things differing according to the Strength of the one and the Obedience of the other And so by reason in that separation of the fine and Male part at first the stuff was throughly tost and mingled and the Heat of Heaven thereby like a hot Summer after a wet Spring very fierce and eager the two causes serving very fitly all Wights Man and all were made alike without any seed sown otherwise than by the great Seedsman of Heaven upon the common stuff of Earth and Water As is still seen in the common Tillage yet used in those lame and unperfect Wights which some call Start-ups and sprung out from themselves As we may be easily led to think if we consider how not onely all kinde of Plants without all setting or sowing grow up by themselves in some places and some kinde of Fish in the Sea are onely Female but also what plenty of Fish there abounds in the frozen Countries for the great heat and fatness of the Waters and chiefly that upon the slimy and hot Land of Aegypt there are yet some bloody and perfect Land-wights as Hares and Goates c. so made and fashioned But because afterward the well-mingled and fat fine Stuff and the strong working Heat failed as it must needs in time and yet the great Lord would have the continual flitting change and succession hold The same two fit Causes were duly kept by continual succession within the Bodies of perfect Wights the Stuff in the She and the Heat in Both yea and as far as need required in seeded Plants also Now we must understand as well that this heavenly Soul which when it is so clothed with that windy Body is called Spirit not onely moveth and worketh with his Heat but also for Food wasteth the Stuff for nothing that is made is able to bear up his state and being without his proper and like food and sustenance Then as our gross Fire here below feedeth upon Weather and Wind called Air as upon his likest meat And as it in his due place is too thin and scattered spreading the Fire so far as it followeth his Food until at last it vanisheth to nothing unless it be plentifully heaped and crowded up together and so kept in a narrow shell of Water which is called Oil or Fatness Even so it is between the fine starry Fire and his like Food the fine Fat of Aether for that cause besides the Divine Purpose above set it cometh down in post into these Quarters to finde and dress himself store of meat as appeareth by his tarrying for as soon as his Food is spent he flieth away as fast and leaves his House at six or sevens uncared for I was about to tell you the Cause of the divers sorts and suits of these lower Creatures but that there was a great puff of Matter came between and swept me away which now being passed over I will go forward Then if the suffering Stuff be Gross Foul and Tough and the making Heat very Small and Easie as it is within and under the Ground things are made which they call Mettals or better by the Arabick word Minerals little broken altered or changed but the gross Beginnings Earth and Water Earth especially rule still and the Life and Soul as it were in a dark dungeon fast shut up and chained is not able to stir and shew it self at all When the Stuff is Finer and Softer with greater Heat upon it there will arise a rooted and growing thing called a Plant better mingled and smaller and further broken from the low and foul Beginnings and the Life of Heaven shall have more scope because Wind or Air and Water and yet Water chiefly swayeth the Matter But if the Soul be yet more mighty and the Stuff yet finer he is able Air and Fire but that above this exalted to shew himself a quicker Workman and to make yet a finer piece of Work moving forward and by mighty sense perceiving But by reason these two Causes passing by those degrees do so mount and rise at last there is an excellent and fiery kinde contrived even Our kinde I mean most throughly and fair and finely wrought even so Fat indeed that he may not easily seem made at all of these All-making Seeds the four Beginnings whence it is that when a Corps is consumed with Fire there are found scarce six Ounces of clean Earth remaining which fineness of Body gives occasion to the greatest freedom and quickness of the Soul and ability to perform as his duty of Life Moving and Perceiving yea and shall I put in Understanding also for albeit GOD hath inbreathed us with another more fine and clean Mover called Minde for a special and Divine purpose yet that Minde as well as the Soul above is all one of it self in all places and worketh diversly according to those divers places as we shall see more at large hereafter Then you see all the differences of the four great Heads or Kindes which contain all things yea and of many lesser degrees and steps lying within every one of these which I named not before as also of sundry sorts not worth the naming of Doubtful and Middle things touching and partaking on each side of the four great ones as between the first two Stones budding like Herbs in the Scottish Sea between Plants and Beasts the Spunge Apes or rather hairy Wildmen between Beasts and Us to proceed from the divers mixtures of the Bodies If you cannot quickly perceive the Matter behold at once the outward Shapes and Fashions as they here go down a short pair of Stairs before you Do you not see Man alone through his exceeding fine and light Body carried up and mounted with a mighty heat of Heaven of an upright stature and carriage of himself that this Divine Wit might be free from the clog of Flesh when other Wights from the contrary Cause which the gross and earthly Leavings or Excrements of Hair Horn Hoof and such like declare are quite otherwise disposed as we see towards the Ground their like Companion and so the less hot and fine they be that is the liker the Earth the nearer they bend unto her being less of stature still and after that many-footed to support them but at length Footless and groveling until it come to their Heads downward and there it stayeth not but passeth quite over and degenerates from Wights to Plants And from thence if I might tarry about it I would send them down still through all the steps of them and Minerals until they came to the main Rest and Stay from whence they all sprang clean Earth and Water But I think it be now high time to take my leave of these Philosophers and to set forward as soon as I have packt up my Stuff round together especially the best and most precious Things Then we gather by that enlarged Speech
the last and lowest part being Servants and so to be used and yet very needful and not to be spared in this blessed Houshold for although we have all the helps of Long Life Health and Youth that may be yet if we want the service of Riches Poverty will besiege us and keep us under and cut off and hinder many goodly Deeds and Works of Wisdome and Virtue But what are Riches for the World and Philosophy agree not in this account No nor this within it self The World reckons store of Gold and Silver to be Riches Aristotle enough of needful things the Stoicks enough of Earth and Air To begin here These might be stretched and made large enough but that we know their straitness would they have us live by breath alone and never eat according to the guise which I set out in the Art of Healing Be it possible as it seemeth yet it is somewhat feeble as I shewed there and so somewhat halting and unperfect by lack of Youth and Lustiness for our first and perfect Life appointed besides the maims and hurts of Poverty which I right now touched Aristotle is somewhat strait also for so the Beasts are rich as well If he had put in enough of things needful for good Life wherefore we were made he had said much better yet not all for so should all the bodily means and helps aforesaid be counted Riches a great deal too confusedly Now much less can we rate the Golden-wealth right and true Riches because a Man may die with hunger for all this as he that sold a Mouse for two hundred pence died himself for lack of Food when the Buyer lived and this was done to let go feigned Midas when Hannibal besieged Casiline Then true Riches are enough of outward things needfull for good Life that is for our BLISSE above-set But because that golden and worldly Wealth is a ready and certain way and means to this out-barring Violence which no man can warrant we will use the cause for the effect in this place and strive to shew how all Men may get enough of Gold and Silver and that by weaker means than HERMES Medicine as the place requireâ—h although by the same way concerning the Stuff we work on that is by turning base Metals into Silver and Gold This is the hard matter which turns the edge of worldly Wits the brightness I say of this glorious thing dazles the Eyes of the common and blear-ey'd People because it is in their account the best and highest and most happy thing in the World when in deed and truth as it is the least and lowest and worst of all the helps unto BLISSE belonging so it is in proof and trial the less hard and troublesome both to Art and Nature the most ready and easie to be gotten and performed And to shew this we will make no long tarrying it were good first of all to enter into the way and order which Nature below keepeth in making the Metals under ground If I thought I might not run into that part of Socrates accusation for searching over-deeply the Under-ground-matters But I hope I shall not now by the mighty pains of Miners Spades and Mattocks the way is made so plain before me or else sure as they be indeed I would account them over-deep and hard for my Pen to dig in Then all under-ground Bodies which the Arabians call Minerals are either Stones or hard Juyces