt it in the fire, ground it to powder, scattered it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink it.” Here was a strange kind of spice, certainly, and an art as strange as the[^n148], [^n149], [^n150]
**MA-P046-A** 1650, p. 46
**Original English**
Spice it self. This Calf was pure gold, the Israelites having contributed their Eare-rings to the Fabric. Now would I gladly know by what meanes so solid and heavie a Body as Gold, may bee brought to such a light powder, that it may bee sprinkl'd on the face of the water, and afterwards drunk up. I am sure here was Aurum potabile, and Moses could never have brought the Calf to this passe had he not plowed with our Heyfer. But of this enough: if any man think hee did it by common fire, let him also doe the like, and when he hath performed, hee may sell his powder to the Apothecaries. If I should insist in this place on the Moysaicall Ceremoniall Law with its severall Reverend shadows and their Significations; I might lose my self in a Wilderness of Mysteries both Divine and Naturall; For verily that whole System is but one vast Skreen, or a certain Majestic Umbrage drawne over two Worlds, Visible, and Invisible. But these are things of a higher speculation than the Scope of our present Discourse will admit of. I onely informe the Reader that the Law hath both a shell, and a Kernell, it is the Letter speaks, but the spirit interprets. To this agrees Gregorie [Marginal note: De statu Episcop.] Nazianzen, who makes a twofold Law, τοῦ γράμματος, and τοῦ πνεύματος: one literal, another spirituall. And elsewhere hee mentions,
**Modern English**
spice itself. This calf was pure gold, the Israelites having contributed their earrings to its construction. I should gladly know how a body so solid and heavy as gold can become a powder light enough to be sprinkled upon water’s surface and then drunk. Surely this was potable gold. Moses could never have brought the calf to this condition had he not ploughed with our heifer. But enough of this. If anyone thinks he did it with common fire, let him do likewise; once he has succeeded, he may sell his powder to the apothecaries. If I dwelt here upon the Mosaic ceremonial law, its many venerable shadows and their meanings, I might lose myself in a wilderness of divine and natural mysteries. That whole system is one vast screen, a majestic shade drawn over two worlds, visible and invisible. But these matters require a higher contemplation than our present discussion allows. I merely inform the reader that the law has both shell and kernel: the letter speaks, but the Spirit interprets. Gregory Nazianzen agrees, making a twofold law: [New translation of the Greek:] “of the letter” and “of the Spirit”; [Vaughan’s English:] one literal, the other spiritual. Elsewhere he mentions[^n151], [^n152], [^n153]
**MA-P047-A** 1650, p. 47
**Original English**
τὸ φαινόμενον τοῦ νόμου, καὶ τὸ κρυπτόμενον, the hidden, and the manifest part of the Law; the manifest part (saith he) being appointed, τοῖς πολλοῖς καὶ κάτω κειμένοις, for many men, and such whose thoughts were fixed here below but the hidden, τοῖς ὀλίγοις καὶ ἄνω φερομένοις, for few onely, whose Mindes aspired upwards to heavenly Things. Now that the Law being given, might benefit the people in both parts, spiritual and literal, therefore did the Law-giver institute the Sanhedrim, a Councell of Seventy Elders, upon whom hee had poured his Spirit, that they might discerne (as Esdras did) the Deep Things of the Night, in plain Termes, the hidden things of his Law. From these Elders the Cabala (I believe) had its Originall: for they imparted their Knowledge by word of Mouth to their Successors, and hence it came to passe, that the Science it self, was styl'd Cabala, that is, a Reception. This continued so long as Israel held together; but when their Frame began to discompose, and the Dilapidations of that House proved desperat, then Esdras a Prophet Incomparable (notwithstanding the brand of Apocrypha) writ that Law in Tables of Box, which God himself had sometimes written in Tables of stone. As for the more secret, and mysterious part thereof, it was written at the same time in Seventy Secret Bookes, according to the Number of the Elders,
**Modern English**
[New translation of the Greek:] “the manifest part of the law” and “the concealed part”; [Vaughan’s English:] the law’s hidden and manifest parts. The manifest part, he says, was appointed [New translation of the Greek:] “for the many who lie below”; [Vaughan’s English:] for the many whose thoughts were fixed here below. The hidden part was appointed [New translation of the Greek:] “for the few who are borne upwards”; [Vaughan’s English:] for the few whose minds aspired upwards towards heavenly things. So that the given law might benefit people in both its spiritual and literal parts, the lawgiver established the Sanhedrin, a council of seventy elders upon whom he poured his Spirit, enabling them to discern, as Esdras did, the deep things of the night—in plain terms, the hidden things of his law. From these elders, I believe, Kabbalah originated. They imparted their knowledge orally to their successors, and hence the science was called Kabbalah, meaning reception. This continued while Israel held together. But when its structure began to fall apart and its house’s ruin became desperate, Esdras—an incomparable prophet, notwithstanding the stigma of “Apocrypha”—wrote upon tablets of boxwood the law which God himself had once written on stone tablets. As for its more secret, mysterious part, it was written at the same time in seventy secret books, corresponding to the number of elders[^n154], [^n155]
**MA-P048-A** 1650, p. 48
**Original English**
in whose hearts it had been sometimes written.
**Modern English**
in whose hearts it had once been written.
**MA-P048-B** 1650, p. 48
**Original English**
And this was the very first time the Spirit married the Letter; for these Sacraments were not trusted formerly to Corruptible Volumes, but to the aeternall Tables of the Soul. But it may bee there is a blind Generation, who will believe nothing but what they see at hand, and therefore will deny that Esdras compos'd any such Bookes; To these Owles (though an unaequal Match) I shall oppose the Honour of Picus, who himself affirmes, that in his time hee met with the Secret Bookes of Esdras, and bought them with a great Price; Nor was this all, for Eugenius Bishop of Rome order'd their Translation, but hee dying, the Translators also fell asleep. It is true indeed, something may be objected to mee in this place concerning the Cabala, An Art which I no way approve of, neither doe I condemne it as our Adversaries condemne Magic, before I understand it; for I have spent some yeares in the Search, and Contemplation thereof. But why then should I propose that for a Truth to others, which I accompt for an Error my self? To this I answer, that I condemne not the true Cabala, but the Inventions of some dispersed wandring Rabbies, whose braines had more of Distraction, than their fortunes; of this thirteenth Tribe I understand the Satyrist,
**Modern English**
This was the first time Spirit married letter. These sacred mysteries had not previously been entrusted to perishable volumes, but to the soul’s eternal tablets. Perhaps, however, some blind generation will believe nothing except what it can immediately see and therefore deny that Esdras composed such books. Against these owls—although an unequal match—I shall set Pico’s honour. He affirms that in his time he encountered Esdras’s secret books and bought them at a great price. That was not all: Eugenius, bishop of Rome, ordered their translation; but when he died, the translators too fell asleep. Something may indeed be objected here concerning Kabbalah, an art of which I do not approve. Neither do I condemn it before understanding it, as our opponents condemn magic: I have spent years investigating and contemplating it. Why, then, propose as truth to others what I consider error myself? I answer that I condemn not true Kabbalah but the inventions of scattered, wandering rabbis, whose brains contained more distraction than their fortunes. It is this thirteenth tribe I take the satirist to mean[^n156], [^n157]
**MA-P049-A** 1650, p. 49
**Original English**
when hee promiseth so largely.
**Modern English**
when he promises so liberally:
**MA-P049-B** 1650, p. 49
**Original English**
Qualiacun que voles, Judaei Somnia vendunt. These I say have produc'd a certain up-start, bastard Cabala, which consists altogether in Alphabeticall knacks. ends alwayes in the Letter where it begins, and the Vanities of it are grown Voluminous. As for the more Ancient, and Physicall Traditions of the Cabala, I embrace them for so many Sacred Truths, but verily those Truths were unknown to most of those Rabbins whom I have seen, even to Rambam himself, I mean Rabbi Moses AEgyptius, whom the Jewes have so magnified with their famous Hyperbole: A Mose ad Mosen non surrexit sicut Moses.
**Modern English**
[New translation of the Latin:] “Whatever dreams you wish, the Jews will sell.” These people, I say, produced an upstart, bastard Kabbalah consisting wholly of alphabetic tricks. It always ends in the letter where it began, and its vanities have grown into volumes. The more ancient natural traditions of Kabbalah I embrace as sacred truths. Yet those truths were unknown to most rabbis I have seen, even Rambam himself—I mean Rabbi Moses the Egyptian—whom the Jews have magnified with their famous hyperbole: [New translation of the Latin:] “From Moses to Moses, none arose like Moses.”[^n158], [^n159]
**MA-P049-C** 1650, p. 49
**Original English**
But to deale ingenuously with my Readers, I say the Cabala I admit of consists of two parts, τοῦ λεγομένου and τοῦ ὄντος the Name, and Thing. The former part is meerly Typicall in reference to the later, Serving only as the shadow to the substance. I will give you some instances. The Literal Cabala, which is but a Veile cast over the Secrets of the Physicall, hath Three Principles, commonly styl'd Tres Matres, or the Three Mothers: In the Masculine Complexion the Jewes call them אמש Emes, in the Foeminine אשם Asam, and they are א aleph, מ mem, ש schin. Now I will shew you how the Physical Cabala expounds the
**Modern English**
To deal frankly with my readers, the Kabbalah I admit has two parts: [New translation of the Greek:] “what is spoken” and “what is”; [Vaughan’s English:] name and thing. The former is merely symbolic in relation to the latter, serving as shadow to substance. I shall give examples. Literal Kabbalah, a veil cast over natural Kabbalah’s secrets, has three principles, commonly called the three mothers. In the masculine constitution the Jews call them Emes; in the feminine, Asam. They are aleph; mem; and shin. I shall now show how natural Kabbalah explains the[^n160], [^n161]
**MA-P050-A** 1650, p. 50
**Original English**
Literall. Tres Matres אמש Emes (saith the great Abraham, or as some think Rabbi Akiba) id est, Aer, Aqua, & I gnis; Aqua Quieta, I gnis sibilans, Aer spiritus medius. That is, the Three Mothers Emes, or Aleph, Mem and Schin, are Aire, Water, and Fire; a still Water, (mark that) a hissing Fire, and Aire the middle Spirit. Again sayth the same Rabbi, Tres Matres אמש Emes in Mundo, Aer, Aqua, & Ignis. Coeli ex Igne Creati sunt, Terra ex Aquá, Aer egressus est ex spiritu, qui stat medius. The Three Mother Emes in this world are, Ayre, Water and Fire. The Heavens were made of the Fire, The Earth was made of the Water, (mark well this Cabalism) and the Ayre proceeded from a middle spirit. Now when the Cabalist speaks of the Generation of the Three Mothers, he brings in Ten secret Principles, which I think ten men have not understood since the Sanhedrim, such Nonsence doe I find in most Authors, when they undertake to discourse of them. The first Principle is a Spirit, which sits in Retrocessu suo fontano, in his primitive, Incomprehensible Retreats, like Water in its Subterraneous Chanel, before it springs. The Second Principle is the Voice of that first Spirit, this breaks forth like a Well-spring, where the Water flowes out of the Earth, and is discovered to the eye, They call
**Modern English**
literal. “The three mothers, Emes,” says the great Abraham—or, as some think, Rabbi Akiba—[New translation of the Latin:] “are air, water and fire: still water, hissing fire, and air as the middle spirit.” [Vaughan’s English:] the three mothers, Emes, or aleph, mem and shin, are air, water and fire: a still water—mark that—a hissing fire, and air the middle spirit. The same rabbi says again: “The three mothers, Emes,” [New translation of the Latin:] “in the world are air, water and fire. The heavens were created from fire, earth from water, and air came forth from the spirit that stands between.” [Vaughan’s English:] the three mothers, Emes, in this world are air, water and fire. The heavens were made from fire, earth from water—observe this Kabbalistic teaching carefully—and air proceeded from a middle spirit. Speaking of the three mothers’ generation, the Kabbalist introduces ten secret principles, which I think not ten people have understood since the Sanhedrin: I find such nonsense in most authors who attempt to discuss them. The first principle is a spirit seated in its original, incomprehensible fountain retreats, like water in its underground channel before it springs forth. The second principle is the first Spirit’s voice. This breaks out like a spring, where water flows from the earth and becomes visible to the eye. They call[^n162], [^n163], [^n164]
**MA-P051-A** 1650, p. 51
**Original English**
it Spiritus ex Spiritu. The third Principle is Spiritus ex Spiritibus, a Spirit which proceeds both from the first Spirit, and from his Voice. The Fourth Principle is Aqua de Spiritu, a Certain Water which proceeded from the Third Spirit, and out of that Water went Aire and Fire. But God forbid that I should speak any more of them publickly, it is enough that wee Know the Original of the Creature, and to whom wee ought to ascribe it. The Cabalist when hee would tell us what God did with the Three Mothers, useth no other phrase than this, Ponderavit Aleph cum omnibus, & omnia cum Aleph, & sic de Singulis, He weighed (saith he) Aleph with All, and All with Aleph, and so he did with the other Mothers. This is very plain, if you consider the various mixtures of the Elements, and their Secret Proportions. And so much for the Physicall part of the Cabala, I will now shew you the Metaphysicall. It is strange to Consider what Unitie of Spirit, and Doctrine, there is amongst all the Children of Wisdom. This proves infallibly that there is an Universall Schoole-master, who is Present with all Flesh, and whose Principles are ever Uniforme, namely the Spirit of God. The Cabalists agree with all the world of Magicians, That Man in spirituall Mysteries is both Agent and Patient. This is plain:
**Modern English**
it “spirit from spirit.” The third principle is “spirit from spirits”: a spirit proceeding both from the first Spirit and from his Voice. The fourth principle is “water from spirit”: a certain water proceeding from the third Spirit; and out of that water came air and fire. But God forbid that I should speak further about them publicly. It is enough that we know the creature’s origin and to whom we should ascribe it. When the Kabbalist tells us what God did with the three mothers, he uses only this phrase: [New translation of the Latin:] “He weighed Aleph with all, and all with Aleph, and likewise with each of the others.” [Vaughan’s English:] He weighed Aleph with all, and all with Aleph, and did the same with the other mothers. This is very plain if you consider the elements’ various mixtures and secret proportions. So much for Kabbalah’s natural part; I shall now show you its metaphysical part. It is strange to consider the unity of spirit and doctrine among all Wisdom’s children. This proves infallibly that a universal schoolmaster is present with all flesh, whose principles are always uniform: namely, God’s Spirit. The Kabbalists agree with the whole world of magicians that in spiritual mysteries the human being both acts and undergoes action. This is plain:[^n165], [^n166]
**MA-P052-A** 1650, p. 52
**Original English**
For Jacobs Ladder is the greatest Mysterie in the Cabala. Here wee find two Extreams: Jacob is one, at the Foot of the Ladder, and God is the other, who stands above it, immittens (saith the Jew) Formas, & Influxus in Jacob, sive Subjectum Hominem, shedding some secret Influx of Spirit upon Jacob, who in this place Typifies Man in general. The Rounds, or steps in the Ladder signifie the middle Natures, by which Jacob is united to God, Inferiors united to Superiors. As for the Angels of whom it is sayd, that they ascended & Descended by the Ladder, their Motion proves they were not of the superior Hierarchie, but some other secret Essences, for they Ascended first, and Descended afterwards: but if they had been from above, they had Descended first, which is Contrarie to the Text. And here Reader, I would have thee studie. Now to return to Jacob, it is written of him, that he was asleep, but this is a Mysticall Speech, for it signifies Death, namely that Death which the Cabalist calls Mors Osculi, or the Death of the Kiss, of which I must not speake one Syllable. To bee short, they agree with us in Arcano Theologiae: That no word is efficacious in Magic, unlesse it be first quickened by the Word of God. This appears out of their Semhamaphores; for they hold not the names of Angls effectuall, unlesse
**Modern English**
for Jacob’s ladder is Kabbalah’s greatest mystery. Here we find two extremes: Jacob at the ladder’s foot, and God standing above it, as the Jewish writer says, [New translation of the Latin:] “sending forms and influxes into Jacob, or into the human subject.” [Vaughan’s English:] shedding some secret influx of spirit upon Jacob, who here represents humanity generally. The ladder’s rungs or steps signify the intermediate natures through which Jacob is united to God, lower things to higher. As for the angels said to ascend and descend by the ladder, their movement proves they did not belong to the higher hierarchy but were other secret essences: they ascended first and descended afterwards. Had they come from above, they would have descended first, contrary to the text. Here, reader, I would have you study. Returning to Jacob: it is written that he slept, but this is a mystical expression signifying death—the death the Kabbalist calls [New translation of the Latin:] “death of the kiss”; [Vaughan’s English:] “the death of the kiss”—of which I must not speak a single syllable. Briefly, they agree with us in theology’s secret: no word is effective in magic unless first made alive by God’s Word. Their Shemhamphorash makes this clear, for they hold angels’ names ineffective unless[^n167], [^n168], [^n169]
**MA-P053-A** 1650, p. 53
**Original English**
some name of God, as יה or אל be united to them then (say they) in the power and vertue of those names they may worke. An Example hereof wee have in all Extracted names, as Vehu-Iah, Elem-Iah, Jeli-El, Sita-El. Now this Practice in the Letter was a most subtil Adumbration of the Conjunction of the Substantiall Word or Spirit with the Water; See that you understand me rightly, for I meane with the Elements and so much for the Truth. To Conclude, I would have the Reader observe, that the false Grammaticall Cabala consists onely in Rotations of the Alphabet, and a Metathesis of Letters in the Text, by which means the Scripture hath suffered many Racks, and Excoriations. As for the true Cabala, it useth the Letter onely for Artifice, whereby to obscure, and hide her Physicall Secrets, as the Egyptians heretofore did use their Hieroglyphics. In this Sense the Primitive Professors of this Art, had a literal Cabala. as it appeares by that wonderfull, and most ancient Inscription in the Rock in Mount Horeb. It conteines a Prophecie of the Virgin Mother, and her Son Christ Jesus. ingraven in Hieroglyphic fram'd by Combination of the Hebrew letters, but by whom God onely knows, it may be by Moses or Elijah. This is most certain, it is to be seen there this day. and wee have for
**Modern English**
some divine name, such as Yah or El, is joined to them. Then, they say, those names’ power and virtue enable them to work. We have examples in all the extracted names: Vehu-Iah, Elem-Iah, Jeli-El and Sita-El. This practice with letters was a most subtle foreshadowing of the substantial Word or Spirit’s conjunction with the water. Take care to understand me rightly, for I mean with the elements. So much for the truth. To conclude, I would have the reader observe that false grammatical Kabbalah consists only in rotations of the alphabet and transposition of letters in the text, by which Scripture has suffered many rackings and flayings. True Kabbalah uses the letter only as a device for obscuring and hiding its natural secrets, as the Egyptians formerly used their hieroglyphs. In this sense the art’s first professors possessed a literal Kabbalah, as appears from that wonderful, most ancient inscription in the rock on Mount Horeb. It contains a prophecy of the Virgin Mother and her son Christ Jesus, engraved in hieroglyphs formed by combinations of Hebrew letters. God alone knows by whom—perhaps Moses or Elijah. This is most certain: it can be seen there today; and for[^n170], [^n171], [^n172]
**MA-P054-A** 1650, p. 54
**Original English**
it the Testimonies of Thomas Obecinus, a most learned Franciscan, and Petrus a Valle, a Gentleman, who travailed both of them into those parts. Now that the learning of the Jewes, I mean their Cabala, was Chimicall, and ended in true Physicall performances, cannot be better proved than by the Booke of Abraham the Jew, wherein hee layd down the Secrets of this Art in Indifferent plaine Termes and Figures, and that for the Benefit of his unhappy Country-men, when by the wrath of God they were scattered over all the World. This Book was accidentally found by Nicholas Flammel a French-man, and with the help of it hee attained at last to that miraculous Medicine, which Men call the Philosophers stone. But let us hear the Monsieur himself describe it.
**Modern English**
it we have the testimony of Thomas Obecinus, a most learned Franciscan, and Petrus a Valle, a gentleman, both of whom travelled in those regions. No better proof can be given that Jewish learning—I mean their Kabbalah—was chymical and ended in true natural operations than the Book of Abraham the Jew. There he set out this art’s secrets in fairly plain terms and figures for the benefit of his unhappy countrymen when God’s wrath scattered them throughout the world. Nicolas Flamel, a Frenchman, found this book by chance and, with its help, eventually attained the miraculous medicine called the philosophers’ stone. But let us hear the gentleman describe it himself.[^n173], [^n174]
**MA-P054-B** 1650, p. 54
**Original English**
There fell into my hands (saith he) for the Summ of two Florens, a gilded Book, very old, and large; It was not of Paper, nor Parchment, as other books bee, but it was made of delicate rindes (as it seemed to mee) of Tender young Trees: The Cover of it was of Brasse, well bound, all ingraven with Letters, or strange figures, and for my part, I think they might well bee Greek Characters, or some such ancient language. Sure I am, I could not read them, and I know well they were not Notes, nor
**Modern English**
“For two florins,” he says, “there came into my hands a gilded book, very old and large. Unlike other books, it was neither paper nor parchment, but made, as it seemed to me, from the delicate bark of tender young trees. Its brass cover was well bound and engraved throughout with letters or strange figures. For my part, I think they may well have been Greek characters or some similar ancient language. I am certain that I could not read them and that they were neither signs nor
**MA-P055-A** 1650, p. 55
**Original English**
Letters of the Latine, nor of the Gaule, for of them I understood a little. As for that which was within it, the Bark leaves were ingraven, and with admirable diligence written, with a point of Jron in faire and neat Latin letters coloured. It contained thrice Seven leaves for so were the leaves counted at the top and alwayes every Seventh leafe was without any writing, but instead thereof upon the first seventh leaf there was painted a Virgin, and Serpents swallowing her up; In the Second Seventh a Crosse where a Serpent was Crucified; and in the last Seventh there were painted Deserts, or Wildernesses, in the middest whereof ran many faire Fountains from whence there issued forth a Number of Serpents, which ran up and down here and there. Upon the first of the Leaves was written in great Capitall letters of gold ABRAHAM THE JEW, PRINCE PRIEST LEVIT, ASTROLOGER, AND PHILOSOPHER, TO THE NATION OF THE JEWES, BY THE WRATH OF GOD DISPERSED AMONG THE GAULES SENDETH HEALTH.
**Modern English**
letters of Latin or of the Gauls, of which I understood a little. Inside, the bark leaves were engraved and written with admirable care, using an iron point, in beautiful, neat, coloured Latin letters. It contained three times seven leaves, numbered at the top. Every seventh leaf had no writing. Instead, on the first seventh leaf was painted a virgin being swallowed by serpents; on the second seventh, a cross with a crucified serpent; and on the last seventh, deserts or wildernesses with many beautiful fountains running through their midst, from which issued numerous serpents moving here and there. On the first leaf was written in large gold capitals: ABRAHAM THE JEW, PRINCE, LEVITE PRIEST, ASTROLOGER AND PHILOSOPHER, SENDS GREETINGS TO THE JEWISH NATION DISPERSED AMONG THE GAULS BY GOD’S WRATH.[^n175], [^n176]
**MA-P055-B** 1650, p. 55
**Original English**
After this it was filled with great Execrations, and Curses (with this word Maranatha, which was often repeated there) against
**Modern English**
After this it was filled with great execrations and curses, often repeating the word Maranatha, against
**MA-P056-A** 1650, p. 56
**Original English**
every person that should cast his eyes upon it, if hee were not Sacrificer or Scribe. Hee that sold me this Booke, knew not what it was worth, no more than I, when I bought it. I believe it had been stolne or taken by violence from the miserable Jewes, or found hid in some part of the Ancient place of their Habitation. Within the Booke, in the Second leafe hee comforted his Nation, counselling them to fly Vices, and above all Idolatrie, attending with sweet patience the Comming of the Messiah, who should vanquish all the Kings of the Earth, and should reigne with his people in glorie aeternally. Without doubt this had been some wise, and understanding Man. In the third leafe, and in all the other writings that followed to help his Captive Nation to pay their Tributes to the Roman Emperours, and to doe other things, which I will not speak of, hee taught them in Common words the Transmutation of Mettals; hee painted the Vessels by the sides and hee informed them of the Colours, and of all the rest, except the first Agent of the which he spake not a word but onely (as he said) in the fourth and fifth leaves he had iutirely painted it, and figured it with very great Cunning and Workmanship: for though it was well, and Intelligibly
**Modern English**
anyone who should look upon it without being a priest of sacrifice or a scribe. The seller knew its worth no more than I did when I bought it. I believe it had been stolen or taken by force from the unfortunate Jews, or found hidden somewhere in their former dwelling place. On its second leaf he comforted his nation, advising them to flee vices, above all idolatry, and await with gentle patience the Messiah’s coming. The Messiah would conquer all the earth’s kings and reign eternally in glory with his people. Without doubt this had been a wise, understanding man. On the third leaf and in all the writing that followed, he taught them the transmutation of metals in ordinary words, to help his captive nation pay tribute to the Roman emperors and accomplish other things of which I shall not speak. He painted the vessels at the sides and taught them the colours and everything else, except the first agent. Of that he said nothing; but, as he declared, he had fully painted and represented it on the fourth and fifth leaves with very great ingenuity and craftsmanship. Although it was well and intelligibly[^n177]
**MA-P057-A** 1650, p. 57
**Original English**
figured and painted yet no man could ever have been able to understand it, without being well skill'd in their Cabala, which goeth by Tradition and without having well studied their Bookes. The Fourth and fifth leafe therefore was without any writing all full of faire Figures inlightned or as it were inlightned, for the work was very Exquisit. First hee painted a young man, with wings at his Ancles having in his hand a Caducean Rod writhen about with two Serpents, wherewith hee strooke upon a Helmet which covered his head; hee seemed to my small judgement to be Mercurie the Pagan Gad. Against him there came running, and flying with open wings, a great old man, who upon his head had an Houre-glasse fastned, and in his hands a Hooke or Sithe like Death, with the which in terrible and furicus Maner, he would have cut off the feet of Mercurie. On the other side of the fourth Leafe, hee painted a faire Flower on the top of a very high Mountaine, which was sore shaken with the North wind; it had the Root blew the Flowers white and red, the leaves shining like fine Gold; And round about it the Dragons and Grisfons of the North made their nests. On the Fifth leafe shere was a faire Rose tree flowred in the middest
**Modern English**
represented and painted, no one could ever have understood it without being well skilled in their Kabbalah, passed down by tradition, and without having closely studied their books. The fourth and fifth leaves therefore had no writing, but were filled with beautiful illuminated figures—or apparently illuminated, for the workmanship was exquisite. First he painted a young man with wings at his ankles, holding a caduceus entwined with two serpents and striking with it a helmet covering his head. To my limited judgement, he seemed to be Mercury, the pagan god. Towards him came running and flying, with open wings, a great old man with an hourglass fastened on his head, holding a hook or scythe like Death’s, with which he meant, terribly and furiously, to cut off Mercury’s feet. On the other side of the fourth leaf he painted a beautiful flower on the summit of a very high mountain, violently shaken by the north wind. Its root was blue, its flowers white and red, its leaves shining like fine gold. Around it the dragons and griffins of the north made their nests. On the fifth leaf was a beautiful flowering rosebush in the midst[^n178], [^n179]
**MA-P058-A** 1650, p. 58
**Original English**
of a Sweet Garden, climbing up against a hollow Oake, at the foot whereof boyled a fountain of most white water, which ran headlong down into the Depths, notwithstanding it passed first among the hands of infinite people, who digged in the Earth, seeking for it; but because they were blind, none of them knew it, except here and there One, which considered the weight. On the last side of the fife leafe, was painted a King, with a great Faucheon, who caused to bee kill'd in his presence by some Souldiours a great Multitude of little Infants, whose Mothers wept at the Feet of the mercilesse Souldiours. The Bloud of these Infants was afterwards gathered up by other Souldiours, and put in a great vessell, whereto the Sun and the Moone came to bathe themselves. And thus you see that which was in the first five leaves; I will not represent unto you that which was writien in good and Intelligible Latin in all the other written leaves, for God would punish mee because I should commit a greater wickednesse than he, who (as it is sayd) wished that all the men of thn world had but one head, that hee might cut it off at one Blow. Thus farre Nicholas Flammel.
**Modern English**
of a sweet garden, climbing against a hollow oak. At its foot boiled a fountain of the whitest water, which rushed down into the depths, though first it passed through the hands of countless people digging in the earth to seek it. Because they were blind, none recognised it, except an occasional person who considered its weight. On the last side of the fifth leaf was painted a king with a great falchion, who ordered his soldiers to kill before him a great multitude of little infants. Their mothers wept at the merciless soldiers’ feet. Other soldiers then gathered the infants’ blood and put it into a great vessel, where the sun and moon came to bathe. Thus you see what was on the first five leaves. I shall not show you what was written in good, intelligible Latin on all the other written leaves, for God would punish me: I should commit a greater wickedness than the man who reportedly wished that all the world’s people had a single head, so that he might strike it off at one blow.” So far Nicolas Flamel.[^n180], [^n181]
**MA-P059-A** 1650, p. 59
**Original English**
I could now passe from Moses to Christ, from the Old Testament to the New: not that I would interpret there, but request the Sense or the Illuminated. I desire to know what my Saviour means by the Key of Knowledge, which [Marginal note: Luc. cap. 11. ver. 52] the Lawyers (as he tells mee and them too) had taken away. Questionlesse it cannot signifie the Law it self, for that was not taken away being read in the Synagogue every Sabaoth. But to let go this: I am certain, and I could prove it all along from his Birth to his Passion, that the Doctrine of Christ Jesus is not onely agreeable to the Laws of Nature, but is verified and established thereby. When I speak of the Laws of Nature, I mind not her Excessive irregular Appetites and Inclinations, to which shee hath bin subject since her Corruption, for even Galen looked on those obliquities as Diseases, but studied Nature her self, as their Cure. We know by experience that too much of any thing weakens, and destroyes our Nature, but if wee live Temperately, and according to Law, wee are well, because our Course of life accords with Nature. Hence Diet is a prime Rule in Physic, far better indeed than the Pharmacopaea, for those sluttish Recepts doe but oppresse the stomach, being no fit fuell for a Coelestiall fire. Believe it then, these excessive bestiall Appetites proceeded from our Fall, for Nature of her
**Modern English**
I could now pass from Moses to Christ, from the Old Testament to the New, not to interpret it myself, but to ask the enlightened for its meaning. I desire to know what my Saviour means by the key of knowledge, which the lawyers, as he tells both me and them, had taken away. Surely it cannot mean the Law itself, for that was not removed: it was read in the synagogue every Sabbath. But let that pass. I am certain, and could prove throughout his life from birth to Passion, that Christ Jesus’s doctrine both agrees with Nature’s laws and is verified and established by them. By Nature’s laws I do not mean her excessive, irregular appetites and inclinations, to which she has been subject since her corruption. Even Galen regarded those deviations as diseases and studied Nature herself as their cure. Experience teaches us that too much of anything weakens and destroys our nature. If we live temperately and according to law, we are well, because our way of life accords with Nature. Diet is therefore a principal rule in medicine, far better indeed than the pharmacopoeia: those slovenly prescriptions merely oppress the stomach and provide no suitable fuel for a celestial fire. Believe, then, that these excessive, beastly appetites arose from our Fall, for Nature[^n182], [^n183]
**MA-P060-A** 1650, p. 60
**Original English**
self is no lavish insatiable Glut, but a most nice delicat essence. This appears by those fits, and pangs she is subject to whensoever she is overcharg'd. In common, customarie Excesses there is not any, but knows this Truth by Experience, indeed in spiritual sins, the Body is not immediatly troubled, but the Conscience is terrified, and surely the body cannot be very well, when the soule it self is sick. We see then that Corruption, and sin do not so much agree with us, as they doe disturb us, for in what sense can our Enemies be our friends, or those things that destroy Nature, be agreeable to Nature? How then shall we judge of the Gospel? Shall we say that the praeservation of Man is contrarie to Man, and that the Doctrine of Life agrees not with Life it self? God forbid: The Laws of the Resurrection are founded upon those of the Creation, and those of Regeneration upon those of Generation, for in all these God works upon one, and the same Matter, by one and the same spirit. Now that it is so, I meane that there is a Harmonie between Nature and the Gospel, I will prove out of the Sinic Monument of Kim Cim priest of Judaea. In the yeare of Redemption 1625. there was digg'd up in a Village of China call'd Sanxuen, a square stone, being neer Ten measures of an hand-breadth long,
**Modern English**
herself is no extravagant, insatiable glutton, but a most refined, delicate essence. The fits and pangs she suffers whenever overloaded make this clear. Everyone knows this truth through experience of ordinary, habitual excess. In spiritual sins, indeed, the body is not immediately troubled, but the conscience is terrified; and surely the body cannot be very well when the soul itself is sick. We see, then, that corruption and sin disturb us more than they suit us. In what sense can our enemies be our friends, or things that destroy Nature agree with Nature? How, then, shall we judge the Gospel? Shall we say that humanity’s preservation is contrary to humanity, or that the doctrine of life disagrees with life itself? God forbid. Resurrection’s laws are founded on creation’s laws, and regeneration’s on generation’s: in all these God works upon the same matter through the same Spirit. I shall prove this harmony between Nature and the Gospel from the Chinese monument of Kim Cim, priest of Judaea. In the year of Redemption 1625, a square stone was dug up in a Chinese village called Sanxuen. It was nearly ten handbreadths long,[^n184], [^n185]
**MA-P061-A** 1650, p. 61
**Original English**
five broad, In the uppermost part of this stone was figur'd a Crosse, and underneath it an Inscription in Sinic Characters, being the Title to the Monument, which I find thus render'd in the Latine.
Lapis in Laudem & memoriam aeternam Legis Lucis, & veritatis portatae de Judaea, & in China promulgatae, Erectus.
**Modern English**
and five broad. At its top was a cross; below, an inscription in Chinese characters giving the monument’s title, which I find rendered into Latin as follows.
[New translation of the Latin:] A stone erected in praise and everlasting remembrance of the Law of Light and Truth, brought from Judaea and proclaimed in China.[^n186]
**MA-P061-B** 1650, p. 61
**Original English**
That is: A stone erected to the praise, and aeternal Remembrance of the Law of Light, and Truth, brought out of Judaea, and published in China. After this followed the body of the Monument, being a Relation, how the Gospel of Christ Jesus was brought by one Olo puen out of Judaea, and afterwards by the assistance of God planted in China. This happened in the yeare of our Lord six hundred, and thirtie six. Kim Cim, the Author of this Historie, in the very beginning of it, speaks mysteriously of the Creation; Then he mentions three hundred sixty five sorts of Sectaries, who succeeded one another, all of them striving who should get most Proselyts. Some of their vaine Opinions he recites, which indeed are very suitable with the Rudiments, and Vagari's of the Heathen
**Modern English**
[Vaughan’s English:] A stone erected in praise and eternal remembrance of the Law of Light and Truth, brought out of Judaea and published in China. After this followed the main inscription, relating how Olo Puen brought Christ Jesus’s Gospel from Judaea and, with God’s assistance, afterwards planted it in China. This happened in the year of our Lord 636. Kim Cim, this history’s author, begins by speaking mysteriously of creation. He then mentions 365 kinds of sectarians who succeeded one another, all striving to win the most converts. He recounts some of their vain opinions, which certainly agree with the rudiments and vagaries of pagan
**MA-P062-A** 1650, p. 62
**Original English**
Philosophers. Lastly he describes the professors of Christianitie, with their Habit of Life, and the Excellencie of their Law. Difficile (saith he) est ei Nomen Congruum reperire, cum ejus effectus sit Illuminare, & omnia Claritate perfundere; unde Necessarium fuit eam appellare; Kim ki ao, h. e. Legem claram & magnam. That is: It is a hard matter to find a fit name for their Law, seeing the effect of it is to illuminat, and fill all with Knowledge; It was necessarie therefore to call it Kim ki ao, that is, the great Law of Light. To be short, Olo puen was admitted to the Court by Tai cum veu huamti King of China, here his Doctrine was thoroughly searched, examin'd, and sifted by the King himself, who having found it most true and solid, caus'd it to be proclam'd thorough his Dominions. Now upon what this Doctrine was founded, and what aestimat the King had both of it, and it's professor, we may easily gather from the words of his Proclamation. First then, where he mentions Olo puen, he calls him Magnae virtutis Hominem, a man of great virtue or power; it seems he did something more than prate and preach, could confirme his Doctrine, as the Apostles did theirs, not with words only, but with works. Secondly the Proclamation speaking of his Doctrine,
**Modern English**
philosophers. Lastly, he describes Christianity’s professors, their way of life and the excellence of their law. [New translation of the Latin:] “It is difficult to find a fitting name for it, since its effect is to illuminate and flood everything with brightness. It was therefore necessary to call it Kim Ki Ao, that is, the bright and great law.” [Vaughan’s English:] It is hard to find a suitable name for their law, since its effect is to illuminate and fill everything with knowledge. It was therefore necessary to call it Kim Ki Ao: the great Law of Light. Briefly, Tai Cum Veu Huamti, king of China, admitted Olo Puen to court. The king himself thoroughly investigated, examined and sifted his doctrine; finding it most true and solid, he ordered it proclaimed throughout his dominions. His proclamation’s words readily show both the doctrine’s foundation and his estimate of it and its professor. First, mentioning Olo Puen, he calls him [New translation of the Latin:] “a man of great virtue.” [Vaughan’s English:] a man of great virtue or power. Apparently he did more than chatter and preach: like the apostles, he could confirm his doctrine by works as well as words. Second, speaking of the doctrine, the proclamation[^n187], [^n188]
**MA-P063-A** 1650, p. 63
**Original English**
runs thus, Cujus intentum docendi nos a Fundamentis examinantes, invenimus Doctrinam ejus admodum excellentem, & sine strepitu exteriori, fundatam principaliter in Creatione Mundi: That is, The Drift of whose teaching we have examin'd from the very Fundamentals, we find his Doctrine very excellent, without any worldly noyse, and principally grounded on the Creation of the world. And againe in the same place, Doctrina ejus non est multorum verborum, nec supersicie tenus suam fundat Veritatem: His Doctrine is but of few words, not full of noyse and notions, neither doth he build his Truth on superficial probabilities. Thus we see, the Incarnation, and Birth of Christ Jesus (which to the Common Philosopher are fables and Impossibilities, but in the Booke of Nature plaine evident Truths) were proved, and demonstrated by the Primitive Apostles and Teachers out of the Creation of the world. But instead of such Teachers, we have in These our Dayes two Epidemical Goblins, a Schoole-Man, and a Saint forsooth. The one swells with a Syllogistial pride, the other wears a broad face of Revelation. The first cannot tell me why Grasse is Green: The second with all his Devotion knows not A. BC. yet praetends he to that Infinit Spirit which knows all in all; and truly
**Modern English**
runs as follows. [New translation of the Latin:] “Examining his teaching’s purpose from its foundations, we have found his doctrine most excellent, free from outward clamour, and principally founded upon the world’s creation.” [Vaughan’s English:] We have examined his teaching’s aim from its very foundations and find his doctrine most excellent, without worldly noise, and principally grounded upon the world’s creation. Again in the same place: [New translation of the Latin:] “His doctrine is not wordy, nor does it establish its truth merely on the surface.” [Vaughan’s English:] His doctrine uses few words, without noise and notions; nor does he build his truth upon superficial probabilities. Thus we see that the first apostles and teachers proved and demonstrated Christ Jesus’s Incarnation and birth from the world’s creation: matters the ordinary philosopher finds fabulous and impossible, though they are plain, evident truths in Nature’s book. In place of such teachers, however, we have two epidemic goblins today: a schoolman and a so-called saint. One swells with syllogistic pride; the other wears Revelation’s brazen face. The first cannot tell me why grass is green; the second, despite all his devotion, does not know his alphabet, yet claims that infinite Spirit who knows all in all. Truly,[^n189]
**MA-P064-A** 1650, p. 64
**Original English**
of them Both, this last is the worst. Surely the Devill hath been very busie, to put out the Candle, for had all written Truths been extant, this false learning and Hypocrisie could never have praevailed. Kim Cim mentions seven and Twenty Books which Christ Jesus left on Earth to further the Conversion of the world. It may be we have not one of them: for though the Books of the new Testament are just so many, yet being all written, at least some of them a long Time after Christ, they may not well passe for those Scriptures which this Author attributes to our Saviour, even at the time of his Ascension. What should I speake of Those many Books cited in the old Testament, but no where to be found, which if they were now extant, no doubt but they would prove so many reverend, Invincible patrons of Magic. But Ink and paper will perish, for the hand of Man hath made nothing aeternall: The Truth only is Incorruptible, and when the Letter fails, she shifts that Body, and lives in the spirit.
**Modern English**
of the two, this last is worse. Surely the devil has been busy putting out the candle: had all written truths survived, this false learning and hypocrisy could never have prevailed. Kim Cim mentions twenty-seven books Christ Jesus left on earth to further the world’s conversion. We may possess none of them. Although the New Testament’s books number twenty-seven, all—or at least some—were written long after Christ and cannot readily pass for those scriptures this author attributes to our Saviour at his very Ascension. Why speak of the many books cited in the Old Testament but nowhere found? Were they extant today, no doubt they would be so many venerable, invincible champions of magic. But ink and paper will perish: the human hand has made nothing eternal. Truth alone is incorruptible; when the letter fails, she changes that body and lives in the spirit.[^n190], [^n191]
### Egypt, Greece and the Transmission of the Art
**MA-P064-B** 1650, p. 64
**Original English**
I have not without some labour, now traced this Science from the very Fall of Man to the Day of his Redepmtion; Along and solitary Pilgrimage, the paths being unfrequented because of the Briars, and scruples of Antiquitie, and in some places overgrown with the Poppie of Oblivion.
