PREFACE

PREFACE

...and by slanders heaped upon the practitioners, rather than by their labors, expenses, and studies continued day and night; nevertheless, unless the free-giving kindness of the Highest Bestower Maier refers here to God as the "summi largitonis," emphasizing that alchemical success is a divine gift rather than a purely human achievement. flows forth, nothing worth the effort is acquired by force, nor by boldness, nor by the cleverness of one's wit:

Alchemical practitioners are worthy of praise and honors—and here is why.

Truly, if a person ought to receive a reward according to how they have served the Republic or literature, then those men should be followed with accolades and honorable titles—not with so many slanders and the insults of great men—who, though they discovered and worked out things for themselves alone, nevertheless wished them not to remain unknown to posterity. Granted, they intended this not so much for the unworthy, the unlearned, and the stiff-necked, as for the intelligent and teachable Sons of Adam A common philosophical term for humanity, implying those who seek to regain the knowledge lost after the Fall.. But if very many are deceived by the writings of these men—having twisted the literal meaning or the sense into something foreign to nature—they have been the cause of their own error.

Chemists are not the cause of other people's errors.

For they often hear it emphasized by the practitioners that only the most learned, those of sharp wit and the best understanding, of constant will, and patient in labors, sleepless nights, and studies—the true philosophers—are invited to the feast of the Philosophical Table The "Aurea Mensa" or Golden Table, a metaphor for the highest level of alchemical achievement and communion with ancient masters.. They are not the unlettered or those only commonly educated, nor the sufficiently wealthy nor the extremely poor; if anyone else should turn up and taste nothing of what is set before them, that must be attributed to their own rashness. In the meantime, I cannot excuse my own readiness to believe; like countless others, both learned and unlearned, suitable and unsuitable, I entered the path of common errors, trusting in nothing of my own. Thus, I do not wish to testify to experience in these such rare matters. Only so much experience has come to me, among the other things I have handled, that I presume to judge more freely about those things which are outside the Court of Chemistry original: "Aula Chemiae"; the symbolic space where the secrets of the art are guarded., such as those things contained in this treatise.

As for what goes on within those walls, let the dead counselors Maier is referring to books and the writings of ancient authorities as "dead counselors" who provide honest advice without the biases or greeds of the living. be heard, as they are witnesses greater than any exception—the most faithful and eyewitnesses. One of them is worth more, as the Comic poet original: "Comicus"; Maier refers to the Roman playwright Plautus, specifically his line: "One eyewitness is worth more than ten who have only heard." says, than ten who have only heard. These men, though they relied on their own innocence and purity of life, have now shed that human desire for a bit of glory and small profit which usually torments the living. Having passed on to the place common to all mortals, they can neither be suppressed by the insults of others nor elevated by their praise. Thus, they make light of the threats and slanders of their detractors, while they might accept our recommendation and, as it were, our restoration to wholeness...