which we name Middle-Minerals or else they be Metals These as all other perfect things have all one Stuff Earth and Water and one Workman the Heat of Heaven as I said above for their Womb because they be but dead things as they call them the Earth will serve But for that Nature meant to make most perfect things in that kinde which require long time to finish them she chose a most sure and certain place even the deep and hard Rock it self not to the end the Earth might hide them as hurtful things and lean upon them with all her weight as Seneca saith very severely or rather finely for we know how he hunts after fineness like an Orator to whom it is granted to lie a little in a Story that he may bring it in the more prettily as the Orator himself confesseth Then the manner of the work of Minerals is this first the Water piercing downwards softens and breaks the Rock taking her course still that way where it is softest to make the cross and crooked race which we see of Wombs called Veins and Pipes of the Minerals But as the Water runneth to take the stuffe as the next thing in order it washeth and shaveth off small pieces of the Rock and when it stands and gathers together in one place by continuall drayning clenseth and refineth the same untill the middle heat of the Earth which is the heat of Heaven come and by long boyling makes it thicker and grow together in one body of many kinds according to the difference of the stuffe and heat which they call Hard-juices as I said or Middle-minerals This Workman continuing and holding on his labour though Agricola saith the cold and drought of the Rock now layes hold upon the stuffe and by little and little at last binds it into that hard form of a Metall Nay though Aristotle from the beginning gives the work to the same cause out of the heart as it were and best part of them wringeth out at last a clean close and heavy raw waterish and running Body called Quick-silver Here it standeth in perfection of this Minerall work except there chance which chance happens often by the means of that boyling any contrary hot and dry breath of the same kind to be made withall in the same place Then this meeting with that raw waterish and unshapen lump like Rennet with Milk or Seed with Menstrue curdles thickens and fashions it into the standing body of a Metall This Minerall breath our Men for his likenesse in Quality though their Substance doe greatly differ doe use to call Brimstone Now when this second and earthly heat is come into the work the milde heat of Heaven sets the stuffe which stayed before to work again and drives it forward and these two together by continuall boyling and mingling alter and change clense and refine it from degree to degree untill at last after many yeares labour it came to the top of perfection in Cleannesse finenesse and Closenesse which they call Gold These degrees if the Heat be gentle and long-suffering as they say be first Lead then Tinne thirdly Silver and so to Gold But if it be strong and sudden it turnes the weake work out of the way quickly and burnes it up and makes nought but Iron or at least if the Heat be somewhat better Copper Yea and sometimes the foulnesse of that eâ—rthly Brimstone alters the course of Nature in
Entry once made in their Hearts the great and marvellous Truth of this famous STONE may the more easily come in and take possession But in such variety of hard and slippery Matter whence were it best to set out which Way first to take Were it not meet the means and helps unto BLISSE should be first rid and cleared before we come to BLISSE it self and among them to give Long Life the foremost place if not for his worthiness yet for his behoof and necessity being needful in all Common-wealths and private persons first to seek to live before to live well though that unto this end Then let us see what is Long Life and how all Men may reach unto it But why do we make such great haste we had need be slow and advised in so great a Matter and to look before we venture upon so long a Way and of so many dayes Journey that we be well provided and furnished of all things wherein I hope if I have not of my own or if after the thrifty manner when I am well stored my self yet I borrow to prevent lending although I take upon trust so much as shall serve this turn it shall be no stain to my Credit but rather deemed a safe and wary way to cut off occasion of Robbery both at home and abroad especially if I take it up of such Men as are most famous and best beloved These should be my Friends of Aegypt and Arabia though we have their secret help now and then the best able indeed and the nearest unto me if they were so well known and beloved in the World But because they be not I will fly to the other side of Greece and to the most renowned there and best liked Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle whom I doubt not to finde very free and willing in this Matter Let us then awake our old Studies out of sleep and hye us to them what need many words after Greeting and the Matter broken they make me this Answer joyntly together GOD because he was good did not grieve to have others enjoy his Goodness that is to be and to be well meaning to make a World though Aristotle withdraw his hand herein full of all kinde of everlasting and changeable things first made all and blended them in one whole confused Mass and Lump together born up by his own weight bending round upon it self Then seeing it lay still and that nought could beget and work upon it self he sorted out and sundred away round about a fine and lively piece which they call Heaven for the Male Mover and Workman leaving still the rest as gross and deadly fit for the Female to receive the Working and Fashioning which we term the four Beginnings or Elements Earth Water Air and Fire and thereof springs the Love which we see get between them and the great desire to be joyned again and coupled together Then that there might be no number and confusion of Workmen and doing Causes but all to flow from one Head as he is One he drew all force of Working and virtue of Begetting into one narrow round Compass which we call the Sun from thence he sent out spred and bestowed all about the World both above and below which again meeting together made one general Light Heat Nature Life and Soul of the World Cause of all things And because it becomed the Might Wisdome and Pleasure of such a Builder to make and rule the infinite Variety of Changes here below and not evermore one self-same thing he commanded that One Light in many to run his eternal and stintless Race to and fro this way and that way that by their variable presence absence and meeting they might fitly work the continual change of flitting Creatures This Soul which Plato calls the Ever-moving Mover quite contrary to Aristotles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he himself construes an Immoveable Mover that we may marvel how Tully could translate it so as to make it all one with Plato unless Lucians gallows mis-led him which is found in some Copies that he might be an Eternal Mover is in Nature and Being a most subtile and small Beam or spark of heavenly Fire in property and quality for his Cleanness Light and Fineness Hot and for his Moistness withall Temperate as appears to him that bendeth his Minde upon it If you doubt of his Moistness think nothing made without Mingling which is by drawing in and breaking small together the whole stuff when a dry heat draws out and scattereth the fine from the great and thereby wasteth and narroweth all things making nothing As for Example Dung hatcheth an Egge and quickneth any thing apt to receive Life when warm Ashes will never do it What need we more Imagine an heavenly Flame by a good burning Water which flaming upon your Hand or a dry Cloth heateth them both gently without hurt or perishment And yet this Sunny Beam is not moist of it self and before it is tempered with the moisture of the Moon his Wife to make it apt for Generation Thence HERMES calls the Sun and Moon the Father and Mother of all things Now the stuff and Female to be fit to suffer Working must be first open that is Soft and Moist and then not one nor yet many like things lest in both these cases they should stand still the same and not when they be stirred by the Workman rise and strive and bruise and break one another fitly by continual change until they come at last unto a consent rest and stay And that upon small occasion the same consent might jarre again and come to change the wished end and purpose of the work And therefore GOD cast in at first the known four fighting enemies yet in the soft and open Stuff there are but two of them Earth and Water in one mixture seen and extant at the beginning before the painful Soul draws and works out the rest Fire out of Earth and out of Water that breath-like and windy thing called Air. So that if there were much Earth little Water and great Heat to mingle them Fire will shew it self and bear the sway If but small Heat upon the same measure of Earth and Water Earth will rule the rest If on that other side upon small store of Earth and much Water but a small Heat of working the thing will fall out to be raw and waterish If upon the same quantity a stronger Heat it ariseth an Ayery which is termed a fat and oily Body Wherefore when the Soul comes down upon the Stuff clothed with a fine windy coat of the cleanest Air next unto Heaven called Aether without the brokage of which Mean the two Extremes and unacquainted Strangers would never bargain and agree together by his moist milde heat it moves it and alters it very diversly making many fuits and kindes of
