so unitively and if it be so how foolish is it to imagine this that Earth is convertible to Water that it should promote the Generation of a Conerete with Water and if this should be granted the thing would be said to be produeed of Water if so be before it was possible to be produced the Earth had gone into real Water but this is necessary or otherwise the little of this will not be able to agree with the little of the other And as yet Air is wanting whose little is much more subtile then the little of water unless all things be held to vanish into Air that also the aforesaid water may have it a Companion to it self in generating which if it should be granted it would follow that all things did consist of Air alone which Air altho it be Originally in its own Nature from it self or gathered together of Earth and Water Changed between themselves yet it will be the same thing nor diversified because of the difference of its Original for unless it be the same it cannot be united to wit that Water may have the same subtilty with Air it is obliged to have the same first Qualities with it the same also is to be Judged of the Earth that it may be adequated to the rarity of the Water and if it be so Water so subtilized will be real Air and Earth so subtilized will be real Water and now where is the composition of things generated by Elements when according to this Doctrine all things are necessary to proceed from Air and of Fire how much more subtilly a quaternity of Elements being admitted with this Doctrine of Mixture But if any one should say that it is true that the Elements are so Converted I would ask him by what Agent they were changed Moreover if Earth goes into Water water into Air that so there may be an union of Compounding Elements to make an Elementary thing I would ask again what need there is to unite another new to Earth reduced into real Water so also to mingle new Air to Water subtilized to the rarity of Air as tho one and the same Flement so convertable into another being converted could not procreate an effect of its self without the mixture of the other If it be said that Earth as aforesaid being Subtilized is equal to Water in Rarity and yet is not Water even as neither is Water 〈…〉 would ask then whether or no the on can put on the first Qualities of the other if not neither will they have Correspondence in their littles for this is impossible if so I desire to know whether if one first should put on the firsts of another first that would not be really the first whose firsts it first puts on To assert the Contrary is not Philosophical therefore it is concluded that all things Materially take their Original from one Element which cannot be neither Earth nor Air which unless I studied Brevity I could easily Demonstrate The Earth is a Soil or Bed in which all Bodies Increase and are preserved the Air into which they grow it is the means and bringer of heavenly Virtues wherewith it is filled and by which they are Communicated to all these Inferior things the Seed of all things is put into the Water by the Creator in the first Creation which some do produce into the Air as Vegitables some keep within their own Reins as Animals in some it is hid very abstruse as in Metals and there is even to the end of the World seed sufficient to produce all things of Seed whose Habitation as is said the Water is found to be This Seed other ways Idle being stirred up by its form which form is a certain particle of Ineffable Light Heavenly Virtue which is present to Endue in reference to place and a convenient Agent with its force Inferior things aptly disposed and to stirr them up to Motion so I say the Seed being stirred up with an active Virtue does Coagulate the Material Water with its fermentatious Odour which it so Changes by various Fermentations the Author of all Changes until it has produced that to produce which the Seed was propense If therefore there be a Metallick Seed there grows from thence first a dry humour slippery not wetting the hands to wit Mercury the Mother of all Metals I could here teach the Procreation of stones of every fort also note very many things worthy of observation about the First Nativity of Mercury But I purposely pass by those things making little to the purpose For Mercury has deserved to be called the true Matter of Metals because before it was Mercury that it might be destined to Metal yet it might happen by some defect that some thing different from Metal did result from thence but when once it is Mercury then indeed no longer can any thing be born from thence but Mineral or Metaline from this the different kind of Metals which are seen as for Instance Jupiter Saturn Luna Venus Mars Sol which all have one and the same Mother Mercury also some middle Minerals arise from hence some also are made of the Metals themselves eroded with acid Mineral Salts so Vitriol from a Vein of Copper eroded by such an acid Stalagma whose Generation to teach would be from the Matter therefore I purposely omit it But not any Intervening Sulphureous Fatness as some think fakly is joyned to the Mercury which it Coagulates boyling it with its heat whose Expurgation afterwards is the perfection of Metal For we know that Sulphur as it is called in Jupiter is much more impure then Sulphur in Saturn altho Mercury in Saturn be more Crude and unclean then Mercury in Jupiter and yet even Common People will witness that Jupiter is a more pure Metal than Saturn therefore we must not think with them of a Metallick Digestion by such a fatt Colostrum when in Mercury there is a proper Internal digesting Agent to wit Heat which being caused by a Coelestial influence infuseth Life and Motion to this our Matter which life and motion depend from an Adaptation of a Convenient Matrix or Place fit for Ganeration For altho all of these abovesaid things are full of this most plentiful Virtue and this is present to all to the Information of them yet it does not actually act by Informing that is by exciting to Motion except as far forth as it is helped by Extrinsicks rightly accommodted and so then this Heavenly Virtue acts incessantly which altho it be Vniform and one in the whole World yet it is varied by reason of the Seed according to which the Ferments of things are diversified to produce diverse Transmutations wherefore if Mercury born here all find a place in its self fit for Generation althoin its self without such a Place it appear Cold for that it is dead yet within the Center of its own Nativity the generative action not being yet Intermitted this force or Heavenly virtue
Art that it seems Enthysiastical and they that so Write do nothing else but yield an Occasion of deriding to Myso Chymicks For that if the Art has a real Foundation in Nature why should I be Solicitous whether this or that man understood it or no since we know that its Lovers and the Adepts have always concealed themselves with all their endeavour even as also it is declared to others in their Books Neither have all or at least very many been known but after their Death but whilst they were alive they lay concealed with the greatest Diligence This at least is clear that it is so farr from being a new Device that there have been men skilful of it through many Series's of Ages who being Different both in Tongue and Nation and very many of them Contemporary have writ so agreeingly of the Art that they cannot be proved by such as rightly understand them either to Corrupt or diversly to handle so much as one Operation I confess at least there may appear a great difficulty in Reading their Books to a man unskilful of the thing they write so obscurely tropically allegorically and figuratively some also do intermingle many false things to ensnare the unworthy and unwary that by this means they may distinguish Philososophers from Fools but in sum all of them do strike at one mark and lead to the lame Inn. But those things which they deliver more Obscurely they do this to no other end but that they may exclude the unworthy as they often witness in their Books Bernard Trevisan much adored by me is found most candid also Ripley an English-man Flaâ—â—â—el a French-man Sendivogius the Author of The new Light also the anonymous Author of the Hermetick Secrets yet whose name hath delivered a double Anagram as to wit spes nea est in agno in a Book whose Title is Enchiridion hysicae Restitutae and penes nos unda tagi in his Hermetick arcanum I would not pass by here the Ladder of Philosophers the great Rosary the Works of Arnoldus the Boys play the Works of Dionysius Zacharius Aejidius de vadis the Works of Moren Augurellus his Poems of making Gold also Five Treatises of the Rosary abreviated the Works of Peter Bonus of Ferrara In a word I would have all the Books included which are agreeable to these asoresaid and those which are otherwayes excluded Which being compared as is fit before the Work be begun in the first place the studious Schollar of Art may learn the Lives Kingdoms Manners and Habits of Metals and also of Minerals nor delight himself in the bare Notion but know them Seientifically that is Practically But to this end there is need of a Profound meditative Contemplation that he may Learn and Understand the Original of Natural things in the genus and of Mineral Bodies in the species As for me being only intentive to the Doctrine of Metals to wit as far forth as it seems to Explain the Art of Transmutation I willingly pass by the Original of Natural things in the genus Content to have spoken those things which may satisfie the aforesaid purpose yet I will briefly touch the rest in Order All the Common Philosophers have delivered that there are four Elements Compounding all things Originally from whence are all things to which they resolve from whose divers Coalition divers things proceed Almost all Chymical Philosophers have subscribed to this unhappy Opinion No other Cause of which I am able to conjecture then that without mature Deliberation they being prepared to their own Interest they have hastily described these first Foundations of things Which Opinion of theirs I not daring to disallow upon the account of the Honour and Reverence I have for them will handle it Philosophically otherways according to the Truth of the matter For I only acknowledge three Elements which they Contend to be four all which Experience teacheth to be cold of their own nature to wit Air Water and Earth for that the only defect being caused by the remote distance of the Califactive Sun which doth bring a coldness upon all these things and that is more remiss or Intense by how much the greater or lesser distance it is removed For I altogether reject an Elementary Fire also I deny that there is any besides our Common Fire which burns in the Kitchins whose heat is always distructive in it self Neither do I deny notwithstanding that there is heat in things flowing either from Light or motion or Life or alterative Blas no other The Pyrate Vulcan doth burn and waste Concrete things by feeding upon them it is the most Corrupt Violent motion caused from the Repugnancy which arises from two contrary active things but yet it is not an Element as being neither Substance nor Accident as farr as appeartains to the actual burning but the expression of the Activity of two Agents mutually in themselves in a Capacious Subject I would not show now what things are required in order to Fire actually burning besides the accident of Heat and substance in which this Action is made at least we assert this hear altho its heat be an Accident yet that it its self is neither an Accident nor a substance but the express Operation of the activity of two active things and acting mutually upon one another which activity I could easily demonstrate in every Combustable thing burning but that it would be foreign to this place And as I do altogether reject Elemental Fire in the mean while being content with a Ternary number of the Elements and do assert the first native quality cold neither do I attribute to them heat except accidental as is said so neither do I admit these three by their Commixtion to go into the Composition of Natural things For that the Disproportion of things to be mingled takes away the mixture fit for Generation and the possibility thereof For a Natural Generation is made by the Union of Generative Ingredients Moreover Vnion is an Ingression of things to be united per minima but if the least of one thing be tenfold or a Hundreafold more subtile then the little of another the adequate littles cannot come together for that it behoves very little things to come together which we seek to unite per minima From hence water mixed with Earth is not united with it even as neither Water with Wine or Flegme with Spirit yea they may be separated because of this disproportion amongst the littles If any one shall say in order to make this mixture one thing undergoes the subtilty of another and so by consequence are united I urge that if it be equally subtile which was first thick that it may enter liquid by uniting it self it behoves that it be altogether brought to the same Nature and what then I pray is Earth but Water for that Water will not go into Earth that it may have an umon with Earth that is to say a Body will not enter a Body
