(406) besprinkled with barley-meal and grated cheese, which are certainly inflammatory, and yet the sons of Asclepius who were at the Trojan war do not blame the damsel who gives him the drink, or rebuke Patroclus, who is treating his case. Well, he said, that was surely an extraordinary drink to be given to a person in his condition. Not so extraordinary, I replied, if you bear in mind that in former days, as is commonly said, before the time of Herodicus, the guild of Asclepius did not practise our present system of medicine, which may be said to educate diseases. But Herodicus, being a trainer, and himself of a sickly constitution, by a combination of training and doctoring found out a way of torturing first and chiefly himself, and secondly the rest of the world. How was that? he said. By the invention of lingering death; for he had a mortal disease which he perpetually tended, and as recovery was out of the question, he passed his entire life as a valetudinarian; he could do nothing but attend upon himself, and he was in constant torment whenever he departed in anything from his usual regimen, and so dying hard, by the help of science he struggled on to old age. A rare reward of his skill! Yes, I said; a reward which a man might fairly expect who never understood that, if Asclepius did not instruct his descendants in valetudinarian arts, the omission arose, not from ignorance or inexperience of such a branch of medicine, but because he knew that in all well-ordered states every individual has an occupation to which he must attend, and has therefore no leisure to spend in continually being ill. This we remark in the case of the artisan, but, ludicrously enough, do not apply the same rule to people of the richer sort. How do you mean? he said.

(14) Acsubofen* saith: Master, thou hast spoken without envy, even as became thee, and for the same may God reward thee!

PyTHacoras saith: May God also deliver thee, Acsubofen, from envy! Then he: Ye must know, O Assembly of the Wise, that sulphurs are contained in sulphurs, and humidity in humidity.t

The Turba answereth: The envious, O Acsubofen, have uttered something like unto this! Tell us, therefore, what is this humidity? And he: Humidity is a venom, and when venom} penetrates a body, it tinges it with an invariable colour, and in no wise permits the soul to be separated from the body, because it is equal thereto. Concerning this, the envious have said: When one flies and the other pursues, then one seizes upon the other, and afterwards they no longer flee, because Nature has laid hold of its equal, after the manner of an enemy, and they destroy one another. For this reason, out of the sulphureous mixed sulphur is produced a most precious colour, which varies not, nor flees from the fire, when the soul enters into the interior of the body and holds the body together and tinges it. I will repeat my words in Tyrian dye.* Take the Animal which is called Kenckel, since all its water is a Tyrian colour, and rule the same with a gentle fire, as is customary, until it shall become earth, in which there will be a little colour. But if you wish to obtain the Tyrian tincture, take the humidity which that thing has ejected, and place it therewith gradually in a vessel, adding that tincture whereof the colour was disagreeable to you. Then cook with that same marine water* until itshall becomedry.t Afterwards moisten with that humour, dry gradually, and cease not to imbue it, to cook, and to dry, until it be imbued with all its humour. Then leave it for several days in its own vessel, until the most precious Tyrian colour shall come out from it to the surface. Observe how I describe the regimen to you! Prepare it with the urine of boys, with gigt water of the sea, and with permanent clean water, so that it may be tinged, and decoct with a gentle fire, until the blackness altogether shall depart from it, and it be easily pounded. Decoct, therefore, in its own humour until it clothe itself with a red colour. But if ye wish to bring it to the Tyrian colour, imbue the same with continual* water, and mix, as ye know to be sufficient, according to the rule of sight; mix the same with permanent water sufficiently, and decoct until rust absorb the water. Then wash with the water of the sea which thou hast prepared, which is water of desiccated calx;+ cook until it imbibe its own moisture; and do this day by day. I tell you thata colour will thence appear to you the like of which the Tyrians have never made. And if ye wish that it should be a still more exalted colour, place the gum in the permanent water, with which ye shall dye it alternately, and afterwards desiccate in the sun. Then restore to the aforesaid water and the black Tyrian colour is intensified. But know that ye do not tinge the purple colour except by cold.

