82 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



In this part of the work he informs us that he took 

 as his basis in the following compilation a text called 

 the Secreta Naturae. To it he added material 

 derived from other sources, which seemed necessary 

 in order to complete the doctrine of chemistry con- 

 tained in the Secreta. In this way he endeavoured 

 to present his readers with a full and practical body 

 of Alchemy according to the teaching of the school 

 to which he belonged. 



In the study of a composite work, such as the 

 Liber Luminis is thus declared to be, our first 

 problem is naturally to determine and separate the 

 original text from the additions which have been 

 made to it. Which then are those parts of the 

 Liber Luminis that represent the Secreta Naturae ? 

 Very fortunately the volume where the Liber 

 Luminis is found contains another treatise that 

 throws considerable light on the matter. This is 

 the Liber Dedali Philosophi. The correspondences 

 between that book and the Liber Luminis are so 

 many, close, and verbal, that it is evident both have 

 borrowed from the same source. This source can 

 hardly have been other than the Secreta Naturae, 

 so that a comparison of these two books such as is 

 attempted in the Appendix * should go far to deter- 

 mine what that hitherto unknown text was. 



The question of the chemical doctrine contained 

 in the Secreta is an interesting one, and we shall 

 return to it, but meanwhile, let us observe that the 

 Liber Luminis contains hints which seem to carry 

 us further still, and throw some light upon the 

 source from which the Secreta was itself derived. 

 One of the authors quoted is a certain ' Archelaus.' 



1 See Appendix, No. in. 