Virtue is not so distinguished in Metals but is inseparatly Commixt through the least of the Body containing I have added these things of the Seed because it is said above that a Metal whose profundity has been so mamfest under a Mercurial form doth all go into Seed for we name all that water the Seed of Gold because it is Exquisitely diffused through it in as much as it cannot be separated but by Reason alone This is called occult Ferment Poyson by the Ancient wise Philosophers also invisible fire the secret Agent Neither also have I alone named the whole promiscuously Seed after a manner but these also have often called their Water Fire sometimes they Taught that fire resides in their water Wherefore they distinguished this into Soul and Spirit of which the former is the means the latter the active Virtue by that means Therefore we name Water Seed Metonimically when yet in speaking properly the seminal Virtue universally inhabits and is diffused through the whole Water which indeed is Seed but is not separable from the habitation of its water If it seem a wonder to any one that I assigne water the Seat of the seminal Spirit let not this seem a wonder that the Spirit of God in the first Creation was carried upon the Waters that is the Heavenly Spirit infused through the Waters it enriched them with its Power and prolifick Virtue For in this alone all Seeds which are in the Vniverse were founded from the first beginning neither ever go out of it and yet in Vegetables they are produced into the Crude Air in Animals preserved within their Reins in Minerals they are firmly shut up in their profundity For it is impossible that Seed should go out of its Original Seat Therefore if all things are from Water as we have said Reason will teach us that the Seed even as yet doth reside in Water Things are not preserved any other way then from whence they spring for the Cause of the Original being taken away the Effect is taken away hence it comes to pass that the multiplication of all things is in humido per humido even as the Nutriment Vegetables by a watry Leffas of Earth Animals by a liquid Chile Metals by a Mercurial Liquor Hence Vegetables being Increased and produced of their own accord does separate a Seed different from their whole Body into the crude Air which will be a Coagulated Body but that it may be known that it has proceeded from Water and does retain its seminal Spirit in the water it is committed to the Earth to increase its species in which Matrix by a watry Leffas of Earth it is resolved into its next watry matter and then begins the Vegetation Moreover the Watry seminal receives this Watry Leffas by which it is manifest in the Dissolution and that Germination is for the Radical Nutritive Humor by which it receives Increase to a plant or Tree according to the specifick Ferment of the Seed Animals do keep within their Reins a Seed sprung from Imagination which by the Act of Generation being Diffused into a due Matrix forms a Faetus tender and abounding with much Humidity which afterwards is increased by the Liquid Female Menstruums and increases into a perfect Infant and coming into the world in the hour of its Nativity is Nourished by milk until he can bear stronger Aliment which then unless they are changed into a Liquid Chyle as Bones in the stomach of a Dogg don 't nourish In like manner to all these things Metals Coagulated doth shut up their Seed perfectly elaborated under thick Coverts yet being placed in Water this afterwards being Extracted by sagacious Art Increases and is Cherished in a due Matrix until by a previous Corruption it receives its glorification But this Work is very difficult because of the secret foulds of Metals in which this Seed is shut giving place to no force unless there be a subtile wit Moreover I make it known that there is a Matrix in which Gold being put from whence Seed alone is to be Sought will emitt its Sperm freely and sweetly until it be weakened and dye and by its Death shall be renewed into a most glorious King having afterwards got the power of delivering all his Brethren from the fear of Death CHAP. VI. Of the Manner and Means of Extracting its Seed THose things are always most difficult which are most excellent as the Experience of all Ages will bear ample Testimony It is not to be wondered therefore if so great a difficulty be found in a subject so noble before others For I do not well know any work in Rerum Natura encompassed with more Difficulties then this is Wherefore if any one shall enter upon this Work and yet would spare his mind from study and Labour he must return back again for he has missed his way in the very Entrance For that the Evils which are in the Work appear Terrible Chiefly upon the account of Dispondency But if the Father of Lights shall grant the Key of the Art to any one there remains to him nothing more then the Work of Women and the Play of Children As to delight his Eyes as he Labours with most beautiful appearing Signes untill he shall reap his Harvest that he may possess the most precious Treasure of all the World But without this Error and Loss Care and Vexation will be the Fruits of his vain Philosophy Therefore every wise man before he enters upon his Work shall be first and chiefly solicitous of knowing it with its marks that if by chance any Difficulties may appear in it he being Armed against them may not after his Work is begun be compelled to return with trouble and sorrow Therefore let all sons of Art know that in order to attain our Arcanum there is need to manifest the most hidden Seed of Gold which is not done but by a plenary and every way volatilization of the fixed and then the Corruption of its form Moreover so to destroy Gold is the most secret Work of the whole World For this Divine Science is not compleated in a Corrosise Deturpation of the Mtal nay all such Corrosions are false and Erroneous sinee that there is required to our Work not any Dissolution but Philosophical that is into Mercur al water made by a previous Calcination by a Mercurial Agem which is produced by a subt I le Rotation and Conversion of Elements which Calcination is a mortification of a Homogeneous Humid with a dry of its own Nature that afterwards the dry may be vivisied by the said Humid so farr that the must digested Virtue by dissolving being extracted by the Dissolvent may be the Cause of this Calcination and Dissolution Is there any thing here Common with a Corrosive Contrition of Bodies by Mireral waters Nay rather the foresaid Operations are Diametrically opposite If any one shall consider these things rightly he will easily perceive the trouble of the Work
if Compared with Sol but in Respect of Common Mercury Digested warm and Mature which has no qualitys like to this except alone in whiteness of Colour and of its form of Flux in which notwithstanding there is a great Difference But lastly that you may well understand what our Water is by Circumstances I tell thee and that moved with Charity that it is Living Running Clear Shining White like Snow Hot and Moist Airy Vaporous and Digesting in which Gold is melted like Ice in warm Water in this is Contained the whole Regimen of Fire and Sulphur which Exist but Predominates not This is indeed the keeper of our Gates the Bath of the King and his Queen davly Warming and that Incessantly and yet is taken elsewhere then from the Matter and is distinguished from the whitening Substance of the Water yet joyned and appearing under the same form of Flux and the same Colour This is that heat of the Lamp which if it be Temperate every day will Circumact the Matter until by Calcination the Humidity being dryed a second Fire of Ashes is produced in which the Vessel or Water is Hermetically shut and Sealed according to the Saying of the Philosopher take a Vessel strick it with a Sword take its Life this is the Closure Therefore this our Water is our Vessel and in that our Furnace dwells secretly whose Fire ought to be moderate least the whole Work be destroyed yet strong enough least the Life Dispond for want of Heat Therefore in this Water the whole Secret of our Vessel confists also the Structure of the hidden Furnace is founded in the Composition of this Water in the Knowledge whereof all our Fires all our Weights all our Regimens lye hid This Water is the Clear Bright Fountain in which our King is to be washed that he may overcome all his Enemies of this Water and its Preparation be Careful because surely without any other help except the Apposition of a perfect purged and Cleansed Body Nature will make from hence our most Secret Stone And I say to thee in Truth that this Water is Mineral pure and Clean neither can it be Extracted elsewhere but out of those things alone in which it is by Nature And the things out of which it is immediatly Drawn are most secret above all others Also the Means of Extracting it is most wonderful also its Virtues Stupendious For it doth Dissolve Sol without violence and is made friendly to it and it washeth him from all his Foulness It is White Warm and Clear therefore praised be the most High who hath Created this Mercury and given it a Nature overcoming all others For certainly the Work of Alchymy would be in vain and useless without this Water But consider thou what this Water is and Learn from the Work as I have done For having this Mercury thou hast the Key of the whole Art with which thou mayest unlock all the most secret things of Philosophers Therefore our Water is of alike Nature with Gold of an unlike Substance in the making of which there is a great Stink Consider therefore and deeply weigh the possibility of Nature and do not mix any Heterogeneous thing For Nature is only amended by its own Nature and by no other But if you do not yet understand do not blame me for I have sincerely as far as it is Lawful for a Man to speak Expounded to you the whole Matter That therefore you may understand the Conclusion of the Matter be very attentive Our Stone is made out of one thing and four Mercurial Substances whereof one is Mature the rest Crude but pure of which two are drawn out of a Mineral by the third but wonderfully joyned with a Temperate not Violent Fire and so Cocted every day until all be made one by a Natural Conjunction most secret not Manual Afterwards the Fire being changed let it be Digested with a Fire daily increasing at first more Moderate and so every day increased until these Volatiles are fixed by a Sulphur of their own kind fixt and incombustible until the whole Compound possess the same Nature Fixity and Colour For then it securely Resists the Fire and this is the most powerful Power of Power overcoming every subtil and penetrating every solid thing the virtue of which being turned into Earth appears compleat But there are that I may describe the thing particularly manifold Degrees of this our Process in Number Twelve all which I will hriesly run over the first whereof is called Calcination Of Calcination And Calcination is the first Purgation of the Stone the Exsiccation of the Humidity by the virtue of the Natural Heat of our Water stirred up by the External Heat from whence the Composition is turned into Calx or Powder of a black colour yet unctuous and retaining the Radical Humiaity The final Cause of this Calcination is that the Solution may be the better induced to the Stone which without this cannot be had For Gold is a very fixt Body neither can it be immediatly Dissolved by our Water except only in part that is be made soft Incrudated and Albificated In which Albification two Natures appear volatile and fixt which we liken to two Dragons or Serpents Wherefore that a full Dissolution may be made there is need of Contrition that the Body by Calcination may be made spongious and viscous because then at last it is fit for Dissolution The Second final Cause is this that we Reconcile contrary Qualities for whilst they fight they are unprofitable unto us For in the first Conjunction our Water distinguishes between Sulphur and Mercury volatile and fixt and these are Enemies to one another and Different things but it is our part to bring them to a Union but contrary qualities are not reconciled but by a Medium there are therfore in our first Operation four contrary qualities Heat Cold Dryness and Humidity of which two Hot and Dry are Attributed to Sulphur Cold and Humid to Mercury therefore they are opposed Diametrically the heat of Sulphur and the Cold of Mercury also the Humidity of Mercury and Siccity of Sulphur To reduce these Contraries to friendship cannot be done without a Medium but the Medium must be partaker of both also suited to both Would we therefore reconcile Cold and Heat the Medium will be by Siccity which may be joyned to both Heat and Cold by turning therefore the Composition into Earth heat and Cold agree in this third thing that they may dwell together to wit the Degree being abated But afterwards being dissolved into water also two other Enemies are Reconciled Siccity and Humidity by the Frigidity of Water so that now one is made of two by the Conjunction made after a Natural Separation But the Efficient of this Calcination is the Operation of Heat upon Moisture turning every thing that resists it into most subtile Powder but the moving Instrument is the Fire contrary to Nature which is hid in our dissolving
