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Réfer. : 2401 .
Auteur : Madathanas, Henry.
Titre : The Golden Age Restored.
S/titre : having now appeared a secont time,...

Editeur : J. Elliot and Co., London.
Date éd. : 1893 .
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T H E G O L D E N A G E

R E S T O R E D:
HAVING NOW APPEARED A SECOND TIME, FLOURISHED BEAUTIFULLY, AND BROUGHT FORTH FRAGRANT AND GOLDEN SEED. THIS RARE AND PRECIOUS SEED IS SHEWN AND IMPARTED TO ALL THE SONS OF TRUE WISDOM AND THE DOCTRINE,
BY HENRY MADATHANAS.

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" If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives simply, and without upbraiding, and it shall be
given to him." -- JAMES i., 5.



MOTTO OF THE AUTHOR:
" The Centre of the World -- a Grain of Sand."
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P R E F A C E.
-----
To the Worthy and Christian Reader.
B ELOVED and pious reader, above all, ye who are Sons of Wisdom and the Doctrine, some years ago Almighty God, in answer to my daily prayers, opened my eyes by the light of His Holy Spirit (Who was sent us through Christ by the Father, and from Whom we receive all wisdom), and
enabled me to discover the True Centre in the Centre of the
Triangle and the one true Matter of the precious Philosopher's
Stone, so that I now hold it in my hands; but it took me five
years longer to discover how the blood of the Red Lion and the
glue of the White Eagle were to be extracted, and how these
were to be mixed in their natural proportions, enclosed, sealed,
and committed to the secret fire. Nor did I even then find the
arcanum without constant and untiring application. I have,
indeed, studied the writings, parables, and various figures of the
philosophers with singular industry, and laboured hard to solve
their manifold wonderful enigmas, most of which are simply the
vain products of their imaginations. It was long before
experience taught me that all their obscure verbiage and high
pretensions are mere folly and empty phantasms (as is amply
testified by our leading Sages). Then I understood that their
preparations (of which we read in Geber, Albertus Magnus, and
others), their purgations, sublimations, cementations, distillations,
rectifications, circulations, putrefactions, conjunctions, solutions,
coagulations, calcinations, incinerations, mortifications, revivifications,
&c., as also their tripods, athanors (furnaces), reverberatory
alembics, excrements of horses, ashes, sand, stills, pelican-violas,
retorts, fixatories, &c., are mere plausible impostures and frauds.
This must be apparent to any one who considers the truth of the
matter. Nature, who, in her noble simplicity, delights in her own

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54 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM.
proper substance, knows nothing of these futilities. Hence
Theophrastus (Sec. Mag. de Phil. Lap.) rightly says of those who
seer; the substance of the Stone in wine, imperfect bodies, blood,
bismuth, mercury, sulphur, wine, dung, orpiment, and in plants,
as chelidonia, hyssop, ivy, &c., that they are full of lies and
thievery -- deceiving the credulous, milking their purses dry, and,
as to the rest, following their own foolish fancies, that are quite
unable to realise the requirements of Nature. (Tell me now who
will help me with the minerals of the earth, distillations of water,
&c. ?) Some of them take new wine and urine for the purpose of
changing them into metals. To hear them talk, you might suppose
all that is sold at the apothecaries to be good for metals.
Thou foolish man, cost thou not perceive that none of these
things have anything to do with them ?
You might as well try to sever Nature, as endeavour to make metals out of blood. Make a man out of a horse, or a milch cow
out of a mouse: this would be according to the same method of
multiplication. Art cannot change or overstep the natural order
of the universe. If a woman bring forth a male child, you cannot
change him into a little girl. From this rule, which evidently
obtains throughout Nature, any sane person may gather where,
and how, we must look for, and find, our Blessed Matter.
But let no one imagine, or suffer any quack to delude him into
the belief, that he has all that he requires when the substance
has been made known to him either by God, or by one of the
initiated. Let him not suppose that the solution and purification
are a very simple matter. He could fall into no more serious
mistake. He has scarcely got beyond the most elementary stage
of his task. Let me once more tell him that I spent five entire
years, after discovering the true Matter of the Stone, in the
search after the right method of manipulating it, until at length,
in the sixth year, the key of power was entrusted to me by the
secret revelation of the most High God. That same key the
ancient Patriarchs, Prophets, and Sages have always kept secret.
" For if," says Monarcha, in a certain passage, " they had
described it in an universally intelligible manner, and placed it
within the reach of every labourer and porter, it would have been
a great theft, and no true mystery; moreover, many evils would
arise from such a profanation of the arcanum, which would also