**Modern English**
With some labour, I have now traced this science from humanity’s very Fall to its Redemption: a long, solitary pilgrimage along paths little frequented because of antiquity’s briars and difficulties, and in places overgrown with oblivion’s poppy.
**MA-P065-A** 1650, p. 65
**Original English**
I will not deny but in the shades and Ivie of this Wildernesse, there are some Birds of Night, Owles and Bats, of a different Feather from our Phoenix; I meane some Conjurers, whose dark indirect Affection to the Name of Magic, made them invent Traditions more prodigious than their Practices. These I have purposely avoyded lest they should Wormwood my stream, and I seduce the Reader thorough all these Groves and Solitudes to the Waters of Marah. The next Stage I must move to, is that whence I came out at first with the Israelites, namely AEgypt; here if Bookes faile me, the stones will cry out; Magic having been so inthron'd in this place, it seems shee would bee buried here also: So many Monuments did shee hide in this Earth, which have been since digged up; and serve now to prove that shee was sometimes above Ground. To begin then, I will first speak of the AEgyptian Theologie, that you may see how far they have advanc'd, having no Leader, but the Light of Nature. Trismegistus is so Orthodox and plain in the Mysterie of the Trinitie, the Scripture it self exceeds him not; but hee being a particular Author, and one perhaps that knew more than those of his order in Generall, I shall at this time dispense with his Authoritie. Their Catholic Doctrine, and wherein I find them all to agree, is This.
**Modern English**
I will not deny that among this wilderness’s shadows and ivy are birds of night, owls and bats of different plumage from our phoenix. I mean conjurers whose dark, devious affection for magic’s name led them to invent traditions more monstrous than their practices. I have purposely avoided these, lest they embitter my stream with wormwood and I lead the reader astray, through all these groves and solitudes, to Marah’s waters. My next stage must be the place from which I first came out with the Israelites: Egypt. If books fail me here, the stones will cry out. Magic was so enthroned in this place that she apparently wished to be buried here too. She hid so many monuments in this earth that, since dug up, they now prove she once stood above ground. I shall begin with Egyptian theology, to show how far they advanced under Nature’s light alone. Trismegistus is so orthodox and plain upon the Trinity’s mystery that Scripture itself does not surpass him. Since he is an individual author, however, who perhaps knew more than his order generally, I shall for now set his authority aside. Their universal doctrine, on which I find them all agreeing, is this.[^n192]
**MA-P066-A** 1650, p. 66
**Original English**
Emepht, whereby they expresse their Supreme God, and verily they mind the true One, signifies properly an Intelligence, or Spirit converting all things into himself, and himself into all Things. This is very sound Divinitie and Philosophie, if it be rightly understood. Now (say they) Emepht produc'd an Egg out of his mouth, which Tradition Kircher expounds imperfectly, and withall Erroneously. In the Production of this Egg was manifested another Deitie, which they call Phtha, and out of some other Natures and Substances inclos'd in the Egg, this Phtha formed all Things. But to deale a little more openly, wee will describe unto you their Hieroglyphic, wherein they have very handsomely, but obscurely discovered most of their Mysteries. First of all then, they draw a Circle, in the Circle a Serpent, not folded, but Diameter-wise, and at length; her head resembles that of a Hawke, the Tayle is tyed in a Small Knot, and a little below the head her wings are Volant. The Cirele points at Emepht, or God the Father being Infinite, without Beginning, without End. Moreover it comprehends, or Conteines in it self the Second Deitie Phtha, and the Egg, or Chaos, out of which all Things were made. The Hawke in the AEgyptian Symbols signifies Light, and Spirit; his head annexed here to the Serpent
**Modern English**
Emepht, their name for the supreme God—and truly they mean the real one—properly signifies an intelligence or spirit converting everything into himself and himself into everything. Rightly understood, this is very sound theology and philosophy. They say Emepht produced an egg from his mouth, a tradition Kircher explains both imperfectly and erroneously. In producing this egg another deity appeared, whom they call Phtha. From certain other natures and substances enclosed in the egg, Phtha formed everything. To speak a little more openly, we shall describe their hieroglyph, in which they have elegantly, though obscurely, disclosed most of their mysteries. First they draw a circle, and within it a serpent, not coiled but stretched at full length across its diameter. Its head resembles a hawk’s, its tail is tied in a small knot, and a little below the head its wings are outspread. The circle denotes Emepht, or God the Father: infinite, without beginning or end. It also comprehends or contains the second deity, Phtha, and the egg or chaos from which everything was made. In Egyptian symbols the hawk signifies light and spirit. Its head, here joined to the serpent,[^n193], [^n194]
**MA-P067-A** 1650, p. 67
**Original English**
represents Phtha, or the Second Person, who is the first Light, as wee have told you in our Anthroposophia. Hee is said to forme all Things out of the Egg, because in him, as it were in a Glasse, are certain Types or Images, namely the Distinct Conceptions of the Paternall Deitie, according to which by Cooperation of the Spirit, namely the Holy Ghost, the Creatures are formed. The Inferiour part of this Figure signifies the Matter or Chaos, which they call the Egg of Emepht. That you may the better know it, wee will teach you something not Common. The Body of the Serpent tells you it is a fierie Substance, for a Serpent is full of heat and fire, which made the Egyptians esteem him Divine: This appears by his quick motion without feet or finns, much like that of the Pulse, for his impetuous hot spirit shootes him on like a Squib. There is also another Analogie, for the Serpent renewes his youth so strong is his natural heat, and casts off his old skin. Truely the Matter is a very Serpent, for shee renews her self a thousand wayes, and is nèver a perpetuall Tenant to the same Forme. The wings tell you this Subject or Chaos is Volatile, and in the outward Complexion Arrie, and Waterie. But to teach you the most Secret Resemblance of this Hieroglyphic. The Chaos is a certain Creeping Substance, for it moves like a
**Modern English**
represents Phtha, or the second Person, who is the first light, as we explained in our Anthroposophia. He is said to form everything from the egg because in him, as in a mirror, are certain types or images—the Father’s distinct conceptions—according to which creatures are formed through the Spirit’s cooperation, namely the Holy Ghost. The figure’s lower part signifies matter or chaos, called Emepht’s egg. To help you know it, we shall teach you something uncommon. The serpent’s body tells you it is a fiery substance: a serpent is full of heat and fire, which led the Egyptians to consider it divine. This appears in its swift movement without feet or fins, rather like the pulse, for its impetuous hot spirit propels it like a squib. There is another analogy: so strong is its natural heat that the serpent renews its youth and casts its old skin. Matter is truly a serpent, renewing herself in a thousand ways and never dwelling perpetually in the same form. The wings show that this subject or chaos is volatile and, in its outward constitution, airy and watery. To teach you the hieroglyph’s most secret likeness: chaos is a certain creeping substance, moving like a[^n195], [^n196]
**MA-P068-A** 1650, p. 68
**Original English**
Serpent sine pedibus, and truly Moses calls it not Water, but Serpitura Aquae, The Creeping of Water, or a water that creepes. Lastly, the Knott on the Tayle, Tells you this matter is of a most strong Composition, and that the Elements are fast bound in it, all which the Philophers know to be true by Experience. As for the Assinitie of Inferiors with Superiors, and their private Active Love, which consists in certain Secret Mixtures of Heaven with the Matter, their Opinion stands thus. In the Vital fire of all Things here below. The Sun (say they) is King. In their Secret Water the Moon is Queen. In their pure Aire the five lesser Planets rule; and in their Central, Hypostaticall Earth, the fixed starrs. For these Inferiors according to their Doctrine, are Provinces, or Thrones of those Superiors, where they sit Regent, and Paramont. To speak plainly, Heaven it self was originally extracted from Inferiors, yet not so intirely, but some portion of the Heavenly Natures remained still below, and are the very same in Essence and Substance with the separated starrs and skies. Heaven here below differs not from that above but in her Captivitie, and that above differs not from this below but in her Libertie. The one is imprisoned in the Matter, the other is freed from the grossness and impurities of it, but they are both
**Modern English**
serpent “without feet.” Indeed, Moses calls it not water but [New translation of the Latin:] “water’s creeping”; [Vaughan’s English:] “the creeping of water, or a water that creeps.” Finally, the knot in its tail tells you that this matter has a very strong composition, with its elements firmly bound together. Philosophers know all these things through experience. Regarding the affinity between lower and higher things, and their hidden, active love, which consists in certain secret mixtures of heaven with matter, their opinion is this. The sun, they say, is king in the vital fire of everything below; the moon is queen in their secret water; the five lesser planets rule their pure air, and the fixed stars their central, substantial earth. According to their doctrine, these lower things are provinces or thrones where those higher things sit ruling and supreme. Plainly speaking, heaven itself was originally extracted from lower things, yet not so completely that no portion of the heavenly natures remained below. Those portions have the very same essence and substance as the separated stars and skies. Heaven here below differs from heaven above only in captivity; heaven above differs from this below only in freedom. One is imprisoned in matter; the other freed from matter’s grossness and impurities. But both possess[^n197], [^n198]
**MA-P069-A** 1650, p. 69
**Original English**
of one and thē same Nature, so that they easily unite; and hence it is that the Superior descends to the Inferior to visit, and comfort her in this sickly infectious Habitation. I could speak much more, but I am in haste, and though I were at leisure, you cannot in Reason expect I should tell you all. I will therefore decline these generall Principles to tell you something that makes for the AEgyptian Practice, and proves them Philosophers adepted. The first Monument I reade of to this purpose, is that of Synesius, a very learned intelligent man. Hee found in the Temple of Memphis λιθίας βίβλους Bookes of stone, and in those hard leaves these Difficult Instructions.
**Modern English**
one and the same nature and therefore readily unite. Hence the higher descends to visit and comfort the lower in this sickly, infectious dwelling. I could say much more, but I am in haste; even at leisure, I could not reasonably be expected to tell you everything. I shall therefore leave these general principles to say something about Egyptian practice, proving they were adept philosophers. The first monument I read of for this purpose is that of Synesius, a most learned and perceptive man. In Memphis’s temple he found [New translation of the Greek:] “stone books”; [Vaughan’s English:] “books of stone”; and in those hard leaves these difficult instructions:[^n199]
**MA-P069-B** 1650, p. 69
**Greek**
Ἡ φύσις τῇ φύσει τέρπεται
Ἡ φύσις τὴν φύσιν νικᾷ
Ἡ φύσις τὴν φύσιν κρατεῖ.
**Modern English**
[New translation of the Greek:]
Nature delights in nature.
Nature conquers nature.
Nature rules nature.[^n200]
**MA-P069-C** 1650, p. 69
**Original English**
That is, One Nature delights in another; One Nature overcomes another; One Nature over-rules another. These short lessons. but of no small Consequence. are fathered on the great Hostanes. The Second Monument is that admirable, and most Magicall one mentioned by Barachias Abenesi the Arabian. This also was a stone erected neere Memphis, and on it this profound Scripture.
**Modern English**
[Vaughan’s English:] One nature delights in another; one nature overcomes another; one nature overrules another. These short lessons, of no small consequence, are attributed to the great Ostanes. The second monument is the admirable, most magical one mentioned by Barachias Abenesi the Arabian: another stone erected near Memphis, with this profound inscription:
**MA-P070-A** 1650, p. 70
**Greek**
ΟΥΡΑΝΟ ΑΝΩ, ΟΥΡΑΝΟ ΚΑΤΩ,
ΑΣΤΡΑ ΑΝΩ, ΑΣΤΡΑ ΚΑΤΩ,
ΠΑΝ Ο ΑΝΩ, ΠΑΝ ΤΟΥΤΟ ΚΑΤΩ,
ΛΑΥΤΑ ΛΑΒΕ, ΚΑΙ ΕΥΤΥΧΕ.
**Modern English**
[New translation of the Greek:]
Heaven above, heaven below;
Stars above, stars below;
All that is above, all this is below.
Grasp these things and be fortunate.[^n201]
**MA-P070-B** 1650, p. 70
**Original English**
That is,
Heaven Above, Heaven Beneath;
Starres Above, Starres Beneath;
All that is Above, is also Beneath;
Understand this, and bee Happy.
**Modern English**
[Vaughan’s English:]
Heaven above, heaven beneath;
Stars above, stars beneath;
All that is above is also beneath;
Understand this, and be happy.
**MA-P070-C** 1650, p. 70
**Original English**
Under this were figur'd certain apposit Hieroglyphics, and for a Close to all, this Dedicatorie Subscription (I find it onely in the Coptic Character, but our Founts wanting that Letter, I must give it you in the Greeke.)
ΣΥΝΘΡΟΝΟΙΣ ΤΟΙΣ ΕΝ ΑΙΓΥΠΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΙΣ ΙΣΙΑΣ ΑΡΧΙΕΡΕΥΣ ΑΝΕΘ.
Isias the High Priest erected this, to the Resident Gods in AEgypt.
**Modern English**
Beneath this were drawn certain appropriate hieroglyphs, followed by this dedicatory inscription. I find it only in Coptic characters; since our type lacks that alphabet, I must give it to you in Greek.
[New translation of the Greek:] Isias the high priest set this up for the gods enthroned together in Egypt.
[Vaughan’s English:] Isias the high priest erected this to the resident gods in Egypt.[^n202]
**MA-P070-D** 1650, p. 70
**Original English**
And now, though I formerly suspended the Authoritie of Irismegistus, I might like the Italian, produce his weapons Sfodrato; but I love no Velitations, and Truth is so brave, it needs no Feather. Quod est Superiùs (sayd Hermes) est sicut id quod est Inferiùs, &
**Modern English**
Although earlier I set Trismegistus’s authority aside, I could now produce his weapons drawn, like an Italian; but I love no skirmishing, and Truth is so splendid that she needs no feather. [New translation of the Latin:] “What is above,” said Hermes, “is like what is below, and
**MA-P071-A** 1650, p. 71
**Original English**
quod est Inferiùs, est sicut id quod est superiùs. This is his Mysterie, and 'tis great: The Benefit that attends the Purchase, is no lesse: habebis Gloriam totius Mundi, All the Pomp, and Splendor of the World shall bee Thine. To this Language, the Dialect of I sias doth so Echo, these two, like Euphorbus and Pythagoras, might passe for Ono.
Coelum sursùm, (sayd he) Coelum deorsum;
Astra sursùm, Astra Deorsùm:
Omne quod sursùm, omne id deorsum.
**Modern English**
what is below is like what is above.” This is his mystery, and it is great. The benefit attending its acquisition is no less: [New translation of the Latin:] “You shall possess the glory of the whole world.” [Vaughan’s English:] All the world’s pomp and splendour shall be yours. Isias’s speech echoes this language so closely that, like Euphorbus and Pythagoras, these two might pass for one.
[New translation of the Latin:]
Heaven above, he said, heaven below;
Stars above, stars below;
All that is above, all this below.[^n203], [^n204]
**MA-P071-B** 1650, p. 71
**Original English**
And then follows a reward for the Intelligent, Haec cape, & faelicitare, understand this, and thou art fortunate, Thou hast made thy self very happy. This is enough to prove that Magic sometimes flourished in Egypt, and no doubt but they received the Truth of it from the Hebrewes, who lived amongst them to the terme of four hundred and thirtie years. This is plain; for their own Native Learning was meere Sorcerie and Witcheraft, and this appears by the Testimonie of Moses, who tells us their Magicians produc'd their Miracles by Inohantments. And why I beseech you should this Instruction seem impossible? For Joseph being married to Asenath, daughter of Potipherah Priest of On, some of the AEgyptian Priests, and those likely of his own alliance,
**Modern English**
Then follows a reward for the understanding: [New translation of the Latin:] “Grasp these things and be fortunate.” [Vaughan’s English:] Understand this, and you are fortunate; you have made yourself very happy. This suffices to prove that magic once flourished in Egypt. No doubt they received its truth from the Hebrews, who lived among them for 430 years. This is plain, for their own native learning was mere sorcery and witchcraft, as Moses testifies when he says their magicians performed miracles through enchantments. Why, I ask, should this instruction seem impossible? Joseph married Asenath, daughter of Potipherah, priest of On; some Egyptian priests, probably his own relatives by marriage,
**MA-P072-A** 1650, p. 72
**Original English**
might for that very Relation receive a better Doctrine from him. But this is not all I could say of this Nation, and their Secret Learning, if I were dispos'd to bee their Mercurie. There is not any I believe who praetend to Antiquitie or Philosophie, but have seen that famous Monument, which Paul the Third bestow'd on his Cardinal Petrus Bombus, and was ever since called the Bembixe Table. No doubt but the Hieroglyphics therein contained, were they all reduced into Letters, would make a Volume as ample, as Mysterious. But 'tis not my Designe to comment on Mcmphis, that were to make Brick, and look out the straw withall, AEgypt having no compleat Table but the World, over which her Monuments are Scatter'd. This place then was the Pitcher to the Fountain, for they received their Mysteries immediatly from the Hebrewes, but their Doctrine, like their Nilus, swelling above its private Chanel, did at last over-run the Universe. Jamblicus the Divine, in that excellent Discourse of his de Mysterus, tells us that Pythagoras and Plato had all their learning ex Columnis Mercurii out of the Pillars, or Hieroglyphicall Monuments of Trisinegistus. But the Ancient orpheus in his Poem de Verbo Sacro. where hee speakes of God, hath these words.
**Modern English**
may for that very relationship have received a better doctrine from him. This is not all I could say about this nation and its secret learning, were I disposed to be its Mercury. I believe no one claiming knowledge of antiquity or philosophy can have failed to see that famous monument Paul III gave his cardinal Petrus Bembus, ever since called the Bembine Table. Undoubtedly its hieroglyphs, if all reduced to letters, would make a volume as ample as it was mysterious. But I do not intend to comment on Memphis: that would mean making bricks and finding the straw as well, for Egypt has no complete table except the world, across which its monuments are scattered. This place, then, was the pitcher to the fountain, receiving its mysteries directly from the Hebrews. But its doctrine, like its Nile, swelled beyond its private channel and eventually overran the universe. In his excellent discourse On the Mysteries, the divine Iamblichus tells us that Pythagoras and Plato received all their learning [New translation of the Latin:] “from Mercury’s pillars”; [Vaughan’s English:] from Trismegistus’s pillars or hieroglyphic monuments. But ancient Orpheus, speaking of God in his poem On the Sacred Word, has these words:[^n205], [^n206]
**MA-P073-A** 1650, p. 73
**Latin**
Nemo Illū, nisi Chaldao de Sanguine Quiddam Progenitus vidit.
**Modern English**
[New translation of the Latin:]
No one has seen him, except a certain man
Sprung from Chaldaean blood.[^n207]
**MA-P073-B** 1650, p. 73
**Original English**
None (saith he) hath ever seen God, but a certaine Man descended of the Chaldaean Bloud. Now this was Moses, of whom it is written, That he spake with God face to face, as one Man speaks with another. After This he gives us a short Character or Description of the Deitie, not in the Recesse, and Abstract, but in reference to the Incubation of his spirit upon Nature. Lastly he acquaints us with the Originall of his Doctrine, from whence it first came, and verily he derives it from the Wellhead.
Priscorum nos haec docuerunt Omnia Vates,
Quae Binis Tabulis Deus olim tradidit Illis.
**Modern English**
[Vaughan’s English:] No one has ever seen God except a certain man descended from Chaldaean blood. This was Moses, of whom it is written that he spoke with God face to face, as one person speaks with another. Afterwards Orpheus gives us a short account or description of the deity, considered through the brooding of his Spirit upon Nature, rather than in his hidden, abstract being. Lastly, he tells us his doctrine’s origin, and truly derives it from the fountainhead.
[New translation of the Latin:]
The ancient seers taught us all these things,
Which God once handed them on two tablets.
**MA-P073-C** 1650, p. 73
**Original English**
The Priests (saith he) (or Prophets) of the Ancient Fathers taught us all These things, which God delivered to them heretofore in two Tables. Thanks be to that God, who made a Heathen speak so plainly. I need not tell you to whom these Tables were delivered, Cavallero De epistola can informe you. I cited this place, that it might appeare, though the Philosophie of Greece came generally out of AEgypt, yet some Graecians have been disciplined by the Jews, and this is proved by
**Modern English**
[Vaughan’s English:] The priests or prophets of the ancient fathers taught us all these things, which God formerly delivered to them on two tablets. Thanks be to the God who made a pagan speak so plainly. I need not tell you to whom these tablets were delivered; Cavallero de Epistola can inform you. I cited this passage to show that, although Greek philosophy generally came from Egypt, some Greeks were taught by the Jews, as proved by[^n208], [^n209]
**MA-P074-A** 1650, p. 74
**Original English**
no contemptible Testimonies. Aristobulus, who lived in the Dayes of the Machabies, and was himself a Jew, writes to Ptolomie Philometor King of AEgypt, and affirmes that the Pentateuch, or five Books of Moses, were translated into Greek before the Time of Alexander the Great, and that they came to the hands of Pythagoras and Plato. Indeed Numenius the Pythagorean cals Plato, Mosen Atticâ linguâ loquentem, Moses speaking in the Greek Dialect; by which he minded not a similitude of style, but a Conformitie of principles. There is a storie of Clearchus the Peripatetic in his first de somno, how true I know not, but the Substance of it is this. He brings in his Master Aristotle relating, how he met with a very reverend and learned Jew, with whom he had much Discourse about Things Natural and Divine, but his special Confession is, That he was much rectified by him in his Opinion of the Deitie. This perhaps night be, but certainly it was after he writ the Organon, and his other lame Discourses, that move by the Logical Crutch. Now if you will aske me, what Greek did ever prosesse any Magicall Principles? To this I answer, that if you bate Aristotle and his Ushers, who are borne like the Insecta, ex putredine, out of their Masters Corruptions; Greece yeelded
**Modern English**
testimonies of no small weight. Aristobulus, himself a Jew living in the Maccabees’ days, writes to Ptolemy Philometor, king of Egypt, affirming that the Pentateuch—the five books of Moses—was translated into Greek before Alexander the Great and reached Pythagoras and Plato. Indeed, Numenius the Pythagorean calls Plato [New translation of the Latin:] “Moses speaking in the Attic language”; [Vaughan’s English:] Moses speaking in the Greek dialect. By this he means agreement of principles, not similarity of style. Clearchus the Peripatetic tells a story in the first book of On Sleep; how true it is I do not know, but its substance is this. He presents his master Aristotle describing a meeting with a most venerable, learned Jew. They discussed natural and divine matters at length; Aristotle’s particular confession is that the Jew greatly corrected his opinion of the deity. This may perhaps have happened, but certainly after he wrote the Organon and his other lame discourses, hobbling on logic’s crutch. Ask which Greek ever professed magical principles, and I answer that, excepting Aristotle and his assistant masters—born like insects [New translation of the Latin:] “from putrefaction”; [Vaughan’s English:] from their master’s corruptions—Greece produced[^n210], [^n211]
**MA-P075-A** 1650, p. 75
**Original English**
not a Philosopher, who was not in some Positions, Magicall. If any man will challenge my Demonstration herein, I doe now promise him my performance. To give you some particular Instances, Hippocrates was altogether Chemicall, and this I could prove out of his owne Mouth, but at this Time his works are not by me. Democritus who lived in the same Age with him, writ his φυσικὰ καὶ μυστικά that is, Physicall and Mysticall Things, in plaine English, Naturall Secrets. To this mysticall peece Synesius added the Light of his Comments, and dedicated them to Dioscorus Priest of Serapis. Of this Democritus Seneca reports in his Epistles, That he knew a secret Coction of Pebles, by which be turned them into Emeralds. Theophrastus, a most ancient Greek Author in his Book de lapidibus mentions another mineral work of his own, wherein he had written something of Metals. True indeed, that Discourse of his is lost, but notwithstanding his opinion is upon Record, namely that he referred the Originall of metalls to water. This is confirm'd by his owne words, (ὕδατος μὲν τὰ μεταλλευόμενα κατάπερ ἄργυρος καὶ χρυσός) as I find them cited by Picus in his Book De auro. But that the Art of Transmutation was in Request in. his Dayes, and no late Invention or Imposture, as some think, appears by the Attempts and
**Modern English**
no philosopher who was not magical in some position. If anyone challenges me to demonstrate this, I now promise to do so. For particular examples: Hippocrates was entirely chymical, as I could prove from his own words, though I do not have his works with me now. Democritus, his contemporary, wrote [New translation of the Greek:] Things Natural and Mystical; [Vaughan’s English:] “physical and mystical things”: plainly, natural secrets. Synesius shed his commentary’s light upon this mystical work, dedicating it to Dioscorus, priest of Serapis. In his letters Seneca reports that this Democritus knew a secret cooking of pebbles by which he turned them into emeralds. Theophrastus, a very ancient Greek author, mentions in On Stones another mineral work of his own in which he had written about metals. That discourse is lost; nevertheless his opinion remains on record: he derived metals’ origin from water. His own words confirm this: [New translation of the Greek:] “What is mined is from water, such as silver and gold”. I find them cited in Pico’s book On Gold. That transmutation’s art was sought in his day, and was no recent invention or imposture as some suppose, appears from the attempts and[^n212], [^n213]
**MA-P076-A** 1650, p. 76
**Original English**
practice of that Age out of the same Theophrastus; For he mentions one Callias an Atheman, who indeavouring to make gold, brought his Materials into Cinnabar. It were an endles labour for me to recite all the Particulars, that Greece can affoord in order to my present Designe, I will Therefore close up all in this short Summarie. There is no wisdome in Nature, but what proceeded from God, for he made Nature, he first found out, and afterwards ordained the very wayes, and method how to corrupt, and how to generate. This his own wisdome and Knowledge, he communicated in some Measure to the first Man, from him his Children received it, and they taught it their postcritie; but the Jewes having the spiritual Birthright, This Mysterie was their Inheritance, and they possest it intirely, being the Annointed Nation, vpon whom God had powred forth his spirit. By Tradition of the Jewes, The AEgyptians came to be instructed, From the AEgyptians these secrets descended to the Graecians, and from the Graecians (as we all know) the Romanes received their Learning, and amongst other common Arts, this Magicall mysterious one; This is confirm'd by some proper, genuine Effects and Monuments thereof, namely that flexible malleable Glasse, produced in the
**Modern English**
practice of that age, reported by the same Theophrastus. He mentions Callias, an Athenian, who, attempting to make gold, turned his materials into cinnabar. Recounting everything Greece supplies for my present purpose would be endless labour. I shall close it all in this short summary. No wisdom exists in Nature except what proceeded from God. He made Nature; he first devised and then ordained the very ways and methods of corruption and generation. He communicated some measure of this wisdom and knowledge to the first human being, whose children received it from him and taught it to their descendants. The Jews, possessing the spiritual birthright, inherited this mystery and possessed it entirely: they were the anointed nation upon whom God had poured his Spirit. Through Jewish tradition the Egyptians were instructed; from them these secrets descended to the Greeks. From the Greeks, as we all know, the Romans received their learning and, among other common arts, this magical, mysterious one. Certain proper, genuine effects and monuments confirm this: namely, the flexible, malleable glass produced in[^n214], [^n215]
**MA-P077-A** 1650, p. 77
**Original English**
dayes of Tiberius, and the miraculous Olybian Lamp. But these Times wherein I am now, and those thorough which I have past, are like some Tempestuous Day, they have more clouds, than Light. I will therefore enter Christendome, and here I shall find the Art in her Infancie: True indeed, The Cradle is but in some private hands, few know where, and many believe there is no such Thing. The Schoole-men are high in point of Noyse, and condemne all, but what Themselves professe: It is Aristotet's Almodena, they expose his Errors to the sale, and this continnes for a long time. But every Thing (as the Spaniard saith) hath its Quando; Many years are past over, and now the Child begins to lisp, and peeps abroad in the fustian of Arnold, and Lullie. I need not tell you how he hath thrived since, doe but look upon his Traine, for at this Day who praetends not to Magic, and that so magisterially, as if the Regalos of the Art were in his powers? I know not any Refragans, except some sickly Galenists, whose pale tallow faces speak more Disease, than Physic. These indeed complaine their Lives are too short, Philosophie too taedious, and so fill their Mouths with Ars longa, Vita brevis. This is true (saith the Spanish Picaro) for they cure either late, or never, which makes
**Modern English**
Tiberius’s days, and the miraculous Olybian lamp. But these times I now inhabit and those through which I have passed resemble a tempestuous day, having more clouds than light. I shall therefore enter Christendom, where I shall find the art in infancy. Its cradle is admittedly held in a few private hands; few know where, and many believe it does not exist. The schoolmen make a mighty noise and condemn everything except their own profession. It is Aristotle’s auction: they expose his errors for sale, and this continues a long time. Yet everything, as the Spaniard says, has its “when.” Many years pass; now the child begins to lisp and peers abroad in Arnold’s and Lull’s fustian. I need not tell you how it has since thrived: simply look at its following. Who today does not claim magic, and with such mastery, as though the art’s delights were in his power? I know no dissenters except certain sickly Galenists, whose pale, tallow faces speak more disease than medicine. They complain that their lives are too short and philosophy too tedious, filling their mouths with “art is long, life is short.” “True,” says the Spanish rogue, “for they cure either late or never, making[^n216], [^n217], [^n218]
**MA-P078-A** 1650, p. 78
**Original English**
their Art long: but they kill quickly, which makes life short, and so the Riddle is expounded.
**Modern English**
their art long; but they kill quickly, making life short.” So the riddle is explained.[^n219]
## Coelum Terrae
### From Antiquity to the Art
**CT-P078-A** 1650, p. 78
**Original English**
I have now, Reader, performed my promise, and according to my Posse proved the Antiquitie of Magic. I am not so much a foole as to expect a generall subscription to my endeavours, every man's Placet is not the same with mine; but Jacta est Alea, I have done this much, and he that will overthrow it, must know in the first place, it is his Task to do more. There is one point, I can justly bind an Adversarie too, That he shall not oppose Man to God, Heathen Romances to Divine Scriptures: He that would foyle me, must use such weapons as I doe, for I have not fed my Readers with straw, neither will I be confuted with stubble. In the next place it is my Designe to speake something of the Art it self, and this I shall doe in rationall termes, a Forme different from the Ancients, for I will not stuffe my Discourse like a Wilderness with Lions and Dragons. To Common Philosophers that fault is very proper, which Quintilian observed in some Orators: Operum fastigia spectantur, latent fundamenta; The spires of their Babel are in the Clouds, its Fundamentals no where, they talk indeed of fine Things, but tell us not upon what grounds. To avoid these Flights, I shall
**Modern English**
I have now, reader, fulfilled my promise and, to the best of my ability, proved the antiquity of magic. I am not foolish enough to expect everyone to endorse my efforts: not everyone shares my judgment. But the die is cast. I have done this much, and whoever would overthrow it must first understand that his task is to do more. On one point I may rightly bind an opponent: he must not set man against God, or pagan romances against divine Scripture. Whoever would defeat me must use the same weapons as I do. I have not fed my readers straw, and I will not be refuted with stubble. Next I intend to speak about the art itself. I shall do so in rational terms, departing from the manner of the ancients: I will not fill my discourse like a wilderness with lions and dragons. Ordinary philosophers are particularly guilty of the fault Quintilian observed in some orators: “The summits of their works are visible; their foundations lie hidden.” The spires of their Babel are in the clouds, its foundations nowhere. They speak of fine things, but never tell us on what grounds. To avoid such flights, I shall[^n220], [^n221]
**CT-P079-A** 1650, p. 79
**Original English**
in this my Olla (for I care not much what I shall call it) observe this Composition. First, I shall speake of that One only Thing, which is the Subject of this Art, and the Mother of all Things. Secondly, I will discourse of that most admirable, and more than naturall Medicine, which is generated out of this one Thing. Lastly, though with some disorder. I will discover the means how, and by which this Art works upon the Subject; but these being the Keyes which lead to the very Estrado of Nature. where she sits in full Solemnitie, and receives the Visits of the Philosophers, I must scatter them in severall parts of the Discourse. This is all, and here thou must not consider how long, or short I shall be, but how full the Discoverie: and truly it shall be such, and so much, that Thou canst not in modestie expect more. Now then you that would be what the Ancient Physicians were, Manus Deorum salutares, not Quacks and Salvos of the Pipkin; you that would performe what you publickly professe, and make your Callings honest and Conscionable, attend to the Truth without spleen. Remember that Praejudice is no Religion, and by Consequence hath no Reward. If this Art were damnable, you might safely studie it notwithstanding for you have a praecept to prove all Things, but to hold fast
**Modern English**
arrange this miscellany of mine—for I care little what I call it—as follows. First I shall speak of the one and only thing that is the subject of this art and the mother of all things. Second, I shall discuss the most wonderful and more than natural medicine generated from this one thing. Last, though with some disorder, I shall disclose the means by which the art works upon its subject. But these are the keys that lead into Nature's very chamber of state, where she sits in full ceremony and receives the philosophers' visits; I must therefore scatter them throughout the discourse. This is all. Consider here how complete the disclosure is, rather than how long or short my account may be. It will truly be such, and so much, that you cannot reasonably expect more. Now, you who would become what the ancient physicians were—the healing hands of the gods—instead of quacks and peddlers of pot remedies; you who would accomplish what you publicly profess, and make your callings honest and conscientious: attend to the truth without resentment. Remember that prejudice is no religion and consequently earns no reward. Even if this art were damnable, you could still safely study it, for you have a command to test all things and hold fast[^n222], [^n223]
**CT-P080-A** 1650, p. 80
**Original English**
that which is Good. It is your Duty not to bee wanting to your selves, and for my part, that I may be wanting to none, thus I begin.
**Modern English**
to what is good. It is your duty not to fail yourselves. For my part, so that I may fail no one, I begin as follows.
### The Agent and the First Matter
**CT-P080-B** 1650, p. 80
**Original English**
Said the Cabalist, Domus Sanctuarii, quae est hìc inferiùs; disponitur Secundum Domum Sanctuarii, quae est Superiùs, The Building of the Sanctuarie, which is here below, is framed according to that of the Sanctuarie, which is above. Here wee have two worlds Visible and Invisible, and two universall Natures Visible and Invisible out of which both those Worlds proceeded. The Passive Universall Nature, was made in the Image of the Active Universall one, and the Conformitie of Both Worlds, or Sanctuaries, consist in the Originall Conformitie of their Principles. There are many Platonics, (and this last Centurie hath afforded them some apish Disciples) who discourse very boldly of the Similitudes of Inferiors and Superiors, but if wee throughly search their Trash, it is a pack of small Conspiracies; namely of the Heliotrope and the Sun, Iron and the Load-stone, the Wound and the Weapon. It is excellent sport to hear how they crow being roosted on these pittiful Particulars, as if they knew the Universal Magnet, which binds this great Frame, and moves all the Members of it to a Mutuall Compassion,
**Modern English**
The kabbalist said: [New translation of the Latin:] “The house of the sanctuary here below is arranged according to the house of the sanctuary above.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “The building of the sanctuary here below is framed according to that of the sanctuary above.” Here we have two worlds, visible and invisible, and two universal natures, visible and invisible, from which those worlds proceeded. The passive universal nature was made in the image of the active universal nature. The correspondence between the two worlds, or sanctuaries, consists in the original correspondence of their principles. There are many Platonists—and the last century has supplied them with some apish disciples—who speak very boldly about the likenesses between lower and higher things. But if we examine their rubbish thoroughly, it amounts to a collection of petty sympathies: the heliotrope and the sun, iron and the lodestone, the wound and the weapon. It is excellent sport to hear them crow from their perch on these paltry particulars, as though they knew the universal magnet that binds this great frame together and moves all its members to mutual sympathy.[^n224], [^n225]
**CT-P081-A** 1650, p. 81
**Original English**
This is an Humor much like that of Don Quixote, who knew Dulcinea, but never saw her. Those students then, who would be better instructed, must first know. There is an Universall Agent, who when hee was dispos'd to Create, had no other Patterne or Exemplar whereby to frame and mould his Creatures, but himself, but having infinite inward Idea's, or Conceptions in himself as hee conceived so hee created, that is to say, hee created an outward forme answerable to the inward Conception, or figure of his Mind. In the second place they ought to know, there is an Universall Patient, and this Passive Nature was created by the Universall Agent. This generall Patient, is the immediat Catholic Character of God himself in his Unitie, and Trinitie. In plain Termes, it is that Substance which wee commonly call the first Matter. But verily it is to no purpose to know this Notion, Matter, unlesse we know the Thing it self, to which the Notion relates; wee must see it, handle it, and by experimentall ocular Demonstrations know the very Central Invisible Essences, and Proprieties of it. But of these things heare the most excellent Capnion, who informes his Jew, and his Epicure of two Catholic Natures Material and Spiritual: Alteram (saith he) quae videri oculis, & attingi manu possit, propè ad omne Momentum
**Modern English**
Their disposition much resembles that of Don Quixote, who knew Dulcinea but had never seen her. Students who wish for better instruction must first understand that there is a universal agent. When he determined to create, he had no pattern or model by which to frame and mould his creatures except himself. But having infinite inward ideas or conceptions within himself, he created as he conceived: that is, he created an outward form corresponding to the inward conception or figure of his mind. Second, they must know that there is a universal patient, and that this passive nature was created by the universal agent. This general patient is the immediate universal character of God himself in his unity and trinity. In plain terms, it is the substance we commonly call first matter. Yet knowing the concept “matter” serves no purpose unless we know the thing to which the concept refers. We must see it, handle it, and through experimental demonstrations before our eyes come to know its very central, invisible essences and properties. But hear the excellent Capnion on these matters. He tells his Jew and his Epicurean of two universal natures, material and spiritual. [New translation of the Latin:] “One can be seen with the eyes and touched with the hand, and can change at almost every moment.[^n226], [^n227]
**CT-P082-A** 1650, p. 82
**Original English**
alterabilem. Detur enim venia (ut ait Madaurensis) Novitati Verborum, rerum obscuritatibus inservienti. Haec ipsa cum eadem & una persistere nequeat, nihilominus à tali Virtute animi hospitio suscipitur, pro modo rectiùs quo est, quam quo non est, qualis in veritate res est, id est, mutabilis. Alteram autem substantiarum Naturam incorruptam, immutabilem, constantem, eandem que ac sempèr Existentem. The English of it speaks thus One Nature is such, it may be seen with the eyes, and felt with the hands, and it is subject to Alteration almost in every Moment. You must Pardon (as Apuleius saith) this strange Expression, because it makes for the Obscuritie of the Thing. This very Nature, since shee may not continue one, and the same, is notwithstanding apprehended of the mind under her such Qualification, more rightly as shee is, than as shee is not, namely as the Thing it self is in Truth, that is to say, Changeable. The other Nature, or Principle of Substances, is incorruptible, immutable, constant, One and the same for ever, and alwayes existent Thus hee. Now this Changeable Nature whereof he speaks is the first Visible, Tangible Substance that ever God made; it is white in Appearance, and 'Paracelsus gives you the Reason why: Omnia (saith he) in Dei Manu alba sunt, is ea tingit, ut vult: All
**Modern English**
For pardon should be granted, as the man of Madaura says, to new language serving the obscurity of its subject. Although this nature cannot remain one and the same, it is nevertheless received into the mind's lodging by such a power of the soul, more rightly in respect of what it is than what it is not: as the thing truly is, that is, changeable. But the other nature of substances is incorrupt, unchangeable, constant, one and the same, and always existing.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “One nature can be seen with the eyes and felt with the hands, and is subject to alteration at almost every moment. You must pardon, as Apuleius says, this unusual expression, because it serves the obscurity of the thing. Although this nature cannot continue one and the same, the mind nevertheless apprehends it under its actual condition: more rightly as it is than as it is not, namely, as the thing truly is—changeable. The other nature, or principle of substances, is incorruptible, unchangeable, constant, one and the same forever, and always existent.” So he says. Now this changeable nature is the first visible, tangible substance God ever made. It is white in appearance, and Paracelsus gives the reason: [New translation of the Latin:] “All things are white in God's hand; he colours them as he wills.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “All[^n228], [^n229]
**CT-P083-A** 1650, p. 83
**Original English**
things when they first proceed from God, are white, but hee colours them afterwards, according to his pleasure. An Example wee have in this very matter, which the Philosophers call sometimes their red Magnesia, sometimes their white, by which Descriptions they have deceived many men; for in the first praeparation the Chaos is Bloud-red, because the Central Sulphur is stirr'd up, and discovered by the Philosophicall Fire. In the Second it is exceeding white and transparent like the Heavens. It is in Truth somewhat like Common Quicksilver, but of a Coelestiall transcendent brightnesse, for there is nothing upon Earth like it. This fine substance is the Child of the Elements, and it is a most pure, sweet Virgin; for nothing as yet hath been generated out of her: but if at any time shee breeds, it is by the fire of Nature, for that is her husband. Shee is no Animal, no Vegetable, no Mineral, neither is shee extracted out of Animals, Vegetables, or Minerals, but shee is praeexistent to them all, for shee is the Mother of them. Yet one thing I must say, shee is not much short of Life, for shee is almost Animal. Her Composition is miraculous and different from all other Compounds whatsoever. Gold is not so compact, but every Sophister concludes it is no Simple; but shee is so much One, that no man believes she is more.