kind out of the Flame I pass by these understanding nothing at all in this Art Others altho they work in Metals yet desire to perfect Calcination either with Corrosive Waters Spirit of Salt Sulphur or Fire and do indeed Corrode the Bodies not Calcine them For this Calcination is not made by the Native Calidity of the Body helpt by a Friendly heat but by a Corrosive Force of Waters without any propensity of the Metal to it therefore Metals are fouled and Dissipated and so Estranged from a Metallick Nature but not Naturally Calcined Therefore every Calcination which is made elsewhere then in the perfect Body of Gold is vain and unuseful to our work Also every Calcination of Sol in which a Dissolution without laying on of Hands does not follow is false and vain Therefore this our Calcination is necessarily to be made by Mercury which being joyned to Gold a due weight and proportion both of Quantity and Quality being observed softens it and takes away the Solidity and Incrudates it and by its internal Heat joined with the outward Heat of Vulcan stirrs up that Native heat of the Gold which being stirred up acts upon the Humidity and Exsiccates it into a subtile Powder Viscous and Black And this is the true Key of the Work to Incrudate the Mature by the Conjunction of an Immature being incrudated to Calcine it being Calcined to Dissolve it Philosophically not Vulgarly The signes of this our Calcination are these first after the Body shall be satiated with Water as soon as the Keeper of the Gates shall stir up the Heat of the Bath the Water begins to be Obscured or that which was a splendid Composition before then it visibly grows Turgid and swells ascending and descending continually until the whole at last become a viscous and fatt Powder in which it appears that the Humidity is conserved in this Operation otherwise the Labour would be in vain From thence therefore it is easily resolved into Mineral Water which is the last and most certain Signe that our Calcination has been true and Philosophical For as soon as the heat begins to Operate the Frigid and Humid being Impatient thereof goes to the top from thence it melts and descends and so reduceth it as much as may be to its own Stmilitude Doing this daily untill at last the whole be resolved into Fat and as it were Glutinous Water For so our Operations are Concatinated that one is the Cause and beginning of another neither can one be had or understood without another But we that we may instruct the Sons of Art more fully and drive away the unworthy as far as may be from this Art do handle as it were divers Operations when there is but one Recipe one thing one Regimen and successive Disposition to black white and red neither are we to be understood otherwise Wherefore every one that will truly be a Philosopher should regard the Sence not the Letter of Writers in this Art But that we may come to our true Calcination these things are to be Confidered that follow Firstly that thou should get our Mercury without which nothing is done in this Art See then that thou be not deceived in that Common Mercury which is altogether unuseful to our Work for if thou Work in it to thy Dying day thou wilt find nothing in it Secondly thou must take Care that the Fire of the Furnace be not too Intense but let it be clibanically measured which that thou maist fully understand know that the Sulphur which Predominates not in the Mercury or Water digests the Matter which together with Azoth is abundantly sufficient for thee Let not therefore its Internal quality confound the external form then be not solicitous about the manner of making the Fire only have a care that it be not too Gentle for then thou wilt easily dispond for want of Heat nor yet let it be over Violent but of a Moderate degree according to the Nature of the Bodies and exclusive of Cold Take these things on the other Hand concerning the Internal and Natural Fire I call that Internal which increaseth the Work in the End Thirdly be careful of the quantity that thou dost not put so much to be drunk by Laton that he cannot afterwards Eate for if thou shalt put on too much there will be a Sea of trouble if too little it will be burnt into Smoak be not therefore Covetous or Prodigal between the Extreams keep a Mean Therefore in joining the Male with his Female remember that it behoves the Activity of Sulphur to Exsiccate the superfluous Humidity of Mercury therefore do not drownd the active with too much Crude Sperm the Woman will also desire to Rule therefore do not Choak the Humidity of thy Stone with too much Earth but with Discretion mix it sweetly and according to the Exigence of Nature lest the Virtue of the Stone be diminished make therefore an Amalgama not as the Goldsmith does with four or five Parts of Water but as the Philosophers do with a double or treble to the last but it is better to take three to four then one to two since the solution will be better because the Cal ination will be more Natural Ripley Witnesseth with me That by how much the more Earth says he and less Water thou take so much the better Solution shalt thou make In the first place therefore beware that your Land be not overwhelmed with waters because the Fire is hidden in the Earth which will not Operate if there be too much Humid Superfluity whence the Error will be Incorrigible the work vain Fourthly Be careful of the closure of the Vessel lest the Spirits should fly out and the Work be destroyed Keep therefore the Vessel and its Ligature nor look upon this to be of little moment Consider therefore Man who as he is Generated by Nature so also our Gold is Matured by Art helped by Nature Therefore consider with how great care Nature has shut the VVomb of a pregnant woman lest any thing should either get in or pass out otherwise the Foetus would parish with no less Industry be thou cautious in perfecting this Philosophical work lest thy Labour be in vain 〈◊〉 therefore the Philosopher saying Take thessel and Fire strike it with a 〈◊〉 take the Life this is the Closure Hermes also says The Vessel of the Philosophers is their water and know for certain that the vessel of Nature is only fit for us in this Art which diligently is to be shut For in forming the Embrio there are very great winds which if they should vanish we are undone for the error is Irreparable whence the Damage is most certain The Work in the Fifth place is Patience that thou don't dispond or study to make the solution too speedy but firmly believe that too much bast is the greatest Enemy to Conjunction and hinders it For the Body to be dissolved Impertinently Rubifies stirring up a Feaver that
Boyl like Liquid Pitch and will putrifie And Bernard in his Parable says The King pitting off his splendid Robes gives the Silken ones to Saturn being Cloathed in black which be retains fourty dayes All this understand of blackness in its height which is plain from the above-repeated words of Flammel but a more remiss blackness will appear sooner so the Scala Philosophorum sayes within sixteen dayes in the degree of Putrefaction an easie Fire being kept the matter will be continually Covered with blackness And this either later or sooner according to the Ingenuity of the Operator in Adapting the Matters But whether will intermedial Colours appear in a Progress from white to black as in the Progress from black to white It seems so because there is no transition from one extream to another unless by Mediums And we answer that they so appear altho indeed confusedly and some in some Works will appear in a Progress to the height of blackness which perhaps will not appear in another because they are only accidental Colours but not altogether the same betwixt the first Whiteness and Blackness which are between this and ultimate Whiteness because there is not the same Reason of Matter in the former the thick Terrestrial Matter was to be burned and purified but in this work the Matter is more Spiritual and pure therefore in a pure or Depurated Subject in a Progress from the extremity of blackness to the extremity of Whiteness the Intermedial Colours will be much more clear and admirable then those which appeared in an Earthly Subject But in both progresses they will appear in the former transition between the Extreams Obscurer fewer and fouler in the Latter more more shining and splendid witness the Philosopher After the heighth of Blackness before Whiteness in the hour of Conjunction great Miracles will appear For whatever Colours could be thought on in the whole World then will be conspicuous And Riply sayes In our work colours will appear then which never more fair appeared Also before perfect Blackness the intermedial Colours will show themselves witness the Philosopher who Painting the Colours of the Dragons saith They are black Yellow and Azure and these intermedial Colours says he denote that thy Confections are not yet perfectly putrefied In a Word the various Colours in Dying will appear more obscure but thin and few and this before black Night obnubilate the whole Horizon But in rising again very many and very Splendid ones will arise because the Body now begins to be glorified and the Light to predominate over the Darkness and this in a depurated and spiritual Subject But in what order will these foresaid Colours appear This truly cannot be determined because they are varied many ways but the better the juice of the Water of Life shall be the better the Signs shall appear The order of the four Principle Colours is described by all but no one can determine the order of the accidental ones let it suffice thee if within fourty dayes thou hast a compleat blackness don't mind other things much but it is good to attend for blackness is first Especially desirable and tho others appear unless thou seest this without doubt thou hast erred But as I said other Colours are not to be Dispised except the Venerial or imperfect Red which if it appear before blackness is to be suspected especially when the siccity of the Compound and Discontinuity of the parts accompany it I say this Precipitation is a fatal Index to the Operator of his lost time This same thing the Philosopher witnesses saying A vehement Fire hinders Conjunction and tinges white with the colour of the wild Poppy And Flammel in his Hierogliphical Figures sayes unless thou shalt behold the blackest black of black whatever other colour thou seest thou art in the way of Error But especially a reddish colour is to be suspected for if thou seest that thou hast burned or art burning the lively virtue of the Stone But I must stay no longer in these things since one Water does all this so that the Internal Compound continually be ruled with External heat neither is there any thing in the whole Work more Wonderful then this our Water which I have fully Described above to which place I send thee back Concerning Solution And the Dissolution of our Stone is the Reduction of it into its first matter the Manifestation of the Humid and the Extraction of Natures from their Profundity which is finished by bringing them into a Mineral Water This Operation is of no Light Work or Moment for how hard it is those that have toiled in it can attest FINIS THE FOUNTAIN OF Chymical Philosophy Written in Latine By EYRENAEUS PHILALETHES Printed in the Year 1694. TRACT The THIRD The Fountain of Chymical Philosophy I Will divide the whole of the Art into these parts The first shall contain things substantially and essentially Constituting the Work The second the disposition of them The things Essentially Costituting the Stone are a Body or Mature Sulphur or red Brass and Water or Immature Mercury or white Brass to which a Vessel is added a Furnace and Triple Fire The Disposition of these things Considers the Weight and the Regimen The Pondus is twofold the Regimen twofold Those things which perfect these Operations are Calcination Dissolution Separation Conjunction Putrefaction Distillation Coagulation Sublimation Fixation and Exaltation of which the two first are made especially by a Temperate Incomburent and altering Ignition of the Fire heating the Kings bath and Changing him first into a subtile viscous Earth Discontinued black and stinking then into Mineral Water diversly coloured and this is called a Fire against Nature The three Operations which follow are made from the Combining of the first and third Fire to wit of the Natural and Contra-natural which being so joyned together make an unnatural Fire by Circulating the Matter every day and separating the more subtile from the Thick till all be of the same Temperament and then Conjoyning the things separated impregnating them and so putrefying them The five last Operations are made by the Fire of Nature daily increasing and Predominating which first Circumacts the putrefied Matter daily and cleanseth it from Filth by an often ascension and descension which therefore is called Distillation Volatization Ablution Mundification Cohobation Imbibition Cibation Humectation of the Earth and this is done so long by the heat until the Siccity begins to Coagulate which is called Inspissation which by a longer Concoction or Sublimation brings a fixity whose Bound is Exaltation This is not the change of an inferior place for the Superior but of the most vile thing to make the most Noble These are all our Opperations and successive Dispositions which by some are called so many Regimens which name if any one had rather impose he may however know there is only a double fire Natural and against Nature of which the Latter Acts first because the other is not brought
