No, father! the true alchymist
must be pure in mind and body; he must be temperate, patient, chaste,
watchful, meek, humble, devout. 'My son,' says Hermes Trismegestes,
the great master of our art, 'my son, I recommend you above all things
to fear God.' And indeed it is only by devout castigation of the
senses, and purification of the soul that the alchymist is enabled to
enter into the sacred chambers of truth. 'Labour, pray, and read,' is
the motto of our science. As De Nuysment well observes, 'These high
and singular favours are granted unto none, save only unto the sons of
God, (that is to say, the virtuous and devout,) who, under his
paternal benediction, have obtained the opening of the same, by the
helping hand of the queen of arts, divine Philosophy.' Indeed, so
sacred has the nature of this knowledge been considered, that we are
told it has four times been expressly communicated by God to man,
having made a part of that cabalistical wisdom which was revealed to
Adam to console him for the loss of Paradise; and to Moses in the
bush, and to Solomon in a dream, and to Esdras by the angel.
"So far from demons and malign spirits being the friends and abettors
of the alchymist, they are the continual foes with which he has to
contend.
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