We might here also say something of that which they call Horizontal Gold but a more fit place to handle it will be where we write of common Quick-silver onely here we shall say a word or two concerning the compeer of their Alkahest for Helmont saith speaking of that great liquor and its virtues Quibus scilecet unicus idem liquor Alkahest omnia totius universi corpora tangibilia perfecte reducit in vitam eorundem primam absque ulla sui mutatione viriumque diminutione A solo autem suo compari subter jugum trahitur atque permutatur From whence we may note these two things 1. That its general virtue is to reduce all tangible bodies of the whole Universe into their first life without the mutation of it self or the diminution of its virtues which is high and wonderful 2. But that it is brought under the yoke and throughly changed onely by its compeer and the question is what that compeer is To which we answer that as the Alkahest is the key to the knowledge of the Philosophers great work and is an ingredient into it so that which they call their earth fire sulphur agent king or male is that which doth coagulate work upon subjugate and change this their water into that which they call their ripened or exuberated sulphur or tincture before it be fermented and this is confirmed by Sendivogius who saith Primum resolvetur terra in aquam quae mercurius Philosophorum dicitur illa aqua resolvit illa corpora Solis Lunae consumit ea ut non remaneat nisi pars decima cum una parte hoc erit humidum radicale metallicum And Trevisan saith Nulla aqua naturali reductione speciem metallicam dissolvit nisi illa quae permanet cum specie metalli in materia forma quam metalla ipsa possunt recongelare CHAP. XIII Of the description of Silver and the several ways that the Ore of it is gotten and of its Mines conditions and striking passages NExt in goodness to Gold Silver by all Authors is most esteemed and of it Basilius saith thus Silver Ore is wrought in its own stone of a perfect nature and most noble earth and of a fixt clear sulphur salt and mercury which with a mixture doth joyn in a fixt and firm uniting and appeareth of a degree lower then the Gold is and is the best Metal next to Gold and in the fining of it loseth very little and is separated per se or with other Metals joyned in the fire And of it Acosta speaks thus And first I will say that the reason why they give Silver the second place among all other Metals is for that it approacheth nearer to Gold then any other because it is more durable and less indamaged by the fire and more malleable then any other yea it passeth Gold in brightness beauty and sound the which is clear and agreeable for the colour is more conformable and resembling the light and the sound more piercing more lively and more delicate And the description of this Metal Bacon according to the Ancients gives thus Silver is a clean body pure almost perfect procreated of Argent vive pure almost fixed clear and white and of such a kind of sulphur and to it is awanting a little fixation and colour with weight Pollius thus Silver is a Metal consisting of a white tincture and Mercury well concocted and constantly coagulated The most of the Ancients do in their descriptions agree with this of Bacons and therefore needless here to repeat more of them The learned Wormius gives this description of it This perfect Metal is next unto Gold consisting of Mercury and Sulphur almost fixt extensible like unto Gold but in weight lighter then it as also then Lead bearing the force of the fire They gather that it doth participate more of Mercury then of Sulphur as well by the colour as the liquefaction But an indication of Sulphur the vehemency of the odour of Sulphur when it is fluxed and refined to be perceived by the nostrils But that it doth not reach the fixedness of Gold is manifest from this that in caemenâ—o Regali and Antimony and Sulphur something of it doth perish and is burned when by fusion they are mixed together And also when it is touched with Aqua fortis or stained with their vapours it emits a rust of a blue colour And these may seem sufficient for describing the nature and conditions of Silver we shall onely add what Paracelsus saith to this particular who though he may be disesteemed with many yet is the account that he giveth of it as good as the best Author we have read which stands thus Silver is generated of a white Sulphur Salt and Mercury which being prepared most subtily and made diaphanous are rendred of a fixed nature that is to say they are fixed of their proper nature next unto Gold abiding in the test by Lead or per cineritium but not in Antimony the caementum Regale nor in the Quartation All which passages do fully shew the qualities and properties of this noble Metal so that we need not sum up the particulars 1. Now we shall proceed to declare from the best Authors how the Ore of Silver lies in its passages in the bowels of the Earth the manner of its Coats Matrixes or Coverings for though some little may be gathered in small grains in the Rivers and their muds and sands washed by the force of waters forth of the tops or sides of the Mountains yet is that so seldom found and in such small quantities that Authors do write but very little thereof and we have not attained the sight of any of it and therefore shall pass it by And as for our own Nation of Great Britain we have not had the fortune to obtain any Ore of Silver that we might justly call a Royal Mine not to speak that all Lead Ore contains some silver in it except some three sorts two of which were pretty rich in silver as containing about sixty six pound in a tun and was found in a blewish-grey stone in some places intermixt with white spar and the silver mixt with some Lead appearing like white and bright grains as small almost as Needle points The third which contained about twenty seven pound in a tun was like that which Authors call Galena or the hardest sort of Lead Ore And these are all that of our own experience we can inform the Reader of and therefore shall pass to what others deliver to the same purpose 2. The diligent Observer Iosephus Acosta gives us this account very worthy to be regarded The Mines of Silver are commonly found in Mountains and high Rocks very desart although they have been sometimes found in Plains and Champaigns There are two different kinds the one they call stragling the other fixed and setled The stragling are pieces of Metal found in certain places
no other then Aristotles materia prima fift Essence or fift Element which few of his Interpreters understood and many others derided as though because they did not know it therefore others did not when indeed that learned Graecian understood much that in his Writings he opened but darkly and therefore however the proud and ignorant may scoff and jeer we do affirm that there is such a matter in rerum natura though in some respects it be a truth that it is neque quantum neque quale neque quid neque quicquid eorum quae cernuntur and this the ancient Sages knew and understood well enough and sometimes called it Anima Mundi or Spiritus Catholicus and by many other such like names And it is of this that the learned Lord of Nuysement epitomized by Combachius writ that learned Treatise De vero Sale secreto Philosophorum de universali mundi spiritu who saith in one place thus Ego vero tracto de materia universali nondum specificata quae proprie materia prima hujus materiae primae metallicae appellari potest tanquam generalissimum genus generum à Raymundo Lullio adeo celebratum And as the Philosophers did understand this to be the first true matter of all things so they had an universal matter that was mineral from whence all Metals did spring and arise so that by allusion and comparison they often expressed the nature of the one by the other which many and they very learned too not discerning the confounding of these two together have often taken the one for the other and so have both been deceived and also deceived others of which thing learned Ripley giveth us this caution In the beginning when thou madst all of nought A Globous matter and dark under confusion By the beginner marvellously was wrought Containing naturally all things without division Of which thou madst in six days dear distinction As Genesis aperily doth record Then Heaven and Earth perfected were with thy Word So thorow thy will and power out of one mass Confused was made all things that being is But in thy glory afore as Maker thou was Now is and shall be without end I wiss And purified souls up to thy bliss Shall come a principle this may be one For the declaring of our Stone For as of one Mass was made all thing Right so must it in our practice be All our secrets of one Image must spring In Philosophers books therefore who lust to see Our Stone is called the less World one and three Magnesia also of Sulphur and Mercury Proportionate by nature most perfectly Here the careful Reader may observe not onely the description of this matter that he calleth Globous known and understood of so few as also the comparison of it to the matter of their great Stone 3. The matter forth of which they prepare their artificial Water they call their Mercury which thing Nature hath produced ready for the Artist to begin his work withal And though it be conversant before the eyes of all the World and be a common known despicable matter yet it is one of their greatest secrets which they have most hid and veiled and the most difficult for an Artist to know that this is the true subject that he must begin to work upon But when it is truly known men will rather wonder why they knew it no sooner then at their knowing of it after they do understand it for the Ancients have declared the proper marks and tokens so fully that hardly can it be done more largely except they should in plain and vulgar words have named it and said this is it which hath caused divers of the later Adeptists the more to obscure it and to put their Readers into the greatest dubitation about it This is it that they have called their metallick seed and indeed is really so and have given it so many various names and descriptions according to its furthest midd or near nature that without divine assistance or a faithful Master it is hardly to be comprehended or known Therefore Sendivogius tells us Semen Metallorum vel minerale creat natura in visceribus terrae propterea non creditur tale semen esse in rerum natura quia invisibile est And Minerale semen à Philosophis cognoscitur And again Semen Metallorum tantum filii doctrinae noverunt And Combachius saith Metalla similiter suum habent semen sed hoc videri non potest nisi a ver is Philosophis qui illud ex subjecto suo proprio magna industria exâ—rahere norunt quanquam illud etiam facilius ratione concipi quam corporis oculis videri possit Here if thou understand I have said enough if thou dost not I have said too much 4. The last sort of their Mercuries that we shall name is that which by the Artist is prepared forth of their true and proper matter and is as Lully often tells us never left prepared by nature but must be made by the Artist And of this thus Sendivogius speaketh in his practice Sed hoc admonitus sis ne accipias aurum argentum vulgi nam haec sunt mortua accipe nostra quae sunt viva postea pone in ignem nostrum siet inde liquor siccus primum resolvetur terra in aquam quae Mercurius Philosophorum dicitur illa aqua resolvit illa corpora solis lunae consumit ea ut non remaneat nisi pars decima cum una parte hoc erit humidum radicale metallicum From whence note 1. That first they have that which he calleth their Fire into which their Sol and Luna are put and this their Fire is a Water for their Water is a Fire and calcineth the bodies of Sol and Luna more then common Fire can do according to their maxim Vulgus cremat per ignem nos per aquam and this is that Water which Helmont calleth ignis Gehennae and ignisaqua which he calls an immortal and immutable liquor and is notwithstanding the opinions of all men to the contrary the very same that he and Paracelsus call their Alkahest and was that very Water by which Helmont and Raymund Lully fixed common Mercury and is by Lully called Aqua Coelica Aqua Lunaria Menstruum vegetabile universale and Aquaignis 2. To note that their Sol and Luna are not the Gold and Silver of the Vulgar for they say aurum nostrum non est aurum vulgi neque in colore neque in substantia 3. That after their earth be dissolved in their Fire or Water then it is called the Mercury of the Philosophers and so doth but at the best differ gradually when the earth is dissolved in it from the Fire or Water that did dissolve their earth 4. That this Water doth dissolve those bodies of Sol and Luna and consume them and then it is humidum radicale metallicum 5. Observe that in saying there remaineth but the tenth
into the form of Trees Rods or Hairs c. I have been the more large in this point to prove the growth and vegetability of Metals and Minerals because it is not of the least concern in the promoting of Mineral knowledge and I could have added more testimonies but these being from most approved Authors I hold to be sufficient Onely I shall commend some particulars deduced from hence to be inquired of by all persons that love metallick knowledge and have opportunities and abilities to search after the same As also to all those that travel where any Mines are and especially to all ingenious persons that are Overseers of Mines or imployed about them or work in them to take notice of these few Inquiries 1. To observe whether Earths of any sort or Stones do grow and increase and after what order and fashion 2. And that all those in our own Nation or elsewhere that work about Allom and Vitriol would observe how their Ores do lie and are found and whether they increase or not 3. And seeing our Nation hath store of Tin and Lead Mines that they would observe whether their Ores grow or not and in what manner 4. And in Tin and Lead Mines and all other as of Copper Silver Gold Quicksilver or Cineber and of Iron whether any such liquid matter may be found as the Germans call Gur or not and of what colours and qualities as it seems the water found at Anneberg that yielded Silver was blew and that which Paracelsus calls the primum ens auri was like red water and that of Quicksilver he calls blood or not 5. That inquiry may be made whether any steams arising in Mines do grow into a metalline substance or not 6. Lastly and to inquire whether where Ores are wrought out that they do after some years renew and grow again or not CHAP. IV. Of the Causes assigned by the most approved Authors for their generations both efficient and material and the manner thereof FOr the material and efficient causes and manner of the generation of Metals We shall enumerate some opinions of the chief Authors and leave the Reader to chuse which he judgeth most probable or most true because we mean not to dogmatize nor impose upon any but rather to move all men to a diligent search after the things of this nature that if possible the truth of their generations may be found forth and discovered In the first place we shall give the opinion of the Aristotelians and to eschew tediousness shall transcribe what Dr. Iorden hath written in that case with his censure upon it and his own opinion adjoyned because that little Tract of his may be in few mens hands and hard to be got who relateth it thus For the manner of generation of Minerals although it be alike in all yet it differs from the generation of animate bodies whether animals