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THE GOLDEN AGE RESTORED. 55
be manifestly contrary to God's will." For these and other reasons
(which I have stated in the Epilogue), lest I should seem to be
hiding the talent committed to me by God, I have in this my
" Golden Age Come back; " (as far as Mature and God allow)
revealed the Great Mystery of the Sages, which, through the grace
of God, I have seen with these eyes, and handled with these
hands. The just and pious reader will regard my undertaking
with a kindly eye, and not suffer seeming contradictions to mislead
him: the theory of and practice of this Art, and the laws
which obtain in the Republic of the Chemists, forbade me to
write more openly or plainly. I hope and trust that, nevertheless,
all who look upon this book with the eyes of the mind, pore
over it by day and by night, and pray to God from the bottom
of their hearts, will, together with me, enjoy the wonderful
hidden fruits of philosophy. In this way the Brethren of the
true Golden Cross, and the elect members of the philosophic
communion, are and remain joined together in a great confederation.
In conclusion, that the learned and worthy Christian reader may know my Christian name and my surname, I will remove
every cause of complaint by making it known in the following
manner. Let all and sundry be certified that the number of my
name is 1613 by this number my whole name is written in the
book of Nature with two dead ones, and seven living ones. After
that, the letter 5 is the fifth part of B, and 15 the fifth part of 12.
With this information you must be satisfied. Written at
Taunenberg, March 23rd, 1622.

-------
Epigram to the Sons of Wisdom and the Doctrine. I have sought; I have found; I have often purified; and I have joined together; I have matured it: Then the golden
tincture has followed, which is called the Centre of Nature
(hence so many opinions, so many books, so many parables).
It is the Remedy, I openly declare it, for all metals, and for all
sick persons. The solution is of God.
HERMAN DATICHIUS, The Author's Famulus.
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THE GOLDEN AGE RESTORED.
-------
A S I pondered in my mind the marvels of the Most High, and the duty of fervent love to our neighbours,
which He laid upon us; I remembered the
wheat harvest, when Reuben, the son of Leah, found
Dudaim in the field, which Leah gave to Rachel for the
love of the Patriarch Jacob. Then I was carried forward,
being plunged in profound thought, to the time of Moses,
who rendered potable the golden calf (which Aaron had
formed) by reducing it to powder in the fire, throwing it into
the water, and giving it the children of Israel to drink; and I
marvelled greatly at the wonderful and masterly destruction of
the metal by the man of God. But when I reflected upon
the matter, the truth was borne in upon my mind, and my eyes
were opened like those of the disciples at Emmaus, who knew
their Master in the breaking of bread; and my heart burned
within me. Then I retired to rest, that I might consider the
matter further (on the morrow), and fell into a deep slumber;
when, behold, Solomon appeared to me in all his power,
wealth, and glory, and with him came his whole harem: sixty
were queens, eight hundred concubines, and of virgins
there was a countless number. One of them was his most
beautiful dove, and was dearest to his heart. They formed a
procession according to the Catholic rite, in the centre of which
was one greatly praised and beloved, whose name was like ointment
poured out, and whose fragrance was sweeter than that of
spices; the fiery spirit of this person was the Key for the
opening of the Temple, for entering the Holy of Holies, and
taking hold on the horns of the Altar.
When the procession had been performed in the manner aforesaid. Solomon shewed me the One Centre in the Triangle

