The Hermetic Museum

...howl, and had gained insight into both the first and the future plan of Creation. Only a few, but they are the wise ones, turn their backs on the colorful booth A metaphor for the superficial distractions of the material world or the "puppet show" of modern scholarship mentioned on the previous page. and look down from their sublimity upon the imagined greatness of those naturalists and philosophers. They smile when these men trumpet forth monstrosities, wit, and contradictions as truth, and attempt to chase away Truth—shining as bright as sunlight—with a slapstick original: "Pritschholz" - a wooden lath used by a harlequin or jester to make a loud noise without inflicting real pain., after having previously tried to illuminate her with a tiny wax taper. To be sure, it was not granted to everyone to go to Corinth A reference to the Latin proverb "Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum," meaning that not everyone has the means or fortune to reach difficult or expensive goals; here, it refers to the attainment of higher wisdom., but did Corinth therefore not exist? And because the denier of the reality of the artificial transmutation of metals Alchemy, specifically the transformation of base metals into gold. has not yet seen a proof of this art, or cannot provide proofs of it himself—is it therefore an absurdity? It will reveal itself only gradually to the one who walks toward it on a holy and certain path, and who lets himself be moved by nothing to look back to where he began his journey. But which loud-mouther against hermetic wisdom knows this path? Surely not a single one, for otherwise he would walk it. And who are these loud-mouthers anyway? Only people who [their]...