clear tear from the Eye nor every dissolving Spirit though they be each of higher Natures than another according to their degrees as the Soul is higher than the crude Spirit being they are not of one form For as the Soul lies hid under the species of a dissolved Spirit before its re-inspissation for the Soul being extracted out of the Body always appeareth like Quick-silver so after its inspislation the Soul and Body lie hid under the species of a Body Your Worship hath seen an Experiment thereof in the Powder sometime sent to that King whose Physician you are in which Experiment Quick-silver was found in the species of Quick-silver but if that which remained in the bottom had been coagulated it would certainly have assumed the same form of Powder But that Powder must be called a Tincture nominally only not that it is a Medicine for Metals for it is not yet perfectly fixt yet as a Medicine for Men it is of very good force But the fixt Medicine without all doubt exceeds this humane Medicine in all virtues both as to Metals and to Men which cannot come to pass in a clear diaphanous and transparent Liquor Because if the aforesaid Elixir and Azor that is Spirit and Soul did appear in and had a transparency now the Earth as to its proportion had left the Water and had been separated from it which had thickned and coagulated its parts causing an opacity in the Elixir and Azor and making a congealable Metallick form to consist For in the condensing of fixed Metallick species the condenser must act upon the condensable and the coagulating upon the coagulable which cannot be in the aforesaid diaphanous and clear Water But it happens otherwise in Vegetables in which a simple and diaphanous Water is thickned by decoction into the Vegetables themselves which yet by the Test of the Fire doth at length vanish and evaporate because it is not permanent and fixed in its composition because it had not with it an Earth naturally homogeneal to it in its composition as Quick-silver hath which Earth indeed is the cause of permanent fixation in homogeneous things wherefore simple Water cannot by coagulation be so fixed with Vegetables as Mercury with Metals If therefore Mercury should be reduced to a transparency in the Work of the Philosophers it would by good reason remain of an uncoagulable substance nor would it be congealed upon Laton to a Metallick form species and proportion which carries not with nor in it self its own congelation namely Water the Earth which Earth as was said is Mercurial and the first cause of Inspissation Coagulation and Fixation If then this Water abide destitute of Metallick proportion how should it be possible that such like species should be produced from this Composition They also erre who think to extract a limpid transparent Water out of Mercury and out of it to work many wonderful things For be it so that they can perfect such a Water that Work would conduce nothing either to Nature or proportion nor could it restore or build up any perfect kind of Metal For so soon as Mercury is throughly changed from his first Nature so soon he is forbidden entrance into our Philosophick Work because he hath lost his Spermatick and Metallick Nature From these things it is manifest what truth there is in your opinion and in what it is contrary and improper when you say there must be had as I think to perfect the highest Elixir a Gum in which are all things necessary thereunto and containing the four Elements and it is a most clear Water as a tear from the Eye made Spiritual c. which make Gold to be a mere Spirit For a Body penetrates not a Body but a subtle congealed Spiritual substance which penetrates and colours a Body Let it be so as you say my Venerable Doctor that Natures are not joyned but in a Gum or Oylie substance and equal proportioned having a Spiritual Nature the Elements being yet fixedly shut up in it unâ—o which Gumminess the whole Philosophers Stone is at last reduced by Inceration under a gentle flux after the manner of an Inceration resembling all the Elements standing like Copper and in the nature of Copper existing also in a subtle Spiritual Nature penetrating and colouring Metallick Bodies For this Stone in the sublimation of the first crude Body hath not lost its kind namely of the same Spirit neither yet in the perfect and great Gum doth it lose its first Nature Therefore Gum and Oyl belong not otherwise unto this Work but as Elements equally proportioned shut up together resolvable united in the Oylie viscosity of the Earth retained buried inseparably mixt For this Gum or Oyl first is extracted out of the Body drawn into an incinerated Spirit till the superfluous humidity of the Water be turned into Air and one Element be excited from another Element by digestion and what was of an Aqueous form become of an Oylie nature and so the whole Stone at last assumes the name of Gum and Sulphur For Geber teacheth this when he saith as you have written in your Epistle If any person know to joyn and friendly unite our Sulphur unto Bodies he hath found one of the greatest Secrets and one way of perfection as if he should say If any man can reduce a Body to this that it may be made a Gum which may be throughly mingled with other imperfect Bodies he hath found the greatest Secret of Nature c. because this perfect Stone is a Gum and a Sulphur as is known by what we have already said But you must know that Geber with highest prudence and wonderful artifice hides the truth under a Veil intermingling with it many obscurities and falsities which those who are ignorant at first appearance imagine to be truth yet he speaking like a Philosopher secretly under this craft doth openly learnedly and Philosophically describe the truth wherefore the unexperienced and Sophisters not understanding his mind and wit nor the nature of the thing do perversly turn aside to the vulgar exposition and sound of the words For he saith If thou knowest that we have said something to thee but if thou knowest not we have said nothing to thee Wherefore in reading Philosophick Books consider especially the possibility of Nature notwithstanding some Writers of this Art have also sometimes erred and have happened sometimes to have handled it as to the natural truth either ill or ambiguously As it may be observed that Arnoldus de Villa Nova hath said in a Book which he called his Rosary that raw Mercury that is Quick-silver which in its own nature is cold and moist by Sublimation may be made hot and dry afterwards being revived it becomes hot and moist like the complexion of Man You will say then what wonder is it if it be joyned with the Sun that it likewise becomes of the nature of the Sun For Mercury is of a convertible nature as the Heavenly
the Philosophers Water of Life the Bloud of Man his red Flesh his Body and Bones Know therefore that there are many sorts of Milk viz. Virgins Milk Womans Milk and also Mans Milk For when first they are joyned in one and she is big having conceived then the Infant must be nourished with Milk But then you may know that this Milk is not Virgins Milk but rather the man and the womans Milk wherewith it is always to be nourished till it is growâ— to that strength that it may be brought up with stronger and fuller food That food which I mean is the leavening of it which gives it form that it may perform Virile work For until the Infant that is this our Stone be formed and leavened with its like the Bloud of the green Dragon and the red Bloud of the red Dragon whether it be the white Stone or the red it will never do a perfect work Know therefore Son that the first Water is that Water Rebar which God made of Nature and it is the cause of Generation as I said before but when after the conjunction which ariseth from the Marriage it begets the Water of Life and the Philosophers Milk with one of which or both you must augment and feed your Stone perpetually Much more could I say to thee Son concerning this first Matter but let this suffice that setting aside impertinencies of words we may now Divine Grace favouring of us proceed to the practice it self of the Philosophick Stone See therefore my Son that thou diligently puttest all these Matters which though they are three things yet are they but one only in a Glass Vessel and lettest them quietly putrefie then put an Alembick upon your Vessel and by distillation draw out all the Water which may be thence distilled Try this first in Maries Bath Then place the Vessel in Ashes and make a gentle Fire for 12 hours then take the Matter out of the Vessel grind it well by it self without the foresaid Water then â—ut it again into the Vessel with Water and stop the Vessel close Put it in the Bath for three days and then distill the Water as before in the Bath and the Matter will be more black than before Do thus three times over and then grind it no more but afterwardâ— as often as you distill it so oft pour Water on the top but between each distillation give it so much Fire for six hours or more till it become indifferent dry then pour Water on the top again and dissolve it again in the Bath under a blind Alembick Also in every distillation separate the Flegm by casting away six or seven drops of Water in the beginning of each distillation And observing this order cause it to drink its proper Water till it hath drank of it seven times its weight which it had at the first But then it will be of a white colour and so much the whiter by how much the more of its own Water it hath drank This is white Elixir Moreover this our Water is called Homogeneal and by many other names Besides know that this Water and Matter generate as well the Red Stone as the White Know also when this first Matter is brought to its compleat whiteness then the end of one is the beginning of the other that is of the Red Stone which is our Red Magnesia and Virgins Brass as we said at first Son see thou well understand these words Our Virgins Brass is our Gold yet I do not say that all Brass is Gold also our Brass is our live Brimstone but all live Brimstone is not our live Brimstone also Quicksilver is Mercury but I do not say that common Quicksilver is our Silver as I said before that Water of Life which is our Seed and first Matter is our Mercury and our Spirit of Life which is extracted out of the blessed Land of Aethiopia which is called Magnesia and by many other names Besides my Son know that there is no perfect generation without corruption for corruption causeth cleanliness and cleanliness corruption Consider therefore Son our dying poison which dyeth and is dyed perpetually and this is our Body our Soul and our Spirit when they are joyned together in one and become one thing which with its parts ariseth also out of one thing besides which there is not any other neither ever shall be Wherefore my Son great folly it is for any one to believe that any other Medicine can be turned into Gold or Silver which Medicine will little profit thee of it self except it be mingled with a Body for then shall it perfect its work according to its form to which it is born For it is never born that it may of it self become a Body Moreover know that there is as much difference between the first Matter which is called the Seed of Metals and the Medicine as is between the Medicine and Gold For the Seed will never be the Medicine without a Body neither will the Medicine ever be a Metal without a Body Much difference also there is between Elixir and the Medicine as between Masculine and Feminine Seed and also an Infant which is generated of those in the Matrice Now you may see that the Seed is one thing and the Infant another though they be one and the same in kind one thing one operation the Vessel finally one though it be called by divers names For of a Man and Woman is an Infant born when as yet the Man is one thing and the Woman another though they be one and the same in kind which you ought to understand in our Stone But what I said before that corruption is the cause of generation and of cleanliness is true For you must know that every thing in its first Master is corrupt and bitter which corruption and bitterness is called dying poison which is the cause of Life in all things as will be sufficiently manifest if you with right reason do weigh the Natures of things Consider well O Son that when Lucifer the Angel of Pride first rebelled against God and prevaricated the Command of the most High be assured that this was made corrupt bitter and harsh to him No less was the fall and prevarication of our first Parents Adam and Eve whom death and condemnation followed made to them corruption and bitterness and likewise to us in whom the same corruption is propagated Many more like examples I could recite if need were But setting aside these to come to what is proper to our discourse consider well that of all precious Fruits which grow out of the Earth their First Matter is bitter and harsh as still retaining some footstep of the former corruption and putrefaction which bitterness by the means of continual action of natural heat is with great virtue turned into sweetness Now therefore Son if thou wiâ—â— be ingenious this little will suffice whereby to find out much more and to perceive my meaning Consider therefore
