The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I

He taught them the transmutation of metals in the language of the country, yet in a veiled manner. He depicted the vessels for them, indicated the different degrees of heat, and finally instructed them in the colors that succeeded one another during the cooking. He showered blessings upon them after taking their oath—especially if they were priests or scribes—to maintain a profound silence.

Whoever you are, priest or sage, into whose hands this secret may fall, may God bless you with the blessing given to Noah and his children, so that you may increase above all nations, multiply and fill the whole earth, above all the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, and so that all animals may serve you as food, like green vegetables. May he bless you with the blessing bestowed upon Judah, with that blessed blessing of Abraham, so that your descendants may multiply beyond the stars of heaven, and so that the Holy Land, filled with honey and milk and flowing with them, promised to his descendants as an inviolable pledge of the covenant, may be granted to you. May God shower upon you the same blessing that Isaac gave his son Jacob: ‘The fragrance that