Written in the seventeenth century and long treasured by readers of the hidden sciences, The Sophic Hydrolith — the "wise water-stone" — is one of alchemy's most honest and moving masterpieces. Though its subject is the philosopher's stone, its deeper subject is transformation: the slow, patient, costly conversion of a base and common thing into gold. This edition renders the anonymous master's teaching in clear, present-day English, preserving the beauty and reverence of the original while opening its meaning to a modern reader. Here are the stages of the work — the blackening, the whitening, the reddening — read both as instructions of the laboratory and as a mirror of the spiritual life. Warm, practical, and unpretentious, this is a guide for seekers, students of mysticism, and anyone who has ever wondered what the old alchemists truly meant. A faithful modern-English edition of the classic. Part of The World Scriptures Library.