similitude of God and to tell the plain truth which when thou hast tryed what is here set down thou wilt know it to be so was of the same Substance and Matter that the Angels were made of I mean the blessed Angels The Soul of man is an Angel and so was called the Son of God but for his Body and Spirit whence that came and what they are I will set down by and by that which concerneth that Man was the Son of the great World or Macrocosm and participateth of all the influences and virtues of the superiour and inferiour Worlds yea of all Creatures good and bad and that for this cause because he was made of that very Matter and Chaos whereof all the World was made and all the Creatures in it which is a most high Mystery to understand and must nay is altogether necessary to be known of him that expecteth good from this Art being the ground of the wisdom thereof Foolish men nay they that the World holds for great Doctors say and tell it for truth that God made Man of a piece of Mud or Clay or Dust of the Earth which is false it was no such Matter but a Quintessential Matter which is called Earth but is no Earth The Fall of Man depraved all things yea all the Creatures suffer'd in it and himself most of all for as soon as he had sinned himself and his Wife his Wife first both of them turned into Monsters in respect of what they were in their Innocency Adam had another Body before his Fall than what he had after and so far different that if we should behold Adam as he was in his Innocency we should admire the glory of him and tremble at the sight of him as at the sight of an Angel I say nothing of the Body of our blessed Saviour save only this such a Body as he brought from Heaven with him such a Body shall we arise with and with such Bodies shall our Souls be endowed with flesh and bloud otherwise men should not differ from Angels for this flesh and bloud is put upon us by the Holy Ghost that is by Regeneration nor doth this cross Sacred Writ if it were rightly understood I speak nothing likewise of our blessed Lady what Body she had but when thou shalt have examined what I shall set down then wilt thou find what I say is true and understand them in a plain manner but I forbear to speak of those Mysteries known to so few he that liveth according to the written Word of God shall be saved but he that liveth to be blessed with this Art shall glorifie his Creator and know him more than any man can do but before the end of the World all will be known But to my former purpose Man the Microcosm or little World from the Astres or Stars received Spirit from the great World his Body and from God immediately his Soul so here is an illucidation of the blessed Trinity of these three Man consisteth of these he is compounded thus he had his production from the World For what concerns his Body or Humane part let us now as fully as we may say something of the production of the great World out of nothing when there was neither time nor place did God create a certain Chaos invisible intangible which the Philosophers called Hyle or the most remote Matter out of this he made an Extract or second Matter or Chaos which the Philosophers know not by speculation but by sense that Matter was and is visible and tangible in which were and are all the Seeds and Forms of all the Creatures superiour and inferiour that ever were made from this God divided the four Elements in a word did make all things celestial and terrestrial the Angels Sun Moon and Stars The knowledge and practice of the Philosophers upon this Chaos brought them to the knowledge of all wisdom and from hence next God seek thou and find all wisdom This is not a fancy or conceit that I tell thee but what I know and have proved it is such a thing and substance as with the bare knowledge of it makes thee know the generation and preservation of all things and yet this Chaos is since the Fall likewise corrupted Thus briefly have I discoursed of such things as perhaps thou dost not believe or never heardst of before but if thou be'st ordained to know this Science I have trod the path for thee but I fear thou understandest me not yet have I said more than wisdom would I should but I know it shall be to his good only to whom God appoints it My intent is for certain reasons that I have not to prate too much of the Matter which yet is but only one thing already too plainly described nor of the Preparation by what means it is to be done which is the second and greatest Secret But I have constituted these lines for the good of him that shall make the Stone if it fall into the hands of such a one for to him it shall shew and set down in plain terms as plain as possibly my Pen can write to the very letter such Magical and Natural uses of it as many that have had it never knew nor heard of and such as when I beheld them made my knees to tremble and my heart to shake and I to stand amazed at the sight of them I do therefore charge thee whosoever thou be that shalt be blessed with the enjoyment of this Treatise that as thou wilt answer the contrary at the great day thou let no man see it but him that hath the Stone perfect for if thou shalt meet with such a one which is hard to do and that he hath brought it to the full perfection thou by imparting such Magical and Physical things and other rare Secrets which are here set down and by the Stone to be done he shall not only give thee Gold sufficient but also shall shew thee the true and right way and the Matter with all things belonging to it to make it full and perfect for let me assure thee I have known many that have had it that never knew more than the bare transmutation of Metals and by the Books of the Philosophers it appears that some of them nay more than that many of them have kill'd themselves by taking it for the want of the knowledge of the use of it Never doubt therefore but thou shalt obtain what thou wilt of him that hath iâ— by demonstrating the truth of what I here write therefore again and again I charge thee not to part with it nor to tell any man of it although none can make use of it but he that hath the Stone in the highest degree of perfection And I will now shew thee the several uses of it The first for Health and the manner how to use it the second is for Multiplication which cannot be done without a Master Thirdly the making of all manner
of precious Stones artificially better than the Natural Fourthly to turn all Metals into running Quick-silver Fifthly several Magical Operations of several kinds which are past belief till thou seest them and which indeed are above all the rest And here I promise that I will in such plain words set down what I have intended that thou canst not in doing err or do amiss provided thou have the Stone both red and white although there be more works out of it than I dare set down and indeed Angelical wisdom is attained by it But I proceed For Health the use of it thuâ— IN the use of this Medicine many great Philosophers themselves after they had obtained this wonderful blessing desiring to have perfect Health have been so bold as to take a certain quantity of it some no more than a quarter of a grain some less some more but all that did so with it instead of Health took Death it self for there is no small skill to use it for Medicine though every fool think if he had it he could cure all diseases and himself too and set the Elements at unity which few men have known neither is there but one way to it with safety if this be not known more hurt than good may be received by it For the method of Health it is thus Take the quantity of four grains I do not mean the grains of Wheat or Barley grains or corns but four grains of Gold weight and dissolve them in a pint of White or Rhenish Wine but in no hot Wine as Sack c put it into a great clean Glass and instantly it will colour all the Wine almost as red as it self was which is the highest red in the World let it stand so close covered from dust four days for in respect it is an Oylie substance it will not presently dissolve in Wine then add to this a pint more by degrees until it be not so red stirring it with a clean stick of Wood not of Metal nor Glass and so continue the pouring on of fresh Wine until it be just of the colour of Gold which is a shining yellow Beware there be no redness in it for so long as there is any redness in it it is not sufficiently dilated but will fire the Body and exhaust the Spirits neither is it sufficiently brought to yellow until the Wine have round about the sides a ring like Hair of a whitish film which will shew it self plain when well dissolved if it stand but four hours quiet As soon as you see that whitish film then let it run through a clean linen Cloth or Paper so the white film will stay behind and look like a Pearl on the Paper and all the rest will be yellow like Gold This is the token of truth that you cannot wrong your self by this Liquor and without this token it will be either too weak or so strong that it will fire the Body Know this to be a rare Secret Of this Golden Water let the party of what disease soever he be sick of take each morning a good large spoonful and it shall expel the disease whatsoever it be by a gentle sweat for it purgeth not nor vomiteth nor sweateth so much as to make faint but to corroborate I say it strengthens the party and if the disease be of many years continuance or a Chronical disease it will then be perhaps twelve days otherwise but twenty four hours or two or three days at most Thus it must be used for all diseases internal But for all external diseases as Ulcers Scabs Botches Sores Fistula's Noli me tâ—ngere's c. the place must be anointed with the Oyl of the Stone it self not dilated in Wine and after this manner it must be done nine or ten days and be it whatsoever it will it will cure all outward and inward diseases