Manuscripts for Friends of Secret Sciences

P r e f a c e .

...nuscripts of so-called p a r t i k u-
l a r w o r k s. particular works: In alchemy, "Partikulararbeiten" refers to chemical processes intended to produce specific results, like purifying a certain metal or creating a specific medicine, rather than the "Universal" goal of the Philosopher’s Stone.
In the fifth [section] comes a m a g i c a l
t r e a t i s e from the magical division
of the catalog.
In the sixth, a K a b b a l a h or
treatise and writings that belong to this
field.
The seventh division, finally, will
conclude with reports, letters, fragments,
stories, and the like concerning M a s o n-
i c and other m o r e s e c r e t s o-
c i e t i e s.
I could bring my preface to an end
here, if I had first recommended myself to the protection of the gentlemen
reviewers, requested their in-
structions for the future,
and implored indulgence for the present;
but I am a free man; and
I do not bend my neck under the slave-
yoke of this habit. The author is signaling his defiance of the "Republic of Letters" and the formal academic or critical gatekeepers of his time.
Let people judge my
undertaking however they wish!
It will be enough for me if I have been helpful to several
of my friends thereby; if I
have opened up a modest means of livelihood: The original "Nahrungsweg" (literally "food-path") refers to a way of earning a living or supporting oneself through these crafts. here
and there more than existed before; if I
have provided a remedy for the helpless sick; [if I have provided] the seeker
of higher secrets the opportunity for this;
if I [have provided] for the seeker of sel-