one stands out above the rest and recovers some part of his former Power which puts those that can feel to pain and breeds Diseases and at last gets the whole Lordship and rule over all and turns them all into his own Nature Then the old consent knot and body is broken lost and spoiled and a new made and gotten still going downward untill they return to Earth from whence they all came for Example and that near home for the fiery frame of Mans Body when the Soul for want of food fails and flits away they straight retire and run back in order first Fire waxeth moist and lukewarm supt up with Air and this soon after thick and cold that is Waterish and Water muddy still more and more thick and dry till at last it be moist dry and heavy and all be devoured and brought to Earth from whence they all set forth before And this is natural Dissolution and Death of our Bodies forcible Death and Destruction is by Diseases to bar out other force which no man can warrant when either Breath or Meat distemper'd in some quality do feed and nourish some one their like beginning above the rest and make him strong and able to vanquish them and bring in the Jarre of that Musical Consent aforesaid As when by waterish Meat and Air all the beginnings are changed into Water the Hot and Dry into a fiery temper and so forth or else when the Body wants the Exercise which is owing and due unto him which is quick Motion to preserve the Air and Fire in the fine frame and temper of Man from the sloth and idleness of the slow and rusty Beginnings By which grounds laid we see the way to uphold the temper of our Body made plain and easie No more but to feed and cherish it with clean and temperate Air and Meat continually that all the Beginnings served and fed alike one may not be more proud strong and able than another to subdue the rest and overthrow the state And thereof it is that Poyson killeth is because it is extreme Cold and Dry for we may shut out all Rotten as also Fiery and Watery Tempers from the name of Poyson feeding and strengthning the Dregs but devouring the fine Liquor of the Body wherein the Life standeth when as the same Poyson nourisheth and maintaineth the like framed and so tempered Body as venomous Juyces the like Plants and these noisome Beasts as one of these another Nay which is very strange I have read of such natured Men of India that used to eat Toads and Vipers And Albertus saith he saw a Girl of three years old that fed greedily upon Spiders and was never hurt but liked greatly with it Do not think it any Discord when I said above Fast-fineness and now Temperateness upholds the Body all is one It cannot be Fast unless the Earth and Water be well and evenly mixt nor Fine except Fire and Air bear as good a stroke of rule among them But you will say that Nature hath given her Creatures a walk of course not to stand still in one stay and place for ever but to move and walk up and down to and fro from one side to another that is as it was said before GOD hath made a changeable World and therefore this frame and building of Mans Body cannot ever hold and hang together but must needs one day be loosened and fall asunder I grant it must be so by the course of Nature because to fulfil the Will of her Lord she hath appointed a stronger means and cause to work it either the want and absence of the inward Friendship and keeping of the Soul in those which the common sort call Living things or in the rest the presence of some ravenous and spoiling Enemy But if cunning Art and Skill which by the help of Nature is above the course of Nature by knowledge of the due Food for Life and defence against the Enemy may be able to defend the one and keep off the other then no doubt the frame and temper of both Dead and Quick may last for ever The way is found already and known by certain and often proof for the one I mean that Art hath often by keeping off the spoiling Enemy with a strong Contrary preserved and upheld a dead thing of slippery state and soon decay for ever as a Corps by Balm or Water of Salt Timber by the Oyl of Brimstone and such like why then should the next prove impossible to wit by giving store of fit Food still to Life and natural Heat for the other two helps of Meat and Exercise are easie to under-shore and keep upright our weak and falling frame for ever The Greeks hold that our natural Heat and Life because it feeds upon and washeth the most fine and unseen Oyl called first Moisture daily which no Food of Air or Meat is fit and fine enough to repair must needs faint and fail withall and cannot be restored Let us see what may be said to this yea and bend all our force unto it for this is all The Soul and Life and Natural Heat of things is often and fitly compared and likened unto the other gross and fierce hot and dry Body called Fire to feed and maintain this his weak Like that is Air cannot be wanting and because it in his due place is too thin and scattered dividing the Fire to nought in pursuit of his Food Sustenance it must needs by heaps be crowded up in a shell of Water called Oyl or Fat as we heard before In that Fight Battel if much Heat and Oyl meet together the work is great and busie thereout ariseth a smoke as a leaving of the Meat and the Fire follows as far as the Smoke hath any Fatness which makes a flame Albeit the Nature of Fire be as long as he hath Food enough to crave no great Exercise and will last well in a close place as under Ashes c. yet a Flame being more than Fire a hot Smoke or Breath besides desires open and clean Air both to receive the thiâ—k refuse which else would choke him as also for his like weaker Food that he be not starved which two are enough besides a little Motion for his Exercise That we may marvel as those Men which bring in Cooling for another needful thing in this business whereas the kinde of Fire and Air abhor Cooling as his contrary as it is engraven in the Nature of all things still to fly from that which hurts it Now in like manner to come to the purpose if the Fire of Life and Natural Heat be not great a little fine Oyl and first Moisture will serve to feed it and out of that slack working small store of refuse Breath and Smoke ariseth to make any need of fresh and open Air to clense and feed it as appears by those Wights which are able to live in
wherein a stake stuck down will turn in one years space so much as sticks in the Mud into stone and so much as stands in the water to Iron the rest remaining Wood still There is an old Mine-pit in the Hill Carpat in Hungary wherein the people daily steep their Iron and make it Copper the reason of these things is plainly that which I brought for our great and Golden change and likened to Rennet and Leaven hard before The waters and Earths which astonish things in that order are evermore infected and mixed with some very strong Stony juyce as Agricola saith and Reason agreeth plainly in the waters when they no sooner rest from running then they go into a stone Nay Pliny saith that Stony-slix in Arcadia goeth into stone running which thing the foul Traytor Antipater belike perceiving meant thereby to try such a change upon his Lord the great Grecian Monarch when he gave it him to drink and killed him The Irish-water is without doubt Mineral and as I gather by the description temper'd and dried with that Iron by juyce which is called Ferrugo But every Man knoweth for certain that the water of Carpat is Coppress water Now Copperss is as near the Nature as the Name of Copper which the Greeks set out most clearly calling Copper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chalcum and that other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chalcanthus and the stone Pyritis or Marcasite as it is termed in Arabia that breeds them both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is like Leaven to dough made of Copper and raised to a sharp quality which when it is loosened into water and by draining and distilling up and down in that Hill refined it becomes yet more sharp and strong able easily to overcome Iron a like and near weaker thing for what is so near as Iron to Copper and turn him into his own old mean and middle Nature But how shall we shew that Coppris came of Copper in that Order first the proof of our Men maketh it clear when they turn that into this and this into that again so commonly Then the authorities of Geber and Agricola the best skil'd in Mineral matters of all that ever wrote the one afâ—er that he had observed it long in Mines setting it down for a Rule and Geber calling it the Gum and as it â—ere the droppings of Copper But cheifly the Workmens daily practise who by following the steps of Nature softning and dissolving that brazen stone Pyritis do commonly make Copper Let us now see what Art hath done by counterfeiting thesâ— patterns by Nature set so plainly before her If she hath not done as much and more surely she was but a rude and untoward skill let us see what is done She hath likewise and as well as Nature by a sharp stony Water called sal-gem water tuâ—ned Wood into stone yea and Mettals also into precâ—â—us sto es not by any counterfeit way which Glass-makers use but Philosophically and Naturally by a marvellous clear and strong water of Quicksilver leading them back in the middle nature of fine stone To let pass middle Minerals which by the same course Art easily changeth one into another she â—u nerh Antimony into Lead and this into Tinne easily these things Agricola reporteth and tells the way of the first by Concoction only but not of the second which Paracelsus supplieth by purging him our way of binding with