And more than this whosoever carries this Stone about him no evil Spirit can or will stay in the place nay bringing or giving it to a party possessed it drives away and expels the evil Spirits for it is a Quintessence and there is no corruptible thing in it and where the Elements are not corrupt no Devil can stay or abide for he is the corruption of the Elements This Mediciâ—e taken nine days as aforesaid and the Temples of the Head anointed with the Oyl of the Stone each day in the morning it will make a man as light as if he could flie and his Body so aireal it is not to be credited but by him that hath experienced it These most admirable qualities it hath perfect health it giveth till God calls for the Soul and perfeâ—â— knowledge it giveth if the use be known but even this part hath been known but to a few that have made it for it is a Divine and as it were an Angelical Medicine The white is not to be used for any disease but Madness in the same proportion and way or preparation that the red Stone was And so I proceed to the second which is Multiplication The way to Multiply MAny have made the Stone both white and red that never knew how to multiply it for the white Stone will be red by continuing it in the external natural Fire but never make projection higher than one upon ten neither white nor the red few have known this for if they be not armed rightly it will kill them but do thus and thou shalt multiply it infinitely that it shall not congeal to Powder any more When thou hast made the Mercury of the Philosophers which in 40 days is to be done a Water it is and no Water clear as the Heavens then as thou didst make it reduce it back again into Putrefaction E. F. which it will quickly do in a Body with a blind Head and never put into it above twelve ounces and lute it with such lutâ— as I will direct here-under for in a Glass nipt up it will not work When it is like Pitch take out thy Glass and remove it to a common fire of Ashes in a Furnace and when thy Glass hath stood cold 24 hours arm thy self thus Make thee a Case for thy head and face with Hog-skin lined with Cotton and before thy face have Spectacles of Glass and from thy mouth let go a large Tunnel of Glass covered with Leather and let it be tyed under thy Girdle and touch thy Ancles let the bore of the Glass be as big as a Walnut and tye the Hyde of Hog-skin fast about thy Neck under thy Chin but so as thou be sure no Air come in there to which purpose lap it over with more Hog-skin basted with Laten and thus art thou well armed for otherwise it would kill thee Thus armed take off thy blind Head and put on a distilling Head and a Receiver long and large lute the Receiver and joynts of the Head with this lute viz. to one ounce of Powder of Egg-shels calcined 24 hours and ground like
Vulgar well washed and when the Amalgama is made then let it be put into a little Boults-head with a neck one foot and a half long Afterwards â„ž three groste of our Argent vive formerly extracted and reserved from the Lunary Body and let it be put upon the Amalgama made of the Body and Argenâ— vive Vulgar let the Vessel be luted very well with the best lute and let it be dried when this is done stirring the Vessel exceeding well that the Amalgama may be well mingled and thus the Argent vive may be well mixed with the Body Afterwards put the Vessel in which the Matter is in a little Furnace to a little Fire of Coals and let its heat not exceed the heat of the Sun when Sol is in the Sign of Leo for another heat exceeding that would destroy the Matter and the one would fly from the other and let such a Fiâ—â— be continued until the Matter become black as Coals and thick as Pultis and let the Fire continue in this degree until the Matter be changed into a gray brown colour and when the gray appeareth increase the Fire in one point or degree and let this second degree continue until the Matter begin to become white to the most purest whiteness afterwards augment the Fire to the third degree continuing it until the Matter become whiter than Snow and be converted into pure Powder whiter than Ashes and then you have Calx vive or the quick Slime of the Philosophers and its Sulphury Mine which the Philosophers have so much hidden CHAP. IV. The Property of the said Calx or Slime THe said Calx converteth Mercury Vulgar into most white Powder infinitely which can be reduced into true Silver with some of the Bodies of Luna CHAP. V. Multiplication of the Calx â„ž THe Vessel with the Matter wherein put two ounces of Argent vive Vulgar well washed and dried afterwards lute the Vessel well and put it where it was before governing and administring to it the Fire of the first second and third degrees as before until the Matter be reduced into a most white Powder and so you may multiply to infinity CHAP. VI. The Reduction of this Calx viva into Luna WHen thou thus hast gotten a great quantity of our Calx viva or of our Mine take a Crucible not covered in which put one ounce of pure Lune and when it iâ— melted put thereupon four ounces of thy Powder in small Pills let thy Pills be the weight of the fourth part of an ounce let them be put upon the middle Luna by degrees always continuing the Fire strong until all the Pills be projected and melted together with the Lune and in the end make a strong Fire until it be incorporated afterward project it in an Ingot and thou shalt have five ounces of Silver more pure than the Natural and thus thou mayst multiply thy Philosophical Mine as thou pleasest CHAP. VII Of our great Work to the White and to the Red. REduce the Calx viva as is said before of Luna into Argent vive which is our Secret Take therefore four ounces of our Calx and reduce them into Argent vive as thou didst with Luna of which Argent vive thou mayst have at least three ounces put this in a little Boult-head with a long neck as thou didst before afterwards make Amalgama with one ounce of true Sol with three ounces of Argent vive Vulgar and put upon it Argent vive of Lune moving it strongly with thy hands that all may be mingled together afterward put the Vessel well luted as before in the Furnace making the Fire of the first second and third degree in the first degree thy Matter will become black like to a Coal which then is called the Eclipsis of Luna and Sol and there will be a true commixtion whereby is begotten the Sun and Sulphur which is full of temperate bloud after the appearing of his colour continue the Fire of the second degree until the Matter become gray then continue the third degree until the Matter appear most white afterwards augment the Fire to the fourth degree continuing so that the Matter may appear red as Cinnabar and the Ashes become red this Calx you may reduce into the finest Sol as is said before of Lune FINIS SECRETS DISCLOS'D One Friend to another as Bloomfield suppose The Philosophers Stone the Secrets doth disclose I Shall tell it to you openly Our Medicine is a Stone that is no Stone and it is one thing in kind and not divers things of whom all Metals be made and so it is no Salts nor Waters nor Oyl combustible nor mans Hair nor maâ—â— Bloud nor Iron nor Goats horns nor Herbs nor none such things that discord from Metals as many Fools devise But he is two things for he is Water and Earth not Water of Clouds nor of Corrosives nor Water of Salts but Water of the Sun and the Moon that burns our Earth more than any Fire And it is three things that is Body Spirit and Soul and it is four things Earth and Water and Air and Fire and therefore he is found in every place and in every time And he is also unstable in colour as a shame-fac'd Woman that changeth her colour for dread of her Love that reproveth her of untruth for now she is pale now green now red so our Stone is turned to all colours for he is black and white and pale and blew and green and red of this Matter our Medicine is made that we call Ixir and Elixir that is the Philosophers Stone Take this Stone and put him in a well-closed clear Vessel that thou mayst see his working and when thou hast Water of Air and Air of Fire and Fire of Earth then it is done for the Spirit is departed from the Body and leaveth the Body dead and black But if the Sepulchre be well closed he will come in again to the Body and make him rise again to life and then the Body and the Soul shall ever be together And therefore take a Red man and a White woman and wâ—â— them together and let them go to Chamber both and look that the door and the windows be fast sparr'd for else the Woman will be gone away from her Husband And if she lye with him right warm on Bed then beware that she go no where out for if she do he shall never overtake her if he were as swift as a Faulcon for if she may no where out she will come to him again and lye with him on Bed and then she shall conceive and bear a Son that shall worship all his Kin and then will she never after go away from her Husband For this Man and this Woman getteth our Stone But the Man must be fell and quaint to make her to abide with him with meekness and not with sturdiness for if he be boisterous to her in the beginning she will flee
three Elements And these last colours abide hiddenly and intrinsically and appear under the shew of a white Spirit in liquid Mercury until it be recondensed in the Powder which is in the Bodies because the Soul lies hid in the Spirit as in the condensation the Spirit and the Soul lie hid in the Powder or Body For there is a corruption in the things to be altered but no dissipation of parts unless some superfluous parts be to be rejected as unprofitable for generation whereupon the Artificer purifies his Work that digestion may succeed better This is manifest by example in Grain for of two grains of Wheat if the one be cast into good ground there it putrifies dies and loses its external form but nothing thereof is dissipated yea in its time it encreases into a multiplicity of Fruit and there is indeed made a corruption only of the form and not any dissipation of the matter But if the other grain be cast into the Fire then both matter and form are corrupted and the whole is dissipated and that corruption is unprofitable for generation Wherefore Water dissolves not Bodies but those only of its own kind and by which it may be condensed nor can Bodies be at all nourished to generation but by their like which can preserve the species destroyed by that transmuting Body through the artifice of the Work though Vegetables are nourished by things of different kinds yet before they nourish them they are assimilated the dissolution of them being first made according to the proportion of the things which suck and draw them to them It must be noted therefore that the Solution of Metals may be made by different ways one which Fools know as is abovesaid with Foreign things which abide not with the dissolved Metals which is rather to be called a corrosive destruction and defilement of the Compound The second Solution is made by the power and force of Fire which is no true Solution but a melting rather of the colligated Elementary parts for the outward heat of the Fire in dissolving the Compound finds out its intrinsical natural or native Fire within which internal and proportional Fire dwells in the Air therefore it dissolves the Air it self But that dissolved Air resides and dwells in the Water and the Water in the Earth and the Water it self dissolves the Earth so that it melts both the active and passive but this melting is no true Solution yea it is a dissipation because the Elements