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Is Nature alone that accomplishes the various processes of our Art, and a right understanding of Nature will furnish

you with eyes wherewith to perceive the secrets thereof.

The Glory of the World, Or, Table of Paradise, by Anonymous, 1526 AD

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On reading the alchemical books, you will come across strange allegories, metaphors, and symbols. Don't

think that the fancy words mean anything special. All this stuff about kings and unicorns and lions is not

meant to teach you anything. It does have a meaning; the different objects represent different materials at

certain stages of the process, but this only means something if you already understand how to make the

Stone. The alchemists used these symbols to communicate with other alchemists, and prove to other

alchemists that they had found the Stone, but without anyone else knowing what they were talking about.

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For all that before me have written on this matter have rendered their books obscure and unintelligible by an

exaggerated use of poetical imagery, parables, and metaphors which grievously obstruct the path of those who first

enter on this field of knowledge. This is the reason that a beginner, who strives to put their precepts into practice, only

loses his trouble and his money, as is daily seen. Hermes, Rhasis, Geber, Avicenna, Merlin, Hortulanus, Democritus,

Morienus, Bacon, Raymond, Aristotle, and many others, have concealed their meaning under a veil of obscurity.

Hence their books, which they have handed down to us, have been a source of endless error and delusion to the vulgar

and the learned, and, in spite of the beautiful conceits which abound in their writings, no one has been able to find a

path through the wilderness of their words; yea, many have been reduced to despair.

The Chemical Treatise, Or, The Ordinal of Alchemy, by Thomas Norton, 1477 AD

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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).

[...] 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.

The Golden Age Restored, by Henry Madathanas, 1622 AD

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A further problem is that not all alchemical books are written by people who understand alchemy. Since the

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