We sophists, and the rhetoricians too,

Are fortunate and lead a life most wise;

We know the nature of created things,

The kinds of elements, and understand

How, by close union each to each, they tend

To one new form, most fair and wholly strange,

With brilliant splendor filled, its make-up such

That it bestoweth wealth and great reward.

But most of all we wish with one accord

All mortals to be taught and disciplined

And trained in wisdom of the sophist school,

That they may shape themselves to perfect men,

That they may know the bounds of Nature's realm,

(How all things thrive and mix and interweave)

And last that they may nothing speak except

What words the wise old masters used to say.

Those masters urge all mortals who are wise

To be instructed in the mystic lore

Of sacred rites, whose meaning they proclaim

By actions rather than by words of mouth.

We, who foretell just where the stars shall be,

Who know their natures, heights and intervals,

Their occultations, when they rise and set,

Their measured bounds and what their orbs portend,

Do not misread their signs, though far away,

For when assisted by a knowing mind

Our sense of vision sees them as they are.

We know the truth of what is in the sky

Above and are not ignorant of what

Is there performed, for we perceive it all

And make it evident to mortal minds,

As their experience can testify.

Yet more than this, the causes we reveal

Of each affliction in the body's frame;

Experimentally our school explores

The science, art and ends of medicine,

With such success that our prognosis shows

What sicknesses are destined to appear

And what is best to cure or ward them off;

Its findings also lead us to foretell

An end of life from sickness far from home.

Not only has our wisdom known the ways

By which to check each illness and disease,

Prodigious wonders even though they be

But with exactness we describe the flowers,

(Their qualities, their mixtures and their kinds),

And taste of juice and substances of plants.

Each class of growing herbs has been portrayed

For our prognosis and with words exact,

We also know the hues and kinds of stones,

The places where the metals are produced

And all their properties both good and bad.

The many kinds' of creatures in the sea

Are known to us and all their many forms;

We teach mankind their natures, good and bad,

How some to use and others to avoid.

Nor do we slight the race of gay-hued birds,

Those strange in form and those who kill their kind,

Those who by nature are of use to man,

And so contribute to the joy of life.

Each class and race of reptiles we describe,

And so all living things find place within

Our catalogue. Nor have we falsified

In anything, for every word is true.

All we have said or shown to mortal men

Is for their use and happiness in life.

How then can those vile critics censure us,

They who in secret learning are inept,

And who in sophic wisdom have no share?

How can they say we sophists speak untruths

With their own minds so pitifully maimed

They give no thought or care to things divine?

They ask how gold is ever to be made,

How that can change which has a nature fixed,

Placed there of old by God the demiurge,

Who formed its substance never to be moved

From that position which from early time

Was its abode and destined resting place;

They say gold thus abides, nor suffers change,

For naught can be transmuted from the class

Or species where its origin took place.

They who speak thus but trifle with their minds

And nothing say that bears the stamp of truth.

But we will show the end of this our art,

An end most useful and most quickly learned,

For nothing strange it needs save that one stock

From which all things by Nature are produced.

From Time's four transformations learn the way

By which the work most skilfully completes

The transformations of sophistic art.

The winter, cold and moist, controls the frost;

By him the fleeting clouds are borne on high

To drench the earth and quicken seeds to life;

Three months elapse before his time expires.

Next Spring, a season moist and warm comes in;

By her the earth is made to bloom with flowers

Of every kind; her course is also run

When three more months their transformation bring.

Next Summer, warm and very dry, appears;

By her Earth's bosom is released from damp

And, warmed from chilliness, is made to bear;

Her period in three more months is run.

The Autumn quickly comes upon his way,

A season dry and cold in which alas

The beauty of the flowers is all destroyed;

His rapid course in three more months is passed.

Through these four transformations runs the sun;

He makes his circuit in the dozen months

Which form the year and sheds his light on all

Beneath the sky. The splendor of his beams

Fills all the earth with mild increasing warmth;

With rapid course he summons things to life

And makes with gentle heat all trees to bud.

From him the moon receives her gleaming light

And all the wandering stars, the planets seven,

And likewise those whose shining orbs are fixed.

So understand the work, how to refer

The four mutations to one simple form

And from the four to make the work complete,

Seven coloured, even as the planets seven,

Whence Nature gets her species, kinds and forms,

Whence Luna's metal takes a whitened hue

And whence proceeds the yellow principle

(That gives a second splendid purple tint)

Which brightening all bodies tinges them

The brilliant golden colour of the sun.

The white, augmented thrice within a fire,

In three day's time is altogether changed

To lasting yellow and this yellow then

Will give its hue to every whitened form.

This power to tinge and shape produces gold

And thus a wondrous marvel is revealed.

