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(9) And although I shall scarce be able to tell the Letters, in this so high a way, yet it i shall be so high, that many will have enough to learn in it all their Life long: He that supposes that he knows it very well, he has not yet learnt the first Letter of Paradise, for no Doctors are to be found on this Way in this School, but only Scholars [or Learners.]

(1) If, however, it be necessary, dismissing these particulars, to speak what appears to me to be the truth, you do not rightly infer “ that a knowledge of this mathematical science cannot be obtained, because there is much dissonance concerning it, or because Chæremon, or some other, has written against it .” For if this reason were admitted, all things will be incomprehensible. For all sciences have ten thousand controvertists, and the doubts with which they are attended are innumerable. As, therefore, we are accustomed to say in opposition to the contentious, that contraries in things that are true are naturally discordant, and that it is not falsities alone that are hostile to each other; thus, also, we say respecting this mathematical science, that it is indeed true; but that those who wander from the scope of it, being ignorant of the truth, contradict it. This, however happens not in this science alone, but likewise in all the sciences, which are imparted by the Gods to men.

(4) For some they have borrowed, and others they have misunderstood. And in the case of others, what they have spoken, in consequence of being moved, they have not yet perfectly worked out; and others by human conjecture and reasoning, in which also they stumble. And they think that they have hit the truth perfectly; but as we understand them, only partially. They know, then, nothing more than this world. And it is just like geometry, which treats of measures and magnitudes and forms, by delineation on plane-surfaces; and just as painting appears to take in the whole field of view in the scenes represented. But it gives a false description of the view, according to the rules of the art, employing the signs that result from the incidents of the lines of vision. By this means, the higher and lower points in the view, and those between, are preserved; and some objects seem to appear in the foreground, and others in the background, and others to appear in some other way, on the smooth and level surface. So also the philosophers copy the truth, after the manner of painting. And always in the case of each one of them, their self-love is the cause of all their mistakes.

(2) Now then, if there be any that have a desire to follow me, and would fain have this Knowledge whereof I write, I advise him to follow me in this following Table, [Pattern or Way,] not presently with the Pen, but with the Labour of the Mind, and then he shall find how I could come to write thus; whereas I was not taught from the Schools of this World, but only a little of this mean Hand-writing, as may be seen here.

(68) "Many more wonders of this holy Art might be added, namely how to prepare therewith all sorts of precious Stones, and other most admirable things, but it would require too great a book to express the whole as it ought to be, especially as the Art is endless and not to be apprehended with one view, and my purpose has been, Loving Cousin and Son, devoutly to lead thee into the Mysteries of Nature and this holy Science, and I have faithfully performed it."

(1) [Trismegistus] ’Tis in this way, Asclepius;—by mixing it, by means of subtle expositions, with divers sciences not easy to be grasped,—such as arithmetic, and music, and geometry. But Pure Philosophy, which doth depend on godly piety alone, should only so far occupy itself with other arts, that it may [know how to] appreciate the working out in numbers of the fore-appointed stations of the stars when they return, and of the course of their procession. Let her, moreover, know how to appreciate the Earth’s dimensions, its qualities and quantities, the Water’s depths, the strength of Fire, and the effects and nature of all these. [And so] let her give worship and give praise unto the Art and Mind of God.

(6) Seeing then that my Knowledge has been received by seeking and knocking, I therefore write it down for a Memorial, that I might occasion a Desire in any to seek after them, and thereby my Talent might be improved, and not be hid in the Earth. But I have not written this for those that are wise beforehand, that know all Things, and yet know and comprehend nothing, for they are fully satisfied already, and rich; but I have written it for the Simple, as I am, that I may be refreshed with those that are like myself. Further of the Sulphur, Mercurius, and Sal.

(15) And though Moses has written very rightly, that they should govern the Day and the Night, and should separate the Light from the Darkness, and make Times and Seasons, Years and Days, yet it is not plain enough to be understood by the desirous Reader. For there is found a very high Thing in the Virtue and Power of the Stars; [which is,] that every Life, Growth, Colour, and Virtue, Thickness, and Thinness, Smallness, and Greatness, Good, and Evil, is moved and stirred by their Power. For this Cause the wise Heathens relied upon them, and honoured them as Gods. Therefore I will write something of their Original, as far as is permitted to me at this Time, for their Sakes that seek and desire the Pearl. But I have written nothing for the Swine, and other bestial Men, who trample the Pearl into the Dirt, and scorn and contemn the Spirit of Knowledge; such as they may, with the first World, expect a Deluge, or Flood of Fire; and seeing they will bear no angelical Image, therefore they must bear the Images of Lions, Dragons, and other evil Beasts, and Worms, [or creeping Things.] And if they will not admit of good Counsel that God may help them, then they must look to find by Experience, Whether the Scriptures of Prophesy lie to them or no.