Take, therefore, water which is of the nature of cold, and steep wool* therein until it extract the force of the tincture from the water.

Know also that the Philosophers have called the force which proceeds from that water the Flower. Seek, therefore, your intent in the said water; therein place what is in the vessel for days and nights, until it be clothed with a most precious Tyrian colour.

(405) a master in dishonesty; able to take every crooked turn, and wriggle into and out of every hole, bending like a withy and getting out of the way of justice: and all for what?—in order to gain small points not worth mentioning, he not knowing that so to order his life as to be able to do without a napping judge is a far higher and nobler sort of thing. Is not that still more disgraceful? Yes, he said, that is still more disgraceful. Well, I said, and to require the help of medicine, not when a wound has to be cured, or on occasion of an epidemic, but just because, by indolence and a habit of life such as we have been describing, men fill themselves with waters and winds, as if their bodies were a marsh, compelling the ingenious sons of Asclepius to find more names for diseases, such as flatulence and catarrh; is not this, too, a disgrace? Yes, he said, they do certainly give very strange and newfangled names to diseases. Yes, I said, and I do not believe that there were any such diseases in the days of Asclepius; and this I infer from the circumstance that the hero Eurypylus, after he has been wounded in Homer, drinks a posset of Pramnian wine well

(58) Barcus* saith: The whole Turba, O Acratus, has already spoken, as you have seen, but a benefactor sometimes deceives, though his intention is to do good. And they: Thou speakest truly. Proceed, therefore, according to thy opinion, and beware of envy! Then he:

You must know that the envious have described this arcanum in the shade; in physical reasoning and astronomy, and the art of images; they have also likened it to trees; they have ambiguously concealed it by the names of metals, vapours, and reptiles; as is generally perceived in all their work.

I, nevertheless, direct you, investigators of this science, to take iron and draw it into plates; finally, mix (or sprinkle) it with venom, and place it in its vessel, the mouth of which must be closed most carefully, and beware lest ye too much increase the humour, or, on the other hand, lest it be too dry, but stir it vigorously as a mass, because, if the water be in excess, it will not be contained in the chimney, while, if it be too dry, it will neither be conjoined nor cooked in the chimney; hence I direct you to confect it diligently; finally, place it in its vessel, the mouth of which must be closed internally and externally with clay, and, having kindled coals above it, after some days ye shall open it, and there shall ye find the iron plates already liquefied; while on the lid of the vessel ye shall find globules. For when the fire is kindled the vinegar* ascends, because its spiritual nature passes into the air, wherefore, I direct you to keep that part separately. Ye must also know that by multipliedt decoctions and attritions it is congealed and coloured by the fire, and its nature is changed. By a similar decoction and liquefaction Cambar is not disjoined.t I notify to you that by the said frequent decoction the weight of a third part of the water is consumed, but the residue becomes a wind in the Cambar of the second spirit.* And know ye that nothing is more precious or more excellent than the red sand of the sea, for the Sputum of Luna is united with the light of the Sun’s rays.t Luna is perfected by the coming on of night, and by the heat of the Sun the dew is congealed. Then, that being wounded, the dew of the deathdealer is joined,! and the more the days pass on the more intensely is it congealed, and is not burned. For he who cooks with the Sun is himself congealed,§’ and that signal whiteness causes it to overcome the terrene fire.

Then saith Bonites: Do you not know, O Balgus, that the Spume of Luna tinges nothing except our copper? And Bateus: Thou speakest truly, And he: Why, therefore, hast thou omitted to describe that tree, of the fruit whereof whosoever eateth shall hunger nevermore? And Barcus: A certain person,* who has followed science, has notified to me after what manner he discovered this same tree, and appropriately operating, did extract the fruit and eat of it. But when I inquired of him concerning the growth and the increment, he described that pure whiteness, thinking that the same is found without any laborious disposition. Then its perfection is the fruit thereof. But when I further asked how it is nourished with food until it fructifies, he said: Take that tree, and build a house about it, which shall wholly surround the same, which shall also be circular, dark, encircled by dew, and shall have placed on it a man of a hundred years; shut and secure the door lest dust or wind should reach them. ‘Then in the time of 180 days send them away to their homes. I say that man shall not cease to eat of the fruit of that tree to the perfection of the number [of the days] until the old man shall become young. O what marvellous natures, which have transformed the soul of that old man into a juvenile body, and the father is made into the son! Blessed be thou, O most excellent God!

