DiotimosReading Desk

Main articles

Multiply and augment

multipliciren / vermehren / augmentirt

Multiplication and augmentation denote increase, but what increases varies: quantity, effective power, perfection or the reach of a tincture's benefit.

From the book

The Sophic Hydrolith, Water Stone of the Wise

Anonymous and companion authors · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Browse this book’s lexicon →

Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordMultiplication and augmentation denote increase, but what increases varies: quantity, effective power, perfection or the reach of a tincture's benefit.
  • In the Sophic HydrolithPart II: matter and the work · unit 25 postpones further discussion of fermentation and multiplication until the section on benefit.
  • In this editionThe English preserves 'in quantity' and the following loss of perfection in the Summary, a contrast that a bare gloss 'increase' would miss.
  • A place to readLater multiplication belongs to Part III's account of use.

Meaning

Multiplication and augmentation denote increase, but what increases varies: quantity, effective power, perfection or the reach of a tincture's benefit. The Summary explicitly distinguishes a quantitative increase that damages Mercury's perfection from growth toward full strength in its proper natural relation. One cannot therefore assume that more material always means a more perfected work.

The main treatise links multiplication with fermentation and application, while the Via reinterprets the name as improvement within coction. These are related but competing accounts. The headword is a family access point, not an assertion that all speakers describe the same repeatable procedure.

Use in the book

Part II: matter and the work · unit 25 postpones further discussion of fermentation and multiplication until the section on benefit. The verse in Part II: matter and the work · unit 30 similarly places multiplication at the end of its compressed account. Part III: benefits and their rank · unit 10 then says that the tincture must be further fermented and augmented because its subtlety otherwise prevents suitable projection into other imperfect bodies. The already perfected agent requires adaptation for effective application.

Part III: benefits and their rank · unit 11 claims a large extension of tinging power, but qualifies reception by affinity and purity. Impure, unsuitable matter is separated as slag. The promised increase is therefore not a simple unconditional arithmetic law. This entry records the argumentative role of the large claim without reproducing a practical ratio or sequence.

In Philosophical Summary · unit 4, Mercury consumes an imperfect metal and increases it in quantity while losing its own perfection. Philosophical Summary · unit 5 instead describes a fixed grain developing while still within its Mercury, interpreted as its ore and nourishing source. Philosophical Summary · unit 6 uses the analogy of fruit prematurely plucked from a tree to deny that restoring an external contact simply re-establishes the original growth. These propositions differ markedly from an unrestricted doctrine of metallic reproduction.

Way of Truth · unit 7 says the ancients named improvement of substance sublimation and multiplication in order to obscure plain coction. The accusation belongs to the Via's explanatory program. It should not be imported into the anonymous treatise as though its author had already disowned all the staged operations he describes.

Places to read

  1. Part II: matter and the work · unit 25Later multiplication belongs to Part III's account of use.
  2. Part II: matter and the work · unit 30Multiplication is linked to tinging a thousand.
  3. Part III: benefits and their rank · unit 11One part is said to tinge a thousand, with efficacy varying by the metals’ affinity and purity.
  4. Part III: benefits and their rank · unit 10Increase or strengthening is required along with fermentation.
  5. Philosophical Summary · unit 4Mercury multiplies imperfect metal in quantity but loses its own perfection.
  6. Philosophical Summary · unit 5Fixed grain multiplies toward perfection while retained in Mercury.
  7. Philosophical Summary · unit 6Detached metals cannot simply be rejoined for increase.
  8. Way of Truth · unit 7Improvement within coction is given the name multiplication.
  9. Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 32The theological multiplication invoked in the cross-reference means imperfect members receiving union with the already perfect Christ.

Translation

The English preserves 'in quantity' and the following loss of perfection in the Summary, a contrast that a bare gloss 'increase' would miss. It also retains the main treatise's 'further' augmentation after the stone has reached its stated effect. The Via's evaluative explanation is kept in reported form. Cross-referencing fermentation lets the spiritual extension to Christ's members be read without implying that Christ himself gains missing perfection.

Attested forms

multiplication; multiplicirt; tausent; Multiplication; 1000. theil; augmentirt; Quantitet; perfection; Perfection; vermehren; verbesserung; multipliciret; multipliciren