there being homogeneous to one another and proportionably fixed by digestion are mixt and one of them educed out of the power of another generally And therefore this falls out even in pure Bodies in which the Elemental natures are fixed Wherefore in them the flame of Fire causeth melting and dissolves that whole Body to fluidity and not to a separation because Fire cannot flow unless the Air consubstantial to it flow neither doth the Aâ— flow unless the Water be dissolved nor doth the Water flow unless the Earth flow and contrariwise as the Earth is dissolved by the Water so on the contrary side the Water retaineth the Air and congealeth it and in the same manner ascending upwards the Air retaineth the Fire in Congelation because the more fixt and fixing Elements cause fixation by acting together on one another as Earth and Water and in a contrary manner Fire and Air act together each on other unto Solution But this Solution is called a melting of the Compound and not properly a Solution of it because the parts separable from one another in the generation of the Compound are not dissolved as is done in the third and truly Philosophick Solution when the Compound is dissolved in the manner aforesaid and yet the parts abide unseparated though separable so that the virtue of the most digested Elements may be extracted from things to be dissolved by the dissolver that is Quick-silver and the grosser parts in such a dissolution acquire some latitude of subtilty because the Body is turned into Spirit and contrariwise the Spirit into Body fixed things are turned into volatiles and volatiles to fixed For this Solution is possible and natural that is by Art of Nature subserving thereto and this is sole and necessary Solution in the Work of the Philosophers which can be done by no other thing than Quick-silver only with a prudent proportion so as a good Artificer knowing from within the natures and proportions ought to make the proportion from his first entrance upon the Work For these two Sir are sufficient for this Work and nothing else enters it nor generates and multiplies as we have said Besides you say that Gold as most think is nothing else than Quick-silver coagulated naturally by the force of Sulphur yet so that nothing oâ— the Sulphur which generated the Gold doth remain in the substance of the Gold as in an humane Embryo when it is conceived in the Womb there remains nothing of the Father's Seed according to Aristotle's opinion but the Seed of the Man doth only coagulate the menstrual blood of the Woman in the same manner you say that after Quick-silver is so coagulated the form of Gold is perfected in it by virtue of the Heavenly Bodies and especially of the Sun But by your good leave and with respect I must tell you we must not think so For being we are Philosophically perswaded that Gold is nothing but Mercury anatized that is equally digested in the bowels of a Mineral Earth and the Philosophers have signified that this very thing is done by the contact of Sulphur coagulating the Mercury and by reason of its operation that is from Mercury being digested and thickned by a proportionate heat Wherefore we must know that Gold is Sulphur and Mercury together that is the coagulant and the coagulated in one and nothing added from without thereto but only a pure digestion or maturation which multiplies qualities and excites one Element from another out of their pure possibility into act no other thing whatsoever being superadded But this digestion or matutarion is produced actively from the superiour Elements that is the Fire and Air which are not actually but potentially in Mercury which yet being excited and assisted by an external heat and by the proper and natural digesting heat the passive Elements in Mercury are by them subtilized being not only potentially existent but actually towards Water it self and the Water is subtilized towards Air and Air follows to Fire and in this proportionable action of Nature and digestion of Mercury the Male and Femalâ— abide together in closed Natures the Female truly as it were Earth and Water the Male as Air and Fire which Earth and Water the Philosophers do mingle in Gold but called the Air and Fire a Sulphur as it were therein neither is there any other Foreign addition in the bowels of the Earth And therefore in Art above ground neither is there found and Foreign addition to digest or
it so also there must be in Humane Flesh an informing Soul digesting in man the brutal acts and to work in him the intellectual work But we must understand it otherwise in our Stone in which the Earth hath the name of the Body Air and Water obtain the name of Spirit neither is in it a Soul but because it contains the Air and Fire which I perceive well you do perfectly understand But the Philosophers divided them in this manner By a crude Spirit they extracted a digested Spirit out of the dissolved Body and they had remaining a fixed mass of Ashes to be farther dissolved in which they found an incombustible and stony oyliness and gumminess which they called the Soul which enlivens unites incerates and produces united Natures and in the Spirit they disjoyned the Natures so in the Oyl they re-conjoyned them For our Stoâ—â— hath not an informing nature as a Vegetative or a Sensitive but it hath only a formed form which form is the very Elements themselves because it is homogeneous But mans Body and that of other Sensitives is heterogeneous For Bones Flesh Bloud Marrow Hair and Nails are distinguished differently in it which is otherwise in Gold in which whatsoever there is is found to be of one kind Wherefore my Reverend Doctor the Philosophers speak this by way of similitude by reason of the administration of Art and operation of Nature not because there is a Soul in the Stone but metaphorically as you well know nor Spirit nor Body as an informing form as it is found in Man and other Sensitives Verily I tell you that Oyl which naturally incerates and unites Natures and naturally induces the Medicine into other Bodies that are to be tinged is not compounded of any other extraneous thing but out of the bowels of the Body that is to be dissolved which Oyl retains the colour of its Spirit always until it be rethickned and then first of all it puts on the Royal Ensigns that is a citrineness and Metalline form which it manifests to all in Gold a Golden in Silver a Silver colour and form which Oyl if it be Sol being dissolved is perceived to be red inwardly though outwardly it appear white under the form of liquid Quick-silver Now some think to compound an Oyl as generous and powerful as this Oyl is namely out of Mercury throughly dryed or out of the substance of Tin or Body of the Sun commixed with ingredients of divers kinds but for what concerns our Work their Experiment is fallacious They can indeed reduce the species of Metals into a kind of Oyl but they cannot at any hand reduce them into a Metallick kind observing and keeping the proportion of the things to be mixed sound and entire But that Oyl may be profitable for Medicine to sensitive Creatures because the nature of Gold is dissolved therein but yet impertinently and unprofitably as to our Philosophick Work Besides my Honoured Doctor that I may lightly touch on the remaining Heads of your Epistle you must diligently and wisely observe that Fire and Azor wash Laton But Azor is not raw Quick-silver simply extracted out of the Mine but it is that which is extracted by Quick-silver it self out of the dissolved Bodies which is found to be more ripe upon tryal Wherefore if Laton be an unclean Body it is depurated by such an Azor which you write that you have had formerly and by this Laton purified by Azor we make our Medicine for curing every sick person Indeed this Azor is made of the Elixir because Elixir is nothing else but a Body resolved into a Mercurial Water after whiâ—â— resolution Azor is extracted out of it that is an animated Spirit And it is called Elixir from E which is out of and Lixis which is Water because all things are made out of this Water and Elixir is the second part in the Philosophick Work as Rebis is the first in the same Work But the Tincture constitutes the third Work for as the matter of this Composition produces divers effects so it obtainâ— different names one after another Thence it manifestly appears that Azor is not requisite to the Elixir because in this Work the Elixir goes before Azor and not the contrary like as Water procedes the Oyl and the Spirit the Soul For Azor is drawn and extracted out of the Elixir as Oyl out of Water and not contrariwise as mention is made elsewhere For example sake as in the Art of Physick pure simple Fountain-water by boyling in the first concoction is joyned with theâ—â— Flesh of a Chicken and thence in the first degree of concoction we obtain a Broth a good and perfect decoction the humid watry and airy parts of the Chicken being actually dissolved in the aforesaid Water though there be other Elements therein also actually But that it may be made a much more perfect Medicine and more generous for restoring man's sick Body unto health the decocted Body of the Chick is beaten into a mash with the said Water already altered into a boyled Broth or with part of it and is distilled by a stronger decoction whence a Broth and decoction will be made much more noble and generous partaking of the whole nature of the Chicken Because by this second decoction not only the moist parts but the hot parts that is its aërial and fiery parts being melted into the Broth or decoction are throughly mingled and dissolved and therefore the whole virtue of the Chick is in such a decoction extrâ—cted into the aforesaid Liquor So it falls out in the Philosophick Work because the crude Mineral Spirit like Water is joyned with its Body to dissolve it in its first decoction whence it is called Rebis because it is compounded of two or a double thing to wit of the Masculine and Feminine Seed that is of the thing to be dissolved though it be one thing and matter whence the Verses Rebis is two things joyn'd yet it 's but one Dissolv'd to their first Seeds the Sun or Moon Now out of these two things dissolved together the Elixir is compounded that is a tinged Water whence the Verses Pure Bodies are of Lixis made by Art Hence Greeks Elixir term its second-part Out of this Elixir my Venerable Doctor as out of the first Broth or Bâ—llion of a simple decoction Azor is extracted to wit by a stronger and iterated distillation which Azor resembles and participates the nature of its Body from which it was extracted which is hot and retains its virtue in it self namely an Oylie nature which is hot and moist because it is actual Fire and Air though all the Elements are in it in Essence and by Composition Medicines therefore to cure the Bodies of Sensitives may be composed out of the said Metals by several artifices but they are not pertinent to the Philosophick Work as the Elixir is to Azor that is the vital Spirit and fugitive Soul are not diaphanous nor transparent as the