which this our Mercury is to be found it is of a like Essence with Gold unlike in Substance by converting the Elements whereof thou shalt find what thou seekest Joyn the Heaven with the Earth upon a Fire of friendship and in the midst of the Firmament thou shalt see Hermes his bird Do not confound the Natures but divide them and joyn them again and thou shalt Reign in Honour all thy Life hear therefore this great Secret in the Southern Coast is found a very high Mountain very near to the Sun which is one of the seven and highest but one This Mountain of which we now speak is of a very hot temperature because it is not far from the Sun and in this Mountain a Vapour or Spirit is shut up which is highly necessary for our Work but it does not ascend unless it be enlivened neither is enlivened unless the Earth be digged Knee deep in the top of the Mountain but if this be done the Spirit or thin Exhalation ascends which being congealed by the Air drop by drop runs into most clear Water warm like a Bath which is presently gathered for it is the true Caduce of Mercury with which he works Wonders this is our Water our Fire our Furnate and it is our Mercury and not the Vulgars but the hot and humid Liquor of the most pure Salt which we name Mercury because comparing it with the Sun it 's immature and Frigid Verily I say unto thee except the Almighty had Created this Mercary the Transmutation of Metals were impossible because the Sun does not tinge unless it be tinged But he is not tinged but by this our Water alone O this blessed Humidity which is the Philosophical Heaven whence wise men have drawn their Inestimable Dainties O per manent Water Dissolving and amending Sol our Nitre and wonderful Salt Petre whose price is Inestimable yet it is little esteemed Therefore the thing is vile and yet very Precious whom our Sol Loves as his only Bride whose virtue if the vulgar knew they would not sell a drahm for a Thousand Ounces of Silver for it is most precious Gold Lively and penetrating therefore it turns the Body of Gold into a meer Spirit and is joined in Marriage as the Woman to the Husband whose fairness Sol admires and rejoices in her and for Love kills his own Wife and she moved with Love makes him alive and is impregnated by him Conceives and grows big also brings forth a Son a most serene King O happy they who can go to this Fountain of our Water for if they shall Drink of it and shall Eat afterwards a little piece of fat Flesh they shall reign as Princes all their Life on the Earth Therefore the whole secret of our Work consists in knowing this our Sea which who ever is Ignorant of he hath long ago Destined his Money to perdition if he does spend any about this Work For our Ocean draws its Original from one Mountain and that a very high one as I have said above But if ascending to the Top thou digg Knee Deep a Certain Exhalation or white fume will ascend which will perfect the whole Magistery but there remains another Secret which thou art obliged not to be ignorant of that thou maist obtain thy desire to wit how thou must digg in the Mountain since that the Earth in the Superfice of the Mountain is to be cut with no Blow for is his Dryness that it is Concreted by the means of Heat into a Substance harder then Flint Attend therefore to this Secret in Saturnine places is found a certain Herb called Satarnia whose branches appear dry but Juice abounds in the Root gather this Herb together with the Root and carry it with thee until thou come to the foot of the Mountain under which by the Ministry of Vulcan thou shalt digg and Bury the Herb which presently goes through the pores of the Mountain by loosing the Earth thereof then at length Climing to the Top thou shalt easily Bore Knee deep and shalt pour so much Fat and dry Water that descending to the Bottom of the Mountain it may wet the Herb there laid which presently being made moist together with the Water ascends like smoak and hurries with it the Spirit of the Mountain carrying it up with it which Spirit is a fiery Virtue mingling it self with the water and inhabiting therein and it is the Water into which thou hast cast thy Bond or the Vessel or Furnace the spirit of Saturnia is a whitening fume and the vapour of the Mountain is fire and all these are fire so thou hast Saturnia a Vegetable Royal and Mineral Herb of which with fat Flesh is made such a Broth to which no Dainties in the World may be Compared Now thou hast the whole secret of our Water described under an enigmatical Discourse yet not so abscurely but thou maist Easily if thou be diligent and Learned by Contemplations and Experiments perfect the Work For all these are the true Material Principles of our Stone besides which nothing can or ought to enter into our Work to wit the King and the Water which is the Bath of the King know that our Water is a Vessel as our King is Contained in it and a Furnace as our Fire is included in it and our Fire as the Virtue or Spirit of the Mountain Inhabits in it and the Female as it contains the Vapour of Vegetable Saturnia which is very friendly to Sol and Penetrates Whitens and Molifies him and makes him to cast out Sperm then the Fiery Virtue which is shut up in the Water begins to work upon our Body so reduced by wasting it and Mortifying by burning and Putrefying or rather exciting to these things until the innate heat of Sol is deduced from power into Act which dealbates Coagulates Fixeth and Tingeth and therefore our Stone is called the world because it contains both the Agent and Patient in it It is the moving and the moved Active and Passive Fixt and Volatile Mature and Crude one whereof succours the other and the one is amended by the other because both is Homegeneous in its self For Sulphur and Mercury are the same in Water and in a Body in Identity of the Genus and only are diversifyed by Decoction Keep this Secret Therefore we do not to that end order Crude and Volatile Mercury to be mingled with Mature and fixt Sulphur that we might affirm that Sulphur is different in one and the other and the Mercury different also For where would then the Homogeneity of Metals be which we affirm in our Stone but therefore we mix these two Species's that we by our Art might Perfect Gold a thousand Degrees more in a far shorter space than Nature has formed simple Gold in the Mines For Nature from only Crude Humid and Frigid Mercury without any Addition Generates Gold by a long Decoction under the Earth But Art to contract the work throws
deceived for this Conjunction is not made by manual operation but only by a Natural man not only not helping but also not well understanding its Cause therefore this is called a Divine Work Fools can confound the Body of Gold with Mercury and then they call it animated Gold but they find nothing in it For altho these two should remain together a Thousand Years nevertheless they would afterwards recede one from the other in their own proper Nature Therefore the Conjunction was not alterative but only a Confusion of two between themselves But in out Operation the spirit of Sol Infuseth its self into the spirit of Mercury so that they never depart the one from the other afterwards even as water doth not being mixt with water Therefore in this Operation the greatest nay the whole secret of the Art lyes hid Attend therefore thou Son of Learning and see warily that thou dost not err here Therefore the Body of Sol will never be joined with Mercury inwardly unless Luna mediating or an imperfect Body and Fire and this Luna is the Juice of the water of Life which lyes hid in Mercury which is sharpened by the fire and is a spirit entring a Body and altring it and Compelling it to retain its Soul Now therefore thou seest of what Mercury we have hitherto spoken not vulgar but pluvial which properly is not called Mercury but Mercurial water for the Mercury of the vulgar is water but a Spirit and fiery virtue is wanting to it supply if thou canst that which is wanting with all thy Art then it will no longer be Mercury of the vulgar but like to ours But if thou canst not do this let that Mercury alone for thou canst expect nothing but loss from it Behold now God is my witness I have told the whole matter which if thou art wise thou canst not be ignorant of For vulgar Mercury has seduced more then any thing else for the Workers herein have found nothing because they did not know our Mercury But to return to Conjunction which believe me is the whole Secret of the Art for the Earth is not united inseparably with the water but water adheres strongly to water hence it follows that this laudable Conjunction is not celebrated till after Dissolution attend thou therefore to solution Nature will joyn together and this Dissolution is made in Mercury by the help of included Luna and Fire For Luna penetrates and Albifies and the fire mortifies and Triturates but the Water includes both these Virtues according to the saying of the Philosopher The Fire which I will shew thee is water And another Vnless Bodies be subtilized by Fire and water nothing is done in the Magistery O Blessed Mercury of ours which frees us from those many Labours which Sophisters endure for they make many Operations with their hands and profit nothing because they know not the true Course of Nature But we do nothing but leave all things to be done by our Mercury which proceeds in a better Method according to its Natural Instinct then any man could invent for he is constrained by the necessity of his End wherefore he never misses the right way if he be not hindred But there are some Sophistical Operators who take Gold and put it to Mercury then shut them in a Glass and set them over the Fire expecting some notable thing from thence But since they cast fat and good Seed into barren Land they are deceived for they find not the Harvest they expected because as is abovesaid and shall be further said more plainly Gold is not the matter of our Stone in its whole Essence nor yet Mercury wherefore the bare mixture of these cannot Generate our Stone for Gold in the Work is a Male to the Work of Generation in whose most secret Reins the Seed lies hid which if it once send forth being received in a due Matrix and conjoined with the passive female Seed 't is Cherished with a due Heat and Cibated with a proper Aliment then truely we shall have from Gold abundantly to perform our Work So neither a man as he is man can neither be called the Father nor the matter of the Embrio but he has in him such a matter from which by the Conjunction of a Dissimilar spermatick matter in the same kind by an apt Disposition the Infant is formed In like manner we must understand of Gold For Gold is the most perfect of all Metals and the Father of our Stone yet it is not the matter thereof for the Sperm which Gold sends forth if it be handled by Art will be the masculine matter of our Stone and is nothing else then a most digested Virtue of Gold which is Extracted from it by sagacious Art and then is called our Living Gold and not vulgar which is dead So also in the Procreation of man a man may be said to be Dead Respect being had to to the Act of Generation until he pours out the due matter which he hath in himself into a fit Place just so t is in our Art therefore our Gold is not vulgar Gold for they differ as a Father differs from his Sperm which he hath the first is necessary to our Work and Living the other dead and unprofitable that is sends forth its Seed which is the Active Virtue of our Stone So therefore go ye on with a great deal of Caution take this Body which I have Demonstrated and sweetly Extract the Seed from it then and not till then this Gold which before was Dead Idle and useless being made Living active and fit for our Work will supply thee with the first matter of our Stone to 〈◊〉 the masculine and so is no longer called Gold by us but Brass Magnesia Lead Dung nor can it indeed properly be called Gold for Gold is a Body but this a Chaos that is a Spirit nor will Return by any Art to its Pristine Species of Gold because the Body is turned into Spirit from hence saith Menabdes I order Posterity to make Bodies incorporate Hermes also says O Son Extract the Shadow from the Radins that is Extract from the Gold which is called the Radius its Seed which is called the Shaddow both because it lies hidden and as it were in a Shade and also because it comes out under an obscure Shade of Blackness Aristotle also saith The first thing that ye ought to do is to sublime the Mercury then cast clean bodies into a clean Mercury But I would have the Reader Admonisht what sort of sublimation is here intended for there are infinite false Erroneous and Sophistical Operations one true and Natural which notwithstanding is done by Art I omitting all these Vulgar Operations follow the Intention of 〈◊〉 Philosophers and mean that Sublimation which they call the Preparation of the Thin Matter by which the Eclipse of the Earthy Interposition is taken from Luna that she may receive Light from Sol which comes to pass when