or vegetables in this that having no seed they have no power or instinct of producing other individuals but have their species perpetuated per virtutem seu spiritum semini Analogum by a spiritual substance proportionable to seed which is not resident in every individual as it is in animals and plants but in their proper wombs This saith he is the judgment of Petrus Severinus however he doth obscure it by his Platonical grandiloquence And as there is not vacuum in corporibus so much less in speciebus for that the species are perpetuated by new generations is most certain and proved before that it is not out of the seeds of individuals is evident by this that if Minerals do not assimilate nourishment by attraction retention concoction expulsion c. for the maintenance of their own individual bodies much less are they able to breed a superfluity of nourishment for seed And how can they attract and concoct nourishment and expel excrements which have no veins nor fibres nor any distinct parts to perform those Offices withal Moreover they are not increased as Plants are by nourishment whereas the parts already generated are extended in all proportions by the ingression of nutriment which fills and enlarges them But onely are augmented externally upon the superficies by superaddition of new matter concocted by the same virtue and spirit into the same species The matter whereof Minerals are bred is much controverted Aristotle makes the humidity of water and the dryness of earth to be the matter of all Minerals the dryness of earth to participate with fire and the humidity of water with air as Zabarella interprets it so that to make a perfect mixt body the four Elements do concur and to make the mixture more perfect these must be resolved into vapour or exhalation by the heat of fire or influence from the Sun and other Planets as the efficient cause of their generation but the cause of their congelation to be cold in such bodies as heat will resolve This vapour consisting partly of moisture and partly of dryness if all the moisture be spent turns to earth salt or concrete juices which dissolve in moisture If some moisture remain before congelation then it turns to stone If this dry exhalation be unctuous fat and combustible then Bitumen Sulphur and Orpiment are bred of it if it be dry and incombustible then concrete juices c. But if moisture do abound in this vapor then Metals are generated which are fusible and malleable And for the perfecting of these generations this exhalation is not sufficient but to give them their due consistence there must be the help of cold from Rocks in the earth to congeal this exhalation So that here must be two efficients heat and cold And for the better effecting of this these exhalations do insinuate themselves into stones in the form of dew or frost that is in little grains but differing from dew and frost in this that these are generated after that the vapour is converted to water whereas Minerals are generated before this conversion into Water But there is doubt to be made of frost because that is bred before the conversion of the exhalation into Water as may appear Meteor 1. According to this assertion there must be two places for the generation of Minerals the one a matrix where they receive their essence by heat in form of an exhalation and from thence they are sent to a second place to receive their congelation by the coldness of Rocks And from this matrix come our Mineral waters and not from the place of congelation This is the generation of Minerals according to Aristotle but it is not so clear but that it leaves many scruples both concerning the matter and efficients For the matter it seems not probable that water and earth should make any thing but mud and dirt for you can expect no more from any thing then is in it the one is cold and dry the other cold and moist and therefore as fit to be the matter of any other
thing as of particular Minerals And water whereof principally Metals are made to consist is very unfit to make a malleable and extensible substance especially being congealed with cold as we may see in Ice But some do add a mineral quality to these materials and that simple water is not the chief matter of Metal but such as hath imbibed some mineral quality and so is altered from the nature of pure water This assertion doth presuppose Minerals in the earth before they were bred otherwise what should breed them at the first when there was no mineral quality to be imparted to water Again this mineral quality either gives the water or the vapour of it the essence of the Mineral and then it is not the effect of water but of the mineral quality or the potential faculty to breed it If the essence then this metalline water or vapour must have the form of the Metal and so be fusible and malleable If it have onely the power and potential faculty then the generation is not perfected but must expect further concoction This concoction is said to be partly by heat and partly by cold if by heat it must be in the passages of the exhalation as it is carried in the bowels of the earth For afterwards when the exhalation is setled in the stones the heat is gone Now if the concoction be perfected before the exhalation be insinuated into the stones as it must be if it be like dew then it is perfect Metal and neither is able to penetrate the stones nor hath any need of the cold of them to perfect the generation If by cold it is strange that cold should be made the principal agent in the generation of Metals which generates nothing neither can heat be the efficient of these generations Simple qualities can have but simple effects as heat can but make hot cold can but cool c. But they say that cold doth congeal Metals because heat doth dissolve them I answer the rule is true if it be rightly applied as we see Ice which is congealed by cold is readily dissolved by heat But the fusion of Metals cannot properly be called a dissolution by heat because it is neither reduced to water or vapour as it was before the congelation by cold nor is it permanent in that kind of dissolution although after fusion it should be kept in a greater heat then cold could be which congealed it For the cold in the bowels of the Earth cannot be so great as it is upon the superficies of the Earth seeing it was never observed that any Ice was bred there Wherefore this dissolution which is by fusion tends not to the destruction of the Metal but doth rather make it more perfect as it should do according to the former rule rightly applied And therefore this dissolution by fusion doth not argue a congelation by cold which being in the passive elements doth rather attend the matter then the efficient of generations for it is apt to dull and hebetate all faculties and motions in Nature and so to hinder generations rather then to further any It is heat and moisture that further generations as Ovid saith Quippe ubi temperiem sumpsere humorque calorque concipiunt And thus much he saith for Aristotles generation of Minerals where the vapours or exhalations do rather serve for the collection or congregation of matter in the Mines then for the generation of them as Libanius doth rightly judge Agricola makes the matter of Minerals to be succus lapidescens metallificus c. and with more reason because they are found liquid in the earth Gilgill would have it ashes Democritus lime but these two being artificial matters are no where found in the earth The Alchymists make Sulphur and Mercury the matter of Metals Libanius Sulphur and Vitriol But I will not stand upon discoursing of those materials because it makes little to my purpose It is enough for my purpose to shew the manner of these generations which saith he I take to be this There is a seminary spirit of all Minerals in the bowels of the Earth which meeting with convenient matter and adjuvant causes is not idle but doth proceed to produce Minerals according to the nature of it and the matter which it meets withal which matter it works upon like a ferment and by its motion procures an actual heat as an instrument to further its work which actual heat is increased by the fermentation of the matter The like we see in making of Malt where the grains of Barley being moistned with water the generative spirit in them is dilated and put in action and the superfluity of water being removed which might choke it and the barley laid up in heaps the seeds gather heat which is increased by the contiguity of many grains lying one upon another In this work Nature's intent is to produce more individuals according to the nature of the seed and therefore it shoots forth in spires but the Artist abuses the intention of Nature and converts it to his end that is to increase the spirits of his Malt. The like we find in Mineral substances where this spirit or ferment is resident as in Allom and Copper as Mines which being broken exposed and moistned will gather an actual heat and produce much more of those Minerals then else the Mine would yield as Agricola and Thurniser do affirm and is proved by common experience The like is generally observed in Mines as Agricola Erastus Libanius c. do avouch out of the dayly experience of Mineral men who affirm that in most places they find their Mines so hot as they can hardly touch them Although it is likely that where they work for perfect Minerals the heat which was in fermentation whilest they were yet in breeding is now much abated the Minerals being now grown to their perfection And for this heat we need not call for the help of the Sun which a little cloud will take away from us much more the body of the Earth and Rocks nor for subterraneal Fire This inbred heat is sufficient as may appear also by the Mines of Tin-glass which being digged and laid in the moist air will become very hot So Antimony and Sublimate being mixed together will grow so hot as they are not to be touched If this be so in little quantities it is likely to be much more in great quantities and huge rocks Heat of it self dâ—ffers not in kind but onely in degree and therefore is inclined no more to one species then to another but as it doth attend and serve a more worthy and superiour faculty such as this generative spirit is And this spirit doth convert any apt matter it meets withal to its own species by the help of heat and the Earth is full of such matter which attends upon the species of things And oftentimes for want of fit opportunity and adjuvant causes lies idle without producing any
and expert Mineralists which we shall handle fully and at large And for order sake we may consider First the matter of which they hold they are generated Secondly the efficient cause of their generation Thirdly the manner how they are generated 1. The ancient Chymical Philosophers held that the matter out of which the Metals were generated were Sulphur and Mercury but Basilius Valentinus Paracelsus and the later Chymists have added Salt as a third which notwithstanding though they seem to make them three in number and properties yet they intended but one Homogeneous substance or essence and the most of them joyned Salt with the Sulphur so that in effect they held but two And this Sulphur and Mercury they did not mean of those that are vulgar as the most of their adversaries have too grosly mistaken and therefore it will be necessary in the first place to clear what they understand by Sulphur and Mercury and how those two are first generated 1. Their Sulphur and Mercury they variously describe as Sendivogius saith Prima materia metallorum principalis est humidum aeris caliditate mixtum hanc Philosophi Mercurium nominarunt qui radiis solis lunae gubernatur in mari Philosophico The first and principal matter of Metals is the humidity of the Air mixt with calidity this the Philosophers have named Mercury which is governed with the rayes of the Sun and Moon in the Philosophers Sea Secunda est terrae caliditas sicca quam vocarunt Sulphur The second is the dry calidity of the Earth which they have called Sulphur And again he saith Quatuor elementa in prima operatione naturae stillant per Archaeum naturae in terrae centrum vaporem aquae ponderosum qui est metallorum semen dicitur mercurius propter ejus fluxibilitatem uniuscujusque rei conjunctionem non propter essentiam assimilatur Sulphuri propter internum calorem post congelationem est humidum radicale The four Elements in the first operation of Nature do distill by the Archaeus or Workman of Nature into the centre of the Earth a ponderous vapour of Water which is the seed of Metals and is called Mercury because of its fluxibility and its conjunction with every thing not because of its essence it is likened to Sulphur because of its internal heat and after congelation is the radical moistâ—â—e Trevisan defines Sulphur thus Sulphur enim aliud nihil est quam purus ignis occultus in mercurio qui longo successu temporis excitatur atque movetur motibus corporum coelestium digeritque frigiditatem humiditatem in mercurio pro varietate graduum decoctionis alterationis in diversas formas metallicas c. For Sulphur is nothing else then pure fire hid in the Mercury which in long continuance of time is excited and moved by the motions of the celestial bodies and doth digest the coldness and humidity in the Mercury according to the variety of the degrees of decoction and alteration into divers metallick forms Elsewhere he hath called Sulphur the masculine agent fire and air which in the metallick seed doth maturate and digest the two feminine passives of Earth and Water because that heat is an intrinsick and essential part of the Mercury it self to wit the two more active elements in it that is to say the Air and Fire And again because Sulphur is no other thing then the pure act of the Air and Fire making hot digesting or decocting the Earth and Water proportionable to it self and Homogeneous in the Mercury And Geber saith it is nothing else but light and tincture and others call it the most ripe part of the Mercury And the ingenuous and candid Nollius defines it thus The Sulphur with which Argent vive is impregnated is not the vulgar Sulphur but fire placed in the Argent vive by which it is excocted into a Metal in the Mines by the intervening of Motion 2. These two are not distinct as though Mercury were one thing and Sulphur another as extraneous bodies one to another For Trevisan saith Sulphur is not something separate by it self without the substance of the Mercury neither common Sulphur otherwise the matter of Metals should not be Homogeneous which is repugnant to the opinion of all Philosophers Likewise Morienus and Aros say Our Sulphur is not vulgar Sulphur but sixt and not volatile of the nature of Mercury and not of any other thing whatsoever And Trevisan again saith Some persons do judge amiss that in the procreation of Metals some Sulphureous matter doth intervene but it is manifest on the contrary that Sulphur is included in his Mercury when Nature doth operate 3. Now for the generation of their Mercury or viscous fatness they describe it thus Aethereus mundi spiritus quem animam appellitant duo elementa aquam terram inter se committit atque ex utrisque conjunctis spiritum quendam prolicit unctuosum eumque in centrum terrae demittit ut ex eo sursum elevetur in matricem deferatur debitam ac in ea in argentum vivum sulphure sale naturae impraegnatam concoquatur The Aethereal spirit which they call the soul doth commix betwixt themselves the two Elements Water and Earth and of them both being conjoyned doth draw forth a certain unctuous spirit and doth dimit it down into the centre of the Earth that from thence it may be lifted upwards and be carried into a fit matrix and in it may be concocted into Argent vive impregnated with the sulphur and salt of Nature And Sendivogius thus Res omnes nasci ex aere liquido vel vapore quem elementa perpetuo motu in viscerae terrae stillant hunc postquam naturae Archaeus accepit per poros sublimat unicuique loco sua sagacitate tribuit sic locorum varietate res etiam proveniunt nascuntur variae Quando enim ex terrae centro sublimatur vapor ille transit per loca vel sicca vel calida Si igitur transit vapor per loca calida pura ubi pinguedo sulphuris parietibus adhaeret vapor ille quem Philosophi mercurium Philosophorum dixerunt accommodat se jungitur illi pinguedini quam postea secum sublimat tunc fit unctuositas relicto nomine vaporis accipit nomen pinguedinis That all things do grow of the liquid air or vapour which the Elements do distil by a perpetual motion into the bowels of the Earth which after the Archaeus or Workman of Nature hath taken he doth sublime it through the pores and doth distribute to every place by his sagacity and so by the variety of places various things do come and grow For when this vapour is sublimed from the centre of the Earth it passeth by places either drie or hot If therefore the vapour pass by places hot and pure where the fatness of Sulphur doth cleave to the walls that vapour which the
