The Hermetic Museum Restored and Enlarged - Containing 22 Most Celebrated Chemical Tracts tr by Arthur Edmund Waite.pdf

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The Hermetic Museum - Index
The Hermetic Museum - Index
The
Hermetic Museum
Restored and Enlarged;
Most Faithfully Instructing All Disciples of the Sopho-Spagyric Art How That Greatest and Truest Medicine
of
THE PHILOSPOPHER'S STONE
MAY BE FOUND AND HELD.
Now First Done Into English From The Latin Original Published at
Frankfort in the Year 1678
Containing Twenty-two most celebrated Chemical Tracts.
Published in London, 1893
Arthur Edmund Waite
Note: not all of the items in this huge anthology of alchemical writings are
available. The section numbering has been retained, however.
Volume 1
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The Hermetic Museum - Index
Volume 2
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The Hermetic Museum - Preface to the English Edition
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH
EDITION
T HE HERMETIC MUSEUM RESTORED AND ENLARGED was published in Latin in
Frankfort, in the year 1678, and, as the title implies, it was an enlarged form of an
anterior work, which, appearing in 1625, is more scarce, but, intrinsically, of less
value. Its design was apparently to supply in a compact form a representative
collection of the more brief and less ancient alchemical writers; in this respect, it
may be regarded as a supplement to those large storehouses of Hermetic learning
as the Theatrum Chemicum , and that scarcely less colossal of Mangetus, the
Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa , which are largely concerned with the cream of the
archaic literature, with the works of Gerber and the adepts of the school of
Arabia, with the writings attributed to Hermes, with those of Raymond Lully,
Arnold de Villa Nova, Bernard Trevisan, and others.
THE HERMETIC MUSEUM would also seem to represent a distinctive school in
Alchemy, not altogether committed to certain modes and terminology which
derived most of their prestige from the past, and sufficiently enigmatical as it was,
still inclined to be less obscure and misleading than was the habit of the older
masters. For it belonged to a period which had inherited a bitter experience of the
failures, impostures, and misery surrounding the Magnum Opus and its mystical
quest, which was weary of unequipped experiment, weary of wandering
"multipliers", and pretentious "bellows-blowers," while it was just being awakened
to the conviction that if Alchemy were true at all, it was not be be learned from
books, or, at least, from any books which had hitherto been written on the
subject. Running through all the tracts which are comprised in the following
volumes, the reader will recognize traces of a central claim in alchemical
intitiation-- that the secrets, whatever they were, must be understood as the
property of a college of adepts, pretending to have subsisted from time almost
immemorial, and revealing themselves to the select and few, while the literature,
large as it is, appears chiefly as an instrument of intercommunication between
those who knew. At the same time, it may also be regarded as a sign and omen to
the likely seeker, an advertisement that there was a mystery, and that he must go
further who would unravel it.
While the treatises now translated are for the most part anonymous, as befits
veiled masters, the literary reader will remember the name of John de Meung
connects the allegorical "Romance of the Rose" with the parables of Alchemy;
Flamel will be familiar to all Hermetic students as the most celebrated of the
French adepts; the saintly name of Basil Valentine, investigator of the properties
of antimony, will not even now be unhonoured by the chemist; Eireneaus
Philalethes, equally revered and unknown by all devout Spagyrites, is supposed to
have been the most lucid of hierorphants, and the "Open Entrance" to be the
clearest of all his works. Helevetius was an illustrious chemist, and Michael Maier
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The Hermetic Museum - Preface to the English Edition
is a person of some repute in the Rosicrucian controversy. Micheal Sendivogius was
an uninstructed disciple of Alexander Seton, and the "New Chemical Light," which
he published and claimed as his own, was really the work of his master, who has
been called the chief martyr of Alchemy. It may be added in this connection that
some critics have cast doubt upon the genuine nature of the "Testament of John
Cremer," and it is true that the annals of Westminster do not include an abbot of
that name.
It should be understood that the writer of this brief note must not be accredited
with the translation which it seeks to introduce. That is the work of a gentleman
who is said to have had a life-long acquaintance with alchemical literature; it has
been subjected to a searching revision at the hands of the present editor, who may
himself be permitted to claim some experience in Hermetic antiquities; the
version as it stands does not uncreditably represent both the spirit and the sense
of the original without the original's prolixity. While affording to the modern
student of secret doctrines an unique opportunity for acquiring in English a
collection of alchemical writers, ths edition of the HERMETIC MUSEUM also claims
consideration at the hands of the historian as a contribution of real value to the
early history of chemistry.
ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE
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The Hermetic Museum - Preface to the Original Edition
PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL
EDITION
ADDRESSED TO THE CANDIL READER
[Anonymous]
I t would be unjust to double, most gentle reader, that of all the arts invented for
the use of life by the reason of man, that of Alchemy is the most noble and
glorious. For all philosophers exclaim, as it were, with one voice, albeit in many
languages, that this art is not only true, but (after the Divine Law by which our
souls are saved) the best and most magnificent gift imposed on man by God; and
that it should therefore be invesigated with all zeal and with the greatest pains.
But as good wine needs no praise, so neither does this art need a herald; for its
truth is undoubted, and its utility in human life universally acknowledged, and
shewn forth, not only in the Art of Medicine, in Pharmacy, and many other
sciences, but especially in the Art of Transmuting Metals, is so clearly and
perspicuously demonstrated, that it in no way requires to be adorned by the
splendour of oratory, or tricked out with the device of language. I will not enlarge
upon the blessing which the elaboration of minerals and metals has bestowed on
our race. I merely point it out, but refrain from discussing it at length. Different
men devote themselves to the study of this science from different motives. The
philosopher is impelled by the love of truth, and the thirst after wisdom. He
delights in knowledge for its own sake. He welcomes every elegant and copious
treatise on the marvels of Nature, to the glory of Almighty God. This is a
sufficiently generous reward for a philosopher. He has it at his command the most
effectual means of becoming rich, if he would only use them. But he is fired by the
love of philosophy, and does not care for the mocking grandeur of fortune. So
thought the Sages of the Saracens, Egyptians, Arabs, and Persians; for when they
were oppressed by tyrants, and violently driven into exile, they protected and
supported themselves by means of their Art, and, though protected and supported
themselves by means of their Art, and, through their knowledge of the
transmutation of metals, they had at their command, not only sufficient to live
upon, but all the comforts and pomp of life, and thus practically demonstrated
that they could obtain all that gold and silver could give. Concerning this true
transmutation of metals, which is accomplished only by the Elixer or Stone of the
Philosophers, we here propose to speak. This art is set forth in a series of treatises
by different authors, which appeared several years ago, and, like the present
volume, was entitled "A Museum of Hermes." But many writers having discussed the
subject, and treated it from various points of view (so that one writes more clearly
than the other, and each throws light on the other's meaning), some of my friends,
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