gross fancies foolish and frustraneous labours Some also conceive to sever those things afterwards from the Water of Mercury and that then it shall be the true Water which the Philosophers do desire The reason of their Errors is that they consider not the words of the Philosophers who plainly do say that it ought not to be mixed with any heterogeneous thing in the whole World And Bernhardus saith in his Epistle that so soon as Mercury is dryed up by the Salts Aquafort and other things that thenceforward it is unfit for the Philosophick work for being dryed up by the Salts Allums Aquaforts it is not able to dissolve But my dear Son observe what now I tell thee and what information concerning this point the Philosophers left behind them in their Books viz. that this Water is not to be prepared by any heterogeneous means whatever in the whole World but only by Nature with Nature and out of Nature These words are all plain to the understanding which I will not now openly unfold but reserve the same for a peculiar Treatise however for a Memorandum I will set down these following Rhimes Take fresh pure quick white and clear Tye him hands and heels so near With a most puissant cord and yoke That he may be mortified and choakt Reduce him by his like homogeneous Nature To his first Being or primigeneous feature Within the close Chamber or House of Putrefaction According to Dame Nature's indication Then you will have a living spiritual Fountain Flowing bright and clear from Heaven's Mountain Feeding on its proper flesh and bloud Therewithall increasing to an endless Floud Let him that by Divine assistance obtaineth his blessed Water render thanks unto God â—or he hath the Key in his hands wherewith he may open the fast Locks of all Metallick Chests out of which Gold Silver Gems Honour Power and Health are to be had This blessed Water is by the Philosophers called the Daughter of Pluto having all the Treasures in her Power It is also termed the white pure delicate undefiled Virgin Beja without which no generation nor increase can be effected And therefore the Philosophers espoused this delicious pure Virgin unto Gabricius to the end they may raise up Fruit and when Gabricius lay with her he dyed and Beja out of excessive love swallowed and consumed him as Arisieus in Turbâ Philosophorum speaketh of it And Bernhard in his Practicâ saith the Fountain is as a Mother unto the King for she doth attract him and causeth him to dye but the King by her means riseth again and uniteth himself so firmly unto her that no man can hurt him And therefore the Philosophers say although Gabricius be costlier dearer and more esteemed by the World than Beja yet he alone can bring no Fruit. This Virgin and blessed Water the Philosophers named in their Books with many thousand names they call it Heaven Celestial Water Celestial Rain the dew of Heaven May-dew Water of Paradice parting Water Aqua Regis a corrosive Aquafort sharp Vinegar Brandy Quintessence of Wine growthful green Juice a growing Mercury a viridescent Water and Leo Viridis Quick-Silver Menstruum Bloud Urine Horse-piss Milk and Virgins Milk white Arsnick Silver Lune and juice of Lune a Women Feminine Seed a sulphureous vapouring Water and Smoak a fiery burning Spirit a deadly piercing poyson and Basilisk that killeth all a venomous Worm a venomous Serpent a Dragon a Scorpion devouring his Children a hellish Fire of Horse-dung a sharp Salt and Salt-Armoniack a common Salt sharp Soap Lye a viscous Oyl Estrich's Stomach which doth devour and concoct all an Eagle Vulture Bird of Hermes a Vessel and Seal of Hermes a melting and calcining Furnace and innumerable other names of Beasts Birds Herbs Waters Juices Milk Blouds c. And they writ figuratively in their Books of this Water to be made of such things whereas all the unwise which sought it in such like things have not found the true desired Water Know therefore my dear Son that it is only made of Mercury vive and of no other heterogeneous thing in the World and that the Philosophers therefore gave it so many Names that it might not be known to the unwise And with this Item I will conclude this Treatise whereby thou mayst understand and learn that without this Fire all the labour of the whole World is meerly lost all Chymical processes false lying and useless The great Rosary saith there is no more but one Receipt and with this one Lock all the Philosophers Books both particularly and universally are lock'd up and walled about and fenced as it were with a strong Wall and he that knows not the Key nor hath it in possession is not able to open the Lock nor to obtain Fruit. For this Water is the only Key for to open the Metallick Walls and Gardens And this Water is the strong Aquafort of which Isaacus in his particular Work is to be understood wherewithall he dissolveth and spiritualizeth the Bodies And therefore it is very diligently to be noted that without this Water nothing can be effected in Chemiâ and without it all are but falsities and lyes both in Metals and Minerals as also in Vegetables and Animals Whether they dissolve sublime distill calcine extract mix or compound with any other thing whatsoever whether they dissolve per deliquium in Balneo in Horse-dung in Aquafort and all sorts of strong Liquors which seem to promise some probability and according as the pretended processes of Alchymists do teach or may be invented whether there be made Oyl Water Calx Powder black white yellow and red whether it be burnt melted or done any thing about it which the Alchymists Receipts do teach and vent for true whereby to make Gold and Silver all proveth but false and a cheat in the event For my self with my own hand have experimented all such things to my damage and loss not believing them to be false before I tryed them Therefore be exhorted my Son to shun such Sophisters Cheats and Impostors as much as the grand Impostor the Devil and avoid them as carefully as a terrible burning Fire and Poyson for by such Sophistry and sweetly insinuating false Alchymy a man runs the hazard of Body and Soul Reputation and Wealth yea this Imposture is worse than the Devil himself For though a man should spend a whole Province or Kingdom upon such deceitful processes yet all would be consumed in vain and no firm truth thereby be obtained Wherefore open thy eyes own and acknowledge the only Key and flee from all falsity for it is impossible else to speed or do any good FINIS THE PRIVY SEAL OF SECRETS WHICH Upon pain of Damnation is not unadvisedly to be broken up nor Revealed to any but with great Care and many Cautions THE PRIVY SEAL OF SECRETS TO omit circumstances the first Matter out of which the Philosophers Stone iâ—
to be had and taken is a subject common and poor in outward appearance and therefore it is called a little thing and it is in every Mine yet is nearer in some things than in others and in a word in the Mineral Kingdom you must have it in the most excellent work of the Mineral Hierarchy therefore not Animals or Vegetals Know ye then although I deny not Raymonds Canons to be true that the lively Nature being constrained with the strength of Gold in the most subtle heat the Tincture may be made well easily and in a short time which will convert all Metals into perfect Gold but the way of the Philosophers in the Universal Work was out of the Mineral Kingdom leaving therefore Animals and Vegetals I will acquaint you with the Universal Subject Know that all Philosophers affirm that the Matter is but one thing and a vile thing which costeth nothing cast in High-ways and trodden upon which is the hope of Metals or a thing containing all things needful for the Work within it self and albeit curious Wits hold all these to be Aenigma's yet are they true according to the letter Briefly to manifest the truth you shall know that in all Mines whatsoever there doth lye certain Beds of a lutinous or clayish substance under the Earth which in some places is harder than in others the deeper the Mine is the more unctuous is the Clay and this Clay is the Mother of the Metals the feeder of the Mines for in it lies hid the Spirits or the three Principles of Metals viz Salt the Body Sulphur the Soul and Mercury the Spirit not common nor running but a white Vapour which resolves it self into a white Water I say invisibly in this confused lump of Clay lies hid the aforesaid Principles And this is the true Matter or Subject of the Philosophers and mark how that it agreeth with that I said before First that it is one thing which yet containeth three Secondly that it is a vile thing and yet is not so for it is a lump of Clay Thirdly that it is so vile and common that Workmen throw it out of their Mines and tread on it as a thing of no value I have seen High-ways paved with it in Hungary and it is no other in other Countries And is not this a Chaos or confused Matter is not this the hope of Metals be you judge I took my Matter in Hungary out of the Mines of Sol anâ— so I was taught because more decocted and riper or hotter Spiritâ— are there than in any other Mines Paracelsus out of it wrought his Elixir but the Philosophers generally took their Matter which is the same in shew and substance but not so ripe out of the Mines of Saturn and that is their Saturn so often mentioned in their Books not Ore of Saturn nor Mercury of Saturn but the Sperm where the Vegetable Spirits are not specificated to Lead but lye hid in the lutinous lump of Clay Now the difference between that which is taken out of the Mine of Sol and that which is had out of the Mine of Saturn is this in Sol the Matter is so prepared you shall have need but of one Putrefaction but in that taken out of the Mine of Saturn you must have three Putrefactions which indeed is the great and universal Work And thus I have fully and plainly revealed the Matter the Work is easie viz. The Practice TAke this lutinous Clay out of Sol or Saturn for the working in either the Preparation is alike I say take that which is â—rost clammy or unctuous and when you gather it keep it from the Air as close as you can in a Glass or Earthen Vessel for it will which I have admired in an instant indurate and hardenâ— But put it in a Glass Vessel and in that digest it being well stopped in B. M. or in a Blind Head which is better but let three parts of the Vessel be empty and let the heat of your Balneum be such as you may easily hold your hand in it Some Philosophers digested this a Philosophical month which is six weeks but then their Matter was not fresh for if it be fresh then sixteen or twenty days is sufficient After Digestion alter the head and distill and you shall have the Philosophers Oyl which being come your it on the Matter again and this till you have so much Vinegar as will swim four fingers over the Matter then let it stand twenty four hours and it will be tinged yellow pour that gently off and distill away your Vinegar till it come to a gummy substance then pour this Vinegar on the Matter again and it will be tinged yellow distill and reiterate this until your Vinegar be no more tinged yellow then hath it sucked out all the Spirits out of the Clay then from the yellow Liquor distill away all the Vinegar and you shall have a gummy substance like Saccarum Suturni digest this two days then distill away all the Flegm in Balneo then let it cool and put it in a Retort with a great Receiver well luted to it as can be put it into an Ash Furnace and distill it again and by degrees you shall have all your Receiver become as white as Milk which is crude Mercury of Philosophers or the Virgin Milk continue Distillation â—nd a bloud red Oyl shall ascend which is Sulphur of Philosophers incombustible and unctuous continue till no more will come over with so violent a heat for twelve hours that you do almost melt the Glass then let it cool and take off that Receiver and stop it up very close break the Retort and the Feces will be as black as Pitch and hard which grind small on a Marble then Reverberate it in an Earthen Calcining-pan close covered for three days but make not the Matter red-hot and lay it two fingers thick in the Pan then take it out and either with your Vinegar rectified from its Feces or with Rain-water distilled I have tried and found it being well Reverberated that it will take up the Salt but I held the Vinegar the best and most proper digest it therefore with Vinegar twenty hours then philter and distill it in B. M. till it be dry dissolve it again in that Vinegar but first rectifie it let it settle philter and distill and reiterate until the Salt be Crystalline and white then put it in a white glass Body pour thereon this red Oyl which is the Sulphur and also the white Water which is incorporated therewith lute on close and well a Blind Head and digest in Balneo three days and it will be all one thing or pap but then distill away all the humidity that will arise and then put it in an Egg-glass with a short neck nip it up without heating the Matter let the Egg be but a fourth part full This is the gross Conjunction and Preparation without adding any more than Natures proportion put the
