A Compendious yet Complete Philosophical Handbook

ridicule, even though such abundant and incredible secrets lie hidden within it that they even exceed human understanding, and certainly the highest level of all sciences can be climbed most quickly and easily through it. For my part, I hold entirely that one can write clearly with a good conscience without devaluing alchemy; and so that the possibility of it may be seen, and this art—which has been kept so very secret—may no longer be dismissed as fraudulent, foolish nonsense, I intend to show and prove the most direct path.

I will do this not only with the Emerald Tablet original Latin: Tabula Smaragdina; a legendary text foundational to alchemy, traditionally attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. and its short and clear explanation, but also with more than 300 selected and proven fundamental rules, where each one explains the next, taken from the best authors original Latin: auctoribus. This is so that everyone who reads these with understanding may comprehend all true philosophers original Latin: philosophos and their writings or books, and consequently learn to reproduce their secrets original Latin: arcana; refers to the hidden, transformative "mysteries" of the alchemical process; in order to thereby [aid] the suffering—