into the form of Trees Rods or Hairs c. I have been the more large in this point to prove the growth and vegetability of Metals and Minerals because it is not of the least concern in the promoting of Mineral knowledge and I could have added more testimonies but these being from most approved Authors I hold to be sufficient Onely I shall commend some particulars deduced from hence to be inquired of by all persons that love metallick knowledge and have opportunities and abilities to search after the same As also to all those that travel where any Mines are and especially to all ingenious persons that are Overseers of Mines or imployed about them or work in them to take notice of these few Inquiries 1. To observe whether Earths of any sort or Stones do grow and increase and after what order and fashion 2. And that all those in our own Nation or elsewhere that work about Allom and Vitriol would observe how their Ores do lie and are found and whether they increase or not 3. And seeing our Nation hath store of Tin and Lead Mines that they would observe whether their Ores grow or not and in what manner 4. And in Tin and Lead Mines and all other as of Copper Silver Gold Quicksilver or Cineber and of Iron whether any such liquid matter may be found as the Germans call Gur or not and of what colours and qualities as it seems the water found at Anneberg that yielded Silver was blew and that which Paracelsus calls the primum ens auri was like red water and that of Quicksilver he calls blood or not 5. That inquiry may be made whether any steams arising in Mines do grow into a metalline substance or not 6. Lastly and to inquire whether where Ores are wrought out that they do after some years renew and grow again or not CHAP. IV. Of the Causes assigned by the most approved Authors for their generations both efficient and material and the manner thereof FOr the material and efficient causes and manner of the generation of Metals We shall enumerate some opinions of the chief Authors and leave the Reader to chuse which he judgeth most probable or most true because we mean not to dogmatize nor impose upon any but rather to move all men to a diligent search after the things of this nature that if possible the truth of their generations may be found forth and discovered In the first place we shall give the opinion of the Aristotelians and to eschew tediousness shall transcribe what Dr. Iorden hath written in that case with his censure upon it and his own opinion adjoyned because that little Tract of his may be in few mens hands and hard to be got who relateth it thus For the manner of generation of Minerals although it be alike in all yet it differs from the generation of animate bodies whether animals or vegetables in this that having no seed they have no power or instinct of producing other individuals but have their species perpetuated per virtutem seu spiritum semini Analogum by a spiritual substance proportionable to seed which is not resident in every individual as it is in animals and plants but in their proper wombs This saith he is the judgment of Petrus Severinus however he doth obscure it by his Platonical grandiloquence And as there is not vacuum in corporibus so much less in speciebus for that the species are perpetuated by new generations is most certain and proved before that it is not out of the seeds of individuals is evident by this that if Minerals do not assimilate nourishment by attraction retention concoction expulsion c. for the maintenance of their own individual bodies much less are they able to breed a superfluity of nourishment for seed And how can they attract and concoct nourishment and expel excrements which have no veins nor fibres nor any distinct parts to perform those Offices withal Moreover they are not increased as Plants are by nourishment whereas the parts already generated are extended in all proportions by the ingression of nutriment which fills and enlarges them But onely are augmented externally upon the superficies by superaddition of new matter concocted by the same virtue and spirit into the same species The matter whereof Minerals are bred is much controverted Aristotle makes the humidity of water and the dryness of earth to be the matter of all Minerals the dryness of earth to participate with fire and the humidity of water with air as Zabarella interprets it so that to make a perfect mixt body the four Elements do concur and to make the mixture more perfect these must be resolved into vapour or exhalation by the heat of fire or influence from the Sun and other Planets as the efficient cause of their generation but the cause of their congelation to be cold in such bodies as heat will resolve This vapour consisting partly of moisture and partly of dryness if all the moisture be spent turns to earth salt or concrete juices which dissolve in moisture If some moisture remain before congelation then it turns to stone If this dry exhalation be unctuous fat and combustible then Bitumen Sulphur and Orpiment are bred of it if it be dry and incombustible then concrete juices c. But if moisture do abound in this vapor then Metals are generated which are fusible and malleable And for the perfecting of these generations this exhalation is not sufficient but to give them their due consistence there must be the help of cold from Rocks in the earth to congeal this exhalation So that here must be two efficients heat and cold And for the better effecting of this these exhalations do insinuate themselves into stones in the form of dew or frost that is in little grains but differing from dew and frost in this that these are generated after that the vapour is converted to water whereas Minerals are generated before this conversion into Water But there is doubt to be made of frost because that is bred before the conversion of the exhalation into Water as may appear Meteor 1. According to this assertion there must be two places for the generation of Minerals the one a matrix where they receive their essence by heat in form of an exhalation and from thence they are sent to a second place to receive their congelation by the coldness of Rocks And from this matrix come our Mineral waters and not from the place of congelation This is the generation of Minerals according to Aristotle but it is not so clear but that it leaves many scruples both concerning the matter and efficients For the matter it seems not probable that water and earth should make any thing but mud and dirt for you can expect no more from any thing then is in it the one is cold and dry the other cold and moist and therefore as fit to be the matter of any other