**Modern English**
things, when they first proceed from God, are white, but he colours them afterwards according to his pleasure.” We have an example in this very matter, which the philosophers sometimes call their red magnesia and sometimes their white. These descriptions have deceived many men. In the first preparation the chaos is blood-red, because its central sulphur is stirred up and disclosed by the philosophical fire. In the second it is exceedingly white and transparent, like the heavens. In truth it is somewhat like common quicksilver, but with a celestial, surpassing brightness, for there is nothing on earth like it. This fine substance is the child of the elements and a most pure, sweet virgin: nothing has yet been generated from her. If she ever bears offspring, it is by the fire of Nature, for that is her husband. She is no animal, vegetable or mineral, nor is she extracted from animals, vegetables or minerals. She exists before them all, for she is their mother. Yet I must say one thing: she falls little short of life, being almost animal. Her composition is miraculous, differing from every other compound whatsoever. Gold is not so compact that any sophist mistakes it for a simple substance; but she is so completely one that no one believes her to be more.[^n230]
**CT-P084-A** 1650, p. 84
**Original English**
Shee yeelds to nothing but Love, for her End is Generation, and that was never yet perform'd by Violence. Hee that knows how to wanton, and toy with her. the same shall receive all her Treasures. First, shee shedds at her Nipples a thick heavy water, but white as any snow; The Philosophers call it Virgin-milk. Secondly, she gives him Bloud from her very heart; it is a quick heavenly fire, some impioperly call it their sulphur. Thirdly and lastly shee presents him with a secret Chrystall, of more worth and lustre than the white Rock, and all her Rosials. This is shee, and these are her Favours: Catch her, if you can.
**Modern English**
She yields to nothing but love, for her end is generation, and generation has never yet been accomplished by violence. Whoever knows how to court and play with her will receive all her treasures. First, from her nipples she sheds a thick, heavy water, white as snow; the philosophers call it virgin's milk. Second, she gives him blood from her very heart. It is a living heavenly fire, which some improperly call their sulphur. Third and last, she presents him with a secret crystal of greater worth and lustre than the white rock and all her rose-like jewels. This is she, and these are her favours. Catch her if you can.[^n231]
**CT-P084-B** 1650, p. 84
**Original English**
To this Character and Discoverie of my owne. I shall adde some more Descriptions, as I find her limm'd and drest by her other Lovers. Some few (but such as knew her very well) have written that shee is not onely One and Three, but withall Foure and Five, and this Truth is Essentiall. The Titles they have bestowed upon her, are divers. They call her their Catholic Magnesia. and the Sperme of the World. out of which all Naturall things are generated. Her Birth (say they) is Singular, and not without a miracle; her Complexion heavenly, and different from her Parents. Her Body also in some sense is Incorruptible, and the Common Elements cannot destroy it, neither
**Modern English**
To this portrait and disclosure of my own I shall add further descriptions, as I find her painted and dressed by her other lovers. A few, who knew her very well, have written that she is not only one and three, but also four and five; and this truth concerns her essence. They have bestowed various titles upon her. They call her their universal magnesia and the seed of the world, from which all natural things are generated. Her birth, they say, is singular and miraculous; her constitution is heavenly and differs from that of her parents. In a certain sense her body is incorruptible: the common elements cannot destroy it, nor[^n232]
**CT-P085-A** 1650, p. 85
**Original English**
will shee mix with them Essentially. In the outward shape, or figure, shee resembles a stone, and yet is no stone, for they call her their white Gum, and Water of their Sea, water of Life most pure, and most blessed water, and yet they minde not water of the Clouds, or Rain-water. nor water of the Wel, nor Dew: but a certain thick permanent, saltish water, a water that is drie, and wetts not the hand, a viscous, slimie water generated out of the saltish fatnesse of the Earth. They call her also their twofold Mercurie, and Azoth begotten by the Influences of two Globes, Coelestiall, and Terrestriall. Moreover, they affirme her to bee of that Nature, that no fire can destroy her, which of all other Descriptions is most true, for shee is fire her self, having in her a portion of the universall fire of Nature, and a secret Coelestiall spirit, which spirit is animated, and quickened by God himself, wherefore also they call her their most blessed stone. Lastly, they say shee is a middle nature between thick and thin, neither altogether Earthy, nor altogether Firie, but a mean aereall substance to bee found every where, and every time of the year.
**Modern English**
will she mix essentially with them. In outward shape or form she resembles a stone, yet is no stone. They call her their white gum and the water of their sea, the most pure water of life and most blessed water. Yet they do not mean water from the clouds, rainwater, well water or dew, but a certain thick, permanent, slightly salty water: a dry water that does not wet the hand, a viscous, slimy water generated from the salty fatness of the earth. They also call her their twofold mercury and azoth, begotten by the influences of the two globes, celestial and terrestrial. Moreover, they say that no fire can destroy her. Of all their descriptions this is most true, for she herself is fire, containing a portion of Nature's universal fire and a secret celestial spirit. This spirit is animated and quickened by God himself; hence they also call her their most blessed stone. Last, they say she is a middle nature between thick and thin, neither wholly earthy nor wholly fiery, but an intermediate aerial substance to be found everywhere and at every season of the year.[^n233]
### The Seed and the Earth
**CT-P085-B** 1650, p. 85
**Original English**
This is enough: but that I may speak something my self in plain Termes, I say shee is a very salt, but extreme soft, and somewhat thin and fluid, not so hard, not so thick as
**Modern English**
That is enough. But to say something of my own in plain terms: she is an actual salt, yet extremely soft and somewhat thin and fluid, neither as hard nor as thick as
**CT-P086-A** 1650, p. 86
**Original English**
common extracted Salts, for shee is none of them, nor any kind of Salt whatsoever that man can make. Shee is a sperme that Nature her self drawes out of the Elements, without the help of Art: man may find it, where Nature leaves it, it is not of his office to make the sperme, nor to extract it, it is already made, and wants nothing but a Matrix, and heat convenient for Generation. Now should you consider with your selves where Nature leaves the seed, and yet many are so dull, they know not how to work, when they are told what they must doe. Wee see in Animal Generations, the sperme parts not from both the Parents, for it remaines with the Female, where it is perfected. In the great world though all the Elements contribute to the Composure of the sperme, yet the sperme parts not from all the Elements, but remaines with the Earth, or with the Water, though more immediatly with the one, than with the other. Let not your Thoughts feed now on the Phlegmatic, indigested Vomits of Aristotle, look on the green youthfull, and flowrie Bosome of the Earth; Consider what a vast Universall Receptacle this Element is. The Starrs and Planets over-look her, and though they may not descend hither themselves, they shed down their golden Locks, like so many Bracelets, and Tokens of their Love. The Sun is
**Modern English**
common extracted salts. She is none of these, nor any kind of salt that man can make. She is a seed Nature herself draws from the elements without the help of art. Man may find it where Nature leaves it; making or extracting the seed is not his office. It is already made, lacking only a womb and heat suitable for generation. You should now consider where Nature leaves this seed. Yet many are so dull that, even when told what they must do, they do not know how to work. In animal generation we see that the seed does not depart from both parents: it remains with the female, where it is perfected. In the great world, although all the elements contribute to the composition of the seed, it does not depart from them all. It remains with earth or water, though more immediately with one than the other. Do not feed your thoughts now on Aristotle's phlegmatic, undigested vomit. Look at the earth's green, youthful, flowering bosom. Consider what a vast universal receptacle this element is. The stars and planets look down upon her. Though they cannot descend here themselves, they shed their golden locks upon her like so many bracelets and tokens of love. The sun is[^n234]
**CT-P087-A** 1650, p. 87
**Original English**
perpetually busie, brings his Fire round about her, as if he would sublime something from her bosom, and rob her of some secret, inclosed Jewell. Is there any thing lost since the Creation? Would'st thou know his very bed, and his pillow? It is Earth. How many Cities dost thou think have perished by the Sword? how many by Earth-quakes? and how many by the Deluge? Thou doest perhaps desire to know where they are at this present: believe it they have one common Sepulcher, what was once their Mother, is now their Tombe; All things return to that place from whence they came, and that very place is Earth. If thou hast but leasure, run over the Alphabet of Nature, examine every Letter, I mean every particular Creature, in her Booke. What becomes of her Grasse, her Corne, her Herbs, her Flowers? True it is, both Man and beast doe use them, but this onely by the way, for they rest not till they come to Earth again. In this Element they had their first, and in this will they have their last station. Think (if other Vanities will give thee leave,) on all those Generations that went before thee, and anticipate all those that shall come after thee. Where are those Beauties, the Times past have produced, and what will become of those that shall appear in future Ages? They will all to the same 'Dust, they have
**Modern English**
perpetually busy, carrying his fire round her as though he would sublime something from her bosom and rob her of a secret, enclosed jewel. Has anything been lost since the creation? Would you know its very bed and pillow? It is earth. How many cities do you think have perished by the sword, how many by earthquakes, and how many by the flood? Perhaps you want to know where they are now. Believe it: they share one grave. What was once their mother is now their tomb. All things return to the place from which they came, and that place is earth. If you have leisure, run through Nature's alphabet and examine every letter—I mean every particular creature in her book. What becomes of her grass, grain, herbs and flowers? It is true that men and beasts use them, but this is only along the way; they do not rest until they return to earth. In this element they had their first station, and in it they will have their last. Think, if other vanities allow you, of all the generations before you; anticipate all those that will follow. Where are the beauties past times have produced, and what will become of those who appear in future ages? They will all return to the same dust. They have
**CT-P088-A** 1650, p. 88
**Original English**
one Common house, and there is no Familie so numerous, as that of the Grave. Doe but look on the Dally sports of Nature, her Clouds and mists, the Scæne, and Pageantrie of the Aire, Even these Momentary Things retreat to the Closet of the Earth. If the Sun makes her drie, shee can drink as fast, what gets up in Cloudes, comes down in Water, the Earth swallows up all, and like that Philosophicall Dragon eats her own Tayle. The wise Poets saw this, and in their mysticall language call'd the Earth Saturne, telling us withall, shee did feed on her own Children. Verily there is more Truth in their stately Verse, than in Aristotle's dull Prose, for hee was a blinde beast, and Malice made him so. But to proceed a little further with you, I wish you to concoct what you reade, to dwell a little upon Earth, not to fly up presently, and admire the Meteors of your own Braines. The Earth you know in the Winter time is a dull, dark, dead Thing. a contemptible frozen phlegmatick Lump. But towards the Spring, and Fomentations of the Sun, what rare Pearles are there in this Dung-hill? what glorious Colours, and tinctures doth she discover? a pure eternall green overspreads her, and this attended with innumerable other Beauties; Roses red and white, golden Lilies, Azure Violets, the Bleeding Hyacinths, with their severall
**Modern English**
one common house, and no family is so numerous as the grave's. Look at Nature's daily games: her clouds and mists, the scenes and pageantry of the air. Even these momentary things withdraw into earth's chamber. If the sun dries her, she can drink as quickly. What rises in clouds descends as water. Earth swallows everything and, like the philosophical dragon, eats her own tail. The wise poets saw this. In their mystical language they called earth Saturn, saying that she fed on her own children. Truly there is more truth in their stately verse than in Aristotle's dull prose: he was a blind beast, and malice made him so. But to go a little further, I would have you digest what you read, dwell a little on earth, and avoid flying up at once to admire the meteors of your own brain. In winter, as you know, earth is a dull, dark, dead thing: a contemptible frozen, phlegmatic lump. But as spring approaches and the sun warms her, what rare pearls appear in this dunghill! What glorious colours and tinctures she reveals! A pure, eternal green spreads over her, attended by countless other beauties: roses red and white, golden lilies, azure violets and the bleeding hyacinths, with their various[^n235]
**CT-P089-A** 1650, p. 89
**Original English**
coelestiall odours, and Spices. If you will be advised by me, Learn from whence the Earth hath these invisible Treasures. This Annuall Flora, which appears not without the Complements of the Sun. Behold I will tell you as plainly as I may. There are in the world two Extremes, Matter and Spirit: one of these I can assure you is earth. The Influences of the spirit animate and quicken the matter, and in the Material Extreme the seed of the spirit is to be found. In middle Natures, as Fire, Aire, and Water, this Seed stayes not, for they are but Dispenseros, or Media, which convey it from one extreme to the other, from the Spirit to the Matter, that is to the Earth. But stay my friend, this Intelligence hath somewhat stirr'd you. and now you come on so furiously, as if you would rifle the Cabinet. Give me leave to put you back. I mind not this Common, faeculent, impure Earth, that falls not within my Discourse, but as it makes for your Manuduction. That which I speak of is a Mysterie, it is Coelum Terrae, and Terra Coeli, not this dirt, and dust, but a most Secret, Coelestiall, Invisible Earth.
**Modern English**
heavenly fragrances and spices. If you will take my advice, learn where earth gets these invisible treasures—this annual Flora that never appears without the sun's attentions. I shall tell you as plainly as I may. There are two extremes in the world, matter and spirit; I can assure you that one of these is earth. The spirit's influences animate and quicken matter, and in the material extreme the spirit's seed is found. This seed does not stay in intermediate natures, such as fire, air and water. These merely distribute or mediate it, conveying it from one extreme to the other: from spirit to matter, that is, to earth. But wait, my friend! This information has stirred you, and you now rush forward as though you would plunder the cabinet. Allow me to put you back. I do not mean this common, foul, impure earth; that enters my discourse only as a means of leading you by the hand. What I speak of is a mystery: the heaven of earth and the earth of heaven, not this dirt and dust, but a most secret, celestial, invisible earth.[^n236]
### Nature in Motion
**CT-P089-B** 1650, p. 89
**Original English**
Raymund Lullie in his Compendium of Alchimie, calls the Principles of Art Magic, Spiritus fugitivos in Aere condensatos, in forma Monstrorum Diversorum, & Animalium,
**Modern English**
Raymond Lull, in his Compendium of Alchemy, calls the principles of the magical art [New translation of the Latin:] “fugitive spirits condensed in the air, in the form of various monsters and animals,[^n237]
**CT-P090-A** 1650, p. 90
**Original English**
etiam Hominum, qui vadunt sicut Nubes, modo hùc, modo illùc, Certain fugitive spirits condensed in the Ayre. in the shape of Divers Monsters. Beasts and Men, which move like Cloudes hither and thither. As for the Sense of our Spaniard, I refer it to his Readers, let them make the most of it.
**Modern English**
and even human beings, which go like clouds, now here, now there.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “Certain fugitive spirits condensed in the air, in the shape of various monsters, beasts and men, moving like clouds here and there.” As for the Spaniard's meaning, I leave that to his readers; let them make the most of it.
**CT-P090-B** 1650, p. 90
**Original English**
This is true; As the Ayre, and all the Volatile Substances in it, are restlesse, even so it is with the first Matter. The eye of Man never saw her twice under one and the same shape but as Cloudes driven by the winde are forced to this, and that figure, but cannot possibly retain one constant forme, so is shee persecuted by the fire of Nature; for this fire, and this water are like two Lovers, they no sooner meet, but presently they play and toy, and this Game will not over till some new Babee is generated. I have oftentimes admired their subtil perpetual Motion, for at all Times, and in all places these two are busie, which occasioned that Notable sentence of Trismegistus, That Action was the Life of God. But most excellent, and Magisterial is that Oracle of Marcus Antoninus, who in his Discourse to himself, speaks indeed things worthy of himself, οὐδὲν οὕτως φιλεῖ ἡ τῶν ὅλων φύσις ὡς τὸ τὰ πάντα μεταβάλλειν, καὶ ποιεῖν νέα ὅμοια. The Nature (saith he) of the Universe delights not in any Thing so much, as to alter all Things, and
**Modern English**
This is true: as the air and all the volatile substances in it are restless, so too is first matter. No human eye ever saw her twice in precisely the same shape. Just as clouds driven by the wind are forced into this or that figure but cannot retain one constant form, so she is pursued by Nature's fire. This fire and this water are like two lovers: no sooner do they meet than they begin to play, and the game will not end until some new child is generated. I have often marvelled at their subtle, perpetual motion, for at all times and in all places these two are busy. This occasioned Trismegistus's notable saying that action was God's life. But most excellent and commanding is the utterance of Marcus Antoninus, who, in his discourse to himself, truly speaks things worthy of himself. [New translation of the Greek:] “The nature of the whole loves nothing so much as changing all things and making new things like them.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “The nature of the universe delights in nothing so much as altering all things and[^n238]
**CT-P091-A** 1650, p. 91
**Original English**
then to make the like again. This is her Tick Tack, shee playes one Game, to begin another. The matter is placed before her like a peece of Wax, and shee shapes it to all formes, and figures. Now shee makes a Bird, now a Beast, now a Flowre, then a Frog and shee is pleas'd with her own Magicall performances, as men are with their own fansies. Hence shee is call'd of Orpheus, πολυμήχανος μήτηρ and ἀλλοτριομορφοδίαιτε the Mother that makes many Things, and ordaines strange shapes, or figures. Neither doth shee, as some sinfull Parents doe, who having their pleasure, care not for their Child; shee loves them still after shee hath made them, hath an eye over them all, and provides even for her Sparrowes. IT is strange to consider that shee workes as well privatly as publicly, not onely in Gardens where Ladyes may smell her perfumes, but in remote Solitudes and Deserts. The Truth is, shee seeks not to please others so much as her self, wherefore many of her works, and those the Choysest, never come to Light. Wee see little Children, who are newly come from under her hand, will be dabling in 'Dirt and Water, and other idle sports affected by none but Themselves. The Reason is, they are not as yet Captivated, which makes them seek their own pleasures; But when they come to Age, then Love or Profit makes them square
**Modern English**
then making their like again.” This is her tick-tack: she plays one game in order to begin another. Matter lies before her like a piece of wax, and she moulds it into every form and figure. Now she makes a bird, now a beast, now a flower, then a frog; she delights in her magical performances as people delight in their own fancies. Hence Orpheus calls her [New translation of the Greek epithets:] “the resourceful mother” and “she who dwells in ever-changing forms.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “The mother who makes many things and ordains strange shapes or figures.” Nor does she behave like sinful parents who, having had their pleasure, care nothing for their child. She loves her children after making them, watches over them all, and provides even for her sparrows. It is strange to consider how she works privately as well as publicly, in remote solitudes and deserts as well as gardens where ladies smell her perfumes. In truth, she seeks to please herself more than others; hence many of her works, including the choicest, never come to light. Little children, newly come from her hands, dabble in dirt and water and other idle games enjoyed by no one but themselves. They are not yet captive, and therefore seek their own pleasures. But as they grow older, love or profit makes them shape[^n239], [^n240]
**CT-P092-A** 1650, p. 92
**Original English**
their Actions according to other mens Desires. Some Cockney claps his Revenues on his backe, but his Galantrie is spoil'd, if his Mistris doth not observe it. Another fights, but his Victory is lost, if it be not Printed, it is the world must heare of his Valour. Now Nature is a free spirit, that seeks no Applause, shee observes none more than her self, but is pleased with her own Magic, as Philosophers are with their Secret Philosophie. Hence it is that wee find her busie, not onely in the Potts of the Balconies, but in Wildernesses, and ruinous places, where no eyes observe her, but the Starrs and Planets. In a word, wheresoever the fire of nature finds the Virgin Mercurie, there hath he found his Love, and there will they both fall to their Husbandrie, a pleasure not subject to Surfets, for it still Presents new Varieties. It is reported of Marc Antonie, a famous, but unfortunate Romane, how he sent his Agent over the world to Copie all the handsome faces, that amongst so many excellent features, hee might select for himself the most pleasing peece. Truly Nature is much of this straine, for shee hath infinite beauteous patternes in her self, and all these shee would gladly see beyond her self, which shee cannot doe without the matter, for that is her Glasse. This makes her generate perpetually, and imprint her conceptions in
**Modern English**
their actions to other people's desires. Some cockney wears his income on his back, but all his finery is wasted if his mistress fails to notice. Another fights, but his victory is lost unless it is printed: the world must hear of his valour. Nature, however, is a free spirit seeking no applause. She attends to no one more than herself, delighting in her magic as philosophers delight in their secret philosophy. Hence we find her busy in wildernesses and ruined places, where only the stars and planets watch her, as well as in pots on balconies. In a word, wherever Nature's fire finds the virgin mercury, he has found his love, and the two will set about their husbandry together. It is a pleasure that never cloys, for it continually offers fresh varieties. It is reported that Mark Antony, the famous but unfortunate Roman, sent an agent round the world to copy every handsome face so that, from so many excellent features, he might choose the most pleasing portrait for himself. Nature has much the same inclination. She holds infinite beautiful patterns within herself, and longs to see them all outside herself. This she cannot do without matter, for matter is her mirror. It makes her generate perpetually and imprint her conceptions in[^n241]
**CT-P093-A** 1650, p. 93
**Original English**
the matter, communicating life to it, and figuring it according to her Imagination. By this Practice shee placeth her Fansie, or Idea, beyond her self, or as the Peripatetics say, extra Intellectum, beyond the divine Mind, namely in the Matter; but the Idea's being innumerable, and withall different, the pleasures of the Agent are maintain'd by their Varietie, or to speak more properly by his own fruitfulnesse, for amongst all the Beauties the world affords, there are not two, that are altogether the same. Much might bee spoken in this place concerning Beautio, what it is, from whence it came, and how it may be defaced, not onely in the outward figure, but in the inward Idea, and lost for ever in both worlds. But these pretty shuttles I am no way acquainted with, I have no Mistris but Nature, wherefore I shall leave the fine Ladies to fine Lads, and speak of my simple AElia Laelia.
**Modern English**
matter, communicating life to it and shaping it according to her imagination. Through this practice she sets her fancy or idea outside herself—or, as the Peripatetics say, outside the intellect: beyond the divine mind, namely, in matter. But because the ideas are countless and different, the agent's pleasures are maintained by their variety—or, more properly, by his own fruitfulness. Among all the beauties the world affords, no two are entirely alike. Much could be said here about beauty: what it is, where it came from, and how it may be defaced, not only in its outward form but in its inward idea, and lost forever in both worlds. But I have no acquaintance with these pretty trifles. I have no mistress but Nature. I shall therefore leave fine ladies to fine lads and speak of my simple Ælia Lælia.[^n242]
### Hyanthe
**CT-P093-B** 1650, p. 93
**Original English**
It was scarce Day, when all alone
I saw Hyanthe and her Throne.
In fresh, green Damascs she was drest,
And o're a Saphir Globe did rest.
This slipperie Sphaere when I did see,
Fortune, I thought it had been Thee.
But when I saw shee did present
A Majestie more Permanent,
**Modern English**
It was scarcely day when, all alone,
I saw Hyanthe and her throne.
In fresh green damask she was dressed,
And on a sapphire globe she rested.
When I beheld that slippery sphere,
“Fortune,” I thought, “it must be you.”
But when I saw she showed a majesty
More lasting still,[^n243]
**CT-P094-A** 1650, p. 94
**Original English**
I thought my Cares not lost, if I
Should finish my Discoverie.
**Modern English**
I thought my trouble well repaid,
If I could finish my discovery.
**CT-P094-B** 1650, p. 94
**Original English**
Sleepie shee look'd to my first sight,
As if shee had Watch'd all the Night,
And underneath, her hand was spread,
The White Supporter of her head.
But at my Second, studied View,
I could perceive a silent Dew
Steale down her Cheeks; lest it should Stayne
Those Cheeks where onely Smiles should reigne.
The Tears stream'd down for haste, and all
In Chaines of liquid Pearle did fall.
Faire Sorrows; and more dear than Joyes,
Which are but emptie Ayres and Noyse,
Your Drops present a richer Prize,
For they are Something like her Eyes.
**Modern English**
At my first sight she seemed asleep,
As though she had kept watch all night;
Beneath her head her hand was spread,
Its white support as she reclined.
But at a second, studied look
I saw a silent dew steal down
Her cheeks. Lest it should stain those cheeks
Where smiles alone ought to hold sway,
Her tears streamed swiftly down and fell
In chains of flowing pearl.
Fair sorrows, dearer far than joys
That are but empty airs and noise,
Your drops bestow a richer prize,
For they are something like her eyes.
**CT-P094-C** 1650, p. 94
**Original English**
Pretty, white Foole! why hast thou been
Sulli'd with Teares, and not with Sin?
'Tis true: thy Teares, like Polish'd Skies,
Are the Bright Rosials of thy Eyes,
But such strange Fates doe them attend,
As if thy Woes would never end.
From Drops to Sighes they turn, and then
Those sighes return to Drops agen:
But whiles the Silver Torrent seeks
Those Flowr's that watch it in thy Cheeks,
The White and Red Hyanthe weares,
Turn to Rose-water all her Teares.
**Modern English**
Pretty white innocent! Why have you
Been sullied with tears, yet not with sin?
Your tears, like polished skies, are bright,
The rose-like jewels of your eyes.
Yet such strange fates attend them still,
It seems your woes will never end.
From drops they turn to sighs, and then
Those sighs return to drops again.
But while the silver torrent seeks
The flowers awaiting in your cheeks,
Hyanthe's colours, white and red,
Turn all her tears to water of roses.
**CT-P095-A** 1650, p. 95
**Original English**
Have you beheld a Flame, that springs
From Incense, when sweet, curled, Rings
Of smoke attend her last, weak Fires,
And Shee all in Perfumes expires?
So dy'd Hyanthe. Here (said shee)
Let not this Vial part from Thee.
It holds my Heart, though now 'tis Spill'd,
And into Waters all distill'd.
'Tis constant still: Trust not false Smiles,
Who smiles, and weeps not shee beguiles.
Nay trust not Teares: false are the few,
Those Teares are Many, that are True.
Trust Mee, and take the better Choyce,
Who hath my Teares, can want no Joyes.
**Modern English**
Have you beheld a flame spring up
From incense, while sweet curling rings
Of smoke attend its last weak fires,
And it breathes out its life in perfume?
So died Hyanthe. “Here,” she said,
“Never let this vial leave you.
It holds my heart, though now outpoured
And wholly distilled into water.
It is constant still. Trust no false smiles:
She who smiles but does not weep deceives.
Yet trust no tears: the few are false;
The tears that are true are many.
Trust me and make the better choice:
Who has my tears can lack no joys.”
### The Philosophers’ Testimonies
**CT-P095-B** 1650, p. 95
**Original English**
I know some Sophisters of the Heptarchie, I mean those, whose Learning is all Noyse, in which Sense even Py-annets, and Paraquitoes are Philosophicall, will conclude this, all Bayt and Poetrie, that wee are Pleasing not Positive, and cheat even the Readers Discretion. To prevent such impotent Calumnies, and to spend a little more of our secret Light upon the welldisposed Student, I shall in this place produce the Testimonies of some able Philosophers concerning the first Matter it self, as it is naturally found, before any alteration by Art; and here verily the Reader may discover the Mark, it is most easily done, if he will but eye
**Modern English**
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[^n244]
**CT-P096-A** 1650, p. 96
**Original English**
the Flights of my Verse, or follow the more grave pace of their Prose. The first I shall cite is Arnoldus de Villâ novâ, an absolute perfect Master of the Art, hee describes the Philosophicall Chaos, in these plain termes. Lapis est, & non lapis, Spiritus, Anima, & Corpus; Quem si dissolvis, dissolvitur, & si coagules, coagulatur, & si volare facis, volat; Est enim Volatilis, albus ut lacryma oculi: postea efficitur citrinus, salsus, pilis carens: quem nemo suâ linguâ tangere potest. Ecce ipsum jam suâ demonstravi descriptione, non tamen nominavi. Modo volo ipsum nominare, & dico, quod si dixeris eum Aquam esse, verum dicis; & si dixeris eum Aquam non esse, mentiris. Ne igitur decipiaris pluribus descriptionibus, & operationibus, unum enim quid est, cui nihil alieni infertur. It is (saith hee) a stone and no stone Spirit, Soule, and Bodie; which if thou dissolvest, it will bee dissolved, and if thou doest coagulat it, it will be coagulated, and if thou doest make it fly, it will fly; for it is Volatil, or flying, and cleare as a teare; afterwards it is made citrine then saltish, but without shoots. or Chrystals, and no man may touch it with his Tongue. Behold I have described it truly to thee, but I have not named it. Now I will name it, and I say, that if thou sayest it is Water, thou doest say the Truth, and if thou sayest it is not water, thou
**Modern English**
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[^n245], [^n246]
**CT-P097-A** 1650, p. 97
**Original English**
doest lie. Bee not therefore deceived with manifold Descriptions and Operations, for it is but one Thing, to which nothing Extraneous may be added. Thus Arnoldus; and he borrowed this from the Turba. Let us now heare his Disciple Raymund Lullie, who speaking very enviously and obscurely of Seven Metallic Principles, describes the Third wherein foure of the seven are included in these words; Tertium (saith hee) est Aqua clara Composita, & illa est res Argento vivo magis propingua, quae quidem reperitur supra Terram currens & fluens. Et istud argentum vivum in omni Corpore Elementato à materia aeris est proprie generatum, & ideo ipsius humiditas est valde ponderosa. That is: The third Principle, is a Cleare Compounded water, and it is the next substance in Complexion to Quick-Silver, it is found running, and flowing upon the Earth. This Quicksilver is generated in every Compound out of the Substance of the Aire, and therefore the moysture of it is extreme heavy. To these I will adde Albertus Magnus, whose Suffrage in this kind of Learning is like the Stylanx to Gold, for hee had thoroughly search'd it, and knew very well what part of it would abide the Test. Mercurius Sapientum (saith hee) est Elementum Aqueum frigidum, & humidum, Aqua permanens, spiritus Corporis, vapor
**Modern English**
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,[^n247], [^n248]
**CT-P098-A** 1650, p. 98
**Original English**
unctuosus, Aqua Benedicta, Aqua virtuosa, Aqua Sapientum, Acetum Philosophorum, Aqua Mineralis, Ros coelestis gratiae, Lac Virginis, Mercurius Corporalis, & aliis infinitis Nominibus in Philosophorum libris nominatur, quae quidem Nomina quamvis varia sunt, semper tamen unam & eandem rem significant, utpote Solum Mercurium sapientum. Ex ipso solo elicitur omnis virtus Artis Alckimiae, & suo modo Tinctura alba & rubea. In plain English thus; The Mercurie of the Wisemen is a waterie Element, Cold and moyst. This is their Permanent water, the spirit of the Bodie, the unctuous vapour, the Blessed water, the virtuous water, the water of the Wisemen, the Philosophers Vinacre, the Mineral Water the Dew of heavenly Grace the Virgins Milk. the Bodily Mercurie and with other numberlesse names is it named in the Bookes of the Philosophers, which names truly though they are divers notwithstanding alwayes signifie one and the same thing, namely the Mercurie of the Wisemen. Out of this Mercurie alone all the Virtue of the Art is extracted and according to its Nature the Tincture both Red and White. To this agrees Rachaidibi the Persian; Sperma Lapidis (saith hee) est frigidum & humidum in Manifesto, & in Occulto calidum & siccum. The Sperme, or first matter of the stone is outwardly
**Modern English**
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[^n249], [^n250]
**CT-P099-A** 1650, p. 99
**Original English**
cold and moyst but inwardly Hot and Drie. All which is confirmed by Rhodian, another Instructor (it seemes) of Kanid King of Persia; his words are these; Sperma est album & liquidum, postea rubeum. Sperma istud est lapis fugitivus & est Aereum & Volatile, & est frigidum & humidum, & calidum & siccum. The Sperm (saith hee) is white and Liquid, afterwards red. This Sperm is the flying stone, and it is aereal, and volatil, cold and moyst, hot and drie. To these subscribes the Author of that excellent Tract intituled Liber trium Verborum. Hic est Liber (saith hee) Trium verborum, Liber Lapidis preciosi, qui est Corpus aereum & volatile, frigidum & humidum, aquosum & adustivum, & in eo est Caliditas & siccitas, frigiditas & humiditas, alia virtus in occulto, alia in Manifesto. This is the Book of Three words, meaning thereby Three Principles, The Book of the Precious stone, which is a Body aereal and volatil cold and moyst, watrie and adustive, and in it is Heat and Drought, Coldnesse and Moysture, one virtue inwardly, the other outwardly. Belus the Philosopher in that famous and most Classic Synod of Arisleus, inverts the order, to conceale the practice, but if rightly understood, he speaks to the purpose. Excelsum (sayth hee) est hoc apud Philosophos magnos Lapidem non
**Modern English**
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[^n251], [^n252]
**CT-P100-A** 1650, p. 100
**Original English**
esse lapidem, apud Idiotas vile & Incredibile. Quis enim credet Lapidem Aquam, & Aquam Lapidem fieri, cum nihil sit diversius? Attamen revera ita est. Lapis enim est haec ipsa permanens Aqua, & dum Aqua est lapis non est. Amongst all great Philosophers it is Magisterial that our stone is no stone, but amongst Ignorants it is ridiculous and incredible. For who will believe that water can be made a stone, and a stone water, nothing being more different than these two? And yet in very truth it is so. For this very permanent water is the stone, but whiles it is water, it is no stone. But in this sense the Ancient Hermes abounds, and almost discovers too much. Scitote Filii Sapientum, quod priscorum Philosophorum aquae est Divisio, quae dividit ipsam in Alia quatuor. Know (saith hee) you that are the Children of the wise, the Separation of the ancient Philosophers was performed upon water, which Separation divides the water into other foure Substances. There is extant a very learned Author, who hath written something to this purpose, and that more openly than any, whom we have formerly cited. Sicuti Mundus Originem debet Aquae, cui Spiritus Domini incubabat, rebus tàm Coelestibus, quàm Terrestribus omnibus indè prodeuntibus; ita Limbus hic emergit ex Aquâ non vulgari, ne que ex Rore Coelesti, aut ex aere
**Modern English**
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[^n253], [^n254]
**CT-P101-A** 1650, p. 101
**Original English**
Condensato in Cavernis Terrae, vel in Recipiente ipso, non ex Abysso Maris, fontibus, puteis, fluminibusvè hausto, sed ex Aquâ quadam perpessâ, omnibus obviâ, paucissimis cognitâ, Quae in se habet, quaecun que , ad totius operis Complementum sunt necessaria, omni amoto Extrinsico. As the world (saith hee) was generated out of that Water, upon which the Spirit of God did move, all things proceeding thence, both Coelestiall and Terrestriall So this Chaos is generated out of a certain Water that is not common, not out of Dew, nor Ayre condensed in the Caverns of the Earth, or Artificially in the Receiver; not out of water drawn out of the Sea, Fountains, Pitts, or Rivers, but out of a certain tortured water, that hath suffered some Alteration, obvious it is to All, but known to very few. This water hath all in it, that is necessarie to the perfection of the work, without any Extrinsecal Addition. I could produce a Thousand Authors more, but that were tedious; I shall conclude with one of the Rosie Brothers, whose Testimonie is AEquivalent to the Best of These but his Instruction far more Excellent. His Discourse of the first Matter is somewhat large, and to avoyd prolixitie, I shall forbeare the Latin, but I will give thee his Sense in punctuall plaine English.
**Modern English**
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.[^n255], [^n256]
### The Voice of Nature
**CT-P102-A** 1650, p. 102
**Original English**
I am a Goddesse (saith hee, speaking in the person of Nature) for Beauty and Extraction famous, born out of our own proper Sea, which compasseth the whole Earth, and is ever restlesse. Out of my Breasts I poure forth Milk and Bloud; Boyle these two, till they are turned into Silver and Gold. O most excellent Subject! out of which all things in this world are generated, though at the first sight thou art Poyson, adorn'd with the name of the flying Eagle. Thou art the first Matter, the seed of Divine Benediction, in whose Body there is Heat and Rain, which notwithstanding are hidden from the wicked, because of thy Habit, and virgin vestures which is scatter'd over all the world. Thy Parents are the Sun and Moone, in Thee there is Water and Wine, Gold also and Silver upon Earth, that mortall man may rejoyce. After this manner God sends us his Blessing and Wisdome with Raine, and the Beams of the Sun, to the eternall Glory of his Name. But consider ô Man, what Things God bestows upon thee by this means. Torture the Eagle till shee weeps, and the Lion bee weakened, and bleed to death. The Bloud of this Lion incorporated with the Teares of the Eagle, is the Treasure of the Earth. These Creatures use to devoure and kill one another, but notwithstanding their love is mutuall, and they put on the
**Modern English**
“I am a goddess,” he says, speaking in Nature's person, “famous for beauty and descent, born from our own sea, which surrounds the whole earth and is always restless. From my breasts I pour milk and blood. Boil these two until they turn into silver and gold. O most excellent subject, from which all things in this world are generated! Though at first sight you are poison, you are adorned with the name of the flying eagle. You are first matter, the seed of divine blessing. Within your body are heat and rain, hidden from the wicked by your habit and virgin clothing, which are scattered throughout the world. Your parents are the sun and moon. Within you are water and wine, and gold and silver upon earth, so that mortal man may rejoice. Thus God sends us his blessing and wisdom with rain and the sun's rays, to the eternal glory of his name. But consider, man, what God bestows upon you by this means. Torture the eagle until she weeps, and the lion is weakened and bleeds to death. The lion's blood, incorporated with the eagle's tears, is earth's treasure. These creatures devour and kill one another, yet their love is mutual. They take on the[^n257]
**CT-P103-A** 1650, p. 103
**Original English**
Proprietie, and Nature of a Salamander, which, if it remains in the fire without any detriment it cures all the Diseases of Men, Beasts and Metals. After that the Ancient Philosophers had perfectly understood this Subject, they diligently sought in this Mysterie for the Center of the Middlemost Tree in the Terrestrial Paradyse, entring in by Five litigious Gates. The first Gate was the Knowledge of the true Matter, and here arose the first, and that a most bitter Conflict. The second was the Praeparation by which this matter was to bee praepared, that they might obtain the Embers of the Eagle, and the Bloud of the Lyon. At this Gate there is a most sharp fight, for it produceth water and bloud, and a Spirituall bright Body. The Third Gate is the Fire, which conduceth to the Maturitie of the Medicine. The Fourth Gate is that of Multiplication and Augmentation in which Proportions and Weights are Necessarie. The fifth and last Gate is Projection. But most glorious, full rich, and high is hee who attains to the fourth Gate, for hee hath got an Universall Medicine for all Diseases. This is that great Character of the Book of Nature, out of which her whole Alphabet doth arise.
**Modern English**
property and nature of a salamander, which, if it remains unharmed in the fire, cures all diseases of men, beasts and metals. When the ancient philosophers fully understood this subject, they diligently sought within this mystery the centre of the middlemost tree in the earthly paradise, entering by five contentious gates. The first gate was knowledge of the true matter: here arose the first and most bitter conflict. The second was preparation, by which this matter was prepared to obtain the eagle's embers and the lion's blood. At this gate there is a most fierce battle, for it produces water, blood and a bright spiritual body. The third gate is fire, which brings the medicine to maturity. The fourth is multiplication and augmentation, in which proportions and weights are necessary. The fifth and last gate is projection. Yet glorious, rich and exalted is he who reaches the fourth gate, for he has obtained a universal medicine for every disease. This is the great character in the book of Nature from which her whole alphabet arises.[^n258], [^n259]
**CT-P104-A** 1650, p. 104
**Original English**
The fifth gate serves onely for Metals. This Mysterie existing from the Foundation of the World, and the Creation of Adam is of all others the most ancient, a knowledge which God Almighty by his Word breathed into Nature, a miraculous power, the blessed fire of Life, the Transparent Carbuncle, and red Gold of the Wise men, and the Divine Benediction of this life. But this mysterie, because of the Malice and wickednesse of men, is given onely to few, notwithstanding it lives, and moves every day in the sight of the whole world, as it appears by the following parable. I am a poysonous Dragon, present every where, and to bee had for nothing. My water and my fire dissolve and Compound; out of my body thou shalt draw the Green, and the Red Lyon: but if thou doest not exactly know mee, thou wilt with my Fire destroy thy five Senses. A most pernieious quick poyson comes out of my Nostrils, which hath been the Destruction of many. Separate therefore the Thick from the Thin artificially, unlesse thou dost delight in extreme Povertie. I give thee faculties both Male and Female and the Powers both of Heaven and Earth. The Mysteries of my Art are to bee performed magnanimously, and with great
**Modern English**
The fifth gate serves metals alone. Existing since the world's foundation and Adam's creation, this mystery is the most ancient of all: a knowledge Almighty God breathed into Nature through his Word, a miraculous power, the blessed fire of life, the transparent carbuncle and red gold of the wise, and the divine blessing of this life. Yet because of human malice and wickedness it is given to few, although it lives and moves daily before the whole world, as the following parable shows. I am a poisonous dragon, present everywhere and obtainable for nothing. My water and fire dissolve and combine. From my body you shall draw the green and red lion. But unless you know me exactly, you will destroy your five senses with my fire. A most deadly, living poison comes from my nostrils and has destroyed many. Therefore separate the thick from the thin with art, unless you delight in utter poverty. I give you male and female faculties, and the powers of heaven and earth. The mysteries of my art must be performed magnanimously and with great
**CT-P105-A** 1650, p. 105
**Original English**
Courage, if thou wouldest have mee overcome the Violence of the Fire, in which Attempt many have lost both their Labour and their Substance. I am the Egg of Nature known onely to the Wise, such as are pious and modest, who make of mee a little world. Ordain'd I was by the All-mighty God for men, but (though many desire mee) I am given onely to few that they may relieve the poore with my Treasures, and not set their mindes on Gold that perisheth. I am call'd of the Philosophers Mercurie: my husband is Gold (Philosophicall.) I am the old Dragon that is present every where on the face of the Earth; I am Father and Mother; Youthfull and Ancient; weak and yet most strong; Life and Death; Visible and Invisible; Hard and Soft; Descending to the Earth and Ascending to the Heavens; most high and most low; light and heavy; In mee the Order of Nature is oftentimes inverted, in Colour, Number, Weight and Measure. I have in mee the light of Nature, I am dark and bright, I spring from the Earth, and I come out of Heaven, I am well known, and yet a meer Nothing, all Colours shine in mee, and all Metals by the Beams of the Sun. I am
**Modern English**
courage if you would have me overcome the violence of fire, an attempt in which many have lost both their labour and their wealth. I am Nature's egg, known only to the wise—the pious and modest—who make a little world from me. Almighty God ordained me for men. Though many desire me, I am given to few, so that they may relieve the poor with my treasures and set no store by gold that perishes. The philosophers call me mercury; my husband is philosophical gold. I am the ancient dragon, present everywhere on earth's face. I am father and mother, young and old, weak and yet most strong, life and death, visible and invisible, hard and soft, descending to earth and ascending to heaven, highest and lowest, light and heavy. In me Nature's order is often inverted in colour, number, weight and measure. I have Nature's light within me. I am dark and bright. I spring from earth and come from heaven. I am well known and yet a mere nothing. All colours shine in me, and all metals through the sun's rays. I am[^n260]
**CT-P106-A** 1650, p. 106
**Original English**
the Carbuncle of the Sun, a most noble clarified Earth by which thou mayest turne Copper, Iron, Tin, and Lead into most pure Gold.