(16) O that I had but the Pen of Man, and were able therewith to write down the Spirit of Knowledge. I can but stammer of the great Mysteries like a Child that is beginning to speak; so very little can the earthly Tongue express what the Spirit comprehends and understands; yet I will venture to try, whether I may procure some to go about to seek the Pearl, whereby also I might a labour in the Works of God in my paradisical Garden of Roses; for the Longing of the eternal Matrix drives me on to write and exercise myself in this my Knowledge.

(11) in the organization of the intellectual faculties with which he has been endowed; by arithmetic he not only is instructed in the mystery of universal order but also gains the key to multitude, magnitude, and proportion; by geometry he is inducted into the mathematics of form, the harmony and rhythm of angles, and the philosophy of organization; by music he is reminded that the universe is founded upon the laws of celestial harmonics and that harmony and rhythm are all-pervading; by astronomy he gains an understanding of the immensities of time and space, of the proper relationship between himself and the universe, and of the awesomeness of that Unknown Power which is driving the countless stars of the firmament through illimitable space. Equipped with the knowledge conferred by familiarity with the liberal arts and sciences, the studious Freemason therefore finds himself confronted by few problems with which he cannot cope.

(24) Though the Doctor, it may be, knows what the Tincture is, yet the Simple and Unlearned do not, who many Times (if they had the Art) have better Gifts and Understanding than the Doctor, therefore I write for those that seek; though indeed I hold, that neither the Doctor, nor the Alchemist, has the Ground of the Tincture, unless he be born again in the Spirit; such a One sees through all, whether he be learned or unlearned; with God the Peasant is as acceptable as the Doctor.

(7) As the geometrician, who endeavours To square the circle, and discovers not, By taking thought, the principle he wants, Even such was I at that new apparition; I wished to see how the image to the circle Conformed itself, and how it there finds place; But my own wings were not enough for this, Had it not been that then my mind there smote A flash of lightning, wherein came its wish. Here vigour failed the lofty fantasy: But now was turning my desire and will, Even as a wheel that equally is moved, The Love which moves the sun and the other stars.

(1) But, as appears, I have, in my eagerness to establish my point, insensibly gone beyond what is requisite. For life would fail me to adduce the multitude of those who philosophize in a symbolical manner. For the sake, then, of memory and brevity, and of attracting to the truth, such are the Scriptures of the Barbarian philosophy.

(42) Hence I must show the Ground to them that seek; for the Doctor cannot show it him with his Anatomy, and though he should kill a thousand Men, yet he shall not find that [Ground. They only know that Ground,] that have qbeen upon it.

(101) Behold, that which the Ancients have invented and taught, is not the Ground. They took upon them to measure how many Hundred Thousand Miles it is to P the Heaven whither Christ is gone. They did it to this End, that they might be Gods upon Earth themselves, as their invented Kingdom shows and declares, which stands merely in Babel. Behold, when we speak of the Thrones, it is quite another Thing than that they mean; and their Blindness and Ignorance is found, though there is a Spirit in their Knowledge which is not so much rejected; but that Spirit is not [or comes not] ex Ternario Sancto [out of the Holy Ternary,] out of the Body of Jesus Christ, but it is out of the high Eternity, which flies up above the Thrones; which may be mentioned in another Place.

(12) Now I know very well, that I shall not only in Part be as it were dumb or obscure to the desirous Reader, but also tedious, and he will be somewhat troubled at me, in that I have written of the eternal Mother (wherein the divine Essence stands;) and that I now write, that this Matrix is inanimate and void of Understanding, out of which also a Principle void of Understanding is generated; as is plain before our Eyes, that in this World there is no true Understanding, either in the Stars, or in the Elements; and also in all its Creatures there is but an Understanding to qualify [or to operate,] to nourish itself, and to increase, as the Matrix in itself is.