and expert Mineralists which we shall handle fully and at large And for order sake we may consider First the matter of which they hold they are generated Secondly the efficient cause of their generation Thirdly the manner how they are generated 1. The ancient Chymical Philosophers held that the matter out of which the Metals were generated were Sulphur and Mercury but Basilius Valentinus Paracelsus and the later Chymists have added Salt as a third which notwithstanding though they seem to make them three in number and properties yet they intended but one Homogeneous substance or essence and the most of them joyned Salt with the Sulphur so that in effect they held but two And this Sulphur and Mercury they did not mean of those that are vulgar as the most of their adversaries have too grosly mistaken and therefore it will be necessary in the first place to clear what they understand by Sulphur and Mercury and how those two are first generated 1. Their Sulphur and Mercury they variously describe as Sendivogius saith Prima materia metallorum principalis est humidum aeris caliditate mixtum hanc Philosophi Mercurium nominarunt qui radiis solis lunae gubernatur in mari Philosophico The first and principal matter of Metals is the humidity of the Air mixt with calidity this the Philosophers have named Mercury which is governed with the rayes of the Sun and Moon in the Philosophers Sea Secunda est terrae caliditas sicca quam vocarunt Sulphur The second is the dry calidity of the Earth which they have called Sulphur And again he saith Quatuor elementa in prima operatione naturae stillant per Archaeum naturae in terrae centrum vaporem aquae ponderosum qui est metallorum semen dicitur mercurius propter ejus fluxibilitatem uniuscujusque rei conjunctionem non propter essentiam assimilatur Sulphuri propter internum calorem post congelationem est humidum radicale The four Elements in the first operation of Nature do distill by the Archaeus or Workman of Nature into the centre of the Earth a ponderous vapour of Water which is the seed of Metals and is called Mercury because of its fluxibility and its conjunction with every thing not because of its essence it is likened to Sulphur because of its internal heat and after congelation is the radical moistâ—â—e Trevisan defines Sulphur thus Sulphur enim aliud nihil est quam purus ignis occultus in mercurio qui longo successu temporis excitatur atque movetur motibus corporum coelestium digeritque frigiditatem humiditatem in mercurio pro varietate graduum decoctionis alterationis in diversas formas metallicas c. For Sulphur is nothing else then pure fire hid in the Mercury which in long continuance of time is excited and moved by the motions of the celestial bodies and doth digest the coldness and humidity in the Mercury according to the variety of the degrees of decoction and alteration into divers metallick forms Elsewhere he hath called Sulphur the masculine agent fire and air which in the metallick seed doth maturate and digest the two feminine passives of Earth and Water because that heat is an intrinsick and essential part of the Mercury it self to wit the two more active elements in it that is to say the Air and Fire And again because Sulphur is no other thing then the pure act of the Air and Fire making hot digesting or decocting the Earth and Water proportionable to it self and Homogeneous in the Mercury And Geber saith it is nothing else but light and tincture and others call it the most ripe part of the Mercury And the ingenuous and candid Nollius defines it thus The Sulphur with which Argent vive is impregnated is not the vulgar Sulphur but fire placed in the Argent vive by which it is excocted into a Metal in the Mines by the intervening of Motion 2. These two are not distinct as though Mercury were one thing and Sulphur another as extraneous bodies one to another For Trevisan saith Sulphur is not something separate by it self without the substance of the Mercury neither common Sulphur otherwise the matter of Metals should not be Homogeneous which is repugnant to the opinion of all Philosophers Likewise Morienus and Aros say Our Sulphur is not vulgar Sulphur but sixt and not volatile of the nature of Mercury and not of any other thing whatsoever And Trevisan again saith Some persons do judge amiss that in the procreation of Metals some Sulphureous matter doth intervene but it is manifest on the contrary that Sulphur is included in his Mercury when Nature doth operate 3. Now for the generation of their Mercury or viscous fatness they describe it thus Aethereus mundi spiritus quem animam appellitant duo elementa aquam terram inter se committit atque ex utrisque conjunctis spiritum quendam prolicit unctuosum eumque in centrum terrae demittit ut ex eo sursum elevetur in matricem deferatur debitam ac in ea in argentum vivum sulphure sale naturae impraegnatam concoquatur The Aethereal spirit which they call the soul doth commix betwixt themselves the two Elements Water and Earth and of them both being conjoyned doth draw forth a certain unctuous spirit and doth dimit it down into the centre of the Earth that from thence it may be lifted upwards and be carried into a fit matrix and in it may be concocted into Argent vive impregnated with the sulphur and salt of Nature And Sendivogius thus Res omnes nasci ex aere liquido vel vapore quem elementa perpetuo motu in viscerae terrae stillant hunc postquam naturae Archaeus accepit per poros sublimat unicuique loco sua sagacitate tribuit sic locorum varietate res etiam proveniunt nascuntur variae Quando enim ex terrae centro sublimatur vapor ille transit per loca vel sicca vel calida Si igitur transit vapor per loca calida pura ubi pinguedo sulphuris parietibus adhaeret vapor ille quem Philosophi mercurium Philosophorum dixerunt accommodat se jungitur illi pinguedini quam postea secum sublimat tunc fit unctuositas relicto nomine vaporis accipit nomen pinguedinis That all things do grow of the liquid air or vapour which the Elements do distil by a perpetual motion into the bowels of the Earth which after the Archaeus or Workman of Nature hath taken he doth sublime it through the pores and doth distribute to every place by his sagacity and so by the variety of places various things do come and grow For when this vapour is sublimed from the centre of the Earth it passeth by places either drie or hot If therefore the vapour pass by places hot and pure where the fatness of Sulphur doth cleave to the walls that vapour which the
of generation is signified Wormius gives this modest definition of a Metal Metallum est corpus perfecte mistum non vivens sed viventi aemulum à Deo in venis creatum ex terra subtilissima halitibus pinguibus ex terra aqua per calorâ—m mistis ut inde sulphureum mercuriale semen fiat ex quo metalla generari possunt quae accedente salino principio concrescunt incrementa capiunt donec pura perfecta reddantur igne fusilia ictuque in longum latum ductibilia A Metal is a perfect mixt body not living emulating life created of God in the veins of a most subtile earth and steams being fat from the earth and water mixed by heat that from thence a sulphureous and mercurial seed may be made from whence Metals may be generated which do joyn together and take increase by a saline principle coming to them until they be made pure and perfect being fusible by fire and by force to be drawn into length and bredth 3. Schroderus gives this description Metalta sunâ— corpora dura ductilia ex succo salino sine Mercurio vi sui sulphuris in terra coagulato Metals are hard bodies to be drawn or ductible coagulated of a saline juice or Mercury by the force of sulphur in the earth There might be many more definitions or descriptions given of Metals from many other Authors but so defective or imperfect that I have onely instanced in these to shew how lame this piece of learning is concerning Metals that all ingenuous persons may be stirred up to a farther search into the nature and properties of them to help to lead this knowledge towards perfection And therefore we shall onely mention three particulars that may be observed from what hath been spoken before 