equired quite as much a
psychologist, a philosopher or a theologian.

The discoveries made by the acute Hitchcock are so important for our
analysis, that a complete exposition of them cannot be dispensed with. I
should like better to refer to Hitchcock's book if it were not practically
inaccessible.

We have heard that the greatest stumbling block for the uninitiated into
the hermetic art lay in the determination of the true subject, the prima
materia. The authors mentioned it by a hundred names; and the gold seeking
toilers were therefore misled in a hundred ways. Hitchcock with a single
word furnishes us the key to the understanding of the hermetic masters,
when he says: The subject is man. We can also avail ourselves of a play on
words and say the subject or substance is the subject.

The uninitiated read with amazement in many alchemists that "our
subjectum," that is, the material to be worked upon, is also identical
with the vessel, the still, the philosopher's egg, etc. That becomes
intelligible now. Hitchcock writes (H. A., p. 117) very pertinently: "The
work of the alchemists was one of contemplation and not a work of the
hands. Their alembic, furnace, cucurbit, retort, philosophical egg, etc.,
etc., in which the work of fermentation, distillation, extraction of
essences and spirits and the preparation of salts is said to have taken
place was Man,--yourself, friendly reader,--and if you will take yourself
into your own study and be candid and honest, acknowledging no other guide
or authority but Truth, you may easily discover something of hermetic
philosophy; and if at the beginning there should be 'fear and trembling'
the end may be a more than compensating peace."

The alchemist Alipili (H. A., p. 34) writes: "The highest wisdom consists
in this, for man to know himself, because in him God has placed his
eternal Word.... Therefore let the high inquirers and searchers into the
deep mysteries of nature learn first to know what they have in themselves,
and by the divine power within them let them first heal themselves and
transmute their own souls, ... if that which thou seekest thou findest not
within thee, thou wilt never find it without thee. If thou knowest not the
excellency of thine house, why dost thou seek and search after the
excellency of other things? The universal Orb of the world contains not so
great mysteries and excellences as does a little man formed by God in his
own image. And he who desires