**Modern English**
the sun's carbuncle, a most noble, clarified earth by which you may turn copper, iron, tin and lead into the purest gold.”
**CT-P106-B** 1650, p. 106
**Original English**
Now Gentlemen you may see which way the Philosophers move, they commend their Secret water, and I admire the Teares of Hyanthe. There is something in the Fansie besides Poetrie, for my Mistris is very Philosophicall, and in her Love a pure Platonic. But now I think upon't, how many Rivals shall I procure by this Discourse? Every Reader will fall to, and some fine Thing may break her heart with Non-sense. This Love indeed were meer Luck, but for my part I dare trust her, and lest any man should mistake her for some things formerly named, I will tell you truly what shee is; She is not any known water whatsoever, but a Secret Spermatic Moysture, or rather the Venus that yeelds that moysture. Therefore doe not you Imagine that shee is any crude, phlegmatic, thin water, or shee is a fatt, thick, heavie, slimie humiditie; But lest you should think I am grown jealous, and would not trust you with my Mistris, Arnoldus de villanova shall speak for me, hear him. Ampliùs
**Modern English**
Now, gentlemen, you can see the philosophers' direction: they praise their secret water, and I admire Hyanthe's tears. There is something in this fancy beyond poetry, for my mistress is thoroughly philosophical, and in love a pure Platonist. Yet now I think of it, how many rivals will this discourse procure me? Every reader will set to work, and some fine fellow may break her heart with nonsense. Such love would indeed be mere luck. For my part, I dare trust her. Lest anyone mistake her for something previously named, I shall tell you truly what she is. She is no known water whatsoever, but a secret seminal moisture—or rather the Venus that yields that moisture. Do not imagine that she is some crude, phlegmatic, thin water, for she is a fatty, thick, heavy, slimy moisture. But lest you think I have grown jealous and will not trust you with my mistress, Arnold of Villanova shall speak for me. Hear him. [New translation of the Latin:] “Furthermore,[^n261], [^n262]
**CT-P107-A** 1650, p. 107
**Original English**
tibi dico, quod nullo modo invenire potuimus, nec similiter invenire potuerunt Philosophi, aliquam rem perseverantem in igne, nisi solam unctuosam Humiditatem. Aqueam humiditatem videmus de facili evaporare, Arida remanet, & ideo separantur, quia non sunt Naturales. Si autem eas humiditates consydereremus, quae difficulter separantur ab his quae sunt Naturales, non invenimus aliquas nisi unctuosas, & viscosas. I tell thee further (saith hee) that wee could not possibly find, neither could the Philosophers find before us, any thing that would persist in the fire, but onely the Unctuous Humiditie. A waterie Humiditie, we see, will easily vapour away, and the Earth remains behind and the parts are therefore separated because their Composition is not natural. But if wee consider those humidities, which are hardly separated from those parts which are naturall to them, wee find not any such but the unctuous, viscous Humidities. It will be expected perhaps by some Flint, and Antimonie-Doctors, who make their Philosophicall Contrition with a Hammer, that I should discover this Thing out-right and not suffer this strange Bird-lime to hold their pride by the Plumes. To these, I say, it is water of Silver, which some have called water of the Moon, but 'tis Mercurie of the Sun, and partly of Saturn,
**Modern English**
I tell you that we could find nothing whatever that persists in fire except oily moisture alone; nor could the philosophers find anything else. We see watery moisture readily evaporate; the dry part remains. They separate because they are not natural to one another. But if we consider those moistures that are difficult to separate from what is natural to them, we find none except oily and viscous ones.” [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “I tell you further that we could not possibly find, nor could the philosophers before us, anything that would persist in fire except oily moisture. Watery moisture, as we see, easily evaporates, and earth remains behind. The parts are separated because their composition is not natural. But if we consider moistures that are difficult to separate from the parts natural to them, we find none except oily, viscous moistures.” Some flint and antimony doctors, who perform their philosophical crushing with a hammer, may expect me to disclose this thing outright rather than let this strange birdlime hold their pride by its feathers. To them I say: it is water of silver, which some have called water of the moon; yet it is mercury of the sun and partly of Saturn,[^n263], [^n264]
**CT-P108-A** 1650, p. 108
**Original English**
for it is extracted from these three metalls, and without them it can never bee made. Now they may unriddle, and tell me what it is, for it is Truth, if they can understand it.
**Modern English**
for it is extracted from these three metals, and without them it can never be made. Now let them solve the riddle and tell me what it is. It is the truth, if they can understand it.
### Secrecy and the Divine Source
**CT-P108-B** 1650, p. 108
**Original English**
To the Ingenuous and modest Reader, I have something else to replie, and I believe it will sufficiently excuse mee. Raimund Lullie, a man who had been in the Center of Nature, and without all Question understood a great part of the Divine Will, gives me a most terrible Charge not to prostitute these Principles. Juro Tibi (saith hee) supra animam meam, [Marginal note: Theor. cap. 6.] quod si ea reveles, damnatus es. Nam a Deo omne procedit bonum, & ei soli debetur. Quare servabis, & Secretum tenebis illud, quod ei debetur revelandum, & affirmabis quam per rectam proprietatem subtrahis, quae eius honori debentur. Quia si revelares brevibus verbis illud quod longinquo tempore formavit, in die magni Judicii condemnareris, tanquam qui perpetrator existens contra Majestatem dei laesam, nec tibi remitteretur Casus Laesae Majestatis. Talium enim Revelatio ad Deum, & non ad Alterum spectat. That is; I swear to thee upon my soule, that thou art damn'd, if thou shouldest reveale these Things. For every good thing proceeds from God and to him onely it is due. Wherefore thou shalt reserve, and keep that Secret, which God onely should reveale,
**Modern English**
For the candid and modest reader I have another reply, which I believe will excuse me sufficiently. Raymond Lull, a man who had been in Nature's centre and undoubtedly understood much of the divine will, lays a terrible charge upon me not to expose these principles indiscriminately. [New translation of the Latin:] “I swear to you upon my soul that if you reveal these things, you are damned. For every good proceeds from God, and is owed to him alone. Therefore you shall preserve and keep secret what it belongs to him to reveal, and declare that you rightly withhold what is owed to his honour. If you were to reveal in a few words what he formed over a long time, on the great day of judgement you would be condemned as an offender against God's injured majesty. The charge of treason would not be forgiven you. For the revelation of such things belongs to God and no other.” [Marginal note: Theory, chapter 6.] [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] “I swear to you upon my soul that you are damned if you reveal these things. Every good thing proceeds from God and is due to him alone. Therefore preserve and keep that secret which God alone should reveal,[^n265]
**CT-P109-A** 1650, p. 109
**Original English**
and thou shalt affirme thou doest justly keep back those things, whose Revelation belongs to his honour. For if thou shouldest reveale that in a few words, which God hath been forming a long time, thou shouldest be condemned in the great day of Judgement, as a Traytor to the Majestie of God, neither should thy Treason bee forgiven Thee. For the Revelation of such Things belong to God, and not to Man. So sayd the wise Raymond.
**Modern English**
and affirm that you rightly withhold those things whose revelation belongs to his honour. If you reveal in a few words what God has been forming over a long time, you will be condemned on the great day of judgement as a traitor to God's majesty, and your treason will not be forgiven. The revelation of such things belongs to God, not man.” So spoke the wise Raymond.
**CT-P109-B** 1650, p. 109
**Original English**
Now for my part I have alwayes honoured the Magicians, their Philosophie being both rational, and Majestic, dwelling not upon Notions, but Effects, and those such as confirme both the Wisdome and the power of the Creator. When I was a meer Errant in their Books, and understood them not, I did believe them. Time rewarded my Faith, and payd my Credulitie with Knowledge. In the Interim I suffer'd many bitter Calumnies, and this by some envious Adversaries, who had nothing of a Scholar, but their Gownes, and a little Language for Vent to their Non-sense. But these could not remove mee, with a Spartan patience I concocted my Injuries, and found at last that Nature was Magicall, not Peripateticall. I have no Reason then to distrust them in Spirituall Things, whom I have found so orthodox and faithfull even in Naturall
**Modern English**
For my part I have always honoured the magicians. Their philosophy is both rational and majestic: it dwells upon effects rather than mere notions, effects confirming the Creator's wisdom and power alike. When I was a mere wanderer in their books and did not understand them, I believed them. Time rewarded my faith and repaid my trust with knowledge. Meanwhile I suffered many bitter slanders from envious opponents who had nothing scholarly about them except their gowns and a little language through which to vent their nonsense. But they could not move me. With Spartan patience I digested my injuries, and finally discovered that Nature was magical, rather than Peripatetic. I have no reason, then, to distrust in spiritual things those I have found so sound and faithful even in natural[^n266]
**CT-P110-A** 1650, p. 110
**Original English**
Mysteries. I doe believe Raymund, and in order to that Faith, I provide for my Salvation. I will not discover, that I may not be condemn'd. But if this will not satisfie Thee, who ever thou art let me whisper thee a word in the ear, and afterwards doe thou proclaime it on the housetopps. Doest thou know from whom, and how that Sperme or Seed which men for want of a better name call the first matter, proceeded? A certain Illuminate and in his daies a member of that Societie, which some painted Buzzards use to laugh at, writes thus; Deus optimus Maximus ex Nihilo aliquid creavit, illud Aliquid vero fiebat unum aliquod, in Quo Omnia. Creaturae Coelestes & Terrestres. God (sayth hee) incomparably good and Great, out of nothing created something, but that Something was made one Thing, in which all Things were contained Creatures both Coelestiall and Terrestriall. This first Something was a certain kind of Cloud, or Darknesse, which was condensed into water. and this water is that One Thing in which all Things were contained. But my Question is, what was that Nothing, out of which the first Cloudy Chaos, or Something was made? Canst thou tell mee? It may bee thou doest think it is a meere Nothing. It is indeed Nihil quò ad Nos. Nothing that wee perfectly know. It is Nothing as Dionysius saith,
**Modern English**
mysteries. I do believe Raymond, and in accordance with that faith I make provision for my salvation. I will not disclose the secret, so that I may not be condemned. But if this does not satisfy you, whoever you are, let me whisper a word in your ear, and afterwards you may proclaim it from the rooftops. Do you know from whom, and how, that sperm or seed which people, for want of a better name, call the first matter proceeded? A certain enlightened man, in his day a member of that society which some painted buzzards are accustomed to laugh at, writes as follows: “God, supremely good and great, created something out of nothing; but that something became a single thing in which were all things, heavenly and earthly creatures.” [Vaughan’s accompanying English:] God, he says, incomparably good and great, created something out of nothing; but that something was made one thing, in which all things were contained, both heavenly and earthly creatures. This first something was a kind of cloud or darkness, which condensed into water; and this water is that one thing in which all things were contained. But my question is: what was that nothing out of which the first cloudy chaos, or something, was made? Can you tell me? Perhaps you think it is sheer nothing. It is indeed “nothing in relation to us”: nothing that we know perfectly. It is nothing, as Dionysius says,[^n267], [^n268], [^n269]
**Original marginal note**
**CT-P110-A-M01** 1650, p. 110
**Original English**
See Jacob Behmen in his most excellent and profound Discourse of the Three Principles.
**Modern English**
See Jacob Böhme’s most excellent and profound discourse on the Three Principles.
**CT-P111-A** 1650, p. 111
**Original English**
Nihil eorum quae sunt, & Nihil eorum quae non sunt. It is nothing that was created, or of those things that are: and nothing of that which thou doest call nothing that is of those Things that are not, in thy empty destructive sense. But by your leave, it is the True Thing, of whom wee can affirme nothing: it is that transcendent Essence, whose Theologie is Negative, and was known to the Primitive Church, but is lost in These our Dayes. This is that Nothing of Cornelius Agrippa, and in this nothing, when hee was tyr'd with humane Things, I mean humane Sciences, hee did at last rest: Nihil Scire, (sayd hee) est vita felicissima, to know Nothing is the happiest Life; true indeed, for to know this Nothing, is Life Eternall. Learne then to understand that Magicall Axiom, Ex Invisibili factum est Visibile, for all Visibles came out of the Invisible God, for hee is the Well-spring from whence all things flow, and the Creation was a certain stupendious Metaphysicall Birth, or Deliverie. This fine Virginwater, or Chaos, was the second Nature from God himself, and if I may say so, the Child of the Blessed Trinitie. What Doctor then is hee, whose hands are fit to touch that Subject, upon which God himself when he workes, layes his own Spirit, for verely so we reade, The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water? And
**Modern English**
“none of the things that are, and none of the things that are not.” It is nothing that was created, or among the things that exist; and nothing among what you call nothing—that is, among things that do not exist, in your empty, destructive sense. Yet, with your permission, it is the true thing of which we can affirm nothing: that transcendent essence whose theology proceeds by negation. This was known to the early Church, but has been lost in our own day. This is Cornelius Agrippa’s nothing; and in this nothing, when he was tired of human things—I mean human sciences—he finally rested. “To know nothing,” he said, “is the happiest life.” To know nothing is indeed the happiest life, for to know this nothing is eternal life. Learn, then, to understand that magical axiom: “The visible was made from the invisible.” All visible things came from the invisible God, the wellspring from which all things flow; and creation was an astonishing metaphysical birth or delivery. This subtle virgin water, or chaos, was the second nature after God himself and, if I may put it so, the child of the blessed Trinity. What doctor’s hands, then, are fit to touch that subject upon which God himself, when he works, lays his own Spirit? For truly we read: “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water.” And[^n270], [^n271], [^n272]
**Original marginal note**
**CT-P111-A-M01** 1650, p. 111
**Original English**
See Dyonys. Ar. Th. Neg.
**Modern English**
See Dionysius the Areopagite, on negative theology.
**Original marginal note**
**CT-P111-A-M02** 1650, p. 111
**Original English**
Gen. c. 1.
**Modern English**
Genesis, chapter 1.
**CT-P112-A** 1650, p. 112
**Original English**
can it bee expected then, that I should prostitute this Mysterie to all hands whatsoever, that I should proclame it, and crie it, as they cry Oysters? Verily these Considerations, with some other which I will not for all the world put to Papyr have made mee almost displease my dearest friends, to whom notwithstanding I owe a better Satisfaction. Had it been my fortune barely to know this Matter, as most men doe, I had perhaps been lesse carefull of it, but I have been instructed in all the Secret Circumstances thereof, which few upon Earth understand. I speak not for any Ostentation, but I speak a Truth which my Conscience knowes very well. Let me then Reader, request thy Patience, for I shall leave this Discoverie to God, who if it bee his blessed will can call unto Thee, and say: Here it is, and thus I worke it. I had not spoken all this in my own Defence, had I not been assaulted (as it were) in this very point, and told to my face I was bound to discover all that I knew, for this Age looks for Dreames and Revelations, as the Traine to their invisible Righteousnesse. I have now sufficiently discours'd of the Matter, and if it be not thy fortune to find it by what is here written, yet thou canst not bee deceived by what I have sayd, for I have purposely a voyded all those Termes, which might make thee mistake
**Modern English**
can I then be expected to expose this mystery to every hand whatsoever, to proclaim it and cry it through the streets as oysters are cried for sale? These considerations, together with others which I would not commit to paper for the whole world, have almost made me displease my dearest friends, to whom I nevertheless owe a better satisfaction. Had my fortune been merely to know this matter, as most people do, perhaps I would have guarded it less carefully; but I have been instructed in all its secret circumstances, which few on earth understand. I do not speak for display: I speak a truth which my conscience knows very well. Reader, let me therefore ask your patience. I shall leave this disclosure to God, who, if it is his blessed will, can call to you and say: “Here it is, and this is how I work upon it.” I would not have said all this in my defence had I not been attacked, as it were, on this very point, and told to my face that I was obliged to disclose everything I knew; for this age expects dreams and revelations as the attendants of its invisible righteousness. I have now discussed the matter sufficiently; and if you are not fortunate enough to find it through what is written here, you nevertheless cannot be deceived by what I have said. I have deliberately avoided every term that might lead you to mistake
**CT-P113-A** 1650, p. 113
**Original English**
any Common Salts, Stones, or Minerals for it. I advise thee withall to beware of all Vegetables, and Animals: avoyd them, and every part of them whatsoever. I speak this because some ignorant, Sluttish Broylers, are of Opinion, that mans Bloud is the True Subject. But Alas! is mans Bloud in the Bowels of the Earth, that Metals should bee generated out of it? or was the world, and all that is therein, made of man's Bloud, as of their first Matter? Surely no such Thing. The first Matter was existent before Man, and all other Creatures whatsoever, for shee is the Mother of them all; They were made of the first Matter, and not the first Matter of them. Take heed then, Let not any man deceive thee. It is totally impossible to reduce any particular to the first Matter, or to a Sperm, without our Mercurie, and being so reduc'd, it is not Universall, but the Particular Sperm of its own Species, and works not any Effects but what are agreeable to the Nature of that Species, for God hath seal'd it with a particular Idea.
**Modern English**
any common salts, stones or minerals for it. I also advise you to beware of all plants and animals: avoid them, and every part of them whatsoever. I say this because some ignorant, filthy broilers believe that human blood is the true subject. But is human blood in the bowels of the earth, so that metals could be generated from it? Or were the world and everything in it made from human blood as their first matter? Certainly not. The first matter existed before humanity and every other creature, for she is the mother of them all. They were made from the first matter, rather than the first matter from them. Take care, then: let no one deceive you. It is entirely impossible to reduce any particular thing to the first matter, or to a sperm, without our Mercury. Even when so reduced, it is not universal, but the particular sperm of its own species; and it produces no effects except those suited to that species’ nature, for God has sealed it with a particular Idea.[^n273]
**CT-P113-B** 1650, p. 113
**Original English**
Let them alone then who practise upon man's bloud in their Chemicall stoves, and Athanors, or as Sendivow hath it, in Fornaculis mirabilibus; they will deplore their Error at last, and sit without Sackcloth, in the Ashes of their Compositions.
**Modern English**
Leave alone, then, those who work upon human blood in their chemical stoves and athanors—or, as Sendivogius puts it, “in their wonderful little furnaces.” They will lament their error at last, sitting without sackcloth in the ashes of their compounds.[^n274]
### Generation and Restoration
**CT-P114-A** 1650, p. 114
**Original English**
But I have done I will now speak something of Generation, and the wayes of it, that the Process of the Philosophers upon this Matter, may be the better understood. You must know that Nature hath two Extremes, and between them a Middle Substance, which elsewhere wee have call'd the Middle Nature. Example enough wee have in the Creation. The first Extreme was that Cloud or Darkness whereof we have spoken formerly; some call it the Remote Matter, and the Invisible Chaos, but very improperly, for it was not invisible. This is the Jewish Ensoph outwardly, and it is the same with that Orphic Night;
Ὦ Νὺξ μέλαινα χρυσέων ἄστρων τροφέ.
O Night! thou black nurse of the golden stars.
**Modern English**
But I have finished with that. I shall now say something about generation and its ways, so that the philosophers’ process upon this matter may be better understood. You must know that Nature has two extremes and, between them, a middle substance, which elsewhere we have called the middle nature. Creation gives us sufficient example. The first extreme was that cloud or darkness of which we spoke earlier. Some call it the remote matter and the invisible chaos, very improperly, for it was not invisible. This is the outward aspect of the Jewish Ensoph, and it is the same as that Orphic Night:
“O black Night, nurse of golden stars.”
[Vaughan’s English:] “O Night, you black nurse of the golden stars.”[^n275], [^n276]
**Original marginal note**
**CT-P114-A-M01** 1650, p. 114
**Original English**
Anima Magica.
**Modern English**
Anima Magica.
**CT-P114-B** 1650, p. 114
**Original English**
Out of this Darkness all things that are in this world came as out of their Fountain or Matrix: hence that Position of all famous Poets and Philosophers, Omnia ex Nocte Prodiisse. The middle Substance is the Water, into which that Night or Darkness was condensed, and the Creatures fram'd out of the Water make up the other Extreme. But the Magicians when they speak strictly. will not allow of this last Extreme, because Nature doth not stay here, wherefore their Philosophie runs thus; Man (say they) in his natural state, is in the meane Creation, from which hee must recede to one of
**Modern English**
Out of this darkness everything in this world emerged, as from its fountain or womb; hence the statement of all famous poets and philosophers, “All things came forth from Night.” The middle substance is the water into which that night or darkness condensed; and the creatures formed from the water make up the other extreme. But the magicians, speaking strictly, do not admit this last extreme, because Nature does not stop here. Their philosophy therefore runs as follows: humanity, they say, in its natural state, occupies the middle creation, from which it must move towards one of
**CT-P115-A** 1650, p. 115
**Original English**
two Extremes; either to Corruption, as commonly all men doe for they die, and moulder away in their graves: or else to a spirituall, glorified Condition, like Enoch and Elijah, who were translated, and this (say they) is a true Extreme, for after it there is no Alteration. Now the Magicians reasoning with themselves, why the meane Creation should be subject to Corruption, concluded the Cause and Original of this disease to be in the Chaos it self, for even that was corrupted, and cursed upon the Fall of Man. But examining Things further, they found that Nature in her Generations did onely concoct the Chaos with a gentle heat, shee did not separate the parts, and purifie each of them by it self, but the purities and impurities of the Sperme remained together in all her Productions, and this Domestic enemie prevayling at last, occasion'd the Death of the Compound. Hence they wisely gathered, that to minister Vegetables, Animals, or Minerals for Physic, was a meer madness, for even these also had their own Impurities and Diseases, and required some Medicine to cleanse them. Upon this Adviso, they resolved (God without all Question being their Guide) to practise on the Chaos it self, they opened it, purified it, united what they had formerly separated, and fed it with a twofold Fire, Thick, and Thin,
**Modern English**
two extremes: either towards corruption, as people commonly do, dying and mouldering away in their graves; or towards a spiritual, glorified condition like that of Enoch and Elijah, who were translated. This, they say, is a true extreme, since no alteration follows it. Now, reasoning among themselves why the middle creation should be subject to corruption, the magicians concluded that this disease had its cause and origin in the chaos itself; for even the chaos was corrupted and cursed at humanity’s Fall. Examining matters further, however, they found that Nature, in her acts of generation, only digested the chaos with a gentle heat. She did not separate the parts and purify each by itself; instead, the sperm’s purities and impurities remained together in everything she produced. This domestic enemy eventually prevailed, causing the compound’s death. They therefore wisely concluded that administering plants, animals or minerals as medicine was sheer madness: these, too, had their own impurities and diseases and needed a medicine to cleanse them. Acting on this conclusion, and undoubtedly guided by God, they resolved to work upon the chaos itself. They opened it, purified it, reunited what they had separated, and fed it with a twofold fire, thick and thin,[^n277]
**CT-P116-A** 1650, p. 116
**Original English**
till they brought it to the immortal Extreme, and made it a spirituall heavenly Body. This was their Physic, this was their Magic. In this performance they saw the Image of that face, which Zoroaster calls Triadis Vultus ante Essentiam, &c. They perfectly knew the Secundea, which contains all things in her naturally, as God contains all things in himself spiritually. They saw that the Life of all things here below, was a Thick Fire, or fire imprisoned and incorporated in a certaine incombustible Aereall moysture. They found moreover that this fire was originally derived from Heaven, and in this sense Heaven is styl'd in the Oracles,
Ignis, Ignis Derivatio, & Ignis Penu.
**Modern English**
until they brought it to the immortal extreme and made it a spiritual, heavenly body. This was their medicine; this was their magic. In accomplishing it they saw the image of that face which Zoroaster calls “the countenance of the triad before essence,” and so forth. They knew perfectly the Secundea, which contains all things within herself naturally, as God contains all things within himself spiritually. They saw that the life of everything here below was a thick fire: fire imprisoned and embodied in a certain incombustible, airy moisture. They found, moreover, that this fire was originally derived from heaven; and in this sense the Oracles call heaven:
“Fire, the outflow of fire, and the storehouse of fire.”[^n278], [^n279]
### The Natural Fire
**CT-P116-B** 1650, p. 116
**Original English**
In a word, they saw with their Eyes, that Nature was Male and Female; Ignis ruber super Dorsum Ignis Candidi, as the Cabalists expresse it: A certain Fire of a most deep red Colour, working on a most white, heavy, salacious Water, which Water also is Fire inwardly, but outwardly very cold. By this practice it was manifested unto them that God himself was Fire according to that of Eximidius in Turba: Omnium rerum Initium esse Naturam quandam, eamque perpetuam, infinitam, omnia foventem, Coquentemque . The Beginning of all things (sayth he) is a Certain Nature, and
**Modern English**
In a word, they saw with their own eyes that Nature was male and female: “red fire upon the back of white fire,” as the Kabbalists express it. A certain fire of the deepest red works upon an intensely white, heavy, sexually ardent water. This water, too, is inwardly fire, although outwardly very cold. This practice revealed to them that God himself was fire, according to Eximidius in the Turba: “The beginning of all things is a certain nature, perpetual and infinite, nurturing and cooking everything.” [Vaughan’s English:] the beginning of all things, he says, is a certain nature, and[^n280]
**CT-P117-A** 1650, p. 117
**Original English**
that eternall, and infinite, cherishing and heating all Things. The truth is Life which is nothing else but Light, and heat proceeded originally from God, and did apply to the Chaos, which is elegantly call'd by Zoroaster, Fons fontium, & fontium cunctorum, Matrix continens cuncta. The Fountain of fountains, and of all fountains The Matrix containing all Things. Wee see by Experience that all Individuals live not onely by their own heat, but they are preserved by the outward universal heat, which is the life of the great world. Even so truly the great world it self lives not altogether by that heat which God hath inclosed in the parts thereof, but it is praeserved by the circumfused influent heat of the Deitie; For above the Heavens God is manifested like an infinite burning world of Light and Fire, so that hee overlooks all that he hath made, and the whole. Fabric stands in his heat and Light, as a man stands here on Earth in the Sun-shine. I say then that the God of Nature employes himself in a perpetuall Coction, and this not onely to generate, but to preserve that which hath been generated: for his spirit and heat coagulat that which is Thin, rarifie that which is too grosse, quicken the dead parts, and cherish the cold. There is indeed one operation of heat, whose method is vitall, and far more mysterious
**Modern English**
that nature is eternal and infinite, cherishing and warming all things. The truth is that life, which is nothing other than light and heat, originally proceeded from God and applied itself to the chaos, elegantly called by Zoroaster “the fountain of fountains, and of all fountains the womb containing everything.” [Vaughan’s rendering:] “the fountain of fountains, and of all fountains the matrix containing all things.” Experience shows that individuals live not only through their own heat, but are preserved by the external, universal heat which is the life of the great world. In just the same way, the great world itself does not live entirely through the heat which God has enclosed in its parts. It is preserved by the surrounding, inflowing heat of the Deity. For above the heavens God manifests himself like an infinite, burning world of light and fire, overlooking everything he has made; and the whole structure stands in his heat and light as a person here on earth stands in sunshine. I say, then, that the God of Nature engages in perpetual digestion, both to generate and to preserve what has been generated. His Spirit and heat coagulate what is thin, rarefy what is too gross, enliven the dead parts and cherish the cold. There is indeed one operation of heat whose method is vital and far more mysterious
**CT-P118-A** 1650, p. 118
**Original English**
than the rest, they that have use for it, must studie it. I have for my part spoken all that I intend to speak, and though my Book may prove fruitless to many, because not understood, yet some few may be of that Spirit as to comprehend it: Amplae mentis ampla flamma, sayd the great Chaldaean. But because I will not leave thee without some Satisfaction, I advise thee to take the Moone of the firmament, which is a middle nature, and place her so that every part of her may be in two Elements at one and the same time, these Elements also must equally attend her Body, not one further off, not one neerer than the other. In the regulating of these two, there is a twofold Geometrie to be observed, Natural, and Artificial. But I may speak no more. The true Furnace is a little simple shell, thou mayst easily carry it in one of thy hands. The Glasse is one, and no more, but some Philosophers have used two, and so mayst thou. As for the work it self. it is no way troublesome a Lady may reade the Arcadia, and at the same time attend this Philosophie without disturbing her fansie. For my part I think women are fitter for it than men, for in such things they are more neat and patient, being used to a small Chimistrie of Sack-possets, and other finicall sugar-sops. Concerning the Effects of this Medicine, I shall not speak any
**Modern English**
than the rest. Those who have a use for it must study it. For my part, I have said everything I intend to say. Although my book may prove fruitless to many because it is not understood, a few may possess the spirit to comprehend it: “A great flame belongs to a great mind,” said the great Chaldaean. But because I will not leave you without some satisfaction, I advise you to take the moon of the firmament, which is a middle nature, and place her so that every part of her may be in two elements at the same time. These elements must attend her body equally, neither farther away nor nearer than the other. In regulating these two, a twofold geometry must be observed, natural and artificial. But I may say no more. The true furnace is a small, simple shell which you can easily carry in one hand. There is one glass vessel, and no more, although some philosophers have used two, and you may do so too. The work itself is in no way troublesome: a lady may read the Arcadia while attending to this philosophy without disturbing her imagination. I think women are better suited to it than men, being neater and more patient in such things, accustomed as they are to a small chemistry of sack possets and other delicate sugared dishes. Concerning this medicine’s effects, I shall say no[^n281], [^n282]
**CT-P119-A** 1650, p. 119
**Original English**
thing at this time, hee that desires to know them, let him reade the Revelation of Paracelsus, a Discourse altogether incomparable, and in very truth miraculous. And here without any partialitie, I shall give my Judgement of honest Hohenheim. I find in the rest of his workes, and especially where hee falls on the stone, a great many false Processes, but his Doctrine of it in Generall is very sound. The truth is, hee had some Pride to the Justice of his Spleen, and in many places hee hath err'd of purpose, not caring what Bones hee threw before the Schoole-men; for hee was a Pylot of Guadalcana, and sayl'd sometimes in his Rio de la recriation. But I had almost forgot to tell thee that. which is all in all, and it is the greatest Difficultie in all the Art, namely the fire. It is a close, ayrie, circular, bright fire; the Philosophers call it their Sun, and the glasse must stand in the shade. It makes not the matter to vapour, no not so much as to sweat, it digests onely with a still, piercing, vitall heat. It is continuall, and therefore at last alters the Chaos, and corrupts it; The Proportion and Regiment of it is very Scrupulous, but the best rule to know it by, is that of the Synod: facite ne Easianus volet ante Insequentem; Let not the Bird fly before the Fowler: make it sit whiles you give fire, and then you are sure of
**Modern English**
more at present. Whoever wishes to know them should read the Revelation of Paracelsus, a discourse altogether incomparable and truly marvellous. Here I shall give my judgement of honest Hohenheim without partiality. In the rest of his works, especially where he treats the stone, I find many false processes; but his general doctrine concerning it is very sound. The truth is that some pride accompanied his justified indignation. In many places he went wrong deliberately, caring little what bones he threw before the schoolmen: he was a pilot of Guadalcana, sometimes sailing upon his “river of recreation.” But I almost forgot to tell you what is everything in everything, and the greatest difficulty in the whole art: the fire. It is a close, airy, circular, bright fire. The philosophers call it their sun; and the glass must stand in the shade. It does not make the matter vaporise, or even so much as sweat: it only digests it with a quiet, penetrating, vital heat. It is continuous, and so eventually alters and corrupts the chaos. Its proportion and regulation are exceedingly delicate. The best rule for recognising it, however, is the Synod’s: “See that the pheasant does not fly ahead of its pursuer.” [Vaughan’s rendering:] do not let the bird fly before the fowler. Make it sit while you fire, and then you are sure of[^n283], [^n284], [^n285]
**CT-P120-A** 1650, p. 120
**Original English**
your Prey. For a Cloze, I must tell thee, the Philosophers call'd this Fire their Balneum, but it is Balneum Naturae. a Naturall Bath, not an Artificiall one, for it is not any kind of Water, but a certain subtill temperate moysture which compasseth the Glasse, and feeds their Sun, or Fire. In a word without this Bath nothing in the world is generated. Now that thou mayst the better understand what Degree of fire is requisit for the work, consider the Generation of Man, or any other Creature whatsoever. It is not Kitchin fire, nor feaver that works upon the Sperm in the Womb but a most temperate, moyst, natural heat, which proceeds from the very life of the Mother. It is just so here; Our Matter is a most delicate Substance, and tender like the Animal sperme, for it is almost a living thing, nay in very truth it hath some small portion of life, for Nature doth produce some Animals out of it. For this very reason the least violence destroyes it, and prevents all generation, for if it be over-heated but for some few minutes, the white, and red Sulphurs will never essentially unite, and coagulat. On the Contrary, if it takes cold but for half an hour, the work being once well begun, it will never sort to any good purpose. I speak out of my own Experience, for I have (as they phrase it) given my self a Box on the Eare, and that twice
**Modern English**
your prey. To conclude, I must tell you that the philosophers called this fire their bath; but it is Nature’s bath, a natural bath, not an artificial one. It is no kind of water, but a certain subtle, temperate moisture which surrounds the glass and feeds their sun or fire. In a word, nothing in the world is generated without this bath. To understand better the degree of fire required for the work, consider the generation of a human being or any other creature. Neither kitchen fire nor fever works upon the sperm in the womb, but a thoroughly temperate, moist, natural heat proceeding from the mother’s own life. It is just the same here. Our matter is an extremely delicate substance, tender like animal sperm: it is almost a living thing, and indeed possesses a small portion of life, for Nature produces certain animals from it. For this very reason the least violence destroys it and prevents all generation. If it is overheated for only a few minutes, the white and red sulphurs will never unite and coagulate essentially. Conversely, if it takes cold for as little as half an hour once the work has properly begun, it will never come to any good result. I speak from experience: I have, as the saying goes, given myself a box on the ear, twice[^n286]
**CT-P121-A** 1650, p. 121
**Original English**
or thrice, out of a certain confident Negligence, Expecting that, which I knew well enough, could never bee. Nature moves not by the Theorie of men, but by their practice, and surely Wit and Reason can performe no Miracles, unlesse the hands supplie them. Bee sure then to know this fire in the first place, and accordingly bee sure to make use of it. But for thy better Securitie, I will describe it to thee once more. It is a drie, vaporous humid fire; it goes round about the Glasse, and is both equall and Continuall. It is restlesse, and some have call'd it the white philosophicall Coale. It is in it self naturall, but the praeparation of it is Artificiall, it is a heat of the Dead wherefore some call it their unnatural, Necromantic fire. It is no part of the Matter, neither is it taken out of it, but it is an external fire, and serves onely to stirr up, and strengthen the inward oppressed fire of the Chaos. But let us hear Nature her self, for thus shee speaks in the Serious Romance of Mehung. Post putrefactionem sit ipsa Generatio, idque per internum incomburibilem Calorem ad Argenti vivi frigiditatem calefaciendam, quod tantum equidem patitur, ut tandem cum sulphure suo uniatur. Omne illud uno in Vase complexum est, Ignis, aer, & Aqua videlicet, quae in Terreno suo vase accipio, eademque uno in Alembico relinquo; & tum coquo,
**Modern English**
or three times, through an overconfident negligence, expecting what I knew perfectly well could never happen. Nature moves through human practice, not human theory; and certainly ingenuity and reason can perform no miracles unless the hands supply their part. Be sure, then, to know this fire first of all, and accordingly to use it. For your greater assurance I shall describe it once more. It is a dry, vaporous, humid fire; it circulates around the glass and is both even and continuous. It is restless, and some have called it the white philosophical coal. It is natural in itself, although its preparation is artificial; it is a heat of the dead, which is why some call it their unnatural, necromantic fire. It forms no part of the matter, nor is it extracted from it. It is an external fire, serving only to stir up and strengthen the chaos’s inward, oppressed fire. But let us hear Nature herself, speaking in Mehung’s serious romance: “After putrefaction generation itself takes place, through the inward incombustible heat that warms the coldness of quicksilver. This undergoes only so much that it is finally united with its sulphur. All this is comprised in one vessel—namely fire, air and water—which I receive in their earthly vessel and leave together in one alembic. Then I cook,[^n287], [^n288]
**CT-P122-A** 1650, p. 122
**Original English**
dissolvo, & sublimo, absque Malleo, forcipe, vel lima, sine Carbonibus, vapore, Igne aut Mariae-Balneo, & Sophistarum Alembicis: Coelestem namque meum ignem habeo, qui Elementalem, prout Materia idoneam decentemque formam habere desyderat, excitat. That is: After Putrefaction succeeds Generation, and that because of the inward incombustible Sulphur, that heats, or thickens the Coldness, and Crudities of the Quicksilver which suffers so much thereby, that at last it is united to the Sulphur, and made one Body therewith. All this namely (Fire, Ayre, and Water) is contained in one Vessell; in their earthly Vessel that is in their grosse Body, or Composition I take them and then I leave them in one Alembic, where I concoct, dissolve, and sublime them without the help of Hammer, Tongs, or File; without Coales, Smoake, Fire, or Bath, or the Alembics of the Sophisters. For I have my heavenly fire, which excites, or stirs up the Elementall one, according as the matter desires a becomming, agreeable forme. Now Nature every where is one and the same, wherefore shee reades the same lesson to Madathan, who thinking in his Ignorance to make the stone without dissolution, receives from her this Check. An tu nunc Cochleas, vel Cancros cum Test is devorare niteris? An non priùs à vetussissimo Planetarum Coquo maturari,
**Modern English**
dissolve and sublime them, without hammer, tongs or file, without coals, vapour, fire or a bath of Mary, and without the sophists’ alembics. For I have my heavenly fire, which awakens the elemental fire as the matter desires to possess a suitable and fitting form.” [Vaughan’s accompanying English:] after putrefaction comes generation, through the inward incombustible sulphur which heats, or thickens, the coldness and crudities of quicksilver. It undergoes so much through this that it is at last united with the sulphur and made one body with it. All this—namely fire, air and water—is contained in one vessel. I take them in their earthly vessel, that is, their gross body or compound, and leave them in one alembic, where I digest, dissolve and sublime them without hammer, tongs or file; without coals, smoke, fire or bath; and without the sophists’ alembics. For I have my heavenly fire, which excites or stirs up the elemental one according as the matter desires a becoming, fitting form. Now Nature is everywhere one and the same; hence she teaches the same lesson to Madathan, who, ignorantly thinking he could make the stone without dissolution, receives this rebuke from her: “Are you now trying to devour snails or crabs with their shells? Must they not first be ripened[^n289]
**CT-P123-A** 1650, p. 123
**Original English**
& praeparari illos oportet? Doest thou think (sayes hee) to eat Oysters shells and all? ought they not first to bee opened, and prepar'd by the most Ancient Cooke of the Planets? With these agrees the excellent Flammel, who speaking of the Solar, and Lunar Mercurie, and the Plantation of the one in the other, hath these words. Sumantur itaque , & noctu, interdiuque assiduè supra ignem in Alembico foveantur. Non autem ignis Carbonarius, vel è ligno confectus sed clarus pellucidusque ignis sit, non secus ac Sol ipse, qui nunquam plus justo calidus ardensque sed omni tempore ejusdem caloris esse debet. Take them therefore (sayth hee) and cherish them over a fire in thy Alembic: But it must not be a fire of Coales, nor of any wood, but a bright shining fire, like the Sun it self, whose heat must never be excessive but alwayes of one and the same Degree. This is enough, and too much, for the Secret in it self is not great, but the Consequences of it are so, which made the Philosophers hide it. Thus Reader thou hast the outward Agent most fully and faithfully described. It is in Truth a very simple mysterie, and if I should tell it openly, ridiculous. Howsoever by this, and not without it, did the Magicians unlock the Chaos, and certainly it is no newes that an Iron-key should open a Treasurie of Gold. In this Universall
**Modern English**
and prepared by the most ancient cook of the planets?” [Vaughan’s English:] do you think, he says, to eat oysters, shells and all? Must they not first be opened and prepared by the most ancient cook of the planets? The excellent Flamel agrees. Speaking of solar and lunar Mercury and the planting of one within the other, he says: “Let them therefore be taken and continually cherished over a fire in the alembic, by night and by day. Let this be no fire of charcoal or wood, but a clear, transparent fire, like the sun itself. It must never be hotter or more burning than is proper, but must remain at the same heat at every time.” [Vaughan’s English:] take them, he says, and cherish them over a fire in your alembic. But it must be no fire of coals or wood, but a bright, shining fire, like the sun itself, whose heat must never be excessive but always of one and the same degree. This is enough, and too much. The secret itself is not great, but its consequences are, which made the philosophers conceal it. Reader, you now have the external agent described most fully and faithfully. It is, in truth, a very simple mystery, and would seem ridiculous if I told it openly. Nevertheless, by this, and never without it, the magicians unlocked the chaos. Certainly there is nothing new in an iron key opening a treasury of gold. In this universal[^n290]
**CT-P124-A** 1650, p. 124
**Original English**
Subject they found the Natures of all particulars, and this is signified to us by that Maxim: Qui Proteum non novit, adeat Pana. This Pan is their Chaos, or Mercurie, which expounds Proteus. namely the Particular Creatures, commonly call'd Individualls, For Pan transformes himself into a Proteus, that is, into all varieties of Species, into Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals; for out of the Universall Nature, or first matter, all these are made, and Pan hath their Proprieties in himself. Hence it is that Mercurie is call'd the Interpreter, or Expositor of Inferiors and Superiors, under which Notion the Ancient Orpheus invokes him.
