The Secret Work of the Hermetic Philosophy

10Among the foremost authors who have discussed the secrets of nature and hidden philosophy with penetration and truth, Hermes and Morienus the Roman hold first place among the ancients in my judgement. Among the more recent writers, Count Trevisan and Raymond Lull are to me worthy of honour above all others; for scarcely anyone has spoken of what that most penetrating teacher left unsaid. Let the student therefore consult, or rather repeatedly reread, his earlier Testament and his Codicil, as though expecting to receive from them a bequest of exceptional value. To these two volumes let him add both of the same author's practical works. From these writings everything desired can be gathered, especially the true matter, the degrees of fire, and the governance of the entire work, by which the whole work is accomplished and which the ancients laboured with excessive anxiety to conceal. Nowhere are the hidden causes of things and the secret movements of nature demonstrated more clearly or faithfully. On the philosophers' first and mystical water he inserted only a few remarks, but they are full of meaning.