Fail, dissolve, and vanish

Meaning

Failure, dissolving away and vanishing form an escalating warning in the appendix. If the possessor grows proud or shelters greed under the appearance of household prudence, the art is said to fail in his hands and disappear beyond his understanding. The condition is ethical and theological: gradual turning from God precedes the threatened loss. The English “dissolve” renders zerrinnen figuratively here, not as a named operation on laboratory matter. The author claims that this has happened to more than one person, but supplies no identities or recoverable case histories. The warning asserts that possession of the gift is not an unconditional guarantee of its continued use.