Two secrets

Use in the book

Pages 7–82 introduce the pair in Latin and German. Page 8 then reasons from an ordinary necessity of practice: nothing can be prepared without first knowing what the material is. Pages 12–1423 direct inquiry to the right subject before labour, and call the right beginning half the Art. This is a claim about secure orientation, not a promise that the remaining labour is easy or already complete. Pages 14–152 expressly allow hindrances and assign the timing of further help to God.

The pair returns at pages 105–1062. True cognition of first matter is joined to knowing how to resolve and purify it into the watery philosophical mercury. The margins separately name cognition and preparation, and the body locates the ground of the universal Stone and genuine transmuting particulars in these two hidden things. The second secret is therefore substantive knowledge and work; recognition does not swallow it.

The later self-defence depends on keeping the two apart. A man may recognize while preparation still lacks something; another may possess a tincture without knowing how to prepare it. Completion, possession, recognition, and procedural knowledge are not the same attainment. The opening distinction allows Khunrath to defend the worth of what he knows while acknowledging that further preparation remains.

Places to read

1. 1599 p. 8The two secrets are stated and their necessary order explained.
2. 1599 p. 14The right beginning is called half the Art, with possible hindrances acknowledged.
3. 1599 p. 15Further help toward right preparation is assigned its own time and divine conditions.
4. 1599 p. 105 · marginThe return to the pair is headed true cognition of the matter.
5. 1599 p. 106 · marginThe second component is explicitly headed preparation of the matter.
6. 1599 p. 163What remains lacking in preparation is distinguished from the recognition already defended.

Translation in this edition

The modern apparatus records the original margin's correction of Arris to Artis through the author's Errata. The body attributes the saying to the Philosophers generally; a specific attribution to the Turba is not stated at this opening location.