Κλῦθί μου Ἑρμεία, Διὸς ἄγγελε, Μαιάδος υἱέ, Ἑρμηνεῦ πάντων.
Hear me ô Mercurie, thou messenger of Jove, and son of Maia, the Expositor of all Things.
**Modern English**
subject they found the natures of all particular things, as the maxim tells us: “Whoever does not know Proteus should approach Pan.” This Pan is their chaos or Mercury, which explains Proteus: the particular creatures commonly called individuals. For Pan transforms himself into Proteus—that is, into every variety of species, into animals, plants and minerals. All these are made from universal Nature or the first matter, and Pan possesses their properties within himself. Hence Mercury is called the interpreter or expositor of things below and things above. In this capacity the ancient Orpheus invokes him:
“Hear me, Hermes, messenger of Zeus, son of Maia, interpreter of all.”
[Vaughan’s English:] “Hear me, Mercury, messenger of Jove and son of Maia, expositor of all things.”[^n291]
### The Region of Light
**CT-P124-B** 1650, p. 124
**Original English**
Now for the Birth of this Mercurie, and the Place of it, I find but few Philosophers that mention it. Zoroaster points at it, and that very obscurely, where he speaks of his Jynges or the Idea's in these words;
**Modern English**
As for the birth of this Mercury, and its place, I find few philosophers who mention it. Zoroaster points towards it, very obscurely, when he speaks of his Iynges, or Ideas, in these words:[^n292]
**CT-P124-C** 1650, p. 124
**Latin**
Multae quidem hae scandunt lucidos Mundos,
Insilentes: Quarum Summitates sunt Tres.
Subjectum est Ipsis Principale pratum.
**Modern English**
Many of these ascend the shining worlds,
Leaping: their summits are three.
Beneath them lies the primal meadow.
**CT-P125-A** 1650, p. 125
**Original English**
This Pratum, or Meadow of the Idea's, a place well known to the Philosophers, (Flammel calls it their Garden, and the Mountain of the seven Metals, see his Summarie, where hee describes it most learnedly for hee was instructed by a Jew) is a certain secret, but Universall Region: one calls it Regio Lucis, the Region of Light, but to the Cabalist it is Nox Corporis, a Terme extremely apposit, and significant. It is in few words the Rendezvous of all Spirits, for in this place the Idea's when they descend from the Bright world to the Dark one, are incorporated. For thy Better Intelligence thou must know that Spirits whiles they move in Heaven, which is the Fire-world, contract no impurities at all, according to that of Stellatus;
Omne quod est supra Lunam, aeternumque bonumque
Esse scias, nec triste aliquid Coelestia tangit.
**Modern English**
This meadow of the Ideas, a place well known to the philosophers, is a certain secret yet universal region. Flamel calls it their garden and the mountain of the seven metals: see his Summary, where he describes it most learnedly, having been instructed by a Jew. One calls it the “region of light”; but to the Kabbalist it is the “night of the body,” an extremely apt and significant term. In a few words, it is the meeting place of all spirits: here the Ideas, descending from the bright world into the dark, are embodied. To understand this better, know that spirits, while moving in heaven, which is the fire world, contract no impurities at all, in accordance with Stellatus:
“Know that everything above the moon is eternal and good;
No sorrowful thing touches the heavenly realms.”[^n293]
**CT-P125-B** 1650, p. 125
**Original English**
All (sayth hee) that is above the Moon, is eternall and good, and there is no Corruption of Heavenly Things. On the contrary, when Spirits descend to the Elementall Matrix, and reside in her Kingdom, they are blurr'd with the Original Leprosie of the Matter, for here the Curse raves and rules, but in Heaven it is not Praedominant. To put an end to this point,
**Modern English**
Everything above the moon, he says, is eternal and good, and there is no corruption of heavenly things. Conversely, when spirits descend into the elemental womb and dwell in her kingdom, they are stained with matter’s original leprosy. Here the curse rages and rules; in heaven it does not predominate. To conclude this point,
**CT-P126-A** 1650, p. 126
**Original English**
let us hear the admirable Agrippa state it; This is hee, between whose lipps the Truth did breathe, and knew no other Oracle. Coelestium vires, dum in se existunt, & à Datore Luminum per sanctas Intelligentias, & Coelos influuntur, quousque ad Lunam pervenerint: earum Influentia bona est, tanquam in primo gradu; deinde autem quando in Subjecto viliori suscipitur, ipsa etiam vilescit. That is; The Heavenly powers, or spirituall Essences whiles they are in themselves, or before they are united to the Matter, and are shower'd down from the Father of Lights thorough the holy Intelligences and the Heavens, untill they come to the Moone: Their Influence is good, as in the first degree; But when it is received in a corrupt Subject, the Influence also is corrupted. Thus He. Now the Astronomers pretend to a strange familiaritie with the starrs, the Natural Philosophers talk as much: and truly an Ignorant man might well think they had been in heaven, and conversed, like Lucians Menippus, with Jove himself. But in good Earnest these Men are no more Eagles than Sancho, their fansies are like his flights in the Blanket, and every way as short of the Skies. Ask them but where the Influences are received, and how; bid them by faire Experience prove they are present in the Elements, and you have undone them; if
**Modern English**
let us hear the admirable Agrippa state it: he from whose lips Truth breathed, knowing no other oracle. “The heavenly powers, while they exist in themselves and flow from the Giver of Lights through the holy intelligences and the heavens, have a good influence as far as the moon, as though in the first degree. Afterwards, however, when that influence is received in a baser subject, it too becomes base.” [Vaughan’s English:] the heavenly powers or spiritual essences, while existing in themselves, or before union with matter, are showered down from the Father of Lights through the holy intelligences and the heavens until they reach the moon. Their influence is good, as in the first degree; but when received in a corrupt subject, the influence too is corrupted. So much for Agrippa. Now astronomers claim a strange familiarity with the stars, and natural philosophers talk in the same way. An ignorant person might well think they had been in heaven and conversed, like Lucian’s Menippus, with Jove himself. But in earnest these people are no more eagles than Sancho. Their fancies resemble his flights in the blanket and fall equally short of the skies. Simply ask where and how the influences are received; require them to prove through sound experience that they are present in the elements, and you have undone them. If[^n294], [^n295]
**Original marginal note**
**CT-P126-A-M01** 1650, p. 126
**Original English**
Occult. phil.
**Modern English**
On Occult Philosophy.
**CT-P127-A** 1650, p. 127
**Original English**
you will trust the foure Corners of a Figure, or the three Legs of a Syllogism, you may; this is all their Evidence. Well fare the Magicians then, whose Art can demonstrate these Things, and put the very Influences in our hands. Let it be thy studie to know their Region of Light, and to enter into the Treasures thereof, for then thou mayst converse with Spirits, and understand the Nature of invisible Things. Then will appear unto thee the Universal Subject, and the two minerall Spermes, White, and Red, of which I must speak somewhat, before I make an end.
**Modern English**
you choose to trust the four corners of a figure or the three legs of a syllogism, you may: this is all their evidence. Long live the magicians, then, whose art can demonstrate these things and place the very influences in our hands. Make it your study to know their region of light and to enter its treasures; then you may converse with spirits and understand the nature of invisible things. Then the universal subject will appear to you, and the two mineral sperms, white and red, about which I must say something before concluding.
### The Living Return to Seed
**CT-P127-B** 1650, p. 127
**Original English**
In the Pythagoricall Synod, which consisted of Threescore and Ten Philosophers, all Masters of the Art, it is thus written. Ignis Spissum in Aera cadit; Aeris vero Spissum, & quod ex igne Spisso congregatur, in Aquam incidit; Aquae quoque Spissum, & quod ex Ignis & Aeris Spisso coadunatur, in Terrâ quiescit. Ita istorum Trium spissitudo in Terrâ quiescit, inque eâ conjuncta sunt. Ipsa ergo Terra omnibus caeteris Elementis spissior est, uti Palam apparet, & videre est. That is, The Thicknesse, or Sperm of the Fire falls into the Ayre; The Thickness or Spermatic part of the Ayre. and in it the Sperm of the Fire, falls into the Water; The Thickness or spermatic Substance of the Water, and in it the two Spermes of Fire and
**Modern English**
In the Pythagorean Synod, consisting of seventy philosophers, all masters of the art, it is written: “The dense part of fire falls into air; the dense part of air, together with what is gathered from dense fire, falls into water. The dense part of water, together with what is combined from the dense parts of fire and air, rests in earth. Thus the density of these three rests in earth, and in it they are joined. Earth itself is therefore denser than all the other elements, as is plainly apparent and can be seen.” [Vaughan’s English:] the thickness or sperm of fire falls into air. The thickness or spermatic part of air, containing the sperm of fire, falls into water. The thickness or spermatic substance of water, containing the two sperms of fire and[^n296]
**CT-P128-A** 1650, p. 128
**Original English**
Ayre fall into the Earth, and there they rest, and are conjoyned. Therefore the Earth it self is thicker than the other Elements as it openly appears, and to the eye is manifest. Remember now what I have told thee formerly concerning the Earth; what a generall Hospitall it is, how it receives all things, not onely Beasts and Vegetables, but proud and glorious Man: when Death hath ruin'd him, his courser parts stay here, and know no other Home. This Earth to Earth, is just the Doctrine of the Magi; Metalls (say they) and all things may bee reduc'd into that whereof they were made. They speak the very Truth, it is God's own Principle, and he first taught it Adam Dust thou art, and to Dust shalt thou return. But lest any man should be Deceived by us, I think it just to informe you, there are two reductions; One is Violent and Destructive, reducing Bodies to their Extremes, and properly it is Death, or the Calcination of the common Chimist. The other is Vital, and Generative, resolving Bodies into their Sperm, or middle Substance out of which Nature made them, for Nature makes not Bodies immediatly of the Elements but of a Sperm, which shee drawes out of the Elements. I shall explain my self to you by Example. An Egg is the Sperm, or middle Substance out of which a Chick is ingendred,
**Modern English**
air, falls into earth, where they rest and are conjoined. Earth itself is therefore thicker than the other elements, as is openly apparent and manifest to the eye. Remember what I told you earlier about earth: what a universal hospital it is, receiving everything—not only beasts and plants, but proud and glorious humanity. When death has ruined a person, the coarser parts remain here and know no other home. This “earth to earth” is precisely the Magi’s doctrine. Metals, they say, and all things can be reduced to that from which they were made. They speak the very truth: it is God’s own principle, which he first taught Adam: “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” But lest anyone be deceived by us, I think it right to tell you that there are two reductions. One is violent and destructive, reducing bodies to their extremes: properly, it is death, or the ordinary chemist’s calcination. The other is vital and generative, resolving bodies into their sperm, or the middle substance from which Nature made them. For Nature makes bodies not immediately from the elements, but from a sperm which she draws out of the elements. I shall explain by an example. An egg is the sperm, or middle substance, from which a chick is generated,[^n297]
**Original marginal note**
**CT-P128-A-M01** 1650, p. 128
**Original English**
Gen. c. 3. ver. 19.
**Modern English**
Genesis 3:19.
**CT-P129-A** 1650, p. 129
**Original English**
and the moysture of it is viscous, and slimie, a water and no water, for such a Sperme ought to bee. Suppose Dr. Coale, I mean some Broyler, had a minde to generat something out of this Egg: Questionlesse he would first distill it, and that with a fire able to roast the Hen that layd it, then would hee calcine the Caput mortuum, and finally produce his Nothing. Here you are to observe that Bodies are nothing els but Sperm coagulated, and he that Destroyes the Body, by consequence destroyes the Sperm. Now to reduce Bodies into Elements of earth and water, as wee have instanc'd in the Egg, is to reduce them into Extremes beyond their Sperm, for Elements are not the Sperm, but the Sperm is a Compound made of the Elements, and containing in it self all that is requisit to the frame of the Body. Wherefore be well advis'd before you distill, and Quarter any particular Bodies, for having once separated their Elements, you may never generat, unless you can make a Sperm of those Elements, but that is impossible for man to doe, it is the Power of God, and Nature. Labour then you that would be accounted wise, to find out our Mercurie, so shall you reduce things to their mean spermaticall Chaos, but avoyd the broyling Destruction. This Doctrine will spare you the vain Task of Distillations, if you will but remember this
**Modern English**
and its moisture is viscous and slimy: a water and no water, as such a sperm ought to be. Suppose Dr Coal—I mean some broiler—wanted to generate something from this egg. He would undoubtedly distil it first, with a fire strong enough to roast the hen that laid it; then he would calcine the dead residue and finally produce his nothing. Here observe that bodies are nothing but coagulated sperm; consequently, whoever destroys the body destroys the sperm. To reduce bodies to the elements of earth and water, as in our example of the egg, is to reduce them to extremes beyond their sperm. The elements are not the sperm: the sperm is a compound made from the elements, containing everything needed to frame the body. Be well advised, therefore, before distilling and quartering particular bodies. Once you have separated their elements, you can never generate anything unless you can make a sperm from those elements; and that is impossible for humanity. It belongs to the power of God and Nature. Labour, then, you who wish to be considered wise, to discover our Mercury. Through it you will reduce things to their intermediate, spermatic chaos; but avoid the destruction of broiling. This doctrine will spare you the futile task of distillations if you remember this[^n298]
**CT-P130-A** 1650, p. 130
**Original English**
Truth: That Spermes are not made by Separation but by Composition of Elements, and to bring a Body into Sperm, is not to distill it, but to reduce the whole into one thick water, keeping all the parts thereof in their first naturall union. But that I may return at last to my former Citation of the Synod All those Influences of the Elements being united in one Mass, make our Sperm or our Earth, which is Earth and no Earth. Take it if thou doest know it, and divide the Essences thereof, not by violence, but by naturall putrefaction, such as may occasion a genuine Dissolution of the Compound. Here thou shalt find a miraculous white Water, an Influence of the Moone, which is the Mother of our Chaos; It rules in two Elements Earth and Water. After this appears the Sperm or influx of the Sun, which is the father of it. It is a quick, Coelestiall fire, incorporated in a thin, oleous, Aereall Moysture. It is incombustible, for it is fire it self, and feeds upon fire, and the longer it stayes in the fire, the more glorious it growes. These are the two mineral Spermes Masculine. and Foeminine: if thou doest place them both on their Chrystalline Basis, thou hast the Philosopher's flying Fire-drake, which at the first sight of the Sun breathes such a poyson, that nothing can stand before him. I know not what to tell thee more, unlesse in the Vogue
**Modern English**
truth: sperms are made by the composition of elements, not their separation. To bring a body into sperm is not to distil it, but to reduce the whole to one thick water, keeping every part in its first natural union. To return at last to my earlier quotation from the Synod: all those elemental influences, united in one mass, make our sperm or our earth, which is earth and no earth. Take it, if you know it, and divide its essences through natural putrefaction rather than violence, bringing about a genuine dissolution of the compound. Here you will find a miraculous white water, an influence of the moon, which is our chaos’s mother. It rules in two elements, earth and water. After this appears the sperm or influx of the sun, which is its father. This is a living, celestial fire embodied in a thin, oily, airy moisture. It is incombustible, being fire itself and feeding upon fire; the longer it remains in fire, the more glorious it grows. These are the two mineral sperms, male and female. If you place both upon their crystalline base, you have the philosophers’ flying fire dragon, which, at the first sight of the sun, breathes a poison before which nothing can stand. I do not know what more to tell you, unless, following the fashion[^n299]
**CT-P131-A** 1650, p. 131
**Original English**
of some Authors, I should give thee a flegmatic Description of the whole process and that I can dispatch in two words. It is nothing els but a continual Coction the Volatil Essences ascending and descending till at last they are fix'd, according to that excellent Prosopopaeia of the stone.
**Modern English**
of some authors, I gave you a dull description of the entire process; and that I can dispatch in two words. It is simply a continuous digestion, the volatile essences ascending and descending until at last they are fixed, in accordance with that excellent personification of the stone:
**CT-P131-B** 1650, p. 131
**Latin**
Non ego continuò morior, dum spiritus exit,
Nam redit assiduè, quamvis & soepe recedat,
Et mihi nunc magna est Animae, nunc nulla facultas.
**Modern English**
I do not die at once when my spirit goes out,
For it continually returns, though often it withdraws;
Now my soul has great power, now none.[^n300]
**CT-P131-C** 1650, p. 131
**Latin**
Plus ego sustinui, quam Corpus debuit unum;
Tres Animas habui, quas omnes intus habebam,
Discessere duae, sed Tertia poenè secuta est.
**Modern English**
I have endured more than one body should;
I had three souls, all held within me.
Two departed; the third almost followed.
**CT-P131-D** 1650, p. 131
**Original English**
I am not dead, although my spirit's gon,
For it returns, and is both off, and on,
Now I have life enough, now I have non.
**Modern English**
I am not dead, although my spirit is gone,
For it returns, and is both off and on;
Now I have life enough, now I have none.
**CT-P131-E** 1650, p. 131
**Original English**
I suffer'd more, than one could justly doe;
Three soules I had, and all my own but Two
Are fled: the Third had almost left mee too.
**Modern English**
I suffered more than one could rightly do;
Three souls I had, all my own, but two
Have fled: the third had almost left me too.
**CT-P131-F** 1650, p. 131
**Original English**
Ὃ γέγραφα, γέγραφα. I have written, what I have written- And now give me leave to look about mee. Is there no Powder-Plott, or practice? What's become of Aristotel, and Galen? Where is the Scribe and Pharisee, the Disputers of this world? If they suffer all this,
**Modern English**
“What I have written, I have written.” I have written what I have written. And now allow me to look around. Is there no Gunpowder Plot, no conspiracy? What has become of Aristotle and Galen? Where are the scribe and Pharisee, the disputers of this world? If they tolerate all this,[^n301]
**Original marginal note**
**CT-P131-F-M01** 1650, p. 131
**Original English**
Joh. 19. 22
**Modern English**
John 19:22.
**CT-P132-A** 1650, p. 132
**Original English**
and believe it too, I shall think the General Conversion is come about, and I may sing,
Jam redit & Virgo, redeunt Saturnia Regna.
**Modern English**
and believe it too, I shall think the general conversion has come about, and may sing:
“Now the Virgin returns; Saturn’s reign returns.”[^n302]
### The Reconciliation of the Elements
**CT-P132-B** 1650, p. 132
**Original English**
But come what will come, I have once more spoken for the Truth, and shall for Conclusion speak this much Again. I have elsewhere call'd this Subject, Limus coelestis, and the middle Nature: The Philosophers call it the Venerable Nature, but amongst all the Praetenders I have not yet found one, that could tell me why. Hear me then, that whensoever thou doest attempt this work, it may be with reverence, not like some proud, ignorant Doctor but with lesse Confidence & more Care. This Chaos hath in it the foure Elements, which of themselves are contrarie Natures, but the wisdome of God hath so placed them that their very order reconciles them. For Example, Ayre and Earth are Adversaries, for one is hot and moyst, the other cold and drie. Now to reconcile these two, God placed the Water between them, which is a middle Nature, or of a mean Complexion between both Extremes. For she is cold and moyst, and as shee is cold, shee partakes of the Nature of the Earth, which is cold and drie, but as shee is moyst, she partakes in the Nature of the Ayre, which is hot and moyst. Hence it is, that Ayre and Earth which are Contraries
**Modern English**
But come what may, I have once more spoken for Truth, and in conclusion shall say this much again. Elsewhere I have called this subject the “heavenly slime” and the middle nature. The philosophers call it the venerable nature; yet among all the claimants I have not found one who could tell me why. Hear me, then, so that whenever you attempt this work you may do so reverently, with less confidence and more care than some proud, ignorant doctor. This chaos contains the four elements, which are contrary natures in themselves; but God’s wisdom has placed them so that their very order reconciles them. For example, air and earth are adversaries: one is hot and moist, the other cold and dry. To reconcile them God placed water between them, a middle nature with a temperament intermediate between the two extremes. For she is cold and moist: through coldness she shares the nature of earth, which is cold and dry; through moisture she shares the nature of air, which is hot and moist. Hence air and earth, contrary
**CT-P133-A** 1650, p. 133
**Original English**
in Themselves, agree and imbrace one another in the water, as in a middle Nature which is proportionate to them both, and tempers their Extremities. But verely this Salvo makes not up the Breach, for though the water reconciles two Elements like a friendly Third, yet shee her self fights with a Fourth, namely with the Fire: For the Tire is hot and drie, but the water is cold and moyst, which are clear Contraries. To prevent the Distempers of these two, God placed the Ayre between them, which is a Substance hot and moyst; and as it is hot, it agrees with the fire, which is hot and drie; but as it is moyst, it agrees with the water, which is cold and moyst; so that by mediation of the Ayre, the other two Extremes, namely fire and water are made friends, and reconciled. Thus you see, as I told you at first, that Contrarie Elements are united by that Order and Texture wherein the Wise God hath placed them. You must now give me leave to tell you that this Agreement or friendship is but partil, a very weak love, cold and skittish: for whereas these Principles agree in one qualitie, they differ in two, as your selves may easily compute. Much need therefore have they of a more strong and able Mediator to confirme and preserve their weak Unitie, for upon it depends the very æternitie, and Incorruption of the Creature. This blessed
**Modern English**
in themselves, agree and embrace in water, a middle nature proportioned to both which tempers their extremes. Yet this remedy does not completely repair the breach. Although water reconciles two elements like a friendly third party, she herself fights a fourth, namely fire. Fire is hot and dry, whereas water is cold and moist: clear contraries. To prevent their discord God placed air between them, a substance hot and moist. Through heat it agrees with fire, which is hot and dry; through moisture it agrees with water, which is cold and moist. Thus air’s mediation makes friends of the other two extremes, fire and water, and reconciles them. You see, then, as I said at first, that contrary elements are united by the order and texture in which the wise God has placed them. Now allow me to tell you that this agreement or friendship is only partial: a very weak love, cold and skittish. For although these principles agree in one quality, they differ in two, as you can easily calculate. They therefore greatly need a stronger, more capable mediator to confirm and preserve their weak unity, upon which the creature’s very eternity and incorruptibility depend. This blessed[^n303]
**CT-P134-A** 1650, p. 134
**Original English**
Caement, and Balsam, is the Spirit of the living God, which some ignorant Scriblers have call'd a Quintessence, for this very Spirit is in the Chaos, and to speak plainly, the fire is his Thrrne, for in the Fire he is Seated, as wee have sufficiently told you elsewhere. This was the Reason, why the Magi call'd the first Matter their Venerable Nature, and their blessed stone, and in good earnest what think you, is it not so? This blessed Spirit fortifies, and perfects that weak Disposition which the Elements already have to Union and Peace, (for God works with Nature, not against her,) and brings them at last to a beauteous specificall Fabric. Now if you will aske me, where is the Soul, or as the Schoole-men abuse her the Form, all this while? what doth shee doe? To this I answer, that shee is, as all Instrumentals ought to be, subject and obedient to the will of God, expecting the perfection of her Body: for it is God that unites her to the Body, and the body to her. Soule and Body are the work of God, the one as well as the other: the Soul is not the Artificer of her house, for that which can make a Body, can also repayre it, and hinder death; but the Soule cannot doe this, it is the Power, and Wisdome of God. In a word, to say that the Soule form'd the Body, because shee is in the Body, is to say that the Jewell made the Cabinet, because the
**Modern English**
cement and balsam is the Spirit of the living God, which some ignorant scribblers have called a quintessence. This very Spirit is in the chaos; and, to speak plainly, fire is his throne, for in fire he is seated, as we have sufficiently told you elsewhere. This is why the Magi called the first matter their venerable nature and their blessed stone. Seriously, what do you think: is it not so? This blessed Spirit strengthens and perfects the elements’ existing weak disposition towards union and peace—for God works with Nature, not against her—and finally brings them into a beautiful structure of a particular species. If you ask where the soul is all this while, or the form, as the schoolmen misuse her name, and what she is doing, I answer that she is subject and obedient to God’s will, as all instrumental agents ought to be, awaiting the perfection of her body. It is God who unites her to the body, and the body to her. Soul and body alike are God’s work. The soul is not the builder of her house: whatever can make a body can also repair it and prevent death; but the soul cannot do this. It belongs to God’s power and wisdom. In a word, saying that the soul formed the body because she is in it is like saying the jewel made the cabinet because the[^n304]
**Original marginal note**
**CT-P134-A-M01** 1650, p. 134
**Original English**
Anthroposoph.
**Modern English**
Anthroposophia.
**CT-P135-A** 1650, p. 135
**Original English**
Jewell is in the Cabinet, or that the Sun made the world, because the Sun is in the world, and cherisheth every part thereof. Learn therefore to distinguish between Agents and their Instruments, for if you attribute that to the Creature, which belongs to the Creator, you bring your selves in Danger of hell-fire, for God is a jealous God, and will not give his glorie to Another. I advise my Doctors therefore, both Divines and Physicians, not to bee too rash in their Censures, nor so Magisterial in their Discourse, as I have known some Professors of Physic to be: who would correct and undervalue the rest of their Brethren, when in Truth they Themselves were most shamefully ignorant. It is not ten, or twelve years Experience in Druggs and Sopps can acquaint a man with the Mysteries of God's Creation. Take this, and make a world: Take I know not what, and make a Pill or Clyster, are different Recepts. Wee should therefore consult with our Judgements, before wee venture our Tongues, and never speake, but when wee are sure wee understand. I knew a Gentleman, who meeting with a Philosopher Adept, and receiving so much Courtesie as to be admitted to Discourse, attended his first Instructions passing well. But when this Magician quitted my friends known Roade, and began to touch, and drive round the
**Modern English**
jewel is in the cabinet; or that the sun made the world because it is in the world and nourishes every part of it. Learn, therefore, to distinguish agents from their instruments. If you attribute to the creature what belongs to the Creator, you endanger yourselves with hellfire; for God is a jealous God and will not give his glory to another. I therefore advise my doctors, theologians and physicians alike, against rash judgements and against the imperious discourse I have known among some professors of medicine. They would correct and belittle their colleagues while themselves being most shamefully ignorant. Ten or twelve years’ experience of drugs and sops cannot acquaint a person with the mysteries of God’s creation. “Take this, and make a world” and “Take I know not what, and make a pill or enema” are different prescriptions. We should therefore consult our judgement before venturing our tongues, and speak only when sure that we understand. I knew a gentleman who met an adept philosopher and was courteously admitted to conversation. He attended very well to the first instructions; but when this magician left my friend’s familiar road and began to touch and turn the
**CT-P136-A** 1650, p. 136
**Original English**
great Wheele of Nature, presently my Gentleman takes up the Cudgells, and urging all the Authorities, which in his vain judgement made for him, opprest this noble Philosopher with a most clamorous, insipid Ribaldrie. A goodly sight it was, and worthy our Imitation, to see with what an admirable Patience the other received him. But this Errant concluded at last, That Lead or Quick-silver must be the Subject, and that Nature work'd upon one of both. To this the Adeptus replied, Sir, it may bee so at this time, but if hereafter I find Nature in those old Elements, where I have sometimes seen her very Busie, I shall at our next meeting confute your Opinion. This was all hee said, and it was something more than hee did. Their next meeting was referr'd to the Greek Calends, for he could never be seen afterwards, notwithstanding a thousand Sollicitations. Such Talkative babling people as this Gentleman was, who run to every Doctor for his Opinion, and follow like a Spaniell every Bird they spring, are not fit to receive these Secrets, they must be serious, silent men, faithfull to the Art, and most faithfull to their Teachers. Wee should alwayes remember that Dotrine of Zeno: Nature (said hee) gave us one Tongue, but two Eares, that wee might heare much, and speak little. Let not any man therefore
**Modern English**
great wheel of Nature, my gentleman promptly took up the cudgels. Citing every authority which, in his vain judgement, supported his position, he overwhelmed this noble philosopher with clamorous, empty abuse. It was a fine sight, worthy of our imitation, to see the admirable patience with which the other received him. But this wandering knight finally concluded that lead or quicksilver must be the subject, and that Nature worked upon one of them. The adept replied: “Sir, perhaps it is so at present; but if hereafter I find Nature among those old elements where I have sometimes seen her very busy, I shall refute your opinion at our next meeting.” That was all he said, and a little more than he did. Their next meeting was deferred to the Greek calends: despite a thousand requests, he could never afterwards be seen. Talkative babblers like this gentleman, running to every doctor for an opinion and following every bird they flush like a spaniel, are unfit to receive these secrets. They must be serious, silent people, faithful to the art and most faithful to their teachers. We should always remember Zeno’s doctrine: Nature, he said, gave us one tongue but two ears so that we might hear much and speak little. Let no one, therefore,[^n305]
**CT-P137-A** 1650, p. 137
**Original English**
be ready to vomit forth his own shame and ignorance: Let him first examine his knowledge, and especially his practice, lest upon the Experience of a few violent Knacks, hee presume to judge Nature in her very Sobrieties. To make an end; If thou doest know the first Matter, know also for certain, thou hast discovered the Sanctuarie of Nature; There is nothing between thee and her Treasures, but the Doore: that indeed must be opened. Now if thy Desire leads thee on to the Practice, consider well with thy self what manner of man thou art, and what it is that thou would'st do, for it is no small matter. Thou hast resolved with thy self to be a Cooperator with the Spirit of the living God, and to minister to him in his worke of generation. Have a Care therefore that thou doest not hinder his work: for if thy heat exceeds the Naturall Proportion, thou hast stirr'd the wrath of the moyst Natures, and they will stand up against the Central fire, and the Central fire against them, and there will be a terrible Division in the Chaos: but the sweet Spirit of Peace, the true eternal Quintessence will depart from the Elements, leaving both them and Thee to Confusion; neither will hee apply himself to that Matter, as long as it is in thy violent, destroying hands. Take heed therefore, lest thou turn Partner with the Devill,
**Modern English**
be ready to vomit forth his own shame and ignorance. Let him first examine his knowledge, especially his practice, lest experience of a few violent tricks makes him presume to judge Nature in her utmost sobriety. To conclude: if you know the first matter, know certainly that you have discovered Nature’s sanctuary. Nothing stands between you and her treasures except the door, which must indeed be opened. If your desire now leads you towards practice, carefully consider what kind of person you are and what you wish to do, for it is no small matter. You have resolved to cooperate with the Spirit of the living God and minister to him in his work of generation. Take care, therefore, not to hinder his work. If your heat exceeds the natural proportion, you stir up the anger of the moist natures: they rise against the central fire, and the central fire against them, bringing a terrible division within the chaos. But the sweet Spirit of peace, the true eternal quintessence, will depart from the elements, leaving both them and you in confusion. Nor will he apply himself to that matter while it remains in your violent, destructive hands. Take care, then, lest you become the devil’s partner,
**CT-P138-A** 1650, p. 138
**Original English**
for it is the Devil's designe from the Beginning of the world, to set Nature at Variance with her self, that he may totally corrupt, and destroy her. Nè tu augeas fatum, doe not thou further his Designes. I make no question but many men will laugh at this, but on my Soule I speak nothing But what I have known by very good Experience, therefore believe mee. For my own part it was ever my desire to bury these Things in silence, or to paint them out in shadowes, but I have spoken thus clearly, and openly, out of the Affection I bear to some, who have deserved much more at my hands. True it is, I intended sometimes to expose a greater work to the world, which I promised in my Anthroposophia, but I have been since acquainted with that World, and I found it base, and unworthie: wherefore I shall keep in my first happy Solitudes, for Noyse is Nothing to mee, I seek not any man's Applause. If it be the will of my God to call me forth, and that it may make for the Honour of his Name, in that respect I may write again, for I feare not the Judgement of Man, but in the interim here shall be and End.
**Modern English**
for from the world’s beginning the devil has intended to set Nature at variance with herself, wholly to corrupt and destroy her. “Do not add to fate”: do not further his designs. I do not doubt that many will laugh at this; but upon my soul I say nothing except what I have known through very good experience. Believe me, therefore. For my own part, I always desired to bury these things in silence or depict them in shadows. I have spoken so clearly and openly through my affection for certain people who have deserved much more from me. It is true that I once intended to present the world with a larger work, promised in my Anthroposophia. Since then, however, I have become acquainted with that world and found it base and unworthy. I shall therefore remain in my original, happy solitude: noise means nothing to me, and I seek no one’s applause. If my God wills to call me forth, and if it may honour his name, for that purpose I may write again; for I do not fear human judgement. Meanwhile, here shall be an end.[^n306]
**CT-P138-B** 1650, p. 138
**Original English**
FINIS.
**Modern English**
THE END.
### The Address to the Book
**CT-P139-A** 1650, p. 139
**Original English**
ANd now my Book, let it not stop thy Flight,
That thy just Author, is not Lord, or Knight.
I can define my self: and have the Art
Still to present one face, and still one Heart.
But for nine years some Great ones cannot see
What they have been, nor know they what to bee.
What though I have no Rattles to my name,
Do'st hold a simple Honestie no Fame?
Or art thou such a stranger to the Times,
Thou canst not know my Fortunes from my Crimes.
Goe forth, and fear not: some will gladly bee
Thy learned friends, whom I did never see.
Nor shouldst thou fear thy welcom: thy small Price
Cannot undo'em, though they pay Excise.
Thy Bulk's not great: it will not much distresse
Their emptie Pockets, but their Studies lesse.
Th'art no Galeon, as Books of Burthen bee,
Which can not ride but in a Librarie.
Th'art a fine Thing and little: it may Chance
Ladies will buy thee for a new Romance.
Oh how I'le envy Thee! when thou art spread
In the bright Sun-shine of their Eyes, and read
With Breath of Amber, Lips of Rose, that lend
Perfumes vnto thy Leaves, shal never spend:
When from their white hands they shall let thee fall
Into their Bosomes, which I may not call
Ought of Misfortune, Thou do'st drop to rest
In a more pleasing place, and art more blest.
**Modern English**
And now, my book, do not let this stop your flight:
Your rightful author is no lord or knight.
I can define myself, and have the art
To show one constant face, one constant heart.
Yet for nine years some great ones cannot see
What they have been, nor know what they should be.
What if no rattles decorate my name?
Do you think simple honesty no fame?
Or are you such a stranger to these times
You cannot tell my fortunes from my crimes?
Go out, and fear not: some will gladly be
Your learned friends, though never seen by me.
Do not fear your welcome: your small price
Cannot undo them, though they pay excise.
Your bulk is small: it will not much distress
Their empty pockets, and their studies less.
You are no galleon, like books of burden,
That cannot berth except within a library.
You are a fine and little thing: by chance
Ladies may buy you as a new romance.
How I shall envy you when you are spread
In the bright sunshine of their eyes and read
With amber breath and lips of rose, which lend
Perfumes to your leaves that shall never end;
When from their white hands they shall let you fall
Into their bosoms, which I cannot call
A stroke of ill fortune: you fall to rest
In a more pleasing place, and are more blessed.[^n307], [^n308]
**CT-P140-A** 1650, p. 140
**Original English**
There in some silken, soft Fold thou shalt lye
Hid like their Love, or thy own Mysterie.
Nor shouldst thou grieve thy Language is not fine,
For it is not my Best, though it be Thine.
I could have voyc'd thee forth in such a Dresse,
The Spring had been a Slut to thy Expresse;
Such as might file the rude, unpolish'd Age,
And fix the Readers Soule to ev'ry Page:
But I have us'd a course, and homely strain,
Because it suits with Truth, which should be plain.
Last, my dear Book, if any looke on Thee
As on Three Suns, or some great Prodigie,
And swear to a full point, I do deride
All other Sects, to publish my own pride;
Tell such they lie, and since they love not Thee,
Bid them goe learn some High-shoe heresie.
Nature is not so simple, but shee can
Procure a solid Reverence from man;
Nor is my Pen so lightly Plum'd that I
Should serve Ambition with her Majestie.
'Tis Truth makes me come forth, & having writ
This her short Scaene, I would not stifle it:
For I have call'd it Childe, and I had rather
See't torn by them, than strangl'd by the Father.
**Modern English**
There, in some soft, silken fold, you shall lie,
Hidden like their love, or your own mystery.
Do not grieve that your language is not fine:
It is not my best, although it is yours.
I could have voiced you in so fine a dress
That spring would seem a slattern by your image;
Such words could polish this rude, unpolished age,
And fasten the reader’s soul to every page.
But I have used a coarse and homely strain
Because it suits with Truth, which should be plain.
Lastly, dear book, if any look on you
As on three suns or some great prodigy,
And swear outright that I deride
All other sects to publish my own pride,
Tell them they lie; and since they do not love you,
Bid them go learn some rustic heresy.
Nature is not so simple: she can
Command a solid reverence from humanity.
Nor is my pen so lightly feathered that I
Should serve ambition with her majesty.
Truth makes me come forth; having written
This short scene of hers, I would not stifle it.
I have called it child, and would rather see
It torn by them than strangled by its father.[^n309]
**CT-P140-B** 1650, p. 140
**Latin**
Soli Deo Gloria.
**Modern English**
Glory to God alone.
**CT-P140-C** 1650, p. 140
**Original English**
Amen.
**Modern English**
Amen.
## The Printed Corrections
### The Complete Printed Corrections
**MA-ERRATA-A** 1650, unnumbered printed errata
**Original English**
Faults escaped in Magia Adamica, Page 70. line 4. for ΛΑΥΤΑ read ΤΑΥΤΑ. p. 106. l. 23. for or, r. for. p. 126. l. 26. for dotrine, r. dictrine.
**Modern English**
Errors in Magia Adamica.
Page 70, line 4: for ΛΑΥΤΑ, read ΤΑΥΤΑ (“these things”).
Page 106, line 23: for “or”, read “for”.
Page 126, line 26: for “dotrine”, read “dictrine”.[^n310], [^n311]
**MA-ERRATA-B** 1650, unnumbered printed errata
**Original English**
Faults escaped in the Man-Mouse. PAge 15. line 2. for sires, read fires. p. 49. l. 24. f. the, r. that. p. 82. l. 23. f. he, r. she.
**Modern English**
Errors in The Man-Mouse.
Page 15, line 2: for “sires”, read “fires”.
Page 49, line 24: for “the”, read “that”.
Page 82, line 23: for “he”, read “she”.[^n312]
## Interpretive Essays
These essays follow recurring arguments across Magia Adamica and Coelum Terrae. Their headings and conclusions are editorial; the linked passages allow each interpretation to be checked against the historical text.
### Magic, Religion and the Claim to Wisdom
Vaughan begins by making the definition of magic a dispute about its origin. If it is the wisdom of the Creator implanted in creatures, then rejecting it as a whole threatens to reject a mode of divine generosity. His appeal to the Magi who acknowledged Christ places a Christian recognition at the beginning of the defence. This is a polemical definition: it selects the tradition he wishes to legitimate and excludes practices which he regards as corruptions. The reader should not turn it into a neutral description of everything seventeenth-century writers called magic. See [the opening definition](#MA-P001-B) and [the Magi and patriarchal guidance](#MA-P002-A).
The defence next becomes a criticism of intellectual habits. Vaughan portrays the schools as torturing Scripture to fit Aristotle, while mistaking their own procedures for the proper measure of truth. His alternative is not simply credulity. He argues that faith depends upon the revealer’s character and that a divine mind can communicate knowledge beyond the reach of syllogistic inference. Such claims relocate the ground of certainty. Their force depends on the theological commitments which the argument asks its reader to share. See [Scripture and the schools](#MA-P003-A) and [the inward disclosure of knowledge](#MA-P005-A).
The discussion of water, oil, salt and light makes the religious stakes unusually concrete. Vaughan criticises those who discard religious types and those who locate holiness in the outward object without understanding its relation to what it signifies. He then identifies the same vocabulary with principles of nature. An element may thus be an ordinary perceptible thing, an instrument of a rite and a sign of a deeper relation. This is neither a licence to treat every household object as magically potent nor a withdrawal from matter into thought. The question is how the object participates in an order which human naming did not create. See [the material signs](#MA-P006-A).