perceive that Water is the first Matter of all things which are born or generated in the World for certainly 't is manifest unto thee that nothing grows or receiveth increase without the four Elements therefore whatsoever is Elementated by the virtue of the four Elements it must of necessity be that the original of all things that are born or grow should be of Water Yet ought you not to understand this before spoken of Water but of that Water which is the Matter of all things out of which all Natural things are produced in their kind Know therefore that first of all Air is engendred of Water of Air Fire of Fire Earth Now will I more familiarly and friendly discourse with thee I 'le further manifest this Mystery unto thee by degrees lâ—â—t by too much hast it happen to us according to the Proverb That he that makes too much hast oftentimes comes home too late Now therefore that I may satisfie thy desire I will discourse of the first Matter which Philosophers call the fifth Essence and many other Names they have for it by which they may the more obscure it In it for certain are four Elements pure in their Exaltation Know therefore that if you would have the fifth Essence Man you must first have Man and you must have nothing else of that Matter and see that you observe this well This I say that if you desire to have the Philosophers Stone you must of necessity first have the fifth Essence of that same Stone whether it be Mineral or Vegetative joyn therefore species with species and Gems with Gems and not the one without the other nor any thing contrary which may be other than the species or proper Gems beware therefore of all that is not Essential For of Boneâ— Stones cannot be made neither do Cranes beget Geâ—se which if you will consider you 'l find the profit of it by the help of Divine Grace by the assistance whereof let us fâ—rther proceed to speak of this blessed Water which is called the Water of the Sun and Moon hidden in the concavity of our Earth Concerning which Earth know that all that is generated must of necessity have Male and Female from which action and passion arise without which Generation never is But you will certainly never receive profit from things differing in kinds Notwithstanding if you have this Water of the Sun and Moon it will draw other Bodies and Humours to its own kind by the help of the virtue and heat of the Sun and Moon and will make them perfect As an Infant in the womb of its Mother decoction of temperate heat helping it turneth the Flowers into its nature and kind that is into Flesh Bloud Bones and Life with the other properties of a living Body of which 't is needless to say any more And hence you may understand that our Water changeth it self into a perfect kind with things of its own kind For first it will congeal it self into a substance like Oyl then it will change that Oyl by the means of temperate heat into Gum and lastly by the help of the perfect heat of the Sun into a Stone Now therefore know that out of one thing you have three that is Oyl Gum and a Stone Know also that when the Water is turned into Oyl then you have a perfect Spirit when the Oyl is turned into hard Gum then you have a perfect Spirit and Soul and when the Spirit and Soul are turned into a Stone then you have a perfect Body Soul and Spirit together which as it is called the Philosophers Stone and Elixir and a perfect Medicine of mans Body so also that which is leavened with its genus and the fifth Essencâ— Know Son that fifth Essences are divers one whereof is to Humane Bodies another to Elixir and to the imperfect Bodies of Metals For you must consider that the generation and growth of Metals is not as the growth of mans Body for a genus agrees with its genus and a species with its species Moreover know that the first Matter of man which begetteth the Flesh Bloud Bones and Life is a Spermatick Humour which causeth generation through a vital Spirit included therein And when the Matter is generated and congealed into a Body extract thence the fifth Essence of that Body wherewith you may nourish the Body Yet Son will I tell thee moreover that Water or Matter or Seed whereof Man is begot is not the augmenter of the Body Know Son that if the Body be fed with its natural food then its first Matter will be increased and also the Body viz. the first Matter in quality and the Body in quantity the first Matter is that which is called the fifth Essence Yet know Son that the fifth Essence is one thing and the Matter of augmentation is another and as I said before the increase of Metals is not like the increase of mans Body Although the fifth Essence which causeth the augmentation of Metals may be a fit Medicine for Humane Bodies as also the fifth Essence which causeth the augmentation of mans Body may be a fit Medicine for the Bodies of Metals and therefore as before is said the fifth Essence is one thing and augmentation another You see therefore for what reason our Water is called the first Matter and Seed of Metals viz. because of it all Metals are generated Therefore you will have need of it in the beginning middle and end for as much as it is the cause of all generation because by its Congelation it is turned into all sorts of Metals to wit into the first Matter of the sorts Thence it is called the Seed of Metals and the Metallick Water of Life because it affords Life and Bloud to sick and dead Metals joyneth in Matrimony the Red man with the White woman that is the Sun and the Moon It is called also Virgins Milk for as long as it is not joyned with the Sun and the Moon nor with any thing else except only those which are of its own â—ind so long it may be called a Virgin But when it is joyned with a Male and Female and marrieth with them then is it no longer a Virgin because it adhereth to them and becomes one with them to whom it is joyned that is with the Sun and Moon whom it joyns and is joyned with to generation But as long as it remains a Virgin it is called Virgins Milk the Blessed Water and the Water of Life and by many other Names And now my Son that I may say something of the Philosophers Mercury know that when thou hast put thy Water of Life to the Red man who is our Magnesia and to the White woman whose name is Albifica and they shall all have been gathered together into one then you have the true Philosophers Mercury For after that in this manner all is joyned with a Male and Female then it is called the Philosophers Mercury
doth manifest a Conjunction of the Male and Female or rather of the four Elements Orange colour then doth shew that the Body hath not yet had sufficient digestion and that the humidity whereof the colours of Black Blew and Azure do come is but half overcome by the dryness When dryness doth predominate then all will be white Powder It first beginneth to whiten round about the outward sides of the Glass the Ludus Philosophorum doth say that the first sign of perfect whiteness is the appearing of a little hoary circle passing upon the Head shewing it self round about the Matter on the outward sides of the Glass in a kind of Citrine colour THESAVRVS Sive Medicina Aurea A plain and true DESCRIPTION OF THE Treasure of Treasures OR THE Golden Medicine THESAVRVS Sive Medicina Aurea MAny and great are the Secrets of Nature and concerning them and the way to attain them the wise Philosophers have writ much but in a very dark and Aenigmatical stile so that very few are those that attain to any thing of their desires by them but on the contrary after much time labour and cost in vain expended in the search of them are forced to give over at last and surcease their further inquiry and instead of the desired satisfaction conclude from their lost labours that the Books of the Philosophers are only fabulous and writ to deceive the unwary and those that thirst after so great a Treasure But I vow unto thee by Almighty God that what they have wrote is a real Truth though delivered in so dark and dubious a way that few are able to understand and receive benefit from them I do therefore attest the truth of their Medicines as well for the transmutation of the baser and imperfect Metals into Gold and Silver as for the benefit of Humane Bodies and healing all Bodily Diseases till God calls for the Soul and this above all the Medicines of Galen and Hippocrates But because many great lovers of Knowledge and this Science have so often failed of obtaining the end of their desires in these Mysteries of Nature and not only failed as to the Accomplishment of their desires in full but also came short of knowing the principal subject and ground of Philosophical Secrets I have therefore thought fit to help them by this small Script as much as I may and save them the troubles of that search and by telling them in plain terms and words the true Matter enlighten and encourage their dubious minds to the farther search after what they desire for let them assure themselves it is no small advantage to be assured of the true Matter and ground-work or Basis of so great Arcana's and hereon great and innumerable blessings do depend I do therefore most faithfully assure thee that the true Subject of this Art is Quick-silver in a double manner viz. either Quick-silver Natural or Quick-silver of Bodies viz. the Bodies of Sol or Luna reduced to Mercury vive for many and strange things may be performed by either singly of themselves or else conjoyned The conjunction of the Mercury of Gold or Silver with the common Mercury or the Bodies or the Oyl of Gold and Silver dissolved in the Aqua Mercurii doth much hasten the operation of Medicines for Metals But we need not as absolutely necessary any more than the common Mercury or Quick-silver dissolved lightly either for Elixirs or precious Stones only small Natural Stones must be dissolved in the Mercurial Water so shall you have such Stones again as you dissolve and those of what bigness you please far exceeding Natural ones The next great Secret of Philosophers is the preparation of common Quick-silver or Mercury for common Mercury as Nature produceth it is not fit for such operations nor can they any way be performed by it for our Mercury is not the common Mercury or Quick-silver but is made of it by a true Philosophical skill it is not the white Mercury or Quick-silver but its subtle spiritual airie and fiery parts the earthy and watery being prudently separated For the manifestation of our Mercury the true Mercury of