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58 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM.
of the Centre, and opened my understanding. Then I observed
that a woman stood behind me, who had bared her breast, from
a deep wound in which blood and water gushed forth. Her
thighs were like two half-moons, made by the Master; her navel
was like a round goblet; her belly like a heap of wheat, set
about with roses; her breasts like two young roes that are
twins; her neck like a tower of ivory; her eyes like the fishpools
in Heshbon, by the Gate of Bathrabbim; her nose like
the Tower of Lebanon, which looketh towards Damascus;
her head like Carmel, and the hair of her head like royal
purple. Her garments, which were rancid, ill-savoured, and full
of venom, lay at her feet, whither she had cast them; and at
length she broke forth into these words: " I have put off my
coat; how shall I put it on ? I have washed my feet; how
shall I defile them ? The watchmen that went about the
city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; they
took away my veil from me." Thereupon I fell to the ground
with great and ignorant terror. But Solomon bade me rise,
and said: " Fear not; for you see Nature bared, and the most
secret of all secrets that is found beneath the sky and earth:
She is beautiful as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an
army with banners -- and nevertheless the pure and chaste virgin
of whom Adam was formed and created. The entrance of
her tabernacle is sealed. She lives in gardens, sleeps in the
double cave of Abraham, in the field of Hebron, and her
palace is in the depths of the Red Sea, and in transparent
caverns. The air bare her, the fire nourished her: therefore
she is the Queen of the earth, and has honey and
milk in her breasts; her lips are as a dropping honeycomb;
honey and milk are under her tongue; and the smell of
her garments is to the wise like the smell of Lebanon -- but to
the ignorant an abomination." And Solomon said further:
"Awake, and see my whole harem, and say what it is like."
And straight way his whole harem was stripped naked. Yet
could I not find or judge, and my eyes were sealed lest I should
know the secret. When Solomon saw my infirmity, he set
that naked woman apart from the rest of the harem, and said:
" Thy thoughts are vain, and thy mind is sunburnt; thy memory
is shrouded in a thick mist, so that thou canst judge nothing

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THE GOLDEN AGE RESTORED. 59
rightly. But if thou art on the watch, and makest good use
of thy present opportunity, the bloody sweat and snowy tears
of this virgin will have power to restore thee, and to strengthen
and clarify thy intellect and memory that thy eyes may see
the secret wonders of the Most High, the height of the things
above, the depth of the things beneath, and that thou mayst
clearly understand the powers and operation of all Nature, and
of the elements. Thy intellect shall be silver, and thy memory
golden. The colour of all precious stones shall appear before
thy eyes; thou shalt know their birth, and separate the good
from the bad, the sheep from the goats. Thy life shall be peace,
but the bells of Aaron shall rouse thee from sleep, and the lyre
of David, my father, from drowsiness." These words of
Solomon awed and terrified me still more; in part I was
adread at such emphatic speech, and in part also at the
splendour and glory of the King's harem. But King Solomon
seized my right hand, and led me through a wine cellar into a
most splendid secret palace, where he refreshed me with flowers
and apples. The windows were of transparent crystal, and I
gazed through them. And he said: " What do you see ? " I said:
" I see the former chamber whence we came, and on the left
stands thy royal harem, and on the right naked virgins. Their
eyes are redder than wine, and their teeth whiter than milk.
But the garments that lie at their feet are fouler, blacker, and
more unsightly than the river Kidron." " Choose out one of
these," said Solomon, "to be your love. I esteem the virgins
even as my own harem. And the more their loveliness delights
me, the less am I deterred by their foul garments." With this,
the King turned himself and spoke most kindly to one of his
queens. There was in the chamber a mistress of about a
hundred years of age. She was arrayed in a grey robe, and
had a black fillet on her head, that was embroidered with many
brilliant jewels, and lined within with red, yellow, and blue silk;
her mantle was heavily ornamented with all kinds of Turkish
and Indian colours and figures. This ancient woman nodded to me,
and swore piously that she was the mother of that naked virgin,
and that she was a pure, chaste, and sealed virgin, who had
never before suffered the eye of man to dwell upon her, nor had
any one ever touched her. She was the virgin of whom the

