Greed and stewardship

Use in the book

At pp. 150–1512 he names the recognitions that Magnesia affords and prefers them to silver- and gold-making. This creates an obvious objection: why do philosophical books say so much about transmutation? His answer on p. 152 is frankly strategic. Its promise is bacon tied to a trap, intended to draw wealthy people into costly inquiry that they would otherwise avoid. The margin compares children enticed into school with sugar, apples and pears. The inducement is defended by the higher work and its good end; it is not an admission that every projected operation is knowingly fictitious.

The address then turns directly to the rich. Their money is God's, committed to their stewardship, and they must account for its use at judgment. The talent or pound is to serve God, the neighbour who needs money and other help, themselves and their households Christianly. The positive Golden Rule accompanies the demand. Khunrath is not asking only whether patrons fund his preferred inquiry; he puts that expenditure within a wider responsibility for entrusted wealth.

There is an unresolved harshness in the means of address. The p. 152 description of people running with the “Jew's spear” is discriminatory period rhetoric; the modern note interprets it as an allusion to usury and sharp dealing. It should neither be endorsed nor silently cleaned into an innocuous phrase. The source's critique of wealth is made through images that can themselves stigmatize others.

The later attacks join greed to susceptibility. Money-worms are vulnerable to staged proofs; common laborants follow new gold-criers and lose their own money. Conversely, pp. 167–1682 give the true philosopher a ground of satisfaction before transmutation: the higher theosophical and medicinal uses remain. Stewardship thus governs the intended use of success, while resistance to greed governs the search itself.

Places to read

1. 1599 p. 150The money-fool’s reduction of certainty to gold-making is rejected
2. 1599 p. 152The transmutation promise is defended as bacon on a trap for reluctant wealthy supporters
3. 1599 p. 152 · marginThe schoolchild’s sweets supply a second image of inducement
4. 1599 p. 153The rich are addressed as stewards accountable for entrusted wealth
5. 1599 p. 154Talent, pound and Golden Rule define Christian use for God and neighbour
6. 1599 p. 167Higher theosophical and medicinal uses are set above the money-craving world’s demand

Translation in this edition

Keep the coarse materiality of “bacon” and “trap”; “incentive” alone would remove the force of the figure. “Steward” better conveys Haußhalter in this account of another's entrusted property than the merely domestic “householder.” Biblical identifications of the several talent, pound and stewardship allusions are supplied by the modern notes where no primary reference is printed.