1. That if we take a Metal in the sense of the first definition of Magyrus then it may comprehend both those that are strictly called Metals not excluding common argent vive to be one and those that are also called semi-metals as Autimony and the like 2. But if we take a Metal strictly to be a perfect mixt constant and Mineral body fusible ductible or malleable arising or generated of Sulphur and Mercury and so the special difference of a Metal from all other Minerals to be its abiding the hammer and per se or of its own nature without commixture of any other to endure extension into length and bredth by force Then quicksilver must be none of them nor those that are accounted semi-metals as Antimony Bismuth or Tin-glass and the like which of themselves will not extend under the hammer but with the commixion of some others will easily do it For they make a semi-metal to be a perfect mixt body less constant fusible not ductible per se compounded of a less perfect Mercury and Sulphur then the former It s difference from other Minerals to be its metallick colour and fusion and from a Metal that it will not without mixture of some other extend under the hammer but proves brittle and frangible 3. But if a metallick body be taken in the largest sense then it sometimes comprehends not onely those that are malleable per se but those called semi-metals that will not extend under the hammer without commixtion of some other and those other Minerals that some Authors call Cachimiae Marchasitae of all which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter In the next place we come to speak of the number of the Metals which commonly are accounted seven according to the number of the seven Planets which we shall let pass as a thing assumed by Analogy and similitude more then by certainty and truth but because they have been most anciently and commonly known more then others they have got that repute and esteem which we shall not labour to take from them Concerning this point we may take the judgment of Paracelsus in stead of all whose experience in Mineral knowledge was inferiour to none who saith But understand further of the generation of Metals that there is a great number and a diverse variety of them For a Metal is that which the fire can tame and the Workman frame an instrument of of which are Gold Silver Iron Copper Lead Tin For these are accounted Metals of all men But furthermore also there are certain other Metals which are not accounted Metals either in the Writings or Philosophy of the Ancients or by the vulgar and notwithstanding they are Metals Hitherto doth belong Zink Cobalt which are tamed and forged or stamped by force of the fire as also certain Granates so used to be called of which there are many kinds and these are Metals But there are many others besides these that are not yet known unto me as are many differences in Marchasites in Bismuths in other Cachimies which yield Metals but not yet known or discovered For the chief Metals are onely known that are more ready and commodious for use as Gold Silver Iron Copper Tin Lead The rest are for the most part neglected through a certain slothfulness neither is there much care taken about their properties For neither the Smith nor Artist that worketh in Iron or Tin or Copper regardeth them and yet they are Metals for other Artificers not yet sprung up for none labours to learn except by one way and one Art And a little after he saith But this Chapter of Metals doth teach that there are six Metals in number known unto me which also I have reckoned above to which yet a few more are to be added to wit three or four also known unto me whose number and species do hereafter follow But it is of likelihood to me that yet a great number of them remains behind unknown For by the probation or essaying of Metals manifold trials or essays do offer themselves which are of a metallick nature that is they are verily estimated according to the nature of the known Metals but notwithstanding they do not altogether agree with it that from hence I conjecture that there remains a great number of Metals undiscovered For every Mineral may be rightly known and discerned if it be tried or tested by a just proof or examination And to this purpose Georgius Agricola tells us That he would shew them a certain kind of Mineral which was in the number of the Metals but as it seemed to him unknown to the Ancients which the Germans called Bismuth And thereupon they reply Therefore according to thy opinion there are more then the vulgarly and commonly known seven Metals To which he replies I judge there are more for this which even now I told you our Countreymen call Bismuth you cannot rightly say it is either white Lead that is Tin nor black Lead that is that Lead which is commonly called so but differs from them both and is a third kind And again he tells us That there are said to be six Metals in number distinct in kind to
there do arise two Metals different one from another in essence species kind and propriety And further saith that though commonly the male and female go together yet they ought to be separated CHAP. XVII Of some signs where Copper Ore may be found as also of its several sorts and the divers preparations it undergoes ere it be pure AThanasius Kircherus doth give us these signs to know where Copper Ore may be found 1. That where plenty of the clifts and sissures of stones are that shew of a yellow and blewish colour there is latent Copper Ore 2. That whensoever we find stones of a blue colour in or among other stones of a grey colour shadowed with little Veins of a green colour then this is a certain token of the best and most plentiful vein of Copper Ore 3. That when we see the rocks or stones in the Mountains to shine like Talk which is nothing else but the birth or foliated off-spring of a Marchasite or fire-stone that it obtaineth the next discovery of an hidden vein of Copper Ore 4. Furthermore when the vitriolate waters flowing from the Mountains are of a somewhat green colour and of a metallick smell and which cover over the bottoms of the flouds or rivers with a certain putrid green tenuious and slimy matter as with a skin it doth shew that the Mountains from whence the water comes are pregnant with Copper Ore Now for the sorts of Copper Ore they are twofold the one when pure Copper is found in the Mine which is statim suum and needs not to be purified by the fire and the other must be refined and that often ere it be brought into pure clear Copper For the first sort which the Germans call Rein gediegen Kupfer it is affirmed by several experienced Authors that it is found pure sometimes in the Mines and needs no purifying with the fire and so Eucelius tells us in these words That there is found pure Copper in the Copper and Silver Mines that is such of it self without excoction by the fire And that sometimes little veins are found implicated with the stones and sometimes leaves or plates do embrace the stone and that Alberâ—us was ignorant of this And Agricola tells us thus much That pure Copper was not onely found in its proper Veins but also in the silver Mines This he saith the Ancients knew not neither Albertus although that he writ that the most and best Copper was found at Gostaria and mixed with the whole substance of the stone as it were a Marchasite so he calleth a fire-stone But Agricola saith If it be found mixed