sal Armoniak I could set down a wâ—y to turn Iron in to such steel as would cut Iron as fast as this will cut wood and bear out all small shot but that they are both but one kinde one better purged then the other as indeed so are all the Mettals though not so nearly allied Even so I esteem of the silvery and golden Coppress which Nature sometimes yields under ground and Art counterfeits by our binding and colouring Rules above-set as Agricola tells and teacheth Neither think these bastard wayes quite out of Rule but to follow the same reason of Nature and as the rest take the finer like part and leave the gross unlike so do these feed upon their like the fowler parts and leave the better as unlike their Nature But to proceed To turn Iron into Copper by Coppress water is somewhat more ordinary then the rest Agricola saith an old parting water which is made thereof as we know will do it But the workmen in the Hill Kuttenberg in Germany do more nearly follow Nature in that Hill of Carpat for they drain a strong Lie from the Brazen-stone that is they make coppress-Coppress-water strongly and kindly and by steeping their Iron in it make very good Copper Nay further Paracels saith again that in Casten they turn Lead also into Copper and though he nameth not the means in that place yet other where he doth and teacheth how by Coppris sundry wayes sharpned to turn both Lead and Iron into Copper In which place he delivereth another pretty Feat to unloose and leade back both Iron and Copper into Lead again and this into Quick-silver by the force of a sharp melting dust which Miners use and this by our common Rule still of stronger Lakes for this dust being of the same nature still with exalted Lead and Quick-silver two great softners and looseners of hard Bodies is able to make the stubborn Mettals to retire and yield into the middle place of Lead and this into Quick-silver Now then we see that Art hath reached and overtaken all the natural changes of Minerals why may not she by the same pattern devise more of her self as the guise of good work-men is and go beyond Nature and turn the foul Mettals into fine Silver and Gold She hath a great advantage of Nature First her Patterns and then her help in working and lastly the Light and Instruction of a Divine wit and Understanding whereby no marvel if all wise men have said she passeth Nature Albeit it is uncertain whether Nature hath such a Golden Medicine in her bosome hid or no as well as those of Copper Stone and such like yet this is sure that by the bastard way of binding as we have heard before she turneth Lead and Tinne and perhaps Copper too but surely Quicksilver and silver into Gold Then I say it is a sign of a weak and shallow wit if Art cannot by these patterns aforesaid devise further to turn other Mettals into Silver and Gold Is it any more to do then to exalt and raise Silver and Gold but this will serve for both into very sharp and strong qualities able like the rest to devour and turn their like meat into their own middle Nature from whence they sprung certainly the reason is so plain and ready that I must needs deem him less then a child that cannot conceit it Nay bend your ears and minds By reason if the workman be very strong over the
work on in the Mettal which it wanted in the open soft and yeilding Leather And many moe such strange deeds we may finde done by that most violent Fire Then our fiery workman if he be tasked as he is to work as great wonders as these be had need to be fierce and vehement as the fire of Lightning as it is also sometime termed in our Philosophy Let us match these two together and see how they can agree that all things nearly laid and as it were strucken together the light of Truth may at last appear and shine forth out of that Comparison let us as Tully saith and doth at the first setting out lanch and row a little easily before we hoyse up sail Gold in our Phylosophy is of it self a Fire that if it be raised and encreased an hundred degrees in quality as it must be may well seem like to prove the greatest Fire in the World But our Men as they speak all things darkly so this perhaps in regard of other Mettals or rather because like the Salamander No like the Fire-flyes for though the Salamander can as well as Serpents Eggs by his extreme coldness quench a little Fire yet a strong Fire consumes him and puts him out of being because I say like the Fier-fly he doth live and flourish in the Fire when as indeed Gold as all other Mettalls is cold and waterish far from the kinde of Fire And yet it is not the outward shew of the Body alone that makes a fiery Nature but sometimes the inward quality doth the deed of Fire if we speak at large as the common custome is And so the Star-fish in the Sea a burns all she toucheth and a cold spring in Slavonia sets on fire any Cloath spread upon it and to come nearer by such a fiery force doth the water Styx in Thessaly pierce through any Vessel save a Horse-hoof But now we are come into the deep let us hoyse up sails and speak more properly and Philosophically and more near the purpose let us I say hear the Nature of Fire and how it cometh Fire as they bound it and we shall finde it if we marke his Off-spring is a very hot and dry Substance The first cause of Fire is Motion gathering and driving much dry stuff into a narrow strait which by stirring and striving for his life and being is still made more close fine and hot then its Nature will bear and suffer and so it breaketh out at last and is turned into another larger and thinner dryer and hotter nature called Fire Hence the great under-ground Fires in Aetna Hecla and many other places grow and spring at first when the Cold driveth a heap of hot earthly Breaths and Vapours either round up and close together or along through the narrow and rough places rubbing and ringing out Fire which the natural fatness of the Ground feeds for ever So the Star called Hellen-star that lights a signe so dangerous upon the tackle of the Ship and falling melts Copper Vessel c. cometh of a heap of such Vapours carried up by cross windes c. So by rubbing Milstones Flints and such like we see Fire arise after the same manner and this is the manner of the Off-spring of all Fire others flow from this one still sowing as it were one another But if the stuff of this Fire be tough and hard and then when it is wrought into Fire it be moved again apace it proveth for these two causes a marvellous hot fierce and and violent fire whence springeth all the force of Lightnings for it is nothing else but a heap of thick and Brimstony vapours as some hold with Reason by the coldness of the Cloud beaten up close in that Order and now being turned of a sudden into a larger and thinner Element than it was before when it was Earth and Water his old place will not hold him and so by the force of Nature striving for room and liberty he rents the Clouds in that manner which we hear in Thunder and bursteth out at last a great and swift pace as we see in Lightning which swiftness together with the toughness of the stuff finely wrought makes up his violence above all Fires in the world Now for the Son of Gold and Hermes his Medicine what kinde of Fire is he when he can be no such Elemental extreme hot and dry Fire for he is temperate and hath all the qualities equal and none working above other and yet indeed by reason of the fine and tough and therefore mighty Body whereon they be seated they work in equality together much more forcibly then the extremely distempered cold and dry Poysons can work alone and as fast and faster then they devour and destroy temporate bodies these do overthrow the contrary Then what a Fire he is I shewed before how full stuft with Heavenly spirits above all things and so he is a Heavenly fire which is much more effectual in power and mightier in action then that other by reason of his exceeding subtileness able to pierce through Rocks and all things where that other shall quickly stay Admit it say you if that Heavenly fire were quick free and at full liberty But it is fast bound up in a hard Body Then I will tell you all the Reason bend your Wits unto it Gold at first was full fraughted with the most piercing fire in the World Art then came and wrought it into a most fine flowing Oyl and so unbound it and set it at full liberty Not so freely indeed as in Heaven but as can be an Earthly body closely crowded up together which helps Heat as we hear in a burning-glass upon a most strange and mighty Body far above all things in the world and lastly with a violent outward Fire she sent all these a part away to work together Judge then you that have Judgement whether it were not like to bestir it self as lustily as the Lightning Compare The Heat of the hot spirits is as great and if it were not yet their passing subtileness would requite that matter easily and make him even yea and perhaps when they be drawn and carried up close together make some odds and difference between them But sure the exceeding toughness of the Body as we see in Iron the rest augments his heat greatly and carrieth him far beyond it Now for the pace it is much swifter as driven by a much stronger Mover even so much as a Founders Fire passeth in strength the top of a thick Cloud for this is he that sends the Lightning which else would have flown upwards Therefore because the fire is stronger and hath the helps of Body and Motion far more favourable the fire of the Son of Gold must needs pass the Lightning in power and wonderful working Then bethink your self with what ease and speed such a fiery Medicine were likely to pierce and break through sift