for the possibility of Multiplying this Tincture it is plentifully shown by many at which some Carp neither is it hard to conceive since our experience shows in common Ferments there is no end as it were of the power of Ferment as it comes to have reiterated Operations on suitable matters These Considerations Leads immediatly through an necessity to abandon all thoughts of Agents and Patients out of kind or that are not Homogeneal to the bodys to be mended and one to another this no small security to a young Searcher against the many Pretences and Practices of those who prosecute those things blindly and Corruptly How this may be effected is indeed worth enquiry Therefore let us consider that next Nature being arrived at her End in the perfection of Gold the Standard and fallen short of it in imperfect Metals through Accidents we to perfect them must go as near to Perfection as we can to begin and as Philosophers say where Nature left If therefore we hope to move this Perfection to a plusquam perfection the Perfection must dye Our great Care then must be to seek and find such an Agent that is capable to effect it Which appears to be from all candid Authors and reason it self an homogeneous Humid Which doth not only Kill the Body but dyes with it and are both raised farr more Noble and Perfect endued with a Multiplicative Power Like as a Grain of Corn when by its own Humidity in a proper Matrix is thus Killed and Raised it putteth forth many Grains each endued with the same Multiplicative Virtue with the first Seed which may be Multiplyed as it were Infinitely This Humidity I very well know is the desire of all true Searchers of Art who know by sad Experience how Difficultly it is obtained But how difficult soever it may be thought or found to be it must be attained or we Labour without Reward To reincrudate necessarily requires a Crudity and as this is to Dye Rise and Dwell with the Body reduced must also through necessity be the same in kind and only differ with respect to Crudity Which then will naturally follow to be that Crude out of which Perfect Gold is produced according to all candid Writers Philadelphia has Illustrated and Bernard Trevisan with others has affirmed that Mercury to Metals is like common Water to Vegetables Viz. their Matter Therefore the Crudest Mercury must be the only Agent to reincrudate ripe Mercurial Bodies I have observed a pretty Likeness between Mercury in Metallick Works and Water in Vegetables For if I would produce a Vegetable it must be by Seed and Water if a Metal it must be by Mercury and its Ferment If I would purifie a Vegetable Body which is Water congealed as Sugar Salt c. which are Capable of being mixed with extraneous Earth or Feces I must dissolve it in Water which Water being of the Unity of its Matter possesses it and rejects the Feces which being evaporated leave the Body free from those impurities Just so in Refining Metals which are Mercury Coagulated we Dissolve them in a sufficient quantity of Mercurial matter by Fusion then evaporate the Crude Mercurial Matter on a Test c. and the pure Metal remains behind In this Work of Refining Running Mercury is not chose or used but Corporeal as in Luna Saturn is Chose and in Sol Antimony Silver being less perfect is purified by Lead less Crude Gold most perfect is purified by Antimony most Crude And as Antimony is too Crude for Silver so is Lead not Crude enough for Gold From hence may be Learned the Reason and Ground of the Refiners Art And further to manifest the difference in Maturity between Lead and Antimony I have observed in the union of them with other Metals this different effect When in the Reduction of Lead Oar we add Iron and what else may be requisite and a fusion of both is made the metal that resides is malleable But if the like be done with Antimony we find instead of that a brittle Metalline Mass The Reason of adding Iron in such Works is from hence the Mercuriality or Metalline part in the Oar is held in Chains by the abundance of impure Sulphur which violently attracts to its self the Metallick Sulphur in the Iron through which Union the Accidents in great measure are thrown off and the Metal resides in the Bottom Also we see that when some ripe Metal is mixed with a greater Quantity of Crudity or immature the immature is blown off and the ripe remains But if the Crude too much exceed the ripe it will carry that also whence it is easy to err in Quantities and degrees of Fire For if a small Quantity of Silver be mixed with a great Quantity of Antimony and that hastily blown off how easily do this Crudity Conquer and carry off the Ripe Body This by the By. But to return to that which is sooner spoke then done viz. The Reduction of a perfect Body by a Crude Agent and as this is no doubt the End of our Labour so we shall find it attended with many Difficulties First in finding the Extreams then in uniting them which must be through Mediums and perhaps in purification for Crudity is generally attended with Impurity and every perfect Generation and Union requires purity in the Principles The Mediums of Vnion ought to be Adapted to the Nature of the Extreams least they should alinate rather then unite Also Mediums imply middle Natures that are not so Crude as the one nor so ripe as the other Now Astrologers say that Merâ—â—â—â— begin to move least we Return without Recompence I am not ignorant that the Practice is diversly conceived by Searchers as well as Principles for the Philosophers having spoken Allusively of both we may easily mistake But I am obliged by the necessity of it to believe the Principles were the same to all true Philosophers Neither can I admit for the same Reason of any other thoughts of their Operations I remember a saying in Ars Metallorum very confirming where he speaks of the certainty of the Art from Argument and amongst others brings this as none of the least This at least is clear that it is so far from being a new Device that there have been men skilful in it through many Series's of Ages who being Different both in Tongue and Nation and very many of them Contemporary have written so Agreeingly of the Art that they cannot be proved by such as understand them either to Corrupt or diversly to handle so much as one Operation This perhaps may seem strange at first as it did to me being prepossessed with a conceit of the contrary viz. That their seeming Contradictions were owing to their different Working on divers Principles But considering the thing I found that he said not this alone but that all admonish that we should observe wherein they all agree and there was the truth This admits that they do all agree and
Especially to be retained in the Conservation of its species Therefore Gold is to be Changed from its Form and that into Water Homogenous of its own kind in which Water the spirit of the Gold is preserved which afterwards Re-inspissates its Water and Induces a new Form after putrifaction a thousand times more perfect then the form of Gold which it lost by being re incrudated Therefore Metallick Bodies are to be reduced into Homogeneal Water not wetting the Hands that out of this Water a new Metaltick Species may result far more Noble than any Metal This is our most precious Medicine and Coelestial Ruby But all this Work very well Answers to the subterraneal Operations of Nature from whence the Work is deservedly called Natural For Nature doth produce Metals according to their species out of Mercury alone Cold and moist by a daily Digestion Coction in the Veins of the Earth But Art to shorten the Work hath found out a far more subtile Operation yet like to this For it Conjoyns with Crude Mercury cold and moist ripe Gold and both of these by Commixtion and secret Conjunction makes one Mercury which they Name Aqua Vitae which Mercury at last they Decoct into Gold not Vulgar but far more Noble which fulls upon all Imperfect Metals and tings them into tryed Gold exposed to all Tryals You understand therefore as I believe that tho our Stone be of Gold alone yet it is not Vulgar Gold That therefore our Gold may be fetched from Vulgar Gold it is to be Dissolved into Water not Elementary but not wetting the Hands that is Mineral which Water is Mercury which from a Red servant hath means in its self to perfect the whole Work without any Imposition of Hands and this at last is that only true and Natural Principle to which nothing is to be added nothing taken away unless some superstuities which without any humane help its self will perfect by its own Virtue and Natural Instinct Therefore thou having this Mercury mind nothing else With good Reason therefore the Philosopher said Imploy thy whole study in Decocting Mercury but I say to thee let thy whole Study be Imployed in getting this Mercury that is in Dealbating our Red Laren which being done thou hast done thy Part what remains is the work of Women and the Play of Boys For Nature will be present to dispatch the rest but in the mean while a desired rest is given to thee which indeed as the Philosopher said Is more desirable then any Labour For know that our Albification is no Light Work being Radical for this will be the Indicium of an Altered and reduced Body Neither will Gold so Albificated ever return to its Pristine form for from a Body it is made a Spirit and from a fixt Volatile by this Operation Therefore be wholly intent in Dealbating Laton for it is easier to make Gold then so to destroy it for he that dissolves so Congeals it rather for the solution of the Body and the Coagulation of the Spirit are Coincident in it But Consider you Sons of Wisdom and Note these Mysteries That which Dissolves is a spirit but that which Coagulates is a Body Therefore if you would Dissolve your Body first of all you have need of a spiritual substance because a Body cannot dissolutively enter a body But a Spirit entreth it Attenuating and Rarifying and because you require Water therefore you have need of Water to manifest this for every Agent Exercising any Act upon any thing Assimilates that on which it Acts to its self as far as it can be done and every Natural Effect is conformed to the Nature of the Efficient therefore to draw Water out of the Earth you have need of Water I don't mean as some badly think by Water Aquafortis Aqua Regis and other Corrosives which Common Alchymists Artificially Compound to themselves and put them to dissolve these Metallick Species's which yet they don't Dissolve but Corrode foul and Corrupt for who would believe that those Waters can Destroy the old form of the Metal under Conservation of a Metallick Species which yet themselves are Aliens from a Metallick Nature for they are not sufficient Enough to destroy throughly the Species Else they would Convert them into their own Nature But as far as they can they do Transform them into some fordid thing for the more Bodies are Corroded the more they are Estranged from a Metallick Nature But our VVater is VVater of Mercury and dissolves Bodies into Mercury and inseparably is joyned with them being Dissolved Cohabitates is Concocted that from them may be made that one All-Spiritual thing which is sought For every thing that any thing Naturally dissolves that so the Species of the thing Dissolved may be preserved remains with the thing Dissolved Materially and formally and does Coalesce and is Inspissated by it and nourishes it as a Body may see in a Grain of Wheat which being Diâ—â—olved by a terrene Hamid Vapour this Vapour remains with this Grain after dissolution for its Radical Humidity and Coalesces with it into a Plant. Another thing also will be to be Observed in every Natural dissolution which since such like Dissolution is the enlivening of a Dead thing can be done by nothing else then that Living thing which was of the Essence of the Dead thing before it was Dead As in a Grain the Life is dead as I may say which we would have vivified this can be done therefore by nothing else but the vapour of the Earth the Humidity and Calidity of the Air for that the Grain its self was Extracted out of the Earth formerly was nothing else but such like vapour which afterwards became dead by Decoction therefore by this alone naturally to be Vivified under the Conservation of its Species Therefore I write this because so many and so Learned Men are so much Deceived with that Vulgar Mercury for altho it is a Mineral Water yet not of a like Nature or Essence with Gold For who will not confess that if a Grain of Wheat be cast into a Pool of Water it will not Germinate nor Increase yet Bull-Rushes are wont to Vegetate there whence is this I Pray Except that the Aquaous humour was not essential to it neither of a like Nature with the Wheat wherefore it doth not Naturally Dissolve it but Destroys it Not otherways Gold if it be mixed to be Decocted with Common Quicksilver or any other Mercury Except alone of its own Humidity it doth not receive a Dissolution in them to wit because these Waters being too Crude Cold and unclean are of a far unlike nature with Gold wherefore in these it is not amended neither retained neither with these Matured into a fart more Noble Perfection then its Nature Therefore at Length our Mercury is not vulgar Mercury for it is a pure Water Clean Clear Bright and Resplendent and worthy of much Admiration It is Crude Cold and Immature
