The Secret Work of the Hermetic Philosophy

4What an outrage! Who could silently endure these caterpillars gnawing away at the reputation, labour, and glory of the wise? Who could patiently hear blind men pronounce boldly upon the Sun as though from the prophetic tripod? Yet it better accords with honour to scorn the harmless shafts of chatter than to refute them. Let those hate so great a treasure of Nature and Art who are not permitted to possess it. Nor is it my intention to plead a doubtful case for an ill-omened science, or to undertake the defence of a guilty one. Our innocent philosophy is free from accusation. Fortified by the unshaken testimony of the most celebrated authors and the manifold experience of many centuries, it is sufficiently secure against the trifles of babblers and the barking of envy. But charity spurred me on, and the multitude of those who wander moved my heart, so that, pitying them, I might lessen the danger of their night by setting a torch beside them. With that torch as guide, they might not only preserve the soundness of their lives and their endangered fortunes, but even add to their prosperity.