thred and the extreme red and white colours carried with their bodies take a Yellow mean also even so you must think when an hundred Ounces of silver and one Ounce of our Medicine are both by the Fire beaten and driven out at length and to the farthest thinness every part overtakes fits and reacheth other and the small part being as strong as the bigge in striving one overcomes consumes and turns the other that neither shall be quite razed but both equally changed and mingled into a third Mean thing both in fineness and colour which is gold for the Medicine is as far above gold as this beyond Silver both in fineness and colour and all other properties whatsoever And so you see the Colour also dispatched which I kept unto this place and which seemeth a wonder in some Mens sights for I hope you will not ask me how gold got this high red and unkindly colour unless you be ignorant how all such Hang-bies fleet and change up and down without hurt unto the thing that carrieth them and except you know not that by a kindly course whereby all soft and alterable things gently and softly boyled wax first black then white next yellow and lastly red where they stay in the top of the Colour we see changed and drawn up our seed of gold unto this new unwonted Colour And thus you have at last all the Reason which I saw or at least thought good to deliver to writing for the truth of HERMES or the PHILOSOPHERS STONE and MEDICINES why it is the ready way to bring all Men to all the Bliss and Happiness in the VVorld that is to Long-life Health Youth Riches VVisdom and Virtue it is now time to sit down and take our rest CHAP. IV. That Gold may be wrought into such a fine oyl as we speak of BUt methinks I hear them mutter among themselves that there is never a Reason given as yet no not one because all standing upon a feigned and supposed ground which being nothing all that is built upon it must needs come to nothing For even as Paracelsus in his supposed Paradise in the end of his High opinions concludes that if it were possible to be made by any Labour of Wisdome it would prove no doubt a notable place for Long-life and Health even so may be thought of this Stone of gold if any Art or skill were able to contrive it that it would without doubt work those wonders aforesaid But as his Paradise if he mean plainly as he sayes and not of the Philosophers Stone whereto it may be wrested is impossible to be made unless he would include himself in a place free first from the contagion and force of the outward Earth Water and Weather yea and therefore of the Fire of Heaven and Light also and secondly where all the Beginnings were in their pure and naked Nature which they call a Fifth nature which is no where save in Heaven and which were a Miracle to be conceived And lastly except he could live without Meat and his Leavings which both Learned and unlearned hold ridiculous to think Even so it is as hard in opinion and unlike that Gold may be spoiled and brought to nothing as he must be first and then restored and raised to such dignity Because as Heaven is ever one and unchangeable for that in it all Beginnings are weighed so evenly and surely tyed together in a full consent and unable ever to jarre and to be loosned in like sort Gold is so close and fast for his sure and equal mixture of his fine earth and water that no force of nature neither of earth air or water no nor of fire although he be helpen with lead antimony or any such like fierce and hot stomach easily consuming all other things will ever touch him nay which is strange the greatest spoylers in the world fire and his helpes are so far from touching him that they mend him and make him still better and better what is to be said to this Albeit I confess that to be the main ground and stay of all the work and building yet I supposed it not nor took it as granted as if I had been in Geometry but left it to be proved in the fittest place As for that supposed Paradise it is hard to judge because he did but glance at it and so leaves it unlawful to be told Albeit a Man may devise in thought as well as he for I think he had not tryed it what may be done and what Nature will suffer Then what if a Man inclosed himself in a pretty Chamber free from all outward Influence which is easie overcast for lights sake if need be with such Marble as Nero made his temple shine in darkness withall floored thick with Terra Lemn or the Earth of a Fifth nature which is better but much more hard to be gotten and had such Water within the lodging as that not long since found under ground between two silver Cups in Italy then if he could ever live quiet without Meat which I shewed not impossible or preserved himself with a Fifth nature which breeds no Leavings what think you of the matter But think what you will If it jarre and sound not well in the ears of any Man let it be among other his incredible and impossible Monsters yet our Cause shall not be the worse for it but easily possible as I will open unto you as far as my leave will suffer me which hath been large indeed and must be because I made a large promise at first perhaps too rashly but for the good meaning which must be paid and performed Aristotle saith like a wise Philosopher that nature makes her Creatures and subjects apt to move and rest that is changeable and again that a Body that is bounded cannot be without end and everlasting And therefore that when Heaven ever moveth and Earth ever resteth it is beyond the compass of Nature and springs from a more Divine cause If his Rule be true as it is most certain then Gold a thing not unbounded nor yet an extraordinary and divine work but made by the ordinary hand of Kind as we heard above must needs decay and perish again and cannot last for ever And if Nature can dissolve him much more shall she with the help of Art performe it And that which was said of Fire and his helpers is nothing for why do they better Gold but because they remove his Enemies when Nature had secretly laid about him to destroy him And so a very stick as I said above may be saved from decay But let nature have her swinge under Ground or skil above and they shall cause his enemies in time to spoil and consume him We cannot tell say they Country-like it may be a divine and no natural work for we see it everlasting Go to be it so I will overtake them that way too for as we know
words and thoughts as you do But when they maintain that by a Heavenly Medicine they have made many great and wonderful Changes turn'd all Mettals into Gold Folly into Wisdome Vice into Virtue Weakness into long Life and all Diseases into sound Health and Age into Lustiness and Youth again how can you disprove them when did you see the contrary You scarcely know the Nature of the Deeds and Effects for they require great Knowledge but the Doing Cause and Workman that is this Medicine you never saw nor can imagine what it is much less conceive the Reason Strength and Nature of it Nay you see nothing but grope and blunder in the dark like blindfold men at all things Else how could these exchanges have escaped and been hid from you in a World so full of all kinde of changes I mean you see great and admirable things albeit you do not so take them because you see them often but you do not throughly see them that is you perceive not the Nature Cause and Reason of them and that makes you so childish to believe nought unseen and count all things Wonders which are not Common amongst you Much like that harmless and silly kinde of People of late discovered which made Miracles and Wonders of many matters that in other Countries are common and ordinary insomuch as to take one for all they could not conceive how two Men asunder could by Letter certifie one another unless a Spirit was wrapt up in the Paper to make report and tell the News But if you and they could once by the edge of Wit cut into the Depth and Nature of the great and marvellous Works of Kinde and Skill which are common and daily among you then and not before you would be ready and easie by comparison to receive almost any thing unseen and brought by Report unto you Let me awake your Wits a little You see daily but not throughly how the Moon by drawing the Ocean after her makes the Ebbe and Flow thereof It is likewise commonly I know not how truly reported that the Loadstone roof of Mahomet his Church draws up his Iron-Tomb from the ground and holds it hanging in the middle way like as the Miners in Germany by chance found their Tools which they had left in such a Vault hanging in the Morning which was accounted for a Miracle before such time as the Cause by the skilful was seen and declared unto them What should I say more of this Stone It is not unknown that there are whole Rocks thereof in India drawing Ships that pass by loaden with Iron unto them and yet we see that this mighty Stone in presence of the Diamond the King of Stones is put out of Office and can do nothing To come abroad it hath been often seen at Sea that the little Stay-fish cleaving to the fore-ship hath stopt his full Course I should now pass over to that other side of Skill and Craft and call to minde many great and wondrous Works there done and performed The curious work of that Italian Ring which held a Clock besides a Dial within it Those three common Feats found out of late passing all the Inventions of Antiquity the Gun Card and Printing and many other dainty Devices of Mans Wit and Cunning if this short and narrow Speech appointed would suffer any such out-ridings Let these few serve to awake you and call your Wits together you see these things I say and are never moved but if you had never seen