a matter they call Soroche which is a Metal full of Lead The Metal being in these furnaces the filth and earthy dross through the force of the fire remains in the bottom and the Silver and Lead melt so as the Silver swims upon the Lead untâ—l it be purified then after they refine the Silver many times after this manner of melting And a little after he saith At this day the most usual manner of refining in Potozi is by Quick-silver as also in the Mines of Cacatecas and others of New-Spain Then after having related the manner of their getting and purifying of Quick silver he sheweth how with it they refine silver Ore after this manner We must understand he saith there are divers sorts of Metals for some yield much Silver and waste little Quick-silver others consume much Quick-silver and yield little Silver and there are others which consume much Quick-silver and yield much Silver and others that consume little Quick-silver and also yield little Silver and as men encounter in these matters so they grow rich or poor in their traffique Although commonly the rich Metal yields much Silver and consumes much Quick-silver and likewise that which is poor yields little Silver and consumes as little Mercury They first beat and grind the Metal very small with Hammers and other instruments which beat this Stone like unto Tanmills and being well beaten they searce it in a Copper searce making the powder as small and fine as if it were Horse-hair These searces being well fitted do sift thirty quintals in a day and a night then they put the powder of the Metal into the Vessels upon Furnaces where as they anoint it and mortifie it with brine putting to every fifty quintals of Powder five quintals of Salt And this they do for that the Salt separates the earth and filth to the end the Quick-silver may the more easily draw the silver unto it After they put Quick-silver into a piece of Holland and press it out upon the Metal which goes forth like a dew always stirring and turning the Metal to the end it may be well incorporate Before the invention of these Furnaces of fire they did often mingle their Metal with Quick-silver in great Troughs letting it setle some days and did then mix it and stir it again until they thought all the Quick-silver was well incorporate with the silver the which continued twenty days and more and at the least nine days Since they discovered as the desire to get is diligent that to shorten the time fire did much help to incorporate Silver with Quick-silver the sooner they invented these Furnaces whereon they set Vessels to put in their Metal with salt and quick-silver and underneath they put fire by little and little in Furnaces made for the same purpose so as in five or six days the quick-silver is incorporate with the silver And when they find that the Mercury hath done his part and assembled all the silver leaving nothing behind but is well imbrued as a Sponge doth Water dividing it from the Earth Lead and Copper with the which it is engendred Then afterwards they separate it likewise from the quick-silver the which they do in this sort they put the Metal in Caldrons and Vessels full of Water where with certain Wheels they turn the Metal round about as if they should make Mustard and so the earth and dross goes from the Metal with the Water that runs away The silver and quick-silver as most ponderous remaining in the bottom the Metal which remains is like unto Sand Then they take it out and wash it again in great Platters of Wood or Keelers full of Water still drawing the earth from it until they leave the silver and quick-silver well cleansed There slips away also some small portion of silver and quick-silver with the earth and dross which they call washings the which they after wash again and draw out the remainder When the silver and quick-silver are cleansed and begin to shine and that there remains no earth they put all the Metal into a cloth which they strain out very forcibly so as all the quick-silver passeth out being not incorporate with the silver and the rest remains as a loaf of silver like to a mark of Almonds pressed to draw oyl And being thus pressed the remainder contains but the sixth part in Silver and five in Mercury So as if there remain a mark of threescore pounds ten are of Silver and fifty of Mercury Of these Marks they make Pins as they call them like Pine Apples or Sugar loafs hollow within the which they commonly make of a hundred pound weight Then to separate the silver from the quick-silver they put it into a violent fire which they cover with an earthen vessel like to the mold of a Sugar loaf or unto a Capuchin or Hood the which they cover with coals and set fire unto it whereby the quick-silver exhales in smoke the which striking against the Capuchin of earth it thickens and distils like unto the smoke of a pot covered and by a pipe like unto a limbeck they receive the quick-silver which distills the silver remaining without changing the form but in weight is diminished five parts of that it was and is spungeous which is worthy the observation Of two of these loaves they make one bar of silver in weight 65 or 66 marks and in this sort they carry it to the touch custom and mark Silver drawn with Mercury is so fine that it never abates of two thousand three hundred and fourscore of alloy and it is so excellent that the Workmen are inforced to allay it putting some mixture to it as they do likewise in their Mints where as their money is stampt In the next Chapter he sheweth the manner of their making of Assays which he describeth thus To give the alloy to every piece they carry the bars of silver unto the Assay-master who gives to every one his number for that they carry many at once he cuts a small piece of every one the which he weighs justly and puts them into a Cruset which is a small vessel made of burnt bones beaten after he placeth every crucible in his order in the Furnace giving them a violent fire then the Metal melteth and that which is Lead goes into smoak and the Copper and Tin dissolves the Silver remaining most fine of the colour of fire It is a strange thing that being thus refined although it be liquid and molten yet it never spills were the mouth of the crucible turned downwards but it remaineth â—ixed without the loss of a drop The Assay-master knoweth by the colour and other signs when it is refined then doth he draw the crucibles from the fire and weighs every piece curiously observing what every one wants of his weight for that which is of high alloy wastes but little and that which is baser diminisheth much and according to the waste he sees what
tribus principiis These are the differences that these two Authors quoted have given of the differences of common Mercury and that of the Philosophers but indeed are so full of equivocations and evasions one while meaning their Elixir another while the catholick Mercury or Hyle sometimes their artificial Mercury and but seldom if at all the matter out of which they prepare their own Mercury or universal liquor So that they may well buzzle the brains of a person reasonably well versed in their terms and Art But to be a little more candid we shall shew some agreements betwixt the matter of which they prepare their Mercury and common Quicksilver that the doubt of their being both one may be put forth of all scruple 1. Their matter and vulgar Mercury agree in this that they are both of a mineral and metallick root and principle 2. They differ in this the Philosophers matter is the true root seed and principle of all other Metals as is known by observation and experience but vulgar Mercury is not the seed nor root of Metals nor ever was known to grow or change by nature into a more perfect Metal 3. The Philosophers matter is no one of the vulgarly known Metals but is rather omnia metalla and the true Lunary and Solary Tree but common Mercury hath ever been taken for one of the vulgar Metals and is no true Electrum nor hath plurality in it at all 4. The Philosophers matter is a thing that is far more common then common Mercury and is never so well apparelled nor so specious to the eye as is common Quicksilver 5. That it is threefold both in Name and Nature and yet is but of one and the same root and so is not common Quicksilver 6. That it hath both fixt and volatile parts and so hath not Quicksilver 2. We come now to the second main point that we proposed in this Chapter to wit to the considerations of common Quicksilver as some have given it forth and herein we must propose something from Paracelsus that is singular and that we know of not mentioned by any other Author which is this He saith that Mercury containeth in it self three bodies 1. The first is that out of which it is generated before it perfectly be that which it ought to be 2. The second is that which it is 3. The third is that unto which it may be prepared by Art 1. The first he saith is to be taken in its Mineral and Ore while it flowereth and is to be prepared so as the Art of preparing Mercury doth command 2. The second requireth that the Ore be separated from the Mercury by the artifice of fire 3. The third is that the same Mercury be prepared into the form of an adust or burnt Metal In another place he tells us almost the same thing Mercury he saith is concluded with three bodies 1. First As it is in its Mineral or Ore with its bloud and is to be as Mercury prepared by Art 2. Secondly the Body separated from the Ore is to be purged by fire 3. But that the third body is that when it is reduced into an adust Metal Now for the two last we shall speak of them hereafter onely here we shall say something of the first which seemeth a strange matter for he seemeth to shew that the Ore of Quicksilver may be found and had in its Mine when it is in its flower and before it be hardened into that body which we call Cinnober for in his Preparations he saith Take the Ore out of which Mercury doth arise or grow as it is found in its first coagulation before it grow hard or be made into a body And calls it after it be prepared the liquor of the immature Mineral Again he saith Take of that Ore forth of which Mercury is generated as it is found to consist in its first coagulation but yet it ought to be so coagulated that it hath not yet passed into an hard and solid body By all which it plainly appeareth that this experienced Author than whom no man that we read of had seen more Mines nor was more expert in Mineral knowledge had seen found and had the Ore of Cinnober or Quicksilver soft which is a thing doubtless of that rarity that few have had knowledge of it And therefore I heartily desire all the Learned that have Interest in foreign Parts and all other ingenious persons that travel to be inquisitive whether any such Ore of Cinnober be known found or to be had as is soft and not yet grown hard because besides the knowledge of such a mineral secret there may no doubt some excellent Medicine be made forth of it CHAP. XXV Of the Description of Quicksilver of Cinnober aâ—d its several Ores and Passages and how it is gotten and refined in divers places and the like THe description of common Mercury is by most of the mystical Authors omitted that thereby they might obscure the nature and quality of the matter from whence their Mercury is taken For asserting Sulphur and Mercury to be the principles of Metals they therefore usually left out the description of Mercury that thereby their Readers might think that common Quicksilver was that principle of Metals which they made mention of It being ordinary for those sort of Authors to set men at gaze after one thing while they intended another and to make themselves bread of the best of the Wheat while others had but the Husks or Bran. For the description of Argent vive Avicen hath a long discourse of it but may rather agree to another Mercury then to that which is common and therefore we leave it to the Reader to consider of according to the quotation in the Margine Rulandus describes it thus It is no other but a viscous water in the bowels of the earth of a subtile substance of white earth united by a total union by a most temperate heat until the humidity be tempered with the siccity and the siccity of the humidity equally This description any one half-eyed may see will not altogether agree with the nature of common Quicksilver but so they use to mock with fresh-water Souldiers The learned Wormius of it tells us thus That by proper speaking it cannot be said to be a Metal seeing the definiton doth not agree unto it for it melts not in the fire it is not hard solid ductile nor malleable But it is a mineral liquor consisting of a viscous metallick water and a sulphureous earth full of spirit volatile cold to the touch but indued with an hot virtue ponderous of the colour of silver fluid as water but not wetting the hands And of this he reckoneth two sorts first either native or factitious for that which is factitious we do not now meddle And as for the Cinnober or Minium it is either mixed with stones or pure For that which is mixed with stones it is sometimes found in