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60 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM.
Prophet had spoken: "Behold, we have a secret son, who
with others has been changed. Behold, a virgin has conceived,
the virgin that is called Apdorossa, that is, the sealed one, who
suffers not others." Because her daughter was still unmarried,
she had concealed her dowry beneath her feet, lest in the present
war she should be deprived of her wealth by, soldiers. But
I was not to be deterred by, her foul garments, but to
choose her daughter from among all the rest for my beloved
one, and the pleasure of my life. If I did so she would give me a
lye with which I could cleanse her garments. Moreover, with her
hand I should receive the flowing salt, the incombustible oil, and
an inestimable treasure. She was about to declare this to
me more in detail, when Solomon turned round, looked askance at
me, and said: " I am the wisest of men, and my pleasant harem
and the glory and the beauty of my queens excel the gold of
Ophir. The ornaments of my concubines shame the rays of the
sun, and the beauty of my virgins the light of the moon. My
virgins are heavenly, my wisdom inscrutable, my mind past
finding out."
Then I answered, while I bowed down to the ground with awe: "Behold, if I have found grace in your eyes -- for I am
lowly -- give me that naked virgin whom I have chosen from
among all, to preserve my life. Her garments are old, defiled,
and foul, but I will purge them, and love her with all my heart.
Let her be my sister, my spouse, since one glance of her eyes
has stolen away my heart, and I am sick with love for her."
On hearing this Solomon straight way gave her to me. With
that there arose a tumult in the harem, which roused me from my
sleep. Now I knew not what had happened to me; but I
took it for some dream, and thereupon until the light dawned I
was full of subtle thoughts. But when I had risen, and poured
forth my prayers, behold, I saw the garments of the naked virgin
lying by my bedside, and when I saw not her, my hair stood on
end, and I was covered with a cold perspiration. But I took
heart and recalled my dream, and endeavoured to remember
whether it had been real or not. But seeing that my pondering
could explain nothing, I would by no means look again upon the
garments, much less did I dare to touch them. So I changed
my chamber, and, out of sheer ignorance, left those garments

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THE GOLDEN AGE RESTORED. 61
lying there a long time. For I feared that if I touched them or
turned them over, something remarkable would happen to me.
Now the poisonous odour of the garments which I had inhaled
in my sleep was so sickening that my eyes could not see the
time of grace, or my heart understand the great wisdom of
Solomon.
After the garments had lain five years in the chamber, I at length determined to throw them into the fire, and change my
dwelling. In the night after I had formed this resolution, that
ancient woman appeared to me in a dream,and rebuked with
the following angry words: "Most ungrateful of mortals, the
garments of my daughter, beneath which lie concealed those
priceless jewels, have now been committed to thee for more than
five years. Yet in all that time thou hast not cleansed or purified
them, and now thou thinkest to burn them; is it not enough
that thou art the cause of my daughter's death ? " Then I
answered, wrathfully: " How am I to understand thy words?
Wouldst thou make me out to be a robber, though during those
five years I have never seen thy daughter, or heard a syllable
about her? How can I possibly be the cause of her death?"
Here she took me up: "All this is true. Nevertheless thou
hast sinned grievously against God, and on that account hast
not received from me my daughter, or the lye of the Sages
wherewith to cleanse her garments. For since thou wert from
the very first horrified at the sight of my daughter's garments,
the planet Saturn, her grandfather, was wroth, and changed
her into what she was before her birth. Moreover, thou
hast offended him by despising her, and being the cause of
her death, corruption, and final destruction. She it is of whom
Senior thus speaks: 'Woe, woe unto me! Bring me a naked
woman, while my body was yet invisible, and I had not
yet become a mother, till I should be born a second time;
then I brought forth all the strength of the vegetable
roots, and carried off the victory in my essence."' These
words sounded strange and mysterious to me, yet I
manfully repressed my wrath, and solemnly protested that I
knew nothing of her daughter's decease, and certainly had not
been the cause of her death, corruption, and destruction; that I
had kept her garments five years in my chamber, but had been