them but heard the stories onely reported what would you have thought and said And because no man so well judgeth of himself as of another Suppose a plain and harmless People such as those Indians were had from the beginning dwelt in a dark Cave under ground let it be the Centre if you will and at the last one odde man more hardy and wise than the rest had by stealth crept out into the light and here by long travel and traffick with our People had seen and learned the Course and Nature of things which I have rehearsed unto you and then returning home had suddenly start up and begun to recount the Wonders which he had seen and learned first that he found the Earth hanging round in the middle of the Air and in like sort a bright and goodly Cover compassing afar off the same This Cover beset and sprinkled with infinite moving Lights and Candles and among the rest One to be short of a foot in bigness to his sight without all Touching or other means and instruments to be perceived to hale and pull huge heaps of Water after her as she passed up and down continually would they not shout and lift up their hands and begin to suspect the Man of infection with strange and travelling Manners But admit when the noise were done and all husht he went forward and told them of such a Church and Vault where other things as well and more strangely than the Earth for that cannot be otherwise unless heavy things flew up against Nature hanged in the Air alone And of such Hills that as the Moon Waters so drew Ships out of their full courses without any strength or means visible Furthermore if he laid abroad the wonderful might of a little Fish like half a Foot long able to stay the main course of a Ship under sail do you not think with what sowre Countenances and reviling Words and Reproches they would bait him and drive him out of their Company But if the good and painful Man burning with desire to reform the estate of his rude and deformed Country would not be stayed so but espying a calmer time durst come in presence and step forth before them again and say that by his Travel he had learned to make such a Ring as I spake of such warlike Engines as should fall as fearful as Thunder and as hurtful as any Ramme upon the Wall a mile off planted such a kinde of Writing whereby four Men might Record as much in the same time as four thousand of the Common Clerks such a Card wherewith a Countryman that never saw the Sea shall sit in the bottome of a Ship and direct the Course thereof throughout the World without missing Is it not like they would apprehend him for a Cozener and adjudge him to Punishment Then put the case you stood by and saw the Matter I appeal to your own Conscience would you not think the Traveller worthy of Pity and Praise and the People of Reformation Well then let us return to our purpose There is a Nation of Wise-men dwelling in a Soil as much more blessed than yours as yours is than theirs That is As they bide under ground and you upon the face thereof so these Men inhabit the edge skirt of Heaven they daily See and Work many wondrous things which you never saw nor made because you never mounted so high to come
especially one of them that is Honey have they lifted up above the rest for this the Bee that little cold and bloodless Beast by reason it is both made of and fed with the same liveth so long above that kinde of parted Wights even eight years as they report and because Manna that famous Nourisher unto Man is nothing else but Honey a Dew concocted in Hot Countreys by the heat of Heaven in stead of the Bee and for such like Causes too long to be told in so short a race of Speech as I have throughout appointed But these Men are wide as well though not so far as the former for if you remember well when we spake of things that preserved Life which is nothing else but Heat there were found onely two belonging to that use like Meat and Exercise and that to let pass Exercise although the finer Breaths of the outward Air or of Meat may serve to feed the Aethereal Spirit which carrieth Life yet our heavenly Heat must have finer food an Aethereal Body which is ready and at hand no where in Nature save in our first Moisture of our Body Then this fat and aiery Meat of theirs may help to lengthen Life Youth indeed but not directly by feeding Life maintaining the first Moisture but by another by-way procuring Health Soundness for Sickness and Disease bring Age and Death apace And this is because for their great cleanness whereunto they be wrought by Nature and Art together they neither breed as other Meats doe many any drossy Disease nor stop the Lives and heats free course and passage Sith then there is nothing in the world within the compasse of reach able to maintain and nourish Heat but it must needs faint and wane daily with our first Moysture How falls it out say you that those Indians so kept their Youth without waxing Old as we heard out of Pliny I cannot tell unlesse the Sunne for that great and familiar acquaintance sake hath favoured and blessed them above all People and brought down Aether and given them to nourish them for their Soyle and Meat because it lyeth right under the Suns walk and travel is not through extreme heat uninhabitable as in times past some fondly supposed but of all other the best and most temperate by reason that extreme Heat of Heaven is most equally answered and justly tempered with Cold and Moisture of the Ground proportionable which thing they knew not because their Eyes were set too high to see the lower cause and course of Nature most plain and certain For GOD when he meant to make our changeable World here below by a wonderfull fore-sighted Wisdome stinted the Sun within the known bounds the North and South turns which they call Tropicks lest if he had run round about he should have worn and wasted it every where alike and made it smooth and even in all places and so all either dry Ground or a standing Poole both unfit for the variety of Change which he meant to see play before him But now he is so curbed and restrained within those bounds aforesaid he can wear the Ground no farther then his force can reach nor any otherwise than as his Force serveth So that the Earth must needs be most worn and lowest where it lyeth within the compasse of his Walk and so rise by little and little on both sides without the Turnes untill it come to the top and highest pitch where it is furthest off that is under the Pins which they call Poles of the World Then here for the Coldnesse the Earth is fit to thicken the Ayre and breed Water and for the bent and falling to send it down to the widest and lowest part where by the great strength of Heat it is drawn upon heaps and in great plenty and for this cause and the length of the Night it cannot scatter abroad and vanish away to nought but thickens apace and fals again abundantly raining three or foure times a day whereby we may judge that this middle girdle where our Indians inhabit cannot be so broyled and unsufferable as some have avowed but in all reason very milde and temperate and think that as the Sun meant to favour all parts as much as may be so chiefly and above all that as Reason yea and Necessity bound him with which he is best acquainted And as this is certain by report of all Authors in all other things yea and in Men touching all other Gifts and Blessings so we may guesse this one which we have in hand was not skipt and left out in so large a Charter But for all this and in good sadnesse we have but argued hitherto it is not good to seek dispence against the Law of Nature and it were better to discredit Pliny the Reporter though he be never so good an Author than Nature her self the Author of all things For this Story is set against the whole course and drift of Nature whose Works as they be not woven and made up at once so they decay and wear away by little and little And therefore admit these men of India by speciall Licence from above doe bear their Age fresh and young a long time in respect of other Nations yet we must in no wise think this is for Ever and untill Death as Pliny saith for then they should not dye and depart as other Men doe naturally which is when Age creeping on and changing by little and little is at last made ripe and falling but rather by some sudden force be taken and as it were delivered by and by to the hands of I know not what Hang-man amongst the Destinies to be cut off and put to death by Violence But what Force can that be Nay I assure you farther that if the stock of Sicknesse and Disease were away as saith he it is almost they might live for ever another breach of the never-broken Laws of Kinde Wherefore let this Story goe and us hold this rule of certain that by reason there is no other Food for naturall Heat open in Kinde but our fitst Moisture which because for want of supply it likewise wasteth daily Youth must needs by Nature fail away and cannot last for ever And yet we must also to come to the purpose remember how it was full often above proved that such a supply of due food of Life were to be made by Skill and fetched out of the bottome of Naturall things by the Divine Art of HERMES Wherefore to avoid the jarre and ill sound of our often beating upon one thing our Cure-all and Heaven above declared is it that feeds our hearts that holdeth and perserveth Youth This is it I say that doth the deed for many causes set down before I will send them that cannot come hither along the right way back again to take all before them But there is another thing Motion I mean that helps to bear up the state of Life
