PREFACE

...also because of its most noble end, which promises a constant abundance of health and wealth—the two primary pillars of a happier life. For this reason, the Mastersoriginal: "Antistites," meaning high priests or guardians of a temple; here, it refers to the ancient masters of alchemy. of this science have removed it far from the understanding of the common people using metaphors and enigmatic language. They have established it upon a height, like a citadel made secure by its rocky terrain and position, to which no access is granted unless God shows the way.

This zeal for hiding the Art has stirred up slander against both the Art itself and its practitioners; for, through their own ignorance, those ill-fated plunderers of the Golden Fleeceoriginal: "velleris aurei." In alchemical literature, the Golden Fleece from the myth of Jason and the Argonauts is a standard metaphor for the secret of the Philosophers' Stone., when they find themselves [frustrated] by their vain...