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62 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM.
prevented by my great blindness from understanding their use;
and that I felt innocent before God and men. My excuse satisfied
the ancient woman; she looked kindly at me, and said: " I
see that thy conscience is pure from guilt, and for thy innocence
thou shalt receive a great reward. Therefore, I will reveal to thee
this matter faithfully, but secretly. My daughter, for the great
love she bare thee, has left thee under her garments a grey box
wrapped in a thick, black, mouldy cloth." With this she gave me a
glass bottle full of lye, and continued: " Purge that box well of
the dirt and bad smell with which the garments have infected it,
and then thou shalt want no key, but the box will open of its
own accord, and in it thou shalt find two things, viz., a white
silver casket full of polished diamonds, and a rich robe intertissued
with precious solar jasper stones. All these treasures
belonged to my dear daughter, and she left them all to thee before
she was transformed and perished. If thou wilt skilfully transpose
this treasure, carefully purify it, and silently and patiently
place it in some warm, moist, vaporous, and transparent chamber,
and guard it there from cold, wind, hail, swift lightning, and all
outward injury, till the season of the wheat harvest, thou shalt
perceive and behold the great glory and beauty of shine heritage."
When she had thus spoken, Iawoke, and devoutly prayed that God might grant me wisdom to find the box which had been
described to me in my dream. Then I instituted a careful search
among the garments, and was soon rewarded with success; but
the cloth in which the box was wrapped was so hard and so firmly
glued to it that I could not tear it off; moreover, I could not
cleanse it with lye, or cut it with iron, steel, or any other
metal. So I did not know what in all the world I should do, and
began to think that it was a poisoned cloth, and to call to mind
the saying of the Prophet: " Though thou wash thee with nitre
and take thee much soap, yet shine iniquity is marked before me
saith the Lord God."
So another year passed away, and still all my patient toil and thought had met with no success. At last, to drive away melancholy,
I took a walk in a certain garden; and, after some time, I
sat down upon a stone and fell into a deep sleep. I slept, but my
heart waked. Then the ancient woman appeared to me once
more, and said: "Have you entered upon the heritage of my

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THE GOLDEN AGE RESTORED. 63
daughter? " I sorrowfully replied," l did indeed find the box,
but I cannot remove the cloth, nor will the lye that thou gavest
me avail to soften it." Then she laughed at my simplicity, and
said: " Dost thou try to eat oysters or crabs in their shells?
Must they not first be prepared by the ancient cook of the planets?
I told thee to purify the grey box with the lye I gave thee, but
not the cloth which is wrapped round it. The latter thou
shouldest first have burned with the fire of the Sages." For this
purpose she gave me some glowing coals, wrapped in a silk cloth,
from which I was to obtain the subtle fire of the Sages, and told
me that if with this fire I burned away the cloth I should get at
the box. When she had ended, straight way there arose a north
and south wind, and blew through the garden. Then I awoke
again, shook off sleep, and beheld the glowing coals lying at my
feet. I took them up with a grateful heart, and began to work
day and night, remembering the saying of the Sages: " Fire and
Azoth are sufficient for thee "; and the passage in Esdras (Bk. iv.):
" And he gave me a goblet filled with fire, and when I had drunk
it wisdom grew in me; and God granted me understanding, and
my spirit was preserved, and my mouth opened, but nothing else
was added." After forty nights I had finished 204 books, of
which seventy were worthy to be read by the most wise, and
were written upon box tablets. I thus continued in silence and
hope, as that ancient woman had bidden me do, until at last,
after a long time, my understanding, in fulfilment of Solomon's
prophecy, became silver, and my memory gold.
When, in obedience to the directions of the ancient lady, I had skilfully placed the treasure of her daughter in a chamber
by itself, and closed it up, I gazed upon those brilliant lunar
diamonds, and solar rubies, and understood the meaning of
Solomon when he says: " My Beloved is white and ruddy, the
chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold,
his locks are bushy, and black as a raven; his eyes are as the
eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly
set; his cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers; his lips
like roses dropping fragrant myrrh; his hands are as gold rings
set with the beryl; his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with
sapphires; his legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of
fine gold; his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the

