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Power and virtue

Krafft / Kräfften / Tugend

Power and virtue denote capacities to act or produce effects, not only moral goodness.

From the book

The Sophic Hydrolith, Water Stone of the Wise

Anonymous and companion authors · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordPower and virtue denote capacities to act or produce effects, not only moral goodness.
  • In the Sophic HydrolithOpening explanation · unit 1 makes the study of creatures' nature and powers the beginning of the philosophical search.
  • In this editionThe aligned English uses 'power', 'virtue', 'qualities' and 'strength' according to their grammatical roles.
  • A place to readPowers are intrinsic capacities of creatures.

Meaning

Power and virtue denote capacities to act or produce effects, not only moral goodness. The introduction's powers of lower creatures, the spheres' virtues, the elixir's qualities and a tincture's efficacy belong to this broad range. Moral virtue elsewhere in the book is not denied, but it cannot be imported automatically into every occurrence of the same English word.

Influence and power are also related without being identical. In Nature's cosmology, heavenly influence reaches matter and its virtues are transmitted through ordered relations. The material does not act merely because a human gives an impressive name to it.

Use in the book

Opening explanation · unit 1 makes the study of creatures' nature and powers the beginning of the philosophical search. The beneficial hidden thing is inferred from divine influence and the light of nature. Its powers are represented as ordained for restoration rather than generated by the investigator's desire.

Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 4 distributes virtues among the heavenly spheres and describes their differing influences penetrating the earth. Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 7 then puts the polemical point in Nature's own voice: she alone gives the elements their proper proportion and form, and she encloses virtues and qualities in the elixir. Human handiwork without her and the heavens cannot supply that efficacy. This is an assertion of agency and dependence, not merely praise of a stronger furnace.

Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 20 gives the alchemist's later account of a generative spirit communicating power and virtue from father to son without destroying the father. The local image distinguishes transmission of efficacy from dismemberment of the elemental compound. Its unfinished clause about the true stone must not be silently completed into a new doctrine; the surrounding argument against destructive separation is nevertheless clear.

Philosophical Summary · unit 5 associates multiplication with arriving at perfection and full strength while a grain remains in its nourishing Mercury or ore. That is a different contextual account of increasing power, tied to the fruit analogy and the prevention of premature separation. The common vocabulary of strength does not prove that the companions agree on metallic life or growth.

Places to read

  1. Opening explanation · unit 1Powers are intrinsic capacities of creatures.
  2. Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 4Celestial virtue and influence act within matter and descend to the centre.
  3. Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 7Nature encloses virtues and qualities in the elixir and claims perfecting power.
  4. Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 20The father communicates generative power through spirit without destruction.
  5. Philosophical Summary · unit 5Growth of retained grain attains full power and perfection.

Translation

The aligned English uses 'power', 'virtue', 'qualities' and 'strength' according to their grammatical roles. Retaining that range is preferable to translating every occurrence as either moral virtue or chemical potency. The edition explicitly marks the incomplete printed clause in Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 20; this entry does not invent its missing completion or rely on it for a precise identification of the stone.

Attested forms

Kräfften; Tugend; Krafft; influentz; Tugenden; Qualiteten; Krafft vnd Tugend; völliger Krafft