is a Fire against Nature whence being struck as it were with the Hammer of Death it becomes impertinently passive from active and instead of black it appears citrine like a wild Poppy But our true Calcination conserves the Radical Humidity in the Body to be dissolved and it is finished in no other colour but black and becomes a discontinuous Calx unctuous fatt and fit for fusion Be therefore Patient that thou maist obtain thy Desire because you will have very much cause of Dispair When therefore we speak of our Operations do not think that we perfect them in one or two days or see the colours or signes in the first hour No verily but we have expected much and long till there was made an Agreement betwixt contrary qualities wherefore Trevesan Teaches in his Practice who was a Learned and good man in this Art that be staid in Prison that is suspence of mind and Doubt fourty days but that he returned afterwards and saw Clouds and Mists Moreover if thou should put Grain into Good Land thou shalt not look into the Earth by moving it every hour that you may see whether and how much it begins to increase if you should do this you could not expect a sweet vegetation much less Fruit from thence So foolish and Insipid are they who as soon as ever they have joined the Dissolvent with the Dissolvend presently seek some signes of the Operation nor can satisfie themselves but they either move or open or add or detract something or at least increase the Fire to accelerate the work and so by this means hinder the work of Nature and therefore do not attain the wished for Ends. Therefore attend to my Doctrine as soon as thou hast prepared the Matter that is mature Sulphur yellow with his Crude white Sulphur and hast duely espoused them shut them up in a vessel and let them stand without trouble if thou rightly proceed within twenty four Hours thou shalt see thy Compound swelling and perhaps sending forth some Bubbles by reason of the Heat of thy Sea water striving to excite the heat of the Included Matter but in the first Entrance thou shalt behold the variation of the colours slowly as at least it will seem to thee because then the keeper of the Gate necessarily sustains many Labours because whatever is done he alone then does it because the Bath is not yet prepared that is the Natural heat of the King is not yet stirred up But when the Bath is made hot our House-keeper shall sustain but few Labours and the operations will be easily to be distinguished Therefore let the Sons of this Art know for certain that the first colour that will appear after the si ver colour of the Amalgama of the Body will not be perfect black for this colour does not come in a moment but every day the more the whiteness is diminished the more blackness will supervene until at last it be compleated For blackness is a signe of a dissolved Body which is not made in one hour but by little and little but Incessantly for the Tincture proceeding from the Reins of Sol and Luna shews it self black to the Eyes but is Extracted insensibly and imperceptibly Therefore the coming of Blackness and the departure of the Tincture out of the Bowels of the Dissolvend Body is the same measure and term of time because as soon as the Tincture is wholly gone out so soon the blackness will be perfect and absolute Concerning this hear what Ludus Puerorum sayes First by how much the more thou Decocts so much the more thou subtilizeth the Gross and blackens the Compound And Bernard Trevesan saith The Earth of the rest beginning to predominate the blackness of the Element appears but does not obtain his Dominion but by little and little To finish in a word there are only four Principle Colours the first whereof is Blackness and that most slow in coming and longest in duration which if it were made perfect by a momentary Ingress the work would be most expeditious for it should not perish more slowly then it came and remain in the top of blackness for an hour For there is no Interstitium in these Operations but it Increaseth to the height of one Degree at which it no sooner arrives but Decresses again therefore it ascends slowly to blackness and descends slowly from it but there is not a Moment in which it doth not ascend or descend for nothing resteth but in its End but blackness is not the end of our Stone ergo c. How then shall blackness appear to wit even as night comes for first the Twilight at last Dark Night and that by insensible Degrees every moment there being less Light in the Air then another until at last there be no Light at all then it is deep Night but all this is wont to be within an hour yet the Motion is Insensible But our work because it requires a longer time the motion must needs be more Imperceptible Thou therefore that seekest this consider the Example produced and thou shalt have thy Answer Objection But after the first Excitation of the Matter the Tincture goes out every hour and moment but the colour of the Tincture going out is blackest blackness therefore after the first stirring up of the Matter blackest blackness will appear in an hour We Answer the blackest blackness is of the Tincture gone out but not of the going out or if so yet it goes out Insensibly but insensible blackness altho most black when it goes into much white will not manifest the blackest blackness in the whole Compound but a whitish colour but if so be the Subject of Whiteness be not subtile and well depurated even as this white is now then its Tincture in its first Egress is not compleatly Black but it obtains this by a Putrefaction which is not a bare Egress of the Tincture but a Repugnance and Resistance from it which ariseth between the outgoing Tincture and the extracting Water that is between Sulphur and Mercury Concerning this thing hear the saying of Morienus Our operation is nothing else but an Extracting of Water out of its Earth nor that only but a returning of the Water upon the Earth until the Earth putresie Therefore the Tincture is not altogether black of it self but most white because by how much the more the Tincture goes out which is the Soul by so much the more the Earth which is the Body is dispirited and so it putrefies and Blackens How long time then must we expect before it be perfectly black In this thing attend to what Flammel sayes The colour which thou ought first to see is blackness and that not every but most black and that within the space of Fourty dayes Also Ripley sayes suffer the Commixt and Coequated Natures to lye together six Weeks which time expect with a slow Fire VVhen the Colours dye they will show it for at that time they will
to light but by this and Putrefaction must go before Regeneration and when these two fight with one another they make an Unnatural fire and from this Contention rises Putrefaction and after this is a Glorious Regeneration in which the Sulphur and Water become one thing and also receive a Congealation from no fire but a Natural Therefore our Body which is commonly Called Terra Lemnia perfects the whole work but it can in no wise be moistened but in its own Water which Water is truely Pluvial not such as the common people knows to get but ours which none ever saw but a true Philosopher believe me for I speak the truth Fools know how to Extract many Waters to wit wetting the hands but our Water is the Life of all things about which thou must take pains then neither Sol nor Luna will be wanting to supply thee with Riches But I will tell thee and that faithfully what kind of Water this is it is the Water of Salt Petre which is known as Mercury but in the heart a pure infernal Fire but have a care thou be not deceived by Quicksilver but understand that Mercury which the returning Sun cefuseth every where in the Month of March Gather thou it in the Month of October because then surely it is found ripe and the most precious Treasure in the whole World But that I may describe our Mercury to thee our Rain Water so that thou maist find it know that it is before the eyes of he whole World that yet are Ignorant thereof or at least does take the vulgar for it and deturpates it with various Tortures but neglects our true Mercury in its season therefore it never perfects our Magistery For the common Alehymists does look upon it with a blew look whence it comes to pass that they scorn it but it astonisheth the Sons of Learning with its Splendor and is greatly accounted of by them therefore it is a vile thing and yet the most precious which no one ever contemned without a great judgement of God But thou when thou seest it don't despise it because it will appear very durty and if thou therefore dispise it thou shalt be deprived of the Magistery but if thou dost greatly esteem this contemptible thing then indeed it shall seem Glorious having changed its countenance For our Water is a most clean Virgin and is loved by many but she meets all her Wooers Cloathed in sordid Garments that by this means she may distinguish Philosophers from Fools for whosoever shall behold nothing but externally will scorn him as unworthy of such a Secret since Whores shew themselves to their Wooers drest in splendid Garments but this chast and most precious Maid seems outwardly foul but is inwardly fair which indeed cheats many Fools But whatsoever Mental man can see the Spirit which lyes hid under the patent body will not esteem her little also our Virgin will look upon him as a Friend and putting off her filthiness will shine most amiable whom then none but a fool but must admire and love for she will bestow upon him infinite Riches and perfect health Therefore honour ye this Female the Sister and Wife of our King to whom if you be assistant in putting off her dreggs she will get most splendid Garments for her self and bestow infinite Riches upon thee Therefore this our Queen is clean above measure whom if you shall behold you will think you look upon a certain Heavenly Body for the is indeed the Heaven or the fifth Essence of Philosophers whose brightness you cannot imagine unless you see it believe me for I have seen her Snowy Splendor with my Eyes touched with my hands then which nothing can be thought fairer Our Water is then truly Pontick Serene Christaline pure and clean which is not so in its Nature as we make it by our Art and it s our Sea our hidden Fountain out of which our Gold naturally is Created when yet it prefers its self to Gold and conquers it and in the hour of its Nativity Gold is joyned with it and is washed in it and both increaseth together into a Stout Hero which neither Coesar nor the Pope can buy with Money Therefore with all thy strength get this Water of which an Ounce is worth above a Thousand Pound because by this alone without any other Labour except the Addition of a perfect clean pure body thou maist perfect our most Honoured Stone to which no Treasure in the World can be equaled But there is need of profound Meditation before thou canst conceive our Sea to wit its Flux and Reflux But if thou be diligent by the help of God thou shah obtain thy defire I for my part after I knew the Field in general where this our Secret Fountain did Purl yet I did not learn to get it out till after a year and a half giving my self to daily study and profound Contemplations because the Fiery Furnace of the wise men lay hid from me long but after I knew this and how it was fitted to its proper Verel after a few dayes I beheld the admirable Brightness of our Water which being seen I could not but be amazed for as in the Practice so it is in the Theory and on the contrary for he that exactly knows the Magistery of this Water no Words or Secrets of the Philosophers Sayings Writings or Enigmas will be concealed from him so whosoever hath once made up our Water nothing remains to be done but to cast in a clean Body in a just quantity shut the Vessel and so let it stand till the Complement of the Work But we have another twofold Fire which thou shalt easily know as soon as thou hast Learned this first but that we may return to the Water in which believe me the whole secret Consists which Water altho it be one yet is not simple but Compound to wit of the Vessel and Fire of Philosophers to which a third is added namely the Bond. When therefore we speak of our Vessel understand our Water when of the Fire in like manner understand Water and when we Dispute of the Furnace we would have nothing Diverse or divided from the Water Therefore the Vessel is one the Furnace one the Fire one and all these are one to wit Water Therefore the fire Digesteth the Vessel Whiteneth and Penetrates and the Furnace or Bond Encompasseth and includeth all and the Fire is Mercury the Vessel also Mercury lastly the same Furnace is Mercury and Note well there is no fire in the whole work but Mercury when notwithstanding the fire is manifold and the water manifold therefore as well fire as water is diversified by their virtue in the work as in Number so they agree in one and the same Gender to wit Mercury therefore our Fire is Living our Water Living our Vessel Living our Furnace Living and all these are one Know also dearest that there is only one thing in the whole world in the