this work As also there is oddes of Quick-silver But indeed the cause of all the difference is in the working Heat that maketh and disposeth the beginning midst and end of all thus or thus according to her strength and continuance and which is the main ground to this purpose Quick-silver is the Mother of all the Metalls Now when the work is done it lyeth yet as it did all the while in a thick flowing form like the form of a molten Metall and when the owner comes to enjoy it bringing in the cold breath of the Aire upon it like unto Corall and other soft and growing Sea-plants it freezeth and hardeneth of a sudden fit for the turn and use of Man wherefore it was made and ordained These be the grounds of the most and best Men that is of Men best seen and furthest travelled in such matters whereunto Cardane a man indifferent and none of us and yet very learned agreeth jump as may be But lest these dimme and little lights may seem to be darkned with the brightnesse and fame of Aristotle and his Scholar Theophrast and the late renowned Agricola holding hard the contrary and the same sometime stifly maintaining I will as much as in me lyeth and my narrow bounds will suffer endeavour to lay the Reasons all down in order which moved them to think thus and staied them in the same opinion That Wisemen at least may weigh one Reason with another and judge which is the weightiest and worthy to bear the best price without the vain regard of outward shewes and Authorities First that the Minerall stuffe sprung out from those rock-shavings aforesaid all cunning Miners can tell you who still by the nature and grit of the stone though there be twenty sundry sorts as there be sometimes in the Rock are able certainly to say this or that Veine followeth But to passe over lightly the lighter matters and such they grant as well as we The Quick-silver is the nearest stuffe and Menstrue or Mother of Metals that is the thing in great strife and question when it needed not in mine opinion if we mark the consent of all those Men in all Nations that put the name upon things which were not of the unwisest soâ—t flatly to allow his saying when they by calling it in Greek Latine and other Tongues Quick or liquid silver in secret meaning plainly say that if by the force of those two hot Workmen aforesaid it were staied and better purged it were nothing else but silver for indeed Avicen and some other of the learned side leaving out the middle degrees hold the very same opinion which I also thinke true if the stuffe and heates as they are in hot Countries be good and faultlesse But the disputers will account this kind of Argument unskilfull and soone cast it off Then remove the cold that at last came upon the Metall and hardened it and it appeares to the eye nothing else but such an altered Quick-silver Or if the witnesse of sence be sometimes false and deceitfull enter into our School and behold them by a more kindly and gentle way lead them back to a true Quick-silver both in cold and heat abiding being a true rule in Philosophy Every thing to be made of that whereunto it is loosned and dissolved But if this will not serve passe a little further into the border and edge of secrets and you shall see them by following the steps of Kinde underneath which I marked out before that is by sowing the dissolved seedes and breaths of Metalls upon Quick-silver to curdle and bring her into that form of Metall which they will and wish for Now for that earthly Brimstone As Nature to make a perfect Wight is fain to break her first order and to take the help of an hot Womb and of another Workman even so to frame a perfect dead Creature beside the help of a certain dead Wombe she must needs use the hand of a lusty fellow Workman both to fashion and to boyle it to perfection then as Aristotle saith The Sun and Man make a Man and the rest have two working and moving causes the Heat of Heaven and the breath of the Male-seed so in this work of Metall there is not onely the great and generall begetting breath of Heaven but also the private and particular seed of the Earth their father That there lacks a little Earth to stay Quick-silver Aristotle himself sheweth by a pretty like example He saith the Hares blood flameth still when it is cold whereas others stand because it wants those earthly Streams which others have to make it grow together as we may see by tryall finding no bloud which hath them with a Strainer taken away to stand and cluster but run continually Even so take away the Earth and Brimstone of a Metall which our Art can doe and the Water will not stand again but flow for ever And this is generall if we mark well that nothing stands and leaves his running before Earth ruling binds and stayes him Whosoever allowes not this way of making Metalls besides other fayls and errors he shall never unfold the Nature of Quick-silver as we may see by Aristotle and Agricola strugling and striving against the stream about it giving the cause of his flowing and flying from the Fire unto abundance of Ayre in him for then his lightnesse and feeding of the Fire two things far from his nature would as well as in all ayrie Bodies appear and shine forth unto us But he that stands upon our Grounds and Rules laid down before may easily perceive his raw cold and watry condition to make him fly the Fire his Enemy and this even proportion in power and equall rule of Earth and Water in him to be the cause of his running The first is plain But there is as much Earth in power as Water in Quick-silver albeit it seems all Water for a little Earth is as strong as much Water and no more of this then of that surely mingled and put together appears because it is the onely dry Water in the World her Earth haling one way makes her dry and her Water another causeth her to flow but this is a certain sign thereof that when we find by reason all other things if either Earth or Water ruleth over them either to stand with Cold and harden or else to melt with Fire and Water yet we see plainly this one dry Water called Quick-silver to stoop and yeeld to neither But to our purpose The Reasons why the heat of Heaven is the Workman in the Mine are many but hear a few and briefly delivered If he worketh and mingleth as I proved above all perfect mingled Bodies then what shall lett and bar him from this labour also the depth and hardnesse of the Rock No for if those subtile Bodies which we call Spirits are able in the opinion of all Men
to pierce through stone-walls without breach or sign of passage how much more subtile and strong and able to doe it is this heavenly Soul But all Men grant the Workmanship w of living things to flow from the onely cause and fountain Then tell us how it comes to passe that Fish by the witnesse of good Authors are sometimes found in the deep and sound Earth where no Water runneth Nay which way doe very Toads get into certain Rocks in Germany and Milstone-Rocks in France even so close that they cannot be spyed before they be set in grinding and break themselves as George Agricola reporteth But if Mineralls as well as Plants take Food and Nourishment wax and grow in bignesse all is clear I hope and void of doubt This will I prove hereafter In the mean time let us win it again by proof and tryal the strongest Battery that may be Cold binds and gathers in the stuffe of both like and unlike grosse and fine together without any clensing or sundering But Metalls especially Gold are very finely and cleanly purged Bodies Again if Cold had frozen and packt up Gold together the force of Heat as we see the proof in all things should cut the bands and unmask the work again which is not To this what Colour springs from Cold but his own waterish and earthy colour That if a thing be dyed with other Colours we know straightway where it had them Besides Cold leaves no smell behind it but Heat is the cause of all smells Then to omit the fiery smell of some stones and sweet savour of others and the variety of sent in Juices how hapned it that Silver found at Mary-berg smelt like Violets as Agricola reporteth That all Men feel the unpleasant scent of Copper and other base metals But mark the practice of the plain Men when they devise to judge of a Mine below they take their aime at no better mark then if by grating two stones of the hill together they feel a smell of Brimstone because they take this the Leaving of the Metals in their concoction To be short doe but cast with your selves why there be no Metals but in Rocks and Mountains unlesse these unload them and shoot them down into the Plain and then wherefore chiefly foul Metals in Cold and fine Silver and Gold besides Precious Stones in Hot Countries and you shall finde the cause of this to be the difference of that purging and refining Heat and the closenesse of the Place to keep in that heavenly heat and barrennesse withall and emptinesse of Plants to draw it forth and spend it Some cannot conceive how Heat should cause this Matter when they feel not Heat in the Mine I will not say to such that this Heat is most mild and gentle every where and there especially but bid them bring up a piece of Minerall earth and lay it in the open Ayre and they shall feel if they lay their hand upon it no small but a burning Heat by the cold blast stirred up and raised even as the lurking heat of Lime is stirred up with Water Wherefore we may safely set down and build upon it that all Mineralls are made with Heat and get thereby their Being and Perfection Albeit the outward shape and last cover as it were of the work is put on by Cold. Now for the steps and degrees of Metals that they all except Iron and Copper though some doe not except them arise from the steps and degrees of