His account of words follows the same logic. Names do not command nature merely because an operator pronounces them. Human words depend upon the Word through which things are constituted. When Vaughan separates legitimate magic from charms and circles, he is also separating received participation from an imagined power of private verbal arrangement. The denial of one kind of efficacy supports another: the book remains committed to real transformation even while refusing an arbitrary verbal mechanism. See [words and binding](#MA-P007-A) and [letters and substantial reality](#MA-P053-A).
The Henshaw dedication provides a useful check on any easy identification of this religious wisdom with possession of the stone. After describing the soul’s restless search for a practice in which it can rest, Vaughan explicitly says that this is not the philosophers’ stone. The distinction does not make the later natural inquiry irrelevant. It prevents its most celebrated object from becoming a sufficient account of human perfection. The reader who follows the book from Ecclesiastes into Coelum should carry that refusal along. See [the soul’s rest](#MA-F012-A) and [the channel of the soul](#MA-F013-A).
The appended treatise returns to the theological boundary when Vaughan distinguishes the universal agent from the created recipients of action. Later he warns against treating the indwelling spirit as though it made the creature itself the Creator. His natural philosophy is therefore framed by a double obligation: to take divine presence in nature seriously and to resist turning any particular natural subject into God. This tension gives the religious language philosophical work to do. It is more than an ornamental vocabulary placed around an otherwise independent art. See [agent and patient](#CT-P081-A) and [spirit, creature and Creator](#CT-P134-A).
### The Sign and the Thing
The relation between words and realities runs from the first defence of magic to the late attack on philosophers who can discuss a subject they have never encountered. Magia’s sharp distinction between the name and the thing gives the problem a compact form. Letters can represent the elements and their relations, but command of the representation does not by itself supply knowledge of the subject. The objection matters because Vaughan himself works through books full of names, alphabets and inherited descriptions. His argument must explain what such language can contribute without allowing it to replace the reality it promises. See [name and thing](#MA-P049-C).
The Three Mothers offer a test case. Vaughan interprets Aleph, Mem and Shin through air, water and fire, attending to the sounds and relations which the letters can figure. He describes a balance and a mixture, then refuses to publish every proportion. The alphabet becomes a model of natural composition and a veil over what remains undisclosed. Readers should notice both operations. To say that the letters are symbolic does not make the physical account disappear; to treat them as a simple cipher for a recipe misses their role in an argument about creation and divine speech. See [the elemental letters](#MA-P050-A) and [mixture and proportion](#MA-P051-A).
The book’s images have comparable limits. The account of Flamel’s book describes a sequence of figures: serpents, a crucified serpent, a winged figure threatened by an old man, a flower and a fountain hidden among other scenes. These are images reported within a quoted narrative. They are not surviving plates reproduced in this publication. Vaughan uses the report as testimony to a mode of teaching in which the subject is simultaneously shown and concealed. A guide can identify the sequence and its function; it cannot supply an authentic illustration by treating its own reconstruction as historical evidence. See [the reported book](#MA-P054-A) through [the final scenes](#MA-P058-A).
Coelum deepens the difficulty by multiplying the names of one matter. Water, stone, salt, virgin’s milk and other descriptions belong to a gathered tradition of testimony, not to a list of separately identified modern reagents. Vaughan openly moves between his own account and what he has found in other writers. The reader has to distinguish who is speaking, what is being compared, and whether a description concerns appearance, action, origin or a relation. The same subject can receive different names for these different reasons. See [the turn to other descriptions](#CT-P084-B) and [the insistence upon one thing](#CT-P097-A).
Hyanthe’s poem then makes the reader participate in the problem. Her throne, clothing, tears and white supporter are perceptible forms within a narrated encounter. Vaughan anticipates readers who will dismiss the verse as mere noise or fantasy, and he answers by setting learned prose beside it. The poem and quotations are offered as related ways of approaching the same difficult subject. Their agreement does not turn every image into a one-to-one dictionary key. The relation must be argued from the surrounding descriptions and from the poem’s own movement. See [Hyanthe’s appearance](#CT-P093-B) and [Vaughan’s defence of the verse](#CT-P095-B).
The practical lesson for reading is to preserve distinctions before searching for identities. A name may direct attention, a symbol may organise a relation, and a quotation may claim authority. None of these acts is identical with possessing the thing. Vaughan’s own jokes about bookish learning make that gap explicit. His writing nevertheless relies on language to guide readers towards a subject which he refuses to exhibit without reserve. The gap is a continuing feature of the work’s method, and should remain visible in any interpretation. See [figures, syllogisms and evidence](#CT-P127-A) and [composition rather than a verbal formula](#CT-P130-A).
### The Fall and the Possibility of Restoration
In Vaughan’s account, the history of knowledge is inseparable from the condition of creation. His interpretation of the Fall begins with an interruption of relation: Malcuth is cut off from the Ilan, and the lower world no longer receives its former abundance of influence. He draws upon traditions which he identifies as cabalistic, but incorporates them into a Christian argument about Genesis and redemption. This is a particular appropriation of Jewish materials. It should neither be presented as the uncontested meaning of those materials nor stripped of the Christian conclusions which Vaughan builds from them. See [Malcuth and the tree](#MA-P011-B) through [the diminished nourishment of creation](#MA-P013-A).
The resulting loss is material as well as moral. Vaughan imagines a less fruitful earth and human bodies exposed to necessities for which fallen people lack sufficient knowledge. Adam must learn how to find food, medicine and shelter. This makes natural art a possible act of mercy. A wisdom which relieved bodily need would not be an irrelevant ornament to the care of souls: it would answer the condition of the whole human creature. His argument explicitly resists an image of God who takes no interest in bodily life. See [the world’s infirmity](#MA-P016-A), [Adam’s necessities](#MA-P017-A) and [care of body and soul](#MA-P029-A).
Restoration, however, is not portrayed as a simple return to the unfallen state by human technical effort. Vaughan reads the promise through the second Adam and places the original teaching within a history of divine revelation. The same chain which carries knowledge also carries dependence. His natural art is meant to relieve the curse’s effects while pointing beyond its own temporary works. The argument’s scriptural interpretations can be bold, but the confidence of the interpretation should not be confused with direct evidence that Genesis describes the complete art Vaughan wishes to establish. See [merciful instruction](#MA-P018-A) through [the first and second Adam](#MA-P020-A).
He partly acknowledges the evidential gap himself. When asking whether Adam possessed knowledge of nature, he distinguishes what Scripture positively states from what he hopes to establish by probable reasoning. This admission is essential to the texture of the argument. Some assertions are quotations, some are deductions about what a merciful Creator would do, and some are appeals to received tradition. Collapsing those levels into a single revealed history would give Vaughan a kind of uniform proof which he has not actually supplied. See [the limits of explicit scriptural testimony](#MA-P026-B).
Later the relation between generation and regeneration makes the larger ambition visible. The terms connect the coming-to-be of natural things with their renewal. Vaughan insists upon continuity of matter and spirit rather than imagining two wholly disconnected worlds. Coelum carries that thought into a contrast between the corruptible extreme, familiar in death and decay, and a spiritual or glorified condition towards which the art is said to work. These remain claims within his natural and Christian philosophy. They need neither be recast as a modern medical promise nor reduced to an exclusively psychological exercise. See [nature and corruption](#MA-P059-A), [generation and regeneration](#MA-P060-A) and [the two extremes](#CT-P115-A).
The emotional force of these passages comes from the possibility that nature has not been abandoned to disorder. The annual renewal of plants, the imagined tears of Hyanthe and the attraction of a hidden life in matter all speak to that possibility. Yet Vaughan also describes failed attempts and refuses to equate every claimed medicine with the true art. Restoration is therefore an interpretive horizon which connects the books’ theology and natural inquiry; it does not relieve readers of the need to judge particular evidence, claims and exclusions. See [the shared house of mortality](#CT-P088-A), [the spring renewal](#CT-P089-A) and [failure and nature’s own movement](#CT-P121-A).
### Received Knowledge and the Test of Experience
Magia’s argument for antiquity begins with a limitation. A person’s eye can witness only a small stretch of time, while the ear receives reports of earlier ages. Vaughan therefore turns to testimony, even as he disclaims the competence of a professional antiquary. His genealogy of magic is built from scriptural readings, cited authorities, family transmission and reports of distant monuments. To read it fairly is to assess a constructed case, rather than expect the modern methods of a documentary history. To read it critically is to keep its distinctions between sight, report and inference in view. See [the problem of antiquity](#MA-P009-A) and [received tradition](#MA-P010-A).
The successive examples are not interchangeable. Noah’s craft, Bezalel’s workmanship, Jacob’s husbandry, Joseph’s cup and Moses’ treatment of the golden calf each answer a different objection about whether knowledge of nature could belong to sacred history. Vaughan sometimes argues from a stated act to an unstated art behind it. Elsewhere he explains a phenomenon through natural correspondence while reserving a separate place for special revelation, as in his contrast between ordinary dreams and Daniel’s divine disclosure. These moves deserve to be followed individually. Their cumulative rhetoric can conceal the different kinds of premise involved. See [craft and revelation](#MA-P030-A), [Jacob’s rods](#MA-P035-A), [dreams and interpretation](#MA-P036-B) and [the golden calf](#MA-P045-A).
His accounts of remote texts and monuments are more visibly mediated. He retells the report of the Chinese monument associated with a law of light, draws on the alleged book of Abraham in Flamel’s narrative, and discusses Egyptian inscriptions and figures. In each case the report serves a present philosophical argument. This edition can establish what Vaughan says and what source he names without authenticating every date, translation or inference in the report. His conjecture about lost books should remain a conjecture, and the story he expressly admits he cannot verify should retain that qualification. See [the Chinese monument](#MA-P060-A), [the argument from its doctrine](#MA-P063-A) and [the reported conversation with Aristotle](#MA-P074-A).
Experience has an equally important but different role. The poem attributed to P. B. opposes contempt for an art which nature is said to confirm. Vaughan repeatedly mocks verbal skill detached from practice. Yet his first treatise also argues that a contemporary reader can possess books without understanding them. Experience is not presented as a self-sufficient replacement for teaching; it is the hoped-for encounter in which received language finds its subject. The many authorities assembled in Coelum show how far his appeal to things continues to depend upon reading. See [Bacon and experience](#MA-F015-B), [reading without understanding](#MA-P037-A) and [the appeal to earlier practitioners](#CT-P096-A).
The confession of unsuccessful practice is especially valuable because it disrupts an effortless image of mastery. Vaughan says that he expected an outcome which, on reflection, could not occur. Nature does not move merely because a practitioner has a theory or confidence. This passage does not disclose enough to reconstruct a successful procedure, but it does place an important constraint upon interpretation: his philosophical conviction does not license any operation whatsoever. Some actions fail because their relation to natural generation is mistaken. See [confidence and failure](#CT-P121-A).
The two books consequently ask readers to hold two tests together. A lineage can explain why a claim deserves consideration, but cannot make every reported interpretation equally certain. Experience can correct presumption, but cannot be assessed by the reader when its crucial circumstances remain concealed. Vaughan’s work inhabits that tension. Its assertions of antiquity, declarations of secrecy and appeals to practice should all remain available for scrutiny, rather than allowing one to silence the others. See [the oath of secrecy](#CT-P108-B), [the limits on disclosure](#CT-P109-A) and [the demand to understand the subject](#CT-P129-A).
### The Alphabet and the Book of Nature
The letters in Magia are part of an ambitious account of intelligibility. Vaughan believes the created world has an order which can be read because divine wisdom precedes it. An alphabet can therefore do more than supply arbitrary marks: under a proper interpretation its relations can represent relations within nature. That premise explains why the discussion of Hebrew letters belongs within a physical argument. It also explains why he attacks a merely literal manipulation of those same materials. The value of the letter depends upon the reality it represents. See [the dispute about cabalistic learning](#MA-P049-A) and [name and thing](#MA-P049-C).
His account is explicitly selective. He presents Aleph, Mem and Shin as the Three Mothers and relates them to air, water and fire. The different sounds become a way to think about opposition, mediation and the mixture of principles. He then alludes to a broader set of principles while declining to explain all of them. The resulting exposition is not a complete handbook of Jewish mystical teaching. It is Vaughan’s appropriation of received materials in support of a Christian natural philosophy, with substantial claims withheld from public explanation. See [the Three Mothers](#MA-P050-A) and [the limits of the exposition](#MA-P051-A).
The ladder image develops a related distinction between what acts and what receives action. Vaughan asks readers to attend to the order in which the angels ascend and descend, then associates that order with hidden principles. The details are made to carry a physical significance while retaining their scriptural setting. His mention of the death of the kiss marks another point where an evocative name is given without the full explanation which would make it practically transparent. The reader should notice the withheld relation, rather than fill it with an invented operation. See [the ladder, agent and patient](#MA-P052-A).
The same care applies to the inscribed and pictured authorities. The account of a rock near Horeb reaches Vaughan through named intermediaries. The Greek text used to convey an Egyptian dedication is itself a substitute for another language. Such layers matter: a statement about an inscription is not identical with direct access to an ancient stone, and a later philosophical interpretation is not automatically the inscription’s original sense. The printed correction to the Greek on page 70 is evidence of the book’s own concern with wording, and remains part of the complete edition. See [the reported inscription](#MA-P053-A), [the Egyptian dedication](#MA-P070-C) and [the printed corrections](#MA-ERRATA-A).
Coelum extends the book metaphor into a criticism of the reader who mistakes a figure or a syllogism for evidence. It also extends the language of letters into a language of bodies: generation requires a fitting relation of principles, and a spermatic subject is composed rather than obtained by any indiscriminate separation. The analogy is strongest when it guides attention to structure, proportion and relation. It becomes misleading if a reader treats every written sequence as a precise and complete instruction for making a substance. See [the limits of formal evidence](#CT-P127-A) and [the composition of a sperm](#CT-P130-A).
An editorial glossary therefore has a modest but useful task. It can show how a term functions in a particular argument and connect that function to related passages. It should not convert the Hebrew letters into a universal code, merge all historical traditions into one system, or claim to finish the explanations which Vaughan deliberately suspends. Reading nature in this book involves words, but also the recognition that words can remain signs of an encounter the reader has not yet had. The book’s learning becomes clearer when that interval is preserved.
### From Magia Adamica into Coelum Terrae
The join on page 78 is a hinge in the argument. Magia finishes its long history with a complaint about later pretenders and the medical profession. Coelum then addresses the reader as someone to whom a promise about antiquity has now been performed. The speaker does not begin from a wholly new subject. He turns from defending the art’s descent to addressing the subject upon which the art is supposed to work. Reading the two texts in their shared publication restores the force of that backward glance. See [the end of Magia](#MA-P078-A) and [the new address](#CT-P078-A).
The change does not bring an uncomplicated disclosure. Vaughan announces a discussion of the one thing and proceeds by images, personal descriptions and selected authorities. The two sanctuaries introduce a correspondence between higher and lower; the account of agent and patient distinguishes divine action from its recipient. These arguments carry forward Magia’s insistence that natural knowledge depends upon the order of creation. What changes is the reader’s proximity to the elusive material subject. The title’s heavenly chaos must be approached through the conditions of generation, rather than merely accepted as the name of an inherited doctrine. See [the announced composition](#CT-P079-A), [the two sanctuaries](#CT-P080-B) and [agent and patient](#CT-P081-A).
The language of love makes that proximity difficult to classify. The matter yields to love because its end is generation, and violence cannot achieve what belongs to its proper relation. This can sustain a spiritual reading of receptivity and transformation. It also makes a claim about the way nature acts and about the error of coercive handling. The same text describes sensible qualities and excludes substances which readers might otherwise select. Neither register cancels the other. A sympathetic interpretation needs to follow the changes of scale without deciding in advance that every quantity, body or natural action is merely an interior state. See [love and generation](#CT-P084-A), [the matter’s qualities](#CT-P085-B) and [the excluded materials](#CT-P113-A).
Hyanthe’s appearance gathers those relations into a poem, and the ensuing anthology places the verse beside other writers’ descriptions. Vaughan offers a network of testimony rather than a single operational exposition. The network supports his claim that diverse names concern one subject, while leaving the reader responsible for distinguishing a witness’s voice from the editor’s explanation. The stone’s later speeches intensify the same method: an apparently material subject speaks about departure, return and the loss of souls. See [Hyanthe](#CT-P093-B), [the prose witnesses](#CT-P096-A) and [the speaking stone](#CT-P131-B).
The turn to secrecy is equally continuous with Magia. Received wisdom is not, for Vaughan, an unrestricted public possession. Coelum quotes an oath, invokes responsibility before God and explicitly refuses complete disclosure. Readers may question that policy, but should not silently repair it by inserting supposed missing instructions from elsewhere. The edition is complete when it retains the historical refusals as well as the historical assertions. Completeness does not require making the author more explicit than he chose to be. See [the oath](#CT-P108-B) through [the refusal of indiscriminate publication](#CT-P112-A).
The final pages turn again towards readers and opponents, then release the book into a social world of rank, judgement and affection. The closing poem recalls the dedications’ contrast between external greatness and inward worth, while the doxology fixes a theological horizon beyond literary success. The complete volume thus has an arc wider than an account of first matter: it asks how truth is received, how wisdom is transmitted, what practice can show, and how a book should travel among people who may misunderstand it. See [the refusal of titles](#MA-F004-A), [the judgement of readers](#MA-F033-A), [the address to the book](#CT-P139-A) and [the final praise](#CT-P140-B).
## Historical Glossary
These concise entries explain uses within the present volume. They preserve historical distinctions and uncertainties; they are not instructions for identifying or preparing substances.
### Agent and patient
An agent acts; a patient receives action. Vaughan uses the pair both in the account of the ladder and in the distinction between universal divine agency and created recipients. The terms name a relation, rather than two substances already identified for the reader. See [the first passage](#MA-P052-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P081-A).
### Air
Air is associated with the mediating letter among the Three Mothers. Elsewhere it carries volatile substances and helps describe the restless condition of first matter. Its meanings should be followed locally, rather than reduced throughout to the modern gaseous atmosphere. See [the first passage](#MA-P050-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P090-B).
### Alphabet
The ordered letters can represent relations within creation. Vaughan distinguishes this use from a merely literal or verbal cabala. Knowing the letters and knowing the natural subject which they signify remain different achievements. See [the first passage](#MA-P049-C) and [the related discussion](#MA-P053-A).
### Archetype
A prior pattern or exemplary order. The archetypal imagery helps Vaughan relate higher and lower worlds without making their every visible feature identical. In Coelum the two sanctuaries introduce an analogous relation of superior pattern and lower reception. See [the first passage](#MA-P011-B) and [the related discussion](#CT-P080-B).
### Cabala
Vaughan’s term for a received wisdom which he interprets through Scripture, natural philosophy and Christian revelation. He distinguishes a physical or substantial understanding from a merely literal art of letters. His use does not represent the whole history or diversity of Jewish Kabbalah. See [the first passage](#MA-P049-A) and [the related discussion](#MA-P049-C).
### Chaos
The name of an initial, generative condition in which distinctions have not reached their later particular forms. Vaughan’s heavenly chaos is not simple disorder. He seeks a subject capable of generation, with darkness and concealment among its descriptions. See [the first passage](#MA-F026-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P114-B).
### Corruption
A process of dissolution, decay or loss of an existing form. It belongs to Vaughan’s account of fallen nature and also to the changes through which natural things pass. Its theological and physical uses are related, but not interchangeable in every sentence. See [the first passage](#MA-P059-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P115-A).
### Damascene earth
The distinctive earth invoked in Vaughan’s discussion of first matter and creation. It is connected with the earth-and-water argument, not offered as an ordinary geographical soil which readers can identify solely from its name. See [the first passage](#MA-P044-A) and [the related discussion](#MA-P045-A).
### Death of the kiss
Mors osculi: an evocative name introduced amid the ladder and hidden principles. Vaughan withholds the full explanation. The phrase should therefore remain a marked limit of disclosure, rather than a warrant to insert an operation from another system. See [the first passage](#MA-P052-A) and [the related discussion](#ESSAY_ALPHABET_NATURE).
### Elements
The fundamental constituents and relations through which Vaughan explains natural bodies. Their mixtures and balances matter more to his argument than a modern periodic classification. In Coelum he insists that spermatic subjects arise through composition. See [the first passage](#MA-P050-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P130-A).
### Experience
An encounter with nature or practice invoked against empty disputation. It is also capable of correcting a practitioner’s expectation. Vaughan’s appeal to experience coexists with dependence upon testimony, books, teaching and secrecy. See [the first passage](#MA-F015-B) and [the related discussion](#CT-P121-A).
### Fall
The loss and disorder which Vaughan reads through Genesis and received cabalistic accounts. His exposition includes a diminished communication of life to the lower world, creating bodily necessities as well as a need for redemption. See [the first passage](#MA-P011-B) and [the related discussion](#MA-P017-A).
### Fire
A term spanning divine and created activity, heat, life and transformative action. Vaughan distinguishes a natural bath or fire from what an operator might construct by ordinary heating. Each use requires its surrounding qualifications. See [the first passage](#MA-F030-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P120-A).
### First matter
The subject from which natural things arise and upon which the true art is said to work. Vaughan gathers many descriptions while excluding obvious common materials. The edition explains those descriptions without assigning the subject a certain modern chemical identity. See [the first passage](#MA-P044-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P113-A).
### Generation
The coming-to-be of natural bodies through a fitting relation and mixture of principles. Vaughan connects it with nourishment, seed and love, and opposes actions which disregard nature’s proper movement. See [the first passage](#MA-P060-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P084-A).
### Ilan
The tree in the received account of Malcuth’s relation to a higher order. Vaughan makes the severance of that relation part of his Christian reading of the Fall and the impoverishment of creation. See [the first passage](#MA-P011-B) and [the related discussion](#MA-P012-A).
### Influence
A communication of power or life from a superior source to a recipient. The term can describe celestial relations without meaning modern physical radiation. In the poetry, unseen influence also helps contrast outward visibility with inward worth. See [the first passage](#MA-P012-A) and [the related discussion](#MA-F016-A).
### Light
A central term joining intelligibility, divine communication and the life of nature. It appears in the account of religious signs, the diminution associated with the Fall and the later relation of heat and life. Its religious and natural uses need to be read together. See [the first passage](#MA-P006-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P117-A).
### Magic
The wisdom Vaughan says the Creator implanted in creatures and communicated to human beings. He defends this selected meaning against the association of magic with charms or illicit conjuring. The definition is his argument’s starting commitment, rather than an unrestricted description of historical practices. See [the first passage](#MA-P001-B) and [the related discussion](#MA-P007-A).
### Malcuth
The invisible archetypal moon in Vaughan’s received cabalistic account, bearing the name of the kingdom. Its loss of relation to the tree helps express the Fall’s effect upon the lower world. The explanation belongs to his Christian appropriation of these materials. See [the first passage](#MA-P011-B) and [the related discussion](#ESSAY_FALL_RESTORATION).
### Mercury
A many-layered name in the alchemical testimony. In Coelum it concerns a subtle, generative subject and its origins, rather than simply naming the ordinary metallic substance. Context and the author’s exclusions must govern interpretation. See [the first passage](#CT-P124-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P124-B).
### Name and thing
A distinction between a word or representation and the reality it signifies. Vaughan uses it to test cabalistic learning; the same problem recurs when the appended treatise warns against knowing descriptions without knowing their subject. See [the first passage](#MA-P049-C) and [the related discussion](#CT-P081-A).
### Natural bath
Balneum naturae: the bath Vaughan distinguishes from an artificially contrived bath or ordinary fire. The phrase points to a proper natural agency and condition, while leaving important details undisclosed. See [the first passage](#CT-P119-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P120-A).
### Nature
At different points the created order, its powers of generation and a personified speaker or beloved. Vaughan’s personifications can sustain spiritual interpretation while continuing to make claims about bodies, causes and change. See [the first passage](#MA-P059-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P102-A).
### Reduction
A bringing back of a body towards a more general or spermatic condition. In Vaughan’s argument it is not equivalent to any arbitrary distillation or mechanical separation. He insists upon the composition of the relevant principles. See [the first passage](#CT-P129-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P130-A).
### Regeneration
Renewal or a new birth. Vaughan relates it to generation through matter and spirit, allowing physical and theological senses to meet. The relation does not itself establish a modern therapeutic or biological claim. See [the first passage](#MA-P060-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P115-A).
### Salt
A material and symbolic term which appears among religious signs and in descriptions of the subject. Coelum explicitly distinguishes its soft salt from common extracted salts and salts made by an operator. See [the first passage](#MA-P006-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P085-B).
### Secrecy
The deliberate restriction of disclosure. Vaughan links it to the transmission of wisdom, the fitness of readers and responsibility before God. The quoted oath and express refusals are historical parts of the complete text. See [the first passage](#MA-P008-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P108-B).
### Signature
A created mark or correspondence through which a deeper order may be recognised. Vaughan relates natural signs to teaching and revelation, while distinguishing such created relations from the supernatural Trinity itself. See [the first passage](#MA-P020-A) and [the related discussion](#MA-P021-A).
### Soul
The principle of life and an object of religious care, not a single fixed technical label in every passage. The Henshaw dedication asks where the human soul can rest; the stone’s verse later speaks of souls through a deliberately personified natural subject. See [the first passage](#MA-F012-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P131-C).
### Spermalogy
Vaughan’s language for a teaching about seeds and the seminal principles of natural generation. He distinguishes such knowledge from mere mechanical cleverness. Coelum’s later argument about composing a sperm develops the natural-philosophical problem. See [the first passage](#MA-P027-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P130-A).
### Spirit
A term for subtle activity and life as well as divine presence. Vaughan insists that created spirits or recipients must not be confused with the Creator. The word’s theological and natural senses should be distinguished by context. See [the first passage](#MA-F030-C) and [the related discussion](#CT-P134-A).
### Three Mothers
Aleph, Mem and Shin in Vaughan’s account of the elemental letters, associated with air, water and fire. He uses their relations to discuss mixture and mediation. His exposition is selective and does not disclose a complete system. See [the first passage](#MA-P049-C) and [the related discussion](#MA-P050-A).
### Type
A sign, pattern or anticipatory figure whose significance depends upon what it represents. Vaughan uses religious types to argue that outward things can carry relations beyond their immediate appearance without becoming self-sufficient powers. See [the first passage](#MA-P006-A) and [the related discussion](#MA-P022-A).
### Water
An elemental principle, a scriptural and religious sign, and a recurrent name for the hidden subject. Coelum’s gathered descriptions differentiate it from ordinary waters. A common word therefore does not guarantee a common or uniform referent. See [the first passage](#MA-P006-A) and [the related discussion](#CT-P101-A).
## Contextual Lexicon
These twenty-four entries connect exact sentences from the modern reading with literal forms in the historical text. Each separates the passage’s historical argument from a possible reflective application. Follow the passage links to read the qualifications and changes of voice in their setting.
### The Desire to Know
“Before little children can speak, they stare at whatever is strange to them.” — [unnumbered preliminary](#MA-F020-A).
Source forms: Capacitie, Desire.
The reader’s address makes curiosity evidence of a capacity placed in humanity by its creator. Looking, touching and asking what a thing is precede play in Vaughan’s account. His example does more than recommend study: it supports his theological argument that a natural capacity would not have been given in vain. The ambitious claim that humanity can know everything belongs to that argument.
Reflective possibility: Curiosity can be examined before it becomes a demand for an immediate answer. A reader might ask whether a new encounter is being attended to, named too quickly, or treated only as entertainment. This application does not turn Vaughan’s observations into a modern developmental theory.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-F020-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_RECEIVED_EXPERIENCE) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_ERROR).
### Shame and the Defence of Error
“Indeed, the feeling of disgrace prevails so far with some that they would rather persist in error and defend it against truth than acknowledge their weaknesses.” — [unnumbered preliminary](#MA-F022-A).
Source forms: Disgrace, Error.
Vaughan turns the philosopher’s blush into a problem for inquiry. A desire naturally directed towards knowledge can become the defence of one’s standing. His immediate target is the Peripatetic opponent who will not hear another account. The passage also supplies a standard by which readers can examine Vaughan’s own confident assertions and abusive polemic.
Reflective possibility: Correction may threaten an identity built around being knowledgeable. Separating the wish to understand from the wish to win makes room for a different response to a mistake. The sentence invites this examination without guaranteeing that a confident critic is therefore right.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-F022-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_RECEIVED_EXPERIENCE) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_AUTHORITY).
### The Fruits of Knowledge
“Look around you, then, and consider how you are surrounded by infinite treasures and miracles; yet you are so blind that you do not see them.” — [unnumbered preliminary](#MA-F025-A).
Source forms: Works, words.
The surrounding argument opposes knowledge whose fruit is action to knowledge reduced to academic conversation. Vaughan has first described material prosperity as dependent upon first matter and its distribution. Treasures therefore retain an economic and natural meaning as well as an imaginative force. The sentence cannot responsibly be detached from his strong claims about what the art can accomplish.
Reflective possibility: A possible reflective use is to ask what an account changes in observation or conduct. Recognising unnoticed resources can be valuable, but an attractive idea about hidden riches is not itself evidence that the promised result exists.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-F025-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_RECEIVED_EXPERIENCE) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_SUBJECT).
### Truth and Its Reception
“As for the rest, since I cannot force their approval, I shall not beg for it.” — [unnumbered preliminary](#MA-F033-A).
Source forms: Approbation, worth.
The reader’s address ends by entrusting the book to its own worth and to a soul capable of understanding it. This independence follows a lengthy attack on an opponent and an allegory in which Truth occupies the rear of Lady Lie’s procession. It is an author’s claim about reception, not proof that neglected writing must be true.
Reflective possibility: One can distinguish dependence on applause from openness to correction. An inquiry need not succeed socially in order to deserve attention; equally, rejection does not establish its merit. The earlier discussion of shame makes that second qualification especially useful.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-F033-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_RECEIVED_EXPERIENCE) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_ERROR).
### Wisdom Planted in the Creature
“Magic is simply the Creator’s wisdom revealed and planted in the creature.” — [source p. 1](#MA-P001-B).
Source forms: Wisdom, Creature.
The opening definition governs Vaughan’s defence of the word magic. He places it within creation and religion, then invokes the Magi who attended Christ. Later he distinguishes this art from conjuring and from the literal imitation of symbols. His definition is a contested seventeenth-century claim; the edition retains it without making it a definition of every historical practice called magic.
Reflective possibility: The image of wisdom planted in a creature can direct attention towards capacities received rather than invented. A symbolic reading can explore that relation while keeping visible Vaughan’s insistence that the same wisdom concerns the physical world.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P001-B), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_MAGIC_RELIGION) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_CREATURE).
### The Seal of the Fathers
“Give him the authority of his fathers and he immediately submits to its seal.” — [source p. 2](#MA-P002-A).
Source forms: Authoritie, Seale.
Vaughan presents a sharply generalised picture of Jewish acceptance of ancestral authority, followed by early Christian initiation through belief. These are rhetorical examples in his defence of a disputed science. Their presence should not be mistaken for a neutral account of all Jewish or Christian habits of interpretation. The following pages complicate authority by asking how knowledge can actually be received.
Reflective possibility: An inherited name may make a proposition familiar before its grounds have been examined. Reflection can ask what authority contributes—testimony, trust, institutional standing—and what remains to be understood. That question applies to the authors Vaughan endorses as well as those he attacks.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P002-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_RECEIVED_EXPERIENCE) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_RECEPTION).
### Assent Through Love
‘For I receive my principles and, having received them, believe them [New translation of the Latin:] “solely through love for the one who reveals them”; [Vaughan’s own English rendering:] only out of my affection for him who reveals them.’ — [source p. 4](#MA-P004-A).
Source forms: Love, Revelantem.
This sentence completes a thought begun on the previous page: the art’s principles depend upon God’s spirit, and their reception ends in love. The Latin emphasises the revealer; Vaughan’s following English gloss is retained separately. Love here describes a relation of trust and devotion within his account of revelation, rather than a replacement for every form of reasoning.
Reflective possibility: The passage permits a question about how attachment shapes assent. Affection can sustain patient attention; it can also make a reader reluctant to test a beloved teacher’s claims. Reading this sentence beside the warning about defending error keeps both possibilities available.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P004-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_MAGIC_RELIGION) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_GENERATION).
### The Symbol and the Invented Charm
“Interpreting these according to his own fancy, the ordinary reader invented charms and formulas by which he promised wonders.” — [source p. 7](#MA-P007-A).
Source forms: Verbum, Sermo.
The preceding maxim says that an utterance works only when formed or animated by God’s word. Vaughan then describes readers who substitute verbal formulas for the relation the words indicate. Circles and triangles likewise become conjuring figures when their intended reference to nature’s rotation is lost. The criticism concerns a failure of interpretation within his own defence of magic.
Reflective possibility: A symbol can be repeated accurately while its function is misunderstood. A reflective reader may ask what relation a sign is supposed to express before treating possession of the sign as possession of its power. This does not require deciding that all the book’s physical language is secretly psychological.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P007-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_SIGN_THING) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_LETTERS).
### The Withholding of Blessing
“Evil, properly speaking, is a corruption that immediately takes place upon the removal of good.” — [source p. 14](#MA-P014-A).
Source forms: Corruption, Removall.
The curse is explained through withdrawal: divine light is removed, and matter becomes darker, colder and less fruitful. Vaughan distinguishes this diminished condition from the final extremes of heaven and hell. The account connects moral transgression with an altered natural world and prepares the later claim that restoration concerns creatures as well as humanity.
Reflective possibility: The image can suggest that damage sometimes follows the loss of a sustaining condition. Used reflectively, this directs attention to what has ceased to nourish a situation. It should not be used to explain a person’s suffering as proof of moral fault.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P014-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_FALL_RESTORATION) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_HARMONY).
### The Liberty of Creation
“As they were cursed for man’s sake in his Fall, so it seems they will also be blessed for his sake in his restoration.” — [source p. 16](#MA-P016-A).
Source forms: Creature, Liberty.
Vaughan reads Romans 8 as distinguishing nonhuman creatures from God’s children while allowing both the same promised liberty. His argument extends the effects of fall and restoration beyond the individual soul. Notice his qualification, “it seems”: the inference follows his reading of the passage rather than appearing as an independently established natural fact.
Reflective possibility: A reflective application can consider how human action affects a wider world of lives and conditions. The sentence offers a language of shared consequence, while its historical framework remains a Christian interpretation of creation and redemption.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P016-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_FALL_RESTORATION) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_ASTRAL_MOTHER).
### The Stranger in the World
“I therefore conclude that he had an instructor to initiate him into the ways of life and show him that wilderness’s intricate, narrow paths.” — [source p. 18](#MA-P018-A).
Source forms: Instructor, Necessities.
Adam’s ignorance after the Fall includes food, poisons, medicines and ordinary preparation. Vaughan infers instruction from the needs of embodied survival, then links this help to hope in the second Adam. The argument is deliberately about both present necessity and future restoration. It does not confine divine teaching to doctrines concerning a disembodied soul.
Reflective possibility: The image of the stranger makes dependence upon teaching visible. A person may possess the desire to know while still needing guidance, practice and correction. Gratitude for instruction need not remove the responsibility to judge what is being taught.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P018-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_FALL_RESTORATION) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_RECEPTION).
### Knowledge and Its Use
“God, if I may put it so, knows evil only speculatively, since nothing can escape his knowledge; he is therefore not guilty of evil.” — [source p. 20](#MA-P020-A).
Source forms: Knowledge, practice.
The surrounding distinction, attributed to Trithemius, separates knowing evil from using or practising it. Vaughan employs it to argue that a scriptural saying concerns Christ, the second Adam, rather than Adam’s guilty acquisition of knowledge. His argument depends on the theological difference between understanding an action and committing it.
Reflective possibility: Knowing that an impulse or possibility exists is different from endorsing or enacting it. That distinction may help a reflective reader examine experience without collapsing observation into guilt. It does not make every use of knowledge harmless; Vaughan explicitly places use at the centre of the distinction.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P020-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_MAGIC_RELIGION) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_WORKS).
### Created Books
“They are signatures and created books in which we may read the mysteries of the supernatural Trinity.” — [source p. 21](#MA-P021-A).
Source forms: Signatures, Created Books.
The antecedent is the three visible substances below, understood as witnesses and receptacles of three eternal principles above. Vaughan reads created nature as a book whose structure bears theological meaning. The passage joins reception of teaching with interpretation of things; it does not identify every visible resemblance as an authorised revelation.
Reflective possibility: A reflective reading might attend to how a world becomes legible through an interpretive framework. Asking which features support a proposed correspondence keeps the image of a book from becoming permission to read any desired message into nature.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P021-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_SIGN_THING) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_MISREADING).
### The Thing Signified
“In matters of sacrifice, man’s hope and expectation certainly rest in the thing signified, rather than in the sign itself.” — [source p. 23](#MA-P023-B).
Source forms: Signe, Prototype.
Vaughan argues that sacrifice derives its efficacy from Christ as spiritual and eternal prototype. The material act by itself does not explain divine acceptance. He then rejects the idea that the death of a creature naturally pleases God. The sign–thing distinction therefore has both a theological function and a consequence for how killing is interpreted.
Reflective possibility: A reflective application can ask whether a repeated act still points towards the value it was meant to serve. Retaining a form may preserve meaning, but it can also conceal the loss of that relation. The source supplies a particular Christian example rather than a universal theory of ritual.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P023-B), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_SIGN_THING) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_ASTRAL_MOTHER).
### The Mourning Mother
“For I shall show elsewhere that the astral mother mourns, rather than rejoices, at her children’s death.” — [source p. 24](#MA-P024-A).
Source forms: Astral Mother, Death.
Vaughan accepts that a compound’s dissolution produces motion in the astral matrix, but denies that the motion is joy or a reward for the sacrificer. The mother image therefore qualifies a proposed natural explanation of sacrifice. It belongs to his account of sympathy between creature and world, not merely to an ornamental comparison.
Reflective possibility: The passage may invite attention to the difference between causing an effect and causing a good. A system’s response to an action is not automatically its approval. Reading the sentence with the discussion of creation’s liberty extends that question beyond the acting individual.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P024-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_FALL_RESTORATION) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_CREATURE).
### Imitating Nature’s Subject
“Whoever would imitate his effect must first imitate his subject.” — [source p. 45](#MA-P045-A).
Source forms: Effect, Subject.
The subject is the matter used by God in creation, as Vaughan believes it can be read in Moses. He rejects flints and antimony in the next sentence and directs the reader towards an earth that is also water. This is a claim about the material basis of art, accompanied by an admission that he will not state everything openly.
Reflective possibility: An intended outcome does not determine whether the starting conditions are suitable. Applied reflectively, the sentence asks what a process is actually working upon. It does not identify Vaughan’s unnamed matter with a modern substance or turn his assertion into a tested method.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P045-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_RECEIVED_EXPERIENCE) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_FINDING).
### A Knowledge Received
“They imparted their knowledge orally to their successors, and hence the science was called Kabbalah, meaning reception.” — [source p. 47](#MA-P047-A).
Source forms: Reception, Successors.
Vaughan places the origin of Kabbalah among elders who received Moses’s spirit and transmitted hidden teaching orally. The ensuing account of Esdras moves from living hearts to written books. These are Vaughan’s Christian historical constructions, assembled from the authorities available to him; the edition does not present them as an established history of Jewish Kabbalah.
Reflective possibility: The term reception makes a reader’s dependence on earlier teaching explicit. Reflection can ask what changes when instruction passes from a person to a text and from one community to another. Being received does not make a teaching immune to distortion or examination.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P047-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_RECEIVED_EXPERIENCE) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_AUTHORITY).
### The Letter as a Veil
“True Kabbalah uses the letter only as a device for obscuring and hiding its natural secrets, as the Egyptians formerly used their hieroglyphs.” — [source p. 53](#MA-P053-A).
Source forms: Letter, Secrets.
Vaughan opposes a purely grammatical manipulation of letters to what he regards as physical Kabbalah. Yet he does not discard letters: he makes them a veil through which natural mysteries are transmitted and concealed. This claim follows his examples of angelic and divine names and precedes his account of an inscription on Mount Horeb.
Reflective possibility: A difficult expression may guide inquiry by withholding an immediate substitution. A reflective reader can ask what the obscurity accomplishes and whether another passage constrains its meaning. Difficulty alone neither proves depth nor establishes that a hidden meaning exists.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P053-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_ALPHABET_NATURE) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_SIGNATURES).
### Creation and Regeneration
“Resurrection’s laws are founded on creation’s laws, and regeneration’s on generation’s: in all these God works upon the same matter through the same Spirit.” — [source p. 60](#MA-P060-A).
Source forms: Resurrection, Generation.
This is Vaughan’s explicit statement that natural and theological transformation share a ground. It follows his account of excessive appetite and precedes the Chinese Christian monument offered as corroboration. Generation, regeneration, creation and resurrection remain distinguishable terms, even as he argues for their harmony through matter and divine agency.
Reflective possibility: A reflective reading can look for continuities between ordinary formation and the possibility of renewal. It should also notice where an analogy becomes a much stronger claim about divine action. The source makes that claim; the commentary keeps it available for examination.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P060-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_FALL_RESTORATION) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_GENERATION).
### Heaven in Captivity
“Heaven here below differs from heaven above only in captivity; heaven above differs from this below only in freedom.” — [source p. 68](#MA-P068-A).
Source forms: Captivitie, Libertie.
In Vaughan’s reconstruction of Egyptian doctrine, portions of heavenly nature remain below after the heavens have been extracted. They share essence and substance with the stars, yet are bound within matter. The contrast prepares the claim that upper and lower can unite because they have one nature. It belongs to a cosmology as well as a language of liberation.