with the substance of the stone it is not pure that is to say it is not statim suum and much less most pure but is purified by the help and workmanship of the Furnace but he further saith I do not know that great masses of Copper as there hath been found of Silver have been digged up but rather certain little masses of a very various figure to wit sometimes in the figure of drops or isicles of little rods or little rundlets or globes Also it s most small leaves or plates do cleave to the stones But this native Copper for the most part containeth somewhat of Silver in it Wormius tells us that he had a piece from the Mines of Osterdale in Norway of the figure of little masses laminated plain consisting as it were of most small grains joyned together of a rubicund colour and truly Copper-like but exceeding brittle And although it did seem to consist of most small grains joyned together by reason of which it was very brittle and friable yet it did cleave together and was hardly to be separated into smaller pieces He had another piece to which leaves or plates of Talk were admixed And he saith that very near a kin to this was that which Andreas Chiocus the Author of the Musaeum Calceoâ—arium calls the true flower of Copper and did describe it in these words The true and legitimate flower of Copper is heavy friable and of an astringent sapor or taste growing reddish with a little shining colour flourishing forth of its proper Mine of Copper into most small little grains expressing in magnitude the seed of wild Poppy Rulandus tells us also some sorts of pure Copper that needed not the fire 1. Native red Copper free from other Metals that was found in the Country of Mansfield in its proper Veins 2. Pure digged forth of the Mines of Silver at Scheberg 3. Red at Mansfield which contained Silver in it 4. That which was native and red Suaceuse in Alpibus Rheticis which did contain gold in it 5. Of its own colour found at Gishubelia cleaving like leaves or plates to a hard stone of a red colour 6. Of othersome cleaving to an hard stone of a whitish ash-colour other cleaving to a slat stone at Mansfield of its own colour and from Moravia that was statim suum The honourable person Mr. Boyl tells us in one of his Queries for Minerals thus Whether any part of the Metal be found in the Mine perfect and complete As I have had presented me good valuable Copper and pieces of perfect Lead that were taken up the one at Iamaica and the other by an acquaintance of mine that took them out of the ground himself in New England 2. For Copper Ore that must be often melted in the fire ere it be brought into the form of good Copper there are divers sorts some of which kinds were formerly found at Keswick and Newland in Cumberland as learned Camden relateth at large and the Work was continued a long time and much good Copper made there but now the Work is quite left and decayed yet I am informed that some do now melt forth as much very good Copper as serveth them to make Half-pennies and Farthings Some of the Ore I have which is like a greyish kind of Marchasite glittering with some goldish sparks and very ponderous Another sort I have that seems a blewish kind of stone with bright sparks of the colour of gold and exceeding heavy and I make no doubt but that if diligence were used plenty of this sort of Ore might be found in many places of England And Dr. Merreâ—t tells us that Copper was digged up at Wenloch in Staffordshire and that in the time of Richard the Second there was a rich Copper Mine at Richmond in the Bishoprick of Durham But now I do not hear of any gotten thereabouts Wormius tells us thus much saying Crude Copper Ore obtaineth various differences in respect of its colour consistence goodness and coction For the most part it is drawn forth of a Marchasite or Fire-stone or forth of the lapis scissilis which I take to be some sort of that which we call slat stones Among thirteen peculiar kinds he saith I find great difference in respect of goodness and fertility though they all arise
the mineral that is found washed down or otherwise brought down into the Valleys Shoad 11. They have a thing they call Mundick sometimes found in the Ore which they separate lest it should spoil the Ore some of it is yellow which is the worst and sometimes of other colours and the Mundick after smelting the Ore is blackish and hard Of it Mr. Boyl saith thus Mundick I have had of a fine golden colour but though it be affirmed to hold no Metal yet I found it in weight and otherwise to differ from Marchasites and the Mine men think it of a poysonous nature 12. They have a thing they call Maxy mixt with the Ore which cannot be separated by the water but by the fire and then smells very ill and is of a blewish colour 13. Lastly They also find something like bright Ore which they call Shim And thus much of this Metal seeing there is no need to speak of any Medicaments prepared forth of it because I have not had experience of any such CHAP. XXIV Of the several sorts of Mercuries according to the Mystical Philosophers or Adeptists THough I may be censured variously by several sorts of men for intermeddling in such a mysterious and high a subject as this Chapter importeth yet without valuing them I shall lay open some things that have not been much noted or understood by many that think themselves sufficiently knowing in these matters and leave them to those that with me do understand the Authors from whom I have these things I now treat of being assured that these things are not for those that are led by fansie and opination but for those that are understanding and the genuine Sons of Hermes I find in the heedful and diligent search of the Writings of that profoundly learned and experienced person Paracelsus absit invidia verbis that he understood four several sorts of Mercuries which we shall rank in this order and so handle them 1. There is the Mercury of the Philosophers which is a thing in a various sense Mercurio vulgi communius 2. There is that which he calleth Mercurius Corporis which is made astraliter by the Tincture forth of another Metal as when Lead Tin or Copper is transmuted into true running common Mercury or Quicksilver or it may be as Libanius recordeth of Kelley that common Gold is changed into Quicksilver of which he thus speaketh Sic etiam Mercurius Corporis è metallo alio factus astraliter multo nobilior fixior est Mercurio communi 3. There is Mercurius Metallicus or Corporalis that is extracted drawn and separated from the perfect or imperfect Metals as is that mercurial part of Copper mentioned by Helmont after the external and combustible sulphur be separated from it which may be reduced into a white and anonymous Metal and this not to be had but by the help of the Alkahest 4. The vulgar Mercury or common Quicksilver And of two of these we shall speak to wit of the Philosophers Mercury and of common Quicksilver 1. Concerning the Philosophers Mercury we would admonish the studious searcher after Natures Secrets that these kind of Authors did not write to such ends and purposes as the most of other Authors did plainly and openly to reveal their Art for it was not lawful for them so to do and that for weighty reasons known to themselves and not fit to be divulged But to declare the truth in riddles and parables therefore let them take this rule from a learned Author who saith thus Let a Lover of