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64 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM.
cedars; his mouth is most sweet; yea, he is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O ye daughters of
Jerusalem. Hold him, and suffer him not to go, till I have
brought him into my mother's house, into my mother's
chamber."
To these words of Solomon I could find no answer, and had already determined to take the treasure out of the chamber that
I might at length enjoy quietness and peace, when I happened
upon this other passage: " I charge you, O ye daughters of
Jerusalem, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir
not up nor awake my love till he please. She is a garden
enclosed; a spring shut up; a fountain sealed; a vineyard at
Baal-hamon; a vineyard at Engedi; an orchard; a spice garden;
a hill of myrrh; a mountain of incense; a bed; a crown; a
palm tree; a rose of Sharon; a sapphire; a beryl stone; a wall;
a tower, and battlement; a garden of herbs; a fountain in a
garden; a spring of living waters; a daughter of princes, and
the pleasant love of Solomon; she dearly loves her mother, and
is her mother's chosen one; her head is full of dew, and her
locks wet with the drops of night."
These words enlightened me, and shewed unto me the aim of the wise: wherefore I patiently left the treasure in the chamber,
and waited till through God's mercy all should have been happily
perfected by the operation of Nature, and the labour of my
hands.
Shortly afterwards, on the day Of the new moon, an eclipse of the sun was seen, which was terrible to behold, for it began
with a misty greenness, somewhat shot over with other colours,
but it was followed by entire blackness; all heaven and earth
were shrouded in thick darkness, and men were full of fear, but
I rejoiced. For I remembered God's great mercy, and the
Mystery of Regeneration, as Christ Himself told us that
unless a grain of wheat was cast into the earth, and decomposed,
it could bring forth no fruit. Now it happened
that the eclipse was covered by clouds, and the sun began to
shine, but as yet three-fourths of it were darkened. And,
behold, an arm held out from the clouds a letter sealed at the
four corners, on which was written: " I am black, but comely, O
daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the

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THE GOLDEN AGE RESTORED. 65
curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me, because I am black,
and burnt by the sun." Then there was seen a rainbow, and I
remembered the Covenant of the Most High, and the faithfulness
of my Teacher, and, behold, by the help of the planets and
the fixed stars, the sun at last overcame the eclipse, and shone
out once more in perfect brightness upon the mountains and
valleys. Then all fear and terror were at an end, and all that
had seen that day rejoiced in the Lord, and said: " Lo, the
winter is past, the rain is over end gone; the flowers appear
on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the
voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth
forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes give
a good smell. Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the
vines, that we may gather the ripe grapes and drink wine, and
be satisfied in due season with milk and the honeycomb." At
the approach of evening the sky changed its aspect, and the
Seven Stars rose with a lurid light, till, having completed their
natural course, they paled and vanished before the Redness of
the Sun. And, behold, the wise that dwelt upon earth awoke
from their sleep, and gazed up to heaven, and said: "Who is it
that bursts forth like the Dawn, beautiful like the Moon, mighty
like the Sun, in whom there appears no spot? his fervour is
kindled, and the flame of the Lord: Many waters cannot quench
love, neither can the floods drown it. Therefore, we will not
forsake her; she is our sister, though she be small, and have no
breasts. We will take her back to the house of her mother, into
the transparent palace where she was before, that by sucking the
breasts of her mother, she may become great like the tower of
David, strengthened with battlements, on which hang a thousand
shields and all the weapons of the strong. When she went
forth the daughters called her blessed, the Queen and the
concubines praised her." But I knelt down, and returned thanks
to God, and glorified His Holy Name.