baking the self same thing and stuffe of Quick-silver it appears in Lead-mines where is alwayes for the most part some Gold and Silver found by report of good Authors And therefore Albert saith that cunning Miners use in such case to shut up the Mine again for thirty or forty years to bake the Lead better and lead it on to perfection and that thing to have been found true in his time in Sclavonia But what doe white and yellow Coppers sometime found in the Ground signifie unto us but that Nature was travelling by way of Concoction unto the end of Silver and Gold Again how comes it to passe that plain Artificers can fetch out of every Metall some Gold and Silver and out of these some base Metall unlesse Gold and Silver were the Heart and best part of the whole Body and of one self same thing with the Metals Nay Paracelse avoweth that not onely these but Mines of Middle-Minerals things further off as you know are never without some Silver or Gold and therefore he giveth counsel to water them as it were Plants with their own Mine and kindly water assuring us that they will grow up to ripeness and in few years prove as rich as any Silver or Gold Mine Then we see at last the truth of this Metalline Ground unshaken and standing sure for all the Battery of the stoutest Graecians that All Metals have but one Quicksilver Stuff Kind and Nature being all one self same thing differing by degrees of Cleanness Fineness Closeness and Colour that is by those Hang-byes called Accidents sprung out from the degrees of Boyling and Concoction It is now time to go to build upon this Matter and to shew how these lower and unclean Metals may be mended and changed into Silver and Gold to make the way to attain Riches If all Metals are so neer and like one another especially some of them which I set down before wanting nothing but continuance of Cleansing and Purging by Concoction then sure this exchange may seem no such hard and impossible matter nor to need perhaps the help of the Divine Art of Hermes but a Lesser and Baser Skill may serve the turn And as Nature is not Poor and Needy but full of Store and Change so may Skill if She will mark and follow the steps of Nature find more wayes then one to one Matter Then which is the lower way and lesser Skill following Nature We will fetch it from that way which we saw Nature take even now beneath the Ground What is that I will tell you shortly As Nature in her work below used two hot Workmen so will I and because we cannot tarry her leisure and long time she taketh to that purpose we will match and countervail her little Heats with proportions answerable and meet for our time that we may do that in fourty dayes which she doth in as many years And this proportion is not hard to be found when we consider the odds and space that lieth between the Founders Fire and the gentle Heat of Heaven And again the difference betwixt such a scowring Purger and that Eater above consuming Stones and Iron so quickly and the milde Heat and easie Breath that thickned Quick-silver And therefore as the Miners do well in trying and purging the rude Metals from the outward filth leavings besides a great outward fire to put to the lump many hot and
Quickness and stirring of the Spirits appears in Sickness Age and sound Sleep especially in Age and Sickness more cleerly than needs any light of teaching But how in Sleep when the heat of the Spirits serving Wit is either loaden with the clogging Fumes and Breaths of the Stomach or spent either with Labour or with Sweat and still beholding for Rest abates Heat as I ever said or else lent for a time unto his fellow-servants the Spirits of Life for digestion sake then the Spirits of the Brain be still and quiet and outward and inward Senses Wit and Vnderstanding all cease at once But if the Meat to omit the expence of Heat was neither much nor of an heavy and clogging kind and so neither breathing out loading stuffe nor needing forraign help to digest it then our perceiving Spirits begin to take their own and Natural Heat again unto them and to move a little before the Minde whereby she beholdeth some old shapes and shewes of things in their passing which is called Dreaming But in case they recover all that Heat they bestir themselves apace running to the out-side of the Body and bringing back new tidings to the Minde which when she perceiveth it is called Waking Then the cause of Wisdom is clear at last as we see to wit a clean and stirring Glass and of Folly when the same is foul and still If the Glasse be fouled all over it causeth natural or willing folly as in Fools Children and Drunkards but if it be but here and there besmeared and drawn as it were with dark strokes and lines of foul humors the shapes appear in the Minde even as the forms in a broken Glasse appear to the Eye by halfs and confusedly and it maketh Madness But how came the Spirits of this inward Glass so foul and slow when they are of themselves as becometh the Beams of an Heavenly Soul both very clean clear quick and lively But we need say no more but clear and foul alone when these two qualities make or mar the whole work of perceiving for if the Spirits be clear it is a sign they are in their own Nature and so hot and quick withal but if they be foul it is a token their whole condition and property of Kinde is lost and gone and so that stilness is come upon them also Neither is that aethereal thing which is called by the name of a Spirit that carrieth the Soul and all his Beams down into the Body and broketh as I said above between them foul or still of it self for Spirits are not as some Leaches think made of but fed with the breaths of our Meat but very fine cleer and lively as all Men grant of Aether How then Must it not needs follow that all the cause of fail and want in this case springeth from the Body and from that part especially where the Wits inhabit If the naked Reason brought in above will not serve to content this matter let us leade him forth clad with proof of Eye-sight and Experiences the plainest greatest most filling and satisfying Reason in the World If Man alone doth passe all other Wights in Wit for his Aiery and Fiery temper above them as we heard before then if one Man goeth before another in Wit it must needs follow from the same cause Now as Air and Fire are cleer and quick when Earth and Water are foul and slow so are the Wights where they bear the sway affected both in Wit and Body as appears in difference between the Hart and the Toad and all other wholsom and noisom Wights To go further why are the Men so gross and rude under the two Pins of the World in the frozen Countreys and so Civil and Wise in Hot as Aristotle well noteth but for that the outward Heat cleanseth as it is a cleanser and drieth and so cleareth the Bodies whereas Cold on the other side binds and thickens and so likewise by stopping the flying out of the gross foul and waterish humors and leavings makes all not onely dark and cloudy but hot and moist also as it were drunken by boiling together as e Aristotle termeth it But methinks I must favour them a little because they are our Neighbours he might have done better to have resembled those broiled People to Old Men otherwhere and the Aged Men in frozen Countreyes to the Youth in hot Soyles because the odds between the Wisdom of Age and Youth flows from the same cause of Drought and Moisture that is Clearness and Foulness of the Bodies And therefore Plato was not ill advised when he said that at such time as the Eye of the Body failed the Eye of the Understanding began to see sharply because when this waterish Instrument drieth up with the rest of the Body though it puts out the sight of Sense yet it is a Token that the light of Wit increaseth for Drought as I said breeds Clearnesse if it be not mixt with coldness for then it brings in Earthliness the most foul and sluggish Element of all And therefore those that are very old and cold are very doting and childish again But if that Drought be seasoned with Heat the more the better they make the Man very wise and full of Understanding as it hath been alwayes observed Caesar is described so but more strangely before him Alexander whose Body by his great Heat and Drought was not onely most sweet in his life-time but also able lying dead above the Ground in a hot Soil and Season without any balming alone to keep it self fresh and sweet without all taint and corruption many dayes together But I am too long Therefore Prophets are said to be wiser than Men and the Spirits wiser then they and the Stars most wise of all for the odds and degrees in the Heat Droughth and Clearness of the Bodies Now when we know the cause of this Hurt and Disease let us upply the Medicine let us clear the Ideots body In many kindes of foolishness as in Childhood Drunkenness Sleep and Doting Diseases Nature her self is this Salve to disperse in her due time and season and scour out the foul and cloggy cold and gross humors which overwhelmed the Spirits and made them unclean and quiet or at least in the ranker sort of them as in Doting Diseases she may be holpen easily and enabled by little skill to do it that we may judge if great and strong and mighty means of Art chanced once to joyn with Nature the rankest of all and deepest rooted that is Natural folly it self may be rooted out and dispatched But you may reply as some do that the rest which sprung out from outward light and hang-by causes may be cured when this being so rooted in the Nature and first mixture of the Seed a mixture as ill as a Beastly mixture can never be mended unlesse we grant that a Beast may be holpen also and put on Manly