Truth make use of a few Authors but of best note and experienced Truth let him suspect things that are quickly understood especially in mystical names and secret operations for truth lies hid in obscurity nor do Philosophers ever write more deceitfully then when plainly nor ever more truly then when obscurely And therefore Geber tells us Ubicunque aperte locuti sumus ibi nihil diximus sed ubi sub Aenigmate aliquid posuimus figuris ibi veritatem occultabimus Again Let the studious Reader diligently mark in what points they agree in for there necessarily the truth is to be found for Concord is the strongest evidence and Truth consists onely in unity For Trevisan saith Consideravi potius quibus locis libri maxime convenirent in eundem sensum ibidem existimavi latere potissimum veritatem quae non potest in pluribus sed in uno tantum existere hac viâ mihi fact a est obviam veritas In quibus enim maxime convenire videbam in unum hoc ipsum fuit quod tam anxie quaesieram Lastly observe this Let the studious Reader have a care of the manifold signification of words for by deceitful winding and doubtful yea contrary speeches as it should seem Philosophers vent their mysteries with a desire of keeping and hiding not sophisticating or destroying the truth And in nothing have they been more dark and obscure then about this that they call their Mercury which they have made manifold four sorts of which we shall onely handle 1. They do sometimes call perfect Elixir and colouring medicine their Mercury though with some impropriety as to other appellations of it being perfectly fixt and not volatile because of the likeness and great conformity it hath with heavenly Mercury or with the Planet so called which accommodateth it self to the nature and quality of every thing it is joyned withal The like this uncertain Elixir worketh for that being tied to no proper quality it imbraceth the quality and disposition of the thing wherewith it is mixed and wonderfully multiplieth the vertues and qualities thereof And in this sense for the most part the Philosophers understand it and not in respect of common Mercury or its volatility For Sendivogius saith thus Dicitur Mercurius propter ejus fluxibilitatem uniuscujusque rei conjunctionem non propter essentiam assimilatur sulphuri propter internum calorem post congelationem est humidum radicale For the Philosophers Sulphur or Tincture before Fermentation is in this sense truly mercurial and universal but after it be fermented that universality is determined and specificated according to the nature of the Metal with which it is fermented and so it is no more an universal but a particular Et ante fermentationem tamen est catholica ac universalis vere in omnia sublunaria agit universaliter catholice Post fermentationem autem est specificata ad naturam metallicam And again Et est vere universalis ante fermentationem post eam specifica 2. There is another matter which they call their Mercury which is the most universal that is in nature and forth of which in the first creation all specificated bodies were produced and still continueth both the efficient and material cause and matter of all generations and productions and this they called Hyle or Chaos and Raymund Lully the genus generalissimum of all things And doubtless was
no other then Aristotles materia prima fift Essence or fift Element which few of his Interpreters understood and many others derided as though because they did not know it therefore others did not when indeed that learned Graecian understood much that in his Writings he opened but darkly and therefore however the proud and ignorant may scoff and jeer we do affirm that there is such a matter in rerum natura though in some respects it be a truth that it is neque quantum neque quale neque quid neque quicquid eorum quae cernuntur and this the ancient Sages knew and understood well enough and sometimes called it Anima Mundi or Spiritus Catholicus and by many other such like names And it is of this that the learned Lord of Nuysement epitomized by Combachius writ that learned Treatise De vero Sale secreto Philosophorum de universali mundi spiritu who saith in one place thus Ego vero tracto de materia universali nondum specificata quae proprie materia prima hujus materiae primae metallicae appellari potest tanquam generalissimum genus generum à Raymundo Lullio adeo celebratum And as the Philosophers did understand this to be the first true matter of all things so they had an universal matter that was mineral from whence all Metals did spring and arise so that by allusion and comparison they often expressed the nature of the one by the other which many and they very learned too not discerning the confounding of these two together have often taken the one for the other and so have both been deceived and also deceived others of which thing learned Ripley giveth us this caution In the beginning when thou madst all of nought A Globous matter and dark under confusion By the beginner marvellously was wrought Containing naturally all things without division Of which thou madst in six days dear distinction As Genesis aperily doth record Then Heaven and Earth perfected were with thy Word So thorow thy will and power out of one mass Confused was made all things that being is But in thy glory afore as Maker thou was Now is and shall be without end I wiss And purified souls up to thy bliss Shall come a principle this may be one For the declaring of our Stone For as of one Mass was made all thing Right so must it in our practice be All our secrets of one Image must spring In Philosophers books therefore who lust to see Our Stone is called the less World one and three Magnesia also of Sulphur and Mercury Proportionate by nature most perfectly Here the careful Reader may observe not onely the description of this matter that he calleth Globous known and understood of so few as also the comparison of it to the matter of their great Stone 3. The matter forth of which they prepare their artificial Water they call their Mercury which thing Nature hath produced ready for the Artist to begin his work withal And though it be conversant before the eyes of all the World and be a common known despicable matter yet it is one of their greatest secrets which they have most hid and veiled and the most difficult for an Artist to know that this is the true subject that he must begin to work upon But when it is truly known men will rather wonder why they knew it no sooner then at their knowing of it after they do understand it for the Ancients have declared the proper marks and tokens so fully that hardly can it be done more largely except they should in plain and vulgar words have named it and said this is it which hath caused divers of the later Adeptists the more to obscure it and to put their Readers into the greatest dubitation about it This is it that they have called their metallick seed and indeed is really so and have given it so many various names and descriptions according to its furthest midd or near nature that without divine assistance or a faithful Master it is hardly to be comprehended or known Therefore Sendivogius tells us Semen Metallorum vel minerale creat natura in visceribus terrae propterea non creditur tale semen esse in rerum natura quia invisibile est And Minerale semen à Philosophis cognoscitur And again Semen Metallorum tantum filii doctrinae noverunt