Though not a stone, it yet is made a stone

From metal, having three hypostases,

For which the stone is prized and widely known;

Yet all the ignorant search everywhere

As though the prize were not close by at hand.

Deprived of honor yet the stone is found

To have within a sacred mystery,

A treasure hidden and yet free to all.

A dragon springs therefrom which, when exposed

In horse's excrement for twenty days,

Devours his tail till naught thereof remains.

This dragon, whom they Ouroboros call,

Is white in looks and spotted in his skin,

And has a form and shape most strange to see.

When he was born he sprang from out the warm

And humid substance of united things.

The close embrace of male and female kind,

-A union which occurred within the sea-

Brought forth this dragon, as already said;

A monster scorching all the earth with fire,

With all his might and panoply displayed,

He swims and comes unto a place within

The currents of the Nile; his gleaming skin

And all the bands which girdle him around

Are bright as gold and shine with points of light,

This dragon seize and slay with skillful art

Within the sea, and wield with speed thy knife

With double edges hot and moist, and then,

His carcass having cleft in twain, lift out

The gall and bear away its blackened form,

All heavy with the weight of earthy bile;

Great clouds of steaming mist ascend therefrom

And these become on rising dense enough

To bear away the dragon from the sea

And lift him upward to a station warm,

The moisture of the air his lightened shape

And form sustaining; be most careful then

All burning of his substance to avoid

And change its nature to a stream divine

With quenching draughts; then pour the mercury

Into a gaping urn and when its stream

Of sacred fluid stops to flow, then wash

Away with care the blackened dross of earth.

Thus having brightened what the darkness hid

Within the dragon's entrails thou wilt bring

A mystery unspeakable to light;

For it will shine exceeding bright and clear,

And, being tinged a perfect white throughout,

Will be revealed with wondrous brilliancy,

Its blackness having all been changed to white;

For when the cloud-sent water flows thereon

It cleanses every dark and earthy stain.

Thus he doth easily release himself

By drinking nectar, though completely dead;

He poureth out to mortals all his wealth

And by his help the Earth-born are sustained

Abundantly in life, when they have found

The wondrous mystery, which, being fixed

Will turn to silver, dazzling bright in kind,

A metal having naught of earthy taint,

So brilliant, clear and wonderfully white.

Then seize again this dragon changed to white

(A change divinely wrought, as I have said,

By means of albifaction twice performed)

And slaying him again with knife of fire

Draw all his blood which gushes blazing hot

And red as shining flame when it ignites.

Then dip the dragon's skin into the blood

Which issued from his belly's gory wound

(As thou wouldst dip a whitened robe in dye

Of murex purple); so wilt thou obtain

A brilliant glory, shining as the sun,

Of goodly form and gladdening the heart

Of mortals who behold its excellence.

They praise the gift with wise and joyous words

As one divinely sent and great in worth;

And thus they speak and voice their thankfulness.

O work divine, well-pleasing and concise!

O beauty brilliant with an aspect clear!

O marriage and conjunction most renowned!

O husband in a single union joined!

O wife united by affection deep!

O offspring famous and with glory filled!

O progeny of splendor, light and worth!

O robe with gold and silver overlaid!

O double-folded mantle bright as snow!

O metal which with gleaming silver teems!

O clear refreshing river of the sea!

O water than the loosened earth more free!

O ether rising far above the earth!

O clouds transformed from blackness into white!

O brilliant coloured glory of the heaven!

O light which shines to all beneath the sky!

O system and bright circuit of the stars!

O lunar light reflected from the sun!

O sun whose darting beams engender gold!

From these the work of every sage begins

To reap in practise some deserving end;

In thee appears the object of our search;

Thou shinest scattering thy wondrous light,

A treasure most desired, all filled with pearls;

And bringing gain and wealth to mortal men.

Who, then, beholding the great universe

Which Thou hast wisely wrought, a well-designed

Production, made with singleness of art,

And faith inspiring in its glorious works

Entranced with wonder would not be amazed?

He would extoll the boundless providence

Of reason's God and praise the sympathy

Which He, in ways both wise and manifold,

To us declares. As Lord beneficent

He wishes all mankind a happy life

And wealth by their activities to gain.

Then let us shape life's course with reverence

And cherish piety's clear beacon light,

Our pathways brightening with godly deeds,

Our neighbor loving and the foreign guest;

And day and night with supplicating prayers

Our adoration pay, as servants wise,

To God the Lord, all-seeing King of all,

Forgiveness asking for our trespasses

And that all kin from danger may be spared

And from temptations freed, as they arise;

And let us never undertake a work

Unless we give the praise therefore to God,

The Father, who begot the only Son,

The Son, the holy Word from God produced,

The Holy Ghost, proceeding too from Him,

Both now and always evermore. Amen.