The Hermetic Museum Restored and Enlarged

Anonymous

Translated by Arthur Edward Waite

45 chapters · about 8 h

Get it in Sphinx

Coming soon to iPhone and Android. Join the waitlist to hear when Sphinx opens.

Join the waitlist
Your phone

We'll only email you about Sphinx; you can ask us to remove you any time.

The opening

THE GOLDEN TRACT CONCERNING THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE. The Author's Preface to the Art-loving Reader.

The Author’s Preface to the Art-loving Reader.

ORTHY reader, and true enquirer into the secrets j of nature, marvel not that in the old age of this world, when it seems to have one foot already in the grave, I have determined to write this tract, although all libraries are already full of books on this subject—of which, however, the greater part are false, and wear merely the rouge and powder of philosophy. I have written it not for my own pleasure, but for your advantage, that, by pointing to the foundation of truth, I might lead you back from the pathless wilderness into the right way—which is certainly for your own interest. As far as I am concerned, I have long known all that I seek to know in regard to this matter, and have no need of many books, seeing that during the last twenty-two years I have read and re-read all the works that fell into my hands—including numerous manuscripts, as well as many printed volumes.

The whole book is in the Sphinx app.

About this edition

The words
Arthur Edward Waite's English translation, copied word for word.
Left out
  • Page numbers and running heads from the printed pages, in 10 places
  • The scanning library's stamps and shelf marks (“NOT TO BE ISSUED OUT WITHOUT PERMISSION.”) (5 blocks)
  • The digitizer's notice (“Digitized with financial assistance from Hermés India ... on 10 August, 2018”) (8 blocks)
  • The title page and opening pages before chapter 1, in 6 places
  • Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 3 places
  • The library's accession stamp and number on the scanned copy (“2012-42”, “00201293”) (4 blocks)
  • Closing line (“END OF VOLUME I.”)
  • The library's barcode and number on the end page (“00201293”)
  • The printer's sheet signature read as the last line of the page's last block
  • Printed ornaments and dividers