And Combachius saith Metalla similiter suum habent semen sed hoc videri non potest nisi a ver is Philosophis qui illud ex subjecto suo proprio magna industria exâ—rahere norunt quanquam illud etiam facilius ratione concipi quam corporis oculis videri possit Here if thou understand I have said enough if thou dost not I have said too much 4. The last sort of their Mercuries that we shall name is that which by the Artist is prepared forth of their true and proper matter and is as Lully often tells us never left prepared by nature but must be made by the Artist And of this thus Sendivogius speaketh in his practice Sed hoc admonitus sis ne accipias aurum argentum vulgi nam haec sunt mortua accipe nostra quae sunt viva postea pone in ignem nostrum siet inde liquor siccus primum resolvetur terra in aquam quae Mercurius Philosophorum dicitur illa aqua resolvit illa corpora solis lunae consumit ea ut non remaneat nisi pars decima cum una parte hoc erit humidum radicale metallicum From whence note 1. That first they have that which he calleth their Fire into which their Sol and Luna are put and this their Fire is a Water for their Water is a Fire and calcineth the bodies of Sol and Luna more then common Fire can do according to their maxim Vulgus cremat per ignem nos per aquam and this is that Water which Helmont calleth ignis Gehennae and ignisaqua which he calls an immortal and immutable liquor and is notwithstanding the opinions of all men to the contrary the very same that he and Paracelsus call their Alkahest and was that very Water by which Helmont and Raymund Lully fixed common Mercury and is by Lully called Aqua Coelica Aqua Lunaria Menstruum vegetabile universale and Aquaignis 2. To note that their Sol and Luna are not the Gold and Silver of the Vulgar for they say aurum nostrum non est aurum vulgi neque in colore neque in substantia 3. That after their earth be dissolved in their Fire or Water then it is called the Mercury of the Philosophers and so doth but at the best differ gradually when the earth is dissolved in it from the Fire or Water that did dissolve their earth 4. That this Water doth dissolve those bodies of Sol and Luna and consume them and then it is humidum radicale metallicum 5. Observe that in saying there remaineth but the tenth
well in Paracelsus Book De Morte Rerum as in his Chirurgia Magna and saith he will declare it something more manifestly Take the Powder of Iohn de Vigo prepared with thine own hand For otherwise it is adulterated with artificial Minium or red Lead as the most Chymical medicaments that are to be sold are full of deceit This Powder the element of fire extracted from the Vitriol of Venus being affused or poured upon it is five times to be cohobated with Aqua Regis at the end increasing the fire for it is fully fixed and is a Powder very corrosive Which then is to be cohobated ten times with Aqua vitae dephlegmed the best that may be and renewed at every time until it have carried off all the corrosiveness with it And then this Powder is sweet as Sugar Therefore the Spirit of Wine is there called Saltaberi or Tabarzet which soundeth Sugar not that it is sweet in it self but that it carrieth away the corrosive spirits with it So far that the remaining Powder doth excel in its own sweetness not with a sweetness borrowed elsewhere For besides that the fire of Vitriol is sweet the very Sulphur of the Mercury then turned outwardly is of greatest sweetness This Powder is â—ixed and is called Horizontal Gold Therefore he saith I have finished a secret in few words which doth ennoble a Physician But to have prepared it the first time is of huge labour and its direction dependeth of his hand to whom all honour is due because he revealeth these secrets to little ones which the world knoweth not of and therefore disesteemeth From all this we shall animadvert some few things to be considered of by the learned and ingenious 1. To consider the high excellency of this medicine that is so noble that in operation it effecteth whatsoever a Physician or Chirurgeon can desire And therefore may well instigate all of those Professions that they may bend all their studies and endeavours both day and night to the obtaining of the same 2. That it is no wonder that they call it Horizontal Gold which if one seriously consider the great medical vertues is an apposite name and to be esteemed far more precious than common Gold that cannot afford such rare and almost incredible effects 3. To remember that it cannot be perfected without the Sulphur or fire of Venus which though he call the Sulphur or fire of Vitriol yet it is not the Spirit of Vitriol however rectified but is the Sulphur of Copper it self which cannot be had but by the total destruction of its body and the leaving of its internal and incombustible Sulphur inseparable from its remaining white anonymous metallick mercurial body and this to be performed by no sublunary body but only by the Alkahest 4. To note that the fire of Venus must be poured upon the Powder of Iohn de Vigo prepared by ones own hand whereby it appeareth that it must be in a liquid form otherwise it might be mixed with it but not poured upon it and therefore certainly is in the form of a green Oil as both he and Paracelsus do make manifest But one chief point is here tacitely concealed that is the quantities of either of them which the studious Reader must labour to find out 5. It may be some that are very critical may question what sort of Aqua Regis this Author meaneth but it is plain that it is the common sort and no mystical kind because he telleth us plainly that after five times cohobation with it and increasing of the fire it remaineth an exceeding corrosive Powder and therefore must be cohobated ten times with the best dephlegmed Aqua vitae every time being renewed or fresh used and that thereby the corrosive spirits are all carried off with the Spirit of Wine and the Powder left as sweet as Sugar And if we consider what this Author hath told us elsewhere then we are to know that it is no rectified Spirit of Wine by any common way but prepared by the Alkahest which is required twice in this Preparation once for the fire of Venus and also for the Spirit of Wine 6. As for the places in Paracelsus in his Book De Morte Rerum and in his Chirurgia Magna though that Author seem dark enough yet to an attentive and understanding Reader he hath shewed things that are sufficient to understand its Preparation by and hath omitted nothing in the forecited places but only the naming of the Alkahest which in all his great Preparations he commonly leaveth out Though in other parts of his Writings he hath spoken more fully both as to the matter forth of which and the manner how that great liquor is to be had and prepared than any other Author that I know of and those that cannot learn it from his Writings will hardly understand it in other Authors The next great Arcanum to be had forth of common Mercury is that which he calleth Arcanum Corallinum or Corallatum of which he saith this And there is the purgation Diuceltatasson which cures the Gout no less than Fevers And its Arcanum is called Corallinum which is prepared out of the essence of Horizontal gold after this manner Draw off the liquor Alkahest from vulgar vendible Mercury which Paracelsus remembreth 2. de viribus membrorum c. de hepate which is done in one quarter of an hour For