(62) Munpus saith: It behoves you, O all ye seekers after this Art, to know that whatsoever the Philosophers have narrated or ordained, Kenckel, herbs, geldum, and carmen, are one thing!* Do not, therefore, trouble about a plurality of things, for there is one Tyrian tincture of the Philosophers to which they have given names at will, and having abolished the proper name, they have called it black, because it has been extracted from our sea. And know that the ancient priests did not condescend to wear artificial garments, whence, for purifying altars, and lest they should introduce into them anything sordid or impure, they tinged Kenckel with a Tyrian colour; but our Tyrian colour, which they placed in their altars and treasuries, was more clean and fragrant than can be described by me, which also has been extracted from our red and most pure sea, which is sweet and of a pleasant odour, and is neither sordid nor impure in putrefaction. And know ye that we have given many names to it, which are all true—an example of which, for those that possess understanding, is to be traced in corn that is being ground. For after grinding it is called by another name, and after it has been passed through the sieve, and the various substances have been separated one from another, each of these has its own name, and yet fundamentally there is but one name, to wit, corn, from which many names are distinguished. Thus we call the purple in each grade of its regimen by the name:of its own colour.

(49) Betus saith: O all ye Philosophers, ye have not dealt sparingly concerning composition and contact, but composition, contact, and congelation are one thing! Take, therefore, a part from the one composition and a part out of ferment of gold,* and on these impose pure water of sulphur. This, then, is the potent (or revealed)arcanum which tinges every body.

PyTHAGORAS answereth: O Belus, why hast thou called it a potent arcanum, yet hast not shown its work? And he: In our books, O Master, we have found the same which thou hast received from the ancients! And PyTHAGORAS: Therefore have I assembled you together, that you might remove any obscurities which are in any books. And he: Willingly, O Master! It is to be noted that pure water which is from sulphur is not composed of sulphur alone, but is composed of several things, for the one sulphur is made out of several sulphurs.t How, therefore, O Master, shall I compose these things that they may become one? And he: Mix, O Belus, that which strives with the fire with that which does not strive, for things which are conjoined in a fire suitable to the same contend, because the warm venoms of the physician are cooked ina gentle, incomburent fire!* Surely ye perceive what the Philosophers have stated concerning decoction, that a little sulphur burns many strong things, and the humour which remains is called humid pitch, balsam of gum, and other like things. Therefore our Philosophers are made like to the physicians, notwithstanding that the tests of the physicians are more intense than those of the Philosophers.

The Turba answereth: I wish, O Belus, that you would also shew the disposition of this potent arcanum!

And he: I proclaim to future generations that this arcanum proceeds from two compositions, that is to say, sulphur and magnesia. But after it is reduced and conjoined into one, the Philosophers have called it water, spume of Boletus (z.e., a species of fungus), and the thickness of gold. When, however, it has been reduced into quicksilver, they call it sulphur of water; sulphur also, when it contains sulphur, they term a fiery venom, because it is a potent (or open) arcanum which ascends from those things ye know.

(149) There the bitter quality raveth and rageth, and seeketh for rest and food, and finds it not, and moveth or boileth in the body as a lingering poison.

(20) The [sour, strong, or] bitter Gall, (viz. the terrible poisonous Flash of Fire) kindles the Warmth in the Heart, or the Fire, and is itself the Cause, from whence all else take their Original.

(100) This son is the very gout [Podagra] of this world; for it taketh its original in the flash of pride and covetousness, and stands on the root of life as pricking and bitter gall.

(65) Behold, there is a gall in man's body, which is poison, and man cannot live without this gall; for the gall makes the astral spirits moveable, joyous, triumphing or laughing, for it is the source of joy.