Schreterus qui ejusmodi veras aspectu jucundas admirabiles domi suae aliis saepe monstravit donavit In the vale of Ioachim Dr. Schreter is a witness that silver in the manner and fashion of grass had grown out of the stones of the Mine as from a root in the length of a finger who hath shewed these Veins very pleasant to behold and admirable at his own house and given of them to others And Rulandus telling of silver that is found pure quod statim suum est as is their proper distinction of it from other sorts saith Sed hoc argenium purum tenuissimis bracteis amplectitur lapidem Interdum etiam praese fert specâ—em capillorum interdum virgularum interdum globi fert speciem quasi filis convoluti candidis aut rubris interdum praese fert speciem arboris instrumenti montium herbarum aliarum rerum And this pure silver doth imbrace the stone with most tender leaves plates or spangles It sometimes also beareth the shape of hairs sometimes of little twigs sometimes it beareth the shape of a globe or round ball as though wrapped about with threds white or red Sometimes it beareth the shape of a Tree mountains an instrument herbs and of other things To these add that most remarkable passage of Peter Martyr Counsellor to the Emperour Charles the fifth who relateth thus They have found by experience that the Vein of gold is a living Tree and that the same by all ways spreadeth and springeth from the root by the soft pores and passages of the Earth putteth forth branches even to the uppermost part of the Earth and ceaseth not until it discover it self unto the open air at which time it sheweth forth certain beautiful colours in the stead of flowers round stones of golden Earth in the stead of fruits and thin plates in stead of leaves These are they which are dispersed throughout the whole Island he is speaking of Hispaniola by the course of the Rivers eruptions of the Springs out of the Mountains and violent falls of the flouds For they think such grains are not engendered where they are gathered especially on the dry land but otherwise in the Rivers They say that the root of the golden Tree extendeth to the center of the Earth and there taketh nourishment of increase for the deeper that they dig they find the trunks thereof to be so much the greater as far as they may follow it for abundance of water springing in the Mountains Of the branches of this Tree they find some as small as a thred and other as big as a mans finger according to the largeness or streightness of the rifts and clefts They have sometimes chanced upon whole Caves sustained and born up as it were with golden pillars and this in the ways by which the branches ascend the which being filled with the substance of the trunk creeping from beneath the branch maketh it self way by which it may pass out It is oftentimes divided by encountring with some kind of hard stone yet is it in other Clifts nourished by the exhalations and virtue of the root Now these signal observations seem fully to evince that it is no feigned fable of the Mystical Philosophers nor however Ignorants may scoff and snarl of that profound and learned Poet Virgil that there is a gold-bearing and metallick Tree as he famously hath sung Latet arbore opaca Aureus foliis lenâ—o vimine ramus And after Primo avulso non deficit alter Aureus simili frondescit virga Metallo The deep and serious consideration of which as also that learned description that the profound Chymist Augurellus gives of that noble Mineral or metallick Tree called by him Glaura so well known unto and whose sulphur above the sulphurs of all other Minerals is so much extolled by the experienced Helmont I faithfully commend unto all the cordial lovers of Mineral knowledge to seek for and inquire after And shall shut up these testimonies with that golden sentence of the golden Tree mentioned by Paracelsus where speaking of the sulphur of gold he saith Hoc sulphur si quale in aurifera arbore ad hujus radicem in montibus est Alchymistae invenire adipisci possent esset certe de quo effuse gauderent This sulphur if the Alchymists could find out and attain as it is in the gold bearing Tree and at the root of it in the Mountains it would certainly be a thing of which they might fully rejoyce Further besides what to the same purpose hath been shewed above it will appear that Metals may be and have often been found in a soft and liquid form or substance as the forementioned honourable and worthy person Mr. Boyle hath instanced from Gerhardus in these words Item aqua caerulea inventa est Annebergae ubi argentum adhuc erat in primo ente quae coagulata redacta in calcem fixi boni argenti Also that at Anneberg a blew water was found where silver was yet in its first being or ens which coagulated was reduced into the powder or calx of fixed and good silver The Author Arcae Arcan from Lully and Mathesius tells us this Materiam priusquam in metallicam formam congelatur esse instar lactis coaguli butyri quae in butyrum diducitur quam Gur vocat quam ego quogue in fodinis in quibus natura plumbum paravit inveni That the matter viz. of Metals before it be coagulated into a metallick form is like unto Butter made of the Cream of milk which may be clamed or spread as Butter which he he meaneth Mathesius calleth Gur which I also saith the Author quoted have found in the Mines where Nature hath produced Lead To ratifie this and to put it forth of doubt I shall relate what I my self have found and now have some pounds of it by me Inquiring after this Gur of all persons that I could hear of that wrought in Mines there could some of them tell me that often in the sudden breaking of some stone there would a liquor spurt forth bright and shining which they regarded not because they knew no use nor benefit to be made of it nor knew how to save or keep it At last meeting with an ingenious young man whose Father had all his days been experienced in working in the Mines of Lead in Darbyshire and he therein also had been trained up from his young years one whom I had formerly much imployed in seeking and procuring for me several sorts of Oars Minerals Stones and Earths wherein I had found him very faithful and diligent and discoursing with him about what liquid juyces or waters he had ever observed in digging in the Mines and instructing him in all that I understood of such things according as I had read in Paracelsus Helmont or other Writers he thought the thing might be feasible So according to my directions providing himself of some
Philosophers have called the Mercury of Philosophers it accommodateth it self and is joyned to that fatness which afterwards it sublimes with it self and then it is made an unctuous thing the name of vapour being lost it receiveth the name of fatness Now having described their Sulphur and Mercury and how they are generated and how they differ only in property and not in homogeneal essence which they hold to be the matter of the generation of metals We shall more distinctly handle it in order and from what is already said and to be shewed deduce their fuller meaning They make the matter of the Minerals threefold 1. The most remote matter which they call the first and this Nollius doth call the Aethereal spirit which doth commix the two elements of Water and Earth and draws a certain mineral spirit forth of them And Trevisan saith it is the four Elements Etenim elementa quatuor aeque sunt ad informationem asini vel bovis apta ac ad metalla For the four Elements are equally fitted for the information of an Ass or Oxe as they are for Metals And Sendivogius saith that the Elements do continually distil down into the centre of the Earth a ponderous vapour or water which is again sublimed into divers matrixes 2. The remote matter they establish to be this vapour mixt with the Sulphur that stuck to the Walls growing into a middle substance like to fat or glutinous water 3. The third is the proxime or next matter of Metals and that is this fat and glutinous substance grown more thick and may be that which before we have named Gur which Trevisan thus excellently defines Apprime sciendum materiam primam esse rem ipsam in quam immediate specifica forma introducitur uti prima hominis materia est utrumque viri semen mulieris First of all we are to know that the first matter to wit of Metals is that very thing into which immediately the specifick form is introduced as the first matter of a man is both the seed of the man and woman And this is it they call their metallick seed in the nearest power for after it be conceived and brought to this it cannot then be changed into any thing but into some kind of Mineral From all which we may note these things 1. That the sperm of Metals to wit in its first production is not different from the sperm of other things to wit an humid vapour 2. This metallick seed is not like the animal and vegetable seed easily to be known or had for they say of it Semen minerale vel metallorum creat natura in visceribus terrae propterea non creditur tale semen esse in rerum natura quia invisibile est Nature doth create the mineral or metallick seed in the bowels of the Earth therefore it is not believed that there is such a seed in the Nature of things because it is invisible And again The Mineral seed is known of the Philosophers And lastly Semen autem metallorum filii tantum doctrinae noverunt But the Sons of Art have onely known the seed of Metals 3. This metallick seed is but one and not divers for so he witnesseth Sunt qui opinentur Saturnum habero aliud semen aurum quoque aliud sic consequenter metalla reliqua sed vana sunt ista unicum tantum est semen idem in Saturno quod in Auro invenitur idem in Luna quod in Marie There are those that imagine that Saturn hath one sort of seed and Gold another and so consequently the rest of the Metals but these are vain there is onely one seed the same in Saturn that is found in Gold the same in Luna that is in Mars And Basilius Valentinus far more fully saith thus Therefore observe and take notice that all Metals and Minerals have onely one root from which generally their descent it he that knoweth that rightly needs not to destroy Metals to extract the spirit from one the sulphur from a second and the salt from a third For there is a nearer place yet in which these three Spirit Soul and Body lie hid in one thing well known and may with great praise be gotten He that knoweth exactly this golden seed or this magnet and searcheth throughly into its properties he hath then the true root of life and may attain unto that his heart longeth for Wherefore I intreat all true lovers of Mineral Science and Sons of Art diligently to inquire after this metallick seed or root and be assured that it is not an idle chimaera or dream but a real and certain truth Sometimes and perhaps not untruly they affirm the Metals to be generated of the element of Water as Helmont who proves not onely that metallick bodies but also all other Concretes to have their rise from thence and demonstrateth the immutability of elemental Water as well as of the homogeneous Mercury of Metals Who saith Estque ideo in ipso Mercurio prout in elementis ratio propinqua indestructibilitatis There is therefore in Mercury it self meaning metallick Mercury as in the Elements the nearest cause or reason of indestructibility And that Metals were generated forth of the Element of Water I find Plato holding that opinion who saith Aquae genera duo sunt praecipua unum humidum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alterum fusile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are two chief sorts of Water one moist the other fusile or to be poured forth And a little after he speaketh thus of the Water he calleth fusile Ex his vero quas aquas fusiles appellavimus quod ex tenuissimis levissimisque fit densissimum uniforme splendidum flavumque pretiosissima res est aurum florescens per petram compactum est But of these waters which we call fusile or to be melted gold flowering through the Rock is compacted because it is made of most tenuious most soft or tender things most dense uniform splendent yellow and is a most pretious thing The rest may be seen more fully in the place quoted And that Paracelsus was of opinion that Metals had for their material cause Water is manifest for he saith Sic ergo mirabili consilio Deus constituit ut prima materia naturae esset aqua mollis levis potabilis tamen foetus seu fructus ipsius est durus ut metalla lapides quibus nihil durius est So therefore God hath ordered by a wonderful counsel that the first matter of Nature should be Water soft gentle potable And notwithstanding the off-spring or fruit of it is hard as Metals Stones then which nothing is more hard And that Water was the matter out of which Metals and all other mixt bodies were framed seems not altogether disliked by that honourable and learned person Mr. Boyle who saith Yet thus much I shall tell you at present that you need not fear my rejecting this opinion for its novelty since however the
Helmontiâ—ns may in complement to their Master pretend it to be a new discovery yet though the Arguments be for the most part his the opinion it self is very ancient as there he further proveth at large to which for brevity sake I remit the Reader But no Author in my judgment hath more fully plainly and truly described the matter manner and order of the generation of Minerals then that learned and most experienced Chymist Helmont hath done and therefore we shall give you his opinion at full though some part of it hath been recited before who saith Non raro nempe contingit quod metallarius in fodinis saxa diffringens dehiscat paries â—imam det unde tantillum aquae subalbidae virescentis manavit quod mox concrevit instar saponis liquidi Bur voco mutatoque deinceps pallore subviridi flavescit vel albescit vel saturatius viridescit The English of it you have before And from thence he draweth these conclusions Sic enim visum est quod alias intus absque saxi vulnere fit Quia succus ille interno efficiente perfiâ—itur Est ergo prima seminis metallici vita in condo sive promptuario loci homini plane incognita Ac ubi semen in lucem liquore vestitum prodit Gas incoepit sulphur aquae inquinare vita est seminis media ultima vero cum jam indurescit So that it seemeth it is made otherwise within without the breach or wound of the stone Because that juice or liquor is perfected by an internal efficient Therefore the first life of the metallick seed is in the cup hole or little cellar of the place altogether unknown unto man But when the seed doth appear unto light invested or cloathed with the liquor and the Gas hath begun to stain or corrupt the sulphur of the Water it is the middle life of the seed but is the last life when it beginneth to harden To this we shall onely add the opinion of the Author of the Arcae Arcani artificiosissimi apertae who saith thus Which because it is large I shall onely give in English Therefore it is to be known that Nature hath her passages and veins in the Earth which doth distil Waters salt clear and turbulent For it is always observed by sight that in the Pits or Groves of Metals sharp and salt Waters do distil down While therefore those waters do fall downwards for all heavy things are carried downwards there are sulphureous vapours ascending from the centre of the Earth that do meet them Therefore if the waters be saltish pure and clear and the sulphureous vapours pure also and that they embrace one another in their meeting then a pure Metal is generated but in defect of purity an impure Metal in elaborating of which Nature spreadeth near or about a thousand years before that she can bring it to perfection which cometh to pass either by reason of the impurity of the salt Mercurial waters or of the impure sulphureous vapours When these two do embrace one another shut up close in the rocky places then of them a moist thick fat vapour doth arise by the operation of natural heat which taketh its seat where the air cannot come for else it would fly away of which vapour then a mucilaginous and unctuous matter is made which is white like Butter which Mathesius doth call Gur which may be clam'd like Butter which I saith this Authour can also shew in my hand above the Earth and forth of the Earth The Labourers in the Groves do often find this matter which is called Gur but of it nothing can be prepared because it is not known what was the intention of Nature in that place for a Marchasite as well as a Metal might equally have been made of it 2. In the next place we come to the efficient cause of their generation which Aristotle and his followers have made external some of them