in Mature and fixed Sulphur to Mercury made most pure by Art and so Extracts the most digested virtue of Sulphur by Mercury which Sulphureal Virtue strongly Changes and perfects Mercury into a Compleat Elixir Observe therefore the Work and the Process thereof whence thou shalt understand the Cause of the wonderful Abreviation of the Work Gold is a Body hot and dry Luna Gold moist Mercury the Medium of Carrying the Tinctures The Body of Sol is most digested of Luna imperfect and immature Mercury the Bond by which these two Contraries are United Join Luna to Mercury with a due and Convenient Ignition and mingle them so that Luna and Mercury may become one Mercury retaining the fire in it self and all the feces and superfluities will fall from Mercury and he shall become clear as the tear of the Eye altho not Diaphonous then lastly mingle this Mercury with Gold in which is Luna and Fire and then the hot and Dry will love the cold and moist and will lye down together in one bed that is in the Fire of friendship and the Man will be dissolved upon the Woman and the woman will be Coagulated upon the Man and then the Spirit and the Body will be one by Commixtion Go on afterwards with that foot thou hast begun and so often Reiterate the Heaven upon its Eearth until the Spirit put on the Body and both be fixt together For then our Stone is perfect and indued with Regal Virtue the which no price can Buy For Mercury is the water of all Metals they being decocted in it And even as simple water which in its own Nature is cold and moist which notwithstanding if it be mixt in decoction with any Vegetable receives and puts on other Qualities of the thing mixt with it whose force and spirit or life which resides in the water goes out by Decoction into the water and the water Convertibly receives its Nature Yet the thick and Corporeal Earthly part of the substance decocted is not that spirit that Changes the quality of the water but is separable from the water after decoction In like manner we must understand of Argent Vive with its Species's yet differently for whatsoever Metal or Mineral shall be so familiar with Mercury as to be mixt per minima and decocted with it that Mercury according to the Species of the Metal so joined puts on other Qualities and will cast off his own Dreggs Therefore Metallick and Mineral species's are subordinately and subalternately to be decocted in it and it is their water into which Mineral spirits are emitted by Decoction and do alter it no other ways then Vegetables decocted in their simple water Yet a double difference is to be noted between the foresaid Decoctions first that water is not fixt with the Vegetables as Mercury with Metals therefore these are of a stronger Composition than those The Second that in the Decoction of Vegetables or Animals the water being a Diaphanous Humor not only receives new Virtue and Qualities but also a different Colour to what it had But it is not so in Mercury for its Nature is altered but not its Colour nor form of Flux but the colour of a dissolved Metal lyes under the form of Liquid Argent vive and by its virtue does not appear Therefore Mercury first acteth up a Metal by dissolving it afterwards the Metal Acts upon Mercury by Coagulating it and as in Dissolution the form and colour of the Metal lay under the form and colour of Mercury so also in Coagulation the form and Colour of Mercury is hid under the Colour and form of the Metal so neither the Qualities of the Metal in dissolution hinders the Flux of Mercury nor the Qualities of Mercury in Coagulation hinder the fixity of the Metal Dost thou not see here a certain wonderful Agreement betwixt Mercury and Metals for they Love like Mother and Son Sister and Brother Male and Female therefore their Bodies are made better by Water for the Generation of all things is by water and they take in it and by it a Latitude of subtilty that is a spiritual and volatile Nature and the Water in like manner is amended by the Bodies and is retained puts on a Corporeal Nature so the whole compound is matured together when the Agents become Patients and on the contrary But the reason that the Colour of Mercury is not changed in Decoction by the Body Dissolved is this that the Earth and Water are Homogeneous in Mercury and so temperate that neither can be separated from the other and they are so strongly Commixt that in so wonderful a tenuity of matter there is such great density of Substance as to hide the Colours whence if any proportion of Mercury be spoiled either destructively by deturpating things or Generatively with a Body Appropriated to its self it will manifest the colour that is thrown into the substance But there are Proportions of Mercury in respect both of Earth and water in respect of the second it flows and is Liquid in respect of the first it wets nothing that it touches but that which is of the Vnity of its Nature From what hath been said all Errors of Operators in Mercury are detected For some Obstruct or Divide its Homogeneity by drying it with various sublimations others Spoiling and Disproportionating the Earth to bring in a Transparency As many as do this do nothing but a Sophistical work For Mercury is Sperm of Metals which Nature with much sagacity hath formed in the Veins of the Earth for Metal Neither is any thing wanting to it but pure Digestion but it is not Digested unless by pare metallick incomburent sulphur which indeed it hath in its Center by which Nature would form Gold in a long time but it is altogether unknown to man how he should make this by his Art For altho Gold might be made of Mercury alone without any addition yet it would not be perfected but by long time and great cost which would be foolish to undergo in making simple Gold Therefore Sulphur is the only thing in the world which Nature has perfected that is familiar to Mercury This therefore is mixt Radically with it and by this Mercury is decocted and Mercury because of the Repugnance of Qualities putrefies it and so by Regeneration it rises again not Gold such as is had in Mines but spiritual Penetrative and tinging in so much that it easily enters all Imperfect Metals when cast upon them which in a very short time it Digesteth to the Anatical proportion of Gold and the dregs being cast off Restores them to perfect Health Thou seest therefore that Mercury is by no means to be Disproportionated from its own Nature but to be Matured and that not by it selt without any addition and yet without any outward addition but a Radical Vnion of a clean Body with it per minima which is done by our secret Conjunction Yet see you be not
the Dark Sphere of Saturn which obnubilates the whole Horizon is vanquished then Jupiter obtaining the Empire ascends into the Air with a splendid Cloud whence sincere Beautiful and Lovely Dew drops upon the Earth which mollifies it and raiseth great Winds in its Belly or bosom which brings our Stone upward whence t is endued with Heavenly Virtue which falling down again to the Earth which is its Nurse puts on a Terrene and Corporeal Nature so it receives the Force of Inferiours and Superiours We conclude therefore that neither Gold nor Mercury can afford us the first matter of our Stone until the Tincture be Extracted from Gold the Dissolvend by Mercury the Dissolvent which Tincture is a Living active virtue not Dead as Gold was before its Dissolution This is the matter of the old Philosophers which we ought to take which as the Author of the new Light sayes is but does not appear until the Artist pleaseth in knowing which all the Perfection consists Wherefore I order you who ever would be searchers out of this Secret that you would take that which is vile and manifest to the whole world out of which by a wonderful manner ye shall Extract that which is most hidden therein that is our Menstruum and the Western Mercury is our Philosophical Field in which your Sol shall arise and ascend Join this with his Delectable Bridegroom and let them lye in the bed of Love without stirring until from this hidden Nature which is Mercury regenerated by the Philosopher there proceed a Living Virtue which may raise the Dead then comes a Royal Off-spring of which Sol is the Father and Luna the Mother and so you have a most true Explication of the new Light you must take saith the Author that which is but is not seen till the Artist please and you must use this for the true matter of the old Philosophers and so we have spoken fully and plainly of our body and of our water and of our Red Sulphur and white Brass We have said there ought to be added to these a Furnace Vessel and triple Fire Note well what and about what I speak here for the Furnace is of Lute or Brick the Vessel Glass and the Fire Elementary of which we will speak lower in the last place of this little Treatise concerning our Disposition but here we speak of things Essentially and Substantially Conducing to the work For the Furnace of Brick is not wont to be called by us our Furnace nor Elementary fire ours nor the Glass vessel ours for these commonly are common to us and Sophisters and they will excel us often in the Curiosity of these Externals But we call those things ours which they Neither have nor can have verily I say that our Fire our Furnace our Vessel are secret nor obvious but to Philosophers for they enter into the very Essence of our Work hence a certain Philosopher writing of this fire sayes Behold the fire which I will show thee is Water also another witnesseth thus of the Vessel The vessel of Philosophers is their water another also writes The Intention of all the Philosophers is this that all operations should be made in their humid fire in a secret furnace and vessel which Testimonies plainly enough declare another Fire Vessel and Furnace then are commonly known Moreover my Brother let it not be a cause of scruple to thee that I have before numbred our furnace fire and vessel amongst the things essentially Constituting our Stone for in this I follow the Intention of all Philosophers writing in this Art Concerning this Vessel Sendivogius Writing names it the Vessel of Nature also the Fire of Nature Flammel Artefius Lully and all the rest have kept the same Method it is plain therefore that they would have something hidden from the eyes of the Vulgar But I in good truth say that these three are but one for Nature is but one the Adept Sons of Art do know and will Witness this For the Fire is to the Excruciating of Bodies more then fire therefore it is called burning Wine and a most strong fire hence the Philosopher ' Burn our Brass in most strong fire which whilst Sophisters hear they are deceived thinking it to be a fire of Coals or flame which is contrary to our fire concerning this John Mechungus speak No artificial fire can infuse so great a heat as that which comes from Heaven The First Gate Concerning Philosophical Calcination Not Printed in the Dutch Edition CAlcination Purgeth our Stone Restores Natural Heat destroys nothing of the Radical Humidity brings a due Solution to the Stone The Caution is that it may be done Philosophically not vulgarly with Salts or Sulphur variously prepared c. Whoever therefore truly desires to Calcine should desist from this Work till they understand our Caleination better for that every Calcination destroys Bodies destroying the Humidity of the Stone we also do Reprobate all dry Calxes for that we Increase the Radical Humidity by Calcining but diminish none In Calcination we joyn Nature to its Nature for that like loves like if any one denies this he will not be worthy of the Name of a Philosopher nor ever will get any benefit from our Writings for he understands them not Therefore apply thou Nature to Nature as Reason requires seing all things have this from nature that Like begets its Like Man is begot by a Man a Lion by a Lion so let every thing be Calcined first in its proper nature Learn this and never doubt to be benefited by it Therefore we make Calxes unctuous both white and Red which are not perfected but by three Degrees they are fluid like Wax other ways to be rejected nor are perfected but in a year to Tinge without a Fucus But thou must take care in the first place Concerning the Weight for it is possible for thee to doubt in this Lest therefore thou shouldest loose thy Labour let the body be Calcined with Mercury made so subtile in which there is one part of the Solar quality two of the Lunar until the whole flow together like a Liquid Wax Afterwards Increase the Solar quality in Mercury that there may be four parts of him two Lunar so that thou shalt begin the work at the Figure of the Trinity Three parts of body three of spirit and to Compleat the Unity let there be one part more of the spiritual then the corporeal substance This is proved by the testimony of Raymond If any one seek the Proportion there the Doctor hath demonstrated to me the same But Bacon hath taken three parts of the spirit to one of the body I did not sleep of many nights But choose which way thou wilt FINIS
