Alchemy

There will be no lack of those who will cry out that I have known neither the secrets of the ancients nor their own, and will marvelously congratulate themselves on their hidden notebooks. But know, Reader, that I have never wished to be so lynx-eyed as to peer into the desks of others, nor so thievish as to desire to swoop down against their will and seize their silent preparations. Since they wish it so, let them keep their secrets, provided they know that the sun will not be obscured, nor will the world fare the worse, even if neither they nor their secrets should ever creep forth into the light. If we use and enjoy the things at hand, which have been made manifest by good men at the instigation of GOD, we shall pass the time that remains comfortably enough. What will it profit if those secrets are first found only when the world is in conflagration? When the authors, or rather the concealers, rot among serpents? Are they so hostile to human society? Are they such monstrous births, and portents and abortions of nature, that they are unwilling to celebrate and help the society from which they were born? Do they so envy divine glory that they are unwilling that what was given to them be granted to more? "The ungrateful," they will say, "will use it ill." But you, use it well, and do not bury it. Wine and gold were not to be hidden for the reason that many would abuse them.

Would that those who, through German versions, deliriously prostitute the best medicines of authors to the most unskillful and daring scoundrels, to barbarian barbers, to foolish women, and to the dregs of the common people, did not sin so licentiously in this regard; sacred Medicine would then be in greater authority.

You will also sometimes hear those leaning toward the opposite side, who will judge it disgraceful for certain secrets to be published in such manifest words; [saying] that the Philosophers must be imitated, who hid the manifest thing with names and a method of teaching, and left it to the sons of doctrine. I have no need of a response against these: for to me there is no secret: if there is anything, GOD has revealed it through instruction, excellent craftsmen, and experience. And why should I use monstrous names, which, while they are investigated and sought after by doubtful conjectures, produce a Lernaean hydra of more errors than if they had been clearly set forth? Zwinger has a certain Pyrapyrum, which consists of a white that has suffered nothing, a red, and an unctuous black. Someone more occupied and anxious in these enigmas...