hot and some of them cold and some both vainly holding that the efficient cause in natural generations did not enter the compound being seduced as is most probable by the similitudes taken partly from artificial and manual operations as the Painter or Statuary being the efficient cause of the Picture or Statue were external and separate from them after they were wrought and finished Not considering that these and the like make no alteration intrinsecally in the compound but onely are conversant about the figuring and altering the dimensions of quantity partly from humane animal and vegetative generations wherein they conceive the male and female to be efficient causes of generation and so to be external and separate from the thing generated Which is merely false for the male and female are but instrumental or artificial causes of moving and ejaculating the seeds into the due matrix 〈◊〉 which seeds being joyned together become agent and patient being excited by the heat of the matrix as an adjuvant cause and the intrinsecal efficient cause is contained in them which we call the Archaeus or seminal Idaea that doth form and organize the body according to the species from whence it was derived if the matrix be proper and of due kind for it And the male and female in this do no more then the husbandman that ploweth and tilleth the earth and then casteth in the seed onely Nature hath prepared and provided seed intrinsecally in the male and female which the husbandman must have elsewhere provided by Nature for him ab extra being no intrinsecal or efficient cause of its generation or growth but onely that particle of vital air or aether within it Which being the Faber or Archaeus and excited with the hot and moist vapours in the Earth or matrix doth produce its like or as the Holy Writ words it gives to every seed it s own body But to come to the true efficient cause of the generation of Metals though what hath been said might suffice the substance seems to be this That the Solar particles celestial spirit or internal and incombustible Sulphur which is the true fire of Nature hid in the viscous matter or mercury and excited aâ—d stirred up by the motion of the celestial bodies central sun or subterraneous fire or heat which we shall not take upon us to determine but leave it to the judgment of the learned Reader doth generate perfect and ripen Metals as most of what hath been said before doth sufficiently testifie And all do consent that Sulphur is the efficient cause or father and Mercury the passive or mother of all Metals Now for the manner of their generations there hath been so much related in the passages of this Chapter that we shall but onely add this short collection That the Water being sharp and salt and falling down in the subterraneous caverns and passages of the Earth doth meet with the drie sulphureous and warm steams that rise from the lower paâ—ts of the Earth do joyn together and so becomes unctuous
of generation is signified Wormius gives this modest definition of a Metal Metallum est corpus perfecte mistum non vivens sed viventi aemulum à Deo in venis creatum ex terra subtilissima halitibus pinguibus ex terra aqua per calorâ—m mistis ut inde sulphureum mercuriale semen fiat ex quo metalla generari possunt quae accedente salino principio concrescunt incrementa capiunt donec pura perfecta reddantur igne fusilia ictuque in longum latum ductibilia A Metal is a perfect mixt body not living emulating life created of God in the veins of a most subtile earth and steams being fat from the earth and water mixed by heat that from thence a sulphureous and mercurial seed may be made from whence Metals may be generated which do joyn together and take increase by a saline principle coming to them until they be made pure and perfect being fusible by fire and by force to be drawn into length and bredth 3. Schroderus gives this description Metalta sunâ— corpora dura ductilia ex succo salino sine Mercurio vi sui sulphuris in terra coagulato Metals are hard bodies to be drawn or ductible coagulated of a saline juice or Mercury by the force of sulphur in the earth There might be many more definitions or descriptions given of Metals from many other Authors but so defective or imperfect that I have onely instanced in these to shew how lame this piece of learning is concerning Metals that all ingenuous persons may be stirred up to a farther search into the nature and properties of them to help to lead this knowledge towards perfection And therefore we shall onely mention three particulars that may be observed from what hath been spoken before 1. That if we take a Metal in the sense of the first definition of Magyrus then it may comprehend both those that are strictly called Metals not excluding common argent vive to be one and those that are also called semi-metals as Autimony and the like 2. But if we take a Metal strictly to be a perfect mixt constant and Mineral body fusible ductible or malleable arising or generated of Sulphur and Mercury and so the special difference of a Metal from all other Minerals to be its abiding the hammer and per se or of its own nature without commixture of any other to endure extension into length and bredth by force Then quicksilver must be none of them nor those that are accounted semi-metals as Antimony Bismuth or Tin-glass and the like which of themselves will not extend under the hammer but with the commixion of some others will easily do it For they make a semi-metal to be a perfect mixt body less constant fusible not ductible per se compounded of a less perfect Mercury and Sulphur then the former It s difference from other Minerals to be its metallick colour and fusion and from a Metal that it will not without mixture of some other extend under the hammer but proves brittle and frangible 3. But if a metallick body be taken in the largest sense then it sometimes comprehends not onely those that are malleable per se but those called semi-metals that will not extend under the hammer without commixtion of some other and those other Minerals that some Authors call Cachimiae Marchasitae of all which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter In the next place we come to speak of the number of the Metals which commonly are accounted seven according to the number of the seven Planets which we shall let pass as a thing assumed by Analogy and similitude more then by certainty and truth but because they have been most anciently and commonly known more then others they have got that repute and esteem which we shall not labour to take from them Concerning this point we may take the judgment of Paracelsus in stead of all whose experience in Mineral knowledge was inferiour to none who saith But understand further of the generation of Metals that there is a great number and a diverse variety of them For a Metal is that which the fire can tame and the Workman frame an instrument of of which are Gold Silver Iron Copper Lead Tin For these are accounted Metals of all men But furthermore also there are certain other Metals which are not accounted Metals either in the Writings or Philosophy of the Ancients or by the vulgar and notwithstanding they are Metals Hitherto doth belong Zink Cobalt which are tamed and forged or stamped by force of the fire as also certain Granates so used to be called of which there are many kinds and these are Metals But there are many others besides these that are not yet known unto me as are many differences in Marchasites in Bismuths in other Cachimies which yield Metals but not yet known or discovered For the chief Metals are onely known that are more ready and commodious for use as Gold Silver Iron Copper Tin Lead The rest are for the most part neglected through a certain slothfulness neither is there much care taken about their properties For neither the Smith nor Artist that worketh in Iron or Tin or Copper regardeth them and yet they are Metals for other Artificers not yet sprung up for none labours to learn except by one way and one Art And a little after he saith But this Chapter of Metals doth teach that there are six Metals in number known unto me which also I have reckoned above to which yet a few more are to be added to wit three or four also known unto me whose number and species do hereafter follow But it is of likelihood to me that yet a great number of them remains behind unknown For by the probation or essaying of Metals manifold trials or essays do offer themselves which are of a metallick nature that is they are verily estimated according to the nature of the known Metals but notwithstanding they do not altogether agree with it that from hence I conjecture that there remains a great number of Metals undiscovered For every Mineral may be rightly known and discerned if it be tried or tested by a just proof or examination And to this purpose Georgius Agricola tells us That he would shew them a certain kind of Mineral which was in the number of the Metals but as it seemed to him unknown to the Ancients which the Germans called Bismuth And thereupon they reply Therefore according to thy opinion there are more then the vulgarly and commonly known seven Metals To which he replies I judge there are more for this which even now I told you our Countreymen call Bismuth you cannot rightly say it is either white Lead that is Tin nor black Lead that is that Lead which is commonly called so but differs from them both and is a third kind And again he tells us That there are said to be six Metals in number distinct in kind to
unmixt with any other Metals that the Artificers that beat or make leaf-gold and those that draw gold into small Wire or fine threds do commonly buy it because it will serve their turns without using the Aqua separatoria and so they do the old gold coined by Edward the Third because it hath in it the least alloy of Silver or Copper and the purest Gold that I have ever seen was a piece of Roman Gold stamped with the image and name of Nero which was as soft and would have cut as easily as Lead And the goodness of Gold is commonly esteemed according to the number of Carats of which there ordinarily are 24. though Paracelsus makes them 36. For Acosta tells us The most famous Gold is that of Caranana in Peru and of Valdivia in Chille for that it riseth with his alloy and perfection which is twenty three Carats and an half and sometimes more They make account likewise of the Gold of Veragua to be very fine They bring much Gold to Mexico from the Philippines and China but commonly it is weak and of base alloy CHAP. XI Of the descriptions of common Gold according to some Authors and of the properties thereof as also of some wayes of beating sifting and washing the Ore thereof BAcon doth describe or define Gold thus Aurum est corpus perfectum c. Gold is a perfect body generated of Argent vive pure fixed clear red and of a clean sulphur fixed red not burning and hath no defect Rulandus thus Gold is the most temperate Metal of all other yellow shining ponderous equally digested in the belly of the Earth very long washed with Mineral Water consisting of a pure Argent vive fixed clear red and of a clean sulphur fixed red not burning In brief it is the subtile substance of Argent vive Libanus gives it thus Gold is a perfect Metal framed of a most mature and most pure Mercury by the virtue of a most excellent sulphur and together with it brought into a most tenacious and the best commixtion and adorned with a citrine tincture Wormius thus Gold is the most pure and most perfect of all Metals consisting of a most pure Mercury most perfectly concocted and of a red sulphur most excellent and most fixed being exactly mingled and united together sustaining all the trials of the fire and of Aqua fortis most heavy and above all other Metals extensible or to be beaten forth shining with a yellowish colour And these are sufficient that from hence we may gather some of its chiefest properties 1. Therefore of all other Metals it is most perfectly maturated and decocted by Nature and is of the most equal temper for as Trevisan tells us Quare in auro sunt quatuor elementa in aequali anatica proportione coadunata Therefore the four Elements are in Gold joyned together in an equal and anatical proportion But yet taking his supposition that gold is generated of the four Elements we are not to understand this equality of proportion in respect of their equal quantities but anatical proportion in regard of qualities 2. Of all other Metals Gold hath the least portion of external or separable sulphur for that it hath some appears by the authority of Paracelsus and Helmont the latter of which tell us That external sulphur is not possible to be separated by Nature but by one constructive liquor and therefore is in that regard accounted more perfect then any of the rest 3. Gold is more dense and compacted then any other of the Metals that is it is less porous then any of the rest being so closely joyned per minima that little or none of the air or globuli aetherei as Cartesius calls them can lodge within its particles And this is the cause of two other of its properties to wit its heaviness and power of extension both of which are far beyond either of those qualities in other Metals 4. It indureth not onely all the force of our common fire but if we may give credit to Writers of sufficient authority they do inform us that in the greatest torture of the fire it loseth nothing of its substance or weight but rather gaineth for so doth Wormius tell us in the place above-cited And it will not onely indure the trial per cineritium or testing with Lead which silver will also abide without wasting but also the probat of Aqua fortis the cementum regale by Antimony and that which Artificers call Quartation All which do sufficiently declare all those perfections and excellencies that Authors have attributed unto it As for the beating grinding sifting and washing of Ores in general from their earthy filthiness and superfluities Georgius Agricola hath written very largely and learnedly more then any other Author that I know of And I could wish that some person that hath ability and leisure would translate it into English for it might be very serviceable to our common Miners that in that particular have little to direct them but what they learn one from another But we shall onely here note some few particulars of beating or washing of gold Ore from two or three Authors of Credit For Agricola tells us Seeing that Nature doth for the most part bring forth Metals impure and mixed with earth concrete juices and stones it is necessary as far as can be possible to separate those things from the Metallick veins before they be fluxed or molten 1. Acosta tells us Gold in stone is a vein of gold that groweth or ingendreth within the stone or flint as I have seen in the Mines of Curuma within the government of Salines very great stones pierced and intermixed with gold others that were half gold and half stone The gold which groweth in this manner is found in Pits or Mines which have their Veins like to the silver Mines but it is very hard to draw it forth And a little after They refine powdered gold in basons washing it in many waters until the sand falls from it and the gold as most heavy remaineth in the bottom They refine it likewise with Quicksilver and Strong-water for that the Allom whereof they make this water hath the vertue to separate gold from dross or from other Metals 2. Diodorus Siculus tells us a strange story both of the getting of gold Ore as also of its preparing by beating grinding and washing which for brevity sake we shall onely give in the English In the borders of Egypt that joyn to Ethiopia and Arabia there are places very fertile of Metals Forth of which with much labour and expence Gold is drawn For the black earth by nature hath passages and veins of most white marble which shineth above all brightness And a little after he saith That almost infinite thousands of men do dig forth with iron instruments the more soft rock and which is broken with indifferent labour He that discovereth the Veins of gold goeth
