First Song
I The dark Chaos had come out as a confused mass from the depth of theNothing, on the first sound of the almighty Word, and one would have saidthat disorder made it, and that it could not be the work of a God, formlessas it was. All things in it were in a deep rest, and the elements in itwere confused, because the divine Spirit did not yet distinguish them.
II Who could now tell in which way the Heavens, the Earth and the Sea havebeen formed so light in themselves, and so vast, taking into account theirwide spread? Who could explain how the Sun and the Moon have received themovement and the light, and how everything we see down here, has its formand its being?Who could eventually understand how every thing has received its owndenomination, has been animated by its proper spirit, and while coming outof the impure and unordered mass of the Chaos, has been regulated by a law,a quantity and a measure?
III O you, children and imitators of the divine Hermes, to whom the science ofyour father showed the nature discovered, only you, only you know how thisimmortal hand has formed the Earth and the Heavens out of this formlessmass of the Chaos; since your Great Work shows clearly that God has createdall things in the same way that your Philosophical Elixir is made.
IV But it does not belong to my weak pen to draw such a great picture; I amonly a puny child of the Art, without any experience. It is not that yoursavant writings didn¹t make me perceive the real goal one should go for,nor that I don¹t know this Ilias, which has in it all we need, as well asthis admirable composite through which you could bring the virtue of theelements from power to act.
V It's not that I do not know your secret Mercury, which is no other than aliving, universal and innate spirit, which, in the form of airy vapour,comes down ceaselessly from heaven to earth in order to fill its porousbelly, which then is born in the middle of impure sulphurs, and whilegrowing, changes nature from volatile to fixed, giving itself the form of aradical fluid.
VI It is not that I do not know yet, that if our oval Vessel is not sealed byWinter, it will never be able to keep the precious vapour, and that ourbeautiful child will die at birth, if it is not promptly rescued by anindustrious hand and by the eyes of a lynx, since otherwise it will not beable to feed on its first humour, to the example of man, who, after feedingon impure blood in the mother's womb, lives on milk when he comes on earth.
VII Even if I know all these things, I do not dare yet to prove them toyou, the errors of others always making me incertain. But if you are moretouched by pity than by envy, dare to remove from my mind all doubts whichembarass it, and if I can be happy enough to explain distinctly in my booksall which concerns your magistry, make, I conjure you, that I have from youas an answer: Work hard, since you know what has to be known.
Source: Crasselame