Simyacıların Gerçek Amacı: İnsanın Kemale Ermesi

...quotations from writers of all ages and all nationalities, he undertakes to demonstrate that the concealed subject of every true adept is one only—namely, MAN, the three-in-one. He argues that "the object is also one, namely, his improvement, while the method itself is no less one: nature directed by art in the school of nature, and acting in conformity with it; for the art is nothing but 'nature acting through man.'" Again, he states, "the genuine alchemists were not in pursuit of worldly wealth or honors. Their real object was the perfection, or, at least, the improvement of man. According to this theory, such perfection lies in a certain unity—a living sense of the unity of human nature with divine nature. The attainment of this I can liken to nothing so well as to the experience known in religion as the NEW BIRTH. The desired perfection, or unity, is a state of the soul, a condition of Being, and not a mere condition of KNOWING. This condition of Being is a development of the nature of man from within; it is the result of a process by which whatever is evil in our nature is cast out or suppressed, under the name of 'superfluities,' and the good is thereby allowed opportunities for free activity. As this result is scarcely accessible to the unassisted natural man, and requires the cooperation of divine power, it is called the Gift of God." When the individual man—by a natural and appropriate process, devoid of haste or violence—is brought into unity with himself through the harmonious action of intelligence and will, he is on the threshold of comprehending that transcendent Unity which is the perfection of the totality of Nature.