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Earth metals and stones

Nobility and perfection

Edele Geschöpffe; veredlen; perfectione & imperfectione

Nobility and perfection evaluate a creature’s purity, maturity, form, and effective power.

From the book

Candida Phoenix Philosophica

Anonymous · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordNobility and perfection evaluate a creature’s purity, maturity, form, and effective power.
  • In the CandidaThe art is said to advance mineral beings towards their proper perfection, while contemplation and charity outrank mere acquisition.
  • TranslationThe hierarchy belongs to the book’s teleological philosophy, not simply to monetary value.
  • A place to readRead the rejection of silver’s decline at pp. 112–113 and the maturation argument at pp. 133–134.

Meaning

The Candida describes metals and stones as noble works of God. Nobility here includes worthiness for contemplation, beautiful appearance, purity, and a place in an ordered created world. Gold adorns the tabernacle and priestly garments; precious stones bear the names of Israel’s tribes. These scriptural uses establish dignity before the discussion turns to production or transmutation. Valuable materials are not dismissed as mere temptations, but their value is placed within worship and created order.

Perfection gives natural and artificial change a direction. The narrator says every nature seeks continually to ennoble itself. He therefore objects to the theory that silver must decline into copper and then iron before reaching gold. Since silver is the purest and noblest metal after gold, that sequence would make the process reverse its proper tendency. The hierarchy is an argumentative premise, not just descriptive praise.

Later the metals are said to differ in perfection and imperfection while sharing an origin in water and the elements. Gold matures very slowly in the earth. Philosophers seek to advance that maturation by art and bring the essence of gold to its highest maturity. The art improves within the same mineral nature rather than creating a new order of beings. This is the role of perfection in the defence of lawful gold-making.

Use in the book

The gemstone chapter applies a corresponding distinction. Inferior stones can allegedly become more perfect, costly stones through the red and white elixir. Broken pieces can be consolidated, small stones enlarged. Material wholeness, colour, hardness, and excellence are joined in the account without being reduced to a single numerical measure. The author’s language of Oriental stones expresses an esteemed class in the narrative, rather than a modern gemological standard.

The first mineral chapter also shows what the hierarchy does not establish. The author accepts common origin and an orienting tendency towards ennoblement, yet still calls the detailed underground process conjectural. A belief about perfection cannot settle the exact mechanics of generation. His use of that belief to reject a declining metallic sequence is narrower than a complete theory of how each metal arises.

Perfection can describe the finished medicine and tincture as well as mineral recipients. A lower-order preparation may have therapeutic effects without the transmuting power of the perfected natural tincture. The three medical orders therefore distinguish degrees and kinds of efficacy, not merely stronger and weaker versions of one ordinary drug. The perfected elixir’s wider claims fit the larger language of a common nature brought to maturity.

The theological conclusion extends perfection beyond present materials. The second letter describes a subject freed from grossness and dregs, regenerated into a noble spiritual form. The final chapter imagines universal natures purified into a more than perfect form and crystalline clarity. These applications share the direction from impurity or incompletion to manifested excellence, while assigning the final cosmic transformation to God.

The ethical hierarchy prevents a purely acquisitive reading. Solomon can value wisdom above every worldly treasure and choose contemplation instead of exercise. The author claims benefit chiefly in medicine and ends with charitable and Christian uses. Gold’s high place among metals does not mean making gold is the highest human good. Perfection of the practitioner’s purpose matters alongside perfection of the work.92

Places to read

  1. Part II · II.106.1; II.114.22Metals and stones as noble works and priestly ornaments.
  2. Part II · II.112.2Nature’s ennobling tendency used against a declining sequence of metals.
  3. Part II · II.133.2; II.134.1; II.134.223Common mineral origin, maturity, and art proceeding according to nature.
  4. Part II · II.180.1; II.184.12Improvement of metals and stones as powers claimed for perfected tincture.
  5. Part II · II.200.1; II.223.2; II.231.123Wisdom above wealth and the spiritual and cosmic extensions of perfection.

Translation

Veredlen is “ennoble” or “improve towards nobility.” “Maturation” renders Zeitigung where the passage concerns the development of gold’s essence. These words preserve the directed character of change.

Perfect and imperfect should not be replaced uniformly with pure and impure. Purity is one component of the evaluation, but maturity, form, and effective power are also at issue.

Connections

Transmutation and Tincture and elixir explain how the art is said to confer material perfection. Charity and Solomon and wisdom explain the higher purposes that regulate its use.

Residues and Separation explain what perfection excludes. Purity is not just brilliance of appearance; it involves liberation from accidental burdens that obscure or spoil the appropriate substance.

Cautions

The hierarchy is a claim within historical natural philosophy; it is not a modern ranking of elemental stability or atomic structure.

The book’s praise of precious materials must be read with its repeated preference for wisdom, medicine, and charity over greed.

Edele Geschöpffe

Edele Geschöpffe — Attested wording in the cited original passage. II.114.2.

veredlen

veredlen — Attested wording in the cited original passage. II.112.2.

perfectione & imperfectione

perfectione & imperfectione — Attested wording in the cited original passage. II.133.2.

Source note

At II.134.2 the author expressly calls Hermetic gold-making natural rather than supernatural. The movement towards perfection is meant to follow created nature, even though its possibility and usefulness are ultimately grounded in God.