Reflective possibility: The image can prompt reflection on a capacity whose expression depends on its conditions. What appears absent may, in this reading, be constrained. That possibility is interpretive; it cannot establish that every limitation conceals an already complete power.
Read with [the full passage](#MA-P068-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_RECEIVED_EXPERIENCE) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_MEDIATION).
### Finding the Given Seed
“Man may find it where Nature leaves it; making or extracting the seed is not his office.” — [source p. 86](#CT-P086-A).
Source forms: sperme, Matrix.
Coelum Terrae distinguishes nature’s production of seed from the artist’s provision of a suitable matrix and heat. In the full volume, this limitation answers Magia Adamica’s appeal to imitate the creator’s subject. The art begins with something received and found, while the artist remains responsible for the conditions supplied to it.
Reflective possibility: A reflective use is to separate a capacity already present from the conditions one can help establish. Receiving does not make action unnecessary; it changes the claim one can make about authorship. The distinction resists the temptation to credit every result wholly to oneself.
Read with [the full passage](#CT-P086-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_MAGIA_COELUM) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_SUBJECT).
### The Work of Love
“She yields to nothing but love, for her end is generation, and generation has never yet been accomplished by violence.” — [source p. 84](#CT-P084-A).
Source forms: Love, Generation.
The subject of the art is personified as a mother or virgin whose end is generation. Vaughan’s courtship language describes how the artist should approach that subject. The later warnings about violent heat give the image a practical dimension within his natural philosophy. It also echoes the earlier account of principles received through love.
Reflective possibility: The passage can suggest attention to a thing’s capacities and limits rather than the imposition of a desired result. Patience is then an active manner of working. This application preserves the relation between affection and conditions without pretending that the physical claims are only metaphors.
Read with [the full passage](#CT-P084-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_MAGIA_COELUM) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_LOVING_KNOWLEDGE).
### The Measure of Cooperation
“Neither kitchen fire nor fever works upon the sperm in the womb, but a thoroughly temperate, moist, natural heat proceeding from the mother’s own life.” — [source p. 120](#CT-P120-A).
Source forms: heat, Generation.
The comparison with gestation qualifies what fire means in the art. Vaughan distinguishes a generative heat from the cook’s fire and from fever. Read in the whole publication, the sentence continues a concern with creation’s existing powers rather than the mere application of force. It does not provide a numerical temperature or identify an ordinary material as first matter.
Reflective possibility: A reflective reader may examine the difference between intensity and fitness. More effort or pressure need not improve a process whose development depends on proportion. The image offers a question about conditions, rather than a guarantee that gentleness by itself will produce transformation.
Read with [the full passage](#CT-P120-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_MAGIA_COELUM) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_GENERATION).
### A Bond Between Contraries
“Thus air’s mediation makes friends of the other two extremes, fire and water, and reconciles them.” — [source p. 133](#CT-P133-A).
Source forms: Mediator, Unitie.
Air shares heat with fire and moisture with water in the elemental model Vaughan uses. Its mediation explains a partial reconciliation; the next passage requires a stronger bond in the spirit of God. In the full volume, this sequence joins natural relations to the divine agency invoked from the opening definition of magic.
Reflective possibility: A reflective application can look for a real shared quality through which opposing positions meet. It can also ask how durable that agreement is. Vaughan’s distinction between partial friendship and a stronger bond prevents mediation from becoming a claim that every conflict is already resolved.
Read with [the full passage](#CT-P133-A), [the related interpretive essay](#ESSAY_MAGIA_COELUM) and [the related contextual entry](#LEX_CAPTIVITY).
## Relations Within the Volume
### Revelation and natural necessity
Vaughan argues from fallen human needs to the fittingness of divine instruction. The examples of craft and medicine broaden the concern beyond abstract knowledge. Compare [Adam’s necessities](#MA-P017-A), [care of bodies](#MA-P029-A) and [the examples of revealed skill](#MA-P030-A). This relation underlies the claim that natural wisdom can belong within a history of mercy.
### Received authority and personal practice
The antiquity argument depends upon reports beyond the author’s lifetime, while the appended work repeatedly appeals to what practitioners know. Compare [the limits of witnessing the past](#MA-P009-A), [books without understanding](#MA-P037-A) and [the account of mistaken expectation](#CT-P121-A). The relation creates a continuing question about how testimony becomes knowledge.
### Letter, image and subject
The alphabet and the reported images offer ways of representing natural relations, but do not replace the subject. Read [name and thing](#MA-P049-C), [the described book of figures](#MA-P054-A) and [the gathered descriptions](#CT-P084-B). A resemblance between representations is evidence to interpret, rather than a guarantee of identity.
### Higher and lower
The first treatise’s account of diminished influence and the second’s two sanctuaries both depend upon relations between superior and inferior. Compare [the channel of nourishment](#MA-P012-A), [the sanctuaries](#CT-P080-B) and [the upper and lower conditions](#CT-P125-B). Vaughan connects the levels without treating every creature as the source of its own life.
### Generation and renewal
Vaughan links generation and regeneration, then explores generation’s proper action through matter, love and the natural bath. Read [matter and spirit](#MA-P060-A), [love rather than violence](#CT-P084-A) and [the natural bath](#CT-P120-A). The connection supports both physical and spiritual questions without settling every particular description as allegory.
### Secrecy and public argument
The volume defends an art publicly while restricting its disclosure. Compare [the transmitters and keepers of wisdom](#MA-P008-A), [withheld proportions](#MA-P051-A) and [the quoted oath](#CT-P108-B). A complete edition must include the restriction as part of the author’s position; an interpretation can then ask what the restriction does to his claims.
### Worth and reception
The refusal of worldly greatness in the dedications returns in the final address to the book. Read [rank and judgement](#MA-F004-A), [the crowd’s approval](#MA-F033-A) and [the book’s intended flight](#CT-P139-A). The social life of the publication frames the philosophical case, giving its readers a role in the argument’s success or failure.
## Guide to the Poems
The poems are part of the complete historical reading. This guide follows their changes of speaker and function; it does not treat the publication as containing engravings for the figures which Magia describes in reported books.
### P. B.: defence, taunt and commemoration
The commendatory poem is signed P. B., Master of Arts of Oxford. It first tells Eugenius that attack has benefited him, then turns upon his adversary with sectarian, academic and bodily satire. Its opposition between contempt and experience prepares a central theme of the volume. The disputed “fense” is retained as uncertain rather than assigned a settled physical meaning. See [the title](#MA-F015-A), [the opening](#MA-F015-B) and [the direct attack](#MA-F015-C).
The long final movement invokes Aristotle, Digby, embodied souls, Ambrose and Persius, then turns to Cynthia and Tethys. Unseen treasures and visible influence give the moon image an argument: failure to see a thing does not prove it worthless. The Scythian dogs and the ermine return that image to hostile reception. The final calendar conceit imagines lasting honour for Eugenius. All the lines, including the insults and shifts of addressee, belong to the poem’s construction. See [the final movement](#MA-F016-A) and [the signature](#MA-F016-B).
### Hyanthe: a narrated encounter
Hyanthe enters within Vaughan’s account of a generative subject. The speaker sees her on a throne, dressed in green above a sapphire globe. Further looking reveals her posture, her tears and the white support beneath her hand. An address to her follows, then the poem develops images of fire, incense and ascending smoke. Read its sequence before trying to assign each object a technical equivalent. See [the appearance](#CT-P093-B), [the closer view](#CT-P094-B), [the address](#CT-P094-C) and [the concluding imagery](#CT-P095-A).
Vaughan’s prose then anticipates a hostile reading of verse and gathers descriptions from earlier writers. The transition makes the poem part of an evidential and interpretive project within the treatise. Its affective language of beauty, grief and attention can also sustain a spiritual reading; the surrounding natural argument remains relevant. See [the defence](#CT-P095-B) and [the turn to other witnesses](#CT-P096-A).
### The stone’s speeches: departure and return
The Latin verses give the speaking subject changes of life and absence, then describe three souls of which two depart and the third nearly follows. Vaughan supplies English verses of his own after the Latin. The new translations and his separate versions are both retained. Read the speakers as personifications within the surrounding account of change, without assuming that the vocabulary of soul has exactly the same referent here as in the Henshaw dedication. See [the first Latin speech](#CT-P131-B), [the three souls](#CT-P131-C) and [Vaughan’s first English verse](#CT-P131-D) through [the second](#CT-P131-E).
### The closing address: sending a book into the world
Vaughan addresses his book as something able to fly towards readers. He disclaims noble rank, imagines different receptions and gives the work a place amid affection and concealment. The poem continues across the original boundary between pages 139 and 140; it must be read through that continuation. Its concern with worth and reception returns the reader to the dedications and the address which began the volume. See [the opening address](#CT-P139-A) and [its continuation](#CT-P140-A). The following [doxology](#CT-P140-B) and [Amen](#CT-P140-C) are separate closing elements and remain present.
## Reading Routes
Each route begins with historical passages and returns to them after the suggested study aid. The order is an editorial invitation, rather than a rearrangement of Vaughan’s text.
### Read the whole publication
Begin with [the title](#MA-F001-A), continue through both dedications, P. B.’s poem and [the address to the reader](#MA-F017-A), then read Magia from [its opening](#MA-P001-A) through [the top of page 78](#MA-P078-A). Continue immediately with [Coelum’s new address](#CT-P078-A) through the [closing poem](#CT-P140-A), doxology, Amen and [printed corrections](#MA-ERRATA-A). Return to [the essay on the transition](#ESSAY_MAGIA_COELUM) and assess what changes between the two discourses.
### Follow religion and natural knowledge
Read [the definition of magic](#MA-P001-B), [the religious signs](#MA-P006-A), [the distinction between the soul’s rest and the stone](#MA-F012-A), then [the warning about Creator and creature](#CT-P134-A). Use [the first essay](#ESSAY_MAGIC_RELIGION) to compare the different claims, then return to the passages and distinguish what is defined, argued and warned against.
### Trace the Fall and renewal
Move from [the loss of relation](#MA-P011-B) to [human necessities](#MA-P017-A), [merciful instruction](#MA-P018-A) and [generation and regeneration](#MA-P060-A). Continue to [the two extremes](#CT-P115-A). Read [the restoration essay](#ESSAY_FALL_RESTORATION), then ask where the original text makes an explicit scriptural appeal and where it reasons from what would be fitting.
### Test the case for antiquity
Begin with [the problem of the past](#MA-P009-A), then compare [Jacob’s practice](#MA-P035-A), [the reported Chinese monument](#MA-P060-A), [the qualified story about Aristotle](#MA-P074-A) and [the confession of practical error](#CT-P121-A). Use [the testimony and experience essay](#ESSAY_RECEIVED_EXPERIENCE) to separate kinds of evidence, then reread the qualifications in the historical prose.
### Follow letters and images
Read [name and thing](#MA-P049-C), [the Three Mothers](#MA-P050-A), [the ladder](#MA-P052-A) and [the described illustrated book](#MA-P054-A). Continue with [Hyanthe](#CT-P093-B) and [Vaughan’s defence of the poem](#CT-P095-B). Consult [the essay on representation](#ESSAY_SIGN_THING) and [the poem guide](#POEM_HYANTHE), then return to identify which details are described, interpreted or withheld.
### Read the natural subject cautiously
Begin with [love and generation](#CT-P084-A), [the soft salt](#CT-P085-B), [the exclusions](#CT-P113-A), [the natural bath](#CT-P120-A) and [the composition of a sperm](#CT-P130-A). Compare [the historical glossary](#GLOSSARY) with the complete passages. Ask how Vaughan distinguishes his subject from readily available substances, rather than supplying a modern identity from an isolated name.
## Questions for Study
### What is Vaughan defending?
How does the opening definition restrict the meaning of magic? Which practices or assumptions does he exclude, and which commitments does he ask the reader to accept? Begin with [the definition](#MA-P001-B) and [the distinction from charms](#MA-P007-A).
### Where does an inference begin?
Find a place where Vaughan distinguishes explicit scriptural testimony from probable reasoning. How does that admission affect the larger claim about Adam’s knowledge? Compare [his qualification](#MA-P026-B) with [the argument from divine care](#MA-P029-A).
### What can a sign do?
What relation allows water, salt, oil or light to function as more than an empty name? How does Vaughan avoid giving arbitrary human words unlimited power? Compare [the material signs](#MA-P006-A) and [letters and substantial reality](#MA-P053-A).
### Whose tradition is being described?
What happens when Vaughan interprets Malcuth, the tree and the Three Mothers within his Christian argument? What can this volume establish about his reception, and what would require a separate history of Jewish traditions? Read [the Fall account](#MA-P011-B) and [name and thing](#MA-P049-C).
### How strong is reported evidence?
Choose the Chinese monument, the book described by Flamel or the Aristotle anecdote. Separate report, quotation, interpretation and conjecture. Start with [the monument](#MA-P060-A), [the described book](#MA-P054-A) or [the qualified anecdote](#MA-P074-A).
### What corrects confidence?
How does Vaughan’s account of failed practice qualify his criticism of the schools? What would a reader need to know in order to judge his appeal to experience? Compare [the limits of merely reading](#MA-P037-A) and [the failed expectation](#CT-P121-A).
### What does secrecy permit a reader to assess?
Does the oath strengthen the moral seriousness of the art, limit the evidence which the book can offer, or do both? Keep the historical refusal intact while considering its consequences. Read [the oath](#CT-P108-B) and [the refusal to publish indiscriminately](#CT-P112-A).
### How do the poems argue?
Compare the unseen treasures of Cynthia in [P. B.’s poem](#MA-F016-A) with the close looking demanded by [Hyanthe’s appearance](#CT-P093-B). How do images of visibility, influence and attention contribute to the prose arguments?
### Where do material and spiritual readings meet?
Identify a passage where Vaughan himself connects generation with renewal, then one where he distinguishes a particular material from ordinary substitutes. How can an interpretation preserve both claims? Compare [generation and regeneration](#MA-P060-A) and [the exclusions](#CT-P113-A).
### Why end by addressing a book?
How does the final poem return to the opening concern with rank, judgement and readers? Compare [the dedication’s refusal of greatness](#MA-F004-A), [the public reception](#MA-F033-A) and [the closing poem](#CT-P139-A).
## Sources and Editorial Credits
### 1650: governing transcription
Vaughan, Thomas, writing as Eugenius Philalethes. Magia Adamica, or The Antiquitie of Magic, with its Descent from Adam Downwards Proved. London: T. W. for H. Blunden, 1650. Includes Coelum Terrae, or The Magician’s Heavenly Chaos. Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership, A64768.0001.001; EEBO115898; Wing V151; ESTC R203905. The machine-readable transcription supplies the governing 1650 text and its structural record, including the printed corrections. Its two untranscribed Greek forms in the page-70 instruction are restored from the contemporary errata leaf described below. University of Michigan: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A64768.0001.001 . TCP XML: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/textcreationpartnership/A64768/master/A64768.xml .
The TCP transcription is provided under the CC0 public-domain dedication: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ . Credit belongs to the Text Creation Partnership and the institutions responsible for its production and preservation. The present edition’s modern reading and editorial contributions are separately prepared.
### 1650: the imperfect Getty copy
Vaughan, Thomas. Magia Adamica, 1650. Getty Research Institute copy, Internet Archive identifier magiaadamicaoran00vaug; call number372004; ARK ark:/13960/t7fr0pk07. https://archive.org/details/magiaadamicaoran00vaug . Its native page images support the reading of the surviving leaves. Its absent errata leaf is supplied from the separate contemporary witness described below. The copy is imperfect, and the bound volume also includes separate Man-Mouse material. The absence of Magia’s title leaf is not repaired by treating that other title as its own.
### 1650: recovered shared errata
Vaughan, Thomas. The Man-Mouse Taken in a Trap. London, 1650. Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica / Embassy of the Free Mind copy, digitised by that library and made available through Source Library. The unnumbered shared correction leaf follows the title leaf and its blank verso; it is reader image 4. The native image supplies both Greek forms omitted by TCP and permits correction of other transcription errors. https://sourcelibrary.org/book/the-man-mouse-taken-in-a-trap-vaughan/page/698192a58932e24fc7671636 . The present reading is made from the historical image, independently checked; Source Library’s automated transcription and translation do not govern it.
### 1656: supplementary issue witness
Vaughan, Thomas. Magia Adamica; or, The Antiquitie of Magic. London: printed for John Allen, at the Rising Sun in Paul’s Churchyard, 1656. Internet Archive microfilm digitisation, identifier bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_magia-adamica-or-the-an_vaughan-thomas_1656; collection catalogue number V152; ARK ark:/13960/s2mgfp2m51f. https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_magia-adamica-or-the-an_vaughan-thomas_1656 . Used as a supplementary witness for absent or defective material, including the title’s Greek motto. The changed title and imprint are distinguished from the governing 1650 publication. This issue does not include the shared errata, supplied here from the 1650 witness.
### 1888: a comparison witness
Vaughan, Thomas. The Magical Writings of Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes). Edited by Arthur Edward Waite. London: George Redway, 1888. Wellcome Collection, catalogue work dr6u75bj, digitised copy b24868279. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/dr6u75bj . Where consulted for the appended Coelum Terrae, this is a later comparison witness. Its wording and editorial choices do not govern the present 1650 reading.
### Editorial work and limits
The present edition supplies modern English, fresh translations of embedded foreign passages, passage notes and the supporting study material. Its source inventory records included units and their witnesses. The apparatus interprets Vaughan’s claims without independently authenticating every ancient attribution, reported monument, historical medical assertion or alleged line of transmission. The poems and the descriptions of images remain in their historical forms; no newly imagined image is presented as a plate belonging to the original publication.
## Subject Index
Entries point to passages and, where useful, to an editorial aid. A passage may continue across an original page boundary; follow the surrounding reading for its complete argument.
### Adam: instruction and necessity
[source p. 17](#MA-P017-A); [source p. 18](#MA-P018-A).
### Adam, first and second
[source p. 19](#MA-P019-A); [source p. 20](#MA-P020-A).
### Agent and patient
[source p. 52](#MA-P052-A); [source p. 81](#CT-P081-A).
### Agrippa
[source p. 8](#MA-P008-A); [source p. 126](#CT-P126-A).
### Air
[source p. 50](#MA-P050-A); [source p. 90](#CT-P090-B).
### Alazonomastix
[preliminary 15](#MA-F015-A); [preliminary 31](#MA-F031-A).
### Aleph, Mem and Shin
[source p. 49](#MA-P049-C); [source p. 50](#MA-P050-A).
### Alphabet
[source p. 49](#MA-P049-C); [source p. 53](#MA-P053-A).
### Ancient transmission
[source p. 9](#MA-P009-A); [source p. 74](#MA-P074-A).
### Angels and instruction
[source p. 20](#MA-P020-A); [source p. 52](#MA-P052-A).
### Antimony: exclusions
[source p. 45](#MA-P045-A); [source p. 113](#CT-P113-A).
### Aristotle and the schools
[source p. 3](#MA-P003-A); [source p. 74](#MA-P074-A).
### Ark: skill and preservation
[source p. 30](#MA-P030-A); [source p. 31](#MA-P031-A).
### Authority and testimony
[source p. 10](#MA-P010-A); [Received Knowledge and the Test of Experience](#ESSAY_RECEIVED_EXPERIENCE).
### Bacon and experience
[preliminary 15](#MA-F015-B); [P. B.: defence, taunt and commemoration](#POEM_PB).
### Bath, natural
[source p. 119](#CT-P119-A); [source p. 120](#CT-P120-A).
### Bezalel and craft
[source p. 30](#MA-P030-A); [source p. 31](#MA-P031-A).
### Bodies and divine care
[source p. 29](#MA-P029-A); [source p. 60](#MA-P060-A).
### Book: imagined reception
[preliminary 33](#MA-F033-A); [source p. 139](#CT-P139-A).
### Cabala: letter and substance
[source p. 49](#MA-P049-A); [source p. 49](#MA-P049-C).
### Cain, Abel and sacrifice
[source p. 22](#MA-P022-A); [source p. 24](#MA-P024-A).
### Calf, golden
[source p. 45](#MA-P045-A); [source p. 46](#MA-P046-A).
### Chaos
[preliminary 26](#MA-F026-A); [source p. 114](#CT-P114-B).
### Charms and words
[source p. 7](#MA-P007-A); [source p. 53](#MA-P053-A).
### China: reported monument
[source p. 60](#MA-P060-A); [source p. 63](#MA-P063-A).
### Christ: nature and the Gospel
[source p. 32](#MA-P032-A); [source p. 60](#MA-P060-A).
### Christian readings of Jewish traditions
[source p. 11](#MA-P011-B); [source p. 49](#MA-P049-C).
### Coelum Terrae: opening
[source p. 78](#CT-P078-A); [From Magia Adamica into Coelum Terrae](#ESSAY_MAGIA_COELUM).
### Composition and separation
[source p. 129](#CT-P129-A); [source p. 130](#CT-P130-A).
### Corruption
[source p. 59](#MA-P059-A); [source p. 115](#CT-P115-A).
### Creator and creature
[source p. 81](#CT-P081-A); [source p. 134](#CT-P134-A).
### Cynthia and Tethys
[preliminary 16](#MA-F016-A); [P. B.: defence, taunt and commemoration](#POEM_PB).
### Damascene earth
[source p. 44](#MA-P044-A); [source p. 45](#MA-P045-A).
### Death of the kiss
[source p. 52](#MA-P052-A); [Death of the kiss](#GLOSS_09).
### Dedication to Harbert
[preliminary 3](#MA-F003-A); [preliminary 8](#MA-F008-C).
### Dedication to Henshaw
[preliminary 9](#MA-F009-A); [preliminary 14](#MA-F014-B).
### Digby
[preliminary 16](#MA-F016-A); [P. B.: defence, taunt and commemoration](#POEM_PB).
### Doxology and Amen
[source p. 140](#CT-P140-B); [source p. 140](#CT-P140-C).
### Dreams and interpretation
[source p. 36](#MA-P036-A); [source p. 37](#MA-P037-A).
### Earth and water
[source p. 44](#MA-P044-A); [source p. 128](#CT-P128-A).
### Ecclesiastes
[preliminary 9](#MA-F009-C); [preliminary 10](#MA-F010-A).
### Egypt: figures and transmission
[source p. 66](#MA-P066-A); [source p. 72](#MA-P072-A).
### Elements
[source p. 50](#MA-P050-A); [source p. 130](#CT-P130-A).
### Epictetus motto
[preliminary 1](#MA-F001-D); [1656: supplementary issue witness](#BIB_1656).
### Experience and error
[preliminary 15](#MA-F015-B); [source p. 121](#CT-P121-A).
### Fall
[source p. 11](#MA-P011-B); [The Fall and the Possibility of Restoration](#ESSAY_FALL_RESTORATION).
### Fire
[preliminary 30](#MA-F030-A); [source p. 120](#CT-P120-A).
### First matter
[source p. 44](#MA-P044-A); [source p. 85](#CT-P085-B).
### Flamel: described book
[source p. 54](#MA-P054-A); [source p. 58](#MA-P058-A).
### Generation
[source p. 60](#MA-P060-A); [source p. 84](#CT-P084-A).
### Genesis: differing words reconciled
[source p. 44](#MA-P044-A); [source p. 45](#MA-P045-A).
### Golden calf
[source p. 45](#MA-P045-A); [source p. 46](#MA-P046-A).
### Harbert, Mathew
[preliminary 3](#MA-F003-A); [preliminary 8](#MA-F008-A).
### Heaven, higher and lower
[source p. 80](#CT-P080-B); [source p. 125](#CT-P125-B).
### Heliopolis
[preliminary 8](#MA-F008-C); [preliminary 8](#MA-F008-B).
### Henshaw, Thomas
[preliminary 9](#MA-F009-A); [preliminary 13](#MA-F013-B).
### Hermes: received authority
[preliminary 28](#MA-F028-A); [source p. 71](#MA-P071-A).
### Hyanthe
[source p. 93](#CT-P093-B); [Hyanthe: a narrated encounter](#POEM_HYANTHE).
### Ilan
[source p. 11](#MA-P011-B); [source p. 12](#MA-P012-A).
### Images, reported
[source p. 54](#MA-P054-A); [The Sign and the Thing](#ESSAY_SIGN_THING).
### Influence
[source p. 12](#MA-P012-A); [preliminary 16](#MA-F016-A).
### Invective
[preliminary 7](#MA-F007-A); [preliminary 32](#MA-F032-A).
### Jacob: rods and ladder
[source p. 35](#MA-P035-A); [source p. 52](#MA-P052-A).
### Joseph and divination
[source p. 39](#MA-P039-A); [source p. 40](#MA-P040-A).
### Light
[source p. 6](#MA-P006-A); [source p. 117](#CT-P117-A).
### Love and generation
[source p. 84](#CT-P084-A); [source p. 133](#CT-P133-A).
### Magic: Vaughan’s definition
[source p. 1](#MA-P001-B); [source p. 7](#MA-P007-A).
### Malcuth
[source p. 11](#MA-P011-B); [Malcuth](#GLOSS_20).
### Man-Mouse: correction notice
[printed errata](#MA-ERRATA-B); [About This Edition](#EDITION_STATEMENT).
### Mercury
[source p. 124](#CT-P124-A); [source p. 124](#CT-P124-B).
### Moses: knowledge and practice
[source p. 44](#MA-P044-A); [source p. 45](#MA-P045-A).
### Name and thing
[source p. 49](#MA-P049-C); [The Sign and the Thing](#ESSAY_SIGN_THING).
### Nature: personification
[source p. 102](#CT-P102-A); [source p. 93](#CT-P093-B).
### Noah
[source p. 30](#MA-P030-A); [source p. 31](#MA-P031-A).
### Oath and secrecy
[source p. 108](#CT-P108-B); [source p. 109](#CT-P109-A).
### P. B. and the commendatory poem
[preliminary 15](#MA-F015-A); [preliminary 16](#MA-F016-B).
### Plato and Moses
[source p. 74](#MA-P074-A); [source p. 75](#MA-P075-A).
### Poems and prose testimony
[source p. 95](#CT-P095-B); [source p. 96](#CT-P096-A).
### Printed corrections
[printed errata](#MA-ERRATA-A); [printed errata](#MA-ERRATA-B).
### Public reception and rank
[preliminary 4](#MA-F004-A); [source p. 139](#CT-P139-A).
### Reduction to a sperm
[source p. 129](#CT-P129-A); [source p. 130](#CT-P130-A).
### Regeneration
[source p. 60](#MA-P060-A); [source p. 115](#CT-P115-A).
### Rest, the soul’s
[preliminary 12](#MA-F012-A); [preliminary 13](#MA-F013-A).
### Salt
[source p. 6](#MA-P006-A); [source p. 85](#CT-P085-B).
### Secrecy and disclosure
[source p. 51](#MA-P051-A); [source p. 112](#CT-P112-A).
### Signatures and types
[source p. 21](#MA-P021-A); [source p. 6](#MA-P006-A).
### Soul: different uses
[preliminary 12](#MA-F012-A); [source p. 131](#CT-P131-C).
### Spermalogy
[source p. 27](#MA-P027-A); [source p. 130](#CT-P130-A).
### Spirit and life
[preliminary 30](#MA-F030-C); [source p. 134](#CT-P134-A).
### Stone: speaking subject
[source p. 131](#CT-P131-B); [source p. 131](#CT-P131-E).
## Annotations
[^n1]: The title describes the antiquity and transmission which Vaughan will argue for in the discourse. “Magic” retains his historical term; its range must be established from his text, rather than supplied by a modern definition.
[^n2]: Eugenius Philalethes is the name under which Thomas Vaughan published the volume. It is preserved on the historical title page.
[^n3]: The Greek motto is translated afresh. The 1650 Getty copy lacks its title leaf; the wording is recovered from the title of the 1656 issue, which attributes it to Epictetus’s Handbook. The 1650 English title and imprint remain governed by the TCP transcription, rather than being replaced by the later title page.
[^n4]: The historical dedication names Mathew Harbert. Its spelling is retained. In the closing lines Vaughan acknowledges him as the source of his first learning.
[^n5]: “Hog hens” and “Titulados” mock titles of eminence: the modern reading renders them as High Mightinesses and titled grandees. The passage contrasts public rank with the judgement and candour sought in a patron.
[^n6]: “My third self” is retained as Vaughan’s own formulation. The dedication does not explain the counting, and the modern reading does not substitute an identification for it.
[^n7]: The target is presented as a Cambridge Master of Arts and a poet connected with Spenser. The dedication belongs to Vaughan’s dispute with Henry More, who wrote under the name Alazonomastix. “Bedlam” supplies an insult drawn from madness; the modern reading preserves its force.
[^n8]: The reference to Spenser and his Faerie Queene turns literary taste into the accusation that the opponent is an “elf” in philosophy. The conceit and its personal insult are retained.
[^n9]: “Pythonist” invokes a diviner or inspired speaker; the joke makes the opponent’s unintelligible speech part of the bodily satire. “Bulls” are blunders, retaining a further animal association.
[^n10]: The Moor proverb and the spelling “Moore” also serve the polemic against More. Its racial image is retained as historical wording; the modern reading does not replace it with an unrelated metaphor.
[^n11]: Heliopolis is the place-name supplied in the subscription. The edition preserves it without treating it as a verified physical location for the composition.
[^n12]: The historical postscript dates the dedication relative to the printing of the opponent’s Mauro-Mango. Native print places it below the subscription, although the TCP text serialises it before the subscription. The date remains relative rather than being converted into an unsupported calendar day.
[^n13]: The references to Ecclesiastes belong to the historical margin and are identified as such. The vitriol comparison calls the recommended pursuits false recipes, continuing the dedication’s alchemical vocabulary.
[^n14]: Idem per idem literally repeats “the same by the same.” Vaughan transfers the language of repetitive or circular reasoning to a life occupied by recurring bodily needs.
[^n15]: Quaere tu animae canalem is translated afresh as “Seek the channel of the soul.” Vaughan attributes the saying to Zoroaster; the attribution records his received authority rather than independently authenticating the historical author of the wording.
[^n16]: Statius supplies an image of poetic elevation among gods and stars. The dedication immediately brings the speaker back to earth; it does not identify a specific Statius passage here.
[^n17]: The poem is a separate contribution signed P. B., rather than an unmarked continuation of Vaughan’s own address. Its abuse of Alazonomastix and its praise of Eugenius are both retained.
[^n18]: The modern verse preserves the sequence and number of lines without claiming to reproduce the original rhyme. Native print gives “Common Fense,” with an F distinct from “Sense” in the preceding line. The modern reading retains “fense”: it may evoke fencing or argumentative defence, but a print variant of “sense” also remains possible. The edition does not settle that uncertainty by assigning a physical action to the line.
[^n19]: The poem changes its addressee from Eugenius to the opponent. Its sectarian and academic insults remain part of the historical verse.
[^n20]: “The Stagirite” names Aristotle. “Topic Course” belongs to the vocabulary of argument and disputation; the modern reading keeps this connection without inventing a particular college exercise. I. T. and Cleveland remain the names or initials supplied by the verse.
[^n21]: Metempsychosis is the migration or transmigration of souls. The poem explicitly speaks of embodied souls and uses the phrase within its dispute about philosophical understanding.
[^n22]: Cynthia is the moon in the poem’s image, while watery Tethys supplies the sea. “Margarits” are pearls. These unseen treasures and the influence sent to observers prepare the later comparison with barking at the moon.
[^n23]: The ermine comparison turns the staining of a white coat into a trap. The closing “Rubric” is rendered as a red-letter calendar entry: the poet imagines Eugenius being honoured with an enduring commemorative date.
[^n24]: A. M. abbreviates the Latin title Master of Arts; Oxoniens. gives an Oxford affiliation. The signature P. B. is preserved without expanding the initials to an unproved personal identity.
[^n25]: A dodecahedron is twelve-faced. The opening places it beside a mock nativity cast with dice or “bones”; Deuz Ace is rendered as two-and-one. The following parable is credited by Vaughan to Alemán.
[^n26]: The Lady Lie and the banished Truth form the story’s personified figures. Their procession becomes an image for the book’s expected reception and, later, its challenge to Aristotle.
[^n27]: The Latin saying receives a fresh translation before Vaughan’s own following English version. His change from plant to herb, and the subsequent seed-and-harvest image, remain visible.
[^n28]: These examples of children’s looking, touching and tasting support Vaughan’s claim that the desire for knowledge is native to human beings. They are preserved as his observations and argument, including the candle example.
[^n29]: The TCP transcription reads “Besi”; native print clearly gives “Best,” the reading used here.
[^n30]: Peripatetics are followers of Aristotle’s philosophical tradition. Elohim is the divine name Vaughan contrasts with Aristotle; the modern spelling does not erase the theological force of that contrast.
[^n31]: Vaughan introduces this Latin quotation as the statement of a master of truth without naming its author here. The new translation retains the successive actions upon reason, including entangling and unravelling, before his own English version follows. The latter continues in the next source unit.
[^n32]: “Corals and whistles” refer back to children’s objects. The move to earth and water shifts the scale of inquiry rather than withdrawing the earlier account of learning through the senses.
[^n33]: Concoction here is rendered as digestion: a transformative working by heat within Vaughan’s natural philosophy. Rennet supplies his comparison for the thickening of water; no modern chemical identity is substituted for the unnamed matter.
[^n34]: The Latin list is translated as “Heaven, ether, air and the most holy earth.” Vaughan distinguishes the invisible earth of his argument from ordinary ground and then from the magical earth; these qualifications are retained.
[^n35]: The printed “in Obscondito” is understood as in abscondito, “in concealment.” The fresh translation of the short Hermetic quotation is followed by Vaughan’s own fuller English rendering.
[^n36]: The next Latin quotation crosses the source-page boundary. Its fresh English rendering likewise continues into the following unit; Vaughan’s own complete English account then follows, rather than replacing the first rendering.
[^n37]: The oracle’s Latin is translated afresh. Altera can mean “other” or “second”; the rendering uses “other” without fixing a numbered hierarchy of fire. Vaughan introduces it as an oracle of Zoroaster; that attribution is part of the historical reception.
[^n38]: The Latin lines describe a father of men and gods continually enlivening fire, light, ether and worlds. They receive a fresh English translation here; no separate historical English version follows in the source.
[^n39]: Vaughan now returns from the account of creation to the reception of his earlier discourses. The ass’s ears, the term oyster-whores and the blockhead insult are retained as part of the historical invective. The Greek κώαξ imitates a frog’s croak; the modern reading translates it as croak.
[^n40]: Native print confirms “Gale,” understood here as gall, or bile. The flowing-mouth image continues through “still at the Chops,” rendered as dripping at the jaws. It joins the bodily abuse to the language of liquid flowing from a still.
[^n41]: A posteriori is rendered “from behind,” preserving the bodily joke. “Errata” becomes corrections, joining the contrast between front and rear to the language of a printed book. The Porphyry-and-Aristotle comparison is retained without inventing a separate historical event behind it.
[^n42]: Imposts are levies. Briefs can refer to authorisations for charitable collections; the modern reading takes the paired expressions as an image of exacting and begging. Vaughan returns to his refusal to force or solicit approval.
[^n43]: The two headings, Magia Adamica and Coelum Terrae, both appear on printed page 1. They introduce the two subjects announced by the volume’s title. The second is retained here as printed; the appended discourse itself begins later, within printed page 78.
[^n44]: Vaughan defines magic as wisdom revealed in creation, then appeals to the Magi of Matthew 2. The English word magicians makes his intended connection visible; it does not identify the visitors with every later practice called magic.
[^n45]: The phrase attributed to Agrippa is followed in the original by Vaughan’s own English explanation. Both are represented here: a new rendering of the Latin and the modernised historical rendering.
[^n46]: Hachamim means sages or wise men. Vaughan’s appeal to Jewish ancestral authority belongs to his Christian account of transmission; his generalisation about what will persuade a Jewish reader should be read as his polemical claim.
[^n47]: “Believe” renders the Greek imperative pisteuson. The phrase attributed to Julian contrasts this demand with argument. Vaughan reports the saying as part of his defence of the earliest Christian faith; the edition does not independently authenticate Julian’s exact words.
[^n48]: The guiding star, warning dream and pillar of fire draw on Matthew 2 and Exodus 13. “Sons of the prophets” and “sons of the art” connect biblical discipleship with philosophical initiation.
[^n49]: Peripatetic designates an adherent of Aristotle. The rack, Inquisition-house, engine and hobby-horse form an extended attack on argumentative theology; they should not be mistaken for a literal account of activities in every school.
[^n50]: Calentures are fevers. Perspective here means an optical viewing instrument: the image gives faith both wings and a means of distant sight before it is reduced to leaning on a fragile logical reed.
[^n51]: The Latin turns on love directed towards the revealer. Vaughan gives the person revealing a truth priority over the formal demonstration of its content. His position in this passage is stated in his own voice, rather than supplied as an editorial account of all faith.
[^n52]: The reference to Ignatius and a conclave probably alludes to the satirical world of John Donne’s Ignatius His Conclave, in which religious controversy is projected into hell. For the early printed work see the Folger catalogue: https://catalog.folger.edu/record/409459 . The identification of an allusion remains interpretive.
[^n53]: Vaughan explicitly makes his claim about Aristotle depend on a commentator. The move from logical “terms” to divine intellectual forms belongs to the interpretation he attributes to Philoponus; it should not silently become a neutral paraphrase of Aristotle.
[^n54]: The English words printed in the margin before the Latin quotation are part of the historical text. They are retained as an original marginal note, alongside the new Latin translation and Vaughan’s subsequent rendering of the Greek.
[^n55]: Haecceity is “thisness”: the distinguishing principle by which a thing is this individual. Vaughan himself connects the term with Scotus. Its role here is to explain individuation through forms.
[^n56]: The syllogism on all fours is a mocking image of faulty reasoning, contrasting with the opening of the divine mind. The paragraph’s scriptural allusions include giving a reason for hope in 1 Peter 3:15, God near at hand in Jeremiah 23:23 and the door and supper of Revelation 3:20.
[^n57]: The source credits C. Agrippa in the margin. The modern reading keeps that attribution visible without making it a claim that the edition has traced every surrounding proposition to a separately verified Agrippa passage.
[^n58]: Types are signs or figures referring beyond themselves. Vaughan draws a parallel between Christian ceremonial elements and the magicians’ principles, while attacking both the rejection of signs and the attribution of inherent holiness to them.
[^n59]: Papist is Vaughan’s hostile confessional term for a Roman Catholic. His list of images, holy lambs and relics is retained as historical religious polemic. The healing shadow refers to Acts 5:15.
[^n60]: Verbum and sermo can mean word, utterance or speech. The new rendering preserves the Latin maxim’s formari, “be formed”; Vaughan’s own rendering interprets it through being animated by God’s word.
[^n61]: Vaughan himself distinguishes the philosophical triangle and circle from a conjurer’s drawn figures. In this account, binding a spirit means uniting soul and body, and the circle names a rotation of Nature from beginning to Sabbath. That distinction should guide interpretation of this particular passage.
[^n62]: The list presents Vaughan’s lineage of learned magicians. Its historical spellings are retained in the original wording. Capnion is the Greek name associated with Reuchlin; the names function here as asserted predecessors, not as evidence that they all held an identical system.
[^n63]: “One born out of due time” echoes Paul’s self-description in 1 Corinthians 15:8. Vaughan places himself after the company whose authority he has invoked.
[^n64]: The Egyptian rebuke to Solon comes from the narrative associated with Plato’s Timaeus. Vaughan gives a Latin formulation followed by his own English version; both are retained with a fresh rendering of the Latin.
[^n65]: Seldon points to the learned antiquarian John Selden. The fragments reduced to dust become material for Time’s hourglass, while the pebbles recall a small combatant’s limited weapons. Vaughan qualifies his historical capacity even as he undertakes a large claim.
[^n66]: This distinction is central to the title’s antiquity claim: the art is eternal in God, but has a history of revelation to human beings. The proposed chronology concerns that communication, rather than the creation of divine wisdom.
[^n67]: The contrast between sight and hearing explains why the argument must use received testimony for events outside the writer’s experience. Vaughan nevertheless says he will test the reported traditions through his reading of Scripture.
[^n68]: Malcuth, modernised here as Malkuth, and Ilan belong to Vaughan’s presentation of Kabbalah: kingdom and tree. Haschamaim renders the Hebrew for the heavens. He identifies Malkuth with an archetypal moon and develops a claim about broken channels of influence. This is his Christian Kabbalistic cosmology, not a modern account of astronomical spots.
[^n69]: The mention of the telescope places observational astronomy inside the argument, but observation of spots does not itself establish the theological cause Vaughan proposes for them.
[^n70]: Porta Lucis, “Gate of Light,” is the title supplied in the original margin. The quotation’s divine cohabitation or indwelling should remain distinct from Vaughan’s following English explanation, which explicitly speaks of God descending and dwelling below.
[^n71]: The quotation describes the disruption of an ordered relation through springs, channels and a watercourse. Its use of flow prepares the later accounts of generation and restoration without yet identifying an ordinary liquid as the whole subject.
[^n72]: The first scriptural quotation spans Genesis 3:17–19; Lamech’s words concern Noah in Genesis 5:29. The final marginal reference is printed as Genesis 8:25, but the quoted promise is Genesis 8:21. The historical reference remains visible rather than being silently corrected. Text: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+8%3A21&version=KJV .
[^n73]: Vaughan reads the post-Flood promise as a partial fulfilment of restoration. The qualification “in some sense” is preserved: he has not said that the entire Fall has already been undone.