Raymundus saith my friends being by and the King present I have coagulated Argent-vive and none except the King knew the way or manner In which coagulation this is most singular that the said liquor Alkahest doth prevail the same in number weight and activity so much the thousand action as much as in the first because it acteth without the re-action of the patient Therefore the Mercury being so coagulated without any remnant of the thing coagulating then make small powder of it and distil from it five times the water of the whites of eggs distilled and the Sulphur of the Mercury that by its former coagulation was drawn outwardly will be made rubicund as Coral and although the water of the whites of eggs doth stink notwithstanding this powder is sweet fixed bearing all the fire of the bellows Neither doth it perish in the examination of Lead notwithstanding it is spoiled of its medical virtue while it is reduced into a white metal but it is given to eight grains for the most part because it purgeth the body of man as long as it is foul and not perfectly sound Also it healeth Ulcers of the bladder of the Larinx and Oesophagus And in another place he reciteth it almost in the same manner but not so fully In another place he saith of it thus Therefore the purgation by the Arcanum Corallinum doth destroy the Gout in its seed But this Arcanum is not the colour or tincture of Coral as the ignorant company of Chymical Writers to be laught at do interpret because the apposite words of Paracelsus which
of colour like Saffron in its Powder but very ponderous and shining like beaten Glass when it is less accurately made into Powder and that once the fourth part of a grain was given him of it And this he inclosed in Wax lest in throwing it into the Crucible it might be dispersed by the smoke which he projected upon a pound of hot Quicksilver newly bought and put into a Crucible And forthwith the Quicksilver with a little murmuring noise staid from the flux and settled to the bottom like a lump And that the heat of the Quicksilver was but so much as might hinder melted Lead from recongealing Then by and by the fire being increased under the blast of the bellows the Metal was melted and the melting Pot being turned upwards he found it to weigh 8 ounces of most pure Gold And a compute being made a grain of that Powder did convert 19200 grains of impure and volatile Metal that may be put away with the fire into pure Gold only in this there is required a moderate fire of glowing or burning coals And this is an higher Multiplication than the former From all which we may note 1. That these were three several sorts of Powders differing from or exceeding one another in nobility and vertue 2. It is probable that in the last mentioned projection he was not punctually acquainted with the quantity upon which he was to project it otherwise he would have cast it upon less than one pound which produced but 8 ounces the other 4 being flown or otherwise wasted in the fire 3. From hence we must note that in projection the metal to be changed is to be in flux and open that the Gold-making Powder may the more easily have Ingression and penetrate into the smallest parts of the Metal to be changed for Paracelsus tells us that as Water being hardened by cold into Ice will not receive the Tincture of Saffron in Powder cast upon it but when melted into water easily will so the Metal to be changed must be in flux motion and opened by the fire otherwise the Tincture cannot have Ingression nor spread it self and where there is no Ingression there can be no Transmutation Yet here Helmont tells that it need but be easily hot and not violently to any great degree but as much as may keep melted Lead from recongealing And this praevious artificial help besides the cleansing of the Metal to be changed as much as Art can perform is requisite in metallick Transmutation though in that wrought by Nature in Vegetables or Animals in petrifying of them there is no such precedent Preparation nor adjuvant cause as external heat or fire but the petrifying steams or seminal odour doth effect the thing without such helping Concomitants so that if duly considered the Work of Nature without the assistance of Art in petrifying of Vegetables and Animals is more strange and wonderful than the Transmutation of Metals 4. We may note That Nature in changing Vegetables or Animals into Stone doth often work pedetentim and by degrees as also sometimes subitaneously and quickly as may appear by that story of Helmont which he thus relates About the year 1320. betwixt Russia and Tartaria in the altitude of 64 degrees not far from the Pond or Fen called Kitaya it is read that an Hord of the people called Baschirdi with their whole herd of Cattel their Waggons and Carriages were altogether transmuted into Rocks or Stones And that yet to this day the Men the Camels the Horses the flock or herd of Cattel and every other kind of thing that did accompany the Waggons or Carriages do yet stand by an horrible spectacle in the day-light turn'd into Stone and that this was done in one night without any preceding putrefaction The like story if my memory fail not for I have not the Author by me is in Olâ—â—s Magnus an Author of good credit and reputation and the like may be found confirmed by some other Writers Which if true and no miracle sheweth that this act of petrifying of Vegetables and Animals is sometimes quick and subitaneous as of one night only that change of Metals is done in a far less time and therefore may well be said to be an acceleration of the work of Nature by the help of Art 5. It may very well be believed that in the changing of Vegetables or Animals into Stone that the thing changed is of moâ—e ponderosity and for the most part of greater bulk than the thing was of before it was so petrified and changed For so we have found in all our trials of Wood Moss Leaves and the like stonified by the dropping Well neer Knaresborough because that is done by Incrustation but whether it happen to be so in all other sorts of Petrification for doubtless there are more ways than one our experience cannot determine but must leave it to the trial and examination of others But in metallick Transmutation if the exact degree of the vertue of the Powder transmuting be known and so be projected upon a just and due proportion the ponderosity will not much differ from what the Metal changed was of before as appeareth by that experiment of Helmont's where he projected one fourth part of a grain of the Gold-making Powder upon 8 ounces of hot Quicksilver and it produced 8 ounces of pure Gold wanting eleven grains so that here was no great difference in the weight For reckoning that the 8 ounces of Quicksilver had the fourth part of a grain added to them and when changed into pure Gold had but lost ten grains and three quarters of a grain which must be that either the Quicksilver had in it so much of combustible Sulphur as Helmont in a certain place of his Writings confesseth that all common Quicksilver hath in it less or more of combustible and separable Sulphur that was separated or wasted away in the fire or that so much of the Homogeneous body of the Quicksilver did evaporate as being made too hot and either of these ways it might have been though the first is most certain that all imperfect Metals have less or more separable and combustible Sulphur which in projection is separated and wasted But howsoever that there be little difference of weight in the metallick body changed from what it was before yet it always becometh less in bulk and possesseth lesser room or place as appeareth by this of Helmont that the Quicksilver setled with a certain noise to the bottom of the Crucible and so became of less bulk and possessed less room And that this is and must be so in all metallick Transmutations is most clear not only from the authority of the Adeptists but from their convincing reasons shewing that in their Transmutation there is a radical Solution and Penetration of all the small parts or atoms of the Metal to be changed by the subtile penetrability and ingression of their so much purified and exalted Tincture and thereby all