(43) Dardaris saith: Ye have frequently treated of the regimen, and have introduced the conjunction,t yet I proclaim to posterity that they cannot extract the now hidden soul except by Ethelia, by which bodies become not. bodies through continual cooking, and by sublimation of Ethelia. Know also that quicksilver is fiery, burning every body more than does fire, also mortifying The Turba, Philosophorum. 137 bodies, and that every body which is mingled with it is ground and delivered over to be destroyed. When, therefore, ye have diligently pounded the bodies, and have exalted them as required, therefrom is produced that Ethel nature, and a colour which is tingeing* and not volatile, and it tinges the copper which the

Turba said did not tinge until it is tinged, because that which is tinged tinges. Know also that the body of the copper is ruled by Magnesia, and that quicksilver is four bodies, also that the matter has no being except by humidity, because it is the water of sulphur, for sulphurs are contained in sulphurs.

The Turba saith: O Dardaris, inform posterity what sulphurs are! And he: Sulphurs are souls which are hidden in four bodies, and, extracted by themselves, do contain one another, and are naturally conjoined. For if ye rule that which is hidden in the belly of sulphur with water, and cleanse well that which is hidden, then nature rejoices, meeting with nature, and water similarly with its equal. Know ye also that the four bodies are not tinged but tinge.* And the Turspa: Why dost thou not say like the ancients that when they are tinged, they tinge? And he: I state that the four coins of the vulgar populace are not tinged, but they tinge copper, and when that copper is tinged, it tinges the coins of the populace.t

(101) II. Further, thou canst not deny, either, that the gall in a creature is not existed from the heart, and yet it is the mobility or stirring of the heart, by a vein that goeth from the gall to the heart; from whence the heat existeth. But it has its first original from the flash of life, and so when the life generateth itself in the heart, and the light riseth up in the water, then the fire-crack goeth before, which riseth up out of the anxiety of the water in the heat.

(90) II. Then secondly, the astringent death of the water is to be separated, from which proceeds a poisonous venomous water of separation, or aqua fortis, which stands in the rising up of the fire- flash in death, and which is the evil, malignant, even the very worst, source of all in death, even the astringent and bitter death itself; for this is the place where the life, which existeth the in the sweet water, died in death: And that separateth itself now in the second melting.

(67) That is, when the gall overfloweth and runneth to the heart, then it kindleth the element of fire, and the fire kindleth the astral spirits which reign in the blood in the veins and in the element of water; and then the whole body trembleth by reason of the wrath and the poison of the gall.

(52) In the sour quality it causes a rankness and brittleness, a stink, a misery, a house of mourning, a house of darkness, of death and of hell; an end of joy, which therein can no more be thought upon: For it cannot be quieted or stilled by anything, nor can it be enlightened again by anything; but the dark, astringent or harsh, stinking, sour, torn, bitter, fierce quality riseth up to all eternity. Now observe:

(58) And the bitter quality penetrateth into the body, into the astringent or sour and into the sweet qualities, and frameth all sorts of colours according to that quality to which the body is most eagerly inclined, or according to that quality which is strongest in the body, according to that [strongest quality] the bitter quality frameth the body, with its colours, and according to that [same] quality the creature has its greatest impulse and inclination, motion, boiling and will. IV. Of the Fourth Circumstance or Species.

(116) So now, if thou minglest with this water or powder some good treacle or the like, which holdeth captive the rising up and the power of the wrath in the astral birth, and givest it to the sick party or patient in a little warm drink, be it beer or wine, then operateth the innermost and hidden birth of the thing which, through its outermost dead birth, has caused the disease in man.

(159) From thence existed the first poison, wherein we poor men now in this world have enough to chew upon, and thereby the bitter poisonous death is come into the flesh.

(114) Behold! man becometh weak, faint and sick, and if no remedy be used, then he soon falls into death. The sickness is caused either by some bitter and astringent herb which grows out of the earth, or else is caused by an evil, mortiferous deadly water, or by several mixtures of earthly herbs, or by some evil stinking and rank flesh or meat, and surfeit from thence to loathing.