Philosophers first prepare the common Mercury by a due Philosophical preparation until thou hast separated and purged him from his two extremes or excrements Earth and Water dissolve it then after its purification into a Milkie Crystalline and Silver Liquor or Water which in three or four months is to be done being once dissolved thou mayst ever after dissolve more and more Mercury in fully fourty days for Mercury once dissolved dissolveth it self ever after infinitely And having dissolved it distill it perfectly until it have no Faeces in the Cornuae after Distillation bring it again to Putrefaction and when it is blackish distill it again so shalt thou have two Oyls a white Silver Oyl and thickish and at last a very red or Bloud-like Oyl which is the Element of Fire The white Oyl serveth for Multiplication or multiplying the white Elixir and for the making of all precious Stones by dissolving of small precious Stones in it for it will presently dissolve them then in a gentle heat of Ashes congeal them again and they far exceed any Natural ones both in lustre and virtue and hardness The red Oyl is for the multiplying the red Elixir even to an infinite height in projection which when it is by often multiplying or multiplication brought to a fixt Oyl then thou mayst do several Magical yet Natural and strange Operations by it To make the Elixirs thou must proceed thus When thou hast dissolved rightly the common Mercury which cannot be done before it be duly prepared for such a Philosophical dissolution when it is dissolved into a Milkie Silver Crystalline Liquor it will in the distillation leave some Faeces in which remains its more fixt part or Salt which thou must warily and wisely after a gentle and Philosophical Calcination extract and purifie to the highest Purification by which means it will be very white and clean then take seven ounces of the white Mercurial Oyl and dissolve in it as much of this Salt as it will dissolve until it will dissolve no more having so done put thy Liquor into a Philosophical Egg sealing it Hermetically and by due degrees of Fire congeal and fix it being fixed it is the white Medicine which fermented with Silver may be cast upon purged Venus which it will transmute into most fine Silver multiply it with the white Oyl c. If thou wouldst have it be a red Elixir put to it some of the red Oyl and by requisite degrees of heat congeal and fix it as before ferment it with Gold multiply it by the red Oyl and the aforesaid white Salt dissolve in it dissolve it congeal and fix it often until it will congeal no more so will it remain an Oyl which in its projection is almost infinite Endeavour not to multiply it any farther for fear thou losest it it is then so
is quickly joyned to another Water with an identative and uniting mixture Now in Gold there is nothing but Mercury therefore being there is in it little dross which is not of a Mercurial nature as we have shewed there is therein no great resistance but that a pure Mercury may more easily adhere to Gold and Silver than to other Metals in which many superfluities and dross do forbid and hinder other Metals or their congealed Mercury any contact or through mingling with crude Mercury For those superfluities as we have already said are not of the first composition of Mercury nor of the same natural or proportional homogeneity and if happily they be of its composition yet they are not of its proportion for whatever is of any things proportion is not superfluous Wherefore they cannot be inseparably throughly mingled neither with Mercury to be coagulated by Art nor with Mercury coagulated which in the nature of its Mineralness is joyned with them in the same kind of Metal being such dross is combustible by Fire and therefore separable What wonder is it then if in those Metals to which they are accidentally superadded they hinder their natural commixtion and permanent union with coagulated Mercury or other crude Mercury For this very cause Gold it self though never so pure can far more difficultly abide with be joyned and adhere to an unclean and drossie Mercury coagulated or not coagulated than with a pure and clean one Because a simple Nature doth rejoyce in the society of and is perfected by a simple Nature that is like to it and same with it in its first homogeneity and Elemental proportion but Gold as hath been said is nothing else but Mercury thickned by its proper digestion and Elemental action therefore albeit in the Earth there be a difference betwixt Gold and Mercury in ripeness because Gold is more ripe than Mercury yet there is no diversity in their Matter Therefore whatsoever Gold hath acquired by the digestion it hath unto maturity Mercury may acquire the same without any extraneous thing But Art to breviate and contract the Work joyns Gold with Mercury as is said and out of two Sperms it makes and generates artificially that same thing which Nature doth create in the Mines of one actual Seed the identity of the Matter being always everywhere observed but not the same active power And therefore as nothing extraneous to its Nature doth enter this Work in its first composition so neither doth any thing multiply it which is not of the first temperament thereof Wherefore some men think falsly that the Philosophers Stone may be composed of divers things or of all things and be nourished by them instead of the aforesaid Sperms notwithstanding divers names have been imposed on them Neither doth his Philosophick Work eat any thing or convert it into its own Nature which is extraneous because it doth not vegetate Wherefore though there be in the said Philosophick Stone a Body and a Soul or a Spirit it is not therefore vegetably animated as Trees and Plants For this Stone as all Minerals is of the aforesaid first and not of the second or any superiour intention or imposition But Trees and Plants are of the second imposition as Vegetables are of the third fourth fifth or last imposition for mixt things in those four last impositions do vegetate For in them the Elements by many transmutations and by being oftner alterated are more subtle wherefore they are more active and perfect though they are not more durable and permanent in â—heir permixtion because the Elements in them are not of a fixt but dissolvable composition wherefore they take in their nourishment vegetably But our Stone as also all the Minerals is of the first imposition because it vegetates not nor is vegetably nourished but nourishment befalls it rather by apposition of a nourishment of a like nature to it and not by vegetation For example sake because as is manifest by experience out of a Feminine Seed to wit out of Mercury put to it unitively insensibly and by way of composition this Philosophers Stone is nourished but by means of a digestive heat For it takes and assimilates its like unto it self to be multiplied by way of apposition and not vegetably wherefore it becomes weightier in quantity and more active and perfect in quality neither doth Fire or heat multiply this our Stone as its due nourishment because it is not of its first composition but heats it by an extrinsical accident For how can Flame or Fire multiply the Stone it self or make it of it self more weighty when it cannot be fixedly and permanently mingled with it nor is not of its first composition or form Nothing therefore nourishes and multiplies the said Stone to the generation of the same form except the Feminine Seed which nourisheth it by means of heat and nourishes it not vegetably but by way of apposition and commixtion He therefore who thus multiplies and nourisheth it shall not erre because this multiplier and nourisher is turned into the same kind A man may indeed increase the Stone and its weight by extraneous things but this must be done out of its natural kind not convertible into it For that weight would be made besides Nature that is not into the same species nor into the unity of one species yea it would be an aggregation of divers kinds and an accidental composition which might be separated by the Test. But when the Philosophers said that the Stone might be made of every thing truly they understood it not as some perversly interpret them that the Stone might be made of divers things unlike unto it both in kind and nature or which is more absurd that it might be multiplied by a Flame ministred to it from without for this reason especially because Fire and its Flame may by a certain production arise out of every thing Now the refutation of this opinion is manifest from what hath been said before But when the Philosophers say that the Stone is made of every thing they mean that it is made of the four Elements proportionally equalized to one another by a due and natural digestion out of which four Elements every thing that is generable and corruptible is made Therefore by this similitude the Philosophers say our Stone is â—â—de out of every thing that is out of every Element because if any one of them were mortified or destroyed the whole proportion of the Golden Nature would perish and its kind and every thing in whatsoever latitude and sort of alterables is generated out of the four Elements either actually or potentially mixt yet it cannot be properly said of every producible thing but of our Golden Stone and other things equally mixt that they are made out of every thing for this reason especially because in those things which are not produced by an equal but by an adequate proportion of the Elements all the Elements are not actually existent but in their
adequate activity and passion for some of the Elements are therein either in an active or passive power and the rest are therein actually But in the Philosophers Stone which is Gold being it is an uniform Work of Nature all the four Elements active and passive are actually therein and permanent in an equal proportion For the Essence or Nature of Gold is nothing else but the four Elements equally mixed not that their form and matter may be said to be therein equal but their passive and active power that is they are each alike and equal not in quantity but in quality because that the active doth not exceed the passive in its acting nor on the other side the passive doth not exceed the active by suffering more because there is an equal proportion as to measure in our Gold or in our Medicine double hot double moist double cold double dry and all these are actually therein by actual action and passion that is Fire Air Water and Earth as we have said before And all these are said to be alike and equal in quality not quantity because they are equal in actives and passives and they are therefore durably permanent in Gold because the passive in it consists permanently in its active and on the other part the passive rises not up against the active And they ought not to be alike in quantity that is there ought not be so much matter of Fire as there is matter of Earth because then the Fire by reason of its quality would be everywhere of an unequal activity with its passive Earth and of a far greater Wherefore there is in Gold as to its matter but not as to its quality much more of the heavier and more passive Element than of the lighter and more active that â—s more in quantity there is in â—t a greater quantity of Earth than Water a greater quantity of Water than Air a greater of Air than Fire wherefore it is the heaviest of all Metals But in this â—nequal proportion of quantity there is an equal and like proportion of quality of hot dry moist and cold because each of these