incomprehensibili conjungitur impurum separant quasi dicant An tu venisti quod meum est quod ad me spectat 5. It hath a power to multiply the virtue but not the quantity and having these rare qualities it is no such wonder that it should work such effects upon the more imperfect metallick bodies 9. And that we may more clearly apprehend the Nature of this Transmutation we must consider some of their Maxims which though by many slighted yet do they hold forth the certain and absolute truth 1. As first that of Bacon which they all allow of as the Basis of all Philosophick verity which is this speaking of Sulphur or Natures Fire and Mercury natural or radical moisture he saith Sed ex praedictis duobus fiant Metalla cuncta nihil eis adhaeret nec eis conjungitur nec ea transmutat nisi quod ex illis est Which is a golden sentence containing both truth and plainness to those that will rightly consider and understand it 2. Another is this of the same Author Sed dico quòd natura semper proposuit contendit ad perfectionem auri Sed accidentia diversa supervenientia transformavit metalla sicut in multis invenitur Philosophorum libris satis aperté 3. A third is this Est itaque omnibus in Metallis verus Mercurius rectumque Sulphur aeque tam in imperfectis quam perfectis Metallis Saltìm contaminatus impurus factus est in imperfectis Metallis quae sola perfecta maturatione destituuntur Et ex iisdem causis ad aurum argentumque redigi possunt h. â— ut ab aurea vel argentea natura quae in illis est separetur impuritas qua cum inquinata fuerant forma auri vel argenti iisdem ingeratur 4. A fourth is That all Metals are in suo interiori Gold Silver and Mercury and that metallick Mercury can no ways be destroyed or otherwise the Art of Transmutation were utterly false which is certain true and most true 10. From all this we may plainly gather what Transmutation of Metals is and how it is wrought So that if Metals be in their root all of one Mercurial and Homogeneous nature and that there be perfect Sulphur and Mercury equally as well in the imperfect as perfect Metals then must their Transmutation be easie â—or then the Heterogeneous matter or combustible Sulphur Scoria or Dross being removed and some of the Tincture added the parts are most closely joined and so united per minima and tinged by which means they are maturated in a short time by the help of Art that Nature could not perform in many years So that all metallick Mercury wants nothing of the degrees and nature of Gold but removing of its Heterogeneous parts and the adding something more of the fire of Nature and then it becomes most dense and to have all the requisites that are necessary to Gold Agreeable to what we say here is the opinion of an ingenious person who saith thus To conclude I shall presume to give you some of my thoughts concerning the so much discoursed-of Transmutation of Metals concerning which I am of opinion that the change is erroneously apprehended by many imagining that the whole imperfect Metal is totally transformed into the more perfect by the substance mixed with it whereas the mixture added to the melted Metal joins it self as I conceive to those parts which being Homogeneal symbolize together with the nature of the more perfect whereby the pure metalline parts are separated from the other Heterogeneal impure Sulphurs which together with other causes did hinder Nature in the Mine from concocting that substance into the perfecter Metal A second instance that we shall give is That divers Vitriolate Waters do change Iron put into them into Copper which Helmont doth deny to be any Transmutation and saith thus But that Vitriol-bearing Juice is thought to change Iron into Copper the Mine-men themselves not acknowledging the delusion because that the succeeding Atoms of the Copper do fill up the place of the Iron that was wasted neither regarding that as Copper doth render or make Silver dissolved in Aqua fortis that otherwise was invisible to appear to the view and be corporeal So that it is the propriety of Iron dissolved in the Vitriol to manifest the Copper by drawing it to it self and together in the same act that the Iron it self is dissolved and doth vanish in the Fountain My Witnesses he saith are the Fountains themselves because verily the Vitriolate Waters are far more poor in Copper than they were before the Iron dissolved in them and the Copper thereby recovered from them Therefore to wit verily out of the very Fountain where it is often continued the flux of new Copper doth fail in the Pit or Spring the putatitious Transmutation of Iron doth otherwise not happen The manner of doing of which in the Mines of Hungaria called Herrengaundt Athanasius Kircher doth thus describe They take rusty Iron that is unprofitable as the remainder of various and old instruments used in Houses and being put into the Furnace and made hot they are upon the Anvile beaten forth into most thin plates This being done they put these plates into the bottom of Vitriolate Water which doth flow in the most deep Pits of the Mines and being put there they leave them for certain months And the due time ended they come to the Pit and find the plates to be gone or changed into a yellowish stuff like unto a soft plaister and these exposed to the Air and Winds is hardned into Copper of the best account And it is so used at Neosel in Hungaria Therefore it is questioned whether this be a true Transmutation of Iron into Copper or not But I say that here true Transmutation is not at all given seeing that all the whole Iron is not changed into the substance of the Copper but by accident only I do explain my self For seeing that in Vitriol infinite Copperish Corpuscles do inexist and as those have the greatest sympathy with Iron so that also it cometh to pass that forthwith they flow unto the Iron and do most intimately insinuate themselves into its pores but seeing that they abound with Spirits of great Acrimony from hence being insinuated into the Iron forthwith they begin to corrode it so far that all the fatness of the Iron being consumed the irony substance being dissolved doth pass into dust or a rusty powder the Vitriolate Corpuscules substituting themselves into the place of the Iron being consumed and the native particles both of the Iron and Vitriolate Water are conglutinated into one mass which first truly is soft within the Water but being exposed unto the more free Air the wind and beams of the Sun are indurated into perfect Copper and by this means it is made the same thing that it was before before verily by the dispersion of its Corpuscles in the waters now by the