PREFACE

Indeed, many—since the minds of men are diverse—will judge in various ways that which I bring to light, which Nature has decreed to make manifest only to those philosophers who toil through labor and study.
ᵃ Theory, chapter 1.

For Raymond Referring to Raymond Lull (c. 1232–1315), a Majorcan philosopher and logician to whom many later alchemical works were attributed. (a) says: that Teacher and Mistress Nature appeared to him and, weeping, said: "Alas, what shall I do now, since they are attempting to carry off and take away my instruments from me, and they wish to plunder and uncover my secrets," etc. For this reason, we have received a command that we ought to hide and guard her instruments from the hands of her enemies, etc. These instruments of Nature, the profound Lull, having been thus instructed by Hippocrates, hides deeply and indicates them with at least two words: REAL ENTITIES original: "ENTIA REALIA." In alchemical philosophy, these refer to the actual, fundamental substances or "beings" of nature as opposed to mere appearances..

So also Basil Valentine A legendary 15th-century alchemist and Benedictine monk whose writings were influential in early chemistry. hides them under foreign-sounding words: namely ASA and PHALAIA; indeed, these are Nature’s mechanical instruments, which Hippocrates calls fire and water, but here in another place he calls them GLADIATORS (b). And just as Hippocrates—
ᵇ The 12 Keys.