before the Workmen shewing what places they are to dig They cleave the stony marble being shewed by the strength of strong bodies not by Art but by great force with iron wedges But they drive shafts or passages not streight but that way which Nature leadeth by the gold in the shining marble But when by reason of the divers bendings and turnings they are darkned in their passages the Workmen carrying lights before them the rocks by great force being cut in pieces they carry up and cast upon the ground Others cut them so casten into very small pieces others carry them away The pieces taken from these Workmen being cut to a certain measure they beat in stone Vessels with a pestle or hammer of Iron unto the smallness of Millet seeds They then being cast into Mills are grinded unto the very fineness of meal Then the Workmen taking it ground do put it upon broad Tables a little declining and again beat or rub the Marble water being cast upon it By that means the earth being washed away the gold by its gravity doth remain upon the Tables This they often iterating they rub the Gold with their hands Then with thin and porous sponges they press forth the soft earth until it be made like unto golden sand Lastly other Workmen do put it by weight and measure into earthen pots and do superadd in a certain measure Lead Sea-weed or Tange and Bran of Barley These things compounded in a certain proportion they diligently lome or daub up the pots with clay or lute Furthermore being decocted five whole days and nights in a Furnace pure Gold is onely found in the Vessel the other things being wasted the former weight being little diminished I have the rather delivered this at large because it is a very remarkable passage and perhaps not taken notice of by many Readers and may be of some considerable use to an ingenious Mineralist 3. Gonzalus Ferdinandus Oviedus relateth two notable ways both of their finding of Gold at the Indies and of the washing and purifying of it and that not by hear-say but upon his own experience some of which we shall transcribe because I believe the Book is not very common Who saith This particular of the Mines of Gold is a thing greatly to be noted and I may much better speak of it then any other man forasmuch as there are now twelve years past since I served in the place of Surveyor of the Melting-shops pertaining to the Gold Mines of the Firm Land and was the Governour of the Mines of the Catholick King Don Ferdinando after whose departure from this life I served long in the same room in the name of your Catholick Majestie By reason whereof I have had great occasion to know how Gold is found and wrought out of the Mines c. And a little after he saith The manner how Gold is gathered is this either of such as is found in Zanana that is to say in the Plains and Rivers of the Champian Countrey being without Trees whether the earth be with grass or without or of such as is sometimes found on the Land without the Rivers in places where Trees grow so that to come by the same it shall be requisite to cut down many and great Trees But after which soever of these manners it be found either in the Rivers or Breaches of Waters or else in the Earth I will shew how it is found in both these places and how it is separate and purged Therefore when the Mine or Vein is discovered this chanceth by searching and proving in such places as by certain signs and tokens do appear to skilful men apt for the generation of Gold and to hold Gold And when they have found it they follow the Mine and labour it whether it be in the River or the Plain as I have said And if it be found on the Plain first they make the place very clean where they intend to dig then they dig eight or ten foot in length and as much in bredth but they go no deeper then a span or two or more as shall seem best to the Master of the Mine digging equally then they wash all the earth which they have taken out of the said space and if herein they find any Gold they follow it and if not they dig a span deeper and wash the earth as they did before and if then also they find nothing they continue in digging and washing the earth as before until they come to the hard rock or stone and if in fine they find no Gold there they follow no further to seek Gold in that place but go to another part And it is to be understood that when they have found the Mine they follow it in digging in the same measure in level and depth until they have made an end of all the Mine which that place containeth if it appear to be rich Their manner of washing he thus describes And when they have digged forth the Mine they fill certain Trays with that earth which other Indians have the charge immediately to receive at their hands and to carry those Trays of Earth to the Water where it may be washed yet do not they that bring it wash it but deliver it to other putting it out of their own Trays into others which they have ready in their hands to receive it These Washers for the most part are Indian women because this work is of less pain and travel then any other These women when they wash are accustomed to sit by the water-side with their legs in the water even up to the knees or less as the place serveth their purpose and thus holding the Trays in their hands by the handles thereof and putting the same into the Water they move them round about after the manner of sifting with a certain aptness in such sort that there entereth no more water into the Trays then serveth their turns and with the self-same apt moving of their Trays in the water they ever avoid the foul water with the earth out of the one side of the Vessel and receive in clean water on the other side thereof so that by this means by little and little the water washeth the earth as the lighter substance off the Trays and the gold as the heavier matter resteth in the bottom of the same being round and hollow in the middle like unto a Barbers Basin And when all the earth is avoided and the gold gathered together in the bottom of the Tray they put it apart and return to take more earth which they wash continually as before So that to conclude there are in all five persons ordinarily assigned to every Tray of Washers I have been the more tedious upon this subject because I judged it very material and profitable but now we shall come to some higher questions concerning Gold and so leave it CHAP. XII What may be thought of common Gold whether it be an ingredient into
the which drawn away there is no more found But the fixed veins are those which have a continuance in depth and length like to great branches and arms of Trees and when they find any one of them they commonly find many in the same place And further saith The chief places of the Indies from whence they draw Silver are New-Spain and Peru but the Mines of Peru far surpass the rest and amongst all others of the World those of Potozi And speaking of the Mountain Potozi he saith The ground and soil of this Mountain is dry cold and very unpleasant yea altogether barren which neither ingenders nor brings forth any fruit grass nor grain it is naturally inhabitable for the intemperature of the heaven and the barrenness of the earth He noteth another very remarkable passage which I cannot but commend to the Reader and is this They say of the rich vein the first that was discovered that the Metal lay above the ground the height of a lance like unto Rocks raising the superficies of the earth like unto a crest of three hundred foot long and thirteen foot broad and that this remained bare and uncovered by the deluge This Vein having resisted the violence and force of the Water as the hardest part The Metal was so rich as it was half Silver and this Vein continued in his bounty fifty or threescore stades which is the height of a man and then it failed 3. Take this passage of Pliny Englished by the same Acosta They find Silver almost in all Provinces but that of Spain is the best which grows and ingenders in a barren soil upon Mountains and Rocks It is a certain and infallible thing that in places where they have once discovered any of these Veins there are others not far off which is likewise found in all other Metals and for this the Greeks in my opinion called them Metals 4. Basilius Valentinus thus describeth the growing and lying of Silver in its Clifts Rocks Stones Earth and such like other Coats or Coverings Because nothing is so fixt next Gold then Silver is in its perfection and is the reason why Silver-passages are accompanied with white fluxes and mineral veins next thereunto are such passages in which are generated red mineral Sulphur and red yellow juyces of the noble Gold Silver metalline Ore is wrought many times in a red goldiâ—hness and cometh forth better then the other a proof whereof may be had if well ordered White-gold Ore is naturally thus tinged of white-copper glass which cause such Ores and passages by reason of the food of their perfect Minerals and with the Glass Ore black fumes are exhaled and feed upon Wismuth Lead and Tin Ore wherein Minerals that strike upon the Lunar passages are greedily refreshed thus groweth the firmest and compactest Silver Ore of its pure proper and unmixed Stone They carry and produce also not onely mixed chambers and Mine-chests but also several hard and sturdy mixed Ores in whole Flint-works and other Copper-flowers yellow and black Ore and are found different in their nature form and tincture so that the one is more hard sturdy slaty broader narrower whiter blewer in its colours thus qualified and natural in its end middle and beginning This is the reason why these Silver fruits and Ores are found differing in their colours and forms the one being more compact fairer and of a better gloss then the other Sometimes there is found in such a Vein or Passage firm and compact Gold Silver and Copper so it is found sometimes at Krenach There are found and seen also in a certain Vein and Passage in mixed Lime-stones Lead Iron and Copper Ore in one union and juncture And in one Mine is found Copper Ore in another is found Silver Ore and in another Mine is found an Iron stone Some silver passages are found also in their natural Zachstones which either are in the hanging or lying ones Silver passages shew themselves also with blue gritty flowers in hollowed fluxes in sprinkled marbles and carry flint-works of several colours and these passages and clifts are full of pleasant silver-colours of yellow and green of a colour of Goslings the more they are mingled with such colours the more they have wrought there are some silver passages and veins which carry three distinct colours after the manner of a Rainbow where the one colour worketh in nature either more closely or more mildly then the other in a curious order and the one may be discerned before the other in their passing strokes and shootings together with their chamber colours and floats as they fell severally and apart in each Mine-Ore 5. Athanasius Kircherus also gives us to understand of several sorts of Silver Ores found in the several Mines of Hungaria from whence he had responsions to his questions sent to inquire about metallick bodies and minerals some of which held onely Silver some Gold and Silver some Gold Silver and Copper and some of other sorts which may be of singular use to a diligent searcher after mineral knowledge which would be over-tedious for us to transcribe and therefore we leave them 6. Wormius hath some things in this particular worthy to be noted where he sheweth what silver Ores he had and in what Coats they were contained for he saith 1. A white Marble in which did inhere silver of its own colour and red 2. A white Marble in which was mixed onely silver of its own colour 3. A white Marble containing Galena in it yielding Silver 4. An Ash-coloured Marble containing silver 5. And also another of the same kind 6. A blue one containing silver 7. A kind of flint which they call Quartz which containeth silver of its own colour and lead 8. A black Marble which being polished sheweth like the Touch-stone to which also certain veins of Iron do grow This is pregnant with silver so that when it is polished streaks and lines of silver are frequently seen in it 9. That also there is found in the Groves or Pits of Norway a certain Mineral of Silver ash-coloured which is tinged in a certain part of it with a yellow colour and almost an Iron colour that it is suspected to hold something of Iron 10. That he had a Mineral of silver fruitful enough from Sneberg which the Germans call Rotgylden ertz 11. He tells us That from the Church of Heerrestad about four Norway miles at the top of a certain Mountain there are found certain kinds of Earths in which the sparks of silver do shine sometimes less sometimes greater as also to be seen in the form of most tender or small hairs To which is adjoyning a vein of pure silver of a foot broad from whence they brought away a piece cut with a hatchet of a pound weight From all which I shall onely commend these two particulars to all diligent and inquisitive Artists 1. That seeing we have in England so many several
