The Secret Work of the Hermetic Philosophy

6Alchemists who have accustomed their minds to almost numberless sublimations, distillations, dissolutions, congealings, manifold extractions of spirits and tinctures, and other operations more ingenious than useful, have torn those minds apart through various errors, as though through torturers. By their own ingenuity they will never turn back to nature's simple path and the light of truth. Excessively laborious subtlety has diverted them from it and submerged their entangled understanding among circuitous turns like dangerous shoals. Their one remaining hope of deliverance lies in finding a guide and faithful teacher who will free their eyes from darkness and make the pure sun visible to them.