For Gold being the most solid most fixed of all Bodies and of the strongest Composition most Patient of the fire and not at all obnoxious to Corruption does not easily pass over into a Nature so Contrary to this of its own Therefore if any one shall attempt this by force he will profit Nothing Seeing there is required an Agent of an Excelling Virtue to do this which ought to be Homogeneal Amicable and Spiritual namely that it may be related to the Body and yet be able to overcome it and fundamentally penetrate it whose secret Parts since they are distended so fart and so little Gold is true Gold will not so easily puting off its form nay it will fight until it be wholly overcome it lyes down and Dyes also it follows that our Agent ought to have an enlivening virtue that it may Raise up a new pure Body from the dead Carkasses CHAP. VII Of the first Philosophical Agent or Matrix into which our Seed is to be Emitted and into which it is Ripened MOreover such an Agent remains to be sought out by us where with we may do all the aforesaid things In which it is required first of all that the Water be Homogeneal that is by a Law of Necessity For that I have Taught before That the Golden seed doth lye hid in the Water alone and doth obtain its Power But it is shut up in the Body of the Gold under most thick Foulds of which is manifest a plain Contrary one to that hidden one which we seek Therefore this Water remains to be drawn out by a subtile Artifice but it doth not enter in of its own accord therefore this is to be effected by another thing which other thing indeed ought to be of the same Nature with that which we seek to draw forth For every like begets its like that is every Agent Exercising its Generative Action upon any thing changes that upon which it acts into its own Nature as near as it can And nextly it behoves this water to be related to the Body to be dissolved and therefore pure Clean and exquisitely cleansed and purged from all filth Neither is this enough but Gold is held to be Contraried in all its qualities in which it differs from the Water we seek wherein the Seed lyes hid The former is highly fixed the other highly Volatile the former a most solid Body this a most penetrating Spirit the one thick the other subtile the one dead the other living and enlivening and all the other Conditions are required which we seek in it after dissolution but they are wanting in a dead Coagulated Body Therefore it is Concluded that Mercury alone is the true Key of the Chymical Art which is indeed that dry Water so often described by Philosophers sluent stipery and yet not wetting the hands of the Toucher or any other thing which is not of the unity of its Matter and moreover it is indued with the Virtues above described this is the Keeper of our Gates our Balsam Oyle Honey our Vrine May-dew our female Mother Egg Secret Furnace Stove Sieve Marble true Fire venomous Dragon Treacle burning Wine Green Lyon Bird of Hermes Goose of Hermogenes Double Sword in the hand of the Cherub that defends the way of the Tree of Life and is famous for Infinite other Names and it is our Vessel true hidden also it is our Philosophical Garden in which our Sun rises and sets it is our Royal Mineral and Triumphant Vegetable Saturnia also the Caduce of Mercury because it Operates wonderful things and transforms it self according to its own pleasure that it may put on Different Masks Concerning this water the Philosopher saith Let Chymists boast as they will but the Transmutation of Metals is impossible without this What shall I say what shall I Discourse that I may report its Praises It is not so in its own Nature as we render it by our Artifice it is a thing very Vile and yet the most precious Treasure of all the World O the perfection of Nature and the head of Metallick Works therefore thou Son of Learning and studious of Art attend that thou mayest attain thy desire Take that which is most unclean of its self that is our Harlot purge throughly all the Filth and draw from thence what is the purest that is our Menstruum or Regal Diadem Behold I have finished in few Words that which Enobles a Philosopher delivers from Errors and leads forthwith into a most fair field of Delights Therefore that I may conclude this Chapter I will repeat succinctly all things which hath been said before There is a Certain and true Science called Alchmy whereby every imperfect Metal is perfected into Gold or Silver by the projection of the Triumphant Arcanum upon them penetrating and tinging which Secret is no other then Gold Exalted to its supream degree of perfection and this by Sagacious Art the Handmaid of Nature For that all Imperfect Metals are of the same Material Imposition with Gold nor do differ but in the Accidents alone as also by the Manners and Degrees of incompleated Decoction And that which being Imperfect is mixed with them is plainly heterogeneous and altho it stick Externally to the pure yet it is not United Inwardly and therefore may be rejected by a prevalent Agent such is our compleat Elixir to obtain which Secret the Sperm which lyes secret in the Body of the Gold is to be drawn out which is shut up in most thick Coverts and gives place to no power but only is manifest by Sagacious Art Which when it appears being hid first it comes out under a Mercurial form from whence it is Exalted into the fifth Essence first white then Red by a Continual decocting fire And all this is done by a Homogeneous Mercurial Pontique Agent Pure Clean Christaline without Transparency Liquid without humectation which is Water truly Divine neither it is found upon the Earth know the Son of Philosophers is made by this Nature Cooperating Which we know have seen have done have and possess and study to make it plain to the Ingenious yet so that driving away the unworthy we may Exclude them altogether from the Art who being Cast off we will accompany the studious into this most beautiful Garden CHAP. VIII Of the Genealogy of the Philosophical Mercury its Rise Birth and distinguishing Signes that go before and accompany it SOme Boasting and Arrogant Sophisters after having Learned from the Reading of Books that Common Mercury is very Forraine to this Art also reading that Philosophers do call this by diverse Names being led presently with a blind Opinion they think themselves secure of the Art and do not blush to Affirm themselves Masters of this Science when in the mean time they are more blockish then the Wood it self Some will have this to be a Diaphanous menstruum and Limped others a certain Metallick Gum when they Dream it to be permissible with Metals and to no
Water stirring up heat in the body and digesting the Humidity into a viscous and unctuous Powder But that this Operation is prior to dissolution take these Reasons it is prior because a certain Solution is made as I may so say by our Divine Water therefore the congealation of our Spirit will be expected in the next place because Spirits are always congealed after the dissolution of the Body For they have the same Operation such therefore as the Solution is such the Congealation is to be expected after it Then the Order of Nature requires this for a Woman Exerciseth her Dominion first then it is necessary to be overcome by her Husband but the Woman retains her whole Domination in the Water this therefore will be the first Work of the Man Exerting his Power to overcome that in which the Woman possesseth both her Qualities which being done he will easily Subject to himself that in which she hath only one quality Lastly Heat is not Consequentially joined necessarily to any Quality but Siccity will always be the end of Heat from whence it appears that the man ought first to exert his Power therefore Calcination is rightly called the beginning of the Work Therefore Calcination is the head of the Work for without this will neither be Commixtion or Union this therefore is to be done in the first days of thy Stone for in the first Dealbation the Body is Reduced into its first Principles Sulphur and Mercury of which the first is fixt the other volatile therefore are compared to two Serpents or Dragons the one Winged shewing its Volatile Nature the other without Wings denoting fixity both these coming from one Fountain tends to one thing therefore is likened to a Serpent taking his Tail in his Mouth to shew that Sulphur is nothing without the substance of Mercury nor Mercury without the substance of Sulphur but that this Mercurial Sulphur and sulphureous Mercury perfect the whole Art Therofore it is deservedly called one Composition that altho it appears twofold in the beginning of the Work whence it is called Rebis yet by Conjunction they may be made one and the same and this is called one Elixir which never would be possible unless they were quite of the same Nature Therefore the Nature of sulphur and Mercury is diligently to be Observed and we must take care of Errours for these two are not contrary things but one and the same sulphureal Mercury Mature and digested and Mercurial Sulphur crude and Imature Therefore that Divine kind of Generation will be neceslary to be observed to wit how Nature has Operated in Procreating Metallick Bodies in the Mines under the Earth because we do all things in our Work in Imitation thereof as near as can be therefore we chuse the same Matter which she hath made use of altho Art has found out a far more subtile way to the Abreviation of the Work and the more then perfect Exaltation of the Stone For in Metallick Veins one thing alone is found viz. Mercury which is very crude and frigid and in which the sulphureal quality altogether is unactive also no Digestive heat is found there but by an imperceptable Motion after a long time by little and little this Metallick Principle is changed until at last it be converted into fixt sulphur for that whilst it remained Frigid and Humid it was called Mercury in this Eleration or Excitation it is named sulphur But the matter is otherways in this our Work For besides Mercury Crude and Cold we have another thing to wit Mature Gold in which Act more active qualities Exist this therefore we joyn to our Mercury in which passive qualities are found that the one may relieve the other and that which Nature helpt by no Heat hath digested in the Mines we having a double Fire Digest whence it comes to pass that we don't make simply Gold but some other thing much more Noble and excellent then Gold You see therefore what Sulphur is what Mercury how also we have a double Snlphur and a double Mercury in our Art which yet are not distinct in Essence but in maturity and perfection also you understand as I think after what manner they are worked since the Perfect Body of Gold is Incrudated by our Divine water not wetting the hands and it is reduced to its first Principles to wit Mercury which is not without Sulphur participating of the Natures of the Luminaries therefore in this Operation the Woman Ascends upon the Man and predominates over him for a Time which indeed is unnatural till the man begins to exert his Power and then first of all by his siccity-bringing heat does Exsiccate the Humidity of the Woman by converting all into a most subtile and viscous Powder from which Powder by solution water is afterwards dissolved in which Water is the spirit of the Dissolvent and dissolved the Man and the Woman are joyned together But the excited Heat doth not here find a bound but as yet Works every day by separation by distinguithing between the subtile and the gross that the first may swim at the lop the latter may subside so long till all are of the fame quality and then at length in the hour of their Nativity they are inseparably Conjoined and the Man ascends upon the Woman and Impregnates her at length she brings forth the Cloud which the hath Conceived in which me Putrisies and is Corrupted and afterwards both of them ascend or arise again Glorious not now divided but made one and the same by Conjunction and are so Coagulated Sublimed Cibated and Exalted into a most perfect nature and Multiplyed in weight and goodness of Quality according to your Discretion whose excellent Vse will be proved as well in Projection as in Medicine Therefore these black and stinking Ashes are not to be despised since in them the Diadem of our King is contained and I tell you in all truth that whiteness will never be had unless you make it black for unless the Body putrifies it will remain without fruit but if it be Corrupted then indeed thou shalt see them arising from thence where it seemed they had lost their Bodies which they had and they will appear that which they never were before Honour you therefore the Sepulchre of our King for unless you do this you shall never admire himcoming from the East Therefore you must take Care that you don't Err in this first Entrance for the Work is spoiled unless you be wary here The common Errors in this Operation are many and various Firstly of them who know not what is to be Calcined but seek the Principle of Gold-making in Extraneous things Some bring in for their Material Principle those things which are not of the same Imposition with Metals such are Borax Alloms Attrement Vitriol Arsnick Seeds of Plants Wine Vinegar Vrine Hair Blood Gums and the Rosins of the Earth some do endeavour such is their Blockishness to Generate Salts of every