Due matter and subject

Use in the book

The opening distinguishes knowledge of the matter from its right preparation. Before anything can be prepared, the Artist must know what is to be taken in hand. The following maxim gives the negative test: where what is sought is not contained, the search is vain. Khunrath illustrates failure through a traveller taking the wrong road or looking for a city in the wrong country. A well-intentioned journey can remain misdirected at its beginning.

At p. 12 the due subject for the hidden Catholic Stone must itself be catholic, because the universal comes only from the universal. Recognition secures one secret and the true beginning, but does not guarantee a completed Stone. Obstacles can still intervene, and right preparation remains the second secret. The prerequisite is indispensable without being a sufficient account of success.

The constructive explanation says how this appropriateness is supplied. Nature, rather than the Artist, has set out the synoptically catholic subject in the great world's laboratory. Its constitution is not merely adequate by accident: God through Nature has provided it for the purpose. At pp. 92–932 the world's hidden ensouling power dwells in the Chaos in the required catholic, bodily and natural manner. The subject's suitability depends on that condition.

The conclusion brings this relation back to practical discernment. A person working in the due matter may be on the right beginning even if the preparation remains incomplete; useful instruction from such a person is worth receiving. Conversely, great expense and diligence cannot compensate for pseudo-Magnesias. “Due” therefore joins the material, epistemic and ethical claims of the book: know the true beginning, do not confuse activity with correctness, and remain teachable about the work still to be done. It does not merely distinguish a fortunate material choice from an unfortunate one after the event.

Places to read

1. 1599 p. 8Recognition of what to prepare precedes preparation itself.
2. 1599 p. 11Wrong matter is compared to a journey or search directed to the wrong place.
3. 1599 p. 12The universal result requires a catholic due subject.
4. 1599 p. 63Nature has already provided the proper natural subject.
5. 1599 p. 93The Chaos is named as the due universal subject for the stated purpose.
6. 1599 p. 177Someone working in the due matter may supply valuable instruction even before full attainment.

Translation in this edition

“Due” retains the relational force of debitum better than the generic “correct ingredient.” “Subject” means the material bearer and starting ground of the work, not the subject matter of a modern essay. The source alternates these terms without making every grammatical form a separate entity. The English nominative subiectum debitum re-cases the original subiecto debito; the source-form index retains the latter.