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
their places without help of Wind Breath and Air The little parted Vermin called in Latine Insecta anywhere Fish in the Water nay in the sound Earth sometimes and Toads in close Rocks as Agricola and Flies in the most fierce Miners fire as Aristotle reports But when that Heat on the other side is great and lively like a Flame as in the hotter Fish and other no Wight can want fresh Air and fine Breath both by his clearness to purge and his weaker likeness to nourish the Aethereal Smoke and Spirit that carrieth it Now this no more than a Flame needeth cooling to preserve his Being but to temper a kinde of hid proportion fit for Wit and weighty Perceiving which I said before the Brain and not the Air performed That Aether is stronger than Air and able to consume it 't is plain in Reason by his Warmth and Moistness passing Air in his own Nature and yet gross and thick Air as bent toward enmity and contrariety with it will stand in combate against it and overcome it And thence it is that in deep Mine-pits and Caves under ground where the Air is thick corrupt and unkinde for want of flowing no Wight nor Light can draw Breath and live unless by sly device the way be found to move and nourish the same Air and make it kindly Then to draw near the Matter If the Stars do feed on Aether and this upon clean and spotless Air as on the weaker Likes and our Soul and Life is of a starry kind even a slip and spark thereof as is aforesaid then it followeth That to feed our Aether the carrier of our Soul good Air which is round about us will serve the turn but to nourish Life and Heat it self Aether it self must be the Food even this Body which is so high and so far past our reach except this Spark of heavenly Fire were able like the whole Body and Spring above by his power over our Meats to turn the Water first into Breath and this into Aether which it is not and can go no further than to Air and to make a common Oyl and Fatness fit to nourish an Elemental as they term it but not an Heavenly Fire Where then shall our Life finde Food and Sustenance say you fit to bear it up and maintain his Being In that fine Oyl and unseen first Fat and Moisture And call you that Aethereal how can that which was once Seed and before that Blood and first of all a Plant become a Body so fine clean and Aethereal especially when one weak Star a soft Fire of Heaven is not able to make so fine a Work so far and highly sundred I marry this is the Secret and Depth of all which because the Greeks never sounded I do not marvel if the means to preserve Life did escape them But let us shut out Envy and help them in this helpless Matter yea although we be driven to open the things that have lain long hid and covered long with great Darkness When our Life in the lusting parts is by the Bellows of Thought stirred up and moved unto Work it sendeth forth out of every part the hot natural Spirits and Breath of Begetting clothed with the shell of Seed cut out from the dewy part of our Meat ready to be turned into our Body or at least already and now newly turned and not from the Refuse and Leaving of it as some say when I could shew it if time would suffer the best Juyce in all the Body This is the furthest and finest Workmanship of our Meat and Food of Body the very beginning and first Stuff of that fine Oyl the Food of Life after that remaining forty dayes in heat before it come to perfection being wrought as we know with the double natural heat of the begetting Breath and Womb forty dayes before it be fully framed and fashioned into the Form and Shape of a Man ready to draw Food and Nourishment be it Milk or Menstrue received by Mouth or Navel I cannot stand to Reason from the Mother to the increase of the tough or sounder parts But the first Moisture is now at his full growth and perfection and from thence feedeth Life being unfed it self and wasteth daily against the grounds and rules of Physick for the Childe hath now received all that the Workman can and is put over for the rest which is his Nourishment unto his Mothers payment but what hath she to give unto the food of Life nought as I shewed else we might live for ever Then we see what the first Moisture is and how it excels the Food of the Body and why it cannot be maintained by it because it is the most fine and aiery piece for the rest go every one his own way to make his own part from whence he came of all the Seed mingled wrought purged raised and refined and then closely thickned and driven up close together forty times more and above our Meat which in one day is ended and ready to be turned and therefore unfit in any wise to increase and cleave to our first Moisture the Food of Life even as unmeet for all the world as Water is to other Oyl and Fatness And by this to come to the point we have a plain Pattern if we be Wise and Careful and way to work the great Mystery of Adjournment of Life for if it be so as I proved above that all the Moisture of the Matter lieth in the maintenance of our Natural Heat and it as our Men all Reason teacheth followeth the steps of common Fire waxeth and waneth is quick and faint according to the store of his Food and first Moisture then sure if we can make an Oyl as fine and close as this nay in all points all one with this it will easily mingle and joyn with our first Moisture and so feed nourish and encreafe it and Life withall even in as good and plain Reason as the same Oyl dropt in still into the Fire augments both Food and Flame together yea put case the same natural Fire of ours should not onely pair his strength for lack of Meat and slack his force but abate of bigness also as some Physicians hold yet there were no great hurt done for this second spark and slip of the great and common Fire of Nature being a piece of the finer part of the whole which is all one in all things and fellow to his Like in us when it is made free and loose in this fine and Aethereal Medicine would restore the Heap and mend the Matter But how shall we get the like fine Oyl and first Moisture the Matter is driven so far that there is all the hardness I shewed you the Pattern even as Nature got the same before you by the like Stuff and Seed and by the like Heat and moving Workman This by certain proof of all our Men is easie to
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