[^n74]: Latitude means extent or range. The intermediate blessings and evils are degrees directed towards ultimate conditions, rather than separate final heavens or hells. The act repealed is Vaughan’s legal analogy for withdrawing a former gift.
[^n75]: Esdras’s angelic teacher appears in the work commonly called 2 Esdras; the cited verses are 7:11–13. Vaughan receives this testimony within his theological argument. The serpent’s curse is from Genesis 3:14.
[^n76]: The contrast between a corruptible person and a corruptible world explains why Vaughan makes the Fall affect the environment as well as humanity. His severity of expression, including dungeon and slave, belongs to the historical argument and is retained.
[^n77]: The quotations cover Romans 8:20–23. Creature can mean created being or creation. Vaughan expressly distinguishes humanity from the lower creatures while connecting their future liberation; the modern reading preserves that distinction.
[^n78]: The sentence about death recalls Genesis 2:17. Vaughan’s account of an Adam ignorant of farming and manual arts forms part of his deduction that an instructor was necessary; it is not an independently documented history of early technology.
[^n79]: Nebuchadnezzar eating with the beasts recalls Daniel 4. The second Adam is Christ, set in relation to the first Adam through an analogy of patient and physician. The physician here includes both temporal relief and a promised eternal restoration.
[^n80]: Vaughan reads Genesis 3:22 as a hidden promise concerning a future Adam. The Latin phrase itself does not supply the knowing-good-and-evil clause that appears in his English rendering; both layers are preserved.
[^n81]: The Secret Conference is an attributed Kabbalistic account placed inside Vaughan’s Christian interpretation of incarnation. It should not be presented as the unqualified meaning of every Jewish reading of Genesis.
[^n82]: The paragraph makes an explicit distinction between knowing evil and committing it. Vaughan uses this distinction to transfer the Adam of his mystical reading to Christ. The statement about the law ordained through angels recalls Galatians 3:19.
[^n83]: Raziel is the angel named as the bearer of instruction in this account. The three heavenly and three earthly witnesses allude to the form of 1 John 5:7–8 received by Vaughan. He uses the correspondence to connect created signs with the Trinity.
[^n84]: Presidents in the original means presiding guardians, not modern elected officials. The created books are creatures read as signs; the image concerns interpretation as well as the transmission of a secret teaching.
[^n85]: The narrative draws on Genesis 4. Tubal refers to the metalworking figure Tubal-cain in Genesis 4:22. Vaughan’s question concerns agricultural tools before the narrated invention of metalworking.
[^n86]: Hydragogues draw or lead water. With the Latin ex puteo, “from the well,” they turn formal arguments into pumps supposed to extract truth. Levites is used retrospectively for an instituted priesthood, not as a chronological identification of Cain and Abel with the later tribe.
[^n87]: Prototype names the prior spiritual reality represented by a figure or sign. In this Christian argument the sacrifices refer to Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice; compare Hebrews 10:10. The historical claim about al-Kindi is preserved as Vaughan’s attribution.
[^n88]: Limbus is the receptive or surrounding matrix within Vaughan’s astral account. He accepts a sympathetic motion while denying that it brings joy or a reward for killing: the astral mother mourns. The distinction is part of his argument, not an editorial addition.
[^n89]: The author of the Predicables is Porphyry. Vaughan’s marginal title On Sacrifice records the work as he cites it. His opposition to Porphyry belongs to the text’s Christian polemic.
[^n90]: Prodroms are precursors or forerunners. The passage distinguishes an alleged first revelation from later transmission of ritual after its original doctrine has been lost.
[^n91]: The following quotation begins Wisdom of Solomon 10:1 and continues in the next source unit. Its first-formed father is Adam. The reference to Solomon is Vaughan’s received attribution of the book.
[^n92]: The quotation continues from printed p. 25 and invokes Wisdom 10:1. Vaughan reads Adam’s preservation through a Christian account of revelation and faith; the verse itself does not describe instruction in alchemy.
[^n93]: “Faith comes by hearing” recalls Romans 10:17. Vaughan joins a biblical statement about faith to his proposed transmission of knowledge through spirits and angels.
[^n94]: “Metaphysics” here concerns divine and spiritual realities; “physics” concerns Nature. Vaughan’s next task is to argue that revelation conveyed both, rather than to infer natural philosophy merely from the existence of religious faith.
[^n95]: The marginal Colossians 2:8 warns against being spoiled through philosophy. Vaughan acknowledges the warning while contesting his opponents’ definition of legitimate philosophy.
[^n96]: Original marginal citation, rendered in modern English: Colossians 2:8.
[^n97]: “Discourse of seeds” renders Vaughan’s unusual “spermalogie.” The term participates in his account of generative principles while the Acts 17:18 marginal reference also recalls the contemptuous designation of Paul as a babbler.
[^n98]: Genesis 4:20–22 supplies the descendants of Cain and their arts. Vaughan adds the moral genealogy that makes these arts inferior; this is his interpretation of the narrative.
[^n99]: The Cyclops image associates metalworking with force and warfare. His appeal to the reader’s own violent age strengthens the polemic without identifying a particular battle or political party.
[^n100]: Original marginal citations, rendered in modern English: Acts 17:18; Ecclesiastes 7:29; Genesis 4:20.
[^n101]: Vaughan defines his desired art by subject, method and effect. It must reproduce Nature and lead towards divine knowledge; ordinary technical ingenuity alone does not satisfy this definition.
[^n102]: The margin names Agrippa’s work on the vanity of sciences. Vaughan employs its attack on pretended learning while advancing an affirmative account of another, revealed art.
[^n103]: Original marginal citation, rendered in modern English: On the Vanity of Sciences.
[^n104]: The Latin sentences and Vaughan’s own English expansions have both been retained. His expansive glosses sharpen the satire beyond the compact wording of the quotations.
[^n105]: “Galen and the apothecaries” stands for the medical establishment Vaughan attacks. His theological argument is that bodily needs also fall within providence; his dismissal of particular physicians remains part of his polemic.
[^n106]: Original marginal citations, rendered in modern English: Apology against the Gentiles, chapter 24.
[^n107]: The examples shift from Noah’s preservation to the craftsmen Bezalel and Oholiab (Exodus 31), and then to ritual and medical directions. Together they support Vaughan’s claim that revelation can concern embodied skills.
[^n108]: “Light planted in humanity” is an active inward principle in this argument. Vaughan grants human invention a divine source while criticising its frequent products.
[^n109]: Original marginal citation, rendered in modern English: Exodus 31.
[^n110]: The fig treatment refers to Hezekiah’s healing (2 Kings 20:7; Isaiah 38:21); Tobit supplies another scriptural healing narrative. Vaughan treats these together as examples of divine concern for the body.
[^n111]: Vaughan’s mineral, vegetable and animal “library” is a threefold scheme. Salt, mustard seed, lily and the human interior become signs through which Vaughan reads Christ’s sayings as natural philosophy.
[^n112]: Original marginal citations, rendered in modern English: Hebrews 4:15; John 9.
[^n113]: Vaughan moves from inward seasoning to contemplation and then practice. His material language is not cancelled by the spiritual analogy: the passage deliberately places these modes of reading in sequence.
[^n114]: “Salt and no salt” marks a subject distinguished from ordinary salt by a paradoxical name. The sentence does not identify a single modern chemical substance.
[^n115]: Original marginal citation, rendered in modern English: John, chapter 2, verse 25.
[^n116]: The printed margin gives Luke 11:15 and Matthew 23:35. The relevant Luke passage concerning Abel’s blood is 11:51; the historical reference is preserved and the discrepancy stated here.
[^n117]: Abel’s priesthood and its descent to Seth are steps in Vaughan’s reconstructed genealogy. The Gospel testimony about Abel does not by itself supply that complete succession.
[^n118]: Original marginal citation, rendered in modern English: Luke, chapter 11, verse 15; and Matthew 23:35.
[^n119]: Genesis 20:7 explicitly calls Abraham a prophet. Vaughan uses this example to challenge an argument from silence: absence of recorded activity does not, he argues, establish absence of capacity.
[^n120]: Original marginal citation, rendered in modern English: Genesis 20:7.
[^n121]: “Banks’s spirit” is invoked as a contrast with sacred agency, alongside the language of juggling. The text itself does not provide a full account of Banks or the supposed mechanism of the performance.
[^n122]: The flocks and rods belong to Genesis 30:37–43; the dream belongs to Genesis 31:10–12. Vaughan distinguishes the visionary confirmation from the natural operation he believes it confirms.
[^n123]: Original marginal citations, rendered in modern English: Genesis 24:11–12; Genesis 30:37; chapter 31, verse 10.
[^n124]: Joseph’s dream of sun, moon and eleven stars occurs in Genesis 37:9–10. Vaughan treats Jacob’s response as evidence of a learned system of correspondences.
[^n125]: This distinction limits Vaughan’s claim: an interpretation received immediately from God would be supernatural, whereas the interpretation defended here proceeds through natural likenesses.
[^n126]: The “great body” is the world considered as an interconnected whole. Interpretation depends on correspondences among its parts, not merely on a private association made by the dreamer.
[^n127]: The additional patriarchal passage is withheld by Vaughan himself. The edition retains his refusal without inserting a conjectural disclosure.
[^n128]: Barbara and Baroco are mnemonic names for syllogistic forms. Vaughan’s demand that logic demonstrate the stone’s first matter satirises the claim that formal reasoning alone discovers natural subjects.
[^n129]: Machpelah ends Jacob’s earthly journey, while the proposed succession of secrets continues. Vaughan’s travel imagery also organises his own movement through scriptural history.
[^n130]: Original marginal citation, rendered in modern English: Genesis 32:28.
[^n131]: The first citation is Exodus 1:6; the cup question comes from Genesis 44:15. The margin’s abbreviated “Cap. 44” resumes Genesis rather than the immediately preceding book title.
[^n132]: Original marginal citations, rendered in modern English: Exodus 1:6; chapter 44, verse 15.
[^n133]: The ethnic slur and the comparison with mountebanks belong to Vaughan’s invective and remain in the unabridged historical text. They express his social hierarchy of legitimate and illegitimate practitioners.
[^n134]: “You are gods” recalls Psalm 82:6. Vaughan connects the title with rulers’ supposed wonder-working power; this explanation is his magical reading of the verse.
[^n135]: The “good, crucified serpent” joins the serpent raised by Moses with Christian imagery of the Cross; compare John 3:14. The serpent can therefore signify opposed agencies within the same discussion.
[^n136]: Jannes and Jambres are named in 2 Timothy 3:8. Vaughan combines that later naming with the Egyptian magicians in Exodus when constructing his chronology.
[^n137]: Original marginal citations, rendered in modern English: Exodus, chapter 7, verse 1; Genesis, chapter 3, verse 5; John 1:3; Exodus 7:11, 22.
[^n138]: The native page really prints “Gen. Cap. 9. ver. 41.” Pharaoh’s dream and Joseph’s interpretation belong to Genesis 41; the malformed marginal reference is retained.
[^n139]: Calling Debir a university or library is Vaughan’s historical inference from its book-associated name and conquest narrative. It should not be read as independent documentation of a university in the later institutional sense.
[^n140]: Original marginal citation, rendered in modern English: Genesis, chapter 9, verse 41.
[^n141]: Agreement in an action, such as sacrifice, is distinguished from agreement in its object. Vaughan uses this distinction to explain similarities among religions without granting them equal theological status.
[^n142]: The seventy elders receive the Spirit in Numbers 11:25. Vaughan identifies them with the Sanhedrin and makes them custodians of natural mysteries; those further identifications belong to his argument.
[^n143]: Original marginal citation, rendered in modern English: Numbers, chapter 11, verse 25.
[^n144]: The “therefore” reproduces Vaughan’s movement towards a syllogistic conclusion even while he attacks the schools’ reliance on syllogisms. His dispute concerns their premises and knowledge as well as their form.
[^n145]: “Mine” renders “Minera”: a source or matrix from which beings arise. Vaughan identifies the common origin of creatures with alchemical first matter.
[^n146]: He sets Genesis 1:20 beside Genesis 2:19 and reconciles water with earth through his account of a mixed primordial substance. This is an interpretive construction rather than a direct chemical formula in Genesis.
[^n147]: Original marginal citations, rendered in modern English: Genesis, chapter 1, verse 20; chapter 2, verse 19.
[^n148]: “Damascene earth” is Vaughan’s name for the earth of human formation. Its role here is to identify the artist’s subject with the subject of divine creation.
[^n149]: The rejection of flints and antimony is local to this argument about first matter. It does not imply that every appearance of mineral terminology elsewhere in Vaughan has the same referent.
[^n150]: The golden-calf passage comes from Exodus 32:20. Vaughan treats its destruction as evidence of an art that ordinary fire cannot explain.
[^n151]: “Potable gold” is Vaughan’s alchemical description of the biblical drink. “Ploughed with our heifer” also recalls Judges 14:18, where using another’s heifer means obtaining the hidden answer through privileged access.
[^n152]: The letter’s shell and the Spirit’s kernel provide a model for reading both Scripture and philosophical writing. They justify a second meaning without deleting the outward text.
[^n153]: Original marginal citation, rendered in modern English: On the State of Bishops.
[^n154]: The Gregory phrases distinguish the law according to letter and Spirit, its manifest and concealed aspects, and audiences directed below or above. The fresh translations and Vaughan’s explanatory English are retained as distinct layers.
[^n155]: The seventy secret books invoke 2 Esdras 14:44–48. Vaughan’s further connection between these books and Kabbalah is a claim about transmission, not a statement explicitly made by that narrative.
[^n156]: The disparaging language about rabbis is preserved as part of Vaughan’s Christian appropriation of Kabbalah. His division between a true natural tradition and a false grammatical one is his evaluative framework.
[^n157]: Pico’s authority is offered in support of the secret books. Vaughan reports an acquisition and an interrupted translation; the reader is not being shown those books themselves.
[^n158]: The satirical line about selling dreams is retained as a historical quotation, not adopted as an editorial description of Jewish learning.
[^n159]: Rambam is the name Vaughan applies to Rabbi Moses the Egyptian. His quotation “From Moses to Moses” praises a second Moses while Vaughan contests the authority built upon that praise.
[^n160]: The division between name and thing repeats the shadow/substance distinction. Letters serve Vaughan as a symbolic covering for natural processes, although letter manipulation alone is what he rejects.
[^n161]: The three mother letters are Aleph, Mem and Shin. The differing letter orders and Vaughan’s printed transliterations are preserved in the source; the modern reading names the letters rather than silently replacing them with chemical substances.
[^n162]: The three-mother passages are presented through Latin wording, followed by Vaughan’s English. The new renderings translate the printed Latin afresh; they do not silently replace his historical glosses.
[^n163]: The attribution to Abraham or Rabbi Akiba is reported by Vaughan, who explicitly offers alternatives. The edition preserves that uncertainty rather than certifying either author.
[^n164]: The ten principles are an ordered cosmological account. Vaughan’s language of spirit, voice and water lets him align it with Christian creation, while his refusal to disclose more remains part of the text.
[^n165]: “Spirit from spirit,” “spirit from spirits” and “water from spirit” preserve the distinctions between the printed Latin formulas. They are not interchangeable names for one ordinary material.
[^n166]: Weighing Aleph with everything is read by Vaughan as mixture and proportion. This is the point where an operation upon letters becomes, in his exposition, an account of Nature.
[^n167]: “Agent and patient” means both acting and being acted upon. The ladder joins the human recipient to higher principles through intermediate natures.
[^n168]: The ascent-before-descent argument turns on the order in Genesis 28:12. Vaughan takes narrative order as evidence for the origin of the ladder’s moving essences.
[^n169]: The “death of the kiss” denotes a mystical theme within his discussion. Vaughan names it but expressly declines to explain it; the edition supplies no invented missing instruction.
[^n170]: Yah and El are the divine names attached to the angelic forms in this example. Vaughan reads the added divine name as a sign of power derived from God rather than inherent in an isolated sound.
[^n171]: “Metathesis” means transposition. Vaughan condemns a reading reduced to rearranging letters while allowing letters to veil another kind of knowledge.
[^n172]: The Mount Horeb inscription’s antiquity and Christian meaning are assertions Vaughan supports by named travellers. His phrase “it may be” marks his own uncertainty about its maker.
[^n173]: Obecinus and Petrus a Valle are presented as travelling witnesses. The testimony supports Vaughan’s report within his argument; it does not remove the need to distinguish the claimed ancient inscription from its early modern interpretation.
[^n174]: The Flamel narrative is introduced as proof of chymical Kabbalah. The following first-person account is a quotation embedded by Vaughan, not Vaughan’s own eyewitness description.
[^n175]: The description counts twenty-one leaves in three sets of seven, singling out leaves seven, fourteen and twenty-one. “Leaf” is retained rather than converted into a modern page count.
[^n176]: The virgin, crucified serpent and serpents issuing from fountains are distinct images. Their recurrence does not warrant collapsing them into a single event or a single fixed meaning.
[^n177]: The book’s proposed purpose is the relief of a captive nation through transmutation. Vaughan retains this social purpose alongside its restricted access and missing first agent.
[^n178]: Mercury is the narrator’s tentative identification, explicitly limited by “my small judgement.” The old man’s scythe and hourglass invite a different association, but the passage does not itself name him.
[^n179]: The fourth and fifth leaves are said to bear images rather than writing. The prose description is complete here; the edition does not invent reproductions of the lost or alleged book.
[^n180]: The killing of infants is reported as an image painted in the book, followed by the sun and moon bathing in gathered blood. It is preserved in full as emblematic narrative, without turning it into a direction to harm actual persons.
[^n181]: The quoted narrator himself refuses to disclose the remaining written leaves. That refusal is historical source text, not an abridgement introduced by this edition.
[^n182]: Luke 11:52 supplies the “key of knowledge.” Vaughan asks what exceeds the public reading of the Law; his question opens a distinction between possession of words and access to their inward meaning.
[^n183]: Original marginal citation, rendered in modern English: Luke, chapter 11, verse 52.
[^n184]: Generation/regeneration and creation/resurrection form paired analogies. Vaughan argues from their shared matter and Spirit; he does not merely compare them as decorative metaphors.
[^n185]: The Chinese monument enters as a witness for the harmony of creation and Christian teaching. Its account reaches the reader through Vaughan’s Latin excerpts and English expansions, rather than a direct translation from Chinese.
[^n186]: The inscription’s Latin title has been translated independently. Its terms “law,” “light” and “truth” are central to Vaughan’s use of the monument as testimony.
[^n187]: The fresh Latin rendering preserves “brightness,” while Vaughan’s own English expands this into “knowledge.” Both are printed so that his interpretive choice remains visible.
[^n188]: The conclusion that Olo Puen confirmed doctrine by works is Vaughan’s inference from “a man of great virtue or power.” It is not itself contained in that short quoted formula.
[^n189]: Vaughan uses the proclamation as proof that Christian doctrine can be demonstrated from creation. The two Latin extracts and their English glosses show the evidence upon which he builds that claim.
[^n190]: The twenty-seven books produce Vaughan’s conjecture about a lost collection. He explicitly says “it may be”; the edition preserves the possibility as his speculation, not as a newly verified bibliography.
[^n191]: The passage’s conclusion returns to the spirit/letter distinction: written supports can perish while truth changes its dwelling. This also qualifies his reliance upon surviving monuments.
[^n192]: Marah’s bitter waters recall Exodus 15:23. Wormwood and poppy distinguish corruption from oblivion in Vaughan’s imagery of an endangered stream of knowledge.
[^n193]: The equation of Emepht and Phtha with Christian divine Persons is Vaughan’s theological interpretation of the Egyptian material. The edition preserves his scheme without presenting it as an unmediated account of ancient Egyptian belief.
[^n194]: The serpent is described verbally: circle, straight body, hawk’s head, wings and knotted tail. No separate illustration is printed at this point in the source.
[^n195]: The “types or images” in the second Person serve as patterns of created things. The mirror analogy explains how distinction in creatures can be related to a unified divine source.
[^n196]: Heat, skin-shedding, volatility and creeping movement are separate correspondences. Vaughan reads them together to identify properties of chaos, rather than making the animal merely a single interchangeable emblem.
[^n197]: “Central, hypostatical earth” is rendered “central, substantial earth.” Hypostatical describes a subsisting or substantial basis here; it is not a modern geological classification.
[^n198]: Captivity and liberty explain the relation of heaven below and above: they share a nature but differ in condition. This principle also prepares the later language of the Emerald Tablet.
[^n199]: The Greek adjective before “books” is difficult in the historical type and is transcribed conservatively from the contemporary 1656 comparison image. Vaughan’s immediate “books of stone” makes the general sense secure; the edition does not silently supply a different complete Greek wording.
[^n200]: The three Greek formulas distinguish delight, conquest and rule. Vaughan’s English interprets the repeated “nature” relationally as one nature acting upon another; the fresh translation leaves the repetition visible.
[^n201]: The fresh Greek translation and Vaughan’s separate English version are both retained. The fourth line begins with the misprinted ΛΑΥΤΑ (LAUTA); the [printed errata](#MA-ERRATA-A) directs ΤΑΥΤΑ (TAUTA), “these things”. The modern translation follows that correction while the historical source preserves the uncorrected form. The third letter is the old curved upsilon, distinct from the following tau. The final imperative joins understanding to happiness or good fortune.
[^n202]: The author explicitly says his available type cannot print the Coptic characters. The Greek is therefore already a mediated presentation within the historical edition. Its final verb is abbreviated; the fresh English expands the sense “set up.” The place-name’s printed case ending is irregular. “Enthroned together” preserves the first Greek word’s shared-throne sense, while Vaughan gives “resident.”
[^n203]: Hermes’s above/below statement is compared with the inscription attributed to Isias. Vaughan treats verbal agreement as evidence for a shared mystery. The contemporary native image reads “no lesse,” correcting TCP’s “no losse”: the promised benefit is no less great than the mystery.
[^n204]: Euphorbus and Pythagoras supply an analogy of identity across appearances. Vaughan uses the pair to characterise the close resemblance of two authorities’ language.
[^n205]: The Bembine Table is cited as a dense hieroglyphic monument, but Vaughan declines to supply a commentary. His imagined volume made from its signs remains a hypothetical decipherment.
[^n206]: “Making bricks” and gathering straw recall Israel’s labour in Egypt. The historical itinerary becomes a figure for the difficulty of reconstructing dispersed evidence.
[^n207]: The quoted Orphic material is given in Latin in this printing. The new version translates that Latin witness rather than claiming to translate an independently established Greek original.
[^n208]: Vaughan identifies the two tablets with Moses and takes the poem as testimony to Jewish instruction of Greeks. This is the inference for which he cites it; the lines alone do not establish a route of transmission.
[^n209]: The source prints Cavallero De epistola. Its reference is uncertain; the modern reading retains the designation without identifying a particular person or asserting a separate work entitled On the Letter.
[^n210]: The proposed pre-Alexandrian Greek Pentateuch is reported as Aristobulus’s claim. Vaughan deploys it to place Mosaic teaching before Pythagoras and Plato.
[^n211]: Vaughan explicitly reserves judgement about Clearchus’s story, then adds his own joke about Aristotle’s later correction. That uncertainty and the polemical conclusion are both retained.
[^n212]: Vaughan calls the author of the alchemical Natural and Mystical Things “Democritus.” The historical attribution is retained; the edition does not assume identity with every work or anecdote under the ancient philosopher’s name.
[^n213]: The Theophrastus quotation is a fragment concerning what comes from water; the fresh English supplies the implied relation “is from.” Its printed kataper appears an error for kathaper, “such as”; the historical spelling remains in the source. Vaughan uses the statement within a much larger argument for the antiquity of transmutation.
[^n214]: Callias’s result is cinnabar rather than the intended gold. Vaughan nevertheless regards the reported attempt as evidence that transmutation was already being pursued.
[^n215]: The final genealogy—God, first humanity, patriarchs, Jews, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans—summarises the book’s governing thesis. Its asserted continuity is the conclusion of Vaughan’s argument, not a transmission history independently demonstrated by this edition.
[^n216]: The flexible glass and Olybian lamp function as reported marvels supporting Roman possession of the art. Vaughan names them without supplying a complete account or an experimental demonstration.
[^n217]: The child’s cradle and developing speech personify the art’s renewed appearance in Christian writers. “Arnold” and “Lull” enter as names within that literary genealogy.
[^n218]: The Spanish terms for “when,” delights and the rogue are rendered into English. The final medical joke also translates the Latin “art is long, life is short”; it must be read across the page break into p. 78.
[^n219]: This sentence is the conclusion of Magia Adamica. Coelum Terrae begins immediately below it on the same printed page, so the shared page number does not merge the two works.
[^n220]: The opening paragraph completes the transition from the host work, Magia Adamica, into the promised disclosure of Coelum Terrae. It is retained in full although the Getty copy lacks printed page 78. Its wording comes from the British Library witness transcribed by EEBO-TCP.
[^n221]: Posse means ability or power; placet, an expression of approval; jacta est alea, “the die is cast.” The newly translated Latin sentence about visible summits and hidden foundations is followed by Vaughan’s own Babel analogy.
[^n222]: Olla is a pot or mixed dish, used here for the book’s mixture of subjects. Estrado is a raised place or chamber of state: Nature receives her visitors like a sovereign.
[^n223]: “Healing hands of the gods” translates manus deorum salutares. The command to test everything and retain the good alludes to 1 Thessalonians 5:21.
[^n224]: “Catholic” and “universal” describe the scope of a natural principle, rather than a denominational identity. “Sympathy” renders compassion here in its older sense of shared affection or mutual response.
[^n225]: The wound and weapon invoke the early modern doctrine of sympathetic healing. Vaughan contrasts these particular correspondences with the universal bond he seeks to disclose.
[^n226]: Agent and patient mean that which acts and that which receives an action. Capnion is the name under which Vaughan cites Johannes Reuchlin. The “Jew” and “Epicurean” are speakers in Reuchlin’s philosophical dialogue, not claims about all members of either group.
[^n227]: The term “character” means an impressed mark or expression. Vaughan’s first matter is presented as a universal created recipient, not simply as the name of a familiar chemical substance.
[^n228]: The man of Madaura is Apuleius, whom Vaughan names in his own following English rendering. Both the Latin quotation, freshly translated here, and Vaughan’s historical English explanation are retained; the repetition belongs to the original.
[^n229]: The final Latin saying, attributed by Vaughan to Paracelsus, literally says that all things are white “in God’s hand.” Vaughan’s following English develops that phrase into a statement about their first emergence from God.
[^n230]: The comparison to common quicksilver is qualified by a claim of celestial brightness. Vaughan’s mercury, magnesia and sulphur should therefore be read in their stated philosophical relationships before being assigned any fixed modern chemical identity.
[^n231]: Rosials is rendered here as “rose-like jewels,” following the surrounding comparisons; the exact reference is uncertain. Vaughan repeats the word of Hyanthe’s tears. The loving courtship of matter develops his opposition between fruitful generation and coercive violence.
[^n232]: The numerical titles one, three, four and five are presented as mutually compatible accounts of the same subject. Their relation to different principles or operations is part of Vaughan’s symbolic exposition.
[^n233]: Azoth, mercury, dry water and the blessed stone are names in the philosophical vocabulary Vaughan assembles. His explicit rejection of rainwater, well water and dew is retained.
[^n234]: Matrix means a womb or generative receptacle. “Seed” renders sperme, which here applies analogically to the whole natural world as well as to animal generation.
[^n235]: The dragon eating its tail is a figure of return and circulation. Vaughan’s Saturn likewise represents earth receiving back the beings she has generated; it is not an identification with a single planetary metal.
[^n236]: Coelum Terrae and Terra Coeli mean “heaven of earth” and “earth of heaven.” Vaughan immediately distinguishes this hidden earth from ordinary dirt and dust, so the reciprocal phrases are central to the title’s meaning.
[^n237]: Vaughan attributes this alchemical Compendium to Raymond Lull. The attribution is retained as historical testimony; it does not establish authorship by the medieval philosopher.
[^n238]: The Greek quotation is recovered from the 1650 page image, where EEBO-TCP substitutes a non-Latin gap. It corresponds to Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.36. Vaughan’s printed τὰ πάντα, “all things,” is retained rather than silently replaced with the τὰ ὄντα, “existing things,” of other Greek editions.
[^n239]: The two Greek epithets are recovered from the 1650 image. They call Nature a resourceful mother and one whose dwelling or way of life takes changing forms. Vaughan’s own following English paraphrase is separately retained.
[^n240]: Tick-tack names a game; the image makes Nature’s transformations a succession of activities, not a declaration that she acts aimlessly.
[^n241]: “Wears his income on his back” keeps Vaughan’s image of wealth displayed in clothes. His contrast with Nature’s unobserved creativity prepares the poem, where beauty and tears disclose a hidden process.
[^n242]: Ælia Lælia is named in the prose as the enigmatic mistress Vaughan is about to portray. The ensuing poem calls her Hyanthe. The two names and the prose-to-poetry transition are both preserved.
[^n243]: The Hyanthe poem continues through printed page 95. Its sapphire sphere evokes Fortune’s instability, while the narrator discovers a more lasting majesty. The modern reading retains every verse line’s content without attempting to reproduce all the original rhymes.
[^n244]: 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.
[^n245]: 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.
[^n246]: 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.
[^n247]: 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.
[^n248]: 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.
[^n249]: 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.
[^n250]: 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.
[^n251]: 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.
[^n252]: The assembly of Arisleus and its speaker Belus belong to the literary setting of the Turba tradition as Vaughan presents it.
[^n253]: 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.
[^n254]: 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.
[^n255]: 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.
[^n256]: 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.
[^n257]: The long speech from the Rosy Brother continues through printed page 106. Its goddess, eagle, lion and dragon images retain both material and spiritual possibilities within the text’s own philosophical frame.
[^n258]: The 1650 text reads “Embers of the Eagle,” although the preceding image speaks of the eagle’s tears. The reading is retained rather than silently harmonised.
[^n259]: The five gates are knowledge of matter, preparation, fire, multiplication or augmentation, and projection. The passage distinguishes the universal medicine at the fourth gate from the specifically metallic use of the fifth.
[^n260]: The speaker explicitly calls the spouse philosophical gold. The sequence of contrary titles is preserved in full; it describes the comprehensive and changeable subject through paradox.
[^n261]: The 1650 errata directs the reader to replace or with for at page 106, line 23. The original wording remains visible in the historical layer; the modern reading applies the correction: she is not thin water, for she is a thick moisture.
[^n262]: Vaughan calls his mistress “a pure Platonic,” maintaining the courtship imagery while describing a philosophical relation. Spermatic here means seminal or generative.
[^n263]: “Crushing” renders contrition in its physical sense. Birdlime is sticky material used to catch birds; Vaughan turns his opponents’ proud plumage into the object of a verbal trap.
[^n264]: Vaughan answers the demand for an outright disclosure with a riddle about silver, moon, sun and Saturn. The modern reading preserves that riddle rather than converting it into a fixed chemical identification.
[^n265]: The marginal reference reads Theor. cap. 6, “Theory, chapter 6.” The new translation preserves the warning of the Latin passage, followed by Vaughan’s separate historical English version. The threatened punishment explains his stated reserve; it is part of his argument about the custody of knowledge.
[^n266]: Peripatetic means belonging to the Aristotelian philosophical tradition. Vaughan’s language of faith rewarded by knowledge joins his claim of experimental discovery to his religious account of Nature.
[^n267]: The “society” is the Rosicrucian fraternity as Vaughan understands it. The text does not establish the named speaker’s historical membership of an organised fraternity. “Painted buzzards” attacks the society’s mockers.
[^n268]: The marginal reference recommends Jacob Böhme’s Three Principles. The Latin quotation and Vaughan’s own English explanation are both retained; the modern reading newly translates the Latin before modernising his historical explanation.
[^n269]: TCP marks damaged letters in “Seed” and “Illuminate”; both words are readable in the Getty copy and are restored here. “Illuminate” means an enlightened person, rather than the later Bavarian Illuminati.
[^n270]: Negative or apophatic theology approaches God through the denial of finite predicates. Vaughan’s “nothing” means neither a blank nor non-existence: he explicitly distinguishes divine transcendence from a destructive sense of nothing.
[^n271]: The marginal abbreviation points to Dionysius the Areopagite and negative theology. The Christian writings transmitted under that name are conventionally attributed to Pseudo-Dionysius; Vaughan receives them under their traditional attribution.
[^n272]: Nihil scire can mean “to know nothing.” Vaughan deliberately rereads its “nothing” as the transcendent divine source. Both the ordinary wording and his mystical interpretation are preserved.
[^n273]: “Sperm” is a general generative seed or intermediate substance here, not invariably human semen. Vaughan’s rejection of human blood explicitly limits what his first matter can mean. The particular Idea marks the specific character of a creature, even after reduction to its own seed.
[^n274]: An athanor is a furnace associated with sustained alchemical heating. In fornaculis mirabilibus means “in wonderful little furnaces.” The sackcloth and ashes turn penitential language into a joke about unsuccessful chemical residues.
[^n275]: The marginal Anima Magica refers to Vaughan’s Anima Magica Abscondita. “Ensoph” represents Ein Sof, “without end.” Vaughan makes a particular Christian natural-philosophical appropriation of the term; his formulation is not a neutral account of Jewish Kabbalah.
[^n276]: The Greek invocation, untranscribed in TCP, is restored from the original page with accents and word divisions regularised: “O black Night, nurse of golden stars.” Vaughan’s own English rendering follows and is separately retained.
[^n277]: “Translated” means taken from ordinary earthly life into another condition, as in the biblical accounts of Enoch and Elijah. Vaughan distinguishes mutable existence from corruption and from a final glorified state; “extreme” means an endpoint.
[^n278]: The “Oracles” are the Chaldaean Oracles as received in Renaissance esoteric philosophy and attributed by Vaughan to Zoroaster. Secundea, “the second,” names his mediating nature, containing things naturally in contrast with God’s spiritual containment.
[^n279]: Triadis vultus ante essentiam is rendered literally as “the countenance of the triad before essence.” Ignis penu uses the image of an inward provision chamber or storehouse of fire.
[^n280]: “Salacious” means sexually ardent or generatively desirous, within this passage’s male–female cosmology. The newly translated Latin is followed by Vaughan’s own English: the repetition reflects the original text, rather than a duplicated editorial passage.
[^n281]: Moon, elements, furnace and glass are Vaughan’s terms in an argument joining material generation, cosmology and theology. Their relations are retained without assigning the language a single modern chemical identity.
[^n282]: The Arcadia is a literary romance. Sack possets and sugar sops evoke domestic preparations involving wine, milk or sweetened food. Vaughan’s judgement about women’s aptitude and domestic work is retained as part of his historical voice.
[^n283]: Hohenheim is Paracelsus. Vaughan recommends a work called the Revelation while criticising other processes attributed to him; this does not authenticate every text circulating under Paracelsus’s name.
[^n284]: The “pilot of Guadalcana” and Río de la recreación continue Vaughan’s Spanish literary allusions. The latter means “river of recreation.” The point is a playful or deliberately misleading diversion; no precise modern place identification is imposed here.
[^n285]: The 1650 word appears as Easianus (also TCP’s reading), probably a misprint for Fasianus, “pheasant.” The fresh translation supplies the probable sense; Vaughan’s own bird and fowler explanation is separately retained. The hunting image concerns control of volatility.
[^n286]: Balneum naturae means “Nature’s bath.” Vaughan distinguishes it from an artificial water bath, then interprets the work through gestation. This comparison gives the language both a natural-philosophical and a theological setting.
[^n287]: Vaughan distinguishes an external, prepared heat from the inward fire of chaos. “Necromantic” and “heat of the dead” are names he reports; the passage does not identify one determinate substance by them.
[^n288]: The Latin attributed to Mehung speaks of inward incombustible heat (calorem). Vaughan’s own explanatory English instead says “sulphur,” and expands several phrases. The new translation and the modernised historical English are both retained, making the difference visible.
[^n289]: Cochleas vel cancros means “snails or crabs,” while Vaughan’s English substitutes oysters. Both readings are preserved. The rebuke belongs to Nature’s speech to Madathan and makes preparing shellfish an image of dissolution.
[^n290]: The “most ancient cook of the planets” evokes planetary ripening. Flamel’s attribution is retained as Vaughan gives it, without establishing that the historical Nicolas Flamel authored the quoted alchemical work. Night and day appear explicitly in the Latin and the fresh translation, although Vaughan’s English is shorter.
[^n291]: Pan represents the universal source, Proteus the changing variety of particular forms, and Mercury their interpreter. The Greek invocation to Hermes is restored from the first-edition page with regularised accents. Hermes and Mercury are the Greek and Latin names used in the adjoining versions.
[^n292]: Iynges names powers within the Chaldaean hierarchy, here glossed by Vaughan as Ideas. This association belongs to his argument rather than constituting an equivalence valid throughout ancient philosophy.
[^n293]: Nox corporis means “night of the body”; regio lucis means “region of light.” They name the mediating place from different perspectives. The fresh translation retains Stellatus’s “sorrowful thing,” while Vaughan’s English interprets it as corruption.
[^n294]: The marginal Occult. phil. names Agrippa’s De occulta philosophia. The Latin says an influence becomes “base” in a baser subject; Vaughan’s English develops this as corruption. Both formulations remain available.
[^n295]: Menippus’s heavenly journey belongs to Lucian’s satire; Sancho’s tossing in a blanket belongs to Don Quixote. Vaughan joins them to mock claims of celestial familiarity unsupported by experience.
[^n296]: The Pythagorean Synod is the assembly in the alchemical Turba philosophorum as Vaughan receives it. The fresh translation renders spissum as “dense part”; Vaughan’s own English adds his interpretation “sperm.” The assembly is a literary authority, not evidence here of a meeting of seventy historical adepts.
[^n297]: Genesis 3:19 supplies the dust-to-dust reference. “Reduction” means a return to a prior condition. Vaughan distinguishes destructive decomposition into extremes from generative return to an intermediate seed, an essential distinction in his criticism of ordinary chemistry.
[^n298]: “Dr Coal” is a satirical name for the broiler. Caput mortuum, literally “dead head,” denotes a chemical residue. The mock experiment attacks the assumption that violent analysis preserves the capacity for generation.
[^n299]: The flying fire-drake is a dragon figure for the conjunction of volatile principles. Vaughan assigns it an explicitly poisonous property. The description is preserved without redaction, alongside the text’s cosmic, generative and theological meanings.
[^n300]: The two Latin stanzas give the stone a speaking voice. Their fresh translations precede the modernised English verses printed by Vaughan. Continuò means “at once” here. The printed division of facultas is joined for reading.
[^n301]: The Greek repeats Pilate’s words in John 19:22: “What I have written, I have written.” Both the fresh translation and Vaughan’s own English repetition are retained. The Gunpowder Plot allusion turns towards anticipated opposition and conspiracy.
[^n302]: Virgil, Eclogue 4.6, supplies the return of the Virgin and Saturn’s reign, a golden-age image used here to imagine a general conversion. The Latin line is newly translated in the modern reading.
[^n303]: The elemental qualities are hot, cold, moist and dry. Water and air mediate the oppositions described, yet Vaughan calls this agreement only “partil,” or partial. His assertion that the principles “differ in two” is retained rather than silently replaced with another system.
[^n304]: The first matter is venerable because the divine Spirit reconciles and perfects its elements. “Instrumentals” means instrumental agents. Vaughan’s distinction among Creator, soul and body challenges an independent formative power attributed to the soul.
[^n305]: The Greek calends were a proverbial day that never comes: calends belonged to the Roman calendar. The story ends with the adept’s permanent withdrawal, not a dated appointment. Zeno’s saying illustrates listening and restraint.
[^n306]: Nè tu augeas fatum means “do not increase fate” or “do not add to the allotted destruction.” Vaughan applies it immediately as “do not further his designs.” Both the Latin sense and his contextual interpretation are retained.
[^n307]: The poem beginning “And now my Book” follows the prose FINIS and continues onto page 140. It is retained in full. The wrapped words “Price” and “fall” are placed in their metrical lines without dropping words.
[^n308]: The “rattles” are showy titles attached to a name. “For nine years” alludes pointedly to the instability of public great men in Vaughan’s recent political world, without naming an individual. Excise is a tax; the small book jokes about its price and physical burden.
[^n309]: The “three suns” are a portent; “high-shoe heresy” dismissively suggests rustic or coarse sectarian teaching. Vaughan closes by defending plain truth against ambition, then calls the book his child and prefers its public destruction to suppressing it himself.
[^n310]: The complete shared correction notice is checked against the surviving 1650 leaf in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica copy of The Man-Mouse, reader image 4. The Greek correction changes initial lambda to tau: ΛΑΥΤΑ becomes ΤΑΥΤΑ, “these things”. The former is a misprint, rather than a separately meaningful Greek word. The fresh translation of the page-70 line follows this printed correction. The entries for pages 106 and 126 concern the appended Coelum Terrae.
[^n311]: The first word in the page-126 instruction is dotrine, without c. The correction appears to read dictrine; its second letter is faint and may be an imperfectly printed o. The intended word is doctrine. The historical wording and its uncertainty are retained here, rather than silently replacing the apparent type. TCP instead transcribes the first word as doctrine.
[^n312]: These directions concern the separate Man-Mouse, whose body is outside this publication’s reading text. Their presence in the shared correction notice is preserved. The first direction distinguishes long s from f: the printed ſires is corrected to fires. Normalising long s gives sires, preserving the distinction which TCP’s fires on both sides obscures.