is in Gold as hath been said The cause of which weight is the permanency of the solidity of the Earth and Water and the solution of an homogeneous Water with the Earth because Water dissolves an homogeneous Earth Also their intrinsical thorow mixture in their very least particles is the cause of the weight because the Water as well in Gold as Quick-silver suffers not the Earth to have any â—res in it which is otherwise in other Metals in which pores are insensibly made in their congelation because of the dross mingled in those Metals all over rejected by the Mercurial nature and heterogeneous whereupon their lightness results which is nothing else but want of matter and porousness of the same as weight is nothing else but a solid addition of matter Wherefore if there were in an equal commensurative quantity so much of the solid matter of Fire as there is of the matter of Earth Fire would be as weighty as Earth But the cause of the weight of Saturn is its immature congelation because it dâ—â—â— not yet reject the dross of its parts whence pores are made in it but the pure and impure abide through mixt together in it everywhere as in the first crude Quick-silver in which the inspissation and coagulation is weak for that cause Saturn or Lead retains the weight of its Quick-silver not because of the purity of its solid matter but because of its immature coagulation or coction Wherefore if in this Work you would not destroy the Fire and Air you must preserve in a distinct and like proportion the heat of the Compound But if you would not destroy the Air and the Water then in the same Compound you must cherish the humid so in the same manner you may preserve the Water and Earth or the Earth and the Fire in the said Work by preserving rightly and by the artifice of the Philosophick skill both the cold and dry because if you destroy any one of them the proportionabâ—â— form and kind of Gold is lost For this cause the Philosophers say our Gold is made of every thing that is of every Element every Element being intrinsically preserved in it and actually compounding it wherefore all the Elements are intrinsically in act or power the principles of all compounded alterable things and for that cause are said to be all things Furthermore my Reverend Doctor for your credits sake you must understand the sayings of the Philosophers according to the possibility of Nature and not according to the sound of Words For they have handled this holy and hidden Art and its Secrets under Similitudes Fables Riddles and obscure words and have hid it purposely that it might not be exposed to the unlearned impious and unworthy Furthermore that I may go on to other Heads of your Epistle I understand the artifice of your Stone to be a composure from Gold but from your writing I cannot apprehend it because you set not down the first original of that Composition Therefore I shall not need to handle it more at large till you instruct me fully and more plainly in its Composition and Operation For I cannot neither believe that the Elixir or Philosophers Stone can consist of the signs appearing in it and of the properties of the nutritive vegetation of the flaming Fire which you attribute to it as I have openly shewed in what I have said already But when I received your Work and the gift of so great a Secret sent unto me I at once understood your unfeigned love and free confidence in me Wherefore for your Friendship sake I reserve your Stone with me and keep it as a most acceptable gift and shall write unto you more concerning it when you shall declare it to me more manifestly But whereas you say that in your Stone there are three a Body Spirit and Soul which is manifest to you by your experience and work the Philosophers when they said those three natural things were in their artificial Stone understood it by way of resemblance and experiment For they called the Earth its Body and Bones because it is an astringent Compound and restrains the fluid Elements from their raw flexibility having the Fire also with it symbolically by its driness But they called the Water and Air its Spirit because they are the Elements that moisten and dissolve the Earth But they called the Air and Fire the Soul because they ripen and digest the whole Compound And they named them thus with resemblance unto Humane nature because in a well-constituted Flesh there ought to be Bones to sustain the Body and likewise there ought to be in the Flesh a vivacity of vegetable Accidents which are called its Spirits contrary to the errors of the Pagan Philosophers who thought the vital Spirits to be something distinct from the Body compounded and parts compounding
most cold may yet in a short time be made most hot and in the same manner with temperate things may be made temperate by a most subtlâ— artificial invention And no Metaâ— adheres better to it than Gold as you say and therefore as some think Gold is nothing but Quick-silver coagulated by the power oâ— Sulphur c. And thence you would conclude as I think and well that if Gold be decocted and dissolved rightly in the natural way of Art Quick-silver it self will obtain the natural properties of that Gold But the way of this decoction and solution of Metals is known to very few and it manifestly appears for the cause oâ— this Solution is the moistness oâ— Mercury restrained by the compactness of an Homogeneal Earth and contrarywise the coldness of the Earth restrained by a Wateâ—â—omogeneal to it self the Homogeneousness of qualities remaining So that there is in it a single dryness and double coldness a simple moistness but under a disproportion of immaturity to the anatical proportion of the ripe digested Sun The dissolver therefore differs from the dissolvend in proportion and digestion and not in matter because Nature might make this of that without any additional mixture as Nature doth wonderfully and simply produce Gold of Quick-silver as you have learnedly discoursed in your Epistle For in Vegetables the moisture of simple Water is taken for an intrinsick dissolution that things congealed by Art might diffuse into it their effects and the dissolution of things come about with the coagulation of Water and the coagulation of Water with the dissolution of things and contrarywise and so it is likewise in the Mineral Water and things of its kind He therefore that knows the Art and Secret of Dissolution hath attained the secret point of Art which is to mingle throughly the kinds and out of Natures to extract Natures which are effectually hid in them How hath he then found the truth who destroys the moist nature of Quick-silver as those Fools who deform its kind from its Metallick disposition or dissolution and by dissolving its radical moisture corrupt it and disproportion Quick-silver from its first Mineral quality which needs nothing but purity and simple decoction For example they who defile it with Salts Vitriols and aluminous things destroy it and change it into some other thing than is the nature of Quick-silver For that Seed which Nature by its sagacity and clemency oâ—â—osed they endeavour to perfect by violating and destroying it which undoubtedly is destructive to it as far as concerns the effect of our Work For the Seed in humane and sensitive things is formed by Nature and not by Art but it is joyned by Art and well mixed but nothing is to be taken from it nor added to it if the same specieâ— must be renovated by the procreation of its own kind so the same Matter must abide and continue that the same Form may follow which it doth not otherwise Wherefore excellent Doctor false and vain is all their doctrine which altereth Mercury which is the Seed before the Metallick species be joyned with it For if it be dryed up it dissolves not What then can it do in the solution of things of own species For if it be heated beyond its natural digestion it will not cause nor generate in the Metalline species a Feverish heat as it were and will impertinently turn cold into hot and passive into active and the errour from thence will be incorrigible and labour lost For example Fools draw corrosive Waters out of inferiour Minerals into which they cast the species of Metals and corrode them For they think that they are therefore dissolved with a natural Solution which Solution truly requires a permanency of the dissolver and dissolved together that a new species might result from both the Masculine and Feminine Seed I tell you assuredly that no Water dissolves any Metallick species by a natural Solution save that which abides with them in matter and form and which the Metals themselves being dissolved can recongeal which thing happens not in Aquafortis but rather is a defilement of the Compound that is of the Body to be dissolved Neither is that Water proper for Solutions of Bodies which abides not with them in their Coagulations and finally Mercury is of this sort and not Aquafortis nor that which Fools imagine to be a lympid and diaphanous Mercurial Water For if they divide or obstruct the homogeneity of Mercury how can the first proportion of the Feminine Seed consist and be preserved Because Mercury cannot receive Congelation with the dissolved Body neither will the true kind be â—â—novated afterwards in the administration of the Art nay but some other filthy and unprofitable thing Yet thus they think they â—issolve mistaking Nature but dissolve not For the Aquafortis being â—bstracted the Body becometh â—eltable as before and that Water abides not with nor subsists in the Body as its radical moisture The Bodies indeed are corroded but not dissolved and by how much more they are corroded they are so much more estranged from a Metallick kind These Solutions therefore are not the foundation of the Art of Transmutation but the impostures rather of Sophâ—â—tical Alchymists who think that this Sacred Art is hid in them They say indeed that they make Solutions but they cannot make perfect Metallick species because they do not naturally remain under the first proportion or kind which Mercury the Water allows in Metallick species For Mercury is corrupted with Metals by way of alteration not dissipation because Bodies dissolved therein are never separated from it as in Aquafortis and other corrosives but one kind puts on and hides another retaining it secretly and perfectly so Sol and Lune dissolved are secretly retained in it For their nature is hid in Mercury even unto its condensation of which they lying hid are the cause in as much as they are latent in it and as Mercury dissolves them and hides them in its belly so they also congeal it and what was hard is made soft what was soft hard and yet the kind that is Metals and Quick-silver abide still He therefore who thus dissolves congeals rather and the corrupted species conjoyned receive their old-form by an artificial decoction Notwithstanding this dissolution makes several colours appear because the species remain as it were dead yet their intrinsical proportion is permanent and entire So the Lord in the Gospel speaks by way of similitude of Vegetables Unless a grain of corn fallen on the earth do dye it abides alone but if it dye it brings forth much fruit Therefore this alterative corruption hides forms perfects natures keeps proportions and changes colours from the beginning to the end For when the Water begins to cover the Earth the black colour begins to be hid under the white when the Air covers the Water and the Earth the citrine colour appears which is turned to red when the Fire covers the Air or the other