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EPILOGUE.
And now, my beloved Sons of Wisdom and the Doctrine, herein is the great Mystery of the Sages, in all the power and
glory thereof, and the Revelation of the Spirit, concerning

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66 THE HERMETIC MUSEUM.
Whom the prince and monarch Theophrastus has these words, in
his Apocalypse of Hermes: " He is the only God, and holds the
whole world together; through Him alone can we be true, and
truly vanquish the Elements, and obtain the Quintessence. No
eye has seen, no ear has heard, neither has it entered into the
heart of any man to conceive that which is in the mind of this
Spirit of Truth. In Him alone is truth, and through Him alone
Adam and the other patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were
enabled to secure constant health, and a long life, and to provide
for themselves great wealth. Through this Spirit the Seven Sages
invented the Arts, and gained riches. With His aid Noah
built the Ark, Solomon the Temple, and Moses the Tabernacle;
through Him vessels of pure gold were borne into the Temple;
through Him Solomon gained his excellent knowledge, and performed
mighty deeds. He enabled Ezra to restore the Law;
Miriam, sister of Moses, to exercise liberality; and the Prophets
of the Old Covenant to predict the future. He is the Sanctification
and Healing of all things, the highest knowledge, the
ultimate Mystery of Nature, that is to say, the Spirit of the
Lord, Who fills the whole universe, and Who brooded over the
waters in the beginning -- without Whose secret teaching
the world cannot be understood, and Whom the whole
world desires on account of His power, while the Saints
have sought and longed ardently to see Him from the
beginning of the world. For He dwells in the seven
Planets, raises the clouds, dispels the mist, gives light to all
things, changes everything into gold and silver, imparts all
health, abundance, and treasure, heals the leper cures dropsy
and gout, prolongs life, comforts the sorrowful, restores health to
the sick, removes all defects, and, in short, is the Mystery of all
mysteries, the Arcanum of all arcane, the true healing and
Medicine of all things. He gives the desired knowledge, and is
the best of all sublunar things, by which Nature is strengthened,
and the heart with all the members renewed, the flower of youth
kept fresh, old age driven away, diseases destroyed, and the
whole earth renewed. His Nature is unsearchable, His power
infinite, His excellence and glory unapproachable.
" Moreover, this Spirit presides over all heavenly things, gives health, fortune, joy, peace, love, destroys every evil after

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THE GOLDEN AGE RESTORED. 67
its kind, puts an end to poverty and misery, renders men
incapable of doing, saying, or thinking any evil, and gives to the
godly temporal felicity, but to the wicked who abuse it, eternal
punishment."
And thus, in the Name of the Holy Trinity, we will, in these few words, conclude our exposition of the Great Mystery of
the Most Precious Philosophical Stone, and of the Arcanum of
the Sages. To the Most High and Almighty God, the Creator
of this Art, Whom it hath pleased to reveal to me, wretched, sinful
man (in answer to my prayer), this most precious knowledge,
be eternal praise, glory, honour, and thanksgiving; and to Him
be addressed a most humble and fervent prayer that He may so
direct my heart and mind, that I may not spear: of this Mystery,
or make it known to the wicked, lest I be found unmindful of my
Vow, a Breaker of the Heavenly Seal, a perjured Brother of the
Golden Cross, and guilty of the Sin against the Holy Ghost.
From this may God the Father, God the Son, and God the
Holy Ghost, the Blessed and Indivisible Trinity, in mercy
PRESERVE ME. Amen, Amen, Amen.

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