First Chapter

...secret science, the great mystery, or the secret art.

Now, from the little I have reported regarding its virtues original: "Tugenden," referring here to the miraculous powers or properties of the Stone., you may easily deduce its origin, which must be nothing less than heavenly, indeed divine; and from this you may become somewhat wise to the fact that such a thing truly does not come from the earth or its offspring—such as vegetables meaning the plant kingdom, minerals, metals, marcasites marcasites|A term used by early chemists for various metallic ores, particularly iron pyrites, often thought to be "unfinished" metals., stones, salts original: "Salien", earth, and the like—which are without power, sap, or life. For these reasons, the ancient philosophers original: "Philosophi" did not hesitate to call it the heavenly stone, and the art of preparing it, the divine art.

It is not as some scribblers and copyists of other books claim in their sophistical works original: "Sophistischen Werken," meaning books that use deceptive or fallacious reasoning.—their own brains being void of true knowledge—that the philosophers call their stone "divine" only because no one can come to possess it except through divine inspiration or revelation original: "Revelation", or through the instruction of a master. No: its origin and essence is so great, so holy, that all wise masters (as will be seen further in the following section, investigating whether Holy Scripture original: "Heil. Schrift" can justly be cited in connection with this art) each admire its power, yet none can fully grasp it. For the further and deeper one reflects, the more human understanding loses itself, entering into an infinite space, such that one grows dizzy from lingering there too long. From this you can also, in the case of a