separated from it by which that universal medicine called by Paracelsus and Helmont Mercurius Diaphoreticus and Aurum Horizontale by mixing with Praecipitate prepared after Vigo's order is made we shall give here as far as concerneth the Copper in Helmonts own words and the rest we shall mention when we come to speak of Mercury and thus he saith For the Sulphur of Venus after its separation from its body and arising again is made as it were a glorious sulphur and therefore it tingeth the sulphur of Mercury which in the powder of Iohannes de Vigo by corrosive Mineral spirits is extroverted immediately and do mutually imbrace themselves in an inseparable bed and therefore the force of both sulphurs do then stand outwardly And a little further he saith Therefore the fire of Venus is not the spirit of Vitriol however exquisitely rectified But this fire is the volatile sulphur of the Copper in form of a green oyl more sweet then honey and fully separated from the mercurial body of it Copper But the remaining part of the Copper doth abide white nor ever waxing green with rust as neither any more of the number of the seven Metals because it is become a new and anonymous Metal But the fire of Venus cannot be had except by the full or plenary destruction of the Copper and the volatization of the mercurial body of the Venus it self Which however it be made volatile in the form of oyl notwithstanding with an easie labour it is after again reduced into a white unknown Metal and extensible under the hammer But the fire or sulphur of Venus is not any more reduced into a Metal by it self because as no sulphur is a Metal so every metallick Mercury is a true Metal For the Adeptists teach that the sulphureous part of a Metal cannot be separated from its mercurial and metallick body except by its total destruction which therefore although abusively they call elemental because to wit in Metals there are two sulphurs one therefore they deservedly call external the other internal But in the proposed terms of Copper he persuadeth to contemplate that which is internal which doth fix the body in the white anonymous and mercurial Metal and maketh it ductible under the hammer when otherwise the Mercury without the Sulphur could never be coagulated into a Metal But that external sulphur of Venus is that green sweet oyl which cannot be brought back again into a Metal Therefore the Symmistae or Secrataries of this Philosophy do univocally testifie that the external sulphur cannot be separated from its body no not by fire in imperfect Metals but also the mercurial part doth perish together with it Therefore seeing that external sulphur such as is drawn forth of Copper is not necessary to the perfection of the Metal but that sulphur is added of God to the Copper Therefore it is necessary that that sulphur of Venus should have its ends conducing to the necessities of ungrateful man to wit for humane infirmities above all the dignity of metallick perfection From which we shall commend some considerations to the sons of Art to revolve over and seriously to weigh them in the ballance of a right understanding and not slightly to pass them over 1. To take careful notice of the effects of this incomparable liquor the Alkahest both in working upon Vegetables and Minerals for without it no true natural or radical dissolution can be made of either of them Which if they duely weigh with the true light of a rational understanding it will lead them as a thread through all the Labyrinths of darkness to the bottom of the clue that is the knowledge of the true subject forth of which it is prepared Which subject is but one in the whole Universe and is commonly known and may as Basilius saith with great praise be had and is not any particular of the animal vegetable or mineral Kingdom but in it self though to outward appearance a base and despicable matter is of the nature of them all but not any common or known salt as many deem nor no kind of earth except metaphorically so called nor any universal or catholick salt or water as many that do think themselves wise do imagine drawn forth of the air or the beams of the Sun but is in a far nearer subject and therefore I shall onely mind them of what Raymundus Lullius tells us saying Nihil ergo convenit rei nisi quod propinquum est ei ex sua natura And Helmont tells us in some place of his writings that things to be dissolved are to be dissolved per consentanea suis principiis radicalibus 2. We are to note that this fire or sulphur of Venus when volatized and separated from its white mercurial anonymous body is in the form of a green oyl never again to be reduced into a metallick body and that in this the whole medical virtue lies And this is doubtless the same green oyl that Paracelsus in his Book De Separatione Elementorum saith is altogether green and drawn from the body of Venus left white that may be again reduced into a white Metal that it cannot be known under what species is falleth And this questionless is that green oyl or Arcanum vitrioli that Paracelsus so highly commends in curing the Epilepsie whose preparation he in many places mentioneth but according to his wonted manner tacitely concealeth the Alkahest without which it cannot be truly had or prepared And forth of this green oyl was prepared that rare soporiferous Medicine which he calls Sulphur Anodynum Veneris of excellent vertue so that it would sopifie pacifie or cure a whole troop of diseases Of which and other metallick Sulphurs he gives us these ensuing commendations And that he saith I powerfully regard or look into the sulphureous remedies of Minerals to wit into the sulphur of Venus Sâ—ibium or Antimony and especially into the sulphur of the Glaura Augurelli which Nymph hitherto doth want another proper name For these kind of Sulphurs because they are farther distant from humane Nature then the whole company of Vegetables and in the mean time do obtain notable gifts from God the giver of them so also they most fully and pertinaciously resist that from the digestive faculty they bend not into the Commonwealth of Aliments and therefore they do preserve their native powers free and unbroken to wit the Crasis or temperament of the Minerals doth remain whole or compleat and more fit to disperse their ray into Duumviratum the seat of the Soul For hitherto the sulphur of Minerals under Vulcan or the Fire do obtain their highest complement of the intention of Physicians Therefore I exhort young Tyronists or Fresh-men to despoil sulphurs of their strange and virulent force under the custody of which verily the vital fire is hidden leading the Archeus most pleasantly into desired ends For there are certain sulphurs to which being corrected and perfected the whole company of
part with one part he truely teacheth the proportion of the earth and water in this conjunction if thou canst rightly understand him Lastly He tells us of this Water thus much in another place Et hoc vobis dico quod opus est rem quaerere aliquam quae occulta est ex qua fit miro modo talis humiditas quae aurum sine violentia seu strepitu solvit imo ita suaviter naturaliter sicuti glacies aquae calidae beneficio liquescit si hoc invenistis habetis rem ex qua aurum à natura productum est Et quamvis omnia metalla res omnes ex illa ortum habeant nil tamen ita amicatur ei sicut aurum nam aliis rebus adharet impuritas auro autem nulla propierea instar matris est ipsi Compare this with the former and seriously consider of it for there is much hidden and couched in it From whence we may consider the reasons why they use this propriety in calling all these Mercuries theirs or Mercuries of the Philosophers and those chiefly we conceive to be these two following 1. The most of these or at least two of them are called theirs because Nature hath not brought them forth in that perfection that the Philosophers desire and stand in need of But it is the Philosophers Skill Art and Industry that exalts them to this preheminence which Nature had not contributed unto them and therefore are truly and properly called theirs for none but true Philosophers indeed can bring them to that height of perfection 2. The other universal Mercury or Hyle hath not its vertues and excellencies known to any but to true Philosophers who well understand the nature and qualities of it And that other Mercury which Nature produceth of it self without Art and is the principal matter and seed of which Metals are generated in the bowels of the earth they also call as they do many other things theirs and that because though it be commonly known and be to be had yet none but true Philosophers know the hidden and secret vertues thereof though it be conversant before the eyes of all the World nor that it is the seed from whence Metals are produced But notwithstanding all this that hath been said there are many so wedded to the great Opinion that they have of common Mercury that either they believe that it is that true seed of Metal the Philosophers speak of or at least that forth of it the Philosophers Mercury may be made both of which are clear wide from the mark For Sendivogius tells us plainly in these words Et quamvis corpus metallorum ex mercurio sit procreatum quod de mercurio Philosophorum intelligi debet tamen hi non sunt audiendi qui putant mercurium vulgi semen esse metallorum ita corpus loco sâ—minis accipiunt non considerantes quod dictus vulgi mercurius suum in se habeat semen Therefore to put this forth of doubt we shall give the differences of the Philosophers Mercury from common Argent vive forth of their own mouths 1. The Mercury of the Philosophers is a meer product of Art forth of a fit natural subject and is never to be had but by the assistance of Art But common Quicksilver is a product of Nature without the help of Art for there is much of it found in its own form which the Workmen call Virgin Mercury 2. The Chymical Fountain or Philosophers Mercury doth produce all things and vivisie all things and on the contrary it destroyeth all things corrupteth all things and worketh all other things that concern life and death but so doth not common Mercury 3. The Chymical Fountain is fiery and hot but common Argent vive is cold and moist 4. The Chymical Fountain with the most easie distillation is changed into a spirit and a volatile body But the common Argent vive is all spirit and in distillation is not changed into a watery spirit but ascendeth corporally no whit changed from it self 5. The spirit drawn from the Chymical Fountain is fiery and pontick and so penetrating and subtile that it also dissolveth Metals and being so dissolved doth deliver them to death But common Argent vive cannot be converted into a watery pontick spirit by distillation nor kill or destroy the Metals but only hides them in its belly and doth vomit them up again by separating it self from them with any easie heat 6. The Chymical Fountain doth dissolve it self and congeal it self and perfect it self without any other thing added unto it But common Quicksilver doth not dissolve it self unless it be dissolved of another nor congeal it self nor by any means perfect it self 7. The Chymical Fountain hath in its belly and inward parts salt fixed red and white yea it is totally salt and springeth and ariseth forth of a saline den But common Argent vive is nothing else but a running Metal movable and slippery 8. The Chymical Fountain hath Sol and Luna in the nearest power and with only simple coction they are reduced into the ultimate act which we can bring forth of common Argent vive by no kind of Artifice 9. Of the Chymical Fountain without any thing added to it is made the Elixir and true Philosophick Tincture which by no means we can obtain from common Argent vive 10. The Chymical Fountain hath in it self in the nearest power all Metals seeing it is the immediate and next seed forth of which they are generated and compounded And it is the father efficient and material cause out of which common Quicksilver is produced which cannot be said of the other 11. The Chymical Fountain doth compound precious stones in the bowels of the earth and all those others which Nature hideth in her bosom by the congelation and coagulation of the Fountain into stones which we cannot say of vulgar Mercury Hydrogr Spag Pet. Fabr. l. 3. c. 12. 13. Vulgar Mercury doth not so dissolve Gold and Silver that it never can again be separated from them But the Philosophers Argent vive doth so dissolve Gold and Silver that it is never again separated from them but is as water commixt with water 13. Vulgar Mercury hath combustible and evil sulphur with which it is made black But the Philosophers Argent vive hath in it self sulphur incombustible fixt good white and red 14. Vulgar Mercury doth make bodies black and staineth them But the Philosophers Mercury doth make bodies white as Crystal 15. Vulgar Mercury by praecipitation is turned into a Citrine or red powder and an evil sulphur But the Philosophers Mercury by virtue of heat is changed into most white sulphur good fixt and fluxible 16. Vulgar Mercury by how much more it is decocted by so much the more it is made volatile and fluxible But the Philosophers Mercury by how much it is more decocted by so much more it is thickned and made fixt Sendivog Tract de Sulphur de
that was found either in England or Scotland onely Dr. Iorden gives us this account In Scotland three miles beyond Berwick he saith I found a red stone which I take to be Minium nativum seeing Agricola makes mention of it in Scotland but by a mischance I could not try it From which hint I could desire all ingenious persons that live near that place to make diligent search if any such stones be there to be found that thereof trial might be made CHAP. XXVI Of several sorts of Medicaments prepared forth of common Mercury both by the way of vulgar Chymistry as also by the mystical way And of the Praecipiolum of Paracelsus and Helmont THere are so many several Medicaments prepared by common Chymistry forth of Quicksilver that it would be very tedious and too large to recite them all as is easie to be seen in Crollius Beguinus Hartman Schroderus Quercetan Vutzerus and the like and therefore we shall onely enumerate some few of the principal of them 1. And first there is that which they call Mercurius vitae which whether it participate solely of the Antimony or solely of the Mercury is not so easie to determine there being Authors that hold it stiffly on either side and we never accounted the Experiment either so luciferous or frugiferous to make it our business to attend trials and exact observations about it As for the Mercurius vitae we have administred it very frequently for the space of near thirty years and can give it no further commendations then that it is a strong and churlish Vomit fit only for robust bodies and beneficial onely in some Phlegmatick distempers and far unworthy of those high praises that are usually attributed unto it and therefore now we do very rarely or never use it having found other mineral Vomits that are far more safe and of more effectual operation then it and I wish all Tyronists to take care of its preparation 2. The next we shall name is their Turpethum Minerale which is indeed a mercurial one and that sharp and desperate enough if not very carefully and skilfully handled In our younger years when we had too high an esteem of Chymical Medicines we have often used and administred the same and that with no bad success especially in some sorts of Epileptical distempers But shall warn all young Physicians to be both careful in their preparing of it and in their administration of it also especially in that great point de ratione victus And all I can commend it for if that may be called a commendation is for that woful and dishonourable way of curing by flux or salivation which indeed is a way of cure almost as bad as the worst of diseases 3. The next we shall name is that preparation of it which they call Mercurius dulcis which is of very frequent use and exceedingly extolled by many we confess it may have a commendable use in Chirurgery and may to sundry good purposes be mixed with Plasters and Unguents and is of singular effect in Ointments against all Verminous distempers and taken inwardly doth the same and is a pretty purger or promoteth the working of other Catharticks but heed must be taken that it be not administred too often near together for fear of a sore mouth loosness of teeth or a flux And yet for the Worms may the crude Quicksilver it self or the water wherein it is boyled be taken with as much or more safety and as good effects 4. The last we shall name is some sorts of Praecipitates prepared forth of Mercury not to mention the common Praecipitate prepared after Vigo's order or the white one which if used inwardly are far more likely to kill then to cure One of the best is the Quicksilver praecipitated per se which notwithstanding is a violent Vomitive Medicine yet may be tolerably used by a skilful and careful Physician But the best that ever we have seen is a Praecipitate prepared with the good and pure spirit of Nitre and afterwards often cohobated with the distilled water of the whites of Eggs whereby it will become of a fine red colour as any red coral and almost as sweet as honey and hardly to be distinguished from the true Arcanum corallinum that is prepared with the great liquor Alkahest and though it be vomitive in some measure and be far short of the eminent vertues of the other Arcanum yet will it never disgrace a skilful Artist that knows its due preparation and way of administring but will without vomit or purging if rightly handled even cure desperate Agues by sweating onely But I will conclude of all these with that of Helmont who saith Antimonium dum vomitum movet Mercurius dum vivificari potest non sunt boni viri remedia We descend now to treat of those great Arcana's that are no ways to be obtained but by that universal solvent the Alkahest that noble liquor that is the sole glory of a Philosopher in this frail life Which is that Key that onely opens the Rosary of the Philosophers and revealeth the hidden secrets of the Animal Vegetable and Mineral kingdom without the knowledge and possession of which no man is worthy to sit at the golden Table of the Adeptists nor indeed truly worthy the name of Physician Nec prius ante datur telluris operta subire Auricomos quà m quis discerpserit arbore foetus Of these Arcana's prepared by this liquor forth of this Mineral of Mercury Helmont first mentioneth the Mercurius Diaphoretius of which he saith thus Quarto loco est Mercurius Diaphoreticus melle dulcior ad ignem fixus solis horizontis omnes proprietates habet Perficit enim quicquid Medicus Chirurgus possint optare sanando non tamen tam potenter renovat ut praecedentia In his answers to the questions propounded unto him concerning this he maketh this responsion to wit That as the Sun is thought to spring up in the Horizon of the Hemisphere so Mercury while it is made Diaphoretick sweet as Honey and fixt as Gold is Gold in its Horizon and is in medicine by so much more noble than Gold as much as an Oriental Pearl is nobler than a Scotch one And after he telleth us that the glorious Sulphur of Venus being raised again doth tinge the Sulphur of the Mercury that in the Powder of Iohn de Vigo by sulphureous corrosive Minerals was extroverted immediately and did mutually imbrace one another in an inseparable bed And that therefore the vertue of both the Sulphurs did stand outwardly And therefore by this conjunction the Diaphoretick Mercury from thence arising did perform whatsoever the Physician or Chirurgeon could wish either in respect of curing acute or chronical diseases Again in another place he largely describeth the vertues and effects of this Mercurius Diaphoreticus in relation both to Internal and External Distempers And of its Preparation tells us thus much Its description he saith is as
at Gieshubelia in a Fire-stone out of which Silver is drawn it is mixed with a concrete green juyce and sometimes placed like Girdles or Zones out of which it flowereth with pleasantness forth of the Vein Eucelius tells us That is was found in the Pits or Mines of Cyprus and that it was found in their Gold and Copper Mines as at Lanterberg in Saxony at Hircynia and at Goldberg in Silesia And that the best sort of it was found there and they call it Schifer blaw and that it grew in Hungaria and Lotharingia I have gotten good store of this of a pure blue colour in those stones that I mentioned last above that were something like Copper stones pretty pieces almost as great as Hazel-Nuts contained in the holes of the stones that were full of such cavities or holes and also the green stuff which is either Chrysocolla or Aerugo in small pieces and contained in lesser holes I have been the larger in this particular because our English Miners do altogether neglect these and such other like things as knowing no use or profit to be made of them when doubtless they might both be of benefit and good use As for native Aerugo which the Germans call Kupffergrune or Spangrune I find little of it only Eucelius tells us it is found in the Metals of Cyprus the stones having something of Copper in them out of which it flowereth but that this is little and the best and that it was also found in Copper Mines in Germany Whether this and the native Chrysocolla be all one or not I shall not take upon me to determine but leave it to the experience of others though I should rather incline to believe that they are but all one Concerning Talk there are many opinions among Authors about it some taking it generally and comprehending under it the Lapis Specularis Amianthus and Talcum strictly taken Agricola calls it Magnetis but seems to confound it with Mica Cat-silver or Glimmer and that description that Rulandus gives of it agreeth rather to Mica than to that Talk that we have sold in shops and therefore we shall only take what Schroderus and Wormius say of it and the former thus The Talk of the shops is like the Lapis Specularis but it is more thin and rough or full of scales of a greenish colour resisting the fire and fixt It is called of some the stare of the earth and by the Germans Talck there is found also red Talk and black but they are less used in shops That is thought the best which is brought from Venice that from Muscovia is equally as good that is most approved of that is chiefly greenish Wormius saith thus of it It is a soft stone like to the Lapis Specularis to be divided into plates bending and variously intricate of a Silvery white colour bluish gray sometimes blackish unconquerable by the fire for it is neither to be melted nor burnt nor loseth its colour except by great violence It is found in many places of Germany and Norway and its kinds are distinguished according to its colours He saith he had clods or lumps of white and Silvery Talk brought forth of Germany but the more impure and grayish was brought from Norway He also had some small pieces of a golden colour There was also black brought from Norway which had joined the Ore of Gold with it that gave great hope of gain The Talk that I have commonly seen and had is much agreeable to these descriptions it being white and Silvery with some greenishness and may be severed or cleft into small tires or threds and doth long resist the fire and hardly to be consumed by it It is a good vendible Commodity and therefore may concern the Miners to take care to enquire and search after for there is little question but some of it may be met withal in some of our Mines in England Paracelsus reckoneth three sorts white red and black Talk As for the Magnes or Loadstone we mean no further to treat of it here but as far as may enable our own Country-Miners to know and search after the same Wormius describes it thus It is an hard Stone ferrugineous or irony and blackish which draweth or rejecteth Iron or another Loadstone and sheweth the quarters of the World It is found in divers places for the most part in Mines of Iron from whence also it containeth much Iron in it self For all that body that doth attract is not the Magnet but there is in it a Magnetick Vein Therefore in certain places in Germany they draw most excellent Iron forth of it In Italy in the mountains of Viterby and in Ilna where it is found outwardly it is of a ruddish colour within when it is broken waxing black and a little tending to blewishness though obscure in attracting very efficacious while it is smitten it trembleth being covered with a certain dawn which goeth to the Iron if it be admoved unto it Also it is digged up in divers places in Germany near the Valley Ioachim Swartzberg Sneberg c. Also he saith they had it brought from Norway of great strength of which he could shew some Like this description are those fragments that we buy at the shops as also that which we have capped with Steel and bound with Brass or Silver and those round ones that we call Terrella's Doctor Merrett saith That there is of it of good note found in the Rocks of Dartmoore in Devonshire and of worse sorts elsewhere And I have had it from some Gentlemen of very great worth that lately there is found good store of it in the foresaid County of very excellent force and virtue And I make small doubt that seeing we have so many Mines of Iron-stone in his Majesties Dominions if the Workmen had skill in knowing of it and were diligent and observant it might be found in many places which I commend to all ingenious and laborious Miners Of this stone Haematites Wormius saith That it is so called either because it is of a sanguineous colour or else being rubbed against wet Whetstones it yieldeth a bloody colour or because it is prevalent in stanching of blood It is a stone of the colour of coagulated blood but more obscure hard and indowed with streaks like Antimony it is cloddy and stayeth bleeding It seemeth to be of a middle nature betwixt Earth Stone and Metal when it is compacted into a stony substance from the shavings or sediment which the water hath worn from Ruddle or some red stone It is in divers places in Germany betwixt the Mines of Red Oker or Ruddle and Iron as in the Valley of Ioachim and near Hildesheim but above the rest that which cometh from Spain is commended that which is brought from Compostella is of an angled figure having the colour and splendor of blackish Iron It is decocted into Iron and containeth Ruddle in the cavitiâ—s sometimes it is
occult and yet require the study of many Observators and doth not belong to our present enquiry curiously to search forth Yet thus much is evident that upon the supposition that the Moss and Leaves c. and the small parts of them are truly changed into a stony nature that then the aerial part or the Globuli aetherei as Cartesius calls them are by the entry of the stony particles contained in the Water extruded and so separated Whereby two of the particulars are made clear First that there is something separated from the thing changed that was in it before and also that there was something added as the stony Particles or petrifying Steams or Atoms that was not there before and consequently that there must be an alteration of the contexture and position of the particles of the body changed But because the stress of the matter lies what Transmutation is which we are searching after and yet it may be doubted whether or no there be any real Transmutation at all quoad naturam sed solummodò quoad nos as when by a due proportionable commixture of Sand and Ashes Glass is made which quoad nos and in relation to our sight is transparent which neither Sand nor Ashes are and yet the Sand and Ashes in their primitive nature and principles remain as they were the individual particles of either of them being not changed as may appear by the reducing them to the same Sand and Ashes that they were before which may be made manifest not only by the Alkahest only known to Adeptists but also by other means that may and can be shown by expert Artists And also when that Silver is dissolved in Aqua fortis according to our sight it is changed and the water remaineth transparent and the Silver may again be separated from it as is known unto every expert Goldsmith it may very well make us doubt whether there be any real Transmutation or not but what is by addition diminution or altering of parts And therefore we shall quote some more instances omitting that of Hector Boelius of the Pond in Ireland that if a piece of Wood be stuck down in it at much of it as is in the earth or mud is in the space of a year turned into Stone that part which is in the water is turned into Iron and that which is above the water doth remain Wood so that the same entire piece is Stone Iron and Wood which were a most strange relation and fit instance if true But though we have had it affirmed by a learned Physician that lived long in Ireland and that others do maintain that our Irish Stones or Whetstones are of the same petrified Wood as the grain or bait would almost perswade yet because the forecited Author is noted to be fabulous and much suspected in many things and it not proved by later Authorities therefore I say we shall omit it and so come to some of those that the faithful and Learned Helmont hath noted from Authors of better credit who telleth us For so the hand-glove of Frederick the Emperour was petrified in that one part of it that lay wet in the Spring but the other part being fenced with a seal remained Leather so that not only Herbs Woods Bread Iron Eggs Fishes Birds and Quadrupedes were by a wonderful Metamorphosis petrified but by the testimony of Ambrosius Pareus a Child at ripe age was cut out of the Womb petrified which his friend told him that made Mathematical Instruments that used the back of that petrified Child for a Whetstone and more to the same purpose he relateth in the same Chapter from whence amongst others he draweth these Conclusions 1. That whereas other seeds require that the substrate or subject matter be reduced into a sequacious or an obedient liquor and susceptible of the seed which they have called the first matter of Generation and do require that also that the figure and all the comeliness of the precedent Concrete be destroyed yet the petrifying seed the humane figure being preserved without any intervening putrefaction or dissolution of the matter doth petrifie the whole through the whole to wit as well the bones as the skin 2. That the petrifying seed doth consist alone in a saxeous or stony odour or steam which is an incorporeal and invisible Ferment We shall not here quarrel with this experienced and Learned Author but only note these two things 1. That whereas he placeth this petrifying quality in an odour or steam which he maketh invisible and incorporeal I take him by incorporeal not to mean meerly that the steam is altogether spiritual as the Schoolmen and Metaphysicians understand but that it is so subtile tenuious and fine that it is not liable to our sight and in regard of other more gross bodies may be called and accounted incorporeal 2. He plainly holdeth forth petrifaction not only in the superficial parts but that it is totum per totum as well in the bones as in the skin not only by incrustation or adhesion of the stony matter to the external parts but by a real changing in Animals of the bony sinewy musculous and fleshy parts intrinsically and thoroughout into a stony substance to verifie which more Authorities may be added to Helmont as that of Pensingius historia infantis in abdomine inventi in duritiem lapideam conversi And something of this nature in that accurate and ingenious piece of Mr. Hooks Micrography as also much of this nature may be seen in Mr. Boyles Essay of firmness and in some other places to which I remit the Reader Now in all this that the Learned Helmont hath noted or the rest it will appear that this saxeous Odour or seminal Ferment how thin or fine soever it were is of a bodily nature and so piercing the body to be changed whether of Animals or other things as Iron Eggs Leather or the like it doth add some such steams and particles as were not there before and so doth augment the quantity or weight if not both which was one of the things required to be proved Again by the ingress which must be by motion there must of necessity be a cession of another body which can be nothing but the Aiery Atoms or Aethereal Steams contained before in the porous parts of the body to be changed which are thereby extruded and separated which was another thing to be proved And as for the third it necessarily follows that when a softer body is changed into an harder or a more fluid body into a firm the parts are joined more close together and however all motion in bodies must of necessity make a change of the position contexture and order of the minute or smaller parts By all which we shall only urge thus much That this petrification is as strange as that which the Philosophers call the Transmutation of Metals as may appear by the comparing of their efficient causes the manner of