Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy - A Bardon Companion

Plunderers, with prying eyes, Away!
What mean you by this curious stay?
Hence with your cunning patron god,
With bonnet winged and magic rod!
Sacred alone to Pluto's name
This mighty art of endless fame! (27)
Hermolaus Barbarus, in his corollary to Dioscorus, or some other, where he is treating of the element
of water in general, alludes to a particular kind that is distinct from every other water or liquor, saying,
---There is a celestial, or rather a divine water of the chemists, with which both Democritus and
Trismegistus were acquainted, calling it divine water, Scythian latex, &c., which is a spirit of the
nature of the ether and quintessence of things; whence potable gold, and the stone of philosophers,
takes its beginning: The ancient author of the Apocalypse of the Secret Spirit of Nature is also cited by
H. Khunrath, concerning this water; and he devoutly affirms, that the ether in this praeter-perfect
aqueous body will burn perpetually, without diminution or consumption of itself, if the external air
only be restrained (28). There are also, besides those mentioned by Pancirollus, modern accounts of
lamps found burning in monuments and antique caves of Greece and Germany. But the Bononian
Enigma, long famous, without a solution, should not be omitted here, since this relic has puzzled many
learned antiquaries; and the adepts claim it as having exclusive reference to the occult material of their
art.
AELIA LAELIA CRISPIS
Nec vir, nec mulier, nec androgyna,
Nec puella, nec juvenis, nec anus,
Nec casta, nec meretrix, nec pudica,
Sed omnia!
Sublata neque fame, neque ferro, neque
Veneno, sed omnibus!
Nec coola, nec terris, nec aquis,
Sed ubique jacet!
LUCIUS AGATHO PRISCUS
Nec maritus, nec amator, nec necessarius,
Neque moerens, neque gaudens, neque flens,
Hanc
Neque molem, neque pyramidem. neque sepulcrum.
Sed omnia,
Scit et nescit cui posuerit,
Hoc est sepulcrum certe. cadaver
Non habens, sed cadaver idem,
Est et sepulcrum! (29)
The following excellent translations appeared amongst some original contributions in the early number
of a literary periodical, a few years since (30):
AELIA LAELlA CRISPIS
Nor male, nor female, nor hermaphrodite,
Nor virgin, woman, young or old,
Nor chaste, nor harlot, modest hight,
But all of them you’re told ---
Not killed by poison, famine, sword,