Labyrinth and right road

Use in the book

At p. 11 the person who misses the due matter resembles a traveller bound from Nuremberg to Venice who instead goes by the Brocksberg towards the promontory Tabin, or someone seeking Rome in Moscovia or Tartaria. One must seek a thing where it is, not where one wishes. The example establishes the consequence of a false beginning before the lengthy exclusions of materials start.

The labyrinth occurs within more technical difficulties. The pp. 95–962 margin warns that the relations of mother, matrix and seed are easily confused, and that animal and vegetable likenesses do not fully establish the metallic case. At p. 108 the same spatial figure describes the apparent contradictions of philosophical writings. Right distinctions enable the reader to find a way out and select sound processes. At p. 178 it is the condition of those who follow pseudo-Magnesias and sophistical byways. Labyrinthus errantium is a name for their plight, not a cited book title.

The conclusion gives the right beginning architectural solidity. Magnesia is the firm first-material ground or rock from which the abiding water flows, and the gates of foolish and arrant Chymists cannot overpower one who builds there. At p. 183 the direct gospel-like address calls it the first-material door of Nature; anyone climbing into the Art by another route is a sophist and an erring person. The continuation promises unlocking, locking and finding what the philosophical heart desires.

The figures together make the argument consequential. A wrong turn propagates error; a correct entrance does not by itself make the journey unnecessary, but gives work its proper ground. The many obstructions, the need for guidance and the distinction between recognition and completion remain in force.

Places to read

1. 1599 p. 11Wrong destinations illustrate the consequences of missing the due matter
2. 1599 p. 96 · marginConfusion over mother, matrix and seed leads into a dangerous labyrinth
3. 1599 p. 108Right distinctions provide a way through apparently conflicting books
4. 1599 p. 176The recognized subject becomes the firm rock supporting the practitioner’s labours
5. 1599 p. 178The labyrinth names the condition of adherents to false Magnesias
6. 1599 p. 183Magnesia is the right first-material door of Nature

Translation in this edition

Keep the place-names as examples within the argument. The modern note identifies the Brocksberg and characterizes Tabin's geography, but those external claims are not established by Khunrath's sentence itself